God Within Views

• Books

Of all conceivable forms of enlightenment the worst is what these people call the Inner Light. Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within. Any one who knows any body knows how it would work; any one who knows any one from the Higher Thought Centre knows how it does work. That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon, anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within.

The Kingdom of God Is Within You (Russian: Царство Божие внутри вас [Tsarstvo Bozhiye vnutri vas]) is the non-fiction magnum opus of Leo Tolstoy and was first published in Germany in 1894, after being banned in his home country of Russia.[1] It is the culmination of thirty years of Tolstoy's Christian thinking, and lays out a new organization for society based on a literal Christian interpretation.

I believe that if our search for the God within becomes narcissism, the seeker has somehow gotten off the track. I surely recognize, however, that the self has an uncanny knack for getting in the way. Yet I also believe that God yearns for us, yearns for us even more urgently than we yearn for God, that God desires to dwell within us, in our hearts, our minds, our very soul. I believe that God wants to be known by us in these depths. So in this sense, to seek God within our own selves, within our own depths, is to seek God where God most wants to be found.

Narcissism is an over-indulging love for ourselves. In searching for God within us, it is God we seek to find, and with God, to enter into dialogue. And when we lose sight of this is when we've gotten off the track, Look honestly and deeply for the God within, and pray to that God that you not be led by your own ego. Listen for what God's response to you may be, for what God's needs of you might be, God's hopes and desires for you. The indwelling God is real, and is longing for you to discover the signs and wisdom of his presence within you. Listen, and you will hear.