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The Hidden Messages in The Urantia Book - Art
John C. Hyde, U.S.A.
One of my favorite topics is, "the hidden messages in The Urantia Book." Occasionally when the inspiration hits me, I try to write about these hidden messages, even though they are not really so hidden. This article deals with the true nature of art from the cosmic perspective, and why art defined in this fashion is so vitally important to us. It also offers up a new way to differentiate the offerings of The Urantia Book from other "religions" and "revelations" in the broad marketplace of ideas.
When asked to explain The Urantia Book, most of us come up short, or, worse yet, draw a complete blank. Many of the rest of us give some convoluted explanation that would only make sense to someone who has nearly finished his/her first reading of the book. I submit that this is because the book is simply too broad to be summarized, an assessment that I suspect few would disagree with.
The Urantia Book says that Jesus' many-sided teachings were not adequately grasped by any one individual, and that is why the bulk of his teachings were lost so soon after his death (within a generation or two). Or, to explain it differently, each of his followers taught that portion of Jesus' teachings which he or she understood, and the only teachings that have withstood the test of time are those that were universal, those few teachings that were commonly understood by all.
But, if we as individuals focus on that portion of The Urantia Book that we best understand, the risk of the message being largely lost is minimal, since this revelation is in book form. In any event, it is certainly not appropriate to tell an inquirer (sincere or otherwise) that the book is simply too vast to be summarized, so here, take my loaner copy, and go read it for yourself. People want TRUTH, not a BOOK, even if that truth is distorted, as long as it comes from your heart.
That, I believe, is the key. How much of that big blue book has made its way into your heart? For many, the fascination with the revelation as a revelation has eclipsed the more subtle messages.
We readers all know that God is love, hell is not real, everyone who seeks forgiveness is forgiven, and so on. But these ideas come off as just a bunch of platitudes to an outsider, just another "religion," probably made up by someone hoping to appeal to yet another segment of the unwary population.
What we need is something MEATY to give our inquirers. Something really different, something unique and highly appealing. So, turning to the book, what can be found that might fit this bill?
Consider Paper 56, Universal Unity, co-authored by a Mighty Messenger (we will probably become Mighty Messengers some day), and Machiventa Melchizedek, the only other Descending Son of God to incarnate into the likeness of a human being on this planet to date. Until recently, I have found this one paper to be curiously out of step with most of the rest of the book, comparable in some ways to the papers on the Supreme--interesting, but perhaps a bit irrelevant.
But this paper was written by the the one personality MOST INTERESTED in the welfare of this planet--our soon-to-be Vicegerent Planetary Prince. This convinced me that, in fact, this paper was probably one of the most important papers in the whole book. So, I read it very carefully, and very slowly.
In some ways Paper 56 is a bit like the Foreword--it tends to summarize the whole book. But there are some very interesting and unique perspectives presented in this Paper, entitled Universal Unity. I will focus on just one of them--ART.
In Section 10, Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, we find the discussion on art. Our future replacement Planetary Prince, who once (and not too long ago) lived among us, says:
"Philosophy you somewhat grasp, and divinity you comprehend in worship, social service, and personal spiritual experience, but the pursuit of beauty--cosmology--you all too often limit to the study of man's crude artistic endeavors."
He then goes on to elaborate. I could take up many pages of text expanding upon this elaboration, but instead, let's just focus on one element. Here's his next sentence:
"Beauty, art, is largely a matter of the unification of contrasts."
Let's assume that Jesus, who exhausted all the potentials for finite expression of spiritual beauty in the local universe of Nebadon, epitomized this concept. How did Jesus express beauty (as art) by unifying contrasts?
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