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Category Archives: Spiritual Saturday

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – ECK Soul Adventure Podcast

22 Sunday Jan 2023

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

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ECK, ECK Soul Adventure, Eckankar, God, Inner Worlds, Podcast, spirituality

Many of you have very busy lives. You are busy with work and making a living. You have families to care for. You have pets to care for. You have a home to keep clean and care for. This post is for you.

There are many free books and other materials available to the public offered by ECKANKAR, but there is also a podcast. Here’s the link: https://www.eckankar.org/podcasts/

When you arrive here, you can scroll to the bottom of the webpage to find the app store that you use, whether it’s Google, Apple, or Spotify. I know I like having all my streaming services in one place. So, using Apple Music is my go-to.

These podcasts talk about all kinds of spiritual topics like life-after-death, reincarnation, karma, and God. If you’ve got a long commute to work and listen to music or the radio, why not give this a shot. It’ll add some variety to your listening experience and could potentially offer you some insight into your inner worlds.

I hope you enjoy these. They are terrific!

May the blessings be!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday/Sunday – Book Discussion Series

13 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

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Dreams, ECK Wisdom Series, Eckankar, Fear, Healing, health, Inner guidance, Karma and Reincarnation, Life After Death, Meetup, Sould Travel, Spiritual Freedom, spirituality, Tools, wisdom

I will be hosting a 9-session book discussion on a series of books in ECKANKAR’s Wisdom Series. These will be hosted and run on ZOOM. If you would like to attend, join my Meetup. Here’s the link: https://www.meetup.com/the-path-of-spiritual-freedom-eckankar-port-huron/ I will be posting these events on my Meetup one at a time. Each event will require you to register, but do not cost any thing, other than the .99 cents the books cost on Amazon. Here’s a link to them: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08M38HNZ6?ref_=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_tkin&binding=kindle_edition

These events will be 100% online via ZOOM and are open to the public everywhere on the globe. The dates and topics are below:

Conquering Fear – Mar 18, 2021
Solving Problems – Apr 15, 2021
Health and Healing – May 20, 2021
Inner Guidance – Jun 17, 2021
Life After Death – Jul 15, 2021
Karma and Reincarnation – Aug 19, 2021
Dreams – Sep 16, 2021
Soul Travel – Oct 7, 2021
Spiritual Freedom – Oct 21, 2021

I wanted to make sure everyone of you knew about my upcoming book discussions. You’ll get to see and hear me live. You can connect via ZOOM or just call in. These will be posted on my Meetup, advertised on Facebook, and I will continue to notify all of you as the book discussion dates approach. I hope some of you can make it.

You do not have to be an ECKist to attend these events and there will be no solicitation whatsoever to join ECKANKAR. These books were written as a public service and offer real tools to help you in many areas of your life. If you are interested in any of these topics, I highly recommend coming. These books will offer you some real benefits, and provide you with some tools you can apply right away.

Hope to see some of you there!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday/Sunday –

31 Sunday Jan 2021

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Adapt, change, Covid, Flexibility, habits, Improvise, Overcome, Resistance, viewpoint

I write articles for a newsletter for my religious group that is published every month and was prompted to write about change for the upcoming edition. Today’s post is about change. I hope you enjoy it.

We are still dealing with COVID; we are dealing with a new government, and we are dealing with all the changes these two events will have on our lives. Why do we fight change when it comes?

Change is difficult because we are all “wired” against it. Our brains are very sophisticated and seek efficiency at every turn. When a big change occurs, our brains fight it. Why? Because our brains exhaust a lot of energy when change comes. So the brain minimizes or even resists change because of the energy it requires to literally rewire ourselves to adapt a change.

My sister and wife both made job changes recently. It is interesting to watch both of them go through the changes of learning a new job, the training they are going through, and how each reacts to the changes brought on by these job changes. Think about the changes COVID has brought into your life. Are they easy for you or difficult? For most, the changes are hard.

Changes related to going out to dinner, changes related to staying home, changes related to wearing a mask, and changes related to the normal, mundane things we are all accustomed to. When change comes, we tend to think about what has been taken away, rather than what has been given.

Think about how much reading you’ve gotten done in light of these changes to our lives. Think about the new hobbies or activities you are now doing because of the virus. Think about how much more you interact with your family over the phone or via ZOOM, Skype, or Google Chat.

A wise man once said to me, “Things are not done to us; they are done for us.” Simple, right? Imagine if we looked at life this way. Everything in our life is done for us, not to us. A play on words, perhaps, but still a powerful message and a terrific way to look at life.

I am a person who always looks for the positive things in life. Despite the lockdowns, and all the other changes the virus has brought into our lives, there are many good things that resulted from the changes wrought by this nasty little bug. I read more than I have at any other time in my life. I have learned more in the last year than I did in previous years. I have had to alter my exercise regimen, but the new exercise plan I follow is just as good or better than when I went to the gym all the time. During the winter months I work out at home because our roads aren’t so great during the winter and I don’t like to take unnecessary risks when the snow comes. Not a huge change when you think about it.

COVID has touched my family. My wife, my brother, and my nephew and his girlfriend all got it. Luckily, no one was hospitalized. My parents have been COVID free, mainly because we are all hermits and I only go out to get groceries or run errands. Since retirement, I stay at home most of the time anyway. All of my work is done right on this laptop. I read, write, learn, and entertain myself on this laptop or my Xbox console.

This year will be a great learning year, because there are so many things I need to learn for the new position I hold in ECKANKAR. My role as the State of Michigan’s lead missionary, require knowledge in data science, digital marketing, MS Excel charts, graphic design, and yes, even some programming. Does the role require that I learn these things? Not really. But I’ve always been the person who likes to take a position to a new level. By learning these things, I’ll be better prepared to understand the data we are receiving from our website, Facebook page, and our numerous Meetups that we use to put out the ECKANKAR message in Michigan.

Change is only hard when we fight it. Change is only painful when we only look at what we have lost. Change can be good, if you look at the change in a positive light. Look at what you have gained over the last year. Look at the changes you took to protect yourself and comply with your government guidance. What changes did you make? Were they beneficial? Mine were.

There’s a story I read a long time ago about trees. There was a passage about willow trees and how they “bend” with the wind, instead of trying to fight it. The wind in this case is a metaphor for the changes that come into our lives. Those that are most flexible survive; those that are not tend to “snap”. Be the willow during these changing times. Your flexibility will allow you to survive the changes in these tumultuous times. The weight of these changes will not break you, because you will be flexible enough to let the weight of these changes fall from your limbs.

Life goes on. Regardless of the changes brought on by external events like COVID, governmental elections, or anything else, we also change over time. Change is inevitable. Change will happen. Accept the changes that come and do your best. Be grateful for all the things that change brings into your life. You’ll find a new gratitude for these changes and life will be much easier. Change is only hard when we resist it.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of HU

09 Saturday Jan 2021

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Contemplation, creation, Divine Spirit, Eckankar, God, Light and Sound, Meditation, reality, The ECK

HU is an ancient name of God. In ECKANKAR, we use it during our contemplations, among other charged words. You can chant HU, regardless of your religion. It is an uplifting mantra that gives peace and calm, particularly when life is giving you a rough time. Below is a link for you to listen to if you wish.

HU—The Sound of Soul

The Law of HU declares that the ECK or divine spirit, or what we call the Light and Sound of God, are the formers of this and many other universes. It is this divine spirit that gives life to the matter in this reality.

I hope all of you have a terrific Saturday.

May the blessings be.

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of Grace

12 Saturday Dec 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Discipline, earn, God, Grace, heaven, Jesus, Karma, realization, Work

Jesus said, “Come unto me and be lifted up.” Many assume God’s grace comes to us merely by asking for it. It does, but only when we make some effort to attain it. You only get what you earn. Nothing is given freely.

It is so easy to see really bad people doing bad things and wondering why they never have to pay the price. They do. Karma has no time limit when it comes to paying back our debts. Karma always wins. People think they are getting away with cheating on their taxes, cheating on their loved ones, or pretending they are doing something noble, but in the end, Karma always comes back to bite us–in this lifetime or the next or the next or the next.

“Soul exists because God loves it.” – Sri Harold Klemp. These words have changed meaning as I have matured on the spiritual path of ECKANKAR. Gods love is much different from the love you have for your pets or loved ones. It is an impersonal and powerful love. As I have mentioned earlier, the body Soul occupies (the one you exist in today), is meaningless to God. It is only a shell that Soul uses to learn while it is here.

God’s love is for Soul, which is imperishable. But Soul must work, discipline itself, and put effort into realizing the grace of God that is already there, ready for the taking. How do you realize it? You have to attain a state of consciousness that aligns with the ECK, or what many call the Holy Spirit. Imagine loving your enemy, as Jesus did and said. This is God’s love. God doesn’t care whether you are an evil person, a good person, a hard worker, or a sloth. God’s love comes to everyone equally. IT doesn’t play favorites. Some of the ignorant may think he chooses them over another, or favors them over another, but these are absolute falsehoods. God’s love is equally distributed to all.

God’s love comes like a wave. This wave goes out into creation and returns back to IT. Everyone gets God’s grace, but few recognize it, because they lack the ability to realize it. What does realization mean? It means that you believe in something and accept it wholeheartedly. You know. There are few in this plane of existence that have attained God realization, or the actual experience of God, but it is attainable. Those that have, have a different experience of life than the rest of us. They see the beauty in the simple things. They see God in everything.

Well, I’ll end this little talk here. I hope all of you have a terrific day!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of God

05 Saturday Dec 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

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higher worlds, Karma, Law of God, Ocean of Love and Mercy, Past lives, physical plane, Reincarnation, Soul, Spiritual Saturday

The Law of God: Everything has its origin in Spirit; divine truth is one and unchanging. A Cosmic Sea of Words: The ECKANKAR Lexicon.

The physical plane where we currently find ourselves is a classroom for Soul. Each time we return we learn new things, which add to the maturity of Soul into a greater being. In ECKANKAR, there is one key tenet of our belief system. It is: “Soul exists because God loves it.”

Many ask: “If God loves us, why do we die, why do bad things happen to good people?” The answer is simple: If you take reincarnation into consideration, every debt we create, regardless of lifetime, must be paid in full. This means that the evildoer of today will pay back his or her debts at some point in this lifetime or the next. There is no escaping the Law of Karma. The Law of Karma states that everything comes back in the end. The lessons we learn take many lifetimes to embrace and accept.

Another question: “If we do reincarnate, why do we not remember our past lives?” Some people remember their past lives in dreams, but can’t connect with that truth, because each lifetime we come here fresh. We must start anew each time we return, until we finally begin awakening to the reality of our past lives and can gain access to those records, which are not accessible to most. Can you imagine how disconcerting it would be if you had a recollection of every past life you’ve ever lived? It would be impossible to exist like that. God designed this place so that all of us start again and again, gaining what we need in this lifetime, and take small incremental steps back to our true home. This home is called the Ocean of Love and Mercy in ECKANKAR.

Trying to capture the idea of GOD, heaven, or other spiritual truths, is difficult when we are trying to understand the nature of worlds that do not abide by the Matter, Energy, Space, and Time of this place. In the upper worlds, there is no matter, energy, space, or time. Do you see how difficult it is for the mind to grasp these things? More on this in upcoming posts.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of Fixidity

28 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Experience, fixidity, higher worlds, Learning, liberation, lower worlds, Negative, Neutral, Physical body, Positive, Soul

In my religious path, we believe in two realms of worlds–the lower worlds and the higher worlds. The lower worlds are bound by matter, energy, space and time and are fixed, while the higher worlds are not bound by these same characteristics, and are unlimited.

The lower worlds are designed for Soul to learn. The design gives them the appearance of completeness, spaciousness, and accommodation, yet are beset with numberless restrictions. Subsequently, everything here comes with advantages and disadvantages. Everything has a “catch”.

A person is rich, but dies from a disease money can’t cure. A person commits evil acts and gets away with it (or so he or she thinks). Bad things happen to good people, without any rhyme or reason. Change is permanent here.

When we realize we are not this body, the fixidity of this reality makes sense. We live, we die, we return to do it all over again. Only when we realize the temporal nature of this place, we will begin to search for something beyond this. When we do, we find that Soul is the real us, and these many bodies and lifetimes we experience are just that–experience, so Soul can learn and become liberated from this ever-turning wheel.

Have a great Saturday!!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of Consciousness

21 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Awareness, Belief, consciousness, expansion, Growth, Saturday, spirituality

Have you ever created a picture, poetry, or a physical object like a table or bookshelf? When you began you stared at a blank canvas, piece of paper, or a pile of wood. What gave that life? You did.

The Law of Consciousness dictates that the thought or idea has to start from the inner, to be expressed later in the outer form. You have to have the story, poem, music, or design in your head before you can create it.

The same process occurs spiritually. You have to have an idea of what you are seeking before you can seek it. You have to realize the existence of something before you can explore it. You have to believe before you can experience something. Without the belief or awareness of something, you cannot conceive it.

To be conscious of something, you have to gain the realization or belief that what you are thinking is possible. Then it is easy to manifest.

Where do ideas come from? They come from the real self–Soul. Soul is not bound by matter, energy, space, or time. It is infinite. It is omnipresent. Subsequently, Soul sees the whole picture. When Soul tries to communicate to the mind, the mind censors it, particularly if the information that is transmitted is too much for the mind to handle. Subsequently, our spiritual progress is slow and measured. This is the way it has to be, but progress is made, regardless of your awareness of it or not.

This is the Law of Consciousness. Have a great Saturday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of Change

14 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

God, inevitable, Law of Change, reality, Spiritual, Spiritual Saturday, Universe

Take a moment to think about your life. What do you notice?

One thing I notice when I look at my life is change. The Law of Change deals with this aspect of our universe. Nothing stays the same—nothing. Our bodies age, our friends change, our environment changes, our relationships change, and so on. Everything in this reality we live in is constantly changing.

Why does change occur? It occurs because our universe is built on three different forces. There is a positive force, a negative force, and a neutral force. These forces interact with one another and impact each of us in an infinite amount of ways. Since each of us is unique, we experience these fluctuations in these three forces uniquely. Our experiences with these fluctuations can be good, bad, or indifferent. Our experience is dictated by our reactions to them. If we perceive change as good, we accept it. If we perceive change as bad, we fight it. If we perceive a change as neutral, we don’t see the change, so it doesn’t affect us.

Realizing this, it should be apt that we embrace change, expect it. But do we do that? No. We fight it, we rail against it, we dislike it. This results in a pretty unhappy existence for most.

When things change around us, we have to change. For example, if you are working a good job and told one day that the company is going out of business, you have to adapt to that change. If your loved one tells you that he or she is no longer in love with you and is having an affair, you have to adapt to that. When you wake up and realize you’re sick, you have to adapt to that.

Change is inevitable. It is constant. It is ongoing. When things change, look for the positives. Embrace the change as necessary for your spiritual growth. When you do this, you’re going to begin enjoying changes in your life and realizing a fact: All is in its rightful place in the worlds of God – Harold Klemp. Nothing is left to chance here. There is no bad or good luck. All is in its rightful place. Our feeble human minds may not grasp the reason behind a change, but the change is going to come, and it is necessary for you, me, all of us.

I hope you have a terrific Saturday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of Causation

07 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by Dave Gardner in Spiritual Saturday

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bible, Law of Causation, No escape from your actions, Past lives, Reap, Reincarnation, Sow, Truth

Everything in this universe has a cause. In other words, if something happens, there was an initiating action that sparked it. If we take the time to look, we can see how we have caused everything in our lives.

Sometimes it is difficult to see the cause that created an effect in our life. This is because the cause or initial spark happened in a previous life. This ties into the quote “We reap what we sow” (Galatians, The Bible).

Why is this important? It is important because we are much more powerful than we give ourselves credit for. Every single thing we get in life is the product of what we have done or have not done. This translates to a startling conclusion–we are 100% responsible for everything we receive.

Why do bad things happen to good people? The Law of Causation explains it. To understand it, however, you have to acknowledge that Soul is infinite, and it has lived in multiple lifetimes. In other words, reincarnation is real. If you accept this premise, then the things you are reaping in this life were caused during one of your previous lives.

If you truly believe this, you’ll live your life quite differently. You’ll realize that no one escapes their wrongdoing, even if they get away with it in this life. No one escapes. The Law of Causation ensures that every good, bad, or neutral action you take comes back in the end.

Begin living your life as if everything you sow, you will reap at some point in the future. If you acknowledge the truth of this law, your conduct will change in very dramatic ways.

I hope you have a terrific Saturday!

Until next time…

Dave

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