Work

It is through work that Father helps all of us to bring good out of bad. The capacity to participate in spiritual
creation is within all of you. In fact, this special ability of spiritual creativity is an important part of your
destiny as imperfectly created beings.

A perfectly created being, in a sense, follows a perfect, program, but a perfect program is not so creative. Why not? Because far less work is required on the part of a perfect being to follow a perfect program compared to that effort that must be expended by the imperfect, striving for spiritual growth toward perfection. This is because the imperfect is ever working to turn bad or imperfect into good or perfect.

Now what is that quality of Deity that makes this possible? Faith, truth, goodness, beauty, service, and other areas in this line. These qualities are outworkings of Deity. They are the tools, as you know, that are given to you from Paradise through your indwelling Adjuster that enable you to turn good from bad and, as you
progress in your journeyman's task of mastering use of these tools in your present environment, you are
always assisted by the unseen instructors who are about. You only need to ask. And it is important to realize that the worse the situation, or the more bad in it, the greater the potential to turn good.

A great artist can indeed fashion a wonderful and beauteous work of art from a tiny bit of metal or stone, but it is a wonder indeed to make good a large chunk of granite or marble or a large pile of wood, is it not? Bad is the creative material that you are given to work as an artisan. If there were no bad, how could you ever help Father to create good of it?

You see, it is work to create good from bad - hard, arduous, painful, exhausting, demanding work - like all service, you will find, as you move from stage to stage over the eons. Blessed is the man who embraces his work with hands and approaches it with a joyous attitude. Blessed is he who works for the love of God. Blessed is he who works with little complaint but with a song in his heart and peace in his mind. And blessed is he who gets others to work.

These are all lessons brought here through Jesus, and indeed he was a wonderful example of this concept. Was there ever a minute of any day during his mortal life here that he did not work? And yet it is not Jesus who spoke of suffering of His own, nor was He ever heard to complain. Ever did He describe the qualities of work in positive and service-oriented terms, did He not?

My friends, work is not something that you are born learning and knowing how to do. You must learn how to work, and one of the very important tasks of your mortal lifetime on this planet is to learn how to work as well as you possibly can. And yet it will always be true that the more adept you become at working, the more work will be presented to you. The idea of retirement is a myth, if one has truly learned to work.

By working as well as you can, not only do you serve Father and advance the growth of His teachings on this planet, but you also, unknown to you though it may be, lead and inspire others. Believe me, this is
quite powerful. When the times of Light and Life come to this planet, beings will spend their whole waking existence in work. It will not be the backbreaking toil to which you have become accustomed and which serves as part of your connotation of work. But it will be effort, and it will be tiring, and it will require strength, perseverance and faith.

Yes, Deity can easily transform bad, imperfect, into good, perfect, instantaneously - or even prevent it from occurring in the first place. But that would not be as creative as the present manifestation in which beings such as yourselves work to transform your own imperfections in the direction of perfect and good. Your persistence and devotion in your work is much admired by those who observe, and the good feeling that you receive as you accomplish the goals of your work chores is a direct reward from Father.

That good feeling is something to be cherished and it grows as your spirit grows, perceives. As you work and grow toward Paradise, that feeling will grow, too. And, to use your jargon, it is most addictive. So one might say that the transformation of bad to good is the accomplishment of addicts, in a sense.

R = Rayson the teacher, S = Students.

Question: I understand through the Urantia Book that the purpose of the physical universe is to make something spiritual out of something physical. Is that a simplistic way of putting it? Is that basically correct?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And that in order to create spiritual qualities, there has to be the possibility for - on the spiritual
level - evil, but - on the physical level - bad. Am I correct in that?

Answer: Yes, there must be the potential for error.

The following question occurred on 11/13/93, eleven days after the burning of two students' home in the Malibu fires.

Question: And the recent fire - the burning of the buildings - was, in itself, not spiritually evil, but physically
disastrous or bad, is that correct?

A: Yes.

Q: And our response to that situation, all of our responses, are spiritual in nature in addition to physical in nature. But they're the stuff out of which spiritual reality is created. Is that correct?

A: Yes, you understand well, and do you know the next corollary, my dear? Once you have replaced that which was lost, you will have a more complete understanding of - a better sense of perspective - regarding that which is physical. You will see that the important parts of yourself have not been harmed at all, but indeed will have increased. Do you understand?

Q: Yes, I think so. The “Ventola” [painting] which was lost will never, never be replaced, but it can be substituted for by our attitude of acceptance. Is that correct?

A: Yes. You retain your creative spirit regardless of the physical presence of canvas, paint, or printed page. And the vision that one man was privileged to experience and have the physical talent to describe on canvas has already been imprinted on your minds.

Q: Rayson, while you were talking about work I couldn't help but think that Jesus used the illustration of servants more than He used any other illustration. I presume there was a reason for this.

A: Yes, yet indeed He Himself acted as servant on many occasions. What other word than “servant” would you use for the one whose life is spent in service?

Q: He was “the suffering servant” that was predicted in the Old Testament.

A: Yes, indeed, and those who would follow Him also.

Q: I think I understand the nature of the ascension plan, that Vince Ventola and my mother and others who have survived would not be aware any longer of loss or fear. So Vinny would not suffer the loss of his created work, nor would my mother be aware of things that were hers that were treasured that no longer exist in the material form, because they would be involved in spiritual activities. Is that correct?

A: Yes, yes that is true. They gave freely and with love and with no expectation of any continuing attachment to those physical items. And further, to use an analogy that I believe you will understand, those are remnants of the womb to them in their present states. What think you of your placenta?

S: It was thrown away and discarded after it had served its purpose.

S2: I just want to say that I'm experiencing what you speak of with work. I'm an addict, and like it quite well. I'm working at this in art. Thank you.

R: You are welcome. It is most pleasurable to feel the bright light of Father's love with your effort. Is it not?

S: It's wonderful.

R: And unlike physical addiction there is no development of tolerance or waning of the effort, is there?

S: No. You want to do it more. (Yes.) And it is hard.

R: Yes. Do you not notice however that others are drawn to you? S: Yes. And I look forward to that like my friend (S).

R: Good is so much more attractive to animal mind than is bad that it takes only a very small bit of it to light the darkness and lead the way. Do not be discouraged by the seeming dearth of others who share your philosophy. Each one is a pinpoint of light, and the cumulative effect of the pinpoints is powerful and impressive, indeed. At a higher level of being, the pinpoints are easily perceived even from great distance, and this helps us to assist you when you call for help.

Heightened curiosity is yet another element of the subtle change in your mind-thought that occurs when you take a spiritual step forward in your own personal development. The Urantia Book describes the time of
Light and Life as a period during which very little work would be done with much leisure remaining. 
Understand, my friends, that at the time the Urantia Book information was handed down and transcribed, there were many difficult decisions to be made regarding syntax and other linguistic details. For the animal mind outworking of intellect is fastidious in its highest development when linguistic considerations arise.

That is to say, the masters who oversaw the project wished to have as little ambiguity as possible in the language used in the body of the papers themselves. And yet it was understood that these papers would stand for many generations as reference material, and language does indeed change through time. So the decision was taken to use the language that was the most formal for the very time period during which the book was indicted, because formal usage is less susceptible to change, particularly frivolous idiomatic change, than is casual usage. And so when the matter of work was discussed, the linguistic value assigned to the word “work” was that of the earlier period of that century of your time. That is, labor of the body, primarily physical with relatively little spiritual content, somewhat more intellectual content, what you presently would call toil. And it is indeed true that at the time of Light and Life relatively little time in the life of a given mortal individual will be spent in toil, physical labor.

Again, the word “leisure”, at the time of the indictment of the papers, included those activities in which energy is expended toward spiritual growth. And thus the leisure time of Light and Life, using that linguistic value of the word leisure will be worship.

Who can ever truly grasp the full meaning of worship, but Father Himself? Even those who have journeyed to Paradise state that in some ways their knowledge of worship is less than they ever thought. And it is at that point, of course, that one fully grasps the necessity for an eternity of time to learn to worship Father properly.

At your stage of development, my friends, worship is at its beginning. You are taking the first cautious steps of the baby from the crawling posture to the upright in terms of your worship activities, moving from the animal considerations of self, the intellectual considerations of ego, to the spiritual considerations of the cosmos. This is indeed hard work, as all of you know, and yet so critical. And you must walk before you can run.

So too must your spiritual growth stumble and fall and falter in the basic concepts of right and wrong before you will be able to walk with confidence toward your destinies. This is hard work, very hard work, and it does not end with this life. You might say that to extend our analogy, you barely learn to walk spiritually by the end of a full term of human life. You learn to run while on the mansion worlds if you work very, very hard and spend many thousands of years in intense effort. And the delightful part is yet beyond that where you learn to fly, steps beyond. And all of this work, my dear friends, is worship: the doing of the will of Father, moving through the darkness, the uncertainty of imperfect creation, groping, despairing, crying out.

This is what Jesus came to your beloved planet to experience for Himself. Can you imagine how it must have been for Him to descend from a state of physical existence that is not even imaginable to you, far beyond light, continuous communication with Paradise, to descend from that down to the level of a helpless babe of imperfect creation? Humbling indeed, and much, much hard work for Him, as it is for you.

As you become more skilled at the craft of worship, and progress from crawling to walking to running and beyond, you will be intensely gratified. The sense of wonder that one experiences with the increasing pace of growth that attends spirit striving, spirit work, and spirit growth, is far beyond any pleasurable sensation imaginable to an animal.

Some have mused about mating activity in the animal state, and its possible correlate at existences beyond the earthbound level. Do you not see that the intense - to you - pleasure that you receive from your mating instinct and its gratification is quite small in comparison to the true joy of spirit experience?

You may say, “But how can I call such work with such reward anything but 'play' or 'leisure'? Why work?” Because, my friends, it is more consuming of effort than anything else you have ever experienced or shall ever experience. The reward of joy, of peace, of wisdom, you might liken to those instincts which have been planted in you as an animal descendant. Your instincts on this planet, to eat, to sleep, to reproduce, not only work for your survival, but also enable you to experience pleasure, do they not?

So too it is with the worship urge. Hard, hard, work it is to walk toward Father, intense hard work. And yet once you have firmly committed yourself on this road without question, without doubt, that spirit instinct to work and worship and grow toward Paradise will become stronger and stronger, and its gratification will yield the spirit correlate of what you call pleasure.

R = Rayson the teacher, S = Students.

S:  I would like to hear you comment for just a few moments on the application of mental effort to a problem, whether or not that is work, and whether those who don't do manual labor but who work with
ideas and correspondence and things of that nature are actually working. I know the answer's yes, but I
would like to hear you explain what it is about this that has now encroached upon the definition of work.

R: Yes, certainly. You may recall that the mindal components of animal brain function are dual on this planet, the physical out-workings and the intellectual out-workings, and as this planet and its cultures evolve, work which is done and the definition of work will evolve also. The most rudimentary form of work which occurs in the most primitive of human cultures encompasses those efforts which are required to barely survive, which, of course, is food gathering, protection of the young, procreation and mating, and shelter from elements and other threatening environmental factors. The next step involves the development of tools and other technological adjuncts through the first use of intellect. But at this stage still work is primarily physical.

As the culture evolves there is more and more of intellectual work and less and less of physical work. And then in a normal planet of imperfect creation there will be that wonderful time at which the first of the spirit work begins to show on a cultural level. On this planet - because of interference with the plan - the period of time that has elapsed since that first bit of spirit work in the life of the average Earth mortal showed and now has been so long. And the advancement has been so small by the accepted standards of the universes.

Nonetheless that fragment of spirit work is there, but it is quite small now. During this last century of your time, the proportion of intellectual work to physical work has widened greatly for many, many persons in your culture and, indeed, over the planet at large. And just recently we have been most gratified to see a definite increase in the proportion of spiritual work undertaken by the great mass of Earth mortals.

This may seem like a long-winded answer to your question, but the short answer is that yes, of course,
intellectual effort is very much work. As time passes on your planet, in future times, physical work will
become more or less extinct, and the notion of toil will be applied increasingly to intellectual effort, and
the notion of leisure to pure spirit development. But there will come the day that there will be widespread realization that spiritual effort is indeed work.

S: The Master, when He was here, had a group of apostles who did what we would call work and there were time - at least once a week, maybe twice a week - when they ceased work and enjoyed leisure. I would expect that even during their leisure they worked at least a little, but I would like a comment on the relationship between work and leisure.

R: Well, at the time that the Urantia Book was indited, the formal understanding of the word “work” included mainly physical toil, but also an element of the intellectual toil to which you alluded just now, and the syntax use of the word “leisure” included rest activities such as sleep, nourishment activities such as eating, and worship activities, so leisure did not primarily refer to worship. But worship was considered to be leisure, definitely.

S: How about play, or - as the apostles went - fishing?

R: It is during what you call “play” that very much spiritual work is accomplished. That is why the reversion directors play such an important role in later activities in your existences. In a sense you could say that they guide your play. But, my friends, do you not see that worship is indeed play?

S: I hadn't thought of it that way.

R: What you call fun now is just a glimmer of what you will feel about worship increasingly as you progress in your spiritual growth. Do you think that Father in Paradise does not enjoy Himself?

S: I certainly hope He does. I think it's rather interesting that the word “recreation” means recreation.

R: But re-creation of what?

S: Yes, re-creation of energies to work is what I would think. Re-creation, a new beginning.

R: And perhaps re-creation of the perfect from the imperfect. Have you not had at least one acquaintance in your life whom you enjoyed because they were so playful? (Yes, yes.) Then imagine how Jesus must have been perceived. Think of children shortly after the arrival of the Thought Adjuster. Is there not a marked increase in the desire to play?

S: I hadn't observed it, but now that you called it to my attention I know that it exists.

R: To work at play, rather than passively allowing play to occur - if you view it in those terms - you may begin to remember in your life and the lives of your progeny. And yet so many allow the playful spirit to drain away, and be replaced by rage, fear, greed and pride. The extirpation of those qualities from your mindal activity will create space in a recreational way for the playful spirit of worship to enter. And you will leap forward in your worship skills when you undertake that housecleaning within.

Q: I'd like to know what you do personally for recreation.

A: At my stage of education, I guess you would call it; I spend a proportion of my time under tutelage of experienced reversion directors. Their company is most refreshing and the reversion directors with whom I work are most gracious in guiding me in my play. We have a lot of what you would call “fun” together. And it is, for this time in my existence, very much like the play of a human child, in the sense that I expend large quantities of energy in a seemingly effortless fashion. I always leave these encounters feeling replenished. Additionally, I am assigned periods of time for contemplation, meditation, visitation to what for my level you might consider to be a garden, a place of peace. You may recall that Jesus engaged in such activity while on your planet. These periods of time are also part of my education and like all my activities are closely monitored and recorded so that I shall not ascend to the next administrative level until I have accomplished all of those growth tasks which are appropriate for this phase of my being.

Q: You say that you are under the tutelage of reversion directors. They are teaching you the most enjoyable ways to relax and refresh yourself?

A: I would say that they are teaching me the most efficient ways to improve my worship skills and by improving my efficiency in that manner, I achieve what you call “relaxation”.