This is my (James Leese) opportunity to write about my thoughts regarding my understanding of aspects of the UB. Much of this writing is the result of my involvment in the UrantiaUniversity Institute and UBIS courses. Other writings are spur of the moment inspirations. For more exhaustive and exhausting writings, see the “What I Believe” website
“Perfection" crops up a couple of times where it might seem to be the impossible task. For instance in the original Lord’s Prayer: "...Make us perfect like yourself.”
When sort of forced to come up with a prayer for his apostles, he reluctantly gave them the "believer's prayer," which is found in Paper 144, section 3. It is unfortunate that, over the years, somewhere we lost two lines from what was the original "Lord's Prayer. Here is the way it was intended to be:
Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come; your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our bread for tomorrow;
Refresh our souls with the water of life.
And forgive us every one our debts
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
Save us in temptation, deliver us from evil,
And increasingly make us perfect like yourself.
Those two lines are, in my view, very important. The last one expressly tells us to pray to our Father, who is within (Heaven) to increasingly make us perfect as he is. Note, we must ask for this; it is not automatic (more on this later in the month).
We have all the tools at hand, if only we knew it. Some of us do.... Now. Over the last several years I have been focusing more and more on those words and trying consciously to apply them daily. Some days are better than others. But, overall, I think I am getting better with time and meditation.
I pray others will find the desire, the wisdom, and the insight to see where we are heading, each one of us, and to take advantage of all the opportunities we have to become ever more perfect here, on earth, as it is in Heaven.
There is another recurring theme dealing with perfection that can have many readers stumped. This is the statement–God’s command to us–as: "From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” Paper 1:0.3
How can this be? How can a mortal such as us hope to ever be as perfect as God? Here, two and three paragraphs later is the answer: "Urantia mortals can hardly hope to be perfect in the infinite sense, but it is entirely possible for human beings, starting out as they do on this planet, to attain the supernal and divine goal which the infinite God has set for mortal man; and when they do achieve this destiny, they will, in all that pertains to self-realization and mind attainment, be just as replete in their sphere of divine perfection as God himself is in his sphere of infinity and eternity. Such perfection may not be universal in the material sense, unlimited in intellectual grasp, or final in spiritual experience, but it is final and complete in all finite aspects of divinity of will, perfection of personality motivation, and God-consciousness.
"This is the true meaning of that divine command, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect,” which ever urges mortal man onward and beckons him inward in that long and fascinating struggle for the attainment of higher and higher levels of spiritual values and true universe meanings. This sublime search for the God of universes is the supreme adventure of the inhabitants of all the worlds of time and space."
I do think this is the most important book ever published.
I am in the fourth full reading of the book, plus the readings my book study group undertakes and assignements from UrantiaUniversity courses. I have also listened to the entire book. I have it on my iPhone, my iPad. I have Pato Benton's recordings of the words of Christ (beautiful set of CDs). One result of all of this is that the one more reads the UB the simpler the book becomes to understand, plus the overall message become increasingly simple as well. It is simpler for me to understand myself, others, our world, our universe, and God. The more of the Jesus' lessons I take in, the easier it is for me to understand them and to attempt to emulate them, not just for myself, but in dealing with others as well. This results in the feeling that I am living more in the Will of God as I go on in my daily routine.
What is really fun is to undertake some of the Teaching Mission material, all of which uses the UB as its textbook, and expand beyond the UB in terms of how to live each moment, now. There is so much out there that supports our study and our work in understanding the UB. What a ride!
Q: Is it plausible to you that The Urantia Book is a revelation of truth from celestial sources? Why do you think that it is often difficult to elicit that sort of understanding or acceptance from one’s fellows?
In our science- and fact-focused-fact-proving system of “reality” today, we ar taught that reality is such that can be proven or be seen. While much of science today consists of things that cannot be proven (quantum mechanics or the origin of life) and things that cannot be seen. Example, there probably is no other planet with life sense we cannot find one. And how many times has sciences been proven wrong in the last century or so? With the discrediting of psychics and astrologers, UFOs, WMDs, and other stuff we are not easily led down a garden path of modern-day, mid-wayers, planetary princes, creator sons, seraphim, or even gods! It is amazing that so much of American still believes in angels. Well, after all, who can blame them; God wrote the bible and so that it is!
But suggest that phenomena that happen millennia ago can still be happening today? Oh, boy. Blasphemer! That stuff can’t happen today because science says so. Look, Jesus face on toast!
I have been open to the possibility of such as the Urantia Book for many decades, ever sense my grandmother was a Christian Science practitioner. Thanks to my sweetheart, I found Unity Church. Thanks to Unity, I started a quest for Truth (“the truth is out there”). Then I discovered the UB and my quest really began! I consider it the truth to the extent that what was given us is, in fact and in spirit, the truth as we can understand it on this world.
Q: How can the Native American adage, “Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins” assist us in coming to a better understanding of approaching or not approaching our fellows with an introduction to The Urantia Book?
Wasn’t this really the way Jesus approached his teaching with the folks he came across? He would listen to them talk about religion (or life, or money, or…whatever) and take the strong points of the discussion and build upon them, creating an affinity, a connection, with the person to whom he was speaking with, and creating an expanded version of their “truth” in their mind.