Most human parents shower their children with gifts of love. In the same way, our divine parents rain down endless gifts on us, their human children. The gift of the incarnation of Jesus was followed by the bestowal of the omnipresent Spirit of Truth at Pentecost. The universal gift of angelic watchcare is sponsored by our Mother Spirit. In addition, God as “Primal Father” gifts us with a literal fragment of himself that indwells us. At least this is the exclusive teaching of the authors of The Urantia Book who, after all, gifted us with the text of the revelation itself!
The section in the Urantia Papers that describes the so-called “indwelling spirit” (Papers 107 – 111) is believed by many to be its most sublime revelation. And the purpose of this indwelling is revealed to be stupendous. This God-entity is “the gift of the absolute God to those creatures whose destiny encompasses the possibility of the attainment of God as absolute.” [107:1.6] What a marvel! That an infinite Creator would condescend to traverse such a cosmic distance—in an explosion of divine parental love.
Although the Universal Father is personally resident on Paradise, at the very center of the universes, he is also actually present on the worlds of space in the minds of his countless children of time … The eternal Father is at one and the same time farthest removed from, and most intimately associated with, his planetary mortal sons. [107:0.1]
We’ve now entered the realm of cosmic miracle and mystery. Consider this startling statement about our indwelling spirit:
They are fragmentized entities constituting the factual presence of the infinite God. Together with their many unrevealed associates, the Adjusters are undiluted and unmixed divinity, unqualified and unattenuated parts of Deity; they are of God, and as far as we are able to discern, they are God.” [107:1.2]
I know, I know, it all sounds rather daunting and gnostic. But this idea is not unfamiliar to our traditions. It’s akin to the indwelling “spark of God” of the Quakers, for example. Urantians would agree with the Quakers that our ultimate practice is to become still enough to attune ourselves to the influence of this inner divinity, thereby discerning the “will of God” in this present moment. These notions of a “spirit-self” are also reminiscent of the atman or buddha-nature of Eastern thought, and it is envisioned in the divinization teachings of Eastern Christianity as well.
Naming the Inner Divinity
Throughout the Urantia text we find that the revelators assign new names to things, new terminology that is meant supersede our evolving human nomenclature. For example, this mysterious spirit-entity that has been inferred in the world’s esoteric traditions will now go by several unfamiliar technical names in the UB. Chief among these is the odd phrase “Thought Adjuster” (or simply “Adjuster”). The authors also call it the “Father Fragment” or “Mystery Monitor.” Such idiosyncratic phrases, sometimes off-putting at first glance, offer important clues as to form, function, and definition.
This Father Fragment (or God Fragment), as we have seen, is a literal portion of “God-ness.” And the word “fragment” is more than a vague metaphor; we’re told again and again in that such a deity-entity actually indwells every normal-minded person.
Yet this is not the indwelling of unqualified deity. You and I are not the source-bearers of the literal Creator God who resides at the center of all things and pervades all universes! (Although some religious maniacs do arrive at such conclusions.) But still, the God Fragment conferred on us is absolute in its divinity nature. We read that “in extensiveness they are limited, but in intensiveness of meaning, value, and fact they are absolute.” [107:4.2]
The Father Fragment is in fact pure spirit and pure energy; that’s because Divine Source is ancestral to the divergence of spirit and energy that characterizes the evolutionary realms, and by receiving this gift we partake in that ancestry going back to the eternal past, as it were. This “piece” of pure divinity guides us from within the heart of our mind, as we ascend to the Origin of energy and spirit.
The odd phrase Mystery Monitor is also instructive. Its work is to benignly but anonymously track our inner world. The divine Monitor unceasingly searches for impulses and ideas that are “soul-making.” One of its chief tasks is to create a metaphysical transcript of every worthy treasure of our minds and hearts, and these records become resident in and as our evolving soul.
The use of the term Thought Adjusters refers to the fact that this entity endeavors to fine-tune our thoughts—if we allow it. It adjusts our thoughts and feelings toward the highest possible value-choices, doing so through a variety of techniques. These invisible operations are hinted at in these paraphrasings below. They come from a much-beloved passage [see 110:1.2] in the text that provides some memorable descriptors. For example, our Adjusters are:
• efficient ministers to the higher phases of men’s minds
• wise manipulators of the spiritual potential of the human intellect
• heavenly helpers dedicated to a stupendous task
• tireless toilers consecrated to the triumph of truth in your life everlasting
• watchful workers who pilot the God-conscious human mind
• loving leaders who are safe and sure guides on paths of progressive perfection
• careful custodians of the sublime values of creature character
So, we can see—if we can accept all this—that God sends a part of Godself to minister to us rather intimately.
But how does the indwelling spirit inaugurate its romance with us? Please stay tuned …