₦airaland Forum

None of us differ as beings in this universe in the amount of power we possess-our only difference is the amount of power we realize we have, and use. Until man realizes this and masters himself he cannot hope to exert influence beyond himself. Unfoldment can be swift or slow; it depends upon the realization of the power within, and this takes us back to the point made on a previous page. That is, Spirit can give us only what we take. This is the way of the ECK power in this universe, and there is no other way. It depends upon our consciousness to act in this manner, not by an act of violence or strong determination of the will.
. Realization in the consciousness is very necessary; we must know that it is there before it appears to us.
. Does this seem too simple? In truth, it is simple. There is no complexity in it at all. It is being certain of receiving. The act of knowing that it is there is the greatest and most important thing in the world. For this is how awareness is brought about.


Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

The Prince must be above these secret laws of this world. These laws are very subtle for they seek out the weakness in every man so as to destroy him.
. That individual who is greedy for riches is allowed to amass them; then possession of those riches becomes the sword that strike him down. With millions at his command, he is often placed in a position where no sum of money can help him. A man, thus, must face his own weakness and conquer it or be conquered by it. If the latter, then he has been found wanting. Those who are not defeated rise from the depths to soar again, to rebuild life anew, and here they have the help of the Sugmad.
. One of Newton's laws of motion in physics states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every flow of energy there is, and must be, a counterflow. This is what we call cause and effect.


Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

How to Make Good Decisions

Everyone wants to make good decisions. But how do you know when you are being guided by the ECK or by the mind? Here's a simple way to tell.

If guided by ECK, you are more likely to change your mind when new information comes along. You're quicker to admit that an earlier decision based on sketchy information needs to change.

The mind has the power to make you believe you are always right. That's why a head-strong person acts so smart. He thinks he's always right, though he's often wrong.

—Sri Harold Klemp
The Spiritual Exercises of ECK

The ECK Way to Pray

There are a lot of people who pray to God in the wrong way. They want others to do things their way, so they use prayer to control others and bring about their own wishes. It's like a basketball team praying together before a game: "Dear God, help us win." Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the court the other guys are busy doing the same thing. What kind of prayer is that?

When you ask God for help, you can say, "I am aware of the situation and the problem, and I want your help in whatever way you see fit." This is the attitude of the ECKist. You look to see what you, yourself, can do to make the thing work; how you can overcome your own problem.

When you practice this, you are learning, unfolding, getting experience to become a mature Soul—someone fit to be a Co-worker with God.

—Sri Harold Klemp
The Spiritual Exercises of ECK

We don't learn and grow if everything is always smooth and pretty and nice. Sometimes you have to get the other experiences in life. It's necessary, like salt and pepper on your food. It adds spice to life.
. If we have the capacity for love - which is all that this life is about - life gives us more experience.
. It doesn't matter what religion you're in, some people have healings and others don't. Some people in ECK have healings, others don't. Sometimes it's not the fault of the particular Soul, the individual. It can be a necessary life experience.


The Secret of Love
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

The Light of God is in every person.Enjoy the good in others.Overlook and forgive the negative where Soul still needs to polish.

The Call of Soul
Sri Harold Klemp

Soul Travel is a means of hearing the Sound and seeing the Light of God,in a way which cannot be done in the human body.The Sound and Light are the wave upon which Soul rides back into the kingdom of heaven;they are the twin aspects of ECK(holy spirit).When an individual has gone through the phases of visions,dreams,Soul Travel,and the ECKshar consciousness,and is an experienced traveler in all the regions of God,then he receives the enlightenment of God.This is God consciousness,and nothing more can be said about it here because words fail.

The Call of Soul
Sri Harold Klemp

The spiritual exercise work similarly to physical exercise.If you want your body to be strong and healthy,you've got to swim or run or do something to keep fit.For soul body,you do the spiritual Exercises of ECK,a form of inner communication also called contemplation.
These spiritual exercises link you with the guidance of the Holy Spirit,which is seen as light and heard as Sound.The inner Sound is the Voice of God calling us home.The inner Light is a beacon to light our way.All the Spiritual Exercises of Eck are built on these two divine aspects of the Holy Spirit.

The Call of Soul
Sri Harold Klemp

Until you become a strong human being-
Able to survive under any and all
Conditions-you're never going to be able
To help anyone else.In Eckankar,we want
To see people develop into strong human
Beings.This is a path for the strong.The
Meek shall inherit the earth,but the strong shall go into the highest reaches
Of heaven.

The Call of Soul
Sri Harold Klemp

. How The Mahanta Works

. For the members of ECK there are discourses to help you to another stage of understanding yourself spiritually. But the greatest unfoldment comes not through the books, discourses, or talks that happen on the outer side, in the physical world. The greatest unfoldment happens on the inner planes, in your dream worlds, through your intuition, through nudges, and sometimes more directly through visions and Soul Travel.
. These are Divine Spirit's way of helping you. This is how the Mahanta works.
. The Mahanta works to help you, to lift you, so you can understand why you're even in this life and why it pays to go on, because some days it seems almost impossible. You wonder, Why bother? Well, bother.



HOW To SURVIVE SPIRITUALLY IN OUR TIMES
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

@ratatis
. I think the confusion here is the definition of astral travel. Am just expressing my opinion and I don't think there's anything like unconscious astral travel. Astral travel involves using a psychic practice to separate the astral body from the physical. This is why some people get a special room for this practice so the physical body won't be disturbed. It is mostly done consciously.
. Soul in the lower worlds is wearing five bodies. When the physical body sleeps Soul journeys in the Inner worlds and this could be in any of the planes even though most people have their experience in the astral. When the physical body wakes up this experience is called a dream.
. While dreaming a Soul can become fully conscious. This has gone from a dream to Soul Travel experience whether it occurs in the Astral or any other Plane.

. Wake - Up Calls

. Gradually, over a number of years, people slowly wake from their spiritual sleep. As they do, they get a yearning. A yearning for something they can't quite put their finger on. They have a desire for knowledge first. Behind that they find there is a yearning for understanding, then a yearning for truth.
. If they take it far enough, they'll realize that behind all their yearning is the yearning for God's love. They have been yearning for love all this time, and these other things were just bringing them closer and closer to God's love.



HOW To SURVIVE SPIRITUALLY IN OUR TIMES
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

@ratatis

. The purpose of astral travel is to gain experiences on the astral plane. But you are limited to only the astral plane and like Ben said it is unnatural and dangerous.
. While in Soul Travel you can expand your awareness to any plane in the lower worlds. The lower worlds includes the Astral, Causal, Mental and Etheric.

. The Law of Silence

. The Law of Silence is one of the laws we're familiar with in ECK. It's simply this: If there's a certain truth that is very, very important for you spiritually, keep it to yourself.
. This doesn't mean that you don't help people, that you don't talk to them about one thing or another. But if there is something that has come to you specially, a spiritual lesson that has come to your way to teach you something about truth, as soon as you realize this, say nothing about it. Let the Holy Spirit play the scene out for you. Because then you'll get the benefit of the lesson. Otherwise, you waste it. It goes into the air just like empty words.



HOW To SURVIVE SPIRITUALLY IN OUR TIMES
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

One must have the faith of the mustard seed. The seed of faith must be in action. Have you wondered what Jesus meant when he said that we need faith "as a grain of mustard seed"? It doesn't mean smallest, for a speck of dust is small, but he meant that faith should be alive. The mustard seed has the potentialities of the mustard tree within it - true faith is a living seed that holds within itself the fulfillment of desire; the Spirit of God is within it as in all living things. By faith, one contacts the eternal, unchanging goodness of Spirit.



The Flute of God
Sri Paul Twitchell

. Your Own Journey To God

. You will learn that the path to God is not one of a group. You are on this path to God yourself.
. You may be a member of a group that is very large or very small, or you may go all by yourself. But you are on this journey to God. The only important thing on this journey is you and God. Once you've established the correct relationship between yourself and God, then you're able to go back out into the world and serve all God's creatures. And you will serve with love, kindness, compassion, and understanding.
. Because you've walked in those moccasins before, you can help others by listening. You've been there. And there are others who can help you because they've been where you are now.
. All the help that comes to us is from the Holy Spirit, whether it comes in a dream or through the help of a friend or a doctor. The trick is the discrimination that you need: To tell what's good for you and what's not good for you. This comes by listening to your heart.
. So I would like to leave you with this thought: Open your heart to love because God loves you.



HOW To SURVIVE SPIRITUALLY IN OUR TIMES
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

. Survival Skills

. People who are very set in their state of consciousness - they have their mind made up about a lot of things - are the least likely to hear when God speaks.





HOW To SURVIVE SPIRITUALLY IN OUR TIMES
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

. The Fifth principle is: Reality is disclosed only to those who meet its conditions and the conditions are primarily of an ethical nature. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart : For they shall see God." Eckhart reported, "The more a man regards everything as divine - more divine than it is of itself - the more God will be pleased with him. . . . This requires effort and love, a careful cultivation of the spiritual life. . . . One must learn an inner solitude. He must learn to penetrate things and find God there, to get a strong impression of God fixed firmly in his mind." A Sufi sutra brings this out, When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the spirit laughs for what it has found."



The Flute of God
Sri Paul Twitchell

. A True Spiritual Guide

. Sometimes people don't understand the role or the place of a spiritual guide - whether it's Christ, the Mahanta, Buddha, or a church leader who has a very definite connection with the Holy Spirit.
. Over all creation is the Creator, God. We know It as Sugmad. The Voice of God is the active force that goes out and is responsible for the actual creation of all the universes. This Voice of God is what is known as the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the creative force. But it's a neutral force. It simply obeys or does, the will of the Creator.
. A true spiritual master is in tune with the Voice of God. As a human manifestation that people can see and understand, his will is that of Divine Spirit. And that's all.
. In Eckankar this divine force works both in the Outer Master and through the Inner Master. That means the ECKist have the additional benefit of a Master who can come in the dream state and teach them, sometimes by Soul Travel, sometimes in contemplation. The inner Master is working when the individual sleeps, prays, meditates, or contemplate. The Outer Master is out here to provide the books and discourses and give talks. They are not two separate things - they're just two different aspects of one being serving the Holy Spirit.



HOW To SURVIVE SPIRITUALLY IN OUR TIMES
Sri Harold Klemp
The Mahanta the Living ECK Master

. Lao-tzu, the spiritual hero of China, said, "The world may be known without leaving the house. The way may be seen apart from the windows. The further you go, the less you will know. Accordingly, the wise man knows without going, sees without seeing, and does without doing." This means that the inner world of a man reflects the world around himself; the principles of both worlds are the same. Certainty is to be found only in the heart; confusion is bred in the outer world.



Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. We find that truth tells us that the Spirit of God flows into and through us all, that if we cut ourselves off from one another, we cut ourselves off from the free flowing of Itself. Now there are found various types of people - the unresponsive, the difficult-to-convince, the independent who will not accept a free gift when offered lovingly, and those who find life rather hard. The responsive ones are the ones who make contact easily with God.




Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. The study of the scriptures is good but they do not give self-knowledge of absolute happiness; for books and scriptures simply remind us of the higher truths. They cannot bring the highest truth within our reach. The scriptures describe certain spiritual truths, such as the existence of God, divine love, and Spirit, but one cannot gain the realization of these truths from books any more than he can squeeze a drop of water out of an almanac in which the annual rainfall is mentioned. Then what does a person do to find truth?
. There are several ways. Go to a person whom you know, by evidence, knows the truth and ask to be taught, or set out on a course to find it by yourself. If you are strong enough in this quest you will find it.



Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. Soul is the manifested individual beingness of Spirit. Soul is created out of Spirit and has the ability to have freewill, choice, create, opinion, intelligence, imagination and postulate. Soul being part of Spirit Must survive because It has Immortality. It must be a distributor for Spirit consciously or unconsciously. The proper thing for Soul is to choose to distribute the positive.
. Soul in the lower world must take a form. Because to be a distributor for Spirit it needs a vessel. It takes the form of minerals, plant and animals( man included). This is the Spiritual evolution of Soul, nothing is dead, everything is alive. The destiny of every Soul is to be a Co-worker with God.
. An analogy is seeing Spirit as a large mirror. When broken to pieces, the small pieces can be seen as Souls and these small pieces has the same qualities of the mirror but in smaller degree. We are one with Spirit but as Souls each of us is a unit of awareness.

. Spirit is the totality of awareness. It is the omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence of God.
. Spirit is the voice of God which manifest itself as Light and Sound. Spirit, the Voice of HU-HU is often known as the Sugmad-which is the true name of God in the upper realms, is the creative energy. As It (Spirit) flows down through the worlds, from Its fountainhead in the center of all creation, far above this earth world, It needs distributors, and It works through Souls.

. Soon it will be seen that much of the knowledge that philosophers teach is purely mental knowledge effective primarily on the mental plane. Spiritual knowledge is properly concerned with Soul and Its unseen force. Such knowledge has to be realized and the meaning understood within the depth of one's own being. We are really little children learning the meaning of things that we already know and do not understand.



Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. When a man thinks of himself as separate from the ECK, an obvious impossibility, since he lives in God and in It has his being, he moves and falls out of the secret place of safety and harmony. His wrong thoughts, words, and action build a record of themselves into the atmosphere surrounding him. This atmosphere is magnetic, so it attracts like to itself. Therefore, if a man has created an atmosphere of chaos, he will be attracted to a spot where chaos will come, e.g., accidents and disasters. This is what is meant by "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." This is the law of our universe. Cause and effect is what it is.



Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. Although I have found many saints are metaphysically reticent, most of them are not. However, it's mostly a problem of communication. They have discovered, they claim, a unique something for which there is no word or name. It does not belong to the world in which language is born, for the universe is its by-product and nothing exists without it.
. Whatever they have discovered is their own particular individual understanding of the Divine Spirit and Its modus operandi. Their usual pattern of telling about it is to use a sign or a name of their own designation, yet having the same meaning after all - that of the divine power, or Spirit. Because of this, many holy men seem to differ in their opinions of the power; however, it is only a matter of terminology. The theory being that if one starts toward communication with Spirit, he should follow that path to the end. I personally disagree with this for each individual is different from the other. Each individual must find his own path, his own belief. If not, he will likely spend excessive effort and time practicing a system which is not suited for him.



Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. Recognize the Life of Spirit as well as the Law of Spirit. The two are identical and cannot be separated and cannot deny themselves.
. The path of Soul is therefore plain. It is simply to contemplate the life, and beauty of divine power and affirm ourselves as already giving expression to It as a channel, in thought, feeling, and action, however insignificant they may appear in the present. This path is very narrow and humble in its beginning, but it ever grows wider and mounts higher, for it is the continually expanding expression of the action of Spirit which is infinite and knows no limit.
. Therefore, man's appeal to God is: "How can I become a channel for thy great work.
. The answer is simple. Think, feel, and act. That is all there is to it, when combined with beauty, love, and wisdom.
. This leaves one in the attitude that regardless of how beautiful life may be now, there is always something better to come. It will come by the natural Law of Spirit, for Spirit, in Itself, is the principle of increase.




Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. Sudar Singh said to me once, "To enter the realm of God, one must be spiritually bold and adventuresome!"
. The timid never find true love and happiness, but the bold do. The more unreal anything seems, the more unreal it will become; conversely, the more real it is, the more real it becomes.



Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. These are a broad outline of the phases through which some people pass on their way to union with God. Provided they pass through them, all is well - the danger is staying in any one of them permanently.
. One does not need to believe to listen to the words of those who know.



Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. (5). Wrong thinking leads a person to feel shut in and lonely. He begins to want to hear of other people who are also thinking in the wrong way - who are ill, depressed, unsuccessful, resentful, moody - or he will have a special interest in people who take refuge in superiority.
. (6). Wrong thinking, being a habit of years, is difficult to give up. Such a person will have an inward resistance to self-discipline and persistence, and will reveal this by insisting that he has faith but that it does not work for him because he is different from others. Or he insists that he has followed all instructions to the letter, has had no results whatever, and has not the faintest idea why he alone should fail. Or he states that he cannot concentrate, hasn't time, cannot remember or grasp the teachings.


Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God

. (3). Wrong thinking is usually born along with feelings of inferiority. This becomes apparent when the person tries to maintain an attitude of intellectual superiority. He rationalizes away the facts of his failure to change his unwanted circumstances in life. He attempts to substitute intellectual argument for actual practice of the truth. He will use illness, or his failure, to fasten the sheltering, ministering attentions of someone else on himself and attempt to make that person feel guilty at the thought of abandoning him to his own devices.
. (4). Wrong thinking makes a person feel uncomfortable and out of place when right-thinking people are around. It will result in a person feeling depressed, feeling self-pity, feeling envious, resentful, or antagonistic toward those who succeed in any degree in truth.


Sri Paul Twitchell
The Flute of God