The Urantia Book

116. The Almighty Supreme

6. Spirit Dominance

^116.6.1 In the evolutionary superuniverses energy-matter is dominant except in personality, where spirit through the mediation of mind is struggling for the mastery. The goal of the evolutionary universes is the subjugation of energy-matter by mind, the co-ordination of mind with spirit, and all of this by virtue of the creative and unifying presence of personality. Thus, in relation to personality, do physical systems become subordinate; mind systems, co-ordinate; and spirit systems, directive.

^116.6.2 This union of power and personality is expressive on deity levels in and as the Supreme. But the actual evolution of spirit dominance is a growth which is predicated on the freewill acts of the Creators and creatures of the grand universe.

^116.6.3 On absolute levels, energy and spirit are one. But the moment departure is made from such absolute levels, difference appears, and as energy and spirit move spaceward from Paradise, the gulf between them widens until in the local universes they have become quite divergent. They are no longer identical, neither are they alike, and mind must intervene to interrelate them.

^116.6.4 That energy can be directionized by the action of controller personalities discloses the responsiveness of energy to mind action. That mass can be stabilized through the action of these same controlling entities indicates the responsiveness of mass to the order-producing presence of mind. And that spirit itself in volitional personality can strive through mind for the mastery of energy-matter discloses the potential unity of all finite creation.

^116.6.5 There is an interdependence of all forces and personalities throughout the universe of universes. Creator Sons and Creative Spirits depend on the co-operative function of the power centers and physical controllers in the organization of universes; the Supreme Power Directors are incomplete without the overcontrol of the Master Spirits. In a human being the mechanism of physical life is responsive, in part, to the dictates of (personal) mind. This very mind may, in turn, become dominated by the leadings of purposive spirit, and the result of such evolutionary development is the production of a new child of the Supreme, a new personal unification of the several kinds of cosmic reality.

^116.6.6 And as it is with the parts, so it is with the whole; the spirit person of Supremacy requires the evolutionary power of the Almighty to achieve completion of Deity and to attain destiny of Trinity association. The effort is made by the personalities of time and space, but the culmination and consummation of this effort is the act of the Almighty Supreme. And while the growth of the whole is thus a totalizing of the collective growth of the parts, it equally follows that the evolution of the parts is a segmented reflection of the purposive growth of the whole.

^116.6.7 On Paradise, monota and spirit are as one - indistinguishable except by name. In Havona, matter and spirit, while distinguishably different, are at the same time innately harmonious. In the seven superuniverses, however, there is great divergence; there is a wide gulf between cosmic energy and divine spirit; therefore is there a greater experiential potential for mind action in harmonizing and eventually unifying physical pattern with spiritual purposes. In the time-evolving universes of space there is greater divinity attenuation, more difficult problems to be solved, and larger opportunity to acquire experience in their solution. And this entire superuniverse situation brings into being a larger arena of evolutionary existence in which the possibility of cosmic experience is made available alike to creature and Creator - even to Supreme Deity.

^116.6.8 The dominance of spirit, which is existential on absolute levels, becomes an evolutionary experience on finite levels and in the seven superuniverses. And this experience is shared alike by all, from mortal man to the Supreme Being. All strive, personally strive, in the achievement; all participate, personally participate, in the destiny.

7. The Living Organism of the Grand Universe

^116.7.1 The grand universe is not only a material creation of physical grandeur, spirit sublimity, and intellectual magnitude, it is also a magnificent and responsive living organism. There is actual life pulsating throughout the mechanism of the vast creation of the vibrant cosmos. The physical reality of the universes is symbolic of the perceivable reality of the Almighty Supreme; and this material and living organism is penetrated by intelligence circuits, even as the human body is traversed by a network of neural sensation paths. This physical universe is permeated by energy lanes which effectively activate material creation, even as the human body is nourished and energized by the circulatory distribution of the assimilable energy products of nourishment. The vast universe is not without those co-ordinating centers of magnificent overcontrol which might be compared to the delicate chemical-control system of the human mechanism. But if you only knew something about the physique of a power center, we could, by analogy, tell you so much more about the physical universe.

^116.7.2 Much as mortals look to solar energy for life maintenance, so does the grand universe depend upon the unfailing energies emanating from nether Paradise to sustain the material activities and cosmic motions of space.

^116.7.3 Mind has been given to mortals wherewith they may become self-conscious of identity and personality; and mind - even a Supreme Mind - has been bestowed upon the totality of the finite whereby the spirit of this emerging personality of the cosmos ever strives for the mastery of energy-matter.

^116.7.4 Mortal man is responsive to spirit guidance, even as the grand universe responds to the far-flung spirit-gravity grasp of the Eternal Son, the universal supermaterial cohesion of the eternal spiritual values of all the creations of the finite cosmos of time and space.

^116.7.5 Human beings are capable of making an everlasting self-identification with total and indestructible universe reality - fusion with the indwelling Thought Adjuster. Likewise does the Supreme everlastingly depend on the absolute stability of Original Deity, the Paradise Trinity.

^116.7.6 Man's urge for Paradise perfection, his striving for God-attainment, creates a genuine divinity tension in the living cosmos which can only be resolved by the evolution of an immortal soul; this is what happens in the experience of a single mortal creature. But when all creatures and all Creators in the grand universe likewise strive for God-attainment and divine perfection, there is built up a profound cosmic tension which can only find resolution in the sublime synthesis of almighty power with the spirit person of the evolving God of all creatures, the Supreme Being.

^116.7.7 [Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on Urantia.]