Wisdom Nuggets

The Kingdom of God – a reflection from Lawrence Freeman, World Community of Christian Meditation.

The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom is not a place we are going to, is not a reward that we have for being good. The Kingdom is the reality of the presence of God. Where is it? Jesus says on one occasion:

“You cannot observe when the Kingdom of God will come. You cannot say, ‘Look, here it is or there it is,’ because in fact the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”

This word that we translate as ‘within’ can also be translated as ‘among’. So the Kingdom is non-dualistic. It cannot be limited by space or time.

So, the Kingdom is, in a sense, an experience that we enter into, an experience that transforms us. It’s a transmission of consciousness. How do we enter the Kingdom of God? That’s his teaching. I think the Kingdom of God is parallel with the teaching of nirvana. Maybe there are differences, but probably the best parallel is nirvana. And how do we find nirvana? How do we enter the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven? Well, that’s the teaching. That’s how Jesus teaches us, by example and by word, by the example of his life. It was a life of engagement with his contemporary situation, with politics, with the people, with the crises of his time. He was not remote from his contemporaries, but he also took time to withdraw from active life, from speaking, from teaching. He would retire to solitary places to pray alone in the early hours of the morning, or in company with his disciples.