Values

Question: In reading through The Urantia Book on meanings and values, I find that meanings and values
are generally associated with things, and that a rough projection of the universe would be that the universe consists of things, meanings and values. I know what things are. I went to the dictionary to learn what meanings are, and it defined the noun “meaning” as “that which is intended or signified,” with the synonyms to be found under the word “purpose”. I also looked into the dictionary for “values” and it defines values as the order of importance or the sequence of things. The Urantia Book says one can add values to meanings as well. Can you comment on my understanding of “things” as being objects, whether they are spiritual, physical, or morontial; as “meanings” being the significance or purpose of these objects; and “values” being the relative degree of importance of either things or meanings. Could you comment on that?

Answer:

• Things are material, supermaterial, are objects, are receptacles, are systems, are patterns, and are matrixes.
• Meanings are the use of these matrixes.
• Values are how these meanings relate to the will of God.
  

Question: Can there be any “value” by itself, without evaluating a thing or a meaning - just a value?

Answer: Pure value?

Student: Yes. In other words, can you take a six and not relate it to a four and a five and a seven and an eight?

Answer: Not in that context because if you cannot relate it to the others then it will not be of that value. Values can be relative but supreme values can be existential when matrixes, meanings, and values are
all in a realm of non-space, non-time, then values can be pure and by itself. But this has no meaning when explained in this linear fashion. It is beyond your comprehension as of now.

Question: Is it correct to think of relationships as things, that these relationships are not only things but they have a meaning, and that their meaning is extremely high on the scale of values?

Rayson: Relationships?

Student: Interpersonal relationships.

Answer: Personal relationships are very high, of very high value, yes.

I know your phrase that cautions against putting all eggs in one basket; this has merit in the caution to not over commit oneself, denying other possibilities that exist in the ever-moving events of time that may alter the course that will lead you to your goal.

You seek the values of eternity which give deeper meaning to your life and the implications of the great ascension that lies before you. The very course of your ascension is itself variable because every effort any one of us makes further defines the course that all may take. As you receive greater appreciation of these
eternal values, you are establishing them concretely in time. You are making them alive; you are animating those very standards of deity that have stood forever.

Our Master taught us to serve, because the most valuable element in all the universes is personality.  Though every personality is colored differently with traits and inclinations that express uniqueness, everyone is a cherished possession in the Father's basket. While you seek to have and possess the values of
spirit, you are, in the very effort, becoming valuable.

The master finished his life on earth with the words, "It is finished." This culmination of effort on his part created tenfold new potentials that are only now, centuries later, beginning to be effective on a worldwide scale. He is not done; he has only expanded his troops to include thousands. His effort to reach all his
children is not, as your history has portrayed, to win the great battle against evil and possess all he can before all the rest are lost. No. He desires to reach everyone because, in his view, all belong to him. It is his passion that all know deeply, to the depths of their souls, this very truth. It is to your charge that you present him in your lives, not as an objective, external that you describe but as a vivid internal demonstration that you are. You are embryos of an eternal life. You are infused with Michael's presence; the vitality you have today is only expanding in your development.

If you could organize in your thinking the intervals of time that lie between your birth as a human and your attainment of Paradise, you would come to greater appreciate how very near you are to the morontia experience; it is but one broken shell away. Michael has demonstrated the path whereby you may attain this state of being, and he returned to you to prove beyond any doubt its existence.