Greetings
this holiday season, may it be joyous and peaceful for everyone. Students of The Urantia Book know Jesus was born in
August not December; to us it means that Jesus is extra special and gets two
birthdays. BettyLou and I recently returned from the Parliament of the World’s
Religions in Toronto Canada. It was a thrilling experience to meet with people
of different faiths and cultures from around the world. We attended three days;
it did not appear to be as large as the 2015 Parliament in Salt Lake City, even
then more than 8,000 people were at this one. We also have an announcement to
make, so let’s get started.
We
made an exciting discovery at the Parliament, more on this below. In honor of
this discovery, the theme of quotations in this posting will be global
sovereignty.
Peace
will not come to Urantia until every so-called sovereign nation surrenders its
power to make war into the hands of a representative government of all mankind.
Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world. When all the
peoples of Urantia create a world government, they have the right and the power
to make such a government SOVEREIGN; and when such a representative or
democratic world power controls the world’s land, air, and naval forces, peace
on earth and good will among men can prevail — but not until then. (Urantia Book p 1489.3)
View from our hotel
window
The
flight to Toronto was uneventful and we arrived early evening. There was a
shuttle train from the airport to the city center. From there we had an
enclosed walkway from the terminal to our hotel. Before we got to our hotel we
heard someone calling us, it was Dede, the leader of our study group from
Hendersonville, North Carolina. We knew she was at the parliament but had no
idea she would be there to greet us; she just “happened” to be passing by as we
arrived. There was also a covered walkway from our hotel to the convention
center where the parliament was held. There was no reason for us to go outside
for anything.
The
above photo was taken from our room; if you look carefully, in the upper right
of the photo is a faint string of lights. Those lights are in the United States
on the other side of Lake Ontario.
Pato Banton in
concert
There
were so many events that it was not possible to attend more than a tiny
fraction. One of the most joyous was a concert by reggae singer Pato Banton in
the white cap and jacket above. One of his songs is “Life is a Miracle;” it was
impossible to sit still during his concert as you can see.
The Urantia Book booth was well
attended and active. I understand more than 70 UB students were in attendance.
Several of the other booths I visited were familiar with this revelation.
I
will only mention a few booths that grabbed my attention. One such was the
Canadian Multifaith Federation, founded in 1972; today it has over 30 faith
groups. It advocates for spiritual and religious care in institutions; we
purchased a chart there that depicted the Golden Rule as stated by 13 different
faiths.
Children’s theater
While
waiting for our flight in Charlotte I noticed a young man wearing a black top
hat, strange costume for a flight. The next day at the Parliament I discovered
the Children’s Theater shown above. Top hat wearer is playing drums in the
lower left corner of the photo; the puppets told stories for the children.
The
Sikh religion had a large presence at the Parliament, for example every noon
they held Langar , which is a free community kitchen. This practice of free
lunch was initiated more than 500 years ago and its purpose is for everyone to
sit and eat as equals.[1]
BettyLou
and I were exploring the various exhibits when we became interested in the
Shumei booth. Their founder, Mokichi
Okada taught that a world free of sickness, poverty, and strife could be
achieved through spiritual healing, a reverence for nature, and the appreciation
of art. We naturally knew nothing about their organization. They asked us to
sit down and close our eyes for about five minutes while they appeared to stand
before us and hold their hands over our heads. Partway through the procedure, (some
sort of spiritual healing) I was more aware of sounds around me and I began to
feel energized. Both of us felt rejuvenated by whatever it was. The effect
lasted for some time; we even returned the next day for another treatment.
Mantra art
The
reflective mantra art by Dr. Juss Kaur was an impressive series of paintings.
Each element of the paintings is a single phrase repeated over and over, a
technique called pointillism. The language is similar to Sanskrit and the
phrase translates roughly as “the infinite divine teacher within each sentient
being.” Sounds like our Thought Adjuster.
The
last day I felt compelled to look for a booth that I had visited earlier; I
kept looking for one that had stacks of blue paperback books. I had spoken to
the one manning the booth briefly and was surprised he knew about The Urantia Book. Now I had to get one
of those books. I felt led to that booth; it was sponsored by the World
Constitution and Parliament Association, which is the creator and sponsor of
the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. This Constitution is an
impressive document outlining the structure for a government based on the
sovereignty of all mankind; exactly what the following quote says is the way
for Earth to achieve world peace.
I
will soon start another blog promoting my book “Light of Truth, Dark Forces are
Operating on Planet Earth.” There will be an email announcing the blog and
inviting each of you to subscribe; please respond to that email if you wish to
be added to the new blog list.
World peace cannot be maintained by
treaties, diplomacy, foreign policies, alliances, balances of power, or any
other type of makeshift juggling with the sovereignties of nationalism. World
law must come into being and must be enforced by world government — the
sovereignty of all mankind.
(Urantia Book p 1491.3)
All
photos were taken by a Pixel 2 phone.
[1] www.sikhwiki.org/index.php/Langar,
retrieved 12/24/18
