The Initiations In ECK – Sri Harold Klemp

 

   A few weeks ago someone happened to ask, "If the ECK initiations started in 1965, where does that leave the people before 1965? How important are the initiations in that respect?

   This is the kind of question that takes more than two or three minutes to answer. It's similar to the question the Christian church ran into when they decreed that you must be baptized to go to heaven. This sounds like a very simple statement until someone asks, "What about those who were born in the centuries before baptisms were given? What about all the people in India and China who don't practice Christianity?" Well, what about them?

   The church had to come up with a way to explain this, so they said things like, "God's grace is sufficient unto them." That's fine, but the teachings state that if you are not baptized, you go to hell. And yet for many years there were very few people who got baptized. It's a sticky problem for the church. They don't quite know what to do with it, especially since they teach that you only live one lifetime. It's all or nothing: You either make it this time, or you don't. Feathers or fire.

 

 

   How important are ECK initiations? They are very important. The initiations take Soul step-by-step through different grades of enlightenment into the higher levels of consciousness where It can have God-Realization. It can touch the face of God. This is the function of the initiations in ECK.

   Even before 1965 Rebazar Tarzs was initiating one or two or three or four people here and there. Maybe a hundred or five hundred as he moved around.

   Without the initiations that take you beyond the Astral world, what happens when Soul leaves the physical body? It does a round-trip shuttle run between the Physical Plane and the Astral Plane. Every so often it may go to the Mental Plane or the Causal, but mostly it's between the Physical and Astral. Sometimes Soul will eventually start working Its way up just a little bit, and then it's Astral, Causal; Astral, Causal.

   The ECK initiations are important because they take people farther than they've ever been before. Unless you have the ECK initiations, you rarely have experience beyond the worlds you already know. You travel along the Wheel of the Eighty-Four, reincarnating from the Astral Plane, again and again.

   The initiations help you expand the loop and take in another plane and then another, until you come to the Fifth Initiation, at which point you no longer have to run the loop.

   Now you have a choice. If you want to take a one-way trip to the Soul Plane and stay, you can. Or if you want to serve the SUGMAD by coming back to the lower worlds, you may take a round-trip from up there. Once you reach the Fifth Plane, you come back if you choose to, but you're not stuck in the lower worlds. And you're going to be an unusual person . Others are going to know it, and they may resent you for it, because they can tell there's a difference.

 

 

   Interesting things happen during an ECK initiation. The Second Initiation, which Paul Twitchell gave me, was sort of a combination initiation-consultation. I nervously entered the room, and after we talked for awhile, he started the initiation. I shut my eyes, tried to relax, and chanted the word he had given me. But for some reason, it seemed as though Paul couldn't sit still. I heard him get up and walk toward the door to the next suite. I was having enough of a problem controlling my thoughts as it was, and there's Paul running around the room. To make it even worse, when he opened the door, I could hear a bunch of people laughing in the other room.

   But I just kept sitting there with my eyes closed. After awhile he came back and said, "Well, that's enough. Did you see anything?" I had, but because I didn't know what to expect from Paul at an initiation, I was cautious, still playing my cards close. "No," I said. "I didn't see anything." And then I went home.

   Later the ECK started working on me; my slow lower mind began to catch up with the enlightenment that comes through this linkup with Spirit. I suddenly thought to myself, Did you open your eyes to see if Paul actually got up and walked to the door? Do you realize that what you heard was the Mahanta at your initiation, opening the door to another room?

   Through the open door was happiness and laughter. It occurred to me that he opened a door to a world of more light and happiness than I knew in that room where I sat so tensely, concentrating so hard, trying to ignore all those distractions.

   One of the High Initiates mentioned a similar experience with one of her initiations. Paul got her started chanting her new word, and she sat there trying to get her attention focused. All of a sudden he got up, went into the bathroom and began to brush his teeth.

   Then he flushed the toilet.

   So maybe an opened door and laughter isn't so bad.

   This High Initiate is making a personal study of the waking dream. In the waking dream, you see a tie-in between everything that happens around you and what is happening within you, and vice versa. As above, so below. They always go together.

   Working with the waking-dream concept, a greater picture came to her. What was Paul doing in there? Brushing his teeth and flushing—which represented a cleansing. And this is what happens during an initiation. The dross of a certain level is cleaned and flushed away.

   Anything that happens here in the physical is reality; illusion is only our imperfect way of looking at reality. This is reality, and we are getting spiritual experience here. If this world were all merely an illusion, there would be no purpose for being here. But we are here, and there must be a reason for it.

 

 

   A First Initiate can see a small circle, a small part of the interrelationship between what is happening out here and how it connects with the inner worlds. An initiate of the Second Circle sees more, his scope is greater, and so on up. It's like rising in a hot-air balloon: The higher you go, the more you can see. And the more you can see, the better you are able to arrange your life. Notice i said you are better able to arrange your life; it's not me arranging your life. Because really, if you don't care about your life, who else would?

   When we have problems, they're self-made problems. I try to work with you and help you at first to work out of them yourself. But eventually, as you become stronger and more able, I give more and more back to you. As you become able to do more, I let you do more. The more ready you are for responsibility, the more you get. And this means you have more freedom.

   This is what happens each time you come to a greater circle of initiation. You become more responsible and better able to handle your own life. The problems get bigger, but so does your ability to solve them.

 

 

   Amusing situations sometimes come up at initiations. An ECK Initiator was giving an initiation of the Second Circle to a family. They were all very close, liked to do everything together, so she gave them a secret word to be used for the family. But it happened to be a bilingual family, and since they liked to do their spiritual exercises together, this presented a problem. The husband wanted to chant the word in Spanish, while the wife preferred English.

   They eventually started to argue about their word. In which language did it have the most power? In which language were they going to chant it during their family contemplations? At first they bargained: Trying the English version of it first, the wife had great results. But the husband said, "It's not working." So they tried it in Spanish. Then the wife couldn't get it to work. Soon they were squabbling about it.

   After a few weeks of this, they called up the initiator. "Which word is right—English or Spanish?" The initiator tried to give them some ideas, and they went through an experimental stage for a few more weeks to see how the ideas worked. After six months, they went back to the initiator and said, "We've decided that we would each like to have our own word."

   They realized that as individuals, they needed their own secret word. From this time on, they each did their own contemplative exercises in their own language, and all of a sudden things worked.

 

 

   The initiator is not the one who gives you the initiation. The initiator, man or woman, is just the instrument for the Mahanta. It is always the Mahanta that gives the initiation.

   The ECK Initiator's Book is arranged so that everything needed for each initiation is in one place. The initiator can open the book to the particular initiation and find a clear set of guidelines to follow. The book gives the initiators guidance on such things as how to open themselves for Spirit and how to go about the procedures, so that it's a clean, clear initiation.

 

 

   There are twelve points that concern the initiations in ECK. These twelve points will give you an understanding about the common-sense facets of the ECK initiations.

 

 

   I appoint the initiators, who are drawn from among those of at least the Fifth Circle of initiation. They have to be out of the lower worlds of matter, energy, space, and time. Of those specifically designated as initiators, an Eighth Initiate can give a Seventh Initiation and below, a Seventh Initiate can give a Sixth and below, a Sixth can give a Fifth and below, and a Fifth can give it from there on below.

 

 

   The question came up: Should we change the color of the initiation slip? Is it a better idea to have a different color for each initiation? We thought about having a green slip for anyone who was going to be on the First, or Dream Initiation, a pink one for the Astral (Second), an orange slip for the Causal (Third), and so on.

   But eventually you get to the Fifth Plane where the color starts to be a certain shade of yellow, and then it becomes a lighter yellow in the Sixth. Pretty soon we'd have to work with several paper companies to get the right color. As we get into the fine shades of yellow, we might find out there are some who feel that if it isn't a particular shade for the Sixth Initiation, it's no good. And in paper shortages, the first thing they usually run out of is the colored paper stock.

   Finally I said, "Why don't we just keep it pink?" This has had special meaning for me all through the years. Whenever I got a pink slip, I said, "Good!"

 

 

   I have found that many times the first two years of study are done by either the husband or the wife. You have one partner who seems not as interested, who stands back and looks with a critical eye. This is the balance in a marriage. One mate goes wild for ECK, and the other one is more cautious.

   After two years the cautious mate might say, "I like this ECK, and I'd like to take the Second Initiation with you." We have provisions for that

.

 

   But what happens if the wife now wants to request her Second Initiation and the husband says no? It could mean there is a basic problem in the family about spiritual freedom. Maybe the wife needs an issue that gives her the opportunity to say, "Hey, I've got to have the freedom to follow my own inner guidance and my own mind."

   If the husband says, "No, absolutely not," I won't get involved. If the family can't agree on ECK, it would be better for them if they can find something they can agree on, even if it's another church. Many times if they can't allow each other the freedom for one to go to a traditional church and the other to study ECK, they've got deeper problems than show on the surface, and that marriage is in for a rough time over the years.

   The individual who has the pink slip for the Second Initiation, or has put in enough study time to request it, can do anything he absolutely wants to do—request it or not. He may want approval or permission from the spouse, and the spouse may say either yes or no. What the person does at that point is totally up to him. The relationship between Spirit and Soul is already working, and you should do whatever is right for you.

   I do recommend keeping harmony and balance at home. Whatever you can do to preserve the family, do it. You can be in ECK, follow the spiritual principles, and get unfoldment, even though outwardly you may not be able to do the things you feel you ought to do.

 

 

   Maybe one mate was holding back while the other one went ahead as a scout, studied two years, and said, "It's good; I like it." Now the other person can say, "You know, I like it, too." And actually, they have been studying the principles of ECK together, and they can share the discourses which have already come into the home.

 

 

 

   The children can take the Second Initiation with the parents. If you have a baby, the baby can also be initiated.

   When a young child takes the initiation with the family, the parents must decide when the child is old enough to tell him the word and explain the importance of the word and how to keep it to himself. This is done in accordance with the family's judgment, not an initiator's and not someone outside the family circle. The decision is to be made at home.

   The parents have to be the teachers of their children. We can have children's Satsang classes, but the principle duty of teaching the path of ECK to the children begins in the home. The timing depends on the insights the parents get, coupled with the kind of material we can provide to them which they feel will help them teach their children.

 

 

   If your baby is born after you get the Second Initiation, wait until the child reaches age four. This is when our outer study program begins. At that point, when you order your ECK discourses, you can request a youth study book for your child.

 

 

 

   This is something Paul used to do, and we plan to continue doing it.

 

 

   I want to make sure that a study program of at least twenty-five years is set in motion. There is such a thing as being spiritually illumined, but down here on the Physical Plane, you have to have enough experience, enough gray hair, before you can be a Fifth Initiate. You have to be able to stand on your own two feet.

 

 

   You can be really smart in head knowledge, but you still have to put in your time. It has to be done, because there are some things a book just can't teach you about living. It can't tell you about a broken heart. It can't tell you about how to cope with seeing a family member sick, or give you the experience of coming through it. You can't get that from a book. Until you have this seasoning, you really don't have the understanding and compassion that one needs as he goes higher and higher in the ECK circles of initiation.

   The word of your initiation level is the starting point to get you into your plane; then you begin to experiment with other words in conjunction with your own. In the Second Initiation you are going to be able to explore more than just the Astral Plane; although there are at least 150 different regions on the Astral Plane, and many of them are highly interesting and enlightening.

   I think we have limited ourselves until now. There should be more for a person to do in an initiation level than would fill a lifetime. It's an enjoyable thing. I spend a lot of time in the Astral Plane, the Causal Plane, and the other planes. There's a lot to see. I also spend a lot of time here on the Physical Plane, and so do you. Being on the Physical or Astral Plane is not an invalid experience. There are a lot of good things to learn and see.

 

 

 

   The family, if they want to, can definitely take the Second Initiation together. In the Third or Fourth Initiation, you may or may not want to take it with your spouse—that's up to you. But eventually you are going to have the First Initiation, and that one is given just for you. Already some of you at the Third and Fourth are saying, I'd like to do it myself.

 

 

   At the Fifth Initiation each person has his own initiation. The family is near and dear, but the primary relationship that we have in this world, and in any of the worlds, is Soul to SUGMAD. No matter what else happens, it works like this: I was born myself, and I must die myself. No one else can do it for me. It starts and ends with Soul and Its relationship with the SUGMAD.

   We can love each other, hold each other dear, and devote our entire lives to each other if we choose. But we also know that we are unique, spiritual beings—individual drops in the Ocean of Love and Mercy. We are surrounded on all sides by other drops, the ones we want to be around. But we are still Soul—individual and unique. In the ECK initiations, I am working towards emphasizing the spiritual principle of the Atom of God, which is Soul.

 

 

 

   At the office we send out a notice to the person who has finished two years of study—or one year, if he is over sixty—that he is now qualified to request his pink slip for the Second Initiation. This request from the student, then, is his signal that he is ready to make a commitment to ECK.

   The person may also say," No, not yet," and hold on to his invitation for awhile. It may take him two or three years after finishing the first two years of study before he feels ready to say, "Now I've absorbed it and I'm ready to ask for my Second Initiation." In that case, as long as he requests it before five years are up, nobody cares whether he has been studying in the last year or two, or not.

   I'm interested in your spiritual growth. It's you and the Inner Master who have to be the ones to say when to push the throttle forward and when to put on the breaks. I've had to establish a cutoff period of five years because there is the matter of managing the Physical Plane records—and this counts, too. These are also worlds of ECK, and while we're here, we need to work with the things that are around us. They, too, are part of the spiritual experience.

 

 

   It's helpful to have rules and guidelines, but it's nice to have a way out, too. This information on the initiations in ECK may give you some insight about their importance both in your outer life and in the inner planes.

 

 

   As you leave to go home, I'd like to caution you that after a seminar, some of you can get a kind of spiritual high. This is sometimes the reaction when Spirit starts coming in. Just be aware of It. Throw yourself into your activities at home. Get right back into work. The glow from a seminar may continue for two or three days, or even two or three weeks. You'll be flying high for awhile, and then you have to balance it out. If you're not careful, you could go into a depression where you'll have this sick feeling inside. It's a reaction to having felt so good.

   Back home, the physical senses suddenly become aware of the changes that have been made in you—you're not the same person you were when you came to the seminar. You're different, and now you have to come to grips with it and with the people around you. The initial golden glow will help you over the hump, but don't let it trip you. Because like being on a slide, what goes up must come down.

   You want your viewpoint to go right through the middle. This is the state of Vairag, or detachment. Enjoy what happened, but when you see yourself heading into a dip, go out and do something. Go bowling, have a picnic, try something different at work—just do something.

   This is a caution to help you through the letdown that you can experience after something of spiritual importance occurs in your life. Even though you may feel a little low for awhile, as long as you are aware of what is causing it, you'll at least know what's happening.

   I would like to thank all of you for coming. On your journey home, know that the Light and Sound of ECK are always with you, and that as the Inner Master I am always with you.

   May the blessings be.

 

From the book, The Secret Teachings © 1989 Eckankar – Sri Harold Klemp