The Kingdom Within

By Dick MacDonald

1986

 

 

 

You have before you a graphic illustration of the ascension plan as delineated in Paper 542:3 & 4 and Paper 553:4.

 

A study of this path the ascender must follow gives us some concept of the inspiration, challenges, and responsibilities we encounter after we have given up the mortal body.

 

This study today is an attempt to make us conscious of the tremendous potential within ourselves to experience, through a kind of secondary induction, a foretaste of that heritage we will come into as we begin our progress to higher spiritual levels.  This can come about through a certain rapport the individual may experience within himself under the conditions outlined by Jesus as he taught his followers that the Kingdom of Heaven is of a dual nature, existing within, as well as without.

 

When I first began gathering material from The URANTIA Book on the subject of   “The Kingdom Within" it seemed simple enough, but the farther I got into it the more impressed I became with the vast amount of detailed information available.

 

Therefore it is apparent that this presentation or any similar subject can hardly do more than scratch the surface of the complete subject as found in the URANTIA teachings.

 

It is hoped that this presentation which is hardly more than a synopsis of the subject, may encourage its listeners to take the time to study in detail this profound subject as found primarily in Papers 85-through 91 and Paper 170.

 

 

Much has been written and a great deal more said about the Kingdom within.  This concept has been with us now for nearly two thousand years, but its questionable if it is any better understood in this day and age than it was at the time Jesus of Nazareth first introduced the Kingdom concept to his apostles and subsequent disciples.

 

Most everyone within the perimeter of Christianity is ac­quainted with the concept of the Kingdom of Heaven; but when one is questioned about the Kingdom within - it usually draws a blank.

 

What is this Kingdom within?

 

Most people I believe, still think of the Kingdom of Heaven as being in some far off, nebulous place in time and space which can only be attained by passing through the portals of death.

 

But to the believers in the URANTIA teachings this is not true for Jesus taught that The Kingdom of Heaven is within, and that it is a spiritual kingdom, and further it is stated on page 1861:2, to quote: "Jesus taught that, by faith, the believer enters the kingdom now.

 

To distinguish between the differences of these two kingdoms, we find on pages 1860:12-13 and 1861:1 the following quotes:

 

"On this afternoon the Master distinctly taught a new concept of the double nature of the kingdom in that he portrayed the following two phases:

 

First.           The kingdom of God in this world, the supreme desire to do the will of God, the unselfish love of man which yields the good fruits of improved ethical and moral conduct.

 

Second.        The Kingdom of God in heaven, the goal of mortal believers, the estate wherein the love for God is perfected, and wherein the will of God is done more divinely.”

 

For the purpose of this talk we will consider what Jesus said pertaining to the requirements for entering the kingdom now. Continuing on page 1861, items one and two we read, quote:

 

1)        Faith, sincerity.  To come as a little child, to receive the bestowal of son-ship as a gift; to submit to the doing of the Father's will without questioning and in the full confidence and genuine trustfulness of the Father's wisdom; to come into the kingdom free from prejudice and preconception; to be open-minded and teachable like an unspoiled child.

 

2)       Truth hunger.  The thirst for righteousness, a change of mind, the acquirement of the motive to be like God and to find God.

 

It hardly needs mentioning that there are two basic phenomena in the mortal makeup of the normal individual; the objective state of intellectual comprehension, and its subjective compliment, the inner world of feeling.

 

The mind of man consists of three levels; the subconscious, the objective mind, and the superconsciousness.  On page 997B we are told simply, that the conscious mind turns to the subconscious for acquired experiences of living from which come the wisdom of comparative judgments that enable decisions. It looks to the superconscious for the inspiration, values, and guidance that are associated with indwelling divine Adjusters. This is well defined on page 996:5, which states that, quote:

 

"During the earlier times of racial evolution and even at the present time, in the day-by-day experience of the average mortal, prayer is very much a phenomenon of man’s intercourse with his own subconscious.  But there is also a domain of prayer wherein the intellectually alert and spiritually progressing individual attains more or less contact with the superconscious levels of the human mind, the domain of the indwelling Thought Adjuster.”

 

It is in the interrelationship of these three aspects of consciousness that enables man to function in his environment, and through his acts of living his mortal life, make the progressive steps we see in the study of the evolvement of the human species as it elevates to higher and higher spiritual levels.

 

Perhaps the best way to approach the study of the kingdom within is to first review the major steps primitive man made as he progressed upward in his struggle to objectify his expanding concept of a deity he could not see but with whom he was strongly motivated to worship; this was brought about when primitive man first began to feel the influence of the 6th adjutant mind spirit which with its strong influence of worship subsequently produced prayer and religion.

 

On page 944:1-4, we read, "Primitive religion had a biologic origin, a natural evolutionary development, aside from moral associations and apart from all spiritual influences.  The higher animals have fears but no illusions, hence no religion.  Man creates his primitive religions out of his fears and by means of his illusions.  In the evolution of the human species, worship in its primitive manifestations appears long before the mind of man is capable of formulating the more complex concepts of life now and in the hereafter, which deserve to be called religion. Early religion was wholly intellectual in nature and was entirely predicated on associational circumstances.

 

The objects of worship were altogether suggestive; they con­sisted of the things of nature which were close at hand, or which loomed large in the commonplace experience of the simple-minded primitive Urantians.  When religion once evolved beyond nature worship, it acquired roots of spirit origin but was nevertheless always conditioned by the social environment. As nature worship developed, man's concepts envisioned a division of labor in the supermortal world; there were nature spirits for lakes, trees, waterfalls, rain, and hundreds of other ordinary terrestrial phenomena.       At one time or another mortal man has worshipped everything on the face of the earth, including himself.  He has also worshipped about everything imaginable in the sky and beneath the surface of the earth.  Primitive man feared all manifestations of power; he worshipped every natural phenomenon he could not comprehend.  The observation of powerful natural forces, such as storms, floods, earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, fire, heat, and cold, greatly impressed the expanding mind of man.  The inexplicable things of life are still termed "acts of God" and "mysterious dispensations of Providence."

 

So, ever and always, and still, does man tend to objectify his growing concept of deity, perhaps never giving any thought to the fact that the finite can never capture in objectivity that which is infinite.

 

To further our study of the Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom within we find on page 1862, section (4), the following:

 

"Jesus never gave a precise definition of the kingdom.  At one time he would discourse on one phase of the kingdom and at another time he would discuss a different aspect of the brotherhood of God's reign in the hearts of men.  In the course of this Sabbath afternoon's sermon, Jesus noted no less than five phases, or epochs, of the Kingdom, and they were:

 

1)      The personal and inward experience of the spiritual life of the fellowship of the individual believer with God the Father.

 

2)      The enlarging brotherhood of gospel believers, the social aspects of the enhanced morals and quickened ethics resulting from the reign of God's spirit in the hearts of individual believers.

 

3)      The supermortal brotherhood of invisible spiritual beings which prevails on earth and in heaven, the superhuman kingdom of God,

 

 

4)      The prospect of the more perfect fulfillment of the will of God, the advance to-ward the dawn of a new social order in connection with improved spiritual living--the next age of man.

 

5)      The kingdom in its fullness, the future spiritual age of light and life on earth.

 

 

Of these five phases Jesus spoke of, there is only one phase that seems to have a direct relationship to the inner kingdom with which we are concerned.  That is phase one which, quoting again states: "The personal and inward experience of the spiritual life of the fellowship of the individual believer with God the Father."

 

It is important to keep this strongly in mind as we continue, for these few words encompasses that area of the kingdom within specified by Jesus as it actually exists in the heart and very being of man through his awareness of the presence and fellowship of God.

 

Very little has ever specifically been said on how to attain this inner communion with the Father until it was beautifully revealed in paper 996 (3) and paper 997.

 

Here we are told that, and I quote,

 

"Children, when first learning to make use of language, are prone to think out loud, to express their thoughts in words, even if no one is present to hear the.  With the dawn of creative imagination they evince a tendency to converse with imaginary companions.  In this way a budding ego seeks to hold communion with a fictitious alter ego.  By this technique the child early learns to convert his monologue conversations into pseudo dialogues in which this alter ego makes replies to his verbal thinking and wish expression.  Very much of an adult's thinking is mentally carried on in conversational form.

 

As it is conceived by successive generations of praying mortals, the alter ego evolves up through ghosts, fetishes, and spirits to polytheistic gods, and eventually to the One God, a divine being embodying the highest ideals and the loftiest aspirations of the praying ego.

 

 

And thus does prayer function as the most potent agency of religion in the conservation of the highest values and ideals of those who pray.  From the moment of the conceiving of an alter ego to the appearance of the concept of a divine and heavenly Father, prayer is always a socializing, moralizing, and spiritualizing practice.

 

Enlightened prayer must recognize not only an external and personal God but also an internal and impersonal Divinity, the indwelling Adjuster. It is altogether fitting that man, when he prays, should strive to grasp the concept of the Universal Father on Paradise; but the more effective tech­nique for most practical purposes will be to revert to the concept of a near-by alter ego, just as the primitive mind was wont to do, and then to recognize that the idea of this alter ego has evolved from a mere fiction to the truth of God's indwelling mortal man in the factual presence of the Adjuster so that man can talk face to face, as it were, with a real and genuine and divine alter ego that indwells him and is the very presence and essence of the living God, the Universal Father.”

 

 

In Volume 11, Number 1, of the Spring issue of the periodical THE URANTIAN, a Journal of URANTIA Brotherhood, the foregoing thoughts are clearly echoed in an article written by Marvin Gawryn.  The title of the article is The Inner Conversation: Unbroken Communion with God.

 

Each of you has before you a copy of this extraordinary extract from the Journal.  Here follows some quotes taken from several sections.

 

The URANTIA Book asserts that the heart of religion is a living relationship with God.  Such communion must not be limited to religious services or peak experiences.  It should be habitual, an ongoing moment-to-moment process of inner sharing.  One of the revelation's most startling pronouncements is that such Father-child communion can be constant.  Continuous communion is attainable.  Indeed, it is a methodological key without equal, a “secret” of great spiritual leverage.

 

The secret of (Jesus) unparalleled religious life was this consciousness of the presence of God; and he attained it by intelligent prayer and sincere worship--unbroken communion with God..." (2089:l) “...the divine bestowals may flow to the hearts and souls of those who thus remember to maintain unbroken communion with their Maker through sincere prayer and true worship.” (2066:1)

 

The method is remarkably straightforward. While it takes persistent effort to form the habit, it involves simply an ongoing conversation, an internal dialogue with the Father.  In every situation we can "talk" continuously, inwardly, with the very best listener.  And we in turn can listen--pause to be attentive to the Father's constant communication to us, his nourishing love and wise guidance.  When we are conversing with God, it is easy to remember that he is actually present.

 

Unbroken communion is a habit.  It takes persistent effort at first to develop it, but eventually it becomes automatic and relatively effortless.

 

We should not wonder if, in the beginning, we often failed in our endeavors, but at last we should gain a habit, which will naturally produce its acts in us without our care, and to our exceeding great delight.

 

Pray remember what I have recommended to you, which is, to think often on God, by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions.  He is always near you and with you; leave Him not alone.  You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you; why, then, must God be neglected?"

 

As this presentation comes to an end, there is something of extreme value and importance for each of us to think about in the days to come.  It is a quotation followed by a few closing remarks.

In turning to page 66:5 we find a paragraph which states:

 

"The Creator or Sovereign Sons who preside over the destinies of the local universes stand in the place of both the Universal Father and the Eternal Son of Paradise.  These Universe Sons receive, in the name of the Father, the adoration of worship and give ear to the pleas of their petitioning subjects throughout their respective creations.  To the children of a local universe a Michael Son is, to all practical intents and purposes, God."

 

And as Jesus has said, "the Father and I are one." According to this it would seem that in keeping with the technique of evolving an alter ego to the level of divine dignity, and trying as Marvin Gawryn has portrayed, living continually with the presence of God, we might very well use our personal concept of Jesus of Nazareth as our alter ego with whom we try to maintain an unbroken consciousness of, and communion with, throughout every episode in our daily life; for he is an objectified counterpart of our Sovereign Creator Son, Michael of Nebadon.

 

This then, would be as close as mortal man could ever come to finitely realize the infinity of God the Father.

 

The Kingdom Within

Questions for Discussion

 

 

 

STATEMENT:

 

From what has just been reviewed there are two basic aspects of the presentation.

 

1)      Man is always trying to objectify his concepts of deity.

 

2)      Seeking communion with the kingdom within and how?

 

 

I           From what has just been reviewed about primitive man's attempt to objectify his ever changing concepts of deity, what is your reaction to the concept of Jesus as being your alter ego, an objectified counterpart of our Sovereign Creator Son Michael, the God of our Local Universe?

 

II         Do you think that this in any way dilutes our worship of our Universal Father in Paradise?  (Page References: 63:2, 64:(2)3, 65:(3)2, 84:3, 36:2-3.)

 

III       We know that Jesus at his level of divinity was able to maintain unbroken communion with the Father in Heaven.  To what extent do you think it possible for man at his present level of spiritual development to maintain a high degree of on-going communion with the Father?

 

IV       Do your think that maintaining continuous communion to the best of our ability with our alter ego diminishes in any way any "peak" religious experiences we might attain through meditation?

 

V         That is your concept of the superconscious mind as related to the Thought Adjuster?

 

VI       Do you think the seven (7) adjutant mind spirits work through the superconsciousness or the subconscious mind levels?

 

VII      Do you have any comments to make on the subject of meditation.  What is your idea of the proper technique?