What Does The Urantia Book Teach about Study?
The Thought Adjusters study. 107:3.9 (1180.2) The valor and wisdom exhibited by Thought Adjusters suggest that they have undergone a training of tremendous scope and range. Since they are not personalities, this training must be imparted in the educational institutions of Divinington.
The Creator Sons study. 21:2.1 (235.4) The Paradise Sons of the primary order are the designers, creators, builders, and administrators of their respective domains, the local universes of time and space, the basic creative units of the seven evolutionary superuniverses. A Creator Son is permitted to choose the space site of his future cosmic activity, but before he may begin even the physical organization of his universe, he must spend a long period of observation devoted to the study of the efforts of his older brothers in various creations located in the superuniverse of his projected action. And prior to all this, the Michael Son will have completed his long and unique experience of Paradise observation and Havona training.
Countless orders of beings study.
Study is essential to our ascending career. 46:5.29 (526.4) The activities of such a world [as Jerusem] are of three distinct varieties: work, progress, and play. Stated otherwise, they are: service, study, and relaxation. The composite activities consist of social intercourse, group entertainment, and divine worship. There is great educational value in mingling with diverse groups of personalities, orders very different from one’s own fellows.
Questions. How can we use study to help us progress? And how might study contribute to the composite activities?
1. Experiential education
“This is the keynote of the whole [Nebadon] educational system: character acquired by enlightened experience. The teachers provide the enlightenment; the universe station and the ascender’s status afford the opportunity for experience; the wise utilization of these two augments character.” (37:6.3/412.3)
Consider the wide-ranging and practical character of education as directed by the Planetary Prince’s staff (50:4/575) and Adam and Eve (74:7/835), and in the advanced civilization on a neighboring planet (72:4/812).
Jesus trained the first six apostles for four months prior to beginning their experiential training. The other apostles received a one-week review of that instruction prior to their experiential training. They began with person-to-person ministry before moving into public speaking. Peter’s school of prophets “was conducted on the plan of learning and doing. What the students learned during the forenoon they taught to the assembly by the seaside during the afternoon. After supper they informally discussed both the learning of the forenoon and the teaching of the afternoon.” (148:1/1657)
Question: Are you ready for experiential education?
How can study group members multiply their effectiveness?
43:8.11 (494.10) Intellectually, socially, and spiritually two moral creatures do not merely double their personal potentials of universe achievement by partnership technique; they more nearly quadruple their attainment and accomplishment possibilities.
Question. Many study groups do not realize the potentials of cooperation. What factors enable a study group to do this?
(1477.1) 133:5.6 Mathematics asserts that, if one person stands for a certain unit of intellectual and moral value, ten persons would stand for ten times this value. But in dealing with human personality it would be nearer the truth to say that such a personality association is a sum equal to the square of the number of personalities concerned in the equation rather than the simple arithmetical sum. A social group of human beings in co-ordinated working harmony stands for a force far greater than the simple sum of its parts.
Question: In what ways might the phrase “coordinated working harmony” serve as a summary of insights gained in thinking in response to the question on the previous quote? What ideas come to mind for you as you ponder this phrase?
The importance of study for responding to an epochal revelation
136:1.1 (1509.3) The Jews entertained many ideas about the expected deliverer, and each of these different schools of Messianic teaching was able to point to statements in the Hebrew scriptures as proof of their contentions. . . . In a general way, the Jews regarded their national history as beginning with Abraham and culminating in the Messiah and the new age of the kingdom of God. In earlier times they had envisaged this deliverer as “the servant of the Lord,” then as “the Son of Man,” while latterly some even went so far as to refer to the Messiah as the “Son of God.” But no matter whether he was called the “seed of Abraham” or “the son of David,” all were agreed that he was to be the Messiah, the “anointed one.” Thus did the concept evolve from the “servant of the Lord” to the “son of David,” “Son of Man,” and “Son of God.”. . .
136:1.3 (1509.5) . . . . Many of their reputed Messianic predictions, had they but viewed these prophetic utterances in a different light, would have very naturally prepared their minds for a recognition of Jesus as the terminator of one age and the inaugurator of a new and better dispensation of mercy and salvation for all nations.
142:3.9 (1599.1) Never before had the apostles been so shocked as they were upon hearing this recounting of the growth of the concept of God in the Jewish minds of previous generations; they were too bewildered to ask Questions. As they sat before Jesus in silence, the Master continued: “And you would have known these truths had you read the Scriptures. . . .
148:4.7 (1660.6) “You are confused, Thomas, by the doctrines of the Greeks and the errors of the Persians. You do not understand the relationships of evil and sin because you view mankind as beginning on earth with a perfect Adam and rapidly degenerating, through sin, to man’s present deplorable estate. But why do you refuse to comprehend the meaning of the record which discloses how Cain, the son of Adam, went over into the land of Nod and there got himself a wife? And why do you refuse to interpret the meaning of the record which portrays the sons of God finding wives for themselves among the daughters of men? . . .
Comment. A dominant tradition of interpretation can cause what is called groupthink: people are swept along by the way that a group thinks that individuals fail to think for themselves. In this case it is a matter of breaking through to an honest and lucid recognition of what the text says and implies.
170:5.20 (1866.3) It is just because the gospel of Jesus was so many-sided that within a few centuries students of the records of his teachings became divided up into so many cults and sects. This pitiful subdivision of Christian believers results from failure to discern in the Master’s manifold teachings the divine oneness of his matchless life. But someday the true believers in Jesus will not be thus spiritually divided in their attitude before unbelievers. . . .
Question to ponder. Is it possible that deficient study could harm our cooperation with the will of God as we work with the fifth epochal revelation?
How Jesus studied and led others in study
123:5.2 (1362.3) For three years — until he was ten — he attended the elementary school of the Nazareth synagogue. For these three years he studied the rudiments of the Book of the Law as it was recorded in the Hebrew tongue. For the following three years he studied in the advanced school and committed to memory, by the method of repeating aloud, the deeper teachings of the sacred law. . . .
127:6.14 (1405.6) As a child he accumulated a vast body of knowledge; as a youth he sorted, classified, and correlated this information; and now as a man of the realm he begins to organize these mental possessions preparatory to utilization in his subsequent teaching, ministry, and service in behalf of his fellow mortals on this world and on all other spheres of habitation throughout the entire universe of Nebadon.
129:1.9 (1420.6) At the Capernaum synagogue he found many new books in the library chests, and he spent at least five evenings a week at intense study. . . .
137:7.1 (1533.5) For four long months — March, April, May, and June — this tarrying time continued; Jesus held over one hundred long and earnest, though cheerful and joyous, sessions with these six associates and his own brother James. Owing to sickness in his family, Jude seldom was able to attend these classes.
137:7.14 (1535.6) As they thus tarried before embarking on their active public preaching, Jesus and the seven spent two evenings each week at the synagogue in the study of the Hebrew scriptures. . . .
Question. If Jesus were here today, would he lead us only in the study of The Urantia Book? Why not?
How to read the scriptures: 159:4/1767.
159:5.1 (1769.3) At Philadelphia, where James was working, Jesus taught the disciples about the positive nature of the gospel of the kingdom. When, in the course of his remarks, he intimated that some parts of the Scripture were more truth-containing than others and admonished his hearers to feed their souls upon the best of the spiritual food, James interrupted the Master, asking: “Would you be good enough, Master, to suggest to us how we may choose the better passages from the Scriptures for our personal edification?” And Jesus replied: “Yes, James, when you read the Scriptures look for those eternally true and divinely beautiful teachings, such as:
159:5.2 (1769.4) “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord.
159:5.3 (1769.5) “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
159:5.4 (1769.6) “You should love your neighbor as yourself.
159:5.5 (1769.7) “For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying, fear not; I will help you.
159:5.6 (1769.8) “Neither shall the nations learn war any more.”
159:5.7 (1769.9) And this is illustrative of the way Jesus, day by day, appropriated the cream of the Hebrew scriptures for the instruction of his followers and for inclusion in the teachings of the new gospel of the kingdom. Other religions had suggested the thought of the nearness of God to man, but Jesus made the care of God for man like the solicitude of a loving father for the welfare of his dependent children and then made this teaching the cornerstone of his religion. And thus did the doctrine of the fatherhood of God make imperative the practice of the brotherhood of man. The worship of God and the service of man became the sum and substance of his religion. Jesus took the best of the Jewish religion and translated it to a worthy setting in the new teachings of the gospel of the kingdom.
Note: Jesus made no public criticism of the scriptures.
Jesus’ high standard of reading and hearing
148:5.5 (1662.2) “But, Nathaniel, there is much in the Scriptures which would have instructed you if you had only read with discernment. Do you not remember that it is written . . . .
167:7.4 (1841.3) “And do you not remember that I said to you once before that, if you had your spiritual eyes anointed, you would then see the heavens opened and behold the angels of God ascending and descending? It is by the ministry of the angels that one world may be kept in touch with other worlds, for have I not repeatedly told you that I have other sheep not of this fold? . . .
Comment. This is a little bit like a being saying to us, “Do you not remember that it says once in The Urantia Book . . . ?
151:3.1 (1691.4) . . . . Think not only of the multitudes and how they hear the truth; take heed also to yourselves how you hear. Remember that I have many times told you: To him who has shall be given more, while from him who has not shall be taken away even that which he thinks he has.”
Question. What does this passage imply about what at stake as we study The Urantia Book?
Priorities in study
The sequential study of The Urantia Book as a whole
19:1.5 (215.2) For example: The human mind would ordinarily crave to approach the cosmic philosophy portrayed in these revelations by proceeding from the simple and the finite to the complex and the infinite, from human origins to divine destinies. But that path does not lead to spiritual wisdom. Such a procedure is the easiest path to a certain form of genetic knowledge, but at best it can only reveal man’s origin; it reveals little or nothing about his divine destiny.
19:1.6 (215.3) Even in the study of man’s biologic evolution on Urantia, there are grave objections to the exclusive historic approach to his present-day status and his current problems. The true perspective of any reality problem — human or divine, terrestrial or cosmic — can be had only by the full and unprejudiced study and correlation of three phases of universe reality: origin, history, and destiny. The proper understanding of these three experiential realities affords the basis for a wise estimate of the current status.
19:1.7 (215.4) When the human mind undertakes to follow the philosophic technique of starting from the lower to approach the higher, whether in biology or theology, it is always in danger of committing four errors of reasoning:
19:1.8 (215.5) 1. It may utterly fail to perceive the final and completed evolutionary goal of either personal attainment or cosmic destiny.
19:1.9 (215.6) 2. It may commit the supreme philosophical blunder by oversimplifying cosmic evolutionary (experiential) reality, thus leading to the distortion of facts, to the perversion of truth, and to the misconception of destinies.
19:1.10 (215.7) 3. The study of causation is the perusal of history. But the knowledge of how a being becomes does not necessarily provide an intelligent understanding of the present status and true character of such a being.
19:1.11 (215.8) 4. History alone fails adequately to reveal future development — destiny. Finite origins are helpful, but only divine causes reveal final effects. Eternal ends are not shown in time beginnings. The present can be truly interpreted only in the light of the correlated past and future.
19:1.12 (215.9) Therefore, because of these and for still other reasons, do we employ the technique of approaching man and his planetary problems by embarkation on the time-space journey from the infinite, eternal, and divine Paradise Source and Center of all personality reality and all cosmic existence.
106:0.1 (1162.1) It is not enough that the ascending mortal should know something of the relations of Deity to the genesis and manifestations of cosmic reality; he should also comprehend something of the relationships existing between himself and the numerous levels of existential and experiential realities, of potential and actual realities. Man’s terrestrial orientation, his cosmic insight, and his spiritual directionization are all enhanced by a better comprehension of universe realities and their techniques of interassociation, integration, and unification.
Topical study
72:4.1 (812.3) The educational system of this nation is compulsory and coeducational in the precollege schools that the student attends from the ages of five to eighteen. These schools are vastly different from those of Urantia. There are no classrooms, only one study is pursued at a time, and after the first three years all pupils become assistant teachers, instructing those below them. Books are used only to secure information that will assist in solving the problems arising in the school shops and on the school farms. Much of the furniture used on the continent and the many mechanical contrivances — this is a great age of invention and mechanization — are produced in these shops. Adjacent to each shop is a working library where the student may consult the necessary reference books. Agriculture and horticulture are also taught throughout the entire educational period on the extensive farms adjoining every local school.
Note. Jesus many times introduced his teaching with selected quotations from the scriptures that he had memorized and correlated. We see something similar at the beginning of some sections in Papers 2 and 3. These are patterns for topical study, which often addresses a particular problem or Question.
Priorities in study
40:7.4 (449.2) . . . . The narrative of human ascent from the mortal spheres of time to the divine realms of eternity constitutes an intriguing recital not included in my assignment, but this supernal adventure should be the supreme study of mortal man.
196:1.3 (2090.4) To “follow Jesus” means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master’s life of unselfish service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.
Question. How can we harmonize these two perspectives on priorities?
Note. Certain priorities are signaled by the language used in stating them: “God-knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire . . .” (1:0.3/21.3); “the religious challenge of this age” (2:7/43); “All Urantia is waiting for” (94:12/1041.last); “the great hope of Urantia” (195:10/2086.2); “the great challenge to modern man” (196:3/2097). Such statements draw our attention to certain projects: becoming like God, constructing a new philosophy of living, Jesus’ gospel movement, and the ecumenical movement of uniting in loving service the numerous families of the present day professed followers of Jesus. It is fitting that topical study should give due attention to these projects.
Balanced study of The Urantia Book with our lives, not only our minds
The spiritual dimension of reading
0:12.13 (17.2) We are fully cognizant of the difficulties of our assignment; we recognize the impossibility of fully translating the language of the concepts of divinity and eternity into the symbols of the language of the finite concepts of the mortal mind. But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience — God-consciousness.
Question. How can we cooperate with the superconscious phase of reading?
Taking time to ponder
2:5.6 (39.5) . . . . Notwithstanding all that physically and spiritually separates you from the Paradise personal presence of God, stop and ponder the solemn fact that God lives within you; he has in his own way already bridged the gulf. He has sent of himself, his spirit, to live in you and to toil with you as you pursue your eternal universe career.
Question. Why don’t we make a practice of doing what we are instructed to do as we read the Papers? For example, when we read this passage, should we just keep on reading or should we actually pause for long enough to ponder in a real way?
Consider three more selections that call for pondering.
2:5.9 (40.1) The Father’s love follows us now and throughout the endless circle of the eternal ages. As you ponder the loving nature of God, there is only one reasonable and natural personality reaction thereto: You will increasingly love your Maker; you will yield to God an affection analogous to that given by a child to an earthly parent; for, as a father, a real father, a true father, loves his children, so the Universal Father loves and forever seeks the welfare of his created sons and daughters.
20:6.1 (228.5) The method whereby a Paradise Son becomes ready for mortal incarnation as a bestowal Son, becomes enmothered on the bestowal planet, is a universal mystery; and any effort to detect the working of this Sonarington technique is doomed to meet with certain failure. Let the sublime knowledge of the mortal life of Jesus of Nazareth sink into your souls, but waste no thought in useless speculation as to how this mysterious incarnation of Michael of Nebadon was effected. Let us all rejoice in the knowledge and assurance that such achievements are possible to the divine nature and waste no time on futile conjectures about the technique employed by divine wisdom to effect such phenomena.
7:7.6 (89.5) More of the character and merciful nature of the Eternal Son of mercy you should comprehend as you meditate on the revelation of these divine attributes which was made in loving service by your own Creator Son, onetime Son of Man on earth, now the exalted sovereign of your local universe — the Son of Man and the Son of God.
2:0.1 (33.1) Inasmuch as man’s highest possible concept of God is embraced within the human idea and ideal of a primal and infinite personality, it is permissible, and may prove helpful, to study certain characteristics of the divine nature which constitute the character of Deity. The nature of God can best be understood by the revelation of the Father which Michael of Nebadon unfolded in his manifold teachings and in his superb mortal life in the flesh. The divine nature can also be better understood by man if he regards himself as a child of God and looks up to the Paradise Creator as a true spiritual Father.
2:0.2 (33.2) The nature of God can be studied in a revelation of supreme ideas, the divine character can be envisaged as a portrayal of supernal ideals, but the most enlightening and spiritually edifying of all revelations of the divine nature is to be found in the comprehension of the religious life of Jesus of Nazareth, both before and after his attainment of full consciousness of divinity. If the incarnated life of Michael is taken as the background of the revelation of God to man, we may attempt to put in human word symbols certain ideas and ideals concerning the divine nature which may possibly contribute to a further illumination and unification of the human concept of the nature and the character of the personality of the Universal Father.
2:0.3 (33.3) In all our efforts to enlarge and spiritualize the human concept of God, we are tremendously handicapped by the limited capacity of the mortal mind. We are also seriously handicapped in the execution of our assignment by the limitations of language and by the poverty of material which can be utilized for purposes of illustration or comparison in our efforts to portray divine values and to present spiritual meanings to the finite, mortal mind of man. All our efforts to enlarge the human concept of God would be well-nigh futile except for the fact that the mortal mind is indwelt by the bestowed Adjuster of the Universal Father and is pervaded by the Truth Spirit of the Creator Son. Depending, therefore, on the presence of these divine spirits within the heart of man for assistance in the enlargement of the concept of God, I cheerfully undertake the execution of my mandate to attempt the further portrayal of the nature of God to the mind of man.
Note. It is possible to construct a productive workshop in having small groups brainstorm on the stories in Part IV that illustrate the different themes of Paper 2. It seems that the idea of actually doing what the Divine Counselor counsels has been done by almost no one.
The importance of engaging the intellect, and the danger of excess
102:3.1 (1121.3) Intellectual deficiency or educational poverty unavoidably handicaps higher religious attainment because such an impoverished environment of the spiritual nature robs religion of its chief channel of philosophic contact with the world of scientific knowledge. The intellectual factors of religion are important, but their overdevelopment is likewise sometimes very handicapping and embarrassing. Religion must continually labor under a paradoxical necessity: the necessity of making effective use of thought while at the same time discounting the spiritual serviceableness of all thinking.
Question. How do you keep the intellectual factors of religion from becoming overdeveloped while studying The Urantia Book?
195:5.2 (2075.5) Truth often becomes confusing and even misleading when it is dismembered, segregated, isolated, and too much analyzed. Living truth teaches the truth seeker aright only when it is embraced in wholeness and as a living spiritual reality, not as a fact of material science or an inspiration of intervening art.
Question. What indications do you get when you are beginning to overanalyze truth? What indications suggest to you that another person is overanalyzing truth?
A philosophical level of study that is almost universally ignored
2:7.5 (42.6) Philosophers commit their gravest error when they are misled into the fallacy of abstraction, the practice of focusing the attention upon one aspect of reality and then of pronouncing such an isolated aspect to be the whole truth. The wise philosopher will always look for the creative design which is behind, and pre-existent to, all universe phenomena. The creator thought invariably precedes creative action.
Note. What underlying pattern is visible in The Urantia Book? How does that large pattern manifest in more detailed patterns in the Papers? We can approach this phase of study by inquiring about structure. Normally we read the book sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, without pausing to explore the design of the text. Those with the energy to move into the dimension of structural study will discover in The Urantia Book the most beautiful masterpiece of artistry in all the world's literature. Look for the import of sequences: the four-part structure of The Urantia Book, the way papers are grouped in a given part, the lessons implicit in the order of items in a list. Thorough work on a paper includes the following: (1) state the main point of each paragraph (preferably on a single line); (2) inquire how groups of paragraphs are associated; (3) How do the sections fit together? (4) Why does the paper begin where it begins and end where it ends? (5) What title would you give for sections and papers? In addition, comparing reading the book to attending a conference, look at the social aspect of the papers. How does a given author relate to what the others say? How is the origin of the author manifest in the author's perspective?
Key teachings that we only comprehend by living them
180:5.11 (1950.6) And so must we clearly recognize that neither the golden rule nor the teaching of nonresistance can ever be properly understood as dogmas or precepts. They can only be comprehended by living them, by realizing their meanings in the living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth, who directs the loving contact of one human being with another.
Question. What do you think about taking up growth projects as you study, perhaps even focusing on your pet evil (if you have one) or other leading growth need in your life? When we begin our year-long study of the philosophy of living, you will not be required to take up such projects, but you will be encouraged to do so, and our class will proceed on that basis.
Note: The preceding thoughts do not exhaust the topic of study. We live at a time of intensified academic study of language, texts, and learning (giving rise to disciplines such as hermeneutics, semiotics, and educational psychology). You will find your comprehension of The Urantia Book enhanced by pursuing these things. An entire conference could be devoted to this topic.
Students of The Urantia Book should be pioneers in study. The word student comes from the Latin studere, which means to be eager or zealous about. We are keen to learn the facts, meanings, and values that we can, at our present level, grasp in what the revelators have seeded here.
JHW, November 2015