Before You Say Yes, Is ECK Really For You? – Sri Harold Klemp

 

   How can a person who has gotten an initiation lose it? And once we get to God-Consciousness, can it be taken away from us or can it be lost?

   In the Biblical writings there is a saying, "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." In the ECK writings it states that anyone, even the spiritual leader of ECKANKAR, can lose his high spiritual status if he does not keep up with his duties. In life we either go forward or backward; we really never stand still.

 

 

   We may walk the path to God very slowly for a number of lifetimes. At some point we may take up a particular religion, such as Christianity, and become so comfortable with it that we turn off our spiritual motor. We stop thinking for ourselves. We become self- righteous.

   What we have actually done is shut our ears to God or the Holy Spirit, and we are the last to know it. But it really doesn't matter if we go through life spiritually deaf and blind. Because after we die, leave the body, and have a short stay on the Astral Plane, we are right back here again as a newborn babe, all memory of the past erased from our mind. Once again, we go through troubles and hardships, asking, Lord, why have you done this to me? or What is the meaning of life?

   For the disasters and the heartbreaks, we find no answers at all. And yet, if anyone dares to threaten the religion into which we were born, we become defensive, antagonistic, and angry.

   This is partly because we are afraid of our own God. The God of the Old Testament is an angry and fearful one, and as we make the switch to the New Testament, we find a gentle, loving God. It's not the same being at all. But because we do not have the full picture, we cannot resolve the disparity of the two natures of this God.

 

 

   Since we don't get the answers, fear hangs over us like the sword of Damocles. So we rely on faith and belief for yet another lifetime, afraid to even look into other books that may give us another picture about the meaning of life. Not only would that threaten our beliefs, but our fear of hell is so great that we are petrified into inaction. The next lifetime, then, may be spent as a Hindu practicing meditation.

   Meditation is one of the extreme examples of an individual Soul putting Itself into a passive state. This method is simply another way to tie Soul tighter to the human body. Soul is an active, happy being. Meditation slows the spiritual process. In your spiritual evolution, as in the rest of life, you either go forward or backward; you do not stay in one spot.

   In Western civilization people are in a more active mode of Spirit. This means we have the opportunity to actively seek out our spiritual education. Whether we do it or not, however, is up to us. The jewel of God is all too often picked up, looked at, and then tossed aside into the mud, simply because we do not recognize the precious jewel that is before us.

 

 

   The human condition is pretty bleak. For this reason, it is important that you be willing to become the best that you can be in your religion.

   It's much like learning a trade. You start by going through an apprenticeship program. If you want experience, take a job with a company that is staffed with good people to learn from. Then seek your next opportunity. Maybe you are assigned to work with someone knowledgeable in a specialized field, who can teach you the secrets of the trade by example. Learning through experience is always a better way to learn than through a book; but if a book is all that is available, it will provide a start.

   The same principles apply to our spiritual life. Spiritual discipline requires that we find someone who has the experience that we want. The path to Mastership actually requires an ideal. But this ideal is not to be found in the physical presence of the teacher, because at some point or another, the personality will be misleading.

 

 

   What you are looking to achieve is the ultimate experience within your spiritual path. A Christian seeks the Christ Consciousness within, which is the highest state to which a person can aspire in that religion. If you are in ECK, you look for the Mahanta Consciousness, which simply means an individual who most clearly recognizes the relationship between himself and the Holy Spirit.

   At the top is SUGMAD, or God. The Voice, or the Word, of God—that which puts life into all creation—is known as the Holy Spirit. We seek to establish a relationship between ourselves and the Holy Spirit so that one day we can have God Consciousness.

   This is difficult to talk about because the conditions of consciousness from the Soul Plane on up to the God Planes are far beyond the Mental Plane, where we have to deal with images, symbols, alphabets, and words. Trying to use these tools as a means to explain and identify the qualities that exist far beyond the mind is impossible.

 

 

   In ECK, we don't look for explanations; we look for experience and realization. This comes through Soul Travel, which is simply the separation of spiritual consciousness from human consciousness. Through the Spiritual Exercises of ECK, when you are ready, this experience may come in a number of ways. And once you have this experience, death will never have a hold on you again.

   Fear of death is one of the reasons we fail in life. It governs a great part of one's life. For example, it is the whole basis for the insurance business. It can even make us afraid to take a chance on a new job. We have a lot invested in the old job. What happens if we give it up and can't replace the income? How will we survive without it?

   Fear governs us more than the love of life. The only way we can hope to break through this fear is when we have some type of an experience that shows us that life continues after the demise of the physical body. 

   Socrates, in the Phaedo, said a philosopher's purpose is to achieve the separation of the Soul as much as possible from the human body, so that when death comes, he can meet it with confidence in the life that exists beyond.

   A book called The Glass Ship brought up an interesting concept. The glass ship is a symbolic way of saying the Soul body. This is the eternal part of you which is invisible to those around you. The glass ship is actually Soul freed from the body, enabling or empowering you to go to the invisible planes.

   Through the power of HU, the word of God, you can gain the ability to bring about the separation of Soul from the physical body and become aware of the place you will go after you leave here in death.

   We are looking to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven, which means the state of high awareness or God Consciousness, while in the physical body. The co-workers of God exist and labor in all planes, even on earth.

   Just because the saints worked on earth doesn't mean they were separated from the high consciousness. When necessary, they endured torture, poverty, and hardship at the hands of others, and yet they were able to be happy and content.

   The question is, Can we have this, too? Some will not, but there are others who have the ability and the potential to learn Soul Travel, to take those first timid steps out of the physical body. They will explore the inner planes, sometimes through the dream state, and come in contact with the two aspects of the Holy Spirit—the Light and Sound.

 

 

   A fellow had been in ECKANKAR a number of years ago, but wasn't any longer. Though he still considered himself a silent follower of ECK, he said he saw absolutely no purpose for the Light and Sound. But he wanted to do Soul Travel.

   After you have learned Soul Travel, there comes a time when you give it up. Soul Travel is merely one part of your evolution.

   Those in ECK who make any degree of progress will, at some point, reach the Soul Plane, which is the realm beyond the areas of time and space. And without time and space, there can be no movement of anything, including Soul.

   Therefore, when you get above the Mental Plane to the Soul Plane, you no longer Soul Travel. At this point you are often in the condition of seeing, knowing, and being, simply finding yourself on another plane of spiritual consciousness, in another heaven. You are simply there. But until then, to bridge the gap from the physical body to the Soul Plane, we have Soul Travel.

   Some of the experiences with Soul Travel are quite phenomenal, but the whole point of the Inner Master taking you on a Soul Travel journey is to give you experience that is vitally needed for you to become a mature Soul. Without this experience, you run the course of karma and reincarnation lifetime after lifetime. A person may not agree with this, but it really doesn't matter how you feel about it. The laws of Spirit prevail.

 

 

   It makes absolutely no difference whether or not we, in our petty human state of consciousness, agree with how it is all set up. We can resist the laws of Spirit all we want, but like a child trying to stop a tornado, it's pretty ineffective.

   The laws of Spirit command all the worlds. Yet man in his self conceit, supported by book knowledge and mental education, sometimes feels he stands above these laws. He thinks that he can take shortcuts.

   There are many routes we can take to heaven. God had established so many different paths and means for us that there is a way for everyone, including the atheist. This sounds almost like a humorous paradox, but it's true. An atheist can be closer to God than a Bible-carrying, born-again Christian, simply because the atheist may have a better understanding of the Law of Love.

   If Divine Spirit wants you for Itself, to serve Its cause in any way, It will take you, shake you, and mold you through the harshest treatment you can imagine until the tempering of Soul is exactly correct. Only then are you a purified channel fit to be put into the world to become Its Co-worker, to walk silently among the sons of man and give the nourishment of the Holy Spirit by your presence and sometimes by your actions.

 

 

   The first step is to learn Soul Travel. This is done through the Spiritual Exercises of ECK, which involve active contemplation rather than passive meditation. In meditation you sit down, become still, go within, and just wait; whereas in contemplation you sit down, become still, go within, and use the creative imagination to do something. These creative techniques are described in the ECK discourses. The book ECKANKAR—The Key To Secret Worlds has several spiritual exercises, and In My Soul I Am Free has a very good one called "The Easy Way" technique.

   If you are ready for the path of ECK, you will be given some kind of an indication through the inner channels that it is time to take another step. If you are not ready, then take the step to the religious teaching where you feel most comfortable.

 

 

   To become a conscious vehicle for God requires that you become the very best that you can possibly be in whatever you choose to do. If you are more comfortable in a church, then become the best church member you can be in whatever way you believe is required. Becoming a master of any sort means you are going to be one of the chosen ones, one of the people at the top of the spiritual ladder.

 

 

  If you are interested in Soul Travel, you can try out a technique tonight in the dream state. Close your eyes, and place your attention very gently on the Spiritual Eye. Then chant HU, and fill yourself with love. This feeling of love is needed to give you the confidence to go forward into an unknown, unexplored area. One way to fill yourself with love is by calling up the warm memory of a past occasion that filled you with pure love.

   Then look inwardly for the individual who is your ideal at this time—whether it is Christ or one of the ECK Masters. In a very gentle way, say: "I give you permission to take me to the place that I have earned, for my greatest spiritual unfoldment." And then silently or out loud, continue to chant HU, or God, or a holy word. Try to visualize yourself walking into the inner worlds, and know that the individual that comes to meet you is a dear friend. 

   If it doesn't work the first time, do it again and again. The spiritual exercises are like physical exercises: Before your muscles grow strong, you have to exercise them a number of times; it doesn't always happen in one try. It's quite likely that if you take up an exercise routine for thirty days, you're going to be stronger than you were at the beginning.

   It's the same way with the spiritual exercises. The purpose of the Spiritual Exercises of ECK is simply to open a conduit or a channel between yourself and the Holy Spirit, which we know as the Audible Life Stream—the wave that comes from the heart of God. From the moment you begin chanting and looking for truth in this particular way, whether you are conscious of it or not, changes are being made in you.

   The changes may be so small at first that you won't even notice them, but others will. You're not going to walk around looking like a deified being; it may seem to go the other way for awhile. As Spirit brings about purification, the dross that is part of all of us rises to the surface and spills over.

   Now you will have to be more aware of the words that you speak and the thoughts that you think. Because if you let negativity go out and pollute the world, it will come back to you in the form of karma. But whatever happens, as long as you learn from it, you have gained in your spiritual unfoldment.

 

                                      Changes In Consciousness

 

   When you start to do the Spiritual Exercises of ECK, the Light and Sound of the Holy Spirit begin to enter you through an invisible communication line, and changes come about in your personality. You become a more independent, thoughtful, self-motivated individual because you are taking the first steps towards self-mastery. And self-mastery means that you are in charge of yourself. 

   This is not to say that you are ignoring laws and the expectations of people around you; but you become well-versed in how to guide your life to avoid unnecessary hardships and problems, and to get the most out of everything that you do, both physically and spiritually.

   In the process of your spiritual evolution, the changes in consciousness are going to produce changes in health. At first they may not necessarily be for the better. Karmic conditions that are imbedded in you may now come to the surface as health problems. But at the same time, you have now gained the ability to find the elixir needed to soothe each particular problem.

   When you open yourself to divine truth, the mere fact that you can identify a problem means that you have the solution within you. What you are attempting to achieve through the Spiritual Exercises of ECK is the expansion of consciousness whereby you can better see the solution to your problem. This doesn't mean you're going to get an immediate cure or that your purse is going to be filled instantly just because you asked for it. This isn't how life works.

   The purpose of life is to give Soul—and that means you–an education so that It can become a Co-worker with God. Whether you like it or not, no matter how you resist, your destiny is to someday be one of the exalted ones, a Master in your own right. Some of you have already done your kicking and screaming in other lifetimes. All you need to do this time is pick up where you left off, and your path will be very quick and smooth.

 

 

   And yet there is room in ECK for the doubter, because as you express and exercise your doubts, you gain in strength. If you need to have something proven to you, it will be proven to you. It won't necessarily happen in a smooth and easy way, but it will come in such a way that you will know the truth of the matter.

   Others may offer you their philosophies and theories about it, but at this point you will know what is right and true for you, whether it concerns your diet, how to make a good living for yourself, or the spiritual exercise needed to take your next step on the path to God. As you go along, you become more independent of thought. And this is what we hope to achieve—strong individuals, not sheep.

 

 

   A young boy often wondered if he were adopted. Finally he got up the courage to ask his mother about it.

   "No, of course you're not adopted," she said. He didn't believe her. The family album had pictures of his older brother, but there were none of him. It must be because he had once belonged to other parents. "No," his mother said again, "you always belonged to us."

   He stared at her with big round eyes. "Then why aren't there any pictures of me?"

   His mother looked very uncomfortable. Finally she said, "You were such an ugly baby, we were ashamed of you." She hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly continued. "When you were a little baby, you were so ugly. All anyone saw in your crib were two big eyes staring back at them. Whenever visitors asked to see the baby, I'd tell them you were upstairs taking a nap, and I didn't want to disturb you." When she took him outside in the baby carriage, she said, she would put a blanket over his head.

   The boy still couldn't figure out why his mother had thought he was so ugly. It wasn't until he grew up that she finally showed him a photograph of himself as a baby. "Sure enough," he agreed, "I was an ugly baby. Nothing but these two huge eyes staring back." Today the man still has big eyes, but his head, face, and hair have filled out around them.

   As an adult he told his wife this story. She said,"If you still have that picture, I'd really like to see it."

   He showed her the photograph. "Oh what a beautiful baby!" she said. "It looks just like me when I was a baby." It was the first time anyone had found anything nice to say about his baby picture.

   Truth comes to us like a baby with two big eyes, not looking at all the way we expected. We like to pride ourselves in the thought that if truth came, we would instantly recognize it and embrace it. But because of our prejudices and the narrowness of the human consciousness, we could as easily call it an ugly baby and throw a blanket over its head.

   This attitude explains why we have problems and why life seems to run us when we should be running our life. And most people don't have the slightest idea how to turn this around.

   The best way I know is through the Spiritual Exercises of ECK. But the mere fact that you begin to do the spiritual exercises doesn't mean that you will instantly be on the straight path to God. Each of you will approach it differently.

   Some of you will be more persistent than others. The individual Soul is a unique being with Its own pattern of karmic behavior. Two people who do the same spiritual exercises are not going to progress at the same rate.

   No matter who you are, no matter how good or bad you think you are, you are a unique individual. Soul, both in Its being and in Its relationship with God, is unique. If you are ready, the Spiritual Exercises of ECK will help you to find your own custom-made approach to the Kingdom of God

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   The story of Jonah in the Old Testament gives a good example of trust in Spirit, trust in truth. Jonah was given the assignment by God to go to the city of Nineveh. He was to tell the people they were doing it all wrong, and if they didn't repent, God was going to destroy the city. 

   Jonah was a prophet for the Israelites. He had no use for the gentiles. "I don't want to go," he said.

   "Go anyway," said God.

   But instead of going to Nineveh, Jonah got on a ship headed for Tarshish, which was in the opposite direction. A fearsome storm blew in. The sailors, being a superstitious bunch, cast lots to see who was responsible for upsetting the gods of the sea. And guess who the lot pointed to? 

   Jonah told them all about his God and how he had tried to flee from His presence.

   As the storm continued to rage, the mariners decided they had no choice but to cast Jonah into the sea. No sooner had he splashed into the water than a big fish gobbled him up. Jonah's account says it was a great fish, but in the New Testament, Jesus calls it a whale. Whatever it was, it didn't chew him at all, it just swallowed him whole.

   The fish eventually spit Jonah out on dry land. "I've seen the light," he said. "Now I'll go to Nineveh and give the message to the people."

   You can't just walk into a city and expect a great big welcome from the people when you're telling them to clean up their act. No one likes to hear that, especially from a guy in ragged clothes who's been living three days in the belly of a fish. But he managed to convince them to change their ways. They accepted everything he said.

   When you declare yourself a channel for God, you are going to be given directions. Occasionally you will be nudged to meet someone you would rather not meet, under conditions you would rather not be in. But you always have a choice: Either go and act as a pure channel for the Holy Spirit, or not. Of course, when Jonah chose not to, he ended up in a fish's belly.

 

 

   When you ask to see the face of the Angel of Love, you must be pure of heart. If you aren't pure of heart, the angel will destroy you.

   If you are sincere in your search for truth, then go ahead and make the statement at bedtime: "Lord, show me Thy truth, show me Thy path, show me Thy way." Repeat this each night. Soon you may begin to become more aware of your dreams, or you may be taken out of the body by an ECK Master or one of the other masters. In some way, something will occur to give you absolute knowledge that there is existence beyond the physical body, that there is life after death.

 

 

  Like it or not, each of us is one day going to have to cross that threshold. Nowadays death is pretty much hidden, especially from children. In the Western world a person often dies in a hospital, not at home, and it's all handled very antiseptically. We are isolated from the inevitable thing which we would rather not think about. But someday, whether we are ready or not, it comes.

   There was a man who was very strong in his Christian faith. He had trusted and followed the Holy Spirit throughout his whole life. One day an inner voice told him to sell his business, move to another state, and start a peach farm. 

   His friends told him that he was an utter fool to do something like this, but he did it anyway—and became a highly successful peach farmer. He worked at it for a number of years, enjoying not only the money but the benefits of being outside in the fresh air and sunshine.

   One day the voice came to him again. This time it said: "In the years you have been here, you have learned enough to go into the construction business." He gave it a try, but he didn't do very well; there were already enough contractors and not enough business to go around.

   He wondered what to do. The voice said, "Build churches." He listened and it turned out to be a very profitable venture. None of the other contractors liked to work with the church building committees because it was a slow, ponderous process. It took forever for them to make a decision—and then they would reverse it. But this man was very easygoing, patient, and mentally sharp, and he liked people. He got into a field nobody else wanted, and within a few years he became a millionaire.

   But there is always a shadow. It was discovered this man had a terminal illness. For ten years he went through one kind of medical treatment after another, until finally the years caught up with him. He had always kept an unloaded gun by his bedside, but in the last week of his life he started to keep it loaded. He was afraid to die alone, and he formed a crazy notion that his wife should go with him.

   Even though all his life this man had been very strong in his church, he never lost the fear of death. A person is afraid to die when he doesn't understand, or have knowledge of, the continuity of life.

 

 

   The purpose of the ECK teachings is to make you aware of yourself as Soul. You begin to realize your ability to move beyond the physical body even while you are still alive in the body. When Saint Paul said, "I die daily," he referred to this process. It is similar to death in that in the Soul body, one actually leaves the physical body to take a look at the worlds beyond.

   Here he gains confidence, courage, and becomes acquainted with the other worlds, so that when the time comes, he moves through the transition very smoothly, very naturally. Death loses its sting, the grave loses its victory.

   Once we leave the physical body permanently—if we are advanced to any degree at all—there need be no concern for this life on earth, for we have moved into a far greater expression of it. Our divine evolution is a wonderful thing.

   If you have questions, I would be glad to answer a few

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   Q:  How do you distinguish between the Sound Current and other noises, such as ringing in the ears?

   HK:  You will definitely know the difference. The Sound is simply the action of the Holy Spirit coming into Soul, uplifting and purifying It for a greater level of understanding.

   The Sound and Light are the two aspects of the Holy Spirit. The Light generally comes first, and then comes the Sound, which is more important. It is the Sound that will carry you into the higher worlds.

   Q:  Is there a technique to open up to the Sound Current?

   HK:  Sit or lie down, close your eyes, place your attention on the Spiritual Eye, and chant HU. As you chant, listen carefully in a gentle way. Use the creative imagination. Try to visualize the Sound as golden musical notes flowing down from a place above you. As you see them, know that each golden note has an accompanying sound. Listen for the melodies as they pass into and through you in a continuous stream.*

   Visualize something connected with the music that strikes a definite image on your mind, perhaps a stringed instrument, a flute, or woodwinds. First try to see and then try to hear the golden notes flowing down from this musical instrument.**

   Try this technique for twenty minutes a day. If it doesn't work after a week or two, try another creative technique.

 

 

   Q:  What is the translation like when we leave here at death and go to the next place?

HK:  In most cases, as we make the transition we are totally unconcerned about it. As bright as the sunlight appears to our eyes, this physical world is a dark, small, mean place compared to the other worlds. You will see settings similar to those on earth, but larger and with a lot more light.

   There will be a lightness and spaciousness about the body that you wear there. Soul is once again wearing a body, but it is on a higher plane. It is so natural that generally you don't give it a second thought. And you are always greeted by someone you know and love.

   People who are of a higher character have an easier time going across than those who have been mean in life. If they have cheated others and selfishly extracted everything they could get, they usually don't have someone so happy to meet them on the other side. But for people who love truth and love God, it's a smooth change. The key really is love.

   Sometimes the transition is made so gradually that the person who is near death finds it a pleasant experience. I remember the way my grandmother would sit by her sewing machine and seem to be talking to herself. But she wasn't at all. She was speaking with friends and relatives from the other side, already able to see them.

   This often happens with people who are about to die. The transition is very gradual, and you know they are in good hands. The person who leaves this plane generally does not miss it. There's no reason to, once you realize the continuity of life.

 

 

   Q:  What is your opinion of guardian angels?

HK:  Do you have one?

   Q:  Yes. He has been coming to me for years. He wears a long robe. He's the one who told me to come here tonight. If he turns me over to ECK Masters, what do I do with him?

HK:  Whether it appears as a guardian angel, Christ, the Inner Master, or anything else, what you are seeing merely the form the Holy Spirit uses to manifest in your inner worlds through the vision of the Spiritual Eye. 

   The Holy Spirit takes on a form that fits your state of consciousness, so that It can make Itself known to you in the form of someone you feel comfortable with and have learned to trust. This guardian angel will stay around until it is time for you to go to another state of consciousness. Then he will turn you over to the individual who can take you on the next phase of your journey.

Q:  But what will happen to my guardian angel then?

HK:  You really don't need to worry about him. Remember, these masters you see on the inner are actually the manifested Holy Spirit. It is omnipresent, which means that Its everywhere at once. It's a little hard for the mind to understand, but in the Spirit body, your guardian angel has the ability to work with an unlimited number of people at the same time.

 

 

   Q:  If one practices psychic phenomena, will he get into some kind of danger?

HK:  Most of us don't have a full understanding of the laws of Spirit. Because of our ignorance about what we are doing, we pay the price. Sometimes it's a small price, sometimes a large one, but it's always within our capacity to handle. I'm not saying the psychic is necessarily bad. A lot depends on how a person works in this area.

 

 

   Q:  Are you saying when used for good, it's alright?

HK:  Let's put it this way: You will find that many of the psychic healers are in poor health. They generally burn out before age forty, especially if they are heavily involved. This is because they haven't learned that people with health problems have earned them through spiritual ignorance.

   When you take away a person's symptoms, you actually deprive him of an opportunity to learn what he needs to know in order to avoid the karmic patterns that caused the illness. He is just going to keep on doing the same things over again.

   Psychic healing is quite often an individual's real attempt to serve his fellow man in some way. However, without an understanding of the consequences of that form of service, it is a double-edged sword.

   At some point the psychic healer will realize that the toll on his own health is too heavy and that people don't really appreciate or grow from what has been done for them. The healer can then step back from that practice, look seriously at his own forward progress, and learn how to serve as an agent of God in a clean way so as not to take on karma. There is a way to do that.

   Q:  What is the alternative? Should we not heal?

HK:  If someone asks for help, then it is our choice whether or not to give them whatever information we have. But so often the people who do healings, especially those who know nothing about the laws of Spirit, take it upon themselves to pray for a sick person to get well. That is actually a violation of spiritual law, but many people feel they are doing it for God and therefore it's right.

   Do it if you will, but because you're interfering with another person's spiritual beingness, you are going to pay the price. This is one of the areas in which the orthodox churches have failed the people. They constantly encourage praying for someone else to change their state of consciousness—to find Jesus, to be healed, or whatever.

   If these prayers are directed toward a person of greater spiritual evolution, one who is protected by a higher force, there will be consequences. These prayers are really only psychic forces that are shot toward the white light that surrounds the protected one. When these prayers hit the protective light, they bounce straight back to the sender. You will find that the people who do a lot of praying for others usually have plenty of problems themselves. Money doesn't come in right, health isn't good, and family problems arise.

   One family back home made it a cause to pray for me to come back to the church. I didn't want to go back to the church. They might as well have been praying for a fourth grader to go back and be a first-grade pupil again. People do this in the mistaken belief that it makes them more spiritual.

   Every Sunday night I would get a headache. These headaches persisted until I finally figured out what was happening and surrounded myself in the white light of Spirit. The headaches went away, but that family continued to pray for me.

   They were determined to change my consciousness. They went through some very bad experiences, but that was their choice. They may not learn from it in this lifetime, but they'll be back to try again—until they do learn

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   Q:  What is a good technique for self-healing?

HK:  There isn't any one healing technique that will work for all of you. As your state of consciousness changes, as you unfold spiritually, you are going to find that the old healing systems don't work for you anymore. A lot of things won't work anymore.

   This is why the creative imagination is so important, as well as our willingness to stay open to life and to the Holy Spirit. When the old remedies don't work anymore, Spirit is going to show you something new that does work. But if you are rigid in consciousness, you won't even notice the solution; therefore, you'll suffer, sometimes even to the point of death.

   The path to truth is like a two-edged sword. You have to stay open; you have to be willing to give up your preconceived notions about right eating, what is right for your health—all those things. At some point, whatever was right for you in the past will no longer work.

   The old rules become completely powerless to do anything more for you. But Spirit will put in front of you a new and better way, and once you pick it up, you are a new creature.

 

 

   Q:  Some of the ECK books mention life on Venus. Do people actually live on Venus the way they do here?

HK:  On Venus, no. On some of the other planets, yes.

Q:  Is Venus a spiritual realm, or is it physical like earth?

HK:  It's actually part of the physical, but it operates at a higher vibratory rate than earth. It's like the difference between ice and steam; both are part of the physical realm, but one is solid and the other is vapor. The properties are different.

   The Physical Plane has various ranges of composition, ranges of consciousness, and ranges of heaven and hell. Even the other planes, such as the Astral and Causal, have ranges of heaven and hell. The earthbound spirits are actually in the lower part of the Astral Plane, but sometimes their vibrations are so coarse that they can be seen here by people who are spiritually sensitive to a high part of the Physical Plane.

   The veil becomes very thin, much like a filmy curtain which allows you to see ghostly images on the other side. But most of the time the veil between the Physical and Astral planes is more like a solid wall that you can't see through.

 

 

   Q:  Once you are initiated into ECKANKAR, can someone still interfere with your consciousness?

HK:  It can still occur. Some people are better at the path of ECK than others. Some people's defenses can be gotten through simply because they don't keep up with the spiritual disciplines or the spiritual exercises, or because they don't fill themselves with love.

Q:  Why do people interfere with another's consciousness in the first place?

HK:  Why do people cheat each other in business? It's the old idea that you can get something for nothing. The Physical Plane is exactly the place where they can work this out of their system.

   People who do not understand the spiritual laws don't realize that you pay for everything you get. Some people are just not as far along on the spiritual path as others. Those of us who know better have the consciousness to keep out of their way. In the same way that you can't cheat an honest man, you can't take advantage of someone who is strong in spiritual consciousness.

   Wherever you are and whatever you do , you should live life to its fullest in the way that is most comfortable to you. If you can do this, you will find that the Angel of Love will unveil its face for you, and it will be a happy meeting.

 

From the book, The Golden Heart © 1990 Eckankar – Sri Harold Klemp