God's Book of Eskra
Chapter XXIX
1. SAKAYA said: Of a truth, I declare a new thing to you, but which was old thousands of years ago.
2. That religion is nothing more nor less than rites and ceremonies in the discipline of a community. As when an army of soldiers are in training by their captains, when certain commands and manouvers cause the soldiers to be as a unit in movement; so is religion in a community, through rites and ceremonies, made as a unit to carry out works of charity and harmony and love and righteousness.
3. And every member of a community, that taketh no part in its religion, is like an idler mixing in with a company of soldiers, where his presence tendeth to evil.
4. Brahmin priests go about preaching, singing and praying before audiences, making great show in the temples; yet none of these practice what they profess.
5. From these evils learn ye, to do good; first, by living only in families, where all the members practice what they profess.
6. As the world goeth, it is easy to preach and call it religion; but the fruit must be measured by the city or the state, that is saved from sin. Who then, of all the priests in the temple, can say: Here is a community saved from sin!
7. If they can not do this, then they are themselves hypocrites and blasphemers.
8. Satan calleth out from a dark corner, saying: Remain thou within the wicked world, and leaven the whole mass.
9. Again he calleth out from a dark corner, saying: Go thou away from the wicked world, and live as an ascetic, praying alone, living alone.
10. Again he calleth from a dark corner, saying: Thou and thy friends are too pure to mix with the world; go ye away privily, and let the world take care of itself.
11. Now, I say unto you: Do none of these things; and, in the same breath, I say: Do all of them.
12. Let your community remain within the world, that it may be a proven example that love, peace, plenty, and happiness are possible on the earth. Let the community be sufficiently ascetic to attain the beatific state, which is the triumph of spirit over the flesh.
13. And, as to the third proposition: Take ye no part in the governments of men, of kings, or queens. Neither fight ye for them, nor against them.
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14. For they live under the lower law; but ye shall live under the law of Jehovih as He speaketh to the soul of man.
15. Neither shall ye have kings, nor queens; these belong to the world's people.
16. Lastly, and above all things, live not for the corporeal man, but for the spiritual man; remembering ye are not yet born, but are in embryo, shaping yourselves for the everlasting life.
17. Whoso practiceth not the higher law, will not escape the tortures in hell; but whowso liveth the higher law will pass on to Nirvania, where dwell Gods and Goddesses of endless light.
18. Flatter not yourselves that ye shall suddenly reform all the world. Ye can at most but reach an arm's length.
19. Three doctrines have been, now are, and ever shall be on the earth; they are: First, the Faithists', who know the All Person, Ever Present; second, the idol worshipers', who make the Creator into a man in heaven, and not present but by proxy of certain laws; and, third, infidels', who believe in nothing they cannot take up in the hand, and weigh.
20. The Faithists beget Faithists, the idolaters beget idolaters, the infidels beget infidels. For these three conditions are but outward manifestations of the spirit; the infidel is nearly devoid of spirit; the idolater hath one grade more of spirit; but the Faithist hath spiritual ascendency.
21. Since the highest best good things done in the world, come of the order of Faithists, be ye circumspect as to marriage, that your offspring incline more to spirituality than to earthliness.
22. But such matters come under the higher law, and can be understood only through the soul.
23. Also, hath practice proved that the laws of a community must die with the death of the rab'bah, and that new laws must be made by the new rab'bah. And, in no case, shall the law of precedent, of things past, apply to things present. For this is making slaves of the living, to those that are dead. It is making the wisdom of the dead greater than the wisdom of Jehovih.
24. When a rab'bah retireth from office, it shall be considered the same as a death, for it is the termination of his rule.
25. Nor shall a rab'bah have any privileges or emoluments, over and above any member of the community; nor one man above another; nor one woman above another; for there shall be no partiality, even in favor of the learned and good, over and above the ignorant and the less good. For ye are all brothers and sisters; children of One Father, created by Him in His own way and for His own glory.
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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.