God's Book of Eskra
Chapter XXXIII
1. GOD established a line of light from his throne in heaven down to Ka'yu; by the presence of half a thousand million angels maintained he this light of heaven with mortals.
2. That which was inspired of God, came to the soul of Ka'yu; what God spake, that spake Ka'yu.
3. And God so spake through Ka'yu, that man might not know it was God speaking; for he desired to inspire men to self-culture, instead of relying on Gods and angels as heretofore.
4. In the language of Ka'yu, the
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Great Spirit was called Shang Te; but the word, Te, was God; the words, the Shang Te, were the Gods.
5. Ka'yu said: Behold, man hath blockaded the road to wisdom. In one place he hath heaped up thousands of books of the ancients; in another place, he wasteth time in rites and ceremonies.
6. Our labor is to remodel the whole, by choosing from all the past that which is the best. Te will guide us in this.
7. We must, therefore, make one book acknowledging the EVER PRESENT GREAT SPIRIT, and His one, SHANG TE (True God). And this book must contain all the glory and beauty now contained in the seven hundred sacred books of the empire.
8. And since there are four hundred and eighty-six books on the intermediate world, which no man can learn, we must take from them all their soundest parts, and make one book thereof.
9. And in the same connection, there being twelve hundred and seventy books on the spirits of the dead, and their testimonies of the lower and the higher heavens, we must make one book thereof.
10. And of the two thousand two hundred books on magic, and on conjuring spirits, and on second sight and second hearing, we must make one book thereof.
11. Of books of families, there are more than four thousand, which shall also be condensed into one book.
12. Of histories, there are more than four thousand books, which shall be condensed into one book.
13. Of law books, there are more than twelve thousand books, and of the precedents of judges' decrees, there are more than thirty thousand books. All of these shall be condensed into one book.
14. Of provinces, and of the empire, and of the governors and emperors thereof, there are two thousand seven hundred books, which shall be condensed into one.
15. And of government, there are seven hundred books, which shall be condensed into one.
16. Of caste, there are four hundred and ninety books, and of proprieties, three hundred and twenty, and all of these shall be condensed into one book.
17. Ka'yu, continuing, said: My work is to bring confusion to a termination. Of doctrines and laws and rites and ceremonies and philosophies, of both heaven and earth, we have had enough.
18. In a dark age, Shang Te (True God) giveth his commandments in injunctions; he showeth the people, what is right, and what is wrong. In my day, the people know these things, but they do not practice them.
19. Even the preachers and conductors of ceremonies in the temples, who proclaim righteousness and charity and good works, do not practice what they preach. They live in ease and luxury, but tell us to go give to the poor. Yea, and they threaten us with hell, if we do it not.
20. Of these different doctrines, there are seven hundred kinds in the sacred books; and they all condemn the followers of the others. Whereupon, to escape the damnation of hell, a man would need to do sacrifice more than four thousand days every year! This is not possible to any man. For there are but three hundred and sixty-five days in a year!
21. Nor is it possible for any man to learn all the books; nay, a thousand years would not suffice.
22. God (Te) forbid that I may add more to the burden we have already. And I know he will preserve in our abridgement all that is good in the whole of them.
23. Since we can not live according to the multitude of doctrines and philosophies, we must abridge them within the scope of man. Neither must we cut any of them off entirely, or we lead the followers thereof into rebellion.
24. Since we have so many law books and so many judges' decrees, all of which a man must learn before he can become a judge of the court, the which is impossible, we must cut them down into a few simples, but sufficient to cover the rules of discretion in judgment. Better is it to throw the judge of the court partly on his own judgment and responsibility, than for him to be a blank as to judgment, simply reading the decree of a preceding judge.
25. And as to the religion of this man, or that man; behold, it hath come to pass, that each, in his own order, performeth his rites and ceremonies and sacrifices and prayers, like a trained horse in a showman's circle, going round and round, and knowing not the meaning thereof.
26. For it is come to pass that the religions have made machines of the worshippers; the law books have made machines of the courts; the books of government have made machines of governors and emperors.
27. I am sent into the world to make men of men, and women of women.
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28. There is no religion to suit me, therefore I make one. There is no government of the empire to suit me, therefore I devise one. There is no system in society, therefore I make one.
29. I am not sent into the world to destroy what is, or what hath been; there are enough evil men to do that. I am sent to cull the harvest, and to gather choice seed from what now is, and what hath been.
30. For the seed I plant is selected, not to be planted in the ocean, nor on the moon, nor in a far-off country; but to be planted in Chine'ya, and in Chine'ya I will plant it.
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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.