The Arise Festival held a great party on June 7th at the fire pit on Sunrise Ranch, at the foot of the Rimrock. There was a wonderful interchange between people who live here and people visiting. It was touching to hear people speak of their appreciation for Sunrise Ranch and what they feel when they come on this property. I know they are feeling what I felt when I came here for the first time in 1975, and what many people feel when they come into this sacred valley.
For the most part, the people I spoke to didn’t know quite what they were feeling. Some attributed it to the land itself. Some attributed it to the responsible stewardship of this land for many years. I know that what they are perceiving is the reality of heaven on earth being brought by people today and over many decades. In looking at the Rimrock, the reservoir, and the pastures, there is something that is perceived that is not only the form of things but is the heaven of things. Heaven is inherent in the earth, but also brought, potentially, by people in a most profound way. This heaven is a magic which is not seen by everyone. Few people know why it is present, and fewer still know the formula for creating it. If you experience it for yourself you make it available to others, just as it’s available to anyone who comes into this valley.
This Pulse of Spirit outlines the formula for bringing heaven into the earth of your human experience. But I have a more ambitious goal. Through the words of this message, and the images and awareness that they evoke, I want to share the experience that I seek to describe. That experience is the message within the message which is available whenever words that are true and real are written or spoken.
When people visit Sunrise Ranch, they are entering a little world. On a clear, June morning, with the breeze blowing from out of the south over the reservoir, that little world feels like paradise. That little world is heaven. You can feel heaven on earth.
In Jesus’ native tongue, Aramaic, he used the word malkuthakh to name the reality of the experience of heaven. The word was feminine in its form, meaning queendom or kingdom. It was this word malkuthakh that was translated as kingdom in the King James Version of the Bible.
A kingdom is a realm; a little world within the world at large. Jesus spoke about entering the kingdom and he spoke about the kingdom coming. Who wouldn’t want to enter the kingdom? A paradisal world, a world of wonderful experiences. But entering the kingdom is only one part of the formula. Because, to enter the kingdom, you have to be up for letting the kingdom come. And not just letting it come around you. You have to be up for letting it come into you and through you. So these are the two elements of the formula: entering the kingdom as you allow the kingdom to enter you.
There is a wonderful movie—well received by critics and moviegoers alike—that was recently released, The Fault in Our Stars. It is a love story of two young people with cancer. In its own way, the movie portrays the formula for creating the magic of heaven on earth.
The leading lady, Hazel Grace, says this to the leading man:
Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I’m grateful.
Hazel Grace speaks of how the infinite fits within the finite. She says it this way:
There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There’s .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.
So consider your own “finity”—the form of your own body, the forms of the space in which you are right now. Consider the finite time that you are spending to read this message. Even the finite time you have in this lifetime. Now consider how the Infinite is present in the space you are inhabiting. And how the Eternal is present in the timelessness of this present moment, and throughout your lifetime.
The Infinite and the Eternal are always penetrating space and time. They are life, itself, and the reality of Love you know. They are the presence of your very Being. But even though they are penetrating space and time, they are not necessarily penetrating the awareness of people. Sometimes it takes something as dramatic as cancer to awaken a person to the preciousness of the Infinite and the Eternal.
The Infinite and the Eternal are the kingdom. When you let your present awareness be fully penetrated by that reality, it can’t help but come through you. When it does, you are infusing your world with that reality. You are painting all the forms of your world with that reality. When that has occurred, you see the kingdom all around you. Looking at the kingdom of heaven surrounding you, you know you have entered the kingdom. You have your little infinity in the finite space and time that is your life.
Within the Infinite is the true guidance for our life. Jesus taught us to pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. The will of the kingdom contains the guidance it has for us. The kingdom cannot come into you unless you accept the guidance of it, which is the ordering factor for the kingdom. When you do accept its guidance, it comes through you and manifests around you. When a person doesn’t surrender their human will to the will of the kingdom, that stops them from letting the kingdom enter them.
It is interesting that the Aramaic word for “kingdom” was in a feminine form. When you enter the kingdom because you have allowed it to come into your world, you are entering the feminine dynamic of being. The world around us, when it is the kingdom, is a womb—a queendom—where life is born and grows. One of my favorite hymns contains this line:
And God did make the earth a womb where beauty might be born.
“Where Beauty Might Be Born,” by Chris Foster
This is the feminine principle at work in the human experience. The masculine creative principle is represented by the King, or Our Father in Jesus’ prayer. The King represents the Divine Masculine element of our Being, whether we are male or female, relative to our human form. The King is in the kingdom before the kingdom manifests in the world. So to receive the kingdom, you have to receive the King. You have to receive the radiant reality of Being that you are. You have to let the larger You come into your awareness and expression. When the larger reality of You brings the kingdom with You into expression on earth, You create the queendom—the little infinity around you in which life is born. You bring the presence of the feminine creative principle—the Queen, who cares for her queendom. Now your finite life is penetrated by the Infinite. For real.
So let’s be like Hazel Grace and relish our little infinity within our numbered days, however long or short they prove to be. Let’s know the infinity and the eternality of the kingdom, and let it join the world of form through our conscious awareness and expression, creating the queendom on earth.
This is the formula. And the experience.