Of all that I’ve learnt, that which I really know doesn’t come from what I accumulated in my brain, but from the most profound depths of myself, during the short or long moments of pure silence.

Those moments where all is quiet in oneself, where it seems we’re enveloped by an ethereal veil, and where all of a sudden our Inner Master manifests and confirms what the great Master said so long ago:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”

The Master, the Inner Master, God. A while back I wrote a meditation of words, of expressions, of phrases that I used to read or that I used to hear, and which became engraved in my heart. Here they are:

Adepts on the Path, let me greet you with this eternal affirmation: The Kingdom of Heaven is within you. The current illusion of humanity is the overestimation of the intellect which has brought so much to us and which has made possible, thanks to some miraculous techniques a total change of our conditions of life.

Humanity is under the influence of a technological development which seems unable anymore to come to a standstill. New discoveries are being achieved in all fields. The universe is revealing its secrets to science and we’re wearing out and using up all the treasures and resources of our Mother Earth.

The World is no longer in balance. While certain corners of the world are pushed to acquire more and more, other parts of the world suffer from hunger and remain deprived of what’s most essential for life.

Isn’t it about time for us to realise the delusions of our intellectual evolution and commit ourselves to new ways, these ways which are emerging more and more and which from all time the wise men and women of all civilisations pointed out to be in the scope of one science: the science of the soul?

How odd that scholars know details about the tiniest of insects they can’t see with the naked eye, yet don’t even know the why and how of their own existence?

Why do geneticists know so much about plants, animals and humans but don’t look into the mystery of their own beings and into the characteristics of their own persona? How is it that humanity can cross the universe in all senses, even land on the Moon, but isn’t able to find the path which leads us to ourselves?

“The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”

Adepts of the path, permit me to repeat to you this age-old message. It’s the message of the boundless smile of the Sphinx which rises up calm and serene on the sands of Egypt.

It’s the message formulated in different terms by the German mystic of the 13th and 14th centuries, Meister Eckhart: “God is at the centre of Man.”

St Thomas Aquinas and Jacob Boehme gave expression to the same thing in their copious writings which aren’t always easy to read, but based on genuine experience, an experience which is also possible for mankind in this new age.

Our era is precisely the one where divine values are gaining clarity and where the spiritual life is becoming as significant and real as the material life, the one where the term ‘initiation’ again finds its first significance: a beginning, a new beginning.

And this is that which must be, since every creature is a part of the universal Spirit which is at the origin of our world, the Spirit where eternal Love, infinite Wisdom and indestructible Peace abides.

Initiation

In the Mystery Schools of the pre-Christian civilisations, initiation was considered an extremely important act. At the end of the ceremonies of the Eleusinian mysteries in ancient Greece, the last words that initiates heard were: “May Peace be in you”, after which they resumed their respective paths, souls peaceful and hearts filled with joy.

Initiation was for them a profound awakening into that which is genuine. It was the supreme accomplishment of their spiritual life and whoever didn’t make it to that experience was not a complete being.

If this interior experience was possible two thousand years before the Common Era, it should be possible two thousand years into the Common Era too.

During these four thousand years, the fundamental nature of mankind has not changed, nor their search for themselves…, Adepts of the Path who aspire to meeting the Divine.

In their true reality, the one which was and will always be, men and women are spiritual beings even though they live in material bodies. Our senses, which play tricks of all sorts on us, are the reason why we confuse our true Self with our material body.

The Divine doesn’t surround us only during our earliest infancy, but all through life. We don’t know it yet or don’t know it any more.

Behind the person we think we are, there is a second person we don’t see: our real Self, which existed already before thoughts and desires took possession of us.

Behind our body of flesh and blood exists a radiant and sublime conscience. Our true life flows out in the depths of our heart and has no place in the superficial mask of the personality we show to the world.

Adept of the Path, you are the heir of a hidden treasure in the deep recesses of your own nature. The Kingdom of heaven is within you. Those who, secluded in their own silence set out to find themselves, are not dreamers. They are only doing what each one must do at a certain phase of their evolution.

The way may be long or short, but they keep their spiritual eyes wide open and listen to the voice which speaks within them. One day, their great Self will be revealed to them, and they will be on the verge of Eternity.

If the door of our soul opens itself for one second, one minute or one hour, the revelation will be complete. Neither bitter suffering nor a heavy burden can destroy this knowledge, a knowledge which cannot be translated into words. Anyone who, at one time, has felt their innermost being to be dissolved and to be merged in the infinite, knows that this cannot be expressed.

It’s the illumination of the spirit and of the heart, that which is the most miraculous in the life of each man and woman.

Look for your Self, find your true Self and you will know the sense of life and the mystery of the universe will be revealed to you.

Think about the words of the Master of Galilee: “Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Discover that you are one part of an infinite Life which expresses itself in Light and in Love. “He who knows his own nature, knows Paradise” said a pupil of Confucius. In other words: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.”

Adaptation of “A Path” by Irene Beusekamp Fabert (1915-2012) from the Rosicrucian Heritage March 2019