Book of God's Word
Chapter XIII
1. WHEN the time had come, on the morrow, the king said: I have not slept. All night I was as one burnt with a fever; for thy wondrous words and thy miracles have well nigh turned my judgment upside down.
2. I'hua'Mazda said: Because a man cannot understand a thing, shall he cry out, MIRACLE! Now I declare I have done no miracle; nor hath Zarathustra. Yet to mortals these things are miracles! If so, is not a man a miracle to himself? Is not procreation a miracle?
3. This, then, I have found, O Asha, what man is not accustomed to, he calleth a miracle; after he hath seen a matter frequently, he calleth it natural law. What man hast thou found that comprehendeth the first cause of anything under the sun?
4. Why, then, shall man waste his time in unprofitable research? Is it not wiser that man labor to raise his fellow-men out of misery and darkness, than to gratify his own personal desire for great learning?
5. The king said: Thou reasonest well. And yet, what learned good man hast thou found who will not say: Yea, to do good is a pretty philosophy! And there endeth his aspiration. What, then, can I say, or what canst thou say, that they words will not be barren of fruit?
6. I'hua'Mazda said: Thou art this day king of all the world; nor is there any other kingdom but payeth thee tribute. Whatsoever thou desirest is
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as a law unto all other kingdoms. For that reason am I come unto thee. Yea, thou wert born to this end. Hear, then, the voice of thy God, and thou shalt do that which is good for thy soul and good for all other people.
7. Asha said: Almost am I tempted to accede to thy wishes ere thou hast revealed; but yet hear thou the voice of thy king; what matters it to me about the good of other people? Even if it be proven that great men have souls that live after death, it is not yet proven that the druks have souls also. If they have souls, then heaven must be a stupid place indeed. For thou hast not shown me that man obtaineth wisdom by dying, nor is it reasonable that he should do so. Rather tell me, O Zarathustra, how I may get rid of the world; for of what use is life at most?
8. I'hua'Mazda said: Because thou rejoicest not in thy life, thou perceivest that thy philosophy is deficient, and not that the world is. For I will yet prove to thee that thou art overflowing with happiness. To believe the things I reveal and have faith therein, is to become happy. Then the king answered him, saying: To believe, there is the matter. I declare unto thee, there is not a grain of belief in my heart. How, then, can it grow?
9. I'hua'Mazda said: He who can say, I can think of an All Highest, hath the seed of everlasting life in him. He who liveth the all highest he can; he who thinketh of the All Highest; he who talketh to the All Highest; he who trieth to perceive from the standpoint of the All Highest, quickly transcendeth belief and becometh a very God in faith. He becometh master of himself, and feedeth himself with happiness, even as men feed themselves with bread.
10. Asha said: What wouldst thou have me do? To which I'hua'Mazda said: With the people thou hast greater authority than a God, greater than miracles. Thy decrees are all powerful. Thou shalt have a copy of this book written on stone and cloth, one copy for every sub-kingdom in thy dominions. And thou shalt send it to them with a sword and a serpent, saying to them: Receive ye this book, for it is a Holy Book, the ALL HIGHEST LAW, the I'hua'Mazdian law, the Zarathustrian law, the Ormazdian law. And it shall be a rule and guide unto
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you and your kingdom forever. And every king in the KINGDOM OF THE SUN shall serve one year in living with the poor, carrying the alms-bowl for sacrifices unto Ormazd.
11. And when thou hast sent this decree forth into all the world, thou shalt thyself give up thy kingdom; and thou shalt give to the poor all thy gold and silver and cases, and all thy treasures whatsoever, having nothing left unto thyself but the clothes that cover thee. And thou shalt go and live with the poor, carrying the alms-bowl thyself in the streets of Oas. And of the food thou gatherest in the bowl, thou shalt give the choicest parts to the poor, saying: THIS IS THE SACRIFICE OF THE MANY GIVEN UNTO THEE; EAT YE OF IT, FOR IT IS THE VERY BODY AND BLOOD OF ORMAZD, OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN! But the poorest of all that is in the bowl shall be thy portion.
12. At the end of one year, thou shalt go about preaching the Ormazdian law, commanding the cessation of war and the abandonment of evil, and the acceptance of righteousness.
13. The king said: What canst thou promise me if I do all these things? Then I'hua'Mazda suffered Zarathustra to answer him: He said, NOTHING! Did the Creator ask this, before He made the world? If thou desirest to approach thy Creator, do thou like unto Him. Nor is it my place, nor the angels' place, nor the place of God, to promise thee anything. Thou art not my servant; and thou shalt serve only the Master, All Light (Jehovih).
14. And as I have taught thee, so shalt thou go and teach others, explaining the Ormazdian law.
15. Asha said: Do the Gods in heaven give rewards for good works and sacrifices done on earth? Zarathustra said: He that doeth good works and maketh sacrifices unto Ormazd hath his reward. For it is by this means that the soul of man becometh strong, and especially strong for the first and second resurrections in the next world.
16. Asha said: To be with thee, O Zarathustra, and feast on the wisdom of thy words, I would make any sacrifice. Wilt thou go with me amongst the poor?
17. I'hua'Mazda said: Nay, thou shalt go alone. And for company thou shalt pray to thy Creator, and make songs of praise unto Him, nor think
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no more of thyself than as if thou wert dead.
18. The king said: It is said of mad-men that they think they are not mad. How, then, am I to know but I am mad? Will not the world so adjudge me if I obey thy commandments? And cannot the world judge me better than I can judge myself? It was said of the ancients that Sughdha obsessed old men and weak-hearted women; and it was for that reason Osiris came and slew him. If there be Gods in heaven, as thou sayest, mayst not thou have come to slay Osiris.
19. I'hua'Mazda said: Thou art a great multiplier of arguments; but in all thy speech I have seen nothing that planned the resurrection of men from darkness into light. And is not this the All Highest that man should aim at?
20. Asha said: I am done. Thy judgment is greater than mine. All thou hast commanded of me I will do. From this time forth I will serve only Ormazd, the Creator. Thy God, O Zarathustra, shall be my God. Thy ways shall be my ways. Henceforth I will argue forever on the side of the Creator. And touching all matters, I will first ask myself what I shall say that would be like thy God would say it; and what I shall do that will fulfill the Ormazdian law.
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Urantia Book, 44:0.11 - The Celestial Artisans
Never in your long ascendancy will you lose the power to recognize your associates of former existences. Always, as you ascend inward in the scale of life, will you retain the ability to recognize and fraternize with the fellow beings of your previous and lower levels of experience. Each new translation or resurrection will add one more group of spirit beings to your vision range without in the least depriving you of the ability to recognize your friends and fellows of former estates.
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Princess Bride 1987 Wallace Shawn (Vizzini) and Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya)
Vizzini: HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE.
Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. -
Urantia Book, 117:4.14 - The Finite God
And here is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality -- actuality -- of that man. The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality -- cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father's will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
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Urantia Book, 167:7.4 - The Talk About Angels
"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?"
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Urantia Book, Foreword - 0:12.12 - The Trinities
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.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.3 - The Mystery Of God
When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it." There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.1 - The Mystery Of God
And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
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Urantia Book, 1:4.6 - The Mystery Of God
To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
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Urantia Book, 11:0.1 - The Eternal Isle Of Paradise
Paradise is the eternal center of the universe of universes and the abiding place of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and their divine co-ordinates and associates. This central Isle is the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in all the master universe. Paradise is a material sphere as well as a spiritual abode. All of the intelligent creation of the Universal Father is domiciled on material abodes; hence must the absolute controlling center also be material, literal. And again it should be reiterated that spirit things and spiritual beings are real.
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Urantia Book, 50:6.4 - Planetary Culture
Culture presupposes quality of mind; culture cannot be enhanced unless mind is elevated. Superior intellect will seek a noble culture and find some way to attain such a goal. Inferior minds will spurn the highest culture even when presented to them ready-made.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.6 - True And False Liberty
True liberty is the associate of genuine self-respect; false liberty is the consort of self-admiration. True liberty is the fruit of self-control; false liberty, the assumption of self-assertion. Self-control leads to altruistic service; self-admiration tends towards the exploitation of others for the selfish aggrandizement of such a mistaken individual as is willing to sacrifice righteous attainment for the sake of possessing unjust power over his fellow beings.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.9 - True And False Liberty
How dare the self-willed creature encroach upon the rights of his fellows in the name of personal liberty when the Supreme Rulers of the universe stand back in merciful respect for these prerogatives of will and potentials of personality! No being, in the exercise of his supposed personal liberty, has a right to deprive any other being of those privileges of existence conferred by the Creators and duly respected by all their loyal associates, subordinates, and subjects.
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Urantia Book, 54:1.8 - True And False Liberty
There is no error greater than that species of self-deception which leads intelligent beings to crave the exercise of power over other beings for the purpose of depriving these persons of their natural liberties. The golden rule of human fairness cries out against all such fraud, unfairness, selfishness, and unrighteousness.