Art of Living

Philosophy of Living Principles

Prepared 2007 by William Cooper

In The Urantia Book (UB 1098:4 / 100:5.1) a high spiritual personality comments: “Too few have learned how to install a philosophy of living in the place of religious authority.”  This is recommending that we abandon religious authority as a guide to living our lives and instead develop and follow a philosophy of living that promotes a noble character. 

As one of our activities at the July 27-29, 2007 Spiritual Living Conference at Belton, Texas we undertook to start defining a philosophy of living which would guide our lives. 

The dictionary definition of philosophy is a beginning point. 

Philosophy is a system for guiding life, as a body of principles of conduct, religious beliefs or traditions. 

This definition could include inflexible theology, dogma and religious laws and rules.  Since The Urantia Book advocates a personal religion of following the leading of the fragment of God who inhabits our soul, we can be certain that fossilized rules of righteousness are not part of the philosophy of living recommended. 

Our personal philosophy of living can draw upon any source of wisdom.  The Urantia Book is a good source but it is not the only source of truth.  Ultimately the best sources of truth for your philosophy of living are the sources which the Spirit Within can use to enlighten your mind and soul. 

A philosophy of living includes such things as:

How do you see the world and your place in it? 

frightening, exciting, threatening, growing, dying, a contest, a school, a marvelous adventure a pointless game, material/emotional, spiritual? 

How do you view difficulties and challenges? 

to be avoided whenever possible?  To be faced with graciousness, 

goodness and charm? As opportunities to learn good spiritual habits? 

How and what do you think of other people and even of yourself?  Is it Godlike to forgive and to be tolerant, just and even merciful? Do you evaluate people in terms of the best they are capable of or of the worst? Do You relate to other people for the purpose of benefiting yourself or do you seek to serve their real spiritual, emotional and material needs? 

What place do wealth, power and prestige have in your philosophy? Is that as it should be? 

Where privilege, advantage, and power for change are concerned, what is fair? 

Conference participants undertook to explore several Urantia Book passages and to extract philosophy of living principles as best we could; then we added some principles from unidentified sources.  You could look at these principles and say these are just sayings or facts or maybe even truths.  This is correct because they do not become part of your philosophy of living until you give them that high status and allow them to guide your thoughts and behavior.  Would you like for these to be part of your system for guiding your life? 

The following children of God were attending and contributing to this effort. 

Matt & Peter Callac Sharon Porter & Ted Lanie   Carol & Skip Weatherford 

Mitzie & Michael Dentler Jean-Pierre & Nickla Heudier    Nancy Johnson 

Kaye & Bill Cooper Jeannie & Brad Wall     Diana Drake

Mary Huggins

Thanks to Carol Weatherford for very promptly typing up our hand-written principles.

This is the report of what we came up with.  No sources are specifically referenced because the authority for one’s philosophy of living should be the Spirit of Truth which ministers to each of us, the Inner Spirit (the spark of God within each of us) and the truth instinct of human mind.  The list of potential principles got long.  Feel free to approach it in pieces to prevent your mind from wandering away from the material. It is worth your time and attention. 

Exercise One:

Ask yourself what would be the consequences in your life if you really believed and practiced these principles?  In doing this I was brought face-to-face with some spiritual deficiencies.  I think that is healthy.

Choose any three of these principles randomly by number (1-281), Note the numbers so you have them available for reference in your reflection, and then think deeply about having those three as part of your philosophy of living, your personal guiding principles. How would that affect your attitude toward life? How would it affect your interactions with others? How would it affect your role in the cosmic family? Would you be a better, happier person? 

In reflecting on these principles, think deeply on their meanings and their consequences. Don’t just read quickly and pass on. The numbers are for reference only. They do not indicate importance or hierarchy of principles.

Exercise Two:

Engage in a cooperative game with your Inner Spirit. The way this game works is that you choose one principle to consider meditatively and in depth (not hurriedly). You remain alert to thoughts or impressions that come to you. Consider whether you agree with the statement and the ways the principle is true. The object is to have fun discovering new insights into the possible meanings and applications of the passage. Things that a quick reading would miss. Expect to discover values embedded in the passage. Expect to be surprised by new meanings, new truth, new beauty, and new goodness. My Inner Spirit and I really enjoy playing this game together. 

Love,  Bill Cooper       2-8-2008

Philosophy of Living Principles

1. Jesus’ commandment to his followers was 1) Love and worship God and 2) Love and serve your fellows.  Your philosophy of living should adhere to this commandment.
2. Jesus’ assessment of the value of anything was based on whether it brought man to God and God to man.  He sought by prayer and meditation to determine God’s way and then to do it.  He used prayer to determine God’s will and how to do it.
3. It is God’s will that we should join him in building his family of the children of God, whose business is helping each other manifest the loving goodness of God.
4. This life is the beginning of your eternal spiritual growth and education.  It is a unique opportunity.  Make the best spiritual use of it you can.
5. The powers and possessions of material existence are meaningless unless they are used justly and unselfishly. It is the effort to be just and unselfish that has meaning, not the powers and possessions.
6. Welcome and pursue the experience of dynamic and active religious living (living by values and spiritual leading) because it will transform you into a personality of idealistic power.
7. Confide and trust in one another.  Spiritual growth is mutually stimulated by intimate association with other religionists.  Everyone is richer when spiritual gifts are shared.
8. Pursuing higher values and spirit leading ennobles the commonplace drudgery of daily living.  It provides purpose.
9. Be alert, the chief inhibitors of growth are one’s own prejudice and ignorance.
10. Everyone needs to grow his own individual religious experience arising from trying to do the will of God.
11. Children are permanently impressed only by the loyalties of their adult associates.  Rules or even examples are not lastingly influential.
12. All normal mortals have certain drives toward self realization and growth.  The certain technique of fostering these is to maintain an attitude of wholehearted devotion to supreme values.
13. Fostering the following habits in yourself will favor spiritual growth.
    • Cultivate sensitivity to divine values.  Devine values are those we see as qualities of the character of God.
    • Recognize religious living in others.  Living loyal to higher values.
    • Meditate reflectively on cosmic meanings – meanings related to truth, beauty, and goodness..
    • Solve problems with God’s help in worship.
    • Share your spiritual life with others.
    • Avoid selfishness.
    • Refuse to presume on divine mercy.  Don’t choose to do wrong knowing that you will be forgiven anyway.
    • Live as you are in the presence of God while knowing that in fact you are.
14. Maintain a living and continuous spiritual connection with true spiritual forces.  Bear fruits of the spirit – minister to your fellows of what you have received from your spiritual benefactors.
15. Recognition of your own spiritual short-comings is good because it is a prerequisite of spiritual progress as is the desire to know God and to be like him.  Repentance not only regrets mistakes but it also resolves to reform.
16. The capacity for spiritual development is proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities of love.
17. Deity attainment is attunement with the spirit within your soul and is never ending, always expanding.  Eternal life is the endless quest for infinite values.
18. The goal of self realization should be spiritual.  The only realities worth striving for are divine, spiritual and eternal derivatives of love, truth, beauty and goodness.
19. Material securities are vulnerable but spiritual sureties are impregnable.  The citadel of the spirit is absolutely unassailable for one who has dedicated the keeping of his soul to his Indwelling Spirit.
20. Religion is inherently personal because it consists of the values you are loyal to.  Real religion of the spirit-led person is an impulse for organizing the soul for dynamic service.  It is the enlistment of the total self in the loyal service of loving God and loving and serving humanity.
21. Human likes and dislikes do not define good and evil.  Moral values (understanding right and wrong) do not grow out of selfish concerns for rewards or satisfaction of your urges and appetites.  The most reliable guide to right versus wrong is whether the other person is being treated as you would want to be treated in that situation.
22. The supreme value of human life consists in growth of values and progress in meanings with realization of the cosmic interrelatedness of both of these experiences.  Such a realization is the equivalent of God consciousness.
23. Evolution of values and meanings is a cosmic technique of growth.  Positive change in personal values and meanings is desirable.  Resisting change to preserve the “old way” may be error.
24. Living faith is the mobilization of the total of the powers of one’s personality – physical, mental and spiritual powers in the pursuit of achieving what you trust is real and true.
25. Religious living is devoted, creative, original, and spontaneous.  It is alive, purposeful, exciting, and adventurous
26. New religious insights arise out of conflicts which initiate the choosing of new and superior reaction patterns.  New meanings only emerge amid conflict of old ways and meanings with emerging new ones.
27. There can be no spiritual growth without mental conflict and spiritual agitation.
28. Feast, fatten and enthuse on adversity because it motivates reflection and therefore is an opportunity for spiritual progress.
29. It requires effort to clarify spiritual vision and to enhance cosmic insight into meanings.
30. The great problem of religious living consists in the task of unifying the soul powers of personality by the dominance of LOVE – uniting all of one’s talents and attributes in the service of love for everything and everyone.
31. The highest happiness is indissolubly linked with spiritual progress.  Spiritual growth yields lasting joy, peace which passes all understanding.  Seek first spiritual growth.
32. Love is only born of thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor’s motives and sentiments.  Looking for good motives is on the path of friendship and love.
33. The pathway for loving another is:
    • Sympathetically seek to understand his motives for his conduct.
    • Understanding leads to tolerance.
    • Tolerance leads to friendship.
    • Friendship leads to love.
34. Only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious.  Love is more contagious than hate when it is intelligent and wise.
35. Being skillful, intelligent, expert, ingenious or quick of mind is no substitute for character and does not signify possession of spiritual capacity.
36. You have great faith resources if you will keep unreasoned fear from constraining your faith.  Trust your higher motivations (love and kindness) and act on them.
37. Inherent capacities cannot be exceeded, so patience and tolerance are needed in an imperfect world.
38. >Personality bestowal brings relative creative consciousness and free will control thereof.  Few mortals ever dare to draw anything like all of their personality credits (potential for expression of love, kindness, compassion and more) established by nature and grace.  Most impoverished souls are truly rich, but they refuse to believe it.
39. Difficulties stimulate true children of the Most Highs.
40. It is appropriate for you to aspire for yourself and to grant to others
    • privilege without abuse
    • liberty without license
    • power without self-aggrandizement
41. Celestial beings do not assist lower beings who refuse to act on their light of truth.
42. There is no happiness without effort.
43. Action achieves strength.  Moderation eventuates in charm.  Act but be kind.
44. Righteousness has far reaching consequences.  The act is yours the consequences are God’s when you act to do good.
45. The weak resolve.  The strong act.
46. Tribulation (error and apparent failure) is a blessing.  It is the only process for the birth of wisdom.
47. Give advice only when asked.
48. Affectation seeks to cover up weakness.  Be strong and be genuine.
49. You cannot perceive spiritual truth until you feelingly experience it and many truths are not really felt except in adversity.  Look for the benefits in adversity and rejoice when you find them.
50. You have not truly acquired any virtue until you reliably display it in your actions.
51. Impatience is a spirit poison and anger like a stone thrown into a hornet’s nest.
52. Anxiety and worry must be abandoned. They are debilitating and useless.
53. The evolving soul is made divine and noble by what it strives to do, not only by what it achieves.
54. The acts of today are the destiny of tomorrow. Consider the consequences, the ripple effects.
55. Greatness lies in making wise and divine use of such strength or power as we may have.
56. Knowledge is possessed by sharing, safeguarded by wisdom, and socialized by love.
57. Progress demands development of individuality; mediocrity seeks perpetuation in standardization.
58. The argumentative defense of any position is inversely proportional to the truth contained.
59. Strong character is acquired by converting from material motivations (wealth, power, etc.) to spiritual motivations (love, compassion, truth, beauty, goodness, service).
60. Dare to pursue a life of adventurous art (creative solutions) and uncertain logic (attempting the unproven), but make no mistake, you must expect to suffer the hazards of emotional casualties – conflicts, unhappiness, and uncertainties.
61. A mature person soon begins to see all other mortals with feelings of tenderness and with emotions of tolerance.
62. You must have wisdom of mind and charm of personality. You must have tact and tolerance to gain the cooperation of your fellows.
63. Worshipful meditation is the greatest of all methods of problem solving.
64. Worship brings relaxation, illumination, courage, self understanding, consciousness of union with divinity, relieves tension, removes conflict, and mightily augments the total resources of the personality.
65. Prejudice and fear blind the soul to the recognition of truth.
66. It is not good for man to be alone. Many noble human impulses die because there is no one to hear their expression. Some degree of recognition and a certain amount of appreciation are essential to the development of human character.
67. Fear, envy, and conceit can be prevented only by intimate contact with other minds.
68. Isolation tends to exhaust the energy charge of the soul.
69. Among religionists, great spiritual power for unity and peace is inherent in the consciousness of wholehearted devotion to a common cause—mutual loyalty to a cosmic deity.
70. Worship-communion augments energy to do spiritual work by transforming weakness to strength, fear to courage, and a mind of self to the will of God.
71. Worshipful practices, when persisted in, become habits. Habits become character. Character becomes maturity (Godlikeness).
72. All too often when we battle for the right, it turns out that both the victor and the vanquished have sustained defeat. Such hidden defeat is to be expected when we resort to physical or legal force instead of tact, tolerance, and love.
73. Wisdom comes only from the experiences of adjustment to the results of one’s failures.
74. Failure is simply an educational episode. For a God knowing and God assisted mortal, defeat is but a new tool for the achievement of higher levels of universe reality.
75. To achieve courage requires dealing with hardships and disappointments.
76. Altruism develops in response to situations of social inequality so reflect on social inequality, privilege, unfairness, and discrimination.
77. There can be no recognition of hope without insecurities and uncertainties.
78. Faith arises because you can always believe more than you can know.
79. To love the truth and be willing to follow it, the contrasts of error and falsehood are necessary.
80. Idealism and perfection-hunger are fed by your realization that your environment of compromised goodness and beauty can be improved upon.
81. Recognition of the possibility of betrayal and desertion are essential to the growth of loyalty.
82. You can not meaningfully choose the divine unselfish life without the incessant clamoring of an inescapable self for recognition and honor.
83. If happiness is desirable, then you must live in a world where pain and suffering are possibilities.
84. Evolving man must be fallible if he is to be free. Free and inexperienced intelligence cannot possibly at first be uniformly wise. It will inevitably make mistakes.
85. Unreasoned fear separates us from the Spirit. Fear not.
86. You can’t force more understanding, insight, etc. on a person (including yourself) than his current capacity. Give him what he needs now. As he grows in understanding so will his capacity.
87. We have all the ability, strength, courage, etc. that we ever need. It is our lack of belief (education, faith) that limits us.
88. We are able to overcome fear when we are spiritually connected and recognize our position as beloved children of God – heirs to the kingdom of God.
89. The excellent civilization is marked by humility, self-control, and equality. The high civilization enjoys the fruits of civilization without greed and selfishness.
90. Many difficulties in our lives have their origin in our not acting on the truth we have.
91. Happiness requires intelligent effort.
92. Be of good cheer in all circumstances.
93. Be full of grace.
94. Speak and act graciously. Graciousness is the friendliness that comes from a love saturated soul.
95. Saturate your soul with love. Give and receive love freely and with joy.
96. Goodness is effective only when it is attractive. It is universally attractive only when it is gracious.
97. Goodness always compels respect but when it lacks grace, it often repels affection.
98. Help those suffering and in distress. Don’t merely feel their pain.
99. Be sincere in your feelings for another’s sorrow or hardship and let this lead you to help.
100. Do not indulge over much in tender or sorrowful feeling or emotion aroused by the suffering, distress, or misfortune of another. Act to help rather than fruitlessly feeling sorry for their plight.
101. Be a keen observer and comprehend human need. Detect human longings.
102. Never be in a hurry. Take time to comfort others as you pass by. Comfort others with faith – in themselves, in other persons, in success and in God.
103. Make your friends feel at ease.
104. Be a charming listener. It is a gift, a service.
105. Do not be a meddlesome prober into other people’s souls. Invite but do not press them to share. Treat what they share as a confidence.
106. Have great faith in others. There is goodness in everyone.
107. Don’t direct, manage or follow up on others. God wants them to have freedom of choice.
108. Inspire profound self confidence and courage in others.
109. Be severe when the occasion demands such discipline but do not punish.
110. Asking others for help elicits interest and appeals to the better things in human nature.
111. The needs of the individual are more important than the message to the multitude.
112. Do unselfish good as you go about your daily life.
113. Accept and proclaim spiritual liberty.
114. Encourage joy to those who live in fear.
115. Heal the sick as God wills.
116. Encourage those who are in distress.
117. Do not forcibly resist injustice either by physical or legal resistance. Be willing to suffer injustice rather than to sue each other.
118. Use spiritual weapons of love, not physical or legal force to transform your world.
119. In kindness and in mercy minister to all who are in need.
120. Love your enemies.
121. Do good to those who hate you.
122. Bless those who curse you.
123. Pray for those who use you selfishly for their purposes.
124. Do unto others as Jesus would do unto them.
125. You are a child of God. Behave accordingly.
126. Your task is to salvage men and women not to judge them. Show mercy to all.
127. Discern the truth of the power of love clearly. Live the righteous life fearlessly. Display and propagate peace and goodness.
128. Show just judgment and keen wisdom in whom you present the gospel to.
129. By their fruits you can distinguish the true from the false and the good from the bad.
130. In the spirit, it is the motive that counts. God judges us by our inner longings and our sincere intentions.
131. Strong character is derived from actually doing right not from avoiding doing wrong. In this it is the motive of what you attempt rather than what you achieve that counts.
132. Unselfishness is the badge of human greatness.
133. The highest levels of self realization are attained by worship and service.
134. The happy and effective person is motivated by the love of right doing not the fear of wrongdoing. Fear of wrongdoing is more of a restraint on the righteous than it is on the evil doer.
135. Fear and shame are unworthy motives for religious living. Love, mercy and service are righteous motives.
136. Without a worthy goal, life becomes aimless and unprofitable and much unhappiness results. Set worthy goals of loving service for others.
137. Faith and love strengthen moral character and create happiness. Fear and anger weaken character and destroy happiness.
138. Seekers after truth / God / spiritual wealth; do not have to wait into the distant future for their rewards. They are rewarded now for they find the joy of the kingdom of heaven within their own hearts.
139. Only the humble seek for divine strength and crave spiritual power to overcome spiritual shortcomings.
140. Doing right is a pleasure, not a burden. Jesus’ righteousness is a dynamic (acting, alive, adapting) love. It is both Parental and brotherly affection.
141. Genuine meekness is desirable. It is an attitude of a person cooperating with God. “Your will be done.” It is motivated by an unshakable faith in a lawful and friendly universe. It masters all temptations to rebel against the divine leading.
142. Purity of heart refers more to the faith a person should have in his fellows. It is the faith a parent has in his child. It need not pamper and does not condone but it is always anticynical. Parental love always looks for the best in man.
143. To experience God by faith is the acquisition of true spiritual insight and this enhances Inner Spirit guidance and ultimately God consciousness.
144. In dealing with children, avoid deception and do not suggest suspicion. Wisely help them choose their heroes and select their life’s work.
145. Being perfect as God is perfect is loving as God loves.
146. God-like love is tenderhearted. It is sympathetic to the suffering and hardship of others.
147. Loving kindness is active and dynamic. It is helpful, not just sympathetic. It is supremely parental.
148. Inner peace is the peace of Jesus and results from wholeheartedly wanting to do God’s will. Personal peace integrates personality. Social peace prevents fear, greed and anger. Political peace prevents race antagonisms, national suspicions and war. Peacemaking is the cure of distrust and suspicion.
149. Fatherly love can endure persecution and lay down life for the beloved child. Fatherly love delights in doing good in retaliation for injustice (returning good for evil).
150. The good choice, the right action is recognized by the truth seeker and has spiritual ramifications in the Supreme. (in the universe) (far beyond the event)
151. Don’t waste your efforts merely yearning, planning, and reasoning. You have only the present. Act to accomplish something real, something advancing truth, beauty or goodness!
152. We need to do our day’s work so God has something to use in motivating our fellows to righteous living.
153. Difficulties, even tribulations, are of great value. From them we learn wisdom.
154. Enlightenment comes through pain processing, as well as from euphoric experience. Some things we only learn when we are in difficulty.
155. Create an interest in truth so when a person asks for help, you can give what is needed. (Not just what you want to give or what you think he needs.)
156. Let LOVE saturate your soul.
157. I open myself to Father’s love. I have little talks with my Father as I pass by.
158. Goodness, gracious, attractive, and practical sympathy.
159. I serve others respectfully. I listen to others.
160. Appeal to the better things in human nature. Stimulate the goodness in others to act.
161. Have faith in people. There is goodness in everyone.
162. I believe in the inherent goodness of others.
163. I focus on individual others in daily life.
164. I love, therefore I serve.
165. I pour my affection out like water to fill the empty spaces.
166. God is each person’s individual Parent. Since this is true, there are inevitable consequences. Since this is true, we will become like God as we mature.
167. We have the tools to change the world, starting with ourselves.
168. We find the good in others and ourselves.
169. By loving God, we want to be more like God and we want to share that experience with others.
170. Who you are is what you teach.
171. We are social creatures, loving and confiding in others and growing in grace and love by sharing with those we love.
172. We should live in harmony with the destiny God has ordained for us. What is that destiny?
173. The spiritual forces we need to attain our destiny are truly within us, powers of divinity and infinity.
174. The spiritual forces within us are slumbering, latent, and only potential, until they are awakened and activated by our choices to cooperate with them.
175. Jesus’ good news of the family relationship among celestials and humanity presents us with strong incentives, new concepts of our eternal destiny, our life purpose beginning here and now to serve the family.
176. Worship is one of the best daily practices to gather spiritual energy to do spiritual work.
177. Through worship we can both renew our energies and gain greater spiritual perspective.
178. Willingness to cooperate with others (according to the pattern of sharing and cooperation established by God) is a manifestation of spiritual “maturity”.
179. Developing tact and tolerance is part of the spiritually desirable attitude of cooperation.
180. Mutual appreciation of values of others is essential to the development of character.
181. It is important to be in intimate contact with people different from you in order to augment your spiritual values by gaining the insight of the other.
182. Sharing of spiritual knowledge & experiences elevates spiritual values and advances love, trust, and altruism.
183. There is spiritual power in working together for a common cause— Godlikeness and the enlargement of the spiritual family.
184. There is great spiritual power in working together for a common cause and acknowledging the individual’s contribution thereto.
185. Remember, you are not alone in your trouble; your friends (mortal and celestial) lighten the burden if you trust and confide in them.
186. Selfless love is the key to committed, lasting relationships.
187. Patience is exercised by immature individuals; true maturity transcends patience by a forbearance born of real understanding.
188. Live your relationship with God to be a light for others to pursue their friendship with God.
189. Bloom where you are planted. There is plenty to achieve where you are.
190. Protect each other like brothers and sisters, even like fathers and mothers.
191. Nurture each other like mothers and fathers nurture their children.
192. Faith and love strengthen moral character and create happiness.
193. Fear and anger weaken character and destroy happiness.
194. Relish the knowledge of poverty in spirit for it leads you to be taught by the Spirit here and now.
195. Love is a pleasure not a burden. Yes, even loving your enemies is a pleasure.
196. Not my will, but God’s will be done. It actually is my will that God’s will of unification by the attractiveness of love shall be done.
197. Always look for the best in other persons and love them with a parental as well as a brotherly / sisterly affection.
198. Being sensitive and responsive to human need generates genuine and lasting happiness.
199. Show mercy to all of your brethren in the flesh.
200. Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends in service.
201. Responding as spiritual beings to the negative experiences of life allows us to create our own unique divinity. God delights in that.
202. Love is the desire to do good to others. Love is the most powerful force in the universe.
203. You are a child of God and God will gradually and gently lead you through every trial and hardship along the pathway of becoming Godlike.
204. Through darkness and light the Spirit of Truth (the spirit of Jesus) will always speak saying “This is the way.”
205. Reach for and use the highest concepts drawn from many different human sources and inspired / inner creative sources.
206. You may be certain that your spiritual helpers will use your life situations to provide opportunities for spiritual growth.
207. Learn to grow the values of cosmic or supreme loyalty to all the ways of truth, beauty, and goodness.
208. Always be open to enhanced values.
209. Keep the door to the Spirit always open to receive inspiration. Hear and be open. Pray always for openness and tolerance and to know and follow the will of God.
210. Seek to live a life true to the values that experience and the Spirit Within present to you.
211. Your real security lies in your inner self. Pray that you recognize that you are rich in spiritual realities.
212. Gather and dispense strength, hope, courage, joy, and support in your new world of spiritual reality.
213. Live in your real self, your values-centered soul-self.
214. My goal of attainment is spiritual, divine, and eternal.
215. My whole-hearted devotion to supreme values enables me to attend to my spiritual growth and overcome non-spiritual tendencies.
216. Failure, disappointment, and conflict prepare the soil of my soul for spiritual growth.
217. Let the spirit lead me to be a whole person as directed by God, to be balanced, to be open, to be curious, to be teachable.
218. My hunger for truth, beauty and goodness leads to my spiritual growth.
219. My true connection to God through worship results in my producing spiritual fruits which lead me to loving service.
220. I must remain always open and teachable and aware that there is always much more to experience and know spirtually. I will cultivate divine values and trust without doubt that spiritual growth is occurring.
221. Nobility of character through cosmic growth is my goal!
222. Be remotivated in life after a catastrophe, for it heralds the opportunity for a new and more noble level of universe attainment. Destruction of the old makes realization of the new much more achievable.
223. To a God-knowing kingdom believer, what does it matter if all things earthly crash? Reality is in the spiritual, not the material.
224. The only realities worth striving for are divine, spiritual, and eternal.
225. Selfish love must be eliminated, otherwise it blocks the capacity for spiritual development.
226. Maintaining a spiritual connection and continuous bearing of spiritual fruit are necessary for spiritual development. Humility and desire to be like God and wholehearted purpose to do the will of God are necessary for spiritual progress.
227. Religious habits of thinking and acting contribute to spiritual growth, which is itself unconscious.
228. Nobility of character is a result of cosmic growth, arising from the accumulation of meanings and elevation of values.
229. Spiritual progression is not markedly influenced by physical health, inherited temperament, or social environment so long as one maintains an attitude of wholehearted devotion to supreme values.
230. Be loyal to your supreme values and spiritual growth and inspiration will result.
231. Every child needs an opportunity to grow on his own. His growth is evidenced by enhancement of ideals, appreciation of values, new meanings of values, and augmented loyalty to supreme values. We are all spiritual children.
232. Take time for God. Listen and grow in wisdom. Avoid prejudice and ignorance because they are a barrier to spirit leading.
233. Be loyal to the best you know, always reach for the highest concept of wisdom in any life experience.
234. The truth you perceive is not absolute truth. It is relative truth at best.
235. Be tolerant and curious. Be open to understanding others.
236. The wise, mature person pursues higher meanings rather than personal pleasure.
237. The mature person is loyal to the highest concepts of life and cosmic relations.
238. Do not be too busy to grow. Make time for growth. Guard against prejudice and ignorance because they inhibit growth.
239. Spiritual growth is the supreme purpose of life.
240. Real growth leads to enhancement of ideals, increased appreciation of values, new meanings of values and augmented loyalty to supreme values. (Real growth focuses on ideals, meanings, and values.)
241. Living loyally to your supreme values brings spiritual growth to you and inspiration and spiritual opportunity to those who observe that you are being loyal to your values.
242. Religious growth involves these consequences which you are entitled to ask for in fair measure.
     • Progressive self-realization.
     • Balance.
     • Curiosity and adventure.
     • Experiencing satisfaction.
     • Fear stimulus of attention and awareness.
     • Wonder-lure.
     • Humility – sense of smallness.
     • Self-criticism/conscience.
243. Wholehearted devotion to supreme values assures spiritual growth despite physical, social and temperamental handicaps.
244. Nobility of character like our Father is my goal.
245. I aspire to manifest in my life:
246. +++
     • Sensitivity to divine values.
     • Appreciation of religious living in others.
     • Meditation on cosmic meanings.
     • Avoidance of selfishness.
     • Refusal to presume on divine mercy.
     • Living as in the presence of God.
247. Both worship/meditation and loving service are essential for spiritual development. Humility and desire to be like God are also essential.
248. Selfish love stunts spiritual development.
249. The only realities worth striving for are divine, spiritual, and eternal.
250. Look for the spiritual blessing arising from all events, even from material / emotional catastrophe. The blessing is there. All things work together for the good of those who retain their focus on doing the will of God.
251. The body will die. The spirit, mind and character will live. Invest yourself where it matters.
252. Your anxieties and sorrows, trials and disappointments are part of the divine plan and are necessary to the development of strong, noble and experienced character. Feast, fatten and enthuse on these essential learning opportunities.
253. Everyone who seeks spiritual enlightenment and growth will receive it.
254. Your Inner Spirit must come to dominate and control every phase of your experience. It is your choice to permit this or to prevent it.
255. Worship causes you to become like what you worship.
256. Whenever you consciously and joyously recognize and acknowledge the truth and fact of your intimate and personal relationship with the Creator, you are worshipping God. Relationship in both the sense of being a child of God and in the sense of having an active friendship and contact with God.
257. Many perplexities are, in reality, nonexistent. Many pressing troubles are creations of exaggerated fear and the offspring of augmented apprehension. Fear not. Abandon anxiety.
258. Much of your sorrow is born of the disappointment of your ambitions and the wounding of your pride. Sincerely exert yourself and then cheerfully accept your lot and exercise ingenuity in making the most of what has fallen to your hands.
259. Optimism encourages hope and action toward realization of your ideals. Pessimism undermines both hope and values driven action.
260. Take delight in cultivating courageous and independent cosmic thinking about reality and cosmic meanings.
261. Ignorance of the thought of your fellows breeds suspicion and suspicion is incompatible with the essential attitude of sympathy and love. Study and find opportunities to learn first-hand what your fellows are genuinely thinking.
262. Religion is genuine and worthwhile if it fosters in the individual an experience in which the sovereignty of truth, beauty and goodness prevails, for such is the true spiritual concept of supreme reality, and then through love and worship this becomes meaningful as fellowship with man and sonship with God.
263. God will give me hills to climb and strength for climbing and educate me by the process.
264. We never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so. We must undertake something so great that we cannot accomplish it unaided.
265. What would we do with ourselves if something did not stand in our way?
266. A ship in harbor is safe but that is not the purpose a ship is built for.
267. The search for God is the unstinted bestowal of love attended by amazing discoveries of new and greater love to be bestowed.
268. All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he himself bestows this love on his fellows.
269. Love is dynamic. It can never be captured; it is alive, free, thrilling and always moving. Man can never take the love of the Father and imprison it within his heart.
270. The Father’s love can become real to a human only by passing through that person’s personality as he in turn bestows that love upon his fellows.
271. The love of the Father appears in the mortal personality by the ministry of the indwelling Adjuster.
272. A soft answer turns away wrath.
273. When light is not honestly received and lived up to, it tends to become darkness within the soul.
274. The purpose of this life is the building of righteous character – a personality who lives to do good. The heart of righteous character is developing ever more worthy values, living loyal to those values and with reverence for truth, beauty and goodness.
275. Give first priority to what is most important.
276. Michael has been building Nebadon for 300 billion years. 300 billion years from now I am going to be a whole lot more like him than I am now.
277. God is patient beyond imagination, but progress is essential.
278. Superstition is man-made and imposes bondage.
279. Catastrophes of nature and accidents are not visitations of divine judgment nor dispensations of Providence.
280. Avoid destructive criticism of self or of others.
281. Progressive evolution, not destructive revolution, is the way to positive and lasting change.
282. The task of spiritual progression to Godlikeness is eternal and often seems from your perspective to be hopelessly slow. But what you will surely achieve is beyond anything you can possibly imagine. Therefore, strive with yourself to live according to your highest values, to seek meaning and to honor beauty in all its manifestations. Then have faith in the Spirit Within to lead you and be patient with yourself and others. As a child of God, you are being educated. Your school is a vast and exciting place. Your heavenly associates want you to enjoy and be thrilled by your experience. Never fear, not once in eternity will your journey be boring, once you learn to explore it for its spiritual consequences.

End

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Jesus on True Religion

Prepared by William Cooper

Jesus’ discourse on true religion (UB p.1728) was delivered ten months before his crucifixion. The Urantia Book describes it as one of the most remarkable addresses which his apostles ever listened to throughout all their years of association with him. I think it is still very remarkable even after 2000 years of Christianity. His comments were prompted by a question from the apostle Thomas, which was “Master, I would really like to know just what is wrong with the religion of our enemies at Jerusalem? What is the real difference between their religion and ours? Why is it we are at such diversity of belief when we all profess to serve the same God?”

I am going to present Jesus’ response in seven sub-topics. I have indicated my comments and questions by presenting them in italics.  An asterisk after a word indicates the word is defined at the end of the article.  My seven sub-topics are:

1. Distinguishing the Forms of Religious Devotion
2. Freedom*, Liberty*, Heroes* and Prophets*
3. Unifying Effect of Religion of the Spirit
4. All Things Are Sacred
5. Proof You Are God Knowing
6. Reassurance of Salvation
7. Fruits of the Spirit, Consequences of Being Spirit Led*

I.  Distinguishing the Forms of Religious Devotion

At any one time and among any one people there are to be found three distinct and coexisting forms of religious devotion. And these three are:

1. Primitive religion. The semi natural and instinctive urge to fear mysterious energies and worship* superior forces. It is chiefly a religion of fear.
2. religion of civilization. This consists of the advancing religious concepts and practices of the civilizing races. It is the religion of the mind – the intellectual theology of established religious tradition. All organized religious traditions are in this category.
3. True religion. This is the religion of revelation to your soul [by your personal Spirit Within and the spirit of Jesus].What these spirits reveal is supernatural* values*, even a partial insightinto eternal realities*. This is the religion of the spirit, whose truth* is demonstrated* in human experience*.

What are supernatural* values? (Look at fruits of the spirit, and spiritual weapons, below) What does “demonstrated in human experience” mean? In what forms does such experience come to us? Consider both inner experience and social or outer experience as well as sudden insight versus slow realization. Are the events in other people’s lives part of our experience if we view them with compassion and empathy?

The great difference between the religion of the mind and the religion of the spirit is that, while religion of the mind is upheld by ecclesiastical (churchly) authority, religion of the spirit is wholly based on human experience of spirit inspired insights into supernatural values, eternal realities, and our Heavenly Parent’s character. We must educate ourselves to know that we should accept the spirit’s leading.

[See fruits of the spirit, spiritual weapons, etc. below.] This experience of spirit inspired insights can come suddenly or as slow, accumulated recognition, what we might call the growth of wisdom.
The religion of the spirit means effort, struggle, conflict, faith*, determination, love*, loyalty*, and progress. The religion of the mind –the theology of authority – requires little or none of these exertions from its formal believers.

Why effort, struggle, and conflict? Can’t we avoid that? Maybe it is because this is what meaningful human experience consists of. These efforts, struggles, and conflicts are between higher values and immaturities in one’s self. These deal with our efforts to achieve self-mastery—to deal with life by faith and by trust in goodness. These are efforts and struggles in everyone’s life. These struggles and conflicts are contests within ourselves to establish reliable self-discipline to live according to higher values even when no other human knows the tendencies we struggle to control. The outcomes of these struggles determine our character which in turn has immense consequences in building our souls.

Jesus described his teachings as a new and very different religion that makes its chief appeal* to the divine spirit of our Heavenly Parent which resides in the mind of each person.

Why does religion of the spirit make its chief appeal to the Spirit Within and how? Perhaps it is because we get an attraction response to truth through the Spirit Within. Educating ourselves to identify that nudge gives us a way to recognize truth and God’s way.

This new religion will derive its authority*, it’s proof, from the spiritual fruits of its acceptance* that will so certainly appear in the personal experience* of all who really and truly become believers in the truths of this higher spiritual communion*. [See fruits of the spirit, below.]

Jesus calls upon us to be born again, to be brought into spiritual life by the experience of personal communion with the spirit of God within. [What will the experience of personal communion with God be like? Extraordinary or not?] Jesus has called us out of the darkness of authoritarian and traditional religion into the transcendent* light of the realization of making for ourselves the greatest discovery possible for the human soul to make – the supernal (celestial, heavenly) experience of finding God for* ourselves, in* ourselves, and of* ourselves, and of doing all this as a fact in our own personal experience*. [What do “for, in and of ourselves connote?]

The religion of the mind ties you hopelessly to the past; the religion of the spirit consists in progressive revelation and ever beckons you on toward higher and holier achievements in spiritual ideals* and eternal realities*. [See fruits of the spirit, spiritual weapons, etc. below for an identification of spiritual ideals and eternal realities.]

To summarize Jesus’ remarks on forms of religious devotion: Primitive religion is based on fear. The religion of civilization is founded on intellectual theology, tradition and rules. Religion of the spirit is constantly renewed by inner spirit revelation as clarified by the Spirit of Jesus. All three forms coexist in a culture and probably even in an individual’s spiritual life. The validity of the meanings and values revealed by your Inner Spirit is proved by the fruits of actually living such meanings and values. So, not actually living our meanings and values deprives our world and time of the spiritual fruits which would demonstrate their validity. The fruits flow from the living, not from the mere knowledge of meanings and values. There is power in our living this way because the Inner Spirit of each witness calls this behavior to its subject’s attention with approval and attraction.

II. Freedom, Liberty, Heroes and Prophets

While the religion of authority may impart a present feeling of settled security, you pay for such a temporary satisfaction the price of the loss of your spiritual freedom* and religious liberty*. The religion of the spirit leaves you forever free to follow the truth wherever the leadings of the spirit may take you. And be assured, this spirit has many things to impart to each generation which other generations have refused to hear.

Our Paradise Parent did indeed speak through Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Amos and Hosea, but did not cease to minister words of truth to the world when these prophets of old made an end of their utterances. Our Creator Parent is no respecter of races or generations in that the truth is provided in one age and withheld from another.

Jesus admonishes us to give up the practice of always quoting the prophets of old and of praising historical spiritual heroes, and instead to aspire to become living prophets* of the Most High and spiritual heroes* of the coming kingdom of loving service and mutual encouragement and compassion. [What is a living prophet and what is spiritual heroism?]

We must cease to seek for the word of God only on the pages of the olden records of theological authority. Those who are born of the spirit of God shall discern the word of God regardless of where it appears to take origin. Divine truth* must not be discounted because the channel of its bestowal is apparently human. But all of the ways of knowing about the fact of God are less important than increasingly growing in the ability to feel the presence of God.

What does it mean “fact of God” and “feel the presence of God?” How is feeling the presence of God more revelatory of divine truth than knowing the facts about God? Doesn’t this suggest that one who feels the presence of God and responds, even without knowledge of the fact of God, is practicing religion of the spirit?

Summarizing Sub Section II: Religion of the Spirit liberates us from all restraints including religious traditions, holy books, priests and human teachers and prophets. We are encouraged to become living spokespersons for God and persons of courage and nobility of purpose regarding the coming kingdom of loving service and mutual encouragement.

III. Unifying Effect of Religion of the Spirit

Every race of mankind has its own outlook on human existence; therefore must the religions of the mind ever run true to these various racial viewpoints. Never can the religions of authority come to unification. Human unity and mortal brotherhood can be achieved only through the super endowment of the religion of the spirit. Racial minds differ, but all humanity is indwelt by the same divine and eternal spirit. The hope of human mutual encouragement and compassion can only be realized as the divergent mind religions of authority become impregnated with and overshadowed by the unifying and ennobling religion of the spirit – the religion of direct, personal spiritual experience. [What is spiritual experience as distinguished from nonspiritual experience? Look at fruits of the spirit and consequences of the spirit listed below for insights into spiritual experience.]

The religions of authority can only divide men and set them in conscientious array against each other; the religion of the spirit will progressively draw men together and cause them to become understandingly sympathetic* with one another. The religions of authority crystallize into lifeless creeds*; the religion of the spirit grows into the increasing joy* and liberty* of ennobling* deeds* of loving service and merciful* ministration.

Summarizing Sub section III: Loving unity is God’s goal. There are racial and authoritarian religious outlooks which interfere with unification of humanity into a spiritual family relationship. Substantial participation in religion of the spirit is the only remedy for this. Religion of the spirit promotes unification of purpose among various religionists at the level of doing God’s will even without agreement as to what God’s will is or how to do it. Creeds, theology and dogma attempt to enforce unity at the orthodox creedal level. That is not possible and involves intolerable interference with spiritual freedom which would itself contradict God’s will that we be free to pursue the truth wherever the spirit leads us.

IV.  All Things Are Sacred

All things are sacred in the lives of those who are spirit led; that is, subordinated* to truth*, ennobled by love*, dominated by mercy*and restrained by fairness– justice. [Did Jesus really mean “all things” are sacred?]

find God in your soul, presently you will begin to discover him in other people’s souls and eventually in all the creatures and creations of a mighty universe. But what chance does the Creator have to appear as a God of supreme loyalties and divine idealsin the souls of people who give little or no time to the thoughtful contemplation of such eternal realities.

Summarizing Sub section IV: We should give thoughtful contemplation to discovering supreme loyalties and divine ideals in all creatures and creations and act accordingly, and consequently all things will become sacred to us. We should remember, regardless of what we are doing, everything we do or say or think matters and should exhibit goodness.

V.  Proof You Are God Knowing

. [Spiritual fruits are treated below.]

unreservedly risked everything you are and have on the adventure of survival after death in pursuit of the hope of finding the God of eternity, whose presence you have foretasted in time.

Summarizing Sub section V:

VI.  Reassurance of Salvation

Now, make no mistake, our Heavenly Parent will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith. God takes note of the physical and superstitious emotions of the primitive man. And with those honest but fearful souls whose faith is so weak that it amounts to little more than an intellectual conformity to a passive attitude of assent to religious authority, our Heavenly Parent is ever alert to honor and foster all such feeble attempts to reach out. But you who have been called out of darkness into the light are expected to believe with a whole heart; your faith* shall dominate* the combined attitudes of body, mind and spirit.

Attitudes of body: The things we apply our physical energies to.

Attitudes of mind: The ideas we apply our intellect to.

Attitudes of Spirit: The goals and values we pursue with our intellect and our physical effort.

VII. Fruits of the Spirit

[What does “born of the spirit” mean? It means brought into spiritual existence. Spiritual birthresults from recognition of God. Spiritual growthresults from appreciating and incorporating the admired qualities of God into our service to others. “Born of the spirit” is a literal, not a figurative, reference.] The Urantia Book provides several lists of the spiritual consequences when you live in cooperation with the spirit. These lists of the consequences of following spiritual leading provide partial answers to some of a religionist’s most basic questions. Such as:

Some fruits of the spirit are: [Modifiers here are very important.  The modifying words all indicate a second mile of involvement for the benefit of the other person]. These are super mortal* ideals dealing with relationships.

• loving service
• sincere fairness
• confiding trust
• forgiving tolerance
• courageous loyalty
• unfailing goodness
• unselfish devotion
• enlightened honesty
• merciful ministry
• enduring peace
• undying hope

Intense striving is involved in actively living to achieve these super mortal ideals of service to other persons.  Conflict with self-centered motivations will arise.  Intense striving for the attainment of super mortal* ideals is always characterized by increasing: 

• patience 
• forbearance
• fortitude 
• tolerance.

The joy* of the Spirit of Jesus when consciously experienced in human life is a:

• tonic for health 
• stimulus for mind 
• energy for the soul

You can consciously experience the joy of the Spirit of Jesus by focusing your attention on your delight in the insights given you by the spirit.  

Spiritual weapons, [These are an endowment of the arrival of the Spirit of Jesus at Pentecost] They are fruits of the spirit too.  Jesus in talking about why the heathen rage said religionists were too timid and should take the spiritual kingdom by spiritual assault.  The spiritual weapons are the power to build the kingdom. They are the way to conquer the world and bring it into the kingdom.  The enemies of the kingdom to be banished with spiritual weapons are evil, hate, anger, and fear.  [Note the superlative modifiers below indicating these qualities are to be demonstrated in superabundant generosity and love.]

 piritual weapons – Only these spiritual weapons have the power to spiritually conquer and transform the world.  They include:

• unfailing forgiveness
• matchless good will 
• abounding love 
• overwhelming evil with good 
• vanquishing hate with love [even for your enemies]
• destroying fear with courageous faith in truth 
• goodwill of love and mutual trust 
• being active and positive in love and mercy [Positive refers to enticing or luring with love rather than demanding or forcing with fear, guilt or obligation.]

Fruits of divinity are fruits of the spirit.  As we become more like God, more divine, we exhibit the actions, attitudes and goals of the divine.

As the love comprehension of deity finds spiritual expression in the lives of God-knowing mortals there are yielded the fruits of divinity which include: 

• intellectual* peace*
• social* progress
• moral* satisfaction
• spiritual* joy* 
• cosmic* wisdom*.

As a spirit led person you will choose to be: 

• subordinated* to truth*
• ennobled* by love*
• dominated* by mercy* 
• restrained by fairness – justice

Religious unity and understanding sympathy are  consequences (fruits) of the religion of following the leading of the Spirit Within.

Twelve spirit-like performanceswhich reveal genuine spiritual faith – genuine active trust in the leadings of the Spirit.

1. Ethics* and morals* progress
2. Sublime* trust in the goodness of God
3. Profound courage* and confidence
4. Inexplicable poise* and sustaining tranquility
5. Mysterious poise* and composure of personality
6. Divine trust in ultimate victory
7. Unswerving belief in God
8. Undaunted faith in the soul’s survival
9. Living and triumphing despite hardships
10. Altruism* continues to survive
11. Sublime* belief in universe unity & divine guidance
12. Goes right on worshiping* God in spite of anything

Jesus on True Religion – Definitions

Acceptance– Undertaking as a responsibility or duty. Taking as true and satisfactory.

Altruism– Unselfish devotion to the interests and welfare of others, especially as a principle of action.

Appeal– To ask for help, sanction or corroboration.

Authority– Rightful influence. Validation. Verification. Reliability.

Communion– A sharing of thoughts or feelings. Intimate talk. Deep sharing.

Cosmic– Of or pertaining to the universe, especially as distinct from earth.

Courage –

Creed– Formal statement of religious belief.

Deed– An act as distinguished from words or thoughts.

Demonstrated– Making evident or proving. Described or illustrated by practical application.

Dominate– To rule over; govern; control. To permeate or characterize.

Ethics– A system of moral principles of right and wrong as applied generally to everyone in a large group.

Ennoble– To make finer or more noble in nature. Dignify. Elevate.

Experience– Active participation in events or activities leading to the accumulation of knowledge, understanding, or skill.

Faith– Dynamic and living trust in the reliability and guidance of God. Faith is beyond intellectual belief. It is belief sufficient that you act accordingly. Your faith becomes part of how you live. Faith is the positive leading of your Adjuster. Positive leadingindicates the use of attractions or lures to virtue rather than motivation from fear or guilt (negative).

For– On behalf of.

Freedom– Lack of restraint.

Hero– One noted for courage or nobility of purpose. One who acts to benefit others especially where personal danger or risk is involved.

Ideal –

In– Identifies where.

Intellectual– Involving the intellect. Mental.

Joy– Feeling of high pleasure or delight. Happiness. Gladness.

Liberty– Right to act in a manner of one’s own choosing.

Love– The desire to do good to others. Friendship. Friendliness. Compassion. Respect. Kindness.

Loyalty– Faithfulness.

Mercy– Kindness beyond what can be claimed or expected and beyond what justice requires. Applied love which sets the guilt of evil doing to one side and forgives. (UB 2018:1)

Moral– Concerned with the judgment of right and wrong in human action or character.

Of –

Peace– Inner freedom from annoyance, distraction or anxiety. Calm. Serenity. Tranquility. Freedom from strife or distress.

Poise – Steadiness, equilibrium, balance, dignity. Self-confident manner. Composure.

Prophet– One who speaks for God by divine inspiration.

Reality– Quality or state of being actual or true.

Social– Living together in communities.

Spirit led– Subordinated to truth, ennobled by love and restrained by fairness – justice.

Spiritual– Concerned with or affecting the soul.

Sublime– The highest degree. Majestic.

Subordinate– Subject to the authority or control of.

Super mortal– Spiritual. Divine.

Supernatural– Above, over or outside the natural.

Sympathetic– Showing kind feelings toward others.

Transcendent– Above and independent of the material universe.

Truth – An understanding of cosmic relationships, universe facts and spiritual values. (UB 1138:6) The living spirit relationship of all things and beings as they are coordinated in the eternal ascent Godward. (UB 647:4)

Value– A principle, quality or standard considered worthwhile or desirable.

Wisdom– Understanding of what is true, right or lasting. Combines insight as to what is real with experience as to how it works.

Worship– Reverent love and allegiance; Ardent, humble devotion. Very deep appreciation and gratitude regarding goodness.

End

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