It’s a long, long race

Figured out one of the reasons it takes so long to move through the UB. I’m constantly reformulating the concepts in the UB into my own personal understanding because as I age, and gain more life experience, the UB teachings come to mean more and more. Though the UB is a partial revelation of cosmic truth, I’ll probably not understand the fullness of even this partial revelation in one lifetime.

Infinity vs. Eternity

From what I infer, eternity is a reference to time, and only time. It doesn’t apply to space, mind, spirit, personality or any other concept, just time.

Infinity, on the other hand, seems to mean an endless supply of something, and you often see it modify various concepts like those above, and more.  I often think of eternity as an infinity of time.

This distinction is small (or infinite! Ha! Sorry, couldn’t resist), but a deeper understand of the Papers often turns on definitions like these. It seems this is why the UB often refers to God, the Universal Father, as “The Infinite” but not “The Eternal”. Infinity encompasses Eternity.

Can machines live?

No. Machines cannot live.

It’s a popular science fiction idea that machines can come to life, with the singular purpose of taking over mankind (of course). Having worked in IT for 11+ years, I figured this only made for good entertainment, since I couldn’t reason how a computer could develop imagination, much less life. This was my own theory, and I always liked to back it up with ideas from the UB. Here’s one from Paper 42, Energy – Mind and Matter.

The foundation of the universe is material, but the essence of life is spirit. ^{(467.3)42:1.1}

… forever will scientists be powerless to … add to matter that which we call life. ^{(468.1)42:1.4}

Can a machine receive a spirit? Excellent question, I don’t know just yet. The papers make it clear that we cannot add life to matter, not even through normal childbirth. We assist with the development of the material body, but bestowing life is a perogative of Divinity.