gospel of Thomas 113

His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"

[Jesus said,] "It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'here it is' or 'there it is.' Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it."

Ah yes, here Jesus is on form. Look at the question the disciples asked: When will the kingdom come? When are we going to be happy? When am I going to be enlightened? When, when, when? And this is the human mind, the nature of the human mind: wanting something; always wanting something that it doesn't have.

And of course, that wanting is only satisfied in the future; not now, not today, not in this moment. That wanting creates the future. The future is in our mind. It exists as our fantasy world, of all our fears of things that could happen, and all our desires of things we want to happen. And above all, we want everything to be right. We want everything to be okay, so that we can relax.

But look at Jesus' answer. It's so true: the kingdom, it won't come by waiting for it. But that's what seekers are doing, looking for it and waiting. In fact, that's what everyone is doing. Even people who are not yet seeking. They are still waiting for their life to become good. Almost everybody is living in misery, with just moments of pleasure and happiness, but a deep down dissatisfaction with the way things are. That is life for most human beings.

But Jesus is saying, the kingdom won't come by waiting for it. It won't be a matter of saying here it is or there it is. In other words, we're not suddenly going to be given something that we didn't have before. That's not the nature of enlightenment.

Jesus says, rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and men do not see it. Yes. Exactly so. The perfection and beauty of existence is all around us, all the time, and we do not see it.

Right before me, lying on the ground, there is a small red leaf – a dead leaf that has fallen from a tree. It's been lying there all along, but I had not seen it. And only when reading these words of Jesus, do I notice it and see its beauty. I feel the suchness in that leaf. The kingdom, the kingdom is in this dead leaf that lies before me; and in the sound of the waves lapping at the shore; and the sunlight filtering through the trees; and the stillness of the small pool of water.

When will we see it? That's the question, not when will the kingdom come? The kingdom is here and has been here all along. But when will we see it? It's spread out upon the earth, Jesus says. It's everywhere, that's what he's saying. It's everywhere. It's all around us, in every moment. And it's ours for the taking. All we need to do is open our eyes and see it.