Cyclic Existence Until The Advent Of The Kingdom

Jesus said time and time again, 'the Kingdom is at hand.' A major thing repeated in the New Testament, is that the Kingdom of Heaven is coming, it is immanent. And yet, this was all said 2,000 years ago. For many, this just disproves all of it. Of course, since this is an obvious thing, Christians have their ideas on what he meant, why this doesn't disprove anything. However, I think it is something worth thinking about. Now, really the idea I am getting at is beyond Christianity, it's just the most obvious system to reference in this context.

I think that the Kingdom, perfect reality, is imminent, in just the same way it was 2,000 years ago. I think that time is a sort of illusion which traps our minds and keeps it from actualizing the Kingdom. Themes of worldly existence endlessly repeat. The Kingdom will never be actualized in time. This is why Jesus repeatedly stressed, not having any thought for the world whatsoever. He basically stated an inverse relationship between the world and heaven, flesh and spirit. The more of your mind's energy is wrapped up in the world, the less it is in spirit, the further it is away from realizing the Kingdom. I think that each and every one of us is the Son, we are all Christ. But we are not aware, so we are of the world. In this world, suffering is a reality. Suffering is a major part of the illusion which keeps our minds in the world.

The Kingdom is always at hand, but is never actualized. I think the story of Jesus is a sort of metaphor, of the process whereby the Self actualizes the Kingdom, or the perception of a perfect abode for the Self. The world is a drama which endlessly repeats, until the Kingdom is actualized. And the Kingdom is actualized just by our minds totally detaching from the world. This means concern with worldly things, as well as all discrimination, in terms of scaling things from good to bad, as well as identification of separate objects. There is the world and the Kingdom. The world is in time, the Kingdom is out of time. They are both of a single nature. The world, however, has the illusion of changing, because its objects are constantly changing. And yet it has only one nature, which we do not recognize it due to the illusion, which is the shifting of specifics, thinking things are changing but they never do. And it endlessly repeats, until we detach from it. And when we detach from it, we are born again, and it is then that we actualize the Kingdom.

Matter and Anti-matter annihilate each other.

How can matter experience communion with anti-matter?

Imagination.

Enjoy!

The Kingdom is always at hand...just around the corner to the human psyche....all we have to do is turn around and we could see it there before us....but we are stone blind and deaf too.....

originally posted by: stirling
...but we are stone blind and deaf too.....

Are stones making a mistake by being blind and deaf? Do stones know why they are stones? If a person has no idea why they are blind and deaf and nobody speaks plainly and simply rather than in metaphors... can they really be expected to change? Just because something is clear to those with "vision" doesn't mean the blind can't also see clearly when translated into their language. How many with "vision" can read braille?

Should I ridicule and dismiss the blind as broken for not stopping at a red light when it was I who asked them to drive?

I think that was very said. I believe that was what Jesus was trying to tell us, that the Kingdom of Heaven was here, in you, in me. In the Kingdom there is no time. Time is a dimensional construct of this universe, but God is not subject to time, but rather the creator thereof.

I think about when Jesus scolded the priests, saying "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in."

So Jesus was saying entry was there at hand, but was being shut up by those for whom the entry of men was made responsible.

Anyway, I just wanted to compliment and thank you. I think it was a beautifully written thread.

I agree with stirling Definition of at-hand means close by time or space. Could be that Yeshua implied space but latter writings confused it with time.

a reply to: TheJourney
The kingdom is not coming - the kingdom is here and now always but the mind thinks time. The mind is time - without mind where is time??
Presently it is the present - the present is the kingdom. In presence thoughts of time (past and future, prior and coming, before and after) arise. No thing can appear outside the present (the kingdom). Within the kingdom all appearances appear.

There is only the kingdom of God - there is nothing other. Yet the mind will lead one astray - it will make believe that there is somewhere else, some when else but it is just words arising, just talking happening - if one buys into what the speech mind says then one will feel banished and separate from Gods presence.

The kingdom (perfect reality) is what is actually happening - what else is there? The thing is no one can do anything about what is actually happening right now - it makes one feel powerless - the mind though likes to 'think' it can control reality so it tries to change the past and the future but the past and future do not exist now so the mind really has no power over another time. This is the suffering. When one can just see that which is arising now, one may be amazed to find it all works perfectly. Human stress is caused by trying to do or change something in time - this stops when it is found that there is no time.



The misconception is that you are a separate thing travelling in time and that you (as a thing) have a beginning and an end. When really there is no time - there is just what is appearing, the appearance is constantly changing but that which it moves in and on stays the same.
The presence appears to move.

a reply to: TheJourney

The Kingdom is always at hand, but is never actualized. I think the story of Jesus is a sort of metaphor, of the process whereby the Self actualizes the Kingdom, or the perception of a perfect abode for the Self. The world is a drama which endlessly repeats, until the Kingdom is actualized. And the Kingdom is actualized just by our minds totally detaching from the world. This means concern with worldly things, as well as all discrimination, in terms of scaling things from good to bad, as well as identification of separate objects. There is the world and the Kingdom. The world is in time, the Kingdom is out of time.

yes.....

the Kingdom & everlasting life are all contingent on a person's belief...

on the strength of their belief that their own Belief System Construct --- call it a role-play immersion into a all consuming 'Dungeons & Dragons' type of Reality construct...is more real than the physical world they are alive in.

No wonder that 'many' fall away...
One needs to be a real Schizophrenic who goes permanently into their own mind cage

there are few in history who got raptured into paradise...Joan of Arc would be one example

extreme pious people like monks or Sisters that get caught up extreme prayer and in Religious Ecstacy and are pretty much unawares of the mundane world around them

Religious ecstasy, a state of consciousness characterized by expanded spiritual awareness, visions or absolute euphoria

Some have said it better than I,.....Lets just say the Kingdom is WITHIN YOU......
Whats happening outside is illusion we create co operatively from birth.....
Like stations on a frequency band .....you have your choice of realities......yet they are a mere tiny twist of the dial apart....existing simultaneously.......what you expect may just be what you get all too often....

originally posted by: GetOutOfMyLight
Matter and Anti-matter annihilate each other.

How can matter experience communion with anti-matter?

Imagination.

Enjoy!

Two sides of the same coin. They both need each other to be what they're called.

The illusion is that there is space and time to travel to get to somewhere other than there really is. What is there really??
There is what is - what is; is what is actually here presently. The 'idea' is that there is more!! But it is just an 'idea' appearing here. What is appearing is it - the appearance is the glory of God and God is what is seeing the glory. All that appears is the glory of God - ALL that appears including all sensation (colour, sound, fragrance, movement) and all thoughts and all ideas. God himself does not appear because God is the seer of the appearance so cannot be seen.
God sees what is presently appearing - all appears in the kingdom of heaven which is always present.
God sees and knows the current thought which may speak of other times but he does it always presently.

Thoughts of other times when it was better or will be better or might be worse remove the feeling of peace which is ever present. Peace is right here and right now, it is not somewhere else or some when else but the seeking for it elsewhere makes for uneasiness, fragmentation, the feeling of being separate from God's presence. No matter what is happening it is always happening in the kingdom (presence). Nothing can appear to happen without presence and presence has never come or gone.
Presence seems (seams) to be made of two things - the seer and the seen but when the two stop seaming and 'become' one the kingdom shall be revealed.

The separate limited self is seeking for peace - it just needs to dissolve and the kingdom shall be uncovered. When the seeking ends peace is what remains.

originally posted by: Itisnowagain
The illusion is that there is space and time to travel to get to somewhere other than there really is. What is there really??
There is what is - what is; is what is actually here presently. The 'idea' is that there is more!! But it is just an 'idea' appearing here. What is appearing is it - the appearance is the glory of God and God is what is seeing the glory. All that appears is the glory of God - ALL that appears including all sensation (colour, sound, fragrance, movement) and all thoughts and all ideas. God himself does not appear because God is the seer of the appearance so cannot be seen.
God sees what is presently appearing - all appears in the kingdom of heaven which is always present.
God sees and knows the current thought which may speak of other times but he does it always presently.

Thoughts of other times when it was better or will be better or might be worse remove the feeling of peace which is ever present. Peace is right here and right now, it is not somewhere else or some when else but the seeking for it elsewhere makes for uneasiness, fragmentation, the feeling of being separate from God's presence. No matter what is happening it is always happening in the kingdom (presence). Nothing can appear to happen without presence and presence has never come or gone.
Presence seems (seams) to be made of two things - the seer and the seen but when the two stop seaming and 'become' one the kingdom shall be revealed.

So God is the absolute subject. Definitely brings to mind the idea of the 'atman' in Hinduism. And thing kingdom of God is the 'absolute' object of awareness. And presence is the actuality of that experience. And the mind takes you away from the Kingdom because it is abstracting ABOUT what is, rather than what is. Appearances and Atman(Subject) which is Brahma/God. And yet in another since that Self is equally an appearance, just the same as the objects of awareness, which is perhaps the insight of anatman/no-self by the Buddha.