A brief introduction to the new philosophy
As a warm up, take a look at three quotes.
You can consciously augment Adjuster harmony by:
110:3.7 (1206.5) 1. Choosing to respond to divine leading; sincerely basing the human life on the highest consciousness of truth, beauty, and goodness, and then co-ordinating these qualities of divinity through wisdom, worship, faith, and love. . . .
91:8.11 (1002.3) God answers man’s prayer by giving him an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty, and an augmented concept of goodness.
56:10.2 (646.3) Throughout this glorious age [light and life] the chief pursuit of the ever-advancing mortals is the quest for a better understanding and a fuller realization of the comprehensible elements of Deity—truth, beauty, and goodness. This represents man’s effort to discern God in mind, matter, and spirit. And as the mortal pursues this quest, he finds himself increasingly absorbed in the experiential study of philosophy, cosmology, and divinity.
A sketch of the new philosophy of living
How shall we learn the ways of living the truth, walking in beauty, and participating in goodness? A key guide in this adventure is the new philosophy of living. It is sketched in the last four paragraphs of Paper 2.
The great mistake of the Hebrew religion was its failure to associate the goodness of God with the factual truths of science and the appealing beauty of art. As civilization progressed, and since religion continued to pursue the same unwise course of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the relative exclusion of truth and neglect of beauty, there developed an increasing tendency for certain types of men to turn away from the abstract and dissociated concept of isolated goodness. The overstressed and isolated morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and loyalty of many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in addition to its moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the beauties of the physical creation, the charm of intellectual art, and the grandeur of genuine character achievement.
2:7.10 (43.3) The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.
2:7.11 (43.4) All truth — material, philosophic, or spiritual — is both beautiful and good. All real beauty — material art or spiritual symmetry — is both true and good. All genuine goodness — whether personal morality, social equity, or divine ministry — is equally true and beautiful. Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.
2:7.12 (43.5) Truth is coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when these values of that which is real are co-ordinated in personality experience, the result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by loyalty. The real purpose of all universe education is to effect the better co-ordination of the isolated child of the worlds with the larger realities of his expanding experience. Reality is finite on the human level, infinite and eternal on the higher and divine levels.
Questions, quotes, and comments
Why does the author, a Divine Counselor, who is the counsel of Deity, state that constructing this new and appealing philosophy of living is “the religious challenge of this age”? Why is it a religiouschallenge and not simply an intellectual challenge? Why could it be so important for us to develop a new integration of religion and philosophy, or “worship-wisdom” as one author puts it (118:8.6/1302.3)? It seems as though planetary civilization is developing in a way that is dangerously imbalanced. And what is needed is an experiential wisdom linked with spiritual experience. Philosophy lacks the power to fix the planet; religion often lacks the wisdom. Put the two together on a suitable material foundation, and behold: planetary evolution can proceed normally.
Integration on all levels
Second. In the mansion worlds we enter schools of thinking, feeling, and doing. The new philosophy of living cultivates all three: thinking is correlated with truth, feeling with beauty, and doing with goodness. We can productively study them separately, but truth, beauty, and goodness are “blended in human experience,” the fruits of our study come from integrating them.
“Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living [namely, health, sanity, and happiness] come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.”
Here we notice complexity; and an observation is needed before we go further. When we are living at our best, we taste a beautiful quality of simplicity. So that we can live at our best more often, for longer stretches of time, and so that our best becomes still better, we pursue growth in paths of thoroughness (for example, in truth, beauty, and goodness). The more that we abide in that beautiful way of simplicity, the more effective will be our efforts on paths of thoroughness.
What examples can we give of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems?
112:2.14 (1229.1) The possibility of the unification of the evolving self is inherent in the qualities of its constitutive factors: the basic energies, the master tissues, the fundamental chemical overcontrol, the supreme ideas, the supreme motives, the supreme goals, and the divine spirit of Paradise bestowal—the secret of the self-consciousness of man’s spiritual nature.
Energy systems
The basic physical energies are configured in the master tissues and fundamental chemical overcontrol; and the spirit nucleus, the indwelling presence of the Universal Father, is pure energy.
110:6.4 (1209.4) When the development of the intellectual nature proceeds faster than that of the spiritual, such a situation renders communication with the Thought Adjuster both difficult and dangerous. Likewise, overspiritual development tends to produce a fanatical and perverted interpretation of the spirit leadings of the divine indweller. Lack of spiritual capacity makes it very difficult to transmit to such a material intellect the spiritual truths resident in the higher superconsciousness. It is to the mind of perfect poise, housed in a body of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical function—when the physical, mental, and spiritual powers are in triune harmony of development—that a maximum of light and truth can be imparted with a minimum of temporal danger or risk to the real welfare of such a being. By such a balanced growth does man ascend the circles of planetary progression one by one, from the seventh to the first.
Just being aware of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical function is helpful. It helps free us of bad habits, instability, and physical imbalance; and relevant science can help us more.
Idea systems
Some of the most important idea systems are presented in the description of the cosmic mind.
16:6.6 (192.2) 1. Causation—the reality domain of the physical senses, the scientific realms of logical uniformity, the differentiation of the factual and the nonfactual, reflective conclusions based on cosmic response. This is the mathematical form of the cosmic discrimination.
16:6.7 (192.3) 2. Duty—the reality domain of morals in the philosophic realm, the arena of reason, the recognition of relative right and wrong. This is the judicial form of the cosmic discrimination.
16:6.8 (192.4) 3. Worship—the spiritual domain of the reality of religious experience, the personal realization of divine fellowship, the recognition of spirit values, the assurance of eternal survival, the ascent from the status of servants of God to the joy and liberty of the sons of God. This is the highest insight of the cosmic mind, the reverential and worshipful form of the cosmic discrimination.
Each of these three paragraphs explains one idea in terms of a system of related ideas. What happens when these idea systems—and our engagement in the correlated realms of reality—are integrated?
16:6.9 (192.5) These scientific, moral, and spiritual insights, these cosmic responses, are innate in the cosmic mind, which endows all will creatures. The experience of living never fails to develop these three cosmic intuitions; they are constitutive in the self-consciousness of reflective thinking. But it is sad to record that so few persons on Urantia take delight in cultivating these qualities of courageous and independent cosmic thinking.
16:6.10 (192.6) In the local universe mind bestowals, these three insights of the cosmic mind constitute the a priori assumptions which make it possible for man to function as a rational and self-conscious personality in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion. Stated otherwise, the recognition of the reality of these three manifestations of the Infinite is by a cosmic technique of self-revelation. Matter-energy is recognized by the mathematical logic of the senses; mind-reason intuitively knows its moral duty; spirit-faith (worship) is the religion of the reality of spiritual experience. These three basic factors in reflective thinking may be unified and co-ordinated in personality development, or they may become disproportionate and virtually unrelated in their respective functions. But when they become unified, they produce a strong character consisting in the correlation of a factual science, a moral philosophy, and a genuine religious experience. And it is these three cosmic intuitions that give objective validity, reality, to man’s experience in and with things, meanings, and values.
16:6.11 (192.7) It is the purpose of education to develop and sharpen these innate endowments of the human mind; of civilization to express them; of life experience to realize them; of religion to ennoble them; and of personality to unify them.
Spirit systems
One spirit system is the Thought Adjuster, the Spirit of Truth, and the Holy Spirit.
103:0.1 (1129.1) All of man’s truly religious reactions are sponsored by the early ministry of the adjutant of worship and are censored by the adjutant of wisdom. Man’s first supermind endowment is that of personality encircuitment in the Holy Spirit of the Universe Creative Spirit; and long before either the bestowals of the divine Sons or the universal bestowal of the Adjusters, this influence functions to enlarge man’s viewpoint of ethics, religion, and spirituality. Subsequent to the bestowals of the Paradise Sons the liberated Spirit of Truth makes mighty contributions to the enlargement of the human capacity to perceive religious truths. As evolution advances on an inhabited world, the Thought Adjusters increasingly participate in the development of the higher types of human religious insight. The Thought Adjuster is the cosmic window through which the finite creature may faith-glimpse the certainties and divinities of limitless Deity, the Universal Father.
How can we unify these energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems? We find answers in each of the seven components of the philosophy of living. But the way of simplicity reminds us that we already know enough, we already have enough intuition, to start finding creative ways to unify these systems. Like Jesus, we can mobilize all our “powers of mind, soul, and body on the task immediately in hand” (127:3.15/1400.7). Only our own personal experience can bring home the realization that makes enlightening teaching meaningful.
Truth, beauty, and goodness as a path to (mature) love
We commonly use the term love; and sometimes we use that word hastily. Paragraph 2 says that as we ascend “the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal [truth, beauty, and goodness] become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.” Paragraph 4 tells us that “when these values of that which is real are co-ordinated in personality experience, the result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by loyalty.” Thus it appears that truth, beauty, and goodness form a path to love. What happens to our concept of love when we accept that thought?
196:3.29 (2096.5) Love, divested of truth, beauty, and goodness, is only a sentiment, a philosophic distortion, a psychic illusion, a spiritual deception.
In reality, from a higher perspective, either truth, beauty, and goodness are genuinely there or not. But can we also derive some meaning if we take this sentence as a matter of degree?Most of us would say that our love usually has some truth, beauty, and goodness in it. But do we not find that sometimes our love is too sentimental, somewhat foolish, somewhat illusory, and not genuinely spiritual?
Beyond static concepts
In note 6 of the Introduction to Living in Truth, Beauty, and Goodness on page xxi, we read of various ways in which the author has tried to avoid the trap that some philosophers (including some amateur philosophers among students of The Urantia Book) fall into. It is easier to fall into that trap since the structure of the book follows the Urantia Book’s statement of three primary themes set forth in seven specific topics. The danger is this. “Man tends to crystallize science, formulate philosophy, and dogmatize truth . . . .” (132:3.3/1459.3) Note that Confucius “built too well” (94:6.9/1034.4).
Truth is a living reality, and experiencing this keeps us from to formulated and dogmatic systems.
180:5.2 (1949.4) Divine truth is a spirit-discerned and living reality. Truth exists only on high spiritual levels of the realization of divinity and the consciousness of communion with God. You can know the truth, and you can live the truth; you can experience the growth of truth in the soul and enjoy the liberty of its enlightenment in the mind, but you cannot imprison truth in formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct. When you undertake the human formulation of divine truth, it speedily dies. The post-mortem salvage of imprisoned truth, even at best, can eventuate only in the realization of a peculiar form of intellectualized glorified wisdom. Static truth is dead truth, and only dead truth can be held as a theory. Living truth is dynamic and can enjoy only an experiential existence in the human mind.
Thus we do well to look for the many ways in which the authors quietly lead us away from dogmatism into discovery. In this context, it is valuable to ponder the variations on the truth-beauty-goodness macrostructure in order to seek new insight from that particular sequence. Here are some examples.
. . . living truth, divine goodness, and true spiritual beauty. (20:10.3/233.0)
. . . to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover goodness in values. (100:2.4/1096.1)
Through truth man attains beauty, and by spiritual love ascends to goodness. (103:9.11/1142.2)
Evil is the immature choosing and the unthinking misstep of those who are resistant to goodness, rejectful of beauty, and disloyal to truth. (131:1.5/1429.1)
God is the source and destiny of all that is good and beautiful and true. (131:2.7/1431.2)
Truth, beauty, and holiness are powerful and effective aids to true worship. (167:6.6/1840.5)
. . . the aggressive and progressive attainment of righteous levels of true spirit values: divine beauty, infinite goodness, and eternal truth . . . . (180:5.9/1950.5)
Love is the ancestor of all spiritual goodness, the essence of the true and the beautiful. (192:2.1/2047.5)
We find God through the leadings of spiritual insight, but we approach this insight of the soul through the love of the beautiful, the pursuit of truth, loyalty to duty, and the worship of divine goodness. (195:5.14/2076.5)
Let’s go for it!
Yes, to surmount this challenge takes more than even the best presentation, workshop, conference, or book. We shall invigorate in the presence of difficulties.
100:4.2 (1097.6) Religious perplexities are inevitable; there can be no growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation. The organization of a philosophic standard of living entails considerable commotion in the philosophic realms of the mind. Loyalties are not exercised in behalf of the great, the good, the true, and the noble without a struggle.
160:5.10 (1782.1) I [Rodan] see in the teachings of Jesus, religion at its best. This gospel enables us to seek for the true God and to find him. But are we willing to pay the price of this entrance into the kingdom of heaven? Are we willing to be born again? to be remade? Are we willing to be subject to this terrible and testing process of self-destruction and soul reconstruction? Has not the Master said: “Whoso would save his life must lose it. Think not that I have come to bring peace but rather a soul struggle”? True, after we pay the price of dedication to the Father’s will, we do experience great peace provided we continue to walk in these spiritual paths of consecrated living.
Thank you for coming this far. Sincere, persistent, wholehearted cooperation with God is certain to succeed. And for that we can give thanks and worship.