Original, Actual, and Potential

The Urantia Book; Paper 115, Section 3

^{P1261:5, 115:3.1} The absolute cosmos is conceptually without limit; to define the extent and nature of this primal reality is to place qualifications upon infinity and to attenuate the pure concept of eternity. The idea of the infinite-eternal, the eternal-infinite, is unqualified in extent and absolute in fact. There is no language in the past, present, or future of Urantia adequate to express the reality of infinity or the infinity of reality. Man, a finite creature in an infinite cosmos, must content himself with distorted reflections and attenuated conceptions of that limitless, boundless, never-beginning, never-ending existence the comprehension of which is really beyond his ability.

^{P1261:6, 115:3.2} Mind can never hope to grasp the concept of an Absolute without attempting first to break the unity of such a reality. Mind is unifying of all divergencies, but in the very absence of such divergencies, mind finds no basis upon which to attempt to formulate understanding concepts.

^{P1261:7, 115:3.3} The primordial stasis of infinity requires segmentation prior to human attempts at comprehension. There is a unity in infinity which has been expressed in these papers as the I AM -- the premier postulate of the creature mind. But never can a creature understand how it is that this unity becomes duality, triunity, and diversity while yet remaining an unqualified unity. Man encounters a similar problem when he pauses to contemplate the undivided Deity of Trinity alongside the plural personalization of God.

^{P1262:1, 115:3.4} It is only man's distance from infinity that causes this concept to be expressed as one word. While infinity is on the one hand UNITY, on the other it is DIVERSITY without end or limit. Infinity, as it is observed by finite intelligences, is the maximum paradox of creature philosophy and finite metaphysics. Though man's spiritual nature reaches up in the worship experience to the Father who is infinite, man's intellectual comprehension capacity is exhausted by the maximum conception of the Supreme Being. Beyond the Supreme, concepts are increasingly names; less and less are they true designations of reality; more and more do they become the creature's projection of finite understanding toward the superfinite.

^{P1262:2, 115:3.5} One basic conception of the absolute level involves a postulate of three phases:

^{P1262:3, 115:3.6} 1. The Original. The unqualified concept of the First Source and Center, that source manifestation of the I AM from which all reality takes origin.

^{P1262:4, 115:3.7} 2. The Actual. The union of the three Absolutes of actuality, the Second, Third, and Paradise Sources and Centers. This triodity of the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and the Paradise Isle constitutes the actual revelation of the originality of the First Source and Center.

^{P1262:5, 115:3.8} 3. The Potential. The union of the three Absolutes of potentiality, the Deity, Unqualified, and Universal Absolutes. This triodity of existential potentiality constitutes the potential revelation of the originality of the First Source and Center.

^{P1262:6, 115:3.9} The interassociation of the Original, the Actual, and the Potential yields the tensions within infinity which result in the possibility for all universe growth; and growth is the nature of the Sevenfold, the Supreme, and the Ultimate.

^{P1262:7, 115:3.10} In the association of the Deity, Universal, and Unqualified Absolutes, potentiality is absolute while actuality is emergent; in the association of the Second, Third, and Paradise Sources and Centers, actuality is absolute while potentiality is emergent; in the originality of the First Source and Center, we cannot say that either actuality or potentiality is either existent or emergent -- the Father is.

^{P1262:8, 115:3.11} From the time viewpoint, the Actual is that which was and is; the Potential is that which is becoming and will be; the Original is that which is. From the eternity viewpoint, the differences between the Original, the Actual, and the Potential are not thus apparent. These triune qualities are not so distinguished on Paradise-eternity levels. In eternity all is -- only has all not yet been revealed in time and space.

^{P1262:9, 115:3.12} From a creature's viewpoint, actuality is substance, potentiality is capacity. Actuality exists centermost and expands therefrom into peripheral infinity; potentiality comes inward from the infinity periphery and converges at the center of all things. Originality is that which first causes and then balances the dual motions of the cycle of reality metamorphosis from potentials to actuals and the potentializing of existing actuals.

^{P1262:10, 115:3.13} The three Absolutes of potentiality are operative on the purely eternal level of the cosmos, hence never function as such on subabsolute levels. On the descending levels of reality the triodity of potentiality is manifest with the Ultimate and upon the Supreme. The potential may fail to time-actualize with respect to a part on some subabsolute level, but never in the aggregate. The will of God does ultimately prevail, not always concerning the individual but invariably concerning the total.

^{P1263:1, 115:3.14} It is in the triodity of actuality that the existents of the cosmos have their center; be it spirit, mind, or energy, all center in this association of the Son, the Spirit, and Paradise. The personality of the spirit Son is the master pattern for all personality throughout all universes. The substance of the Paradise Isle is the master pattern of which Havona is a perfect, and the superuniverses are a perfecting, revelation. The Conjoint Actor is at one and the same time the mind activation of cosmic energy, the conceptualization of spirit purpose, and the integration of the mathematical causes and effects of the material levels with the volitional purposes and motives of the spiritual level. In and to a finite universe the Son, Spirit, and Paradise function in and upon the Ultimate as he is conditioned and qualified in the Supreme.

^{P1263:2, 115:3.15} Actuality (of Deity) is what man seeks in the Paradise ascent. Potentiality (of human divinity) is what man evolves in that search. The Original is what makes possible the coexistence and integration of man the actual, man the potential, and man the eternal.

^{P1263:3, 115:3.16} The final dynamics of the cosmos have to do with the continual transfer of reality from potentiality to actuality. In theory, there may be an end to this metamorphosis, but in fact, such is impossible since the Potential and the Actual are both encircuited in the Original (the I AM), and this identification makes it forever impossible to place a limit on the developmental progression of the universe. Whatsoever is identified with the I AM can never find an end to progression since the actuality of the potentials of the I AM is absolute, and the potentiality of the actuals of the I AM is also absolute. Always will actuals be opening up new avenues of the realization of hitherto impossible potentials -- every human decision not only actualizes a new reality in human experience but also opens up a new capacity for human growth. The man lives in every child, and the morontia progressor is resident in the mature God-knowing man.

^{P1263:4, 115:3.17} Statics in growth can never appear in the total cosmos since the basis for growth -- the absolute actuals -- is unqualified, and since the possibilities for growth -- the absolute potentials -- are unlimited. From a practical viewpoint the philosophers of the universe have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as an end.

^{P1263:5, 115:3.18} From a circumscribed view there are, indeed, many ends, many terminations of activities, but from a larger viewpoint on a higher universe level, there are no endings, merely transitions from one phase of development to another. The major chronicity of the master universe is concerned with the several universe ages, the Havona, the superuniverse, and the outer universe ages. But even these basic divisions of sequence relationships cannot be more than relative landmarks on the unending highway of eternity.

^{P1263:6, 115:3.19} The final penetration of the truth, beauty, and goodness of the Supreme Being could only open up to the progressing creature those absonite qualities of ultimate divinity which lie beyond the concept levels of truth, beauty, and goodness.

Next: Sources of Supreme Reality