The Seven Universes

A good friend of mine, who is older and much wiser than I, recently brought forth to my attention, a 70+ year old book of essays called, “The Urantia Book”. He has been studying these papers for many years and wanted to share them with me. So far, I have been blown away by the content within these pages.

Since the book is over 70 years old, you can actually download The Urantia Book for free since it is in the public domain now… there are also many great audio readings out there. Since this book has over 2000 pages, my preferred method of digestion of these texts is to read along while listening to the audio of the books. This helps me gather the messages more thoroughly, as the material is quite heady.

What is The Urantia Book?

The Urantia Book is not a complete religion. It does not have a clergy, a creed that one is required to believe in, or rules of behavior that one must follow. It is a book which has spawned two organizations, now called the Urantia Foundation and the Urantia Fellowship. The book is used by individuals of many religions as a spiritual guide.

The Urantia Book is

• for people interested in life
• for people who want something more than mere religion
• for people who would like to discover their highest spiritual and personal potentials.

The book states that Urantia is an ancient name for the planet earth. It is a large book with over two thousand pages and almost 200 individual essays that reveal information about:

• God,
• other supernatural beings
• the history of earth and of the rest of the universe
• the development of humanity
• the history, message and purpose of Yeshua of Nazareth, (a.k.a. Jesus Christ)

Why You Need to Know About The Urantia Book

Making good life decisions—the exercise of true wisdom—requires insight into the context in which the decision or choice is being made.

The Urantia Book provides a comprehensive overview of the context in which we live our daily lives — historical, social, personal, intellectual, spiritual, and material. It provides important background information that will deepen, enrich, and strengthen your relationship with God, empower you to prevail in your struggles with the difficulties of daily life, and enable you to participate creatively in the much-needed spiritual transformation of our world.

By integrating science, philosophy, and religion into a coherent world view, the Urantia Book enhances the meanings we derive from our life experience, equipping us to live our lives relative to positive, creative spiritual values in the midst of difficulty, chaos, and uncertainty.

I have just begun the journey of pouring through the 2100+ pages of The Urantia Book. In fact, I had been reading a PDF and listening to the audios, but last night, I picked up an actual copy of the book and listened to the foreward and read along. It appears that we have a long journey ahead of us as spiritual beings and I look forward to exploring all this universe has to offer.

If The Urantia Book intrigues and resonates with you, may I suggest you download the PDF of the book and grab the corresponding audio reading to listen to, as you read. The words and concepts are SO intellectual, that using both senses is really the only way to go.

Other information sources:

	A list of Urantia Book related websites is at: http://ubwebsites.com/ They list major sites, introductory sites, locations where the complete text can be downloaded, translations, discussion books, etc.
	A list of web sites that form the Urantia Book Readers United Resource web ring is at:http://www.webring.org/
	Norm DuVal has a “Urantia Foundation Truth Site” at: http://www.freeurantia.org/ Their site is “dedicated to religious freedom, ‘unceasing exposure’ …of Urantia Foundation’s sophistries, and resistance to Urantia Foundation’s religious tyranny and persecution against believers of the Urantia Revelation.”
	A Urantia Reflectivity Circuit lists a directory of Urantia book study groups, social gatherings, book reviews, etc. See: http://www.ubook.org/
	Locations of Urantia study groups can be obtained from the Urantia Foundation or from theFifth Epochal Fellowship, 529 Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614 (312-327-0424).
	Urantiabook.org maintains a list of reader email lists and study groups athttp://urantiabook.org/
	A book which is critical of the Urantia Book but contains interesting historical references is: Martin Gardner, “Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery” Prometheus Books (1995). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store
	The Fellowship of Readers of the Urantia Book maintains a very extensive WWW site at:http://www.ubfellowship.org
	UBtheNEWS is an independent project by Urantia Book enthusiasts. It explains corroborations between the Urantia Book and subsequent scientific discoveries. See:http://www.ubthenews.com/

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The sun on the winter's solstice.

By Betty Kreeger

For decades, Rachel Carson and other visionaries concerned about the effect of pollution on earth and its population recognized and warned about the environmental devastation now facing us today. Millions of chemically injured around the world are the final evidence of this environmental catastrophe.  Power and greed have brought us to this place, and we have felt powerless to stop it due to our physical limitations.  However, we are more than our physical limitations. 

Recently I have been inspired by many teachings on the power of intentional thought, energy healing, and raising of consciousness. These energies are transformational, and unlimited.
 

Then a few nights ago I was inspired by one of the Everyday Super Hero stories.  The act of one woman, Irania Martinez Garcia, transformed the city dump in Guantanamo into an eco-friendly garden by separating organic and inorganic materials. The organic material was used as compost for the garden and the inorganic matter was stripped down to its core and recycled or re-sold. Her action was first just a thought – an intention to manifest a reality. And this thought inspired her and others to action. No “thing” ever manifests without first being preceded by a thought.  Have any of you ever accomplished something that was not been preceded by an intentional thought? 

Our physical limitations may prevent the millions of us from showing up for demonstrations at the various city halls or capitols around the world at a specific time, but we can use the power of the energy of our mind (thoughts) – sometimes called prayer – at a specific time to make a difference. We have a better resource for effecting change – conscious energy. Thoughts are energies that vibrate through the universe, whether negative or positive. They either raise the consciousness through the emotion of love or lower it through the emotion of fear. 

I believe there is an awakening of consciousness right now and with very little effort, the global MCS community could harness the power of our thoughts and make a difference.  By a very conservative estimate at least three percent of the earth’s 6 billion people have been chemically injured.  Therefore, at a minimum we are at least 18,000,000 strong.  
 

Many have researched the power of raising our consciousness. All is created through the power of two thoughts – love and fear. One physicist, David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., author of “Power vs. Force,” writes: “The difference in power between a loving thought and a fearful thought is so enormous as to be beyond the capacity of the human imagination to comprehend … even a few loving thoughts during the course of the day more than counterbalance all of our negative thoughts.” Energies vibrate from 20 (shame) to 700+ pure enlightenment, with critical consciousness being 200. He has shown that one person with an energy vibration of neutrality counter-balances (positively affects) the energy of 90,000 individuals with an energy level of 200 or below. Potentially, the 18,000,000 plus individuals in the MCS community has the potential to counterbalance 16 billion people (or nearly 3 times the earth’s population) vibrating below critical consciousness! There is no limitation when we raise our consciousness and thus raise the consciousness of others. 
 
Therefore, I would like to propose to the MCS community around the world that we set aside just one minute (more if you like) at a given time on January 1, 2009 (noon PST in the U.S. & other countries to decide their own time) to send an intentional healing of the earth, ourselves and all others. Everyone should choose wording with which you feel comfortable as long as it is consistent with promoting this healing. 

If you have no wording you would like to use, I offer something like the following which is fashioned after the 2,500-year-old Buddhist Loving Kindness Meditation. 

“May all of the earth’s inhabitants be filled with Loving Kindness toward themselves, all others and the earth.” 

“May the earth and its inhabitants be well in body and in mind.”

“May the earth and its inhabitants be safe from inner and outer dangers.” 

“May the world leaders promote peace and healthful practices for the healing of the earth and its people.”

“May all be happy and truly free.”

This post likely will generate a lot of thoughts – and hopefully participation. However, your decision whether to participate in this event is your personal choice. 

My hope is that January 1, 2009 will be just the first of several days we work together to raise global consciousness.  Together we can make a difference!

Share Peace. We are One.

by Deepak Chopra

Continuing the daily themes for peacemakers, today’s peace practice is:

Saturday: Sharing for Peace

Today, share your practice of peacemaking with two people. Give them this information and invite them to begin the daily practice. As more of us participate in this sharing, our practice will expand into a critical mass.

Today joyfully celebrate your own peace consciousness with at least one other peace-conscious person.

• Connect either trough e-mail or phone.
• Share your experience of growing peace.
• Share your gratitude that someone else is as serious about peace as you are.
• Share your ideas for helping the world move closer to critical mass.
• Do whatever you can, in small or large ways, to assist anyone who wants to become a peacemaker.

Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

Thursday - Act for Peace

Continuing the daily themes for peacemakers, today’s peace practice is:

Thursday: Acting for Peace

Today is the day to help someone in need: A child, a sick person, an older or frail person. Help can take many forms.

Tell yourself, ” Today I will bring a smile to a stranger’s face. If someone acts in a hurtful way to me or someone else, I will respond with a gesture of loving kindness. I will send an anonymous gift to someone, however small. I will offer help without asking for gratitude or recognition.”

Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

~| Deepak Chopra

Speak for Peace on Wednesday

Wednesday: Speaking for Peace

Today, the purpose of speaking is to create happiness in the listener. Have this intention: Today every word I utter will be chosen consciously. I will refrain from complaints, condemnation, and criticism.

Your practice is to do at least one of the following:

• Tell someone how much you appreciate them.
• Express genuine gratitude to those who have helped and loved you.
• Offer healing or nurturing words to someone who needs them.
• Show respect to someone whose respect you value.

If you find that you are reacting negatively to anyone, in a way that isn’t peaceful, refrain from speaking and keep silent. Wait to speak until you feel centered and calm, and then speak with respect.

Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

~| Deepak Chopra

Tuesday - Feeling Peace

Continuing the week-long practices for peace, today’s theme for peacemakers is:

Tuesday: Feeling for Peace

This is the day to experience the emotions of peace. The emotions of peace are compassion, understanding, and love.

Compassion is the feeling of shared suffering. When you feel someone else’s suffering, there is the birth of understanding.

Understanding is the knowledge that suffering is shared by everyone. When you understand that you aren’t alone in your suffering, there is the birth of love.

When there is love there is the opportunity for peace.

As your practice, observe a stranger some time during your day. Silently say to yourself, “This person is just like me.. Like me, this person has experienced joy and sorrow, despair and hope, fear and love. Like me, this person has people in his or her life who deeply care and love them. Like me, this person’s life is impermanent and will one day end. This person’s peace is as important as my peace. I want peace, harmony, laughter, and love in their life and the life of all beings.”

Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

by Deepak Chopra
Continuing the week-long practices for peace, today’s theme for peacemakers is:

Monday: Thinking for Peace

Thinking has power when it is backed by intention. Today, introduce the intention of peace in your thoughts. Take a few moments of silence, then repeat this ancient prayer:

Let me be loved, let me be happy, let me be peaceful.

Let my friends be happy, loved, and peaceful.

Let my perceived enemies be happy, loved, and peaceful.

Let all beings be happy, loved, and peaceful.

Let the whole world experience these things.

Any time during the day if you are overshadowed by fear or anger, repeat these intentions. Use this prayer to get back on center.

Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

by Deepak Chopra
That war is the major problem in the world is undeniable.
The need for a new idea is just as undeniable.
The new idea is to bring peace one person at a time until the world reaches a critical mass of peacemakers instead of warmakers.

“There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” – AJ Muste

Why Ending War Hasn’t Worked
Peace movements have tried three ways for bringing war to an end:

Activism, the approach of putting political pressure on governments that wage war. Activism involves protests and public demonstrations, lobbying and political commitment. Almost every war creates some kind of peace movement opposed to it.

Why has it failed.

• Because the protesters are not heard.
• Because they are worn down by frustration and resistance.
• Because they are far outnumbered by the war interests in society.
• Because their idealism turns to anger and violence.

Activism has left us with the ironic picture of outraged peacemakers who wind up contributing to the total sum of violence in the world.

Humanitarianism, the approach of helping the victims of war. Bringing relief to victims is an act of kindness and compassion. As embodied by the International Red Cross, this effort is ongoing and attracts thousands of volunteers worldwide. Every nation on earth approves of humanitarianism.

Why has it failed?

Because humanitarians are wildly outnumbered by soldiers and warmakers.
Because of finances. The International Red Cross’s annual budget of $1.8 billion dollars is a tiny fraction of military budgets around the world.

Because the same countries that wage war also conduct humanitarian efforts, keeping the two activities very separate.

Because humanitarians show up on the scene after the war has already begun.
Personal transformation, the approach of ending war one person at a time. The prevailing idea is that war begins in each human heart and can only end there. The religious tradition of praying for peace is the closest most people will ever come to ending war in their own hearts. Most people have actually never heard of this approach.

Why has it failed?

Because nobody has really tried it.

“Can you be the change that you wish to see in the world?” - Mahatma Gandhi

Why War Ends With You
The approach of personal transformation is the idea of the future for ending war. It depends on the only advantage that people of peace have over warmakers: sheer numbers. If enough people in the world transformed themselves into peacemakers, war could end. The leading idea here is critical mass. It took a critical mass of human beings to embrace electricity and fossil fuels, to teach evolution and adopt every major religion. When the time is right and enough people participate, critical mass can change the world.

Can it end war?

There is precedent to believe that it might. The ancient Indian ideal of Ahimsa, or non-violence, gave Gandhi his guiding principle of reverence for life. In every spiritual tradition it is believed that peace must exist in one’s heart before it can exist in the outer world.
Personal transformation deserves chance.

“When a person is established in non-violence, those in his vicinity cease to feel hostility.” – Patanjali, ancient Indian sage

The Best Reason to Become a Peacemaker
If you transform yourself into a peacemaker, you won’t become an activist marching in the streets. You will not be “anti” anything. No money is required. All you are asked to do is to go within and dedicate yourself to peace.

It just might work.

Even if you don’t immediately see a decline in violence around the world, you will know in your heart that you have dedicated your own life to peace.
But the single best reason to become a peacemaker is that every other approach has failed.
We don’t know what number the critical mass is–the best we can hope is to bring about change by personal transformation. Isn’t it worth a few moments of your day to end 30 wars around the world and perhaps every future war that is certain to break out?

Seven Practices for Peace

The program for peacemakers asks you to follow a specific practice every day, each one centered on the theme of peace.

Sunday: Being for Peace

Monday: Thinking for Peace

Tuesday: Feeling for Peace

Wednesday: Speaking for Peace

Thursday: Acting for Peace

Friday: Creating for Peace

Saturday: Sharing for Peace

Our hope is that you will create peace on every level of your life. Each practice takes only a few minutes. You can be as private or outspoken as you wish. But those around you will know that you are for peace, not just through good intentions but by the way you conduct your life on a daily basis.

Each day I will also share a video to accompany the peace theme for that day, so look for those as well.

Sunday: Being for Peace

War is the plague that human beings bring upon themselves. It is also a plague we might be able to end. On any given day since you and I were born, some part of the world has been at war-in 2003 the total number of open conflicts was thirty. In the twentieth century at least 108 million people died in wars. Of the 20 largest military budgets on earth, 14 belong to developing countries. The United States spends more on its military than the next 16 countries combined.

Today, take 5 minutes to meditate for peace. Sit quietly with your eyes closed. Put your attention on your heart and inwardly repeat these four words: Peace, Harmony, Laughter, Love. Allow these words to radiate from your heart’s stillness out into your body.

As you end your meditation, say to yourself, “Today I will relinquish all resentments and grievances.” Bring into your mind anyone against whom you have a grievance and let it go. Send that person your forgiveness.

Please support my intention for peace by going to www.intent.com . Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

Can Pancakes Change the World?

I serve coffee at a counter-style diner in Texas. I often see a look of isolation in my customers’ eyes. They come in the front door, wander to the counter, pick up the menu and look around the diner for something they can’t short-order: a connection.

In an age of online chat, online shopping and even online school, it’s no wonder people come into the diner starving for human connection. Most of my customers can remember a time when the milkman came to their front door. As I serve up their eggs and bacon, they offer updates on their grandchildren. They ask me about the happenings in my life.

One day, I walked back to the smoking section to pass around a fresh pot of coffee. There was a woman who had been sitting in a corner booth for at least three hours. She asked me, “How much is just one breakfast taco?” I told her I didn’t know, that I’d never served just one by itself. Going back to the kitchen I thought about her rotted teeth and tired eyes, and how she’d consumed enough caffeine for three people already. I offered her a free pancake breakfast. I fibbed that it was a leftover from an order I had messed up. She asked to borrow bus fare and promised to return and pay me back. I handed over tip money from my apron pocket. She smiled a ragged grin on her way out the front door.

Three weeks later she returned my two dollars. She had gotten a job and a friend’s couch to sleep on. She offered to buy me breakfast on my break!

This kind of thing gets me wondering if something as simple as a short stack of pancakes can bring about a small shift in society. I’ll go even further: Can one act of friendliness start to generate peace? I believe it can. Peace begins with one person but spreads like warmed syrup. When I connect with my neighbors, they return it in kind.

So I believe in friendliness and an open ear. For me, it starts with making eye contact when I pour coffee and ask my customers, “How you doing?” and then listen to their answer. My job is to take care of customers at the counter in a small Texas diner, but I also believe we’re in this world to take care of each other.

“Peace Begins with One Person” by Ivory Harlow. Copyright © 2006 by Ivory Harlow. From the Book THIS I BELIEVE II edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick. Copyright © 2008 by This I Believe, Inc. Reprinted by arrangement with Henry Holt and Company, LLC.