Inner Guidance (8 page)

He was looking right at me as he explained to the audience, “And the woman I was telling you about just stepped into the room!”

Upon hearing that, I stopped in my tracks. I took a closer look at the stage. To my astonishment, there was Mr. Adams, last year’s substitute teacher, standing onstage, looking right at me, in a hotel in this southern Indiana town, far from where I first met him.

It was a bizarre moment. Time and space seemed to collapse completely. He just stood there and smiled.

He had been telling
my
story, relating events from my classroom. Apparently, he included both what he had heard and seen for himself and what he learned from the students when he met with them while I was at the dentist.

The room was full; there was nowhere to hide. I just stood there, feeling a combination of shock and joy. I had been wonderfully set up by Divine Spirit. It was astounding to consider the succession of events that had to have taken place in order for me to walk into this room at this exact moment.

Tears began to stream down my face as everyone in the room now turned to see me. I quickly sat down in the closest seat I could find.

Instinctively I knew I had come home; such was the contentment I was experiencing. Standing in a crowded Inner Guidance_CH 06-10.p65

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Inner Guidance Opens an Ancient Door

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meeting room in that Holiday Inn, I felt more at home than at any other time on this planet. I had followed my inner guidance to this important turning point in my life, and it was as sure and natural as the pull of a magnet. And somehow, amazingly, these were my people.

Mr. Adams continued to speak. “If a person opens his heart to their guidance, the ECK Masters will work with a seeker and train him until he is ready to take a step onto the path of Eckankar. For this high-school teacher, that training was happening in earnest in her classroom when I met her and her students.”

ECK Masters? Were there really spiritual masters watching over our every move, guiding and directing us to our heart’s desire—if only we ask for their assistance?

I had read about them in the book that Mr. Adams had left in my classroom some time ago, and I longed to believe.

My ears filled with a sound like ocean waves breaking on the beach. I knew this was the Voice of God speaking to me. I could hardly hear anything else Mr.

Adams said. But it didn’t matter.

When the talk ended, Mr. Adams picked up a guitar and sang a song that he had written about how we are watched over, inwardly guided, protected, and eventually led home. It was inspired by his understanding of Eckankar and the events he’d witnessed in his brief sojourn in my classroom. The song filled me with an overwhelming flow of love and a profound sense of peace and happiness.

M
any of my questions from the past several years were answered during the course of that day.

I recalled the prayer that, as a high-school teacher, I had whispered each day before I began classes. The Inner Guidance_CH 06-10.p65

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Inner Guidance: Our Divine Birthright

wording always varied a little, but the message remained the same: “Dear God, please show me what to teach them. Teach me truth.”

By observing this simple practice, I had opened my heart and asked for guidance. Had the ECK Masters truly answered? Being taught from
ECKANKAR—The
Key to Secret Worlds
would certainly seem to imply that.

Mr. Adams had told the audience that Eckankar teaches there is a living Master who is willing to help guide us all; there is always a living Master—the Living ECK Master, a teacher of divine truth. There were many things I was still in the process of learning and confirm-ing for myself, yet I definitely wanted a greater understanding of these teachings. Fortunately, Eckankar is also a path of personal experience. You are not asked to believe anything that you cannot prove for yourself.

Having already had some amazing experiences, I was all ears!

One aspect of truth that my students and I had discovered through the classroom experiences is that each of us is Soul and we exist because God loves us.

Soul is an eternal being that has
chosen
to incarnate here to fulfill Its greatest spiritual potential in this lifetime. At the seminar that day, I learned that this was an important part of the teachings of Eckankar.

And I heard more about Paul Twitchell, an ECK

Master who researched, gathered, wrote, and compiled vast amounts of esoteric wisdom, doctrine, and detailed accounts of spiritual experiences. He launched the modern-day path of Eckankar.

I also learned that my students had actually been right about the inner library I had somehow tapped into as I wrote the quotes on the classroom chalkboard. Truth exists eternally and is stored for those who seek to discover it for themselves. The whole story of the past Inner Guidance_CH 06-10.p65

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and the future is contained within an inner library system.

This is indeed what my students and I had begun to conclude. In these great libraries in the spiritual worlds, there are source manuscripts from which we can gather material or access truth. I had already had firsthand experience with this.

On that day at the Eckankar seminar, inner walls came down. My heart was opened.

It became apparent to me that no one owns the truth. Though I had long sought its author, the wisdom that poured into my classroom did not need attribution.

It simply was truth, revealing itself to those who were seeking it.

I was so grateful for this man, Paul Twitchell, who had followed through on his life’s mission to bring the teachings of Eckankar together in one place and make it so simple and accessible to all of us. He had gathered the wisdom of the universes of God into the most penetrating study I had ever seen, and my students and I were given rare access to that bounty.

T
his was the day, too, that I heard more about the Mahanta, the
inner
spiritual guide, serving all Souls with unconditional love. The numerous speakers that day referred to the Mahanta as the Wayshower who gives inner guidance and direction while allowing everyone complete spiritual and personal freedom. Because the Mahanta is an inner spiritual guide, he can be with every Soul at the same time, and he works closely with those who seek guidance.

“How do I join?” I asked.

“You can read some books and join a discussion group,” the pretty, redheaded lady told me.

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“I have read some books, and I would like to join now, if I can,” I insisted.

She gave me a welcoming smile as I wrote a small check as a donation and provided my address to receive the Eckankar discourses I would study in a Satsang class. Those monthly discourse lessons and the spiritual exercises they contained would help me connect with the inner wisdom of the Mahanta. That day I became a member of Eckankar and could formally study these ancient teachings. I was giddy with joy.

When the student is ready, God will open the windows of heaven, and the Master will teach us, whoever we may be and wherever we are. Maybe, too, it’s the other way around. When the student is ready, he or she suddenly sees the windows that are
always
open, thanks to God’s infinite love, wisdom, and grace.

How marvelous that the Mahanta would take such meticulous care of the spiritual evolution of one individual such as me!

A paradigm shift had occurred in my life. I saw that possibilities are open to us that can change everything for the better. My life was being transformed and uplifted, and I felt acutely aware of the presence and gifts of God—more than ever before.

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The Ocean of Love:

Inner Guidance during

an Out-of-Body Experience

Whenever Soul reaches the far orbits of the
inner planes through Soul Travel, the human
heart opens to God’s all-consuming love.

It is our very purpose to discover that love.

—Harold Klemp

Past Lives, Dreams, and Soul Travel
9

he inner experience was very clear. I looked out from the waist-high shimmering waves in which
T
I stood, and I spied the huge, brilliant source in full flood. It rose up as high as I could see and fell like a breathtaking waterfall all around.

It appeared to be the magnificent origin of the ocean in which I bathed during this Soul Travel experience.

Like liquid light, its waters flowed out in massive golden streams, sparkling and incredibly dazzling. A beautiful sound filled the air. Mists of golden droplets floated around me, and I breathed in all that I could of this stunning essence, feeling tremendously blessed to be alive.

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I stood transfixed by the scene of the glorious waterfall. Ah, if the world could only know about this exquisite beauty, this absolute peace, this breathtaking world of divine Light and Sound. It felt like home, a place where we all belong.

This world was now the only reality I ever wanted to experience.

N
ow that I was a student of Eckankar, I was learning so much. Pure love is the essence of life, I realized; it links us all together for the good of everyone.

Each day, I was being reminded how inner guidance can work not only for oneself, but for the benefit of others, especially our loved ones. I was experiencing, as I did in this contemplation journey to the mysterious ocean, the divine inner connection that allows us to know things and sense things beyond the ken of our everyday awareness.

Letting go and trusting the power of love is the heart of the journey we’re on. At the time, discovering this level of love was a startling new dimension of inner guidance.

O
ne night, a headache came on suddenly. I was getting ready to leave for the master’s-degree class that I attended three times a week, but my temples were pounding like a hammer, and with each throb came excruciating pain.

Jon sat down on the couch with me as I became more lightheaded and dizzy from the headache. He sat holding me, concerned, wondering aloud if I needed to skip my class.

Missing a three-hour class was greatly discouraged.

If it happened twice, you were out. Besides, we were Inner Guidance_CH 06-10.p65

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Inner Guidance during an Out-of-Body Experience 63

expecting a guest speaker that evening, an international expert in documented mystical and spiritual experiences. He was coming to share his stories and insights gleaned from encounters with outstanding shamans, mystics, and revered spiritual men and women of various paths and faiths. I certainly did not want to miss that.

But a strange and powerful feeling was enveloping me—an eerie, cold sensation. I sensed the now-familiar, unspoken, yet perfectly clear, communication. My inner guidance was warning me about something, and soon the words came through, loud and clear: “Someone close to you appears to be dying.”

I couldn’t believe it. First, I turned to Jon and asked him anxiously, “Do you feel well?”

He laughed at my question. He felt fine. “Why are you asking me if I feel well? You’re the one with the headache.”

And indeed, the headache and the message seemed to be linked somehow. But how? Maybe I was not listening intently enough to the message. I sat very still for a few minutes, listening more carefully and trying to ignore the pain. Was someone dying? If so, who? And was there something I needed to do about all of this?

As a few minutes ticked by, I gained the impression it was someone else who was dying, someone
emotionally
close to me. My mind raced to figure out who it might be. I thought of my mother, so I walked to the phone and called her in South Carolina. All was well, and she felt fine.

Next, I called my older sister in New York City. No answer, but this was not unusual for her. Debbe was a high-powered executive working for an international banking firm. Her life was busy, demanding, and full.

I imagined her out for the evening in the city, laughing Inner Guidance_CH 06-10.p65

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Inner Guidance: Our Divine Birthright

with friends and enjoying herself.

I couldn’t think of anyone else I should call. Maybe I misunderstood the inner message. Maybe the problem was actually with me. Needing relief from the headache, I remembered to send out a silent plea for guidance and protection.

“Please help me!” I said.

H
arold Klemp writes, “Dreams, visions, and other experiences mean nothing in themselves. But in the context of our spiritual life, they are signs of how much we are in accord with life. In fact, the whole point of life is to teach us how to come into agreement with the Voice of God, the Light and Sound. Many find the road to their inner worlds through the teachings of Eckankar.”10

As I sent out the silent plea for help, my attention unexpectedly was drawn to a dark spot across the room.

I leaned forward on the couch and tried to focus on it.

I hadn’t noticed it before. Maybe the headache was affecting my vision. Yet with my eyes wide open, I clearly saw a black spot hanging in the middle of the room, about six feet above the floor.

I peered at it. The disc became even more distinct and clear. It was a small, pitch-black, circular spot, suspended in midair in my living room!

I anxiously said to Jon, “There’s something you’ve got to see. Look over there. Can you see it?”

Jon leaned forward and looked across the room. “I see the stereo,” he said. “What do you see?”