The Joy of Understanding Causes
Week 2. The Joy of Understanding Causation
Beloveds!
First an explanation. In the video for this week there is no reference to The Urantia Book. This is because I chose to model a kind of communication that is suitable for almost every audience—just such communication as you will naturally use when you sense that bringing up The Urantia Book does not fit the social context.
As I revised the assignment for week 1, one component was deleted because I did not want to overwhelm you. But I want you to see that component (which I am still not assigning). The deleted assignment was to teach something of what you are learning each week to at least one person who is not a reader of The Urantia Book, and with whom you communicate without reference to that book. You can see and participate in more of that kind of communication at UniversalFamily.org, where I am today not only mentioning my video (now on YouTube), but also announcing my new podcast, Universal Family, which is designed to go with this course on truth-coordinated living. Here’s the deleted section:
You have only truly learned something when you teach it to someone else. Reach out and share a wisely selected portion of what you are learning with someone else who is not a Urantia Book reader, and do this without introducing or mentioning The Urantia Book. Developing our skills in such communication is one of the goals of this course.
This method, called “Each one teach one,” has been very effective in spreading literacy around the world (in north Africa, those who received a lesson could not come back for the next lesson until they had taught someone else). One way to practice this method is to tell someone you know that you are taking a course on integrating science and spirituality and ask that person to be a weekly conversation partner. You will be artistic, selective in what you choose to bring up.
Giving your teaching on social media is not a substitute for person-to-person teaching. Jesus had his apostles engage in personal ministry for months before sending them forth to preach to the multitudes.
Now we are ready to begin the new week’s work.
Science is an activity of mind, thinking, in the realm of truth. Scientific living in its fullness is applied spirituality.
Scientific living has several layers, the first of which is to be well grounded in the facts of the situation or task we are involved in. The next layer is to explore and bringing to mind what we know of the relevant causes, inquiring as needed about what factors in the past help us understand the present situation or task, and what would be the consequences of this action or that. Before we go into specifics with cosmology, biology, and psychology, we will take a week to study quotes, and settle down to get our projects more firmly launched by applying core scientific living concepts to daily life.
Week 1 mobilized our responsible embrace of fact in the material realm. Responsibility is a virtue in of doing in the domain of goodness, an ingredient in the wholeness of righteousness.
Week 2 deepens our understanding of fact by exploring causation, which leads to the joyous scientific action. Joy is our feeling response to the recognition of beauty (some of us would normally respond by saying, “cool,” or “awesome,” rather than “beautiful”). The joy of living is essential to the beautiful wholeness of righteousness.
The sovereign Creator has woven the laws of matter, mind, and spirit into the very texture of these domains of reality, thus making his function as controller natural and accessible to the mind.
As we pay extra attention this week to causes and effects (or consequences), we will have the privilege of living in greater alignment with his will and way.
Let’s recall our course goal as the context for this week’s readings and assignments.
“In all that you do, become not one-sided and overspecialized. The Pharisees who seek our destruction verily think they are doing God’s service. They have become so narrowed by tradition that they are blinded by prejudice and hardened by fear. Consider the Greeks, who have a science without religion, while the Jews have a religion without science. And when men become thus misled into accepting a narrow and confused disintegration of truth, their only hope of salvation is to become truth-co-ordinated — converted.
“Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired. (155:1.4-5/1726.1-2)
The Number One Stop and Ponder Quote for the Week
(951.7) 86:2.5 Exploration of the phenomena of life sooner or later destroys man’s belief in chance, luck, and so-called accidents, substituting therefor a universe of law and order wherein all effects are preceded by definite causes. Thus is the fear of existence replaced by THE JOY OF LIVING.
Can we begin to find joy through understanding causation as it relates to practical facts of daily life? The stop and ponder (meditation) quote for the week is an invitation to joy-finding.
Growing up with Jesus
In first section of Paper 123, The Early Childhood of Jesus, we see Jesus beginning to activate his desire to know under the guidance of the spirit of knowledge ("the curiosity-mother of adventure and discovery). He observes his father and baby brother and listens to the conversation of the travelers. He becomes a "continuous question mark." His interests are not narrowly focused but span the spectrum from physics to practical skills to sociology and religion. If you want to probe this Paper to grow as much as you can, you may profit from my questions on this Paper. Identifying with this aspect of Jesus' development leads us to get in touch with the very nature of experience:
What is human experience? It is simply any interplay between an active and questioning self and any other active and external reality. The mass of experience is determined by depth of concept plus totality of recognition of the reality of the external. The motion of experience equals the force of expectant imagination plus the keenness of the sensory discovery of the external qualities of contacted reality. (102:4.2/1123.2)
Jesus' study of how people earned a living is an example that shows the fullness of his inquiry, which began observation and asking questions, and continued into actually acquiring the experience of doing what others did—truly a path to comprehension.
This phase of Jesus' early childhood invites us to walk with him as we open wide our spirit of fresh inquiry and openness to new knowledge.
My thrill in using experiential education on Paper 123 led me to develop an enhanced set of questions on them. These questions are not part of the assignment for this course; but they are pasted below at the end of this document, and you can see them in context here: https://sites.google.com/site/ubquestionsandstudies/questions-on-the-papers-and-studies-on-study/questions-on-part-iv.
Additional ideas you may wish to include in your project
As you develop your projects, you may find it useful to consider what I used in a 2013 class at Kent State University, “Directions for a project in scientific living.”
1. Pick a personal growth frontier that is both challenging and realistic. Do not simply build on what is already one of your strengths, but find an area where growth could help you develop a magnificent and well-balanced character.
List a few facts connected with the challenge you have chosen.
List a few causes relevant to these facts.
Make a list of phrases that express your vision of the evolutionary destiny of this challenge—the beautiful outworking of the growth you seek.
List sciences relevant to the facts and causes just noted (e.g., physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, sociology, history), and take a minute or so to reflect on something of what you know of each of these sciences that adds perspective on the situation. You may wish to note the difference between strict scientific laws and statistical generalizations. (Later you can learn a little more of the relevant sciences.)
List one or more truths of science to guide your project in a positive direction.
List the virtue or cluster of virtues or character strengths that could help you live that situation well.
Commit wholeheartedly to living the truth. To meet any major growth challenge, you will need supreme desire to mobilize your powers effectively.
Think of creative ways to live the relevant truths of science and associated virtues in the situation you have chosen. Then go forward, sincerely living out those decisions for several weeks.
Remember that scientific living is a dimension of life that pertains to most of what we do, so do not limit your project effort to a single goal.
Life blends all dimensions of truth, beauty, and goodness, so see how your project involves meaning and value from themes beyond scientific living.
Finally, write up your story, drawing on journal entries, to synthesize your own experience and perhaps to share your findings with others. Include an overview of the course of experience during the weeks of the project, stories of highlights, and lessons learned.
Truth-Coordinated Living and Becoming like God
Notice that God’s range of function is not limited to the spiritual level.
116:5.14 (1274.4) In the final analysis, all energy responds to mind, and the physical controllers are the children of the mind God, who is the activator of Paradise pattern. The intelligence of the power directors is unremittingly devoted to the task of bringing about material control. Their struggle for physical dominance over the relationships of energy and the motions of mass never ceases until they achieve finite victory over the energies and masses which constitute their perpetual domains of activity.
The next three quotes give overlapping expressions from various parts of the Book of the connection between personal growth with cosmic evolution. My colloquial way of saying it is: Mind over matter, spirit over mind. This is true on the level of the individual and on the level of the evolving whole.
Students who are beginners with The Urantia Book will see occasional references in this course to the Supreme. Here’s a quick introduction to that concept. On the one hand, we have the eternal perfection of Paradise and the central universe. On the other hand we have the evolving realm (the superuniverses). There is a God of evolution, the Supreme Being, who has an eternal, perfect spirit nucleus: we have the indwelling presence of the Father’s spirit, the Thought Adjuster; the Supreme has the entire Paradise Trinity (Universal Father, Eternal Son, and Infinite Spirit) has his spirit nucleus. But the Supreme is in process, incomplete and growing with us and through us.
116:5.15 (1274.5) The spirit struggles of time and space have to do with the evolution of spirit dominance over matter by the mediation of (personal) mind; the physical (nonpersonal) evolution of the universes has to do with bringing cosmic energy into harmony with the equilibrium concepts of mind subject to the overcontrol of spirit. The total evolution of the entire grand universe is a matter of the personality unification of the energy-controlling mind with the spirit-co-ordinated intellect and will be revealed in the full appearance of the almighty power of the Supreme.
116:6.1 (1275.1) In the evolutionary superuniverses energy-matter is dominant except in personality, where spirit through the mediation of mind is struggling for the mastery. The goal of the evolutionary universes is the subjugation of energy-matter by mind, the co-ordination of mind with spirit, and all of this by virtue of the creative and unifying presence of personality. Thus, in relation to personality, do physical systems become subordinate; mind systems, co-ordinate; and spirit systems, directive.
How can a better understanding of mind help with scientific living?
The last theme of this week’s study is mind. Science is an activity of mind, and we are going to study the phases of mind relevant to science. The absolute mind is the mind of the Infinite Spirit. That mind is expressed in the superuniverses as cosmic mind. Cosmic mind has three main functions: causation, duty, and worship. And we gain access to these three functions through the ministry of our local universe Mother Spirit. Her mind encircuits our minds in seven “adjutant mind-spirits” (adjutant means helper; “mind-spirit” denotes a level that bridges the gap between the material animal and human mind and spirit).
Here are two paragraphs from the section on absolute mind.
9:4.5 (102.5) Cosmic force responds to mind even as cosmic mind responds to spirit. Spirit is divine purpose, and spirit mind is divine purpose in action. Energy is thing, mind is meaning, spirit is value. Even in time and space, mind establishes those relative relationships between energy and spirit which are suggestive of mutual kinship in eternity.
9:4.6 (102.6) Mind transmutes the values of spirit into the meanings of intellect; volition has power to bring the meanings of mind to fruit in both the material and spiritual domains. The Paradise ascent involves a relative and differential growth in spirit, mind, and energy. The personality is the unifier of these components of experiential individuality.
Next, the quote about causation as a function of 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.
Last, the adjutants. Pay special attention to the first five.
36:5.5 (402.2) We are handicapped for words adequately to designate these seven adjutant mind-spirits. They are ministers of the lower levels of experiential mind, and they may be described, in the order of evolutionary attainment, as follows:
36:5.6 (402.3) 1. The spirit of intuition — quick perception, the primitive physical and inherent reflex instincts, the directional and other self-preservative endowments of all mind creations; the only one of the adjutants to function so largely in the lower orders of animal life and the only one to make extensive functional contact with the nonteachable levels of mechanical mind.
Self-preservative endowments include the flight-or-fight reaction. Some of this is inherited temperament, which cannot be fundamentally modified, though our responses can be changed. We are still in the realm of “teachable” mind here. We can train ourselves to pay better attention to the perceptual, factual, dimension of life and to react appropriately in the types of situation for which we wish to train ourselves.
36:5.7 (402.4) 2. The spirit of understanding — the impulse of co-ordination, the spontaneous and apparently automatic association of ideas. This is the gift of the co-ordination of acquired knowledge, the phenomenon of quick reasoning, rapid judgment, and prompt decision.
Our mind’s quick associations of ideas may be chaotic racing or obsessive repetition, neither of which expresses what the mind-spirit can bring forth. We can consciously develop associations in our mind as we form concepts. Jesus’ superb concept of group solidarity was the product of three years of work, and his concepts of God and his kingdom were deliberately synthesized (quotes—not assigned reading—at the end of this document).
36:5.8 (402.5) 3. The spirit of courage — the fidelity endowment — in personal beings, the basis of character acquirement and the intellectual root of moral stamina and spiritual bravery. When enlightened by facts and inspired by truth, this becomes the secret of the urge of evolutionary ascension by the channels of intelligent and conscientious self-direction.
To a good job in seeking out causes requires qualities of character; courage is involved: (901.12) 81:2.9 The frank, honest, and fearless search for true causes gave birth to modern science . . . .
36:5.9 (402.6) 4. The spirit of knowledge — the curiosity-mother of adventure and discovery, the scientific spirit; the guide and faithful associate of the spirits of courage and counsel; the urge to direct the endowments of courage into useful and progressive paths of growth.
The spirit of knowledge, building on the work of the previous adjutants, most clearly correlates with the cosmic mind function relating to causation. The description here is packed with implications for scientific living generally. You could profitably take any one of the phrases that are used to characterize the spirit of knowledge and inquire about their practical implications.
36:5.10 (402.7) 5. The spirit of counsel — the social urge, the endowment of species co-operation; the ability of will creatures to harmonize with their fellows; the origin of the gregarious instinct among the more lowly creatures.
Many of the adjutants are described both in terms that apply to the animals and also in terms that apply to fully integrated human functioning. In other words, the mind-spirits minister to us as we activate our animal origin nature and as we grow into fully human functioning. Because we are still very material creatures, our social life involves social emotions and various other factors that can be more or less explained in scientific terms.
36:5.11 (402.8) 6. The spirit of worship — the religious impulse, the first differential urge separating mind creatures into the two basic classes of mortal existence. The spirit of worship forever distinguishes the animal of its association from the soulless creatures of mind endowment. Worship is the badge of spiritual-ascension candidacy.
This mind-spirit is undefined. I use the characterization of that function of cosmic mind:
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.
36:5.12 (402.9) 7. The spirit of wisdom — the inherent tendency of all moral creatures towards orderly and progressive evolutionary advancement. This is the highest of the adjutants, the spirit co-ordinator and articulator of the work of all the others. This spirit is the secret of that inborn urge of mind creatures which initiates and maintains the practical and effective program of the ascending scale of existence; that gift of living things which accounts for their inexplicable ability to survive and, in survival, to utilize the co-ordination of all their past experience and present opportunities for the acquisition of all of everything that all of the other six mental ministers can mobilize in the mind of the organism concerned. Wisdom is the acme of intellectual performance. Wisdom is the goal of a purely mental and moral existence.
The 7th adjutant mind-spirit most clearly reflects the cosmic mind function pertaining to duty:
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.
In a couple passages of the Urantia Book, duty is compared unfavorably to some other attitude, e.g., doing your service as a friend and for a friend, but the critique applies properly only to the isolated intellect, rather than the integrated functioning of all these levels of cosmic mind, as beautifully portrayed in this section (16:6/192, in other words, Paper 16, section 6, page 192 in the classical edition).
As you study the adjutants, please notice the operation of each one in your present experience. For example, right now, you are perceiving, associating ideas, exercising a certain quantity and quality of courage as you undertake your project, and seeking knowledge relevant to your project focus and about daily life in general with its recurring situations that call for special focus at school, play, home, work, volunteer service, and so on; and you are implicitly or explicitly relating socially (spirit of counsel) with others as you follow this course. On the level of experience, we detect no discontinuity between the operation of the human mind and any higher ministry. But we can open our minds to become more porous to the adjutants. We can pray to cooperate with them better, and for their ministry in others. It is helpful simply to activating our awareness of the ones that are especially relevant to the task immediately in hand.
Supplemental resources (not assigned, optional)
Questions on Paper 123. The Early Childhood of Jesus
(from https://sites.google.com/site/ubquestionsandstudies/questions-on-the-papers-and-studies-on-study/questions-on-part-iv)
The series of papers beginning with this one and culminating with Paper 129, The Later Adult Life of Jesus, show a pattern of growth to full human maturity. The experiential study of these papers enables us to grow up with Jesus. Each paper in this series tells us and shows us what Jesus was accomplishing; and we can choose to undertake a project to strengthen ourselves in any area in which we recognize the need. Thus we may "develop a strong and unified personality along the perfected lines of the Jesus personality" (100:7.1/1001.5). In this paper we see vigor and balance as all Jesus' basic capacities of mind begin to function under the ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits (36:5/402).
1. The introduction to Paper 123 tells something of Jesus' infancy, and here we begin to observe Jesus' socialization. Consider: the fifth adjutant mind-spirit supports the animal-origin aspects of socialization (gregarious and cooperative) and also the fully human dimension of harmonious socialization indicated by calling this adjutant "the spirit of counsel." We may wish to undertake a project, small or large, to increase the quantity and enhance the quality of our socialization (or assist others to do so).
2. In the first section of the paper we see Jesus beginning to activate his desire to know under the guidance of the spirit of knowledge ("the curiosity-mother of adventure and discovery). He observes his father and baby brother and listens to the conversation of the travelers. He becomes a "continuous question mark." His interests are not narrowly focused but span the spectrum from physics to practical skills to sociology and religion. Identifying with this aspect of Jesus' development leads us to get in touch with the very nature of experience: "What is human experience? It is simply any interplay between an active and questioning self and any other active and external reality. The mass of experience is determined by depth of concept plus totality of recognition of the reality of the external. The motion of experience equals the force of expectant imagination plus the keenness of the sensory discovery of the external qualities of contacted reality." (102:4.2/1123.2)
Jesus' study of how people earned a living is an example that shows the fullness of his inquiry, which began observation and asking questions, and continued into actually acquiring the experience of doing what others did--truly a path to comprehension.
This phase of Jesus' early childhood invites us to walk with him as we open wide our spirit of fresh inquiry and openness to new knowledge.
3. Section 2 introduces us to the time of the first combined functioning in Jesus of the spirit of worship and wisdom: he makes his first "personal and wholehearted moral decision" (123:2.1/1357.5; 123:3.9.1360.4). In your experience, what is difference between (1) a moral decision that is intellectually correct, puts you on the correct course of action, but not much more, and (2) a moral decision that has the personal and wholehearted quality that enables the Thought Adjuster to counterpart something of survival value in the soul? Could you benefit from undertaking a project to upgrade the quality of your moral decisions?
4. Section 3 introduces us to Jesus’ habit of having a little talk “with my Father in heaven” (123:3.6/1360.1) What kind of relationship is presupposed by this practice? How is the back-and-forth of talking with God different from the monologue of simply talking to God? (Compare: "Man attains divine union by progressive reciprocal spiritual communion, by personality intercourse with the personal God, by increasingly attaining the divine nature through wholehearted and intelligent conformity to the divine will"; and recall the importance of listening after asking (1:7.2/31.2; 146:2.17/1641.1).
5. Section 4 introduces us to a quality of Jesus' strong personality: he is "aggressive." That term today often has negative connotations. What positive connotations does the term have here? (Compare this description of the Salem missionaries, "ever preaching Machiventa’s gospel of man’s faith and trust in the one universal God as the only price of obtaining divine favor. Urantia has never had more enthusiastic and aggressive missionaries of any religion than these noble men and women who carried the teachings of Melchizedek over the entire Eastern Hemisphere." (94:0.1/1027.1)
Section 4 also introduces us to Jesus' play life, his capacity for humor, and his cheerful and lighthearted attitude. Take away these qualities of joy and what becomes of socializing, scientific curiosity, morality, religion, and aggressiveness? How do all these activities and characteristics rely on an integrating connection with a joyful response to beauty on all levels? (Recall the discussion of reversion in 48:4/547-50.) How is scientific striving affected by a "reverent and sympathetic contact with nature" (123:5.14/1364.2)?
Note also how the balance of play and humor, joy and beauty, keep us from getting overwhelmed by our awareness of growth needs and from trying to juggle too many growth projects at once.
6. Section 5 introduces us to Jesus the student. Study is a major dimension of our universe ascent. For example on Jerusem "the activities . . . 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” (46:5.29/526.4).
Jesus studied diligently even into his later adult life, when, for a year, he spent “five evenings a week at intense study” (129:1.9/1420.6).
In his early childhood, Jesus experienced multiple phases of education: "moral training and spiritual culture chiefly in the home, much of his intellectual and theological education from the chazan" (along with rigorous memorization of major portions of the Scriptures in the synagogue school). "But his real education--that equipment of mind and heart for the actual test of grappling with the difficult problems of life--he obtained by mingling with his fellow men. It was this close association with his fellow men, young and old, Jew and gentile, that afforded him the opportunity to know the human race. Jesus was highly education in that he thoroughly understood men and devotedly loved them.” (123:5.8/1363.1)
From memorizing to mingling, what phases of Jesus' education could help you now?
7. The last paragraph in the last section of the Paper (123:6.9/1365.4) introduces us to Jesus' decision-making process in dealing with a difficult question. Jesus listened attentively, talked with family and friends, and then with the Father in heaven. His decision came with a main reason, which clarified the issue for all concerned. Notice the thoroughness of Jesus' decision-making process, and see how it anticipates the conditions of effective prayer (91:9/1002). Are there lessons for your decision-making here? Your prayer process?
Jesus and Concept Formation
124:4.9 (1372.6) Throughout this and the two following years Jesus suffered great mental distress as the result of his constant effort to adjust his personal views of religious practices and social amenities to the established beliefs of his parents. He was distraught by the conflict between the urge to be loyal to his own convictions and the conscientious admonition of dutiful submission to his parents; his supreme conflict was between two great commands which were uppermost in his youthful mind. The one was: “Be loyal to the dictates of your highest convictions of truth and righteousness.” The other was: “Honor your father and mother, for they have given you life and the nurture thereof.” However, he never shirked the responsibility of making the necessary daily adjustments between these realms of loyalty to one’s personal convictions and duty toward one’s family, and he achieved the satisfaction of effecting an increasingly harmonious blending of personal convictions and family obligations into a masterful concept of group solidarity based upon loyalty, fairness, tolerance, and love.
196:0.2 (2087.2) The human Jesus saw God as being holy, just, and great, as well as being true, beautiful, and good. All these attributes of divinity he focused in his mind as the “will of the Father in heaven.” Jesus’ God was at one and the same time “The Holy One of Israel” and “The living and loving Father in heaven.” The concept of God as a Father was not original with Jesus, but he exalted and elevated the idea into a sublime experience by achieving a new revelation of God and by proclaiming that every mortal creature is a child of this Father of love, a son of God.
196:0.8 (2088.3) The faith of Jesus visualized all spirit values as being found in the kingdom of God; therefore he said, “Seek first the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus saw in the advanced and ideal fellowship of the kingdom the achievement and fulfillment of the “will of God.” The very heart of the prayer which he taught his disciples was, “Your kingdom come; your will be done.” Having thus conceived of the kingdom as comprising the will of God, he devoted himself to the cause of its realization with amazing self-forgetfulness and unbounded enthusiasm.
Learning Exercise #1
This week you will ascend to enhanced awareness about why things happen in everyday material life with its ever-recurring situations and its tasks, including the phenomena associated with your selected project. Gain a firmer awareness of facts by exploring causes of some of the effects that you observe. Think more carefully about the consequences of alternative courses of action as you deliberate about a decision. Can you begin to find joy through understanding causation as it relates to practical facts of daily life? Note: As you find joy, you are implicitly responding to beauty. Doing this in the context of scientific living—responsible participation in evolution—enhances your beautiful wholeness of righteousness.
Continue with your journal record of what you did to advance your project, what you experienced as a result, and lessons learned. The project will be enhanced by reflections on readings and new spiritual realizations, but transformation occurs only be acquiring new habits, and these are virtues, patterns of doing, that take several weeks to become established.
Do not write your answers to the learning exercises until you have had several days of experiential inquiry. Do not write about a previous experience, but one that is fresh, giving voice to experience undertaken in the light of this week’s reading and assignment. Communicate your answers at least three hours before our Zoom session (webinar) so that the instructor has a reasonable opportunity to read them before we meet live.
Three questions to answer in your study groups.
1. Briefly describe your inquiry into an event or thing whose causes you explored, or a situation calling for action in which you tried to consider the consequences of alternative courses of action. Your inquiry does not need to become a research project; but it must be enough to show that you are beginning to take a step forward in that dimension of truth-coordinated living that is here called scientific living. Note: there is no need to accelerate your inquiry artificially in order to have a dramatic experience to report. Simple steps that cultivate the soil for growth are what is essential. Success comes from sincere, persistent, and wholehearted venturing. A single, quickly attained insight usually has less effect on character.
Learning Exercise #2
2. Were you able to begin to engage your mind more effectively as a result of your study of the quotes about mind? Please describe your experience.
Learning Exercise #3
3. Were you able to break through—even once, briefly— to “the joy of living in a universe of law and order, wherein all effects are preceded by definite causes”? Please describe your experience.
Note that joy is a response to beauty; an enlarged concept of beauty (2:7.10/43.3) ranges from the comical to the sublime; so that enlarged concept of beauty requires, as its correlate in experience, an enlarged concept of joy, ranging from quiet delight to triumphant rejoicing.