유란시아 책
III 부. 유란시아의 역사
Paper 100
Religion in Human Experience
Religion in Human Experience
100:0.2 (1094.2)
Spiritual growth is mutually stimulated by intimate association with other religionists. Love supplies the soil for religious growth—an objective lure in the place of subjective gratification—yet it yields the supreme subjective satisfaction. And religion ennobles the commonplace drudgery of daily living.
100:1.1 (1094.3)
While religion produces growth of meanings and enhancement of values, evil always results when purely personal evaluations are elevated to the levels of absolutes. A child evaluates experience in accordance with the content of pleasure; maturity is proportional to the substitution of higher meanings for personal pleasure, even loyalties to the highest concepts of diversified life situations and cosmic relations.
100:1.2 (1094.4)
Some persons are too busy to grow and are therefore in grave danger of spiritual fixation. Provision must be made for growth of meanings at differing ages, in successive cultures, and in the passing stages of advancing civilization. The chief inhibitors of growth are prejudice and ignorance.
100:1.3 (1094.5)
Give every developing child a chance to grow his own religious experience; do not force a ready-made adult experience upon him. Remember, year-by-year progress through an established educational regime does not necessarily mean intellectual progress, much less spiritual growth. Enlargement of vocabulary does not signify development of character. Growth is not truly indicated by mere products but rather by progress. Real educational growth is indicated by enhancement of ideals, increased appreciation of values, new meanings of values, and augmented loyalty to supreme values.
100:1.4 (1094.6)
Children are permanently impressed only by the loyalties of their adult associates; precept or even example is not lastingly influential. Loyal persons are growing persons, and growth is an impressive and inspiring reality. Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole.
100:1.5 (1094.7)
The soil essential for religious growth presupposes a progressive life of self-realization, the co-ordination of natural propensities, the exercise of curiosity and the enjoyment of reasonable adventure, the experiencing of feelings of satisfaction, the functioning of the fear stimulus of attention and awareness, the wonder-lure, and a normal consciousness of smallness, humility. Growth is also predicated on the discovery of selfhood accompanied by self-criticism—conscience, for conscience is really the criticism of oneself by one’s own value-habits, personal ideals.
100:1.6 (1095.1)
Religious experience is markedly influenced by physical health, inherited temperament, and social environment. But these temporal conditions do not inhibit inner spiritual progress by a soul dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. There are present in all normal mortals certain innate drives toward growth and self-realization which function if they are not specifically inhibited. The certain technique of fostering this constitutive endowment of the potential of spiritual growth is to maintain an attitude of wholehearted devotion to supreme values.
100:1.7 (1095.2)
Religion cannot be bestowed, received, loaned, learned, or lost. It is a personal experience which grows proportionally to the growing quest for final values. Cosmic growth thus attends on the accumulation of meanings and the ever-expanding elevation of values. But nobility itself is always an unconscious growth.
생각하고 행동하는 종교 습관은, 질서 있는 영적 성장에 기여한다. 사람은 영적 자극에 호의적으로 반응하도록, 즉 일종의 영적 반사행동을 일으키도록 종교적 성향을 개발할 수 있다. 종교적 성장을 도와주는 습관에는, 신성한 가치에 대한 세련된 감수성, 다른 사람들의 종교 생활을 인식함, 시공우주 의미에 대한 깊은 묵상, 경건한 문제 해결, 자신의 영적 삶을 다른 동료들과 나눔, 이기심을 회피함, 신의 자비를 전제하지 않음, 하나님 앞에 있는 것처럼 살기 등이 있다. 종교적 성장의 요소는 의도적일지 모르나, 성장 자체는 반드시 무의식적{無意識的}이다.
100:1.8 (1095.3)
Religious habits of thinking and acting are contributory to the economy of spiritual growth. One can develop religious predispositions toward favorable reaction to spiritual stimuli, a sort of conditioned spiritual reflex. Habits which favor religious growth embrace cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of religious living in others, reflective meditation on cosmic meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing one’s spiritual life with one’s fellows, avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living as in the presence of God. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious.
100:1.9 (1095.4)
The unconscious nature of religious growth does not, however, signify that it is an activity functioning in the supposed subconscious realms of human intellect; rather does it signify creative activities in the superconscious levels of mortal mind. The experience of the realization of the reality of unconscious religious growth is the one positive proof of the functional existence of the superconsciousness.
100:2.1 (1095.5)
Spiritual development depends, first, on the maintenance of a living spiritual connection with true spiritual forces and, second, on the continuous bearing of spiritual fruit: yielding the ministry to one’s fellows of that which has been received from one’s spiritual benefactors. Spiritual progress is predicated on intellectual recognition of spiritual poverty coupled with the self-consciousness of perfection-hunger, the desire to know God and be like him, the wholehearted purpose to do the will of the Father in heaven.
100:2.2 (1095.6)
Spiritual growth is first an awakening to needs, next a discernment of meanings, and then a discovery of values. The evidence of true spiritual development consists in the exhibition of a human personality motivated by love, activated by unselfish ministry, and dominated by the wholehearted worship of the perfection ideals of divinity. And this entire experience constitutes the reality of religion as contrasted with mere theological beliefs.
100:2.3 (1095.7)
Religion can progress to that level of experience whereon it becomes an enlightened and wise technique of spiritual reaction to the universe. Such a glorified religion can function on three levels of human personality: the intellectual, the morontial, and the spiritual; upon the mind, in the evolving soul, and with the indwelling spirit.
100:2.4 (1096.1)
Spirituality becomes at once the indicator of one’s nearness to God and the measure of one’s usefulness to fellow beings. Spirituality enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover goodness in values. Spiritual development is determined by capacity therefor and is directly proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities of love.
100:2.6 (1096.3)
The goal of human self-realization should be spiritual, not material. The only realities worth striving for are divine, spiritual, and eternal. Mortal man is entitled to the enjoyment of physical pleasures and to the satisfaction of human affections; he is benefited by loyalty to human associations and temporal institutions; but these are not the eternal foundations upon which to build the immortal personality which must transcend space, vanquish time, and achieve the eternal destiny of divine perfection and finaliter service.
예수께서는, 하나님을 아는 필사자의 심오한 확신을 묘사하면서 이렇게 말씀했다:“하나님을 알고 천국을 믿는 자라면, 이 세상에서 모든 것이 무너진들 무슨 대수로운 일이겠느냐?” 현세의 안전은 무너지기 쉬우나, 영적 확실성은 흔들리지 않는다. 인간의 역경, 이기심, 잔인함, 미움, 악의, 또는 질투심의 큰 물결이 필사자의 혼을 휩쓸 때, 너희는 하나의 내적 요새, 즉 절대로 무너질 수 없는 영의 성곽이 존재한다는 확신 속으로 안전하게 피할 수 있으며;적어도 이것은, 영원하신 하나님의 내주하는 영에게 자신의 혼을 맡겨버리는 모든 인간에게 확실히 적용된다.
100:2.7 (1096.4)
Jesus portrayed the profound surety of the God-knowing mortal when he said: “To a God-knowing kingdom believer, what does it matter if all things earthly crash?” Temporal securities are vulnerable, but spiritual sureties are impregnable. When the flood tides of human adversity, selfishness, cruelty, hate, malice, and jealousy beat about the mortal soul, you may rest in the assurance that there is one inner bastion, the citadel of the spirit, which is absolutely unassailable; at least this is true of every human being who has dedicated the keeping of his soul to the indwelling spirit of the eternal God.
그런 영적 달성이 이뤄지고 나면, 점차 성장하여 확립되든지, 또는 특정한 위기로 인해 확립되든지 상관없이, 새 가치기준의 발달은 물론, 새로운 인격 적응이 일어난다. 영으로 태어난 그런 개인은 확실한 동기를 삶에 다시 부여받기 때문에, 자신이 가장 좋아하는 야망이 사라지고 가장 열중하는 희망이 무너지는 동안에도 태연히 기다릴 수 있으며;그런 재난이 단지, 새롭고 더 웅대한 수준의 우주 달성이라는 더 고상하고 영속적인 실체를 높여주기에 앞서, 사람이 현세에 창작한 것을 파괴하는, 방향을 수정하는 격변에 불과하다는 것을 명확하게 안다.
100:2.8 (1096.5)
After such spiritual attainment, whether secured by gradual growth or specific crisis, there occurs a new orientation of personality as well as the development of a new standard of values. Such spirit-born individuals are so remotivated in life that they can calmly stand by while their fondest ambitions perish and their keenest hopes crash; they positively know that such catastrophes are but the redirecting cataclysms which wreck one’s temporal creations preliminary to the rearing of the more noble and enduring realities of a new and more sublime level of universe attainment.
100:3.1 (1096.6)
Religion is not a technique for attaining a static and blissful peace of mind; it is an impulse for organizing the soul for dynamic service. It is the enlistment of the totality of selfhood in the loyal service of loving God and serving man. Religion pays any price essential to the attainment of the supreme goal, the eternal prize. There is a consecrated completeness in religious loyalty which is superbly sublime. And these loyalties are socially effective and spiritually progressive.
100:3.3 (1096.8)
In the contemplation of values you must distinguish between that which is value and that which has value. You must recognize the relation between pleasurable activities and their meaningful integration and enhanced realization on ever progressively higher and higher levels of human experience.
100:3.4 (1097.1)
Meaning is something which experience adds to value; it is the appreciative consciousness of values. An isolated and purely selfish pleasure may connote a virtual devaluation of meanings, a meaningless enjoyment bordering on relative evil. Values are experiential when realities are meaningful and mentally associated, when such relationships are recognized and appreciated by mind.
100:3.5 (1097.2)
Values can never be static; reality signifies change, growth. Change without growth, expansion of meaning and exaltation of value, is valueless—is potential evil. The greater the quality of cosmic adaptation, the more of meaning any experience possesses. Values are not conceptual illusions; they are real, but always they depend on the fact of relationships. Values are always both actual and potential—not what was, but what is and is to be.
100:3.6 (1097.3)
The association of actuals and potentials equals growth, the experiential realization of values. But growth is not mere progress. Progress is always meaningful, but it is relatively valueless without growth. The supreme value of human life consists in growth of values, progress in meanings, and realization of the cosmic interrelatedness of both of these experiences. And such an experience is the equivalent of God-consciousness. Such a mortal, while not supernatural, is truly becoming superhuman; an immortal soul is evolving.
사람은 성장을 일으킬 수 없지만, 유리한 조건을 제공할 수는 있다. 육체의 성장이거나 지적 성장이거나 영적 성장이거나 상관없이, 성장은 반드시 무의식적으로 일어난다. 사랑은 이렇게 성장하며;창조되거나 만들어지거나 구매될 수 없으며;사랑은 자라야한다. 진화는 성장을 일으키는 시공우주 기법이다. 사회의 성장은 법으로 보장될 수 없으며, 도덕의 성장은 경영을 개선함으로 이룰 수 없다. 사람이 기계를 만들 수 있으나, 그 참된 가치는 반드시 인간의 문화와 개인적인 평가에서 비롯돼야한다. 성장에 사람이 유일하게 기여하는 것은, 자기 인격의 온 힘--곧 살아있는 신앙--을 동원하는 것이다.
100:3.7 (1097.4)
Man cannot cause growth, but he can supply favorable conditions. Growth is always unconscious, be it physical, intellectual, or spiritual. Love thus grows; it cannot be created, manufactured, or purchased; it must grow. Evolution is a cosmic technique of growth. Social growth cannot be secured by legislation, and moral growth is not had by improved administration. Man may manufacture a machine, but its real value must be derived from human culture and personal appreciation. Man’s sole contribution to growth is the mobilization of the total powers of his personality—living faith.
100:4.1 (1097.5)
Religious living is devoted living, and devoted living is creative living, original and spontaneous. New religious insights arise out of conflicts which initiate the choosing of new and better reaction habits in the place of older and inferior reaction patterns. New meanings only emerge amid conflict; and conflict persists only in the face of refusal to espouse the higher values connoted in superior meanings.
100:4.2 (1097.6)
Religious perplexities are inevitable; there can be no growth without psychic conflict and spiritual agitation. The organization of a philosophic standard of living entails considerable commotion in the philosophic realms of the mind. Loyalties are not exercised in behalf of the great, the good, the true, and the noble without a struggle. Effort is attendant upon clarification of spiritual vision and enhancement of cosmic insight. And the human intellect protests against being weaned from subsisting upon the nonspiritual energies of temporal existence. The slothful animal mind rebels at the effort required to wrestle with cosmic problem solving.
100:4.3 (1097.7)
But the great problem of religious living consists in the task of unifying the soul powers of the personality by the dominance of love. Health, mental efficiency, and happiness arise from the unification of physical systems, mind systems, and spirit systems. Of health and sanity man understands much, but of happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual growth yields lasting joy, peace which passes all understanding.
육체 속에서 사는 동안에는 감각이 물체의 실존을 밝혀주며;정신은 의미를 지닌 실체를 발견하지만;영적 체험은 생애의 참된 가치관을 각 개인에게 드러낸다. 인간의 이런 높은 수준의 삶은, 하나님을 최고로 사랑하고 사람을 이타적으로 사랑함으로 달성된다. 너희가 동료를 사랑한다면, 그들의 가치를 발견했음에 틀림없다. 예수께서 사람을 그토록 사랑한 것은, 사람에게 그런 높은 가치를 부여했기 때문이다. 너희는 동역자들의 동기를 발견함으로써 그들의 가치를 가장 잘 발견할 수 있다. 누가 너를 짜증나게 한다면, 분개하는 느낌을 일으킨다면, 너는 그의 관점, 즉 그런 불쾌한 행동을 하게 된 이유를 분별하기 위해 동정심을 갖고 노력해야한다. 일단 너의 이웃을 이해하면, 너는 인내할 수 있게 되고, 이 아량이 자라서 우정이 되고, 무르익으면 사랑이 될 것이다.
100:4.4 (1098.1)
In physical life the senses tell of the existence of things; mind discovers the reality of meanings; but the spiritual experience reveals to the individual the true values of life. These high levels of human living are attained in the supreme love of God and in the unselfish love of man. If you love your fellow men, you must have discovered their values. Jesus loved men so much because he placed such a high value upon them. You can best discover values in your associates by discovering their motivation. If someone irritates you, causes feelings of resentment, you should sympathetically seek to discern his viewpoint, his reasons for such objectionable conduct. If once you understand your neighbor, you will become tolerant, and this tolerance will grow into friendship and ripen into love.
동굴에서 살던 시대에 너희 원시인 조상 가운데 하나의 모습--곧 키가 작고, 흉하고, 불결하고, 고함치는 괴물 같은 인간이 다리를 벌리고, 몽둥이를 들고, 정면을 사납게 바라보면서 미움과 증오심으로 숨을 몰아쉬는 모습--을 마음의 눈으로 상상해보라. 그런 모습은 사람의 신성한 존엄성과는 거리가 멀다. 그러나 그 그림을 확대시켜보자. 힘찬 이 인간 앞에, 날카로운-송곳니를 가진 호랑이 한 마리가 웅크리고 있다. 그 남자 뒤에는 한 여자와 두 아이가 있다. 훌륭하고 고귀한 많은 것이 인간 종족에게 일어나고 있음을 그런 그림이 보여준다는 것을 너는 곧 알아채겠지만, 그 남자는 두 그림 속에서 동일한 주인공이다. 너는 오직 두 번째 그림에서만 넓어진 시야의 덕을 보고 있다. 너는 그 속에서 진화하는 필사자의 동기를 헤아린다. 네가 그를 이해하기 때문에, 그의 태도는 칭찬 받을 만한 것이 된다. 네가 동료들의 동기를 헤아릴 수만 있다면, 그들을 이해하는 것이 얼마나 쉬워질까. 동료들을 알 수만 있다면, 너는 결국 그들을 사랑하게 될 것이다.
100:4.5 (1098.2)
In the mind’s eye conjure up a picture of one of your primitive ancestors of cave-dwelling times—a short, misshapen, filthy, snarling hulk of a man standing, legs spread, club upraised, breathing hate and animosity as he looks fiercely just ahead. Such a picture hardly depicts the divine dignity of man. But allow us to enlarge the picture. In front of this animated human crouches a saber-toothed tiger. Behind him, a woman and two children. Immediately you recognize that such a picture stands for the beginnings of much that is fine and noble in the human race, but the man is the same in both pictures. Only, in the second sketch you are favored with a widened horizon. You therein discern the motivation of this evolving mortal. His attitude becomes praiseworthy because you understand him. If you could only fathom the motives of your associates, how much better you would understand them. If you could only know your fellows, you would eventually fall in love with them.
너는 단순히 의지로 행동하는 것만으로는 너의 동료를 진정으로 사랑할 수 없다. 사랑은 네 이웃의 동기와 감상을 속속들이 이해함으로써만 생겨난다. 네가 매일 한 사람씩 더 사랑하는 법을 배우는 것이, 오늘 모든 사람을 사랑하는 것보다 더 중요하다. 매일 또는 매주, 동료 가운데 한 사람씩 더 이해하게 된다면, 그리고 이것이 너의 역량의 한계라면, 너는 분명히 사회화돼갈 것이고, 너의 인격을 진정으로 영성화시켜갈 것이다. 사랑은 전염성이 있으며, 인간의 헌신이 지성적이고 현명할 때에는, 사랑이 미움보다 더 매력 있다. 그러나 참되고 이타적인 사랑만이 정말로 전염된다. 각 사람이 역동적 애정의 중심점이 될 수만 있다면, 사랑이라는 이 친절한 바이러스는 곧 인류의 다정다감한 감정-흐름에 널리 침투하여, 모든 문명 세계가 사랑으로 휩싸이고, 사람의 형제관계가 실현되는 경지에 이를 것이다.
100:4.6 (1098.3)
You cannot truly love your fellows by a mere act of the will. Love is only born of thoroughgoing understanding of your neighbor’s motives and sentiments. It is not so important to love all men today as it is that each day you learn to love one more human being. If each day or each week you achieve an understanding of one more of your fellows, and if this is the limit of your ability, then you are certainly socializing and truly spiritualizing your personality. Love is infectious, and when human devotion is intelligent and wise, love is more catching than hate. But only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. If each mortal could only become a focus of dynamic affection, this benign virus of love would soon pervade the sentimental emotion-stream of humanity to such an extent that all civilization would be encompassed by love, and that would be the realization of the brotherhood of man.
100:5.1 (1098.4)
The world is filled with lost souls, not lost in the theologic sense but lost in the directional meaning, wandering about in confusion among the isms and cults of a frustrated philosophic era. Too few have learned how to install a philosophy of living in the place of religious authority. (The symbols of socialized religion are not to be despised as channels of growth, albeit the river bed is not the river.)
100:5.2 (1098.5)
The progression of religious growth leads from stagnation through conflict to co-ordination, from insecurity to undoubting faith, from confusion of cosmic consciousness to unification of personality, from the temporal objective to the eternal, from the bondage of fear to the liberty of divine sonship.
최고 이상{理想}--곧 하나님을-의식함을 심령적으로, 감정적으로, 영적으로 자각함--에 대한 충성심 고백은 자연스럽고 점진적인 성장일지도 모르며, 또는 위기 속에서와 마찬가지로, 어떤 시점에 때때로 체험될 수도 있음을 분명히 해야 한다. 사도 바울은 다마스커스로 가는 길에서 그 중대한 날에, 바로 그런 갑작스럽고 장엄한 회심을 체험했다. 고타마 싯다르타는, 홀로 앉아서 궁극적 진리의 신비를 꿰뚫어보고자 하던 그 밤에, 비슷한 체험을 했다. 여러 다른 사람도 유사한 체험을 했으며, 갑작스런 회심 없이 영적 진보를 이룩한 참된 신자도 많이 있었다.
100:5.3 (1099.1)
It should be made clear that professions of loyalty to the supreme ideals—the psychic, emotional, and spiritual awareness of God-consciousness—may be a natural and gradual growth or may sometimes be experienced at certain junctures, as in a crisis. The Apostle Paul experienced just such a sudden and spectacular conversion that eventful day on the Damascus road. Gautama Siddhartha had a similar experience the night he sat alone and sought to penetrate the mystery of final truth. Many others have had like experiences, and many true believers have progressed in the spirit without sudden conversion.
소위 종교적 회심이라고 불리는 것과 관련된 극적 현상 대부분은 본질상 오롯이 심리적인 것이었으나, 때로는 영적인 기원을 갖는 체험이 발생하기도 한다. 영 달성을 향해서 심령적으로 상승하여 도달하는 어떤 수준에서든지 절대로 온전히 정신을 집중시킬 때, 즉 신성한 개념에 충성하려는 인간의 동기가 완벽할 때에는, 믿는 그 필사자의 초월의식 정신이 갖는, 응집되고 정화된 목적에 동조하려고, 내주하는 영이 갑자기 내려와서-잡아채는 현상이 무척 자주 발생한다. 그리고 순전히 심리적인 관계를 뛰어넘는 요소들 속에서 회심을 성립시키는 것은, 바로 지적 현상과 영적 현상을 통합하는 그런 체험이다.
100:5.4 (1099.2)
Most of the spectacular phenomena associated with so-called religious conversions are entirely psychologic in nature, but now and then there do occur experiences which are also spiritual in origin. When the mental mobilization is absolutely total on any level of the psychic upreach toward spirit attainment, when there exists perfection of the human motivation of loyalties to the divine idea, then there very often occurs a sudden down-grasp of the indwelling spirit to synchronize with the concentrated and consecrated purpose of the superconscious mind of the believing mortal. And it is such experiences of unified intellectual and spiritual phenomena that constitute the conversion which consists in factors over and above purely psychologic involvement.
100:5.5 (1099.3)
But emotion alone is a false conversion; one must have faith as well as feeling. To the extent that such psychic mobilization is partial, and in so far as such human-loyalty motivation is incomplete, to that extent will the experience of conversion be a blended intellectual, emotional, and spiritual reality.
다른 면에서 통합된 지적 생활에 실질적으로 작용하는 전제{前提}로서, 이론적 잠재의식 정신을 인정하고 싶다면, 일관성을 지키기 위하여, 사람은 그에 상응하는 비슷한 영역인, 더 높은 지적 활동이 있는 초의식 수준을 가정해야하는데, 이 초월의식 수준은, 내주하는 영 실재 곧 사고 섭리사와 바로 접촉할 수 있는 지대다. 이런 모든 심령적 고찰에서 큰 위험성은, 색다른 꿈을 포함해서 환상과 소위 신비로운 체험이라고 불리는 그것들이, 인간 정신에게 주는 신{神}의 전언{傳言}으로 간주될 수 있다는 점이다. 신성한 존재들은 지난 시절에, 신비로운 황홀경이나 병적 환상에 빠졌기 때문이 아니라 이 모든 현상에도 불구하고 하나님을 아는 어떤 사람들에게 자신을 드러내기도 했다.
100:5.6 (1099.4)
If one is disposed to recognize a theoretical subconscious mind as a practical working hypothesis in the otherwise unified intellectual life, then, to be consistent, one should postulate a similar and corresponding realm of ascending intellectual activity as the superconscious level, the zone of immediate contact with the indwelling spirit entity, the Thought Adjuster. The great danger in all these psychic speculations is that visions and other so-called mystic experiences, along with extraordinary dreams, may be regarded as divine communications to the human mind. In times past, divine beings have revealed themselves to certain God-knowing persons, not because of their mystic trances or morbid visions, but in spite of all these phenomena.
100:5.7 (1099.5)
In contrast with conversion-seeking, the better approach to the morontia zones of possible contact with the Thought Adjuster would be through living faith and sincere worship, wholehearted and unselfish prayer. Altogether too much of the uprush of the memories of the unconscious levels of the human mind has been mistaken for divine revelations and spirit leadings.
100:5.8 (1099.6)
There is great danger associated with the habitual practice of religious daydreaming; mysticism may become a technique of reality avoidance, albeit it has sometimes been a means of genuine spiritual communion. Short seasons of retreat from the busy scenes of life may not be seriously dangerous, but prolonged isolation of personality is most undesirable. Under no circumstances should the trancelike state of visionary consciousness be cultivated as a religious experience.
100:5.9 (1099.7)
The characteristics of the mystical state are diffusion of consciousness with vivid islands of focal attention operating on a comparatively passive intellect. All of this gravitates consciousness toward the subconscious rather than in the direction of the zone of spiritual contact, the superconscious. Many mystics have carried their mental dissociation to the level of abnormal mental manifestations.
100:5.10 (1100.1)
The more healthful attitude of spiritual meditation is to be found in reflective worship and in the prayer of thanksgiving. The direct communion with one’s Thought Adjuster, such as occurred in the later years of Jesus’ life in the flesh, should not be confused with these so-called mystical experiences. The factors which contribute to the initiation of mystic communion are indicative of the danger of such psychic states. The mystic status is favored by such things as: physical fatigue, fasting, psychic dissociation, profound aesthetic experiences, vivid sex impulses, fear, anxiety, rage, and wild dancing. Much of the material arising as a result of such preliminary preparation has its origin in the subconscious mind.
진화 종교와 계시 종교는 방법이 뚜렷이 다를지 몰라도, 동기는 매우 비슷하다. 종교는 생명의 특정한 기능이 아니며;오히려 삶의 방식이다. 참된 종교는 종교인이 자신에게 그리고 온 인류를 위하여, 최상의 가치가 있을 것이라고 생각하는 어떤 실체에 전심으로 헌신하는 것이다. 그리고 모든 종교의 뚜렷한 특질은:최상의 가치기준에 의심 없이 충성하고, 전심으로 헌신하는 것이다. 최상의 가치기준에 대한 이런 종교적 헌신은, 신앙심이 없다고 생각되는 어머니와 자식의 관계에서, 그리고 비종교인들이 지지하는 운동에 열심히 충성을 바치는 데서 나타난다.
100:6.1 (1100.3)
Evolutionary religions and revelatory religions may differ markedly in method, but in motive there is great similarity. Religion is not a specific function of life; rather is it a mode of living. True religion is a wholehearted devotion to some reality which the religionist deems to be of supreme value to himself and for all mankind. And the outstanding characteristics of all religions are: unquestioning loyalty and wholehearted devotion to supreme values. This religious devotion to supreme values is shown in the relation of the supposedly irreligious mother to her child and in the fervent loyalty of nonreligionists to an espoused cause.
100:6.3 (1100.5)
The marks of human response to the religious impulse embrace the qualities of nobility and grandeur. The sincere religionist is conscious of universe citizenship and is aware of making contact with sources of superhuman power. He is thrilled and energized with the assurance of belonging to a superior and ennobled fellowship of the sons of God. The consciousness of self-worth has become augmented by the stimulus of the quest for the highest universe objectives—supreme goals.
100:6.4 (1100.6)
The self has surrendered to the intriguing drive of an all-encompassing motivation which imposes heightened self-discipline, lessens emotional conflict, and makes mortal life truly worth living. The morbid recognition of human limitations is changed to the natural consciousness of mortal shortcomings, associated with moral determination and spiritual aspiration to attain the highest universe and superuniverse goals. And this intense striving for the attainment of supermortal ideals is always characterized by increasing patience, forbearance, fortitude, and tolerance.
100:6.5 (1100.7)
But true religion is a living love, a life of service. The religionist’s detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation, and it should not destroy the sense of humor. Genuine religion takes nothing away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life; it generates new types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage. It may even engender the spirit of the crusader, which is more than dangerous if not controlled by spiritual insight and loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of human loyalties.
100:6.6 (1101.1)
One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace, that peace which passes all human understanding, that cosmic poise which betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil. Such levels of spiritual stability are immune to disappointment. Such religionists are like the Apostle Paul, who said: “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else shall be able to separate us from the love of God.”
100:6.8 (1101.3)
Even evolutionary religion is all of this in loyalty and grandeur because it is a genuine experience. But revelatory religion is excellent as well as genuine. The new loyalties of enlarged spiritual vision create new levels of love and devotion, of service and fellowship; and all this enhanced social outlook produces an enlarged consciousness of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
100:6.9 (1101.4)
The characteristic difference between evolved and revealed religion is a new quality of divine wisdom which is added to purely experiential human wisdom. But it is experience in and with the human religions that develops the capacity for subsequent reception of increased bestowals of divine wisdom and cosmic insight.
100:7.1 (1101.5)
Although the average mortal of Urantia cannot hope to attain the high perfection of character which Jesus of Nazareth acquired while sojourning in the flesh, it is altogether possible for every mortal believer to develop a strong and unified personality along the perfected lines of the Jesus personality. The unique feature of the Master’s personality was not so much its perfection as its symmetry, its exquisite and balanced unification. The most effective presentation of Jesus consists in following the example of the one who said, as he gestured toward the Master standing before his accusers, “Behold the man!”
100:7.2 (1101.6)
The unfailing kindness of Jesus touched the hearts of men, but his stalwart strength of character amazed his followers. He was truly sincere; there was nothing of the hypocrite in him. He was free from affectation; he was always so refreshingly genuine. He never stooped to pretense, and he never resorted to shamming. He lived the truth, even as he taught it. He was the truth. He was constrained to proclaim saving truth to his generation, even though such sincerity sometimes caused pain. He was unquestioningly loyal to all truth.
100:7.3 (1101.7)
But the Master was so reasonable, so approachable. He was so practical in all his ministry, while all his plans were characterized by such sanctified common sense. He was so free from all freakish, erratic, and eccentric tendencies. He was never capricious, whimsical, or hysterical. In all his teaching and in everything he did there was always an exquisite discrimination associated with an extraordinary sense of propriety.
사람의 아들은 항상 아주 침착한 인물이었다. 심지어 그를 대적하는 적들도 그에게 진지한 존경심을 보였으며;그가 나타나는 것을 무서워하기조차 했다. 예수는 두려워하지 않았다. 신성한 의욕으로 가득 찼지만, 결코 광신을 보이지 않았다. 감정적으로 적극적이었으나 결코 경솔하지 않았다. 상상력이 풍부했지만 언제나 실용적이었다. 인생의 실체를 솔직하게 대면했으나, 결코 침체되거나 단조롭지 않았다. 용감했으나 무모하지 않았으며;신중하면서도 비열하지 않았다. 연민의 정이 깊었으나 감상적이지 않았으며;독특했지만 괴벽스럽지 않았다. 경건하면서도 거룩한 척 하지 않았다. 그리고 매우 침착했는데, 아주 완전하게 통합됐기 때문이다.
100:7.4 (1102.1)
The Son of Man was always a well-poised personality. Even his enemies maintained a wholesome respect for him; they even feared his presence. Jesus was unafraid. He was surcharged with divine enthusiasm, but he never became fanatical. He was emotionally active but never flighty. He was imaginative but always practical. He frankly faced the realities of life, but he was never dull or prosaic. He was courageous but never reckless; prudent but never cowardly. He was sympathetic but not sentimental; unique but not eccentric. He was pious but not sanctimonious. And he was so well-poised because he was so perfectly unified.
100:7.5 (1102.2)
Jesus’ originality was unstifled. He was not bound by tradition or handicapped by enslavement to narrow conventionality. He spoke with undoubted confidence and taught with absolute authority. But his superb originality did not cause him to overlook the gems of truth in the teachings of his predecessors and contemporaries. And the most original of his teachings was the emphasis of love and mercy in the place of fear and sacrifice.
100:7.7 (1102.4)
Of Jesus it was truly said, “He trusted God.” As a man among men he most sublimely trusted the Father in heaven. He trusted his Father as a little child trusts his earthly parent. His faith was perfect but never presumptuous. No matter how cruel nature might appear to be or how indifferent to man’s welfare on earth, Jesus never faltered in his faith. He was immune to disappointment and impervious to persecution. He was untouched by apparent failure.
100:7.9 (1102.6)
Jesus was an unusually cheerful person, but he was not a blind and unreasoning optimist. His constant word of exhortation was, “Be of good cheer.” He could maintain this confident attitude because of his unswerving trust in God and his unshakable confidence in man. He was always touchingly considerate of all men because he loved them and believed in them. Still he was always true to his convictions and magnificently firm in his devotion to the doing of his Father’s will.
100:7.10 (1102.7)
The Master was always generous. He never grew weary of saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Said he, “Freely you have received, freely give.” And yet, with all of his unbounded generosity, he was never wasteful or extravagant. He taught that you must believe to receive salvation. “For every one who seeks shall receive.”
예수께서는 가끔 인간적 슬픔의 잔을 진하게 마시기도 했지만, 변함없이 쾌활했다. 실존하는 실체에 담대히 대면했고, 더욱이 천국 복음에 대한 열정으로 가득했다. 그러나 의욕을 통제했으며;의욕이 그를 통제한 적은 없었다. “아버지의 일”에 무제한 헌신했다. 이런 신성한 열정 때문에, 영적이지 못한 형제들이 그를 미쳤다고 생각했으나, 지켜보던 온 우주는, 그를 온전한 사람의 본보기라고, 그리고 영적 삶의 고상한 표준에 헌신한 고귀한 인간 원형이라고 평가했다. 그리고 그의 통제된 의욕은 전염성 있었으며;동역자들은 그의 신성한 낙관주의를 나눠가질 수밖에 없었다.
100:7.12 (1102.9)
Jesus was consistently cheerful, notwithstanding he sometimes drank deeply of the cup of human sorrow. He fearlessly faced the realities of existence, yet was he filled with enthusiasm for the gospel of the kingdom. But he controlled his enthusiasm; it never controlled him. He was unreservedly dedicated to “the Father’s business.” This divine enthusiasm led his unspiritual brethren to think he was beside himself, but the onlooking universe appraised him as the model of sanity and the pattern of supreme mortal devotion to the high standards of spiritual living. And his controlled enthusiasm was contagious; his associates were constrained to share his divine optimism.
100:7.14 (1103.2)
His courage was equaled only by his patience. When pressed to act prematurely, he would only reply, “My hour has not yet come.” He was never in a hurry; his composure was sublime. But he was often indignant at evil, intolerant of sin. He was often mightily moved to resist that which was inimical to the welfare of his children on earth. But his indignation against sin never led to anger at the sinner.
100:7.15 (1103.3)
His courage was magnificent, but he was never foolhardy. His watchword was, “Fear not.” His bravery was lofty and his courage often heroic. But his courage was linked with discretion and controlled by reason. It was courage born of faith, not the recklessness of blind presumption. He was truly brave but never audacious.
100:7.16 (1103.4)
The Master was a pattern of reverence. The prayer of even his youth began, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.” He was even respectful of the faulty worship of his fellows. But this did not deter him from making attacks on religious traditions or assaulting errors of human belief. He was reverential of true holiness, and yet he could justly appeal to his fellows, saying, “Who among you convicts me of sin?”
100:7.18 (1103.6)
Jesus was the perfectly unified human personality. And today, as in Galilee, he continues to unify mortal experience and to co-ordinate human endeavors. He unifies life, ennobles character, and simplifies experience. He enters the human mind to elevate, transform, and transfigure it. It is literally true: “If any man has Christ Jesus within him, he is a new creature; old things are passing away; behold, all things are becoming new.”