Thy Kingdom Come
/TODAY’S READING:
372.3-373.2
The fundamental question that leads many people to follow a Spritual path is the very question that Ernest Holmes doesn’t answer in today’s reading. That feels ironic to me.
What is that question? It is, “Why am I here?”
Holmes is right. It is completely unanswerable. Life is. That’s fundamental. Why we exist is because we are the outlet for life’s perfect expression. We are not the only expression. All matter is some form of life expressed (even if it isn’t the defined form of life we rely on). All matter has some degree of “livingness.” Anyone who has studied Thomas Troward (a major influence on Holmes) can tell you that he taught this very notion. He divided the degrees of livingness into “kingdoms of consciousness” to describe levels of expression.
His levels: the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom, and the Spiritual kingdom.
The Spiritual kingdom is the kingdom in which we are awakened to the Truth of being. It is here that we look beyond the rudimentary understanding and belief in our limitation to the circumstances of our lives—and we open to the Infinite wholeness with the full knowledge that we are Spiritually developed. This is in contrast to the human kingdom which is limited, really, to the notion that we have no control over the circumstances of life. We are subject to what shows up, and we can be victimized by it.
Who has fully embraced the Spiritual kingdom? I would suggest that Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, and the like. Are we there? I think many of us straddle the fourth and fifth kingdoms. There are days when it’s very clear that we are elevated above circumstances, and there are days when we might fall short of that ideal.
It is through Spiritual practice that we let the former days outweigh the latter days.
So what is it going to be today? Will you take charge and live in the fifth kingdom, the kingdom of Spirit… or will you stay rooted in the fourth kingdom, the human kingdom? The decision is entirely up to you.