The kingdom of heaven is within and without; Seek it.

“The drop is in the ocean and the ocean is in the drop” Cynthia Bourgeault, heard at many Wisdom Schools 

“Only in our deepest unity do we discover our deepest differentiation and freedom.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Nov/Dec 2019 Wisdom School at Claymont

“The human being, as consciousness has evolved over the millennia, seems to be perfectly anatomically designed to mediate between the boundaried and the unboundaried, between the particular and the universal, between that which is contained and circumscribed within form and that which is not. The way that the heart and the brain mediate between the particular and the particularizing, the universal and the one-ing, is absolutely extraordinary.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Track 3d Claymont Wisdom School 2014 around 25:50

“The old hermetic principle, as above so below, or the old statement, man is a microcosm—there’s a complete correlative between cosmic process and personal transformation. They’re basically slices of the same thing. The same journey that the planet went on is the journey that each one of us goes on in our growth. Just as we go on that journey in our inward life, the work that we do in the journey of surrendering, unmasking, letting be, is food given back into the cosmos for its journey.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Claymont 2019 Oct Gurdjieff-Teilhard, 38:30 05 – WED AM Teaching .

“You must grasp the meaning of one analogy here. There is an ancient Hermetic saying: ‘As above, so below.’ This means that everything is stamped by the laws that prevail throughout the created universe. What you find on a great scale, you find represented on a small scale. As above, so below.” Maurice Nicoll, The Mark, p68

“Man is in the Universe and the Universe is in Man” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p181 We separate ourselves from life in order to find our unity with the higher realm.

“In the Old Testament—in the first few books or the Pentateuch, as it is called, where all the stories are allegorical and contain a hidden meaning—we find the example of Jacob’s Ladder. This represents the Universe seen in its vertical height and depth—as above and below. Jacob represents Man asleep at the bottom of the possible scale of development existing in him.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p103.

“Man is a cell in a greater, unmanifested body. Everything is made on the same plan, small and great. In the Hermetic Writings we read: As above, so below.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p1190.

“The formula of Hermes Trismegistus: that which is below (matter) (energy) is as that which is above (consciousness). Now, if there exists a law of conservation of matter and energy (although matter transforms itself into energy and vice versa), there must necessarily exist also a law of conservation of consciousness, or immortality.” Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot, p16.

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Logion 29
Yeshua says...
If flesh came into existence for the sake of spirit,
it is a wonder,
but if spirit exists for the sake of flesh,
it is a wonder of wonders.
I am truly astonished
at how such richness
came to dwell in such poverty.

Logion 3
Yeshua says...
If your spiritual guides say to you,
"Look, the Divine Realm is in the sky,"
well then the birds will get there ahead of you.
If they say, "It is in the sea,"
then the fish will precede you.
No, divine Reality exists
inside and all around you.
Only when you have come to know your true Self
will you be fully known—realizing at last that you are
a child of the Living One.
If, however, you never come to know who you truly are,
you are a poverty-stricken being,
and it is your "self" which lies impoverished.

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More writings on this site about the Kingdom of Heaven

Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll refer to Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Eureka Editions:2020) unless stated otherwise. 

All quotations from the Gospel of Thomas are from Lynn C Bauman, Ward J Bauman, Cynthia Bourgeault, The Luminous Gospels (Praxis 2008)

Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot, Jeremy Tarcher, 1985

Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll’s The Mark refer to Thomas Nelson & Sons, New York, 1954

Read the Impression introducing the Gospel of Thomas.