Your State of Consciousness is Merely Your State of Acceptance
An individual's state of consciousness simply means his ability to accept change in his life. It includes new thoughts and new feelings, and the new behavior and actions that will naturally come as a result.
A state of consciousness is also flexible in that it swells (expands) and shrinks (contracts). Some events in our lives make us full of joy and goodwill, another way of saying an expansion of consciousness. Other events leave us suspicious, or hostile, or gloomy, a contraction. There are temporary changes in one's state of consciousness as well as more long lasting ones, the sum of all the lesser changes.
So your state of consciousness is a living thing. After all it is a reflection of you —Soul— and is a product of each and every experience you've ever had. Ever. Different experiences make for the difference in people.
The human race as a whole also has a state of consciousness or level of acceptance. This ability does shift with the passing of time. Sometimes it moves ahead spiritually. At other times, there is a shift to a lower state.
Advances In Consciousness
For example, mankind has made some nice gains in the expansion of its world by the first millennium A.D.. Let's overlook its never-ending lust for war and conquest, which will endure as long as human passions go unchecked. People had learned to make a record of it in writing of their exploits so that future generations could profit by it if they so chose. A written language made it possible to review past mistakes and go from there. A few, advanced in consciousness, had set down codes of conduct for society: like the sayings of Confucius, the ten commandments of Moses, the thoughts of Plato and Socrates to name a few.
Those were signs of man's progress in its state of consciousness.
Yet there were dark times too. The most glaring perhaps are the Dark Ages in Europe, usually fixed from the fifth to the tenth century. Some historians claim that the only reason to call it a "dark" period is because so little written history survives from then. That is exactly the point. Why is there so little in writing? There was a falling back in consciousness.
But even as late as the seventeenth century, Galileo felt the sting of the Inquisition —- which censored his observation—made with the new invention, the telescope, that not all heavenly bodies revolved around the earth. His support of the Copernican heliocentric system shook the foundations of the Christian Church. It called the theory a heresy.
The Dark Ages reflect a retreat in the state of consciousness.
Every person has a unique state of consciousness, even as does every community, town, city, state, region, country, or continent. The same holds for races, religions, political groups, and every other association that comes to mind. For example, who would say there's no difference between the teachings of Islam and Buddhism? The unique doctrines of each are merely an expression for two different states of consciousness, or the acceptance of universal ideas that appeal more to one group than the other.
So a state of consciousness is the level of acceptance one has to changes in conditions.
For some of a certain temperament, blind faith in salvation gives them comfort. It gives them courage. They are relieved by the idea that a more spiritually advanced person will take care of all the details when this life comes to an end and will assure them a happy, joyful existence in the hereafter. And that's OK.
People of a different state of consciousness might have a more hands-on approach to the issue of death, which punctuates human life for many with a question mark. Their state of consciousness says, "It's up to each of us to find our own salvation." Is it any wonder that so much of our history is penned in blood? No human state of consciousness is of a shining purity. Each has its stains. These stains are of the five passions of lust, greed, anger, vanity and an undue attachment to material things. But their state of consciousness does determine how darkly these stains color the behavior of people towards each other
Truth is Ever New
"Seth" was on a flight to Perth, Australia. Beside him was "Edna", returning home to Perth after a visit to relatives in Canada. "This was my last trip to Canada," she told him, "I'm in my seventies now." When Edna found out Seth had never been to Perth, she was delighted to answer his questions about the climate, culture, and things to do.
"What are you reading?" she inquired, glancing at the book in his hands. Seth said "Soul Travelers of the Far Country." It's written by the spiritual leader of Eckankar. It's about Soul's journey through this world."
Edna mentioned a number of spiritual paths she had joined at one time or another. "I was always looking for a certain element of truth, but i never found it" she said sadly. "Finally i just gave up, and quit all religions. I came to the conclusion that this day-to-day existence is all i can expect from life. Now I'm just putting in my time till it's over."
Yet she was curious about his spiritual path and started asking some questions. Seth explained that the teachings of Eckankar are based on the Light and Sound. He also told her about HU, the sacred name for God, which we often sing during our spiritual exercises. "The reason I'm going to Perth is to attend an Eckankar seminar," he said.
Edna was interested, but at this point in her life she felt she was too old to renew her search.
"Soul has no age," said Seth. "It doesn't matter when you begin to look for truth. Its beyond age and time. It makes no difference whether you would have found it in your teens or now, in your seventies. Truth is ever new. When you are ready, it will find you."
His words made sense to her. All of a sudden she was struck by the timing of the situation. On a flight back from what was to be her last trip to Canada, she had found herself seated next to Seth. He was going to an Eckankar seminar in her home town of Perth, of all places. It occurred to her how fully and completely this ECK works. She was grateful to have heard about It.
A Capacity to Accept Change
People relate to a certain set of conditions to accept change, as said earlier. But how does this ability come about?
Human joy and suffering in everyday life are always on hand, to build and shape our outlook on the events that face us without end. Experience leads us to love and compassion. A child may carry into adulthood the memory of a grandmother, on one side of the family, who was gentle, good, and kind. Yet its memory of the other grandmother may be quite the opposite. The second grandmother, about the same age as the first, carries a memory of telling bawdy jokes, embarrassing the clergyman, and taking life with a wink.
It's all about two states of consciousness.
How open, loving, and forgiving are we? ECK Master Rebazar Tarzs* says "Purity calls for the highest within man. You cannot slander nor can you see the evil in others" (Stranger By the River, Purity).
Ah but we should also note what he adds : "Dwell on the good within thy neighbor, and thus you will exalt the good in him, and bring out the good in thyself." That is also a form of spiritual exercise.
Now you should have a better idea about your own state of consciousness, for it is nothing more than the amount of love you can accept from God.
And give love as it has been given to you.
* The ECK Masters are spiritual guides people have looked to since the beginning of time for guidance, protection, and divine love.
From the book, The Call of Soul © 2012 Eckankar – Sri Harold Klemp
