A Bit of History

From , By Rita Schaad, NSW on

Urantia Activities in Australia and New Zealand

(Presented at the October 2020 online ANZURA Conference)

Much on ANZURA’s website – like other websites – is an archive, and I hope you will agree, a very valuable resource – both for aiding in study and for keeping our memories alive.

Good memories can be energizing especially in these times of turmoil. They can bring to the fore those values we desperately need to hang on to if we want – for us and the next generations – to get safely through “the high seas of constant change” and end up in a safe harbor once more.

  1. It all started with some people – scattered hither and yonder across Australia and New Zealand.
  2. Then there came the first Newsletter – aptly named “Six-O-Six” – spearheaded by Neil Francey and amongst others, Ian Esmore (at a meeting in the Macedon ranges in Victoria I believe).
  3. And then more meetings and conferences, where action plans were devised and most importantly, relationships were sealed.

Looking through those early issues of the Six-O-Six newsletters gave me an insight into the amount of effort that was made and leadership that was shown by those early reader/believers of The Urantia Book. They have extended the way they learned to discuss and fight for a standard we now accept as a given.

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Ancient Orvonton, and a Young Cosmic Web

From , By Nigel Nunn, ACT on

 

Video 4D

The Urantia Book presents a cosmology that stirs the soul: a central and perfect universe, fringed by spacetime shallows in which finaliters are born; finaliters, destined to launch from this cosmic continental shelf into oceanic depths, seeding the light and life of personality throughout nested levels of outer space.

Soul stirring indeed! A cosmology pervaded by meaning and value, eclipsing in its scope our finest Sci-fi. What a relief from the consensus materialist models that native science has managed to evolve.

However, right after having thus stirred our souls, these authors pour cold water over our expectations. From Paper 101 section 4:

…within a few short years many of our statements regarding the physical sciences will stand in need of revision… [Paper 101:4.2, page 1109.3]

“Will stand in need of revision”. When compared with current consensus cosmology, of a young universe beginning with a hot Big Bang, the cosmology of The Urantia Book is so unorthodox, and so apparently wrong, that some students of these papers now see this cosmology as little more than decoration for the book’s more important themes: its spiritual and philosophical revelations. But take another look at those “Limitations of Revelation” discussed in Paper 101. Immediately after stating that, with regard to scientific facts they were limited in what could reveal, they go on to list a number of things they were permitted to do. The first of these is especially interesting. Again, from Paper 101 section 4:

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Think Alike – Necessary or Unnecessary?

From , By Cecilia Ann Bendall, TAS on

One of the few topics that we are told led to Jesus being stirred within his spirit was the inference that we should all see alike. When asked by James Zebedee Master, how shall we learn to see alike and thereby enjoy more harmony among ourselves? (141:5.1) Jesus replied: 

“James, James, when did I teach you that you should all see alike? I have come into the world to proclaim spiritual liberty to the end that mortals may be empowered to live individual lives of originality and freedom before God. I do not desire that social harmony and fraternal peace shall be purchased by the sacrifice of free personality and spiritual originality. What I require of you, my apostles, is spirit unity—and that you can experience in the joy of your united dedication to the wholehearted doing of the will of my Father in heaven. You do not have to see alike or feel alike or even think alike in order spiritually to be alike. Spiritual unity is derived from the consciousness that each of you is indwelt, and increasingly dominated, by the spirit gift of the heavenly Father. Your apostolic harmony must grow out of the fact that the spirit hope of each of you is identical in origin, nature, and destiny.

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Universal Ethics – Concepts from The Urantia Book

From , By Neil Francey, QLD on

In this collection of short papers, the study of ethics is taken to a universal level. They apply to the highest forms of behavior relative to progress for each of us in the realms ahead. They go beyond the application of ethics at the mortal level of functioning where they are the basis of our way of life.

By selecting appropriate quotations from The Urantia Book and by directing study to a particular topic, an aspect of the mortal and spiritual natures of man can be addressed. By studying carefully chosen excerpts, related new ideas and insights can be formulated. New understandings can be generated.

Spiritual ethics, post-mortal ethics, universally effect mortal life in transforming ways for society and for the individual. The highest ethics, as truth, impact on personal and group habits and behaviors. And as such, they contribute to the mores, and potentially usher in elevated levels of civil society.

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The Mind Arena of Choice

From , By Chris Moseley, England on

Mining the Archives

(Editor’s Note: Mining the Archives is a collection of articles that have been published in various newsletters over the years and have been lying buried in the archives. A team of volunteers have been “mining the archives” for the gems, so now we can bring them into the light of day to share using modern-day technology. This one is from the Arena Newsletter, Autumn 1999)

The concept of ‘Mind’ in itself, in the abstract, unlimited sense of the word, does not imply free will, but the individual mind, mortal mind, has freewill as an inseparable, defining component. In the passage on p.1216 entitled The Mind Arena of Choice, there is a striking sentence that almost expresses the kernel of the whole human condition:

Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above. [Paper 111:1.5, page 1216.6]

Viewed in these terms, what a finely-tuned creature a human being seems; what a mysterious fragility everyday existence has; and what grave responsibilities are implied for all the choices we make!

Whether undifferentiated, in the sense of infinite or absolute mind, or finite, acting through the ministry of the adjutant mind spirits, all Mind can be ‘superimposed upon energy.’ (p.102) in other words, mind can directionize energies through its own choices. Mind adds meaning to energy.

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Amarantos

From , By Robert Venosa on

(Robert Venosa (1936 -2011) was an artist and also a Urantia Book reader who lived and worked in Boulder, US and in Spain. This poem was taken from his book, Noospheres 1991)

An eternal Light from the infinite source
An idea in motion on an infinite course
Guided by love and powered by light,
One spark erupts illumining the night.

Searching for form in unlimited space
The spark seeks reflection to decide on a face
Expanding itself it shatters apart
And a mirror is born for duality’s start.

The original thought reproduces itself
Releasing the fetters of solitude self.
Spinning in motion in ecstatic embrace
A father of time, a mother of space
In the womb of a wish, fulfilling the need
An embryo forms – the trinity seed.

A fetus of hope, the urge of creation,
A promise of thought in cosmic gestation.
The spirit is born taking nest in the soul
To guide all desire to its infinite goal.

A network of light spirals out and expands
Matter and mind in an energy dance
Sparks turn to atoms and atoms embrace
Expression unfolds saturating all space
Atoms to suns, and suns in their might
Give birth to the worlds and feed them with light.

The cradle is set for love’s gesture supreme;
The god-child appears fulfilling the dream.
From the seed of a thought and an infinite plan
Starting with hope and ending with man
The universe spreads in eternal desire
That in love it return to the heart of its sire.

 

 

Parasamgate, Artist Robert Venosa

Mota – Vation

By Neil Francey, Queensland on

For a High Degree of Universal Achievement

 

This sequential list of quotations from the teachings contained in The Urantia Book has been arranged into thirteen courses.

It allows study within a specific framework. In this course, that topic is motivation. The Urantia Book is the Master Motivator.

The framework for Mota-vation is based on the higher philosophy identified in the Urantia Papers as Morontia Mota. It is the basis for understanding the higher concepts of the semi spiritual state known as the morontia level of existence. It is used in discussions about universal orders of beings, mechanisms of administration, energies, even to the nature of Deity.

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President’s Report – Spring 2020

From , By Julian McGarry, TAS on

My Dear Friends and Fellow Students of The Urantia Book,

I hope you are all doing well! It has been a tumultuous year. Many of you may be feeling psychologically bruised or wounded with the circumstances of the lockdown as you live with the ever-present possibility of catching COVID-19. It has been a particularly stressful time for our friends living in Melbourne and regional Victoria. Figuratively speaking, we’ve had to fasten our seatbelts and put on our crash helmets; it’s been quite a rough ride for many of us.

In the face of this worldwide pandemic, humans have been remarkably resilient. We seem to be astonishingly adaptable to profound changes in our environment. Last century, we had to endure two world wars, a great depression, and a host of other lesser catastrophes. And we have survived, perhaps even thrived, in spite of or perhaps because of these great adversities.

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Virtual ANZURA Annual Conference 2020

From , By Anzura Admin on

10 October 2020

Post COVID Spiritual Life

Long ago in 2018 when we first started to plan this conference, we picked a theme based on 2020 representing perfect vision, and were looking forward to exploring the hindsight, insight and foresight offered by The Urantia Book. Sadly, we were not given the foresight to predict COVID, and we live in a much-altered world now.

Along with changes in our lives around work, travel, and socialisation, how we live our spiritual lives will necessarily also be affected to a greater or lesser degree. The most obvious change is the online format of this conference, which hopefully will still allow us to share our spiritual perspectives, and to enjoy the virtual fellowship of like-minded souls.

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The Parable of the Sower

From , By Wednesday Evening Online Study Group on

In Paper 151, Tarrying and Teaching by the Seaside, Jesus started to change his teaching methods by using parables to transmit the truths he wanted to convey. The Apostles all had a go at interpreting the Parable of the Sower and ended up with very different interpretations. Then, at the end of Section 3 (More About Parables) Jesus said to the apostles:

“Now will I tell you the last of the parable of the sower. I would test you to know how you will receive this: The kingdom of heaven is also like a man who cast good seed upon the earth; and while he slept by night and went about his business by day, the seed sprang up and grew, and although the man knew not how it came about, the plant came to fruit. First there was the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And then when the grain was ripe, he put forth the sickle, and the harvest was finished. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear.” [Paper 151:3.15, page 1693.5]

In the next paragraph we are told:

Many times did the apostles turn this saying over in their minds, but the Master never made further mention of the addition to the parable of the sower.  [Paper 151:3.16, page 1693.6]

In the study group we decided to experiment with this exercise of interpreting parables by attempting to find the meaning of what Jesus intended by this last parable of the sower. Each of us had a go at it and this is what we shared the following week:

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