Текст книги "The British Study Edition of the Urantia Papers"

Автор книги: Tigran Aivazian

^44:1.1 With the limited range of mortal hearing, you can hardly conceive of morontia melodies. There is even a material range of beautiful sound unrecognized by the human sense of hearing, not to mention the inconceivable scope of morontia and spirit harmony. Spirit melodies are not material sound waves but spirit pulsations received by the spirits of celestial personalities. There is a vastness of range and a soul of expression, as well as a grandeur of execution, associated with the melody of the spheres, that are wholly beyond human comprehension. I have seen millions of enraptured beings held in sublime ecstasy while the melody of the realm rolled in upon the spirit energy of the celestial circuits. These marvellous melodies can be broadcast to the uttermost parts of a universe.

^44:1.2 The celestial musicians are occupied with the production of celestial harmony by the manipulation of the following spirit forces:

^44:1.3 1. Spiritual sound — spirit current interruptions.

^44:1.4 2. Spiritual light — the control and intensification of the light of the morontia and spiritual realms.

^44:1.5 3. Energy impingements — melody produced by the skillful management of the morontia and spirit energies.

^44:1.6 4. Colour symphonies — melody of morontia colour tones; this ranks among the highest accomplishments of the celestial musicians.

^44:1.7 5. Harmony of associated spirits — the very arrangement and association of different orders of morontia and spirit beings produce majestic melodies.

^44:1.8 6. Melody of thought — the thinking of spiritual thoughts can be so perfected as to burst forth in the melodies of Havona.

^44:1.9 7. The music of space — by proper attunement the melodies of other spheres can be picked up on the universe broadcast circuits.

^44:1.10 ¶ There are over 100,000 different modes of sound, colour, and energy manipulation, techniques analogous to the human employment of musical instruments. Your ensembles of dancing undoubtedly represent a crude and grotesque attempt of material creatures to approach the celestial harmony of being placement and personality arrangement. The other five forms of morontia melody are unrecognized by the sensory mechanism of material bodies.

^44:1.11 Harmony, the music of the seven levels of melodious association, is the one universal code of spirit communication. Music, such as Urantia mortals understand, attains its highest expression in the schools of Jerusem, the system headquarters, where semimaterial beings are taught the harmonies of sound. Mortals do not react to the other forms of morontia melody and celestial harmony.

^44:1.12 ¶ Appreciation of music on Urantia is both physical and spiritual; and your human musicians have done much to elevate musical taste from the barbarous monotony of your early ancestors to the higher levels of sound appreciation. The majority of Urantia mortals react to music so largely with the material muscles and so slightly with the mind and spirit; but there has been a steady improvement in musical appreciation for more than 35,000 years.

^44:1.13 Tuneful syncopation represents a transition from the musical monotony of primitive man to the expressionful harmony and meaningful melodies of your later-day musicians. These earlier types of rhythm stimulate the reaction of the music-loving sense without entailing the exertion of the higher intellectual powers of harmony appreciation and thus more generally appeal to immature or spiritually indolent individuals.

^44:1.14 ¶ The best music of Urantia is just a fleeting echo of the magnificent strains heard by the celestial associates of your musicians, who left but snatches of these harmonies of morontia forces on record as the musical melodies of sound harmonics. Spirit-morontia music not infrequently employs all seven modes of expression and reproduction, so that the human mind is tremendously handicapped in any attempt to reduce these melodies of the higher spheres to mere notes of musical sound. Such an effort would be something like endeavouring to reproduce the strains of a great orchestra by means of a single musical instrument.

^44:1.15 While you have assembled some beautiful melodies on Urantia, you have not progressed musically nearly so far as many of your neighbouring planets in Satania. If Adam and Eve had only survived, then would you have had music in reality; but the gift of harmony, so large in their natures, has been so diluted by strains of unmusical tendencies that only once in 1,000 mortal lives is there any great appreciation of harmonics. But be not discouraged; some day a real musician may appear on Urantia, and whole peoples will be enthralled by the magnificent strains of his melodies. One such human being could forever change the course of a whole nation, even the entire civilized world. It is literally true, “melody has power a whole world to transform.” Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits. Harmony is the speech of Havona.

^44:2.1 Mortal man can hardly hope for more than a meagre and distorted concept of the functions of the heavenly reproducers, which I must attempt to illustrate through the gross and limited symbolism of your material language. The spirit-morontia world has a thousand and one things of supreme value, things worthy of reproduction but unknown on Urantia, experiences that belong in the category of the activities which have hardly “entered into the mind of man,” those realities which God has in waiting for those who survive the life in the flesh.

^44:2.2 ¶ There are seven groups of the heavenly reproducers, and I will attempt to illustrate their work by the following classification:

^44:2.3 1. The singers — harmonists who reiterate the specific harmonies of the past and interpret the melodies of the present. But all of this is effected on the morontia level.

^44:2.4 2. The colour workers — those artists of light and shade you might call sketchers and painters, artists who preserve passing scenes and transient episodes for future morontia enjoyment.

^44:2.5 3. The light picturizers — the makers of the real semispirit-phenomena preservations of which motion pictures would be a very crude illustration.

^44:2.6 4. The historic pageanteers — those who dramatically reproduce the crucial events of universe records and history.

^44:2.7 5. The prophetic artists — those who project the meanings of history into the future.

^44:2.8 6. The life-story tellers — those who perpetuate the meaning and significance of life experience. The projection of present personal experiences into future attainment values.

^44:2.9 7. The administrative enactors — those who depict the significance of governmental philosophy and administrative technique, the celestial dramatists of sovereignty.

^44:2.10 ¶ Very often and effectively the heavenly reproducers collaborate with the reversion directors in combining memory recapitulation with certain forms of mind rest and personality diversion. Before the morontia conclaves and spirit assemblies these reproducers sometimes associate themselves in tremendous dramatic spectacles representative of the purpose of such gatherings. I recently witnessed such a stupendous presentation in which more than 1,000,000 actors produced a succession of 1,000 scenes.

^44:2.11 The higher intellectual teachers and the transition ministers freely and effectively utilize these various groups of reproducers in their morontia educational activities. But not all of their efforts are devoted to transient illustration; much, very much, of their work is of a permanent nature and will forever remain as a legacy to all future time. So versatile are these artisans that, when they function en masse, they are able to re-enact an age, and in collaboration with the seraphic ministers they can actually portray the eternal values of the spirit world to the mortal seers of time.

^44:3.1 There are cities “whose builder and maker is God.” In spirit counterpart we have all that you mortals are familiar with and inexpressibly more. We have homes, spirit comforts, and morontia necessities. For every material satisfaction which humans are capable of enjoying, we have thousands of spiritual realities that serve to enrich and enlarge our existence. The divine builders function in seven groups:

^44:3.2 1. The home designers and builders — those who construct and remodel the abodes assigned to individuals and working groups. These morontia and spirit domiciles are real. They would be invisible to your short-range vision, but they are very real and beautiful to us. To a certain extent, all spirit beings may share with the builders certain details of the planning and creation of their morontia or spirit abodes. These homes are fitted up and embellished in accordance with the needs of the morontia or of the spirit creatures who are to inhabit them. There is abundant variety and ample opportunity for individual expression in all these constructions.

^44:3.3 2. The vocation builders — those who function in designing and assembling the abodes of the regular and routine workers of the spirit and morontia realms. These builders are comparable to those who construct the Urantia workshops and other industrial plants. The transition worlds have a necessary economy of mutual ministry and specialized division of labour. We do not all do everything; there is diversity of function among morontia beings and evolving spirits, and these vocation builders not only build better workshops but also contribute to the vocational enhancement of the worker.

^44:3.4 3. The play builders. Enormous edifices are utilized during the seasons of rest, what mortals would call recreation and, in a certain sense, play. Provision is made for a suitable setting for the reversion directors, the humorists of the morontia worlds, those transition spheres whereon takes place the training of ascendant beings but recently removed from the evolutionary planets. Even the higher spirits engage in a certain form of reminiscent humour during their periods of spiritual recharging.

^44:3.5 4. The worship builders — the experienced architects of the spirit and the morontia temples. All the worlds of mortal ascent have temples of worship, and they are the most exquisite creations of the morontia realms and the spirit spheres.

^44:3.6 5. The education builders — those who build the headquarters of morontia training and advanced spirit learning. Always is the way open to acquire more knowledge, to gain additional information respecting one’s present and future work as well as universal cultural knowledge, information designed to make ascending mortals more intelligent and effective citizens of the morontia and spirit worlds.

^44:3.7 6. Morontia planners — those who build for the co-ordinate association of all the personalities of all realms as they are at any one time present on any one sphere. These planners collaborate with the Morontia Power Supervisors to enrich the co-ordination of the progressive morontia life.

^44:3.8 7. The public builders — the artisans who plan and construct the designated places of assembly other than those of worship. Great and magnificent are the places of common assembly.

^44:3.9 While neither these structures nor their embellishment would be exactly real to the sensory comprehension of material mortals, they are very real to us. You would be unable to see these temples could you be there in the flesh; nevertheless, all of these supermaterial creations are actually there, and we clearly discern them and just as fully enjoy them.

^44:4.1 These artisans are devoted to the preservation and reproduction of the superior thought of the realms, and they function in seven groups:

^44:4.2 1. Thought preservers. These are the artisans dedicated to the preservation of the higher thought of the realms. On the morontia worlds they truly treasure the gems of mentation. Before first coming to Urantia, I saw records and heard broadcasts of the ideation of some of the great minds of this planet. Thought recorders preserve such noble ideas in the tongue of Uversa.

^44:4.3 Each superuniverse has its own language, a tongue spoken by its personalities and prevailing throughout its sectors. This is known as the tongue of Uversa in our superuniverse. Each local universe also has its own language. All of the higher orders of Nebadon are bilingual, speaking both the language of Nebadon and the tongue of Uversa. When two individuals from different local universes meet, they communicate in the tongue of Uversa; if, however, one of them hails from another superuniverse, they must have recourse to a translator. In the central universe there is little need of a language; there exists perfect and well-nigh complete understanding; there, only the Gods are not fully comprehended. We are taught that a chance meeting on Paradise reveals more of mutual understanding than could be communicated by a mortal language in 1,000 years. Even on Salvington we “know as we are known.”

^44:4.4 The ability to translate thought into language in the morontia and spirit spheres is beyond mortal comprehension. Our rate of reducing thought to a permanent record can be so speeded up by the expert recorders that the equivalent of over 500,000 words, or thought symbols, can be registered in one minute of Urantia time. These universe languages are far more replete than the speech of the evolving worlds. The concept symbols of Uversa embrace more than 10⁹ characters, although the basic alphabet contains only 70 symbols. The language of Nebadon is not quite so elaborate, the basic symbols, or alphabet, being 48 in number.

^44:4.5 2. Concept recorders. This second group of recorders are concerned with the preservation of concept pictures, idea patterns. This is a form of permanent recording unknown on the material realms, and by this method I could gain more knowledge in one hour of your time than you could gain in 100 years of perusing ordinary written language.

^44:4.6 3. Ideograph recorders. We have the equivalent of both your written and spoken word, but in preserving thought, we usually employ concept picturization and ideograph techniques. Those who preserve ideographs are able to improve 1,000-fold upon the work of the concept recorders.

^44:4.7 4. Promoters of oratory. This group of recorders are occupied with the task of preserving thought for reproduction by oratory. But in the language of Nebadon we could, in a half hour’s address, cover the subject matter of the entire lifetime of a Urantia mortal. Your only hope of comprehending these transactions is to pause and consider the technique of your disordered and garbled dream life – how you can in a few seconds traverse years of experience in these fantasies of the night season.

^44:4.8 The oratory of the spirit world is one of the rare treats which await you who have heard only the crude and stumbling orations of Urantia. There is harmony of music and euphony of expression in the orations of Salvington and Edentia which are inspiring beyond description. These burning concepts are like gems of beauty in diadems of glory. But I cannot do it! I cannot convey to the human mind the breadth and depth of these realities of another world!

^44:4.9 5. The broadcast directors. The broadcasts of Paradise, the superuniverses, and the local universes are under the general supervision of this group of thought conservers. They serve as censors and editors as well as co-ordinators of the broadcast material, making a superuniverse adaptation of all Paradise broadcasts and adapting and translating the broadcasts of the Ancients of Days into the individual tongues of the local universes.

^44:4.10 The local universe broadcasts must also be modified for reception by the systems and the individual planets. The transmittal of these space reports is carefully supervised, and there is always a back registry to ensure the proper reception of every report on every world in a given circuit. These broadcast directors are technically expert in the utilization of the currents of space for all purposes of intelligence communication.

^44:4.11 6. The rhythm recorders. Urantians would undoubtedly denominate these artisans poets, although their work is very different from, and almost infinitely transcends, your poetic productions. Rhythm is less exhausting to both morontia and spirit beings, and so an effort is frequently made to increase efficiency, as well as to augment pleasure, by executing numerous functions in rhythmic form. I only wish you might be privileged to hear some of the poetic broadcasts of the Edentia assemblies and to enjoy the richness of the colour and tone of the constellation geniuses who are masters of this exquisite form of self-expression and social harmonization.

^44:4.12 7. The morontia recorders. I am at a loss to know how to depict to the material mind the function of this important group of thought recorders assigned to the work of preserving the ensemble pictures of the various groupings of morontia affairs and spirit transactions; crudely illustrated, they are the group photographers of the transition worlds. They save for the future the vital scenes and associations of these progressive epochs, preserving them in the archives of the morontia halls of records.

^44:5.1 These interesting and effective artisans are concerned with every kind of energy: physical, mindal, and spiritual.

^44:5.2 1. Physical-energy manipulators. The physical-energy manipulators serve for long periods with the power directors and are experts in the manipulation and control of many phases of physical energy. They are conversant with the 3 basic currents and the 30 subsidiary energy segregations of the superuniverses. These beings are of inestimable assistance to the Morontia Power Supervisors of the transition worlds. They are the persistent students of the cosmic projections of Paradise.

^44:5.3 2. Mind-energy manipulators. These are the experts of intercommunication between morontia and other types of intelligent beings. This form of communication between mortals is practically nonexistent on Urantia. These are the specialists who promote the ability of the ascending morontia beings to communicate with one another, and their work embraces numerous unique adventures in intellect liaison which are far beyond my power to portray to the material mind. These artisans are the keen students of the mind circuits of the Infinite Spirit.

^44:5.4 3. Spiritual-energy manipulators. The manipulators of spiritual energy are an intriguing group. Spiritual energy acts in accordance with established laws, just as does physical energy. That is, spirit force, when studied, yields dependable deductions and can be precisely dealt with, even as can the physical energies. There are just as certain and reliable laws in the spirit world as obtain in the material realms. During the last few millions of years many improved techniques for the intake of spiritual energy have been effected by these students of the fundamental laws of the Eternal Son governing spirit energy as applied to the morontia and other orders of celestial beings throughout the universes.

^44:5.5 4. The compound manipulators. This is the adventurous group of well-trained beings who are dedicated to the functional association of the three original phases of divine energy manifested throughout the universes as physical, mindal, and spiritual energies. These are the keen personalities who are in reality seeking to discover the universe presence of God the Supreme, for in this Deity personality there must occur the experiential unification of all grand universe divinity. And to a certain extent, these artisans have in recent times met with some success.

^44:5.6 5. The transport advisers. This corps of technical advisers to the transport seraphim are most proficient in collaborating with the star students in working out routings and in otherwise assisting the chiefs of transport on the worlds of space. They are the traffic supervisors of the spheres and are present on all inhabited planets. Urantia is served by a corps of 70 transport advisers.

^44:5.7 6. The experts of communication. Urantia, likewise, is served by 12 technicians of interplanetary and interuniverse communication. These long-experienced beings are expert in the knowledge of the laws of transmittal and interference as applied to the communications of the realms. This corps is concerned with all forms of space messages except those of Gravity and Solitary Messengers. On Urantia much of their work must be accomplished over the archangels’ circuit.

^44:5.8 7. The teachers of rest. Divine rest is associated with the technique of spiritual-energy intake. Morontia and spirit energy must be replenished just as certainly as physical energy, but not for the same reasons. I am, perforce, compelled to employ crude illustrations in my attempts to enlighten you; nevertheless, we of the spirit world must stop our regular activities periodically and betake ourselves to suitable places of rendezvous where we enter the divine rest and thus recuperate our depleting energies.

^44:5.9 You will receive your first lessons in these matters when you reach the mansion worlds after you have become morontia beings and have begun to experience the technique of spirit affairs. You know of the innermost circle of Havona and that, after the pilgrims of space have traversed the preceding circles, they must be inducted into the long and revivifying rest of Paradise. This is not only a technical requirement of transit from the career of time to the service of eternity, but it is also a necessity, a form of rest required to replenish the energy losses incident to the final steps of the ascendant experience and to store reserves of spirit power for the next stage of the endless career.

^44:5.10 These energy manipulators also function in hundreds of other ways too numerous to catalogue, such as counselling with the seraphim, cherubim, and sanobim regarding the most efficient modes of energy intake and as to the maintenance of the most helpful balances of divergent forces between active cherubim and passive sanobim. In many other ways do these experts lend assistance to morontia and spirit creatures in their efforts to understand the divine rest, which is so essential to the effective utilization of the basic energies of space.