Lately I’ve been reminiscing about a very important person in my life, who in today’s jargon I might call my first spiritual coach. I grew up in a tiny dusty town in west Texas, a town where everybody knew everybody; a town where church was not only the major spiritual spiritual center, but also the major social center. My family spent a lot of time at church. Ours was the Methodist Church, so our ministers were rotated in and out every few years.

During part of my tween/teen years, a remarkable  man named Kenneth Wyatt came to the pulpit. He was brilliantly smart and creative, with an empath’s ability to listen deeply and respond with clarity and insight.  His sermons were both profound and engaging - even to a kid my age. I was constantly learning things from him, not only from the pulpit but from his interactions with members of the church and the larger community.

I was a bit of a nerd and misfit in our little town, but I always felt known and loved by Ken. I was rather unfulfilled by what both regular school and Sunday School had to offer for my intellectual and spiritual development. I think Ken saw that in me, and during the summer I was 14, we became a 2-person book club. He would give me a book to read, and the next week we’d meet for a lively and inspiring discussion. Although I was only 14, we read and discussed Paul Tillich, Pierre Teillhard de Chardin, and Frederich Nietzsche, among others. My eyes and heart popped wide open to a far greater understanding and experience of self, of spirit, of God. These readings and discussions, together with the insight and caring that prompted them, ignited in me a quest for spiritual and psychological knowledge and growth that has defined the arc of my life.

One day I asked Ken to help me understand the concept of “heaven.” It had become clear to me that pearly gates and streets paved with gold must be metaphors for a spiritual experience, but they certainly were not MY metaphors. So in response to my question, he gave me another metaphor. He asked me to tell him a about a time I’d felt so happy that my happiness blotted out every other thought and feeling. I thought about it, and described (of all things!) a recent long-shot basketball goal I had scored (I who almost always spent our games on the bench, I who could sort of handle the ball but couldn’t shoot worth a darn, but I who’d scored that impossible goal).

Ken asked me to describe that sense of happiness, and of course I said things like peaceful, all’s ok, satisfied, needing nothing, thinking nothing, very in the moment rather than past or future. He said something like: “that is how I think of heaven, that it’s what we experience whenever we let go of all thoughts and feelings and stories about the past (even a moment ago) & the future, about causes and effects; it's when we are so fulfilled that nothing else matters - that’s heaven. And we get to experience it right here & right now, not just when we die.”

But he didn’t stop there. He then asked me if I’d ever experienced that kind of happiness before or since - and of course the answer was yes, multiple times - even though I couldn’t describe the events. What had stuck with me was the inner experience, not the external events. He told me that was because heaven is always here, inside me - not due to the events, but rather the events just called my attention to it.

I don’t remember the exact words he used. I just remember the meaning. I later came to understand that he was paraphrasing for me the familiar words of Jesus of Nazareth: “The kingdom of heaven is within.” Luke 17:21

The same has been echoed by so many others, of so many different paths and traditions, with so many ways of nudging us to the inner, in the here and now:

By the practice of meditation, you will find that you are carrying within your heart a portable paradise.

~Paramahansa Yogananda

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. ~Carl Jung

Happy people build their inner world, unhappy people blame their outer world. ~Dalai Lama

O wandering soul, if you want to find the greatest treasure, don’t look outside.

Look inside and seek that. ~Rumi

How do we look inside? How do we seek that? John-Roger, another of my spiritual coaches, suggests this:

The kingdom of heaven is found in the place of your compassion. It's found in the place of your loving.

It's found in the place of your generosity. It's found in the place of your healing of yourself and others.

It's very easy to find the kingdom of heaven inside.

The more chaotic the world seems to get, the more important it seems for me to return over and over to the kingdom of heaven within. It doesn't require any special preparation, nor place nor posture nor particular words - just the willingness to do it. And the more I do it, the deeper the experience becomes. Some will call that experience God, as Ken would. Others will call it spirit, soul, heart, being. Or just heaven. Perhaps you’d like to find that heaven right now:

• You can find it in that place of compassion inside you by recalling a moment when you have been so caring - toward yourself or another - that you felt completely congruent, not trying, not sacrificing, just being in that place of oneness with whomever and whatever was going on. Let that experience spread throughout your body, mind, emotions, words and actions.

• You can find it in that place of loving inside you by recalling a moment when you have been so loving (tender, strong, clear, accepting, unconditional) - toward yourself or another. Experience the oneness, the wholeness, the peace, the abundance, the joy, the gratitude, the grace. Let that experience spread out throughout your body, mind, emotions, words and actions.

• You can find it in that place of generosity inside you by recalling a moment when you extended such generosity toward yourself or another that you felt expanded and fulfilled by just by your openness, by your sharing. You were uplifted by your welcoming, your forgiving, your letting go. Experience the spaciousness and gratitude of your generosity, and let it spread throughout your body, mind, emotions, words and actions.

• You can find in in that place of healing - of yourself or another - by recalling a time when when your presence, your acceptance, your loving and understanding brought forward a healing on any level, known or unknown. Be aware of the restoration of peace, love, and balance. Notice the healing in yourself when you’ve brought healing to another. Experience the oneness, wholeness, abundance, joy, gratitude, grace; and let it spread throughout your body, mind, emotions, words and actions.

It's very easy to find the kingdom heaven, right here, right now, on earth, in the midst of all the chaos and darkness … when we look inside.

Kenneth Wyatt went on to serve a few other rural communities after ours; then after 35 years of ministering from the pulpit, he felt called to minister through art. He became widely acclaimed for his religious and western art, and particularly for his insightful portraits of the apostles. You can see and purchase his art at www.kennethwyatt.com. He died in 2021.

God bless you, Ken, and thank you.