What does the pointing, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within,” mean? Typically, people have used this statement as a pointer to where the Kingdom of Heaven is, and have looked inside their minds and bodies. This has produced some sense of peace, but also lots of frustration.
The suggestion here is to consider the statement, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within,” as pointing to what the Kingdom of Heaven is. The Kingdom of Heaven is the within-ness. It is your true essence. When Christ said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, but men do not see it,” he was referring to the Divine essence of everything. He was pointing to what the Kingdom of Heaven is, not where it is.
In a related observation, Luke 17 states: Jesus replied, “The coming of the Kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” Again, you are pointed to that eternal Divine essence of everything.
Christ states “It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Christ is, again, pointing to the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven as your essence, and as long as you remain tied to identification with the body and relative phenomenon, you will not recognize your Divine essence.
When you ask the question, “Who or what am I?,” you find a nothingness, a pure awareness. When you look within, you find that which is boundless. From this pure awareness, ‘within’ and ‘without’ have no meaning, since the nothingness is pervasive. This boundless awareness is the very essence of the Kingdom of Heaven being pointed to. It is spread upon the earth and not seen because we are focused on the gross phenomenal level, not the essence of Life. We are looking for the Kingdom of Heaven to be an object, when in fact, it is the essence of the subject.
If you wish to find the Kingdom of Heaven, you need to first look at who it is who wants to find the Kingdom of Heaven. The answer to this question will provide the recognition to what is meant by the statement, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within.”
Blessings, Steve and Bec