We come to the realization that the Kingdom of God is within us all. The dogma of Christianity and other organized religions does not provide us with this spiritual foundation or knowledge, really. The ancients taught know yourself. We are of a divine consciousness that inhabits physical temples or bodies that in turn create this material world we find ourselves in. To know ourselves is to know God.

Thomas Merton says in Mystics And Zen Masters (1967),”We must never forget that Christianity is much more than the intellectual acceptance of a religious message by a blind and submissive faith which never understands what the message means except in terms of authoritative interpretations handed down externally by experts in the name of the Church. On the contrary, faith is the door to the full inner life of the Church, a life which includes not only access to an authoritative teaching but above all to a deep personal experience which is at once unique and yet shared by the whole Body of Christ, in the Spirit of Christ.” St. Paul compares this knowledge of God, in the Spirit, to the subjective knowledge that a man has of himself. Just as no one can know my inner self except my own “spirit,” so no one can know God except God’s Spirit, yet this Holy Spirit is given to us, in such a way that God knows himself in us. This experience is utterly real, though it cannot be communicated in terms understandable to those who do not share it. Consequently, St. Paul concludes, “We have the mind of Christ.” Corinthians 2:16. “He who is united to the Lord is one spirit.” (I Corinthians 6:17)

The Kingdom of God finally comes down to that place of “being within,” not a condition we find ourselves in sometime in the future. No, the Kingdom of God is a present, living condition with many possibilities for goodness that we have, but hides like a seed within every individual. It grows naturally, and feeds upon the developing attitudes of love and practicing kind deeds. Behold, like a new plant, it grows gradually until you yourself are part of this garden in the Kingdom of God, within yourself and the world without. Jesus is seen as a prophet who proclaims the Kingdom of God, but Jesus celebrates that Kingdom as already present with his 12 disciples and his followers. Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of Heaven is open and available for everyone.