Ancient Wisdom for Today (4 page)

there than here.

Dream Symbols Are Individual

Many people claim the images and

symbols we have in dreams are common

to everyone and can be easily interpreted.

You can find books in your local library telling you water means this or horses mean that. The dream teachings of Eckankar do not follow such a simplistic model.

In ECK, each person is a unique indi-

vidual. Therefore, the dream symbols used by each person are also unique. Swimming in a river may well have a different meaning for one person than it would for

another. The key for the dreamer, then, is to go within and determine what each 31

of these symbols may mean. This can even become a type of spiritual exercise.

Dream Characters Represent

Aspects of the Dreamer

The plot and characters in dreams are

not always significant in themselves. A chilling nightmare can hold a very uplifting message for the dreamer. For the most part, though, the characters in a dream represent the dreamer himself. These are keys to understanding who we are and

what our purpose is. Eckankar explains that we are to look for a positive message when trying to understand the meaning of our dreams. The Dream Master is always working for your benefit.

There Are Many

Levels of Dreaming

There are many levels of dreaming. If

the dreamer becomes aware that he is in a dream, he may be able to take control of the experience. The dreamer may call 32

upon the Mahanta and request spiritual instruction. Or the dreamer may choose to visit a Temple of Golden Wisdom on

one of the other planes. In these cases, the experience can become more Soul

Travel than dreaming.

Dreams Can Prophesy

There are also dreams of prophecy.

You can view life from above the normal track of time and get a glimpse of the future. It is best, however, to restrict your use of prophecy to your own personal life. The opportunity for misunderstanding the symbols is great. If you

dream of an earthquake and then run to warn your friends of the upcoming cata-clysm, it would probably be embarrassing when nothing happens.

Such a dream, more likely, is foretelling a personal shift, perhaps indicating the approach of a sudden change in circumstances or consciousness. The dream may indeed be prophetic, but you could miss the real meaning.

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Keep a Dream Journal

Keeping a dream journal can be

helpful. This provides a bridge between the inner and outer worlds. Most of

our dreams are forgotten very quickly.

After reading their own dream journals, many people are amazed at how much they dream.

A dream journal also gives us an opportunity to see any patterns in our dreams.

Certain symbols may tend to appear regu-larly. In recognizing them, we are better able to make sense of these experiences.

And finally, the process of writing

the dream down allows us to synthe-

size and let go of the experience. As this baggage is released, we gain both understanding and spiritual freedom.

The Purpose of Dreams Is

to Bring the Individual Closer

to the Light and Sound of God

The ultimate purpose of dreams is to

bring the individual closer to the Light 34

and Sound of God. In this way, dreams

have the same purpose as life itself. The Mahanta can communicate in a dream

with the new student who has not yet

been able to open his conscious mind to the Inner Master.

A dream is a step on the path of spiritual unfoldment. It can also be an inspiration to the average person, as in Soul Travel. All things are possible. Life is no longer a mundane, random experience.

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4

Karma

The universality of the Law of

Karma is one of the chief factors

which binds life together, and not only
human life but animal, plant, and min-eral life as well. All these compose one big
family, with a complicated and inseparable history and an inseparable karma.

The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad

years old when he watched an apple fall to the ground in his mother’s orchard.

The apple never really hit him on the

head. It did, however, support his theory of universal gravitation.

At the time, in 1665, Sir Isaac had

also just formulated his three laws of 37

motion, one of them being that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton’s explanations are usually

applied to the interaction of physical forces and objects. However, the same

action / reaction principle applies to the forces of emotion and thought.

The Law of Karma

Is Scientific and Logical

The Law of Karma is scientific and

logical. It is the spiritual form of the physical Law of Cause and Effect. Every action creates an equal and opposite

reaction. The Law of Karma helps us

understand the effect of our actions. The process helps Soul mature. The law’s

purpose is to teach love and to uplift, not to punish.

Karma applies itself in the most ex-

acting and clever of ways. If we deprived another human being of freedom in a

previous life, we’d probably have our free-38

dom curtailed in this life. This experience would give us time to reconsider our views and learn the Law of Love.

Understanding Karma Can

Liberate Us from Being a Victim

Once we accept the Law of Karma in

our lives, we are liberated from being the victim. We begin to see underlying spiritual causes and act accordingly. Prob-

lems become opportunities for spiritual growth.

Karma differs from fate or destiny

because it encourages us to take an active role in life. The Law of Karma requires the spiritual seeker to follow the highest code of ethics. The rules are simple.

Eckankar is not a passive path to God.

You Can Be Free of Karma

When you achieve the exalted state of

Self-Realization, you’ll still be held accountable for your actions in your daily life.

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However, you will have worked off the

karma built up from past lives. And when you finish your mission in this life, unless you choose to come back to this plane to teach or to serve, you need not return.

Perhaps you will maintain this ex-

panded consciousness throughout your

lifetime. Perhaps you’ll hold on to it for only a moment at a time. You will learn, however, that there is always a risk of losing the 360-degree viewpoint. You earn each step toward God Consciousness moment to moment.

Most ECKists want to be free of kar-

ma. They would like to balance their

karmic account by the end of their present lifetime. The Mahanta helps them do this.

By practicing the Spiritual Exercises of ECK, they drop the attitudes and habits binding them to the past. They can fulfill their spiritual destiny without having to be reborn. Thus they are freed from end-less rounds on the Wheel of the Eighty-Four. The ECKist calls this spiritual

liberation.

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Karma Metes Out Perfect Justice

The Law of Karma metes out perfect

justice. This is reassuring in a world which can appear to be unjust. One duty of the ECKist is to show compassion and kindness to all, regardless of their position on the spiritual ladder. We are all on a spiritual journey together.

Our suffering is not always punish-

ment for past actions. There are many

subtle processes at work. If you experienced fear and persecution in a past life, you may still carry these feelings in your psychic memory. You may experience

unwarranted fear and anxiety in your

current life. These fears may persist until you remember the eternal nature of Soul and surrender your concerns to the Holy Spirit.

We Are Responsible

Eckankar teaches us to be responsible.

On a physical level, this means we make every effort to support ourselves. On a 41

spiritual level, this means we earn our own state of consciousness.

This seems illogical if we view only

one life at a time. In a single life we suffer or are blessed for no apparent

reason. God seems arbitrary and random.

The ECK principle of spiritual responsibility makes more sense as we accept the principles of karma and reincarnation.

Reincarnation teaches that we are born again and again until we learn the spiritual lessons of life. The Law of Karma ensures that we link our behavior with its inevitable results. We reap in one life what we have sown in another.

If we impede the development of an-

other human being, we will incur a karmic debt. By our actions, it’s clear we haven’t yet learned the Law of Love. The debt

will have to be paid, and a lesson will have to be learned. The suffering which may follow is not the act of a vengeful God. We are just reaping what we have

sown. It is the loving God which helps each Soul develop Its highest spiritual 42

potential through experience.

Perhaps the most serious of karmic

infractions is to misuse spiritual power for personal gain. History brims with

examples of those who used psychic in-

sight for personal advancement. False

teachers have incurred a debt to their followers and at some point, that debt must be paid.

Experience Teaches Us

Experience teaches us. When a lesson

is learned, particularly a spiritual lesson, we no longer need the experience.

The karma is finished. We can move on

to the next step. This is not absolution or forgiveness. It is spiritual growth.

Spiritual Maturity Comes

When We Realize We Are

the Creator of Our Own Life

We cannot purchase God Conscious-

ness in a marketplace, nor can it be

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granted to us by another. Our mistakes or sins of the past cannot be absolved at the last minute simply by request. We

earn spiritual wisdom by taking responsibility for our actions and by learning how the ECK, the Holy Spirit, works.

Spiritual maturity comes when we real-

ize we are the creator of our own life. We learn to be a Co-worker with God by

understanding how to create what is

highest and most beneficial for the whole.

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5

Reincarnation

You’re like a hamster going around
and around in a wheel. This wheel

is called the wheel of reincarnation. Life
after life you come back trying to solve the
mystery, wondering how to love God, then
how to love yourself.

The answer to that mystery is called
spiritual freedom. And the way to spiritual freedom is simply to sing HU with
love. That is where you begin.

That’s the doorway to a new life, a life
of love.

Harold Klemp

What Is Spiritual Freedom?

Another scientific principle is the con-servation of matter and energy. This

natural law states that matter can neither 45

be created nor destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another.

French chemist Antoine-Laurent

Lavoisier discovered this principle in the late eighteenth century shortly before losing his head in the French Revolution. Since then, several scientists, including John Dalton and Albert Einstein, refined and expanded on the principle. They found that the total amount of matter and energy in the universe always remains the same.

The parts are just reassembled into new combinations.

Every aspect of the universe is part

of a phenomenal recycling effort. We,

as Soul, are divine sparks of God. That which can never be created nor destroyed.

This doesn’t mean that the human population on earth remains the same. Not all Souls incarnate as humans at the same

time.

We evolve in consciousness through

many different forms of life, even in the plant and animal kingdoms, before we take human form. Our goals are to learn how 46

to survive, how to love, how to achieve self-mastery, and how to find our way home to God.

Near-Death and Out-of-Body

Experiences Have Helped

People Live Life More Fully

Some people have had near-death expe-

riences. They were able to view their in-jured body from above and had a glimpse of the higher worlds. Most have extremely happy and uplifting experiences.

Soul never dies. It does not grieve

for Its physical body. Many tell of meeting old friends or relatives who have passed on or of encounters with great majestic beings who greet them but say the time for their death has not yet arrived. Those who return to their physical body often feel totally different about their lives. They are now free of the fear of death and are able to live life more fully.

And there are those who’ve had out-

of-body experiences. These experiences 47

are similar to the near-death experience but can occur under more ordinary

circumstances. The person is able to shift his spiritual attention away from the

physical realm and travel in the Soul

body. After such experiences it is hard to be afraid of death because the continuity of life becomes so apparent.

Heaven Exists on Other Planes

When the physical body dies, Soul con-

tinues to exist on the other planes of God.

Soul may stay on these other planes for a day, a thousand years, or more. This is dependent on Soul’s mission, Its karmic obligation, and Its level of spiritual unfoldment. For many, this in-between time is heaven. The Astral Plane, for example, has sections which resemble all of the heavens described in the major religious traditions.