Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – Soul’s Journey

Tags

Astral, Emotions, Etheric, God, heaven, Intuition, memories, Mental, Soul

Soul is multidimensional. It shares all the aspects of God. Soul can be everywhere at all times, and all places at the same time. This is that part of God that you are.

Begin remembering your dreams to get an idea of who and what you are as Soul.

Sri Harold Klemp – Touching the Face of God

The shift in mindset that we are Soul and not the temporary covering of the body is a hard one to grasp for most people. You see these lower worlds are architected so well, they keep Soul imprisoned for eons. It is all designed this way in order to purify Soul enough to warrant a meeting with the Mahanta.

The Mahanta is the inner side of The Living ECK Master. There is always a Mahanta in the world, despite most people’s ignorance of him. When Soul meets the Mahanta for the first time, it may decide to stay with him or leave him for something else. At some point, Soul will decide to stay and begin its journey back home.

This journey starts in the lower worlds, exploring the emotions (Astral plane), memories (Causal plane), symbols and thinking (mental plane), and the intuition (Etheric plane). Each of these planes must be mastered before Soul can discover itself. When it does, it has entered the Soul plane.

The Soul plane is different from the lower planes because the emotions, memory, thinking, and intuition are all left behind. They cannot go with Soul. When Soul experiences this it finally recognizes itself and the reality it has been living in will be shattered. This is spiritual freedom. It is a freedom from the emotions of lust, anger, greed, undue attachment, and vanity. It is also liberated from the ego, which is the primary culprit for most of our woes in life.

The shattering of the illusion of the lower worlds can be quite upsetting to many people when they make this journey. For some, it is so disturbing, they leave ECKANKAR and the master for something else. That’s ok. There is no race to God consciousness. Soul simply continues on its own unique way to God.

For many Souls, the religions of the day are the solution. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Animalism, Pantheism, Confucianism, are but a few of the present-day religions Soul follows for a time. Some even follow Atheism, which is a belief system of sorts that fails to recognize any God at all. Soul’s journey back to God involves every religion, every belief system, everything. It must travel through all of these in order to mature. There is no race back to God.

The biggest illusions Soul discovers when it leaves the lower worlds is that matter, energy, space, and time are all illusions of the lower worlds. You see, the mind needs this illusion in order to survive the lower worlds. It also needs the ego in order to hold its own with other Souls here. When it leaves these lower worlds, these illusions are also dropped with the mind. Soul doesn’t need them and these illusions are not part of the higher worlds, most would call heaven. In these worlds, time collapses, space collapses, energy ceases, and matter is non-existent. All in the higher worlds is light and sound.

Some of you may be thrown a bit by what I’ve written here, but I have experienced these things during my journey in this lifetime. Many of the things I have experienced cannot be translated into words. Instead, they are a knowingness, much like many have when they are in love. You can’t prove you love someone. You just know it. The other person who loves you back, experiences the same thing–they know they love you and that you love them. It is this knowingness that Soul uses to bring back some semblance of the higher world experiences it has back to the lower worlds.

Well, I’ll end here for today. I hope all of you have a great Sunday!

May the blessings be.

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – Doing Things for God

Tags

Content, Detached, Discrimination, Eckankar, Forgiving, God, Humble, spirituality, Sri Harold Klemp, The Loving Heart, Tolerant

Do everything, large or small, as if you were doing it for God alone. That means the task will be done with love, joy, and (don’t forget) thoroughness.

Sri Harold Klemp – The Loving Heart

Each of us have our daily duties. Cleaning up, laundry, self-hygiene, taking care of pets, and so on. When we do these things for God, we open ourselves to a love that comes without strings attached.

The ego or what we call the “little self” is minimized when we do things for God. The ego is a much-needed part of us here in the lower worlds, because without it we would be trampled on like a door mat. However, it is also the source of most of our problems here. The ego can be insulted, slighted, and upset. It can be jealous, intolerant, unforgiving. It can be lustful, greedy, and vane. It likes to attach us to things like certain beliefs or ideas, foods, drugs, and causes all kinds of problems.

When we minimize the ego, it is harder for us to be upset at others, lust after things we want, but do not need, and all the rest. This minimization causes us less heartache over the long term and also helps us become more loving. If we lust after less, are angered less, are less greedy, less attached, and less vane, things tend to smooth out in life for us. We can begin cultivating the virtues of discrimination (making good choices), tolerance and forgiveness, contentment, detachment, and humility.

Do things in the name of God and your life will take a turn for the better.

May the blessings be.

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – The Gift of Life

Tags

God, Gratitude, Heart, Life, Love, Power, Simple Things, spirituality, Sunday

We have the greatest gift there is: the gift of life. And what we do from here on is up to us.

Sri Harold Klemp-Love—The Keystone of Life

Life is what we make of it. Some go through life feeling like everyone is against them, that they don’t get any breaks, have no luck, etc. Others, regardless of their circumstances find beauty in the simple things, know that all is taken care of, and are grateful for all life has to give.

One life is more interested in power, while the other is more interested in love. Can you guess which is which?

There is a blogger I follow that puts up the most wonderful pictures of trees in here area. There is another blogger I follow that takes pictures of her morning walks and all the wildlife that happen to be available for a photo op. These pictures are what they see. I can tell that both of these women look at the world with love. Each blog we visit opens up a special part of that person’s heart. People write and speak about what they love. Another blogger I follow is very crafty, she has all kinds of travels throughout the year, depicting the various projects she is working on, and all the things she does with family, her dogs, and her art. It is a treasure to share in each of these women’s experiences.

Have you ever taken a walk and then instead of looking at the broadness of the landscape, taken a moment to crouch down and look at something very small, like a dewdrop on a blade of grass? I often wonder if that dewdrop captures all of the landscape around it like a wide-angle lens?

Some days I wake up and all is right with the world. It is hard to explain, but you can just feel the love come in from everywhere and everything. There’s a story of a young Indian boy who lives in absolute squaller. He is happy and running about the large piles of garbage in his neighborhood. A man walks up and asks, “Why are you so happy, running around in the garbage and the dung?” The boy replies, “God is everything, even the garbage and dung I play in.” The wisdom in this story is wondrous.

Living a life of love means we simply live our lives, without trying to exert our will on anything to make it different than what it is. We don’t try to tell others how to live their lives, we simply live and be ourselves. A life of love is a life of gratitude–gratitude for all things that are and nothing more.

Here’s a question for you to think about: Do I live a life of love or power?

I hope all of you have a wonderful Sunday.

May the blessings be!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – Sri Harold Klemp’s Official YouTube Channel

Tags

Divine Love, God, heaven, HU, Love, Mahanta, Spirit, Sri Harold Klemp, The Living Eck Master, Truth

I thought I would introduce you today to Sri Harold Klemp, The Mahanta, The Living ECK Master, who is the Leader of ECKANKAR. He has an official channel on YouTube. Here is the link, if you’d like to check out other talks that have been uploaded: https://www.youtube.com/@SriHaroldKlemp

I hope all of you have a terrific Sunday. Thank you so much for following Daily Ramblings. It is a real treat to hear from you and see what you are posting to your blogs.

May the Blessings Be!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – Expanding Your Heart

Tags

Giving, God, Heart, HU, IT, Love, Selflessness, Spiritual Sunday, spirituality, SUGMAD

You’ve just entered a larger room, and that’s often why you feel this emptiness. It takes a little while for divine love to reach in and touch all the corners of your heart.

Sri Harold Klemp – Truth Has No Secrets

All of us are on a journey. We may be unaware of it, but the real you–Soul, is striving to return home.

The larger room, Sri Harold describes in this quote is the feeling you’ll get when you’ve made some spiritual progress. Sometimes when you’ve accomplished this, you’ll have a dream of being in a large theater or stadium. You’ll feel expansion or expansiveness.

Whenever you give of yourself, you are giving the love in your heart to another. This act, whether it be to an animal, another person, or even a plant, is you giving of yourself. Sometimes it is just listening to someone who is having a tough time of it. It may be a smile you give to a stranger at the market or wherever you are. Each of these little moments when you give of yourself, you are giving out love.

There’s a saying in ECKANKAR and it goes like this: “You have to give love to get it”. Each of us has a certain capacity or capability for love. Imagine it as a cup or your heart. When your heart is full, you can’t get any more love. Your cup is filled. When you give love to something you are doing, another person, or an animal or plant, love leaves and creates a gap or a little space for love in your cup. Since God’s love is always coming to us, it fills your cup right back up. So, as the quote says, give love and you’ll get love. It’s a really simple equation.

When we grow spiritually, our cup gets bigger. Our heart center expands. This is the expansion we feel when we are becoming more capable and attain higher spiritual heights. You don’t have to be an ECKist to experience this. It is simply the way this world works.

If you ever feel unhappiness, or just feel down, go out and give of yourself. When you give love, you get it. By doing for others without any expectation of getting something back, you will get something back. That is God’s love.

All of us have experienced that feeling of love that comes when we do something for others or complete some tasks with love. It’s a feeling that can’t be bought. It just feels good. It is a very light love–a subtle love–but it’s there.

No one misses out on this. It works for everyone all the time. Sri Harold recommends doing one thing each day out of love and love only without any expectation of something coming back. Try this out. You’ll see what I’m saying. You slowly build a habit of doing these things and your life will improve exponentially.

Well, that’s all I have for today. I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend. Have a great Sunday. Go about your day knowing that God’s love is coming to you 24 hours a day. It never stops. It never ends.

May the blessings be.

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – Problems and Loss

Tags

creativity, Emotions, Experience, God, Loss, Planning, Problems, Spiritual Lessons, Thinking

When times are hard, some people complain. And as they complain about the hard times, they shut themselves off from the opportunities that lie within their troubles.

Other people have learned to be patient. They look for the lessons within their hardships or troubles.

Sri Harold Klemp – Love—The Keystone of Life

My wife lost her car keys and has had to depend on others to get her around until she finds them. It’s a pain, but what’s the lesson? Have a place to put your keys each time you come home? Stop driving around so much?

When things like this happen, the frustration can be utterly maddening. Each day there is the possibility of a problem. Maybe you wake up not feeling well, maybe you get blindsided by a bill you weren’t expecting. Maybe that one thing you always expect to be there, stops working. All of these problems crop up all the time. In some cases, problems crop up that are the same, despite being disguised in different costumes.

I learned over the last few years, that it is best to let our emotions subside before making any decisions. You see the emotions preclude us from thinking of a plan to solve the problem. Have you ever heard the quote: “I was so angry I couldn’t think straight”? This applies here. When we jump into action with a plan while the emotions are still high, we tend to make matters worse. So, be patient. Another quote comes to mind: “This too shall pass”.

This quote reminds us that love is the only way to get the solutions we need. When we complain, are angry, scared, upset, or berate ourselves for being “so stupid”, we cut off the source within us that has a solution. When we relax and the emotions have subsided, we are more clear to begin thinking of solutions to a particular problem. Maybe we do some research to see what others did to solve their problem that is like ours. Maybe we talk to family members who may have had a like problem they had to solve. Sometimes the only place we can go is within.

I came to the realization a while back that there really are no problems. We are the ones who define a problem for what it is. What if we decided that a problem wasn’t one. What if, instead, we decided it was a lesson to learn.

If you look at all the problems you’ve had in life, you’ll discover like I did, that problems come in categories. Health, finances, relationships, etc. You’ll also see that some problems, once solved, never return. This means you’ve learned the lesson.

Like my wife losing her keys, I lost my wallet a few years ago. I accidentally left it on the trunk of my car when I was gassing up. Then I drove off and it fell off alongside the road. I was freaked out when I got home. Luckily, a good Samaritan arrived at our door a few hours later bringing the wallet back with the money inside. I learned a big lesson. Never carry anything more than what you need in your wallet. So now, I only carry my driver’s license and my debit card. Nothing else. Should I have another situation where my wallet is lost, there’s nothing in it that cannot be replaced easily with a few phone calls or website visits.

The key lesson: Let the emotions subside before making any decisions. You’ll make better decisions and solve the problem. Another key lesson: You define what a problem is. In some case, you can live with whatever happens and get on with your life.

If you’d like more insights into solving problems here’s a link to a free e-book: https://www.eckankar.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Secrets-of-Divine-Creativity_ebooklet.pdf One of the messages on the cover is: All problems come with answers.

Here’s a final note. God never gives us a problem we are not capable of solving. So when you get hit upside the head with a problem, realize that there is a solution to it. Most of the time, it is within you.

Have a great Sunday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – Self Sufficiency

Tags

Eckankar, God, ideas, Inner nudges, Intuition, Karma, Life, Self-responsibility, Self-sufficiency

Whatever path to God you follow ought to make you able to stand on your own feet here as well as in the inner worlds; here and now, in this lifetime, before you drop the body in death.

If the path isn’t able to do that, then you ought to keep looking until you find one that gives you this ability.

Sri Harold Klemp – Touching the Face of God

All of us are on our own unique way back to God. It doesn’t matter what path we follow. I’ve chosen ECKANKAR as my path, but I could just have easily chosen Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam. There are many religious paths including being an agnostic or atheist. Soul needs to experience every one of these throughout its many reincarnations.

In ECKANKAR we learn to trust our intuition. We tend to call them inner nudges. An inner nudge is like an idea. You wake up after a good night’s sleep and you get an insight to a problem or something troubling you in your life. This trouble could be another person, a financial issue, or even a physical ailment. Whatever the problem is, most people can figure out a solution to their problems.

One problem hinted at in this quote is the responsibility to self. We must carry our own load. There are some in this lifetime who need outside support. The disabled need help in this lifetime. The chronically ill need help. But for most of us, it simply means we have to find a way to make a living.

But there is more to standing on our own feet than just making a living. It is also about serving our societies, our families, and our friends. We must take responsibility for our actions in this life and previous lives.

Some religions profess to offer salvation by accepting a savior. You could be a mass-murderer and if you accept salvation, you are all good. This could not be more wrong. No one escapes karma. Many think they are getting away with doing wrongs. Sometimes this thought is supported by a life where a person just gets away with everything without paying the piper. This illusion is dissolved when they come back and have to pay for all their wrong doings in previous lives.

We have all hurt others and have been hurt by others. Karma does not forget, despite our inability to see what we did in a previous life. It is set up this way, because we must learn from scratch in each lifetime. Slowly, we start wondering why our lives are this way or that. Why am I cursed with such bad luck? You are not cursed. You are simply paying back things you did before. No one escapes this.

When we finally realize the truth of this, we start to live our lives in a more responsible way. We avoid hurting others if we can. We avoid selfishness. We begin to see that service to others, including ourselves, is key to resolving our karma, so we stop building our karmic debt. In fact, we start to clear up some things and make it easier on ourselves when we return yet again.

I hope all of you have a terrific Sunday!

May the blessings be…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – ECK Soul Adventure Podcast

Tags

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 Sunday – The Soul Adventure Seminar

Tags

Covid, ECK, Eckankar, Freedom, God, Happiness, Love, Soul, Soul Adventure, Worldwide

All, ECKANKAR has a worldwide seminar that is available to everyone, whether you are an ECKist or not. When COVID hit, ECKANKAR began recording events for the public who could not attend. This year we finally had an in-person event (I did not attend), and in November they offer the public to watch key parts of the event online.

If you’d be interested in hearing Sri Harold’s talk, you can attend the event here:

https://www.eckankar.org/html/ECKSoulAdventure/index.php

Make sure you click on guest. The organization will need your address to send you the password to the event, and that’s it!

I hope all of you are having a terrific 2023. I am. It’s been a great year so far.

May the blessings be!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – The Key to Spiritual Living

Tags

Chant, Eckankar, God, HU, Living, Love, Name, spirituality, Sunday

Here is yet another free e-booklet from ECKANKAR. This one is on the word HU, which is an ancient name for God. HU is a mantra we use when we pray. HU is non-denominational. It can be used by anyone at any time. Get your free e-booklet here, if you are interested in learning more: https://www.eckankar.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/HU-Your-Key-to-Spir-Living_ebooklet.pdf

I hope all of you have a terrific Sunday!

Until next time…

Dave