Welcome to my new website, universalfamily.org! From here I will henceforth be sending forth blog posts and making public other items of interest.
Today we need a chorus of voices proclaiming the message of the universal family—the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man—in whatever words truly fit our discoveries and other’s receptivity. Core spiritual truth comprises themes of love, worship, service, doing the will of God, his indwelling spirit, being and becoming like God, faith, and more. The world is waiting for the living spiritual reality of this many-sided message.
Do we sometimes find ourselves slipping? Does the world on occasion just seem crazy? Does some of that insanity ever start to invade us? Our world does suffer from cosmic insanity, which may or may not manifest itself in clinical, psychological insanity.
We know the underlying causes of present downward trends: the fear and anger, the selfishness and materialism, the rebelliousness and impatience, the superficiality and thoughtlessness, the hectic intensity and accelerating chaos. These personal factors underlie the ecological, social, economic, and political difficulties that this generation faces.
A New Yorker cartoon from decades ago showed a spaceship that had landed. In front of it stood a couple of friendly aliens, looking very much like physicians, with stethoscopes around their necks. The astonished man asked them, “You treat whole planets?”
The cure for our world involves many dimensions with projects on material, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions. But the leadership and teamwork needed to undertake that reconstruction will not become effective until we have a world-wide moral and spiritual renaissance. Only then will the average level of materialism and selfishness recede enough for the forces of progress to take hold with adequate power.
Spiritual men and women are aware of invisible forces that are working to limit the downward trends and bolster the upward trends. If we follow our inner guidance, and preserve our calm and joy and laughter in the face of the storm, then we will the better align with the work of our unseen friends.
For now, we look forward in whole-souled faith to the time of the tipping point, the awakening which can in a single generation turn our planetary ship in a new direction. We keep the truth alive until that brighter day. Jesus has shown us the way. We will do our part. We will rise above our fears, doubts, skepticism, cynicism, anger. We will open ourselves to receive the love of the God whose spirit dwells within us. We will love him with everything we have and are. And we will learn to love even unlovely humans. Our embrace of truth, our staying refreshed by beauty, and our devotion to divine goodness will enable us to enjoy the blessings of sanity, cosmic sanity, so that we may serve with distinction in this life and look forward confidently to the next chapter in the eternal adventure.
Photo credit: http://mrg.bz/O78iGx HandReach by penywise
Brother Jeff,
The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man is the supreme spiritual ideal that is gradually unfolding in the world. As you stated our world is struggling under the weight of the misdirection of the purpose of life, but there are other forces that are countering this downward trend.
The ideal of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man is really what every morally conscious individual is seeking in their souls, for it is the true ticket and only ticket to everlasting happiness for all of the Father’s children.
We can know the Father for he has placed his spirit within our minds and souls, and seeks to guide, direct and elevate us. This spirit is a spirit of love, of fatherly love and delights in revealing to us the truths of the spiritual fatherhood and brotherhood .
If we examine this ideal, we soon recognize that because God is our spiritual Father, we are all spiritual brothers and sisters. And the acceptance of this great truth will elevate us to the spiritual promotion where we can began to more effectively help to realize this Ideal on our planet.
There are other spiritual beings and entities that also work to help us to grasp the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. These spirits delight in working with us in actualizing this great truth, but at the present time there are few so to speak that really are seeking to actualize these liberating truth. However, we only need about 1% of capable leadership to get this ball really rolling.
After, we dedicate ourselves to actualizing this great truth, I suggest these thoughts may be of some help as we progress with our spiritual task.
Understand the differences that exists among our group and among the different races is a blessing. These differences are designed to bring out all of those altruistic spiritual values that we admire.
When making moral or spiritual decision, we should make the highest decision of our understanding and wisdom. If we do this, we qualify to receive an even higher level of understanding and wisdom in the great task.
Insure that our decisions are overshadowed by love and mercy.
Since the spiritual helpers work in the social and ethical environment, we should understand that is where the transformation will take place that lead to ever increasing God consciousness and thereby an increased capacity to cooperate with the indwelling spirit.
And since, it is the necessary interactions that they are desirous of bringing about, It is important that we learn to be consistent. When ever humanly possible we should always be where we are supposed to be. This consistency is necessary because it takes time to set up some moral and spiritual interactions. And after all of their efforts, we don’t want to fail to show up. We should not shrink from difficult decisions that our helpers have helped bring about.
We should cultivate an attitude of unselfish service for our spiritual brothers and sisters.
We should maintain constant communion with our indwelling spirit, through prayer, worship, and sincere desire for same.
And last but not least, we should maintain living faith in this whole process of translating the ideal of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man into practical reality.
These are some of the ideas that come to mind. I am sure there are many more that are useful.
Dr. Perry
For those of you do not know Dr. Perry from the conversation at the previous website, let me say that this distinguished gentleman has been my main conversation partner in blogging for the past two years. Of African American descent, his career was that of a physician, and his present condition is one of protracted, severe, painful disability that allows him only a few hours a day to communicate and to prepare his writings for publication as he anticipates his departure from this world. During the past two years he has shared generously, courageously, and intimately his struggles and discoveries on his years of the spiritual path. His comments could be gathered and published as constituting a good first draft of an autobiography woven together with a personal religious philosophy. Thank you, Dr. Perry, for continuing your activity in this new site.
“For now, we look forward in whole-souled faith to the time of the tipping point, the awakening which can in a single generation turn our planetary ship in a new direction. We keep the truth alive until that brighter day. Jesus has shown us the way. We will do our part. We will rise above our fears, doubts, skepticism, cynicism, anger. We will open ourselves to receive the love of the God whose spirit dwells within us. We will love him with everything we have and are. And we will learn to love even unlovely humans. Our embrace of truth, our staying refreshed by beauty, and our devotion to divine goodness will enable us to enjoy the blessings of sanity, cosmic sanity, so that we may serve with distinction in this life and look forward confidently to the next chapter in the eternal adventure.” This is it, right here. Enough said!
Your appreciation is very meaningful.
Wish all of you could have been down in San Antonio recently for Jeff’s presentation titled “What We Can Learn from Jesus if We Aspire to Become Teachers in His Gospel Movement: The Unity of Jesus’ Person, Message, and Methods.” Jeff began his talk with an analogy to basketball–where it takes teamwork to make a goal. He followed this analogy with a line that really jumped out at me:
“We assist the Spirit of Truth as another human being is approaching making or confirming the most important decision that a person makes in this life.”
That line alone was worth the price of admission. Thanks, Jeff!
Thanks, Clint! Many years ago I got the conviction that if a person says YES to God with their life, all the rest is gravy. The cultural achievements matter, but only if they do not replace the recognition of the source of all true culture. Now that I’ve finished my philosophy career, I feel like I’m “getting back to work,” as I return to devote myself to something more basic.