Being Closer to God
By Harold Klemp
Marie is a very busy mom. She teaches some ECK classes and is active at the ECK Center. But at home, her first devotion is to her husband and her three children, some of whom are teens. And Marie now has the feeling she’s coming close to an understanding of who and what she is.
This is what everyone should be looking for: to find out who and what you are.
Why are you here? What is your purpose? Is it just a random walk in time and space without a reason for the beginning and the end of this cycle? What’s it all about?
One day, Marie did a spiritual exercise. It was an imaginative technique. She imagined seeing a bright, bright light like a sun. Coming down from the sun was a rope ladder. Marie said, “I want to be closer to God. That sun is God, so I will climb the ladder.” As she was ascending it, she wondered, If sparks come off the sun, are they going to burn me? But the light was soft, warm, and soothing. So she continued to climb upward and upward until she came to this circle of light.
Actually the circle of light was protection, or divine love. In another sense, it’s a circle of friends.
She came into this circle of light. When she arrived, she said, “I belong here. I am an heir to this throne. I have earned the right to be here.” She didn’t feel arrogant about it or superior, as if she’d done something others hadn’t. She just felt it was her birthright as Soul to be there.
When she ended up in the circle of light, the experience had turned from imagination into reality. It had become real. Or had it?
Confirmation
You’re going to have many different experiences on the path of ECK. Some of them will be as dynamic as anything you’ve experienced. Others will be like a dream. And some will be simply like figments of your imagination.
A test of an experience is: if it helps you open your heart to divine love, to God’s love, then it’s a real experience.
Sometimes people say, “I’m looking for Soul Travel, and I want the big experience.” Well, maybe first you move into a higher state of consciousness beyond the physical body through the imaginative techniques—through the imaginative or emotional body, which is the Astral body.
If you can imagine a thing, you can make it so. It can become real.
Later, Marie got confirmation of this experience. Her ECK discourse for that month was on the topic of the mind. It said to stay in the position of Soul. This means to get above the problem—get above the mind. Because all problems are of the lower worlds, and the lower worlds include the mind, emotions, and physical body. This is the source of fear, apprehension, and all cousins of this sensation. So she got this confirmation: Stay in the position of Soul.
This is what we mean when we speak of the detached state. Detached does not mean apart from the concerns or the feelings of other people. It does not mean when people are suffering, to stand back and say, “I am detached.” We help each other. We give compassion to those who need help and love. We give help and love where we can, because it’s the nature of Soul to do so.
God is love. Soul is God’s creation. Therefore, Soul is love too. That means you are Soul, and you are love.
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Excerpt from How to Survive Spiritually in Our Times, Mahanta Transcripts, Book 16.