JRMcC
Active Member
What does this mean? I've looked at this page “The Kingdom of God Is Within You” - Life, Hope & Truth but I'm wondering if people here have other explanations or interpretations.
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"The kingdom of God is within you"
- Thread starter JRMcC
- Start date
St. Ephraim the Syrian says it quite beautifully and simply: "If the Son of God is within you, then His Kingdom is also within you. Thus, the Kingdom of God is within you, a sinner. Enter into yourself, search diligently and without toil you shall find it. Outside of you is death, and the door to it is sin. Enter into yourself, dwell within your heart, for God is there.”
And St. Isaac of Syria says this in his Mystical Treatises:
"Be zealous to enter the treasury within thee ; then thou wilt see that which is in heaven. For the former and the latter are one, and entering thou wilt see both. The ladder unto the Kingdom is hidden within thee and within thy soul. Dive into thyself freed from sin; there thou wilt find steps along which thou canst ascend.
And St. Isaac of Syria says this in his Mystical Treatises:
"Be zealous to enter the treasury within thee ; then thou wilt see that which is in heaven. For the former and the latter are one, and entering thou wilt see both. The ladder unto the Kingdom is hidden within thee and within thy soul. Dive into thyself freed from sin; there thou wilt find steps along which thou canst ascend.
godnotgod
Thou art That
This is a mystical statement. Yeshu ('Jesus') was a mystical Jew. Mystics seek divine union within, rather than relying on belief in a doctrine which puts God in a Heaven in the sky accessible only after death. Yeshu is saying that the divine nature is accessible in the here and now. He also indicated this in Matt 18:3:
“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
'turn', meaning to 'turn inward' toward the inner spiritual life, and away from the moralistic indoctrination of society, which is about good and evil and judgment. To 'become like children' means to see as they do, which is non-jugmental, making no distinction between good and evil. This state of mind is what Krishnamurti called 'innocency', which is a mind not caught by societal technique.
What occurs when an inner spiritual transformation of consciousness occurs is that one's vision of the external world also becomes transformed. While trees and mountains are still trees and mountains, one now sees them as they actually are, rather than through the lens of the conditioned mind.
from Nicolas of Cusa, we have:
'The place wherein Thou art found unveiled is girt round with the coincidence of contradictions, and this is the wall of Paradise wherein Thou dost abide. The door whereof is guarded by the most proud spirit of Reason, and, unless he be vanquished, the way in will not lie open.'
Nicholas of Cusa
Paradox
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lovemuffin
τὸν ἄρτον τοῦ ἔρωτος
Isaac of Syria and Nicolas of Cusa mentioned in the same thread and not by me? swoon
allfoak
Alchemist
ταμεῖον? I don't believe it.
(John 14: 23) “Anyone who loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make a home in him.”
Jesus told us that those who lived his Commandments would prove they loved him. And those who loved him would become a home of God’s. God’s home is the kingdom of God.
Jesus then told us that that he would love, and show himself to those who kept his commandments.
One knows for sure that God has made a home in him or her when Jesus shows himself to them.
(John 14:21) “Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by My Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him.”
Jesus told us that those who lived his Commandments would prove they loved him. And those who loved him would become a home of God’s. God’s home is the kingdom of God.
Jesus then told us that that he would love, and show himself to those who kept his commandments.
One knows for sure that God has made a home in him or her when Jesus shows himself to them.
(John 14:21) “Anybody who receives my commandments and keeps them will be one who loves me; and anybody who loves me will be loved by My Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him.”
In this link it says, "In this passage, entos (the Greek word that is translated “within”) can also be translated “in the midst of". That is actually not true. It has been translated that way because of theological reasons, not because the language supports it.
This study here goes into depth as to why it is in fact only correctly translated as "inside" you, such as it is used when Jesus says to make clean the "inside" of the cup first. Never, anywhere, is that word entos translated as "in the midst" or "among" you. There is no supporting use of the word elsewhere legitimately translated other than "inside". http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol12No2/HV12N2Ramelli.pdf
JRMcC
Active Member
I can tell these are all very thoughtful answers, but to be honest I'm still a little bit confused. It's not the entire kingdom that's within you, right? Does it mean if you look inward you can catch a glimpse of the kingdom of God? I'm reminded of this quote from Kaivalya Upanishad: "They meditate on the immortal source of all dwelling in one's heart - untainted and pure, silent and blissful, transcendent and formless, infinite, sacred and peaceful...without beginning, middle or end, one, all pervasive, conscious-fulness, formless and amazing." Is it at all like that or does it have more to do with having a personal relationship with Jesus?
Sorry, I know this isn't comparative religion but I haven't thought about Christianity in this way before and I'm trying to understand.
Sorry, I know this isn't comparative religion but I haven't thought about Christianity in this way before and I'm trying to understand.
Politesse
Amor Vincit Omnia
Jesus often taught that focusing on the outward is deceiving; the outside of the cup, the size of the seed, giving voice to your lusts, the ethnicity of a man, the gender of a woman, being seen giving money at temple or heard delivering loud prayers... Focusing on how things look is opening your self up to both self-deceit and deceit by others. True worship, true life comes from the inside, and it is from the inside that the things which really matter come from. Thus, "from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" and "speak not thy prayer aloud" and the idea of a kingdom that is built from within the heart. We're the building blocks of the kingdom of heaven. If our hearts are good, then the kingdom is bountiful. If our hearts are sick, there is no kingdom, just a lot of buildings and a powerfully lonely King.
I do not think it is like the Upanishad exactly, because it is a slightly different lesson that is being taught. It's not so much that Jesus saw the deepest self as inherently pure, more that one ought to focus one's efforts on purifying the inner self before the outer, and definitely the self before correcting others. I think it would be okay for a Christian to believe in the former message though without transgressing the Scriptures, which also describe us as fearfully and wonderfully made.
allfoak
Alchemist
I know this is not going to sit well with a number of people here.
i am sorry.
It seems to me that the original purpose of all of the major religions has been lost.
christianity and islam have nothing but belief.
the rest rely mainly on meditation to see the light.
my understanding is that religion is about transfomation in order to become one with God, Allah, the light etc.
Jesus is an allegorical representation of perfection.
all of scripture as well as the great myths of the ancients were written as guides to transformation.
they are allegorical representations of the workings of the laws and forces of nature as well as a pattern of the mind and how it works.
when seen from this perspective one learns that they have an eternal soul that is over many lifetimes coming to perfection.
this makes the reason for being here rather important.
it takes the concepts of being born again and the virgin birth to a new level.
psychoslice
Veteran Member
I feel as a Christian that it means what it means, heaven is within us all, this realization has made my life whole.
Of course the entire Kingdom of God is within you. Can you divide God?
The problem was, and is, people try to locate God is a place or in a time or event. They fail to see what just simply is by separating themselves from it. To instruct one to see the Kingdom within themselves, removes the obstacles that prevent sight altogether. When one realizes the Kingdom of God within themselves, they see God in everything, they see what is and has been everywhere and no-"where" at all. The Infinite is Infinite in everything, Infinite within yourself, Infinite within every flower, within every person, within every molecule, not in parts, not partially, but fully. It is a paradoxical "Kingdom" which is immeasurable and undivided, within each individual.
So when your eyes become opened, there is no separation of inside and outside where God ends and you begin. That which is without is within, and that which is within is without. The only separation is the mind of darkness which does not live in this Kingdom, but within its sense of isolation, the world created in the mind, the veil of flesh.
Jesus was saying quit imagining its somewhere coming in the future, some thing, some event, some system. Simply see, by coming to know that One within.
More than that. You come to a knowledge of God and of yourself in God. It often begins in glimpses, but we withdraw from it because we fear being subsumed by it.
Isn't that the same thing?
What is kingdom? It is life, work, defence, hopefully no offence, and a king. When everything in a kingdom runs well, people on the outside see what? I think power they see.. The Kingdom of God is power. Where is the power? Isn't it on the inside? God The Person does not dwell within imho. The power to know righteousness and the power to choose righteousness is inside a person and hearing from The King is inside a person.
So the whole kingdom is not inside a person. But all the power of the kingdom can be inside a person. The kingdom is within means that is where God's Kingdom of righteousness and power is found.
Jesus says "let God's will be done". God's Kingdom does God's will.
Does the prayer "let God's will be done" means through a person or to a person? If it is through then God's Kingdom is within. But if it is to then God's Kingdom is without.
Yes, but paradoxically, the Kingdom also exists fully in every other person, as well as outside of us. Where Jesus is, there is the Kingdom. When Jesus is within us, it isn't just a part of Him, but Him in His entirety, yet He is also present everywhere else in His creation in His entirety. This is the mystery and the awesomeness of God's omnipresence.
Yes to both, and this concept is central to the Tradition of Orthodox Christianity. We aren't meant to merely view and contemplate God, but rather to be in communion with Jesus and share in His Divine Life, just as He shared (and still shares) in our human life.
It's perfectly fine in my book. This way of understanding Christianity is at the heart of Orthodox Christianity, and while Orthodoxy cannot be compared to Hinduism or Buddhism, nor is Orthodoxy influenced by these Dharmic religions, there are points of convergence between our religions where we end up expressing the same concepts and ideas. If using parts from the scriptures or sayings of the Dharmic religions is helpful for you to start getting an understanding of the mystical traditions expressed in Orthodox Christianity and parts of the Western Christian mystical tradition, I say praise be to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.