The Kingdoms of Consciousness
- Kingdom 1 (Mainly Physical)– Where things are done TO us
As our consciousness moves through the Kingdoms we usually have a general center of gravity in one of them. A lot of what happens to those who start on a spiritual path is the movement from Kingdom 1 to Kingdom 2. There are three things we need to give up (the Toll Gate) as we move forward on our spiritual path from Kingdom 1 to Kingdom 2:
- Shame – “There’s something inherently wrong with me. I’m a bad person. I don’t deserve to have what I want. I continue to be rejected, poor, unloved, etc. because feeling bad about myself has become a way of life, almost second nature.”
- Blame – Someone else is responsible for whatever we have created that we don’t like. “Would I rather blame the other person or be a conscious co-creator with God?” It’s helpful to ask ourselves, “What is the payoff that I’m getting from remaining in the role of the victim?” A payoff is something we get to hold onto, like the attractive yet fruitless desire to be right or to judge others.
- Regret – “I should have, could have, or would have done something different. I blew it.” When we are spending our consciousness on regret (a close cousin to shame), we cannot be in present time. We can’t be in both places at once, so we lose the magnificence of the present moment.
As we experience feelings of shame, it is the nature of our ego identity to deny or repress them. These feelings often turn outward, manifesting as the need to judge and blame others. One example is “The Devil made me do it.” As we move through Kingdoms 1 and 2, when we get to the blame part, we want to suppress this also, and it can ultimately turn into regret.
– As we choose to move forward on our spiritual path, our healing journey takes us back and forth between the kingdoms. Becoming more spiritually masterful happens in increments, so we don’t go directly from Kingdom 1 to Kingdom 3. We slowly make our way, and when we find ourselves in challenging situations, we often find ourselves suddenly back in Kingdom 1, where most of our unhealed issues lurk. The New Thought movement teaches us how to become spiritually functional in the world, and this happens in Kingdom 2. Often it is pain that motivates us to travel from Kingdom 1 to Kingdom 2.
Kingdom 2 (Mainly Mental) – Where things are done BY us
In Kingdom 2 we work with many spiritual tools for directing the Law of Cause and Effect. Examples are: goal setting, treasure mapping, visualization, meditation, and affirmative prayer. These are ways for us to experience more joy, abundance, clarity, wisdom, etc. We learn to accept and use these qualities of God. Although we often hold on to blame in Kingdom 2, we direct the Law and change our consciousness as part of our spiritual practice. The tollgate to Kingdom 2 is the tollgate of responsibility; as we evolve we start taking responsibility for our actions. In this way we become more successful in the world. This is a great accomplishment, as we are leaving behind a lot of suffering, a life of victimhood, and also identification with the collective unconscious (a.k.a. family, race, or group consciousness, or the law of averages). The most important thing we leave behind is the illusion that we have no choice in how our reality unfolds. To have worldly power, success and mastery in the world is a big step forward, but it is not enough for those who desire the mystical life, or in psychological terms, transpersonal consciousness. What moves us from Kingdom 2 to Kingdom 3 is a vision of spiritual connection.
- Kingdom 3 (Mainly Spiritual) – Where things are done THROUGH us
As we approach Kingdom 3, we deepen our spiritual practice in order to experience a deeper connection with God. In psychological terms this is called Transpersonal Consciousness. This is sometimes called “The Healing Pit.” Here we integrate Kingdoms 1 and 2. We allow ourselves to be led by our Inner Divinity, and this path requires that we become quiet enough to hear our Inner Voice. Taking time every day to nurture our relationship with the Divine allows us to rely more on our inside Source than what’s going on in the outside world. The path from Kingdom 2 to Kingdom 3 is like the “gate of surrender to Spirit.” When we look at the lives of mystics, they all have a well-developed spiritual practice. This practice is essential for achieving inner peace, the peace that we see in their faces in photos and paintings, e.g. Jesus, Buddha, Meher Baba, Paramahansa Yogananda etc. Often the suppression of blame from Kingdom 2 pops up as regret. There has already been a transformation from fear to anger, and in Kingdom 3 the anger can transform to sorrow. This can show up as what is known as the “dark night of the soul.” In Kingdom 3 we step more fully into our responsibility (response ability, the ability to respond).
– Our spiritual practice allows us to be grounded in the process of emptying, so we can open to the deeper realms. Our goal in Kingdom 3 is to open to the mystery of these deeper realms.
- Service is also an important part of this process. As we pass through Kingdom 2, we often become less concerned with worldly power and more interested in how we can be of service in the world. It is important to distinguish between giving from the heart, where we are coming from a place of desiring to share and give, and co-dependent giving, where we are trying to fix and change from a position of either needing to control others or an expectation of reward. It is good to discuss codependency in class (we’ll do this next week), since many people are giving in a codependent way but don’t identify their behavior as codependent. If we are giving and feeling resentful, unseen, and judgmental, chances are good that it is codependent giving. A great reference book for codependency is Codependent No More by Melody Beattie.
– On the way to Kingdom 3 we deepen our faith and let go of needing to control situations, people and conditions. This is a juicy block of spiritual work that many find very challenging. We learn to rely on our Inner Guidance to show us how God can best work through us. We begin to feel a deeper sense of love of others and ourselves. This experience of love expands us, and it is this love, which carries us into the mystical experience of Oneness. The message of Jesus was of love and forgiveness, and forgiveness is a form of self-love.
- In Kingdom 3 there is often a desire to study sacred scripture, which does not mean simply reading it. Listening to a chant tape in your car or reading a book is helpful, but information alone will not change consciousness. Rev. Michael Beckwith defines advanced metaphysics as practice. Living a love-filled life, blessing the grocery store clerk right along with those who annoy, hurt, or enrage us- these actions become our spiritual practice. Through this we surrender to the God within us, and this practice empties us so that we are filled with more God-Presence. From this we have everything to give. Part of this emptying/surrender is giving up control; acknowledging we don’t know everything and leaving behind the ego needs for “being right.” This helps us transcend our small self and become more open to being guided by the Presence. When we’re committed to doing the inner work, old issues come up for healing, and as we move toward Kingdom 4, they are healed through our conscious connection with Spirit.
Kingdom 4 (Includes Physical, Mental, & Spiritual) – Where things are done AS us
As we do more of the Inner work and deeply establish personal connection with Source, we come to identify more with the metaphysical than the physical. In psychology terms this is called Omnipersonal consciousness. The mystical path is to be “in this world but not of it.” This does not mean we “check out” physically. It means we become more sensitive to the other realms, and we go to these inner realms to establish Connection. We experience that the metaphysical is more powerful than the physical. Through meditation, we empty ourselves so that we become a bigger vessel for God-substance to live through us. We are spiritualizing our consciousness as we take this power of the invisible realm with us into our everyday lives.
– In Kingdoms 1 and 2 there is often a quest for worldly power, and in Kingdom 4, where we have given up belief in separation, we become the Love that is God, and our desire is to spread this Love around. When we give, we are more God-filled, as we are replicating the activity of God. As we let go of the desire for worldly power, we are graced with a mystical power that is not of this Earth. These higher mystical realms are part of the mystery of God. Mystics throughout the ages have had an experience of this mystical power. It manifests throughout all wisdom traditions. Mystics from different parts of the world have the same mystical experiences because it comes from the outer planes. Someone has coined the phrase “peek experience,” where we peek into our destiny and light comes from Kingdom 4 and shines into us.
It has been said that we do not find Kingdom 4, but Kingdom 4 finds us.
Which Kingdom are you coming from? Which Kingdom are you praying from? Which Kingdom do you need to be in to serve your intentions?