# 516: BOOK OF THE WEEK — “Eckankar.”
Story behind the Book Choice
This book is another treasure that found me at “Café Hahn” in Fritzlar. I did not get to read it while being there but I took a picture of the cover and now downloaded it online. I had never heard of Eckankar before and even after reading the book I cannot really say I have an idea of the whole story behind it. But this is not important. As most spiritual “teachings,” the book combines wisdom from many other spiritual traditions while adding some unique flavor of its own. If I were to summarize this additional aspect, I would say that it is the focus on the individual and the significance of dreams and soul journeys. This might sound trivial but it really makes a difference.
When I read the book yesterday, there were quite a few passages that I really treasured and still do. Nevertheless, one always ends up asking why it takes so many different “traditions” and teachings if spiritual wisdom really is very simple and universal. This also makes me skeptical of any new terms and masters and whatever. But that should not stop one from remaining spiritually curious, I think. Eckankar ist derived from Sanskrit. And the living leader but at the same time the spiritual higher self is called Mahanta. These are some basics. The rest can probably not be understood easily if you are not somehow open to reincarnation theory and mystical approaches to spirituality. If you are, this book is a nice read for picking up bits and pieces of novel inspiration.
- Spiritual Purpose
I know, this might sound really esoteric to some folks. You might think that “purpose” in life is usually linked to some tangible goals — achieving some success, being happy about your life situation, having certain experiences… whatever. All these things can be considered part of the purpose, I guess, but if you really discover that purpose is spiritual in nature, you do develop this feeling of being “energized.” That is a feeling that takes you through all the different ups and downs that life has to offer, simply because you do not see the downs as downs anymore.
Spiritual purpose is difficult to define because there are no words for it. The adherent to reincarnation theory assume that we have gone through many different lives in different bodies before. And the reason for this is that we have not reached the level of achieving our true purpose in yet, namely the “union” with God or the higher self or whatever you want to call it. So, the purpose is to become one with this force and if you were not there before, you had to come back in a different body to move closer to achieving this purpose.
As soon as you have achieved it, you will not come back, there is no point in that anymore.
And you do not have any urge for this either.
Because life and death really are one in some way at this stage.
No, I have not lost my mind but people who have had extreme experiences such as near-death and other situations might know what this means. Feeling the eternal union of everything and everybody gives you a completely different picture of the world. And it makes you act and think and above all love in different way. All of this comes together in spiritual teachings such as ECK. But one book will hardly take you there. Still, books make a difference. There are techniques in it that can help you develop spiritual practices that change your habits and your way of thinking. All of this together will lead you to the next step of spiritual growth. If you accept that you can hardly DO anything for all this because there is a spiritual script for this, you will surrender and be open to whatever “God” offers you…
2. Dreams
We all dream. But I guess, we hardly really appreciate what a gift dreams are. I am not talking about daydreaming or dreams in the sense of wishes. I really mean the dreams we have at night. Sometimes or most of the time we cannot remember more than just the fact that we had a dream. Sometimes we remember the content of the dream in many details. And sometimes we have trouble differentiating between the dream and “reality” because what we dreamt was so “real”.
What the story about the horse and tooth in the book reveals about dreams is yet another aspect of dreams. It is the connection between the “real” and the “spiritual” world. What the author means by that, and I totally share this view, is that our dreams are connected to real-world events, even though they might appear in the form of different events and different characters. But there is some real event that is connected. In this case, it is the fact that the horse loses a tooth over night and that there is something wrong with the hoof.
Moments such as the one explained in the story when the couple finds out that the dream was “true” take our breath away. We usually tend to push away these experiences because they are so “incredible.” They run counter to our rational thinking. We usually deny that such a direct connection between what can be “known” and what is beyond human knowledge can exist. But in dreams like these, the connection to the metaphysical world becomes apparent. And I do think that this is such a blessing. Dreams like these are signposts that show us so see much more than can be seen with our eyes. And if we take them seriously in the way that we “wonder,” just like children do when they watch a magician, these moments put us on a spiritual path that can take us to a new level of awareness.
I am not saying this just theoretically. I am saying this because I think that moments of deja vue which all of us have, are very similar to dreams like this one. And I often had situations in life when I dreamed something that seemed to be very real in the sense that it felt different from other dreams. And quite often the things I had dreamed became reality afterwards or they already were reality. This applies to relationships with people but also to life changing transformations — professionally and personally. Sometimes I dreamed of myself as a character in a dream which I hardly realized as being myself. But it was me and later on I found out why.
The problem with dreams is that I do not have them when I want them. Or rather, I know that in periods when I do not feel myself, when I am not connected to the energy of the earth and to myself, I do not dream a lot, at least not consciously. And as soon as I reach that phase again, I can literally see how my dreams heal me every night. They give me new inspiration to think about myself and to explore parts of me or even heal wounds which I had not seen clearly before. That is why I do treasure dreaming and it was interesting to read that it plays such a vital part in ECK.
3. Conservation of matter
This principle of the conservation of matter is something that keeps fascinating me in a way that I could hardly imagine. It all started with some experiences I had on my own spiritual journey. Especially when you experience these moments of complete unity with the universe, the true meaning of non-duality unfolds. And that is also when you start seeing the world without any boundaries. It means that you really get the idea that we are all made of the same material — no matter if we are ants, or birds or plastic bottles — or humans.
All these experiences and the thoughts they triggered also made me become interested in Physics. And that is the link to the principle of Lavoisier described above. If you imagine that really nothing gets lost in this universe, you start thinking about life and death in completely different ways. You really understand that someone who gets buried and whose bones deteriorate in the earth has no physical body anymore and you cannot touch and see him/her. But he/she is not “LOST”. Something of him is transformed into something new. That might sound spooky at the beginning but it is exactly what this principle means.
This also reveals how spiritual journeys can take you to new places when it comes to personal topics of interest and even new forms of being and living. All of a sudden, you develop a curiosity for things that were simply not relevant before. And you acquire new skills while learning about them. In this way, you do learn more about the world and you start taking on new perspectives. All of this together is not just a rational process. If you do it with an open heart, you will encounter new people and these people bring new energies to you.
Have a safe journey.
Reflection Questions
1) How do you think about this idea of a “spiritual purpose” in life?
2) Think of a dream you had that was remarkable to the point that you can remember it up to the present day. Why?
3) What do you say about this principle of the “conservation of matter”?