Discovering the Kingdom

Kingdom of God

“Jesus said, If those who lead you say to you, 'Look, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds will get there before you do. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' the fish will get there first. Instead the kingdom is inside of you—and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourself, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father. If, however, you do not come to know yourselves, then you dwell in poverty, and you are that poverty.”

                                The Gospel of Thomas, Verse 3

You may think that I harp on this theme—know yourself—and you would be right. I harp on it because it is the single most important piece of spiritual development. We all think we know ourselves pretty well; after all, we've been living in this body/mind since we've been we, right? Well, if you understand that fully two thirds of our consciousness is un-conscious, then you might think about it differently. Knowing yourself requires that you mine the unconscious for all its motives and defenses and subterfuges. It requires that you delve around in its dark-side as well as its light. We are strangely and wonderfully made.

Digging the depths is work at times, but sometimes a realization springs into awareness seemingly out of nowhere. It may be a 'mood' or a 'feeling' or simply an understanding that comes to you unbidden. Sometimes clarity comes in dreams. It is as though we have to stop thinking and go to sleep, where our psyche, which is not under the control of our thinking mind, can simply lay it out for us. Many scientists, artists, musicians and writers have discovered their master work in a dream.

Looking at motive is not only good for solving crimes, it is good for discovering what makes us tic. In my own experience, discovering motive is like pealing an onion or pulling the petals off a rosebud. Let's say, you do a good deed--maybe take dinner to a sick friend. The first layer is what your persona believes is the motive (I did it because I'm expected to), the second belongs to your ego (I did it so that I would look good), the third comes from your ethical training (I did it because that's what good people do), and so on down the line until you get to the child part of you (I did it because I need to be loved). Now we're talking! I'm not saying that doing a good deed is a bad thing, I'm just saying that it is one vehicle for self-discovery. Doing a bad deed is a journey of discovery, too.

If we don't know all of ourselves, then we are living a half-life, a superficial existence—poverty, as Thomas says. We are a rich source for understanding life itself, the workings of the universe, and the reality of the kingdom of the living God. All the same. All one piece. Undivided.

                                                   In the spirit,

                                                      Jane