Copy of Copy of From The Resa

A Dream and a Story Bring Lessons and Blessings

Recently, I had a dream where I was wheeling my dying father in a wheelchair through a hospital. Everywhere I went I yelled, “I need help, please give me help!” But everyone that I passed, whether doctor or nurse, was oblivious to my calls.

Finally, in the dream I stopped the wheelchair, laid him on the floor and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He immediately woke up and came alive—the color returned to his face, and he began breathing again!

I wrote down this dream. Immediately I realized what the dream was telling me: I don’t have to depend only on doctors and nurses; I also have power to directly help him.

After the dream, my sister told me Dad was having trouble reading his book. “I guess,” she lamented, “his eyesight is failing.” As I talked to him at the nursing home asking him about his eyesight, I realized I could buy a pair of glasses at the dollar store that were a bit more powerful. I didn’t hesitate. It took only 10 minutes and 6 dollars to purchase new reading glasses.

The next day my sister commented: “It worked! Dad is reading his book again.”

A couple of months ago, my mom had surgery to put a new battery and generator in her pacemaker. But now, she was having trouble with her breathing. She wasn’t able to walk as far using her walker as she normally does.

One morning I woke up and wondered if her pacemaker could be reprogrammed to beat a bit faster. Maybe, I reasoned, her heart wasn’t going fast enough to oxygenate the blood and that was what the shortness of breath was about. I acted on a nudge to write my question on Google. “Yes,” Google replied, “a pacemaker can be adjusted to a faster rate if the patient is having a hard time catching their breath.” Mom’s cardiology team agreed; we brought her in to take a look.

Although it turned out that an adjustment to the pacemaker was not in order, given that another heart condition had flared up, it was important to find out what was going on. With this new information, an important treatment for Mom is helping her towards better health.

The dream was my wake-up call. It told me to use my God-given talents and become more active in giving assistance to others as well as myself. Two quotes from Harold Klemp’s little book, The Spiritual Life, give deep insights into how the creative imagination operates in our life.

      Most important in the spiritual works of ECK is the knowledge that a solution to every problem is within us. (p. 100)

     Divine Spirit often begins working for our welfare after we have made some small effort first. (p. 102)

* * *

At our annual Zoom RESA meeting, Doug Kunin talked to RESAs about technology. He pointed out that using technology such as AI summaries was very useful in gathering information. But he warned that we cannot let a machine take away the sacred rhythm of the ECK teachings.  He summed up this with, “Don’t turn over to a machine what you can do yourself.”

As I was pondering these words of wisdom from     Sri Doug Kunin, my sister offered a story of her daughter that illustrated some important lessons which Sri Doug had offered. Her oldest daughter was asked if she had gotten a good night’s sleep. Her daughter immediately went to her Apple Watch and consulted it. She then shared that, “No, I did not get a good night’s sleep.” According to Google: The watch logs information in the Health-App, which provides a daily sleep score and history that considers sleep duration, sleep stage consistency, and how often you wake up.

The lessons and blessings from this story emphasize the need for each of us to realize that we can know truths for ourselves. We may not need someone else or a machine to tell us if we had a good night’s sleep. We know how we feel and how we benefit from a good night’s sleep. Truth lies within each of us. My niece, as well as all of us, could consider her own power to know truth.

Being a Vahana in the Here and Now: A New Look

In July, Vahana was on my mind. The Arahata training that many chelas in Missouri and Arkansas were attending was in full swing. I decided to make a study, take a new look at the ECK works and open up to more insights on how to become a better Vahana.

In the “Introduction” of the ECK Arahata Book (p. ix) it says: “Open your heart to this greater role as a Co-worker with the Mahanta, and he will send you the Souls who hunger for his love and grace. In every way, he will help you become a true channel for the Light and Sound of God.”

ECKopedia: The ECKANKAR Lexicon says, “Every ECK Initiate is a vehicle for the ECK in his daily life as a carrier of the Light and Sound.” (p. 313)

Talking with Vahana leaders from both Arkansas and Missouri, I was reminded of the importance of looking for openings and checking in with the inner guidance during encounters with people. The Mystic World (September 2024, p. 2) shared an important message from the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master: “. . . ‘showing up’ means a chela must be alert for seekers ready for ECK. Then the chela must check with the Inner Master during each part of the encounter, to determine when or whether to offer ECK items or not.”

I was eager to integrate my new understandings of Vahana into my everyday life. One thing I recognized was the importance of paying attention to the here and now during my encounters with others. I focused not on what I was going to say, but what they were saying and what the inner guidance was telling me.

 *     *     *

I pulled up my loaded cart in a short line at a grocery store. A man in a motorized cart with an oxygen bottle attached was next in line. He didn’t have many items in his cart, but he turned to me and said, “This line is going to take a while.”

The person before him had all of her items in white plastic bags in her cart, but she and the checker were in a serious conversation about something.

After a while, the checker called for the store manager for assistance. It turned out that all the items in her plastic bags had to be taken back out and rechecked.

I knew the ECK was giving me time to spend with the man in the motorized cart. I turned all my attention to him. He shared that smoking was indeed the cause of the emphysema and that he still was having trouble kicking his addiction. He told me, “Nicotine is one of the hardest addictions to break.” He added, “The ironic thing is I used to be a respiratory therapist.”

I put a hand on his shoulder and said, “I really hope that you find the courage to kick this habit.” He told me some recent successes. He was smoking way less, had found a way to curb his desire for nicotine, and had found a brand of cigarettes way lower in tar and nicotine. Before we parted, I touched his shoulders with both of my hands and said, “Don’t give up. I’m pulling for you. You can do this!”

*     *     *

A few days later, I waited for my haircut. Two people were ahead of me. At first, I silently urged the hairstylist to go quicker. Then I began to notice her careful methods of cutting hair. She wet the hair at the start of the haircut and resprayed two more times during the haircut. She often stepped back and examined the person’s head at different angles—from the side, from the back and from the front. She offered the mirror for comments throughout.

I realized as I watched her that she was all about excellence.

When I got in the chair we started to chat. She told me that a few years back she bought this barber shop and became the owner. I said, “I can tell that you are very careful when you cut someone’s hair.” She told me, “Sometimes people complain about how slow I am; but I know they want me to take my time and give them a good haircut.”

In fact, she recounted a recent haircut of a     Hispanic teen. She was not quite sure just what kind of haircut he wanted. There was a language barrier, but also, she wasn’t familiar with Hispanic hair styles. She remembered she had a magazine that she kept in the back and found some styles that might work for Hispanic clients. She showed him pictures of different styles and he found one he wanted. Furthermore, she found his hair much thicker than normal. “It took me a bit more time to get his hair just right.”

After she finished my haircut, I congratulated her on giving me one of the best haircuts ever.

  *     *     *

As I reflected on these two encounters, I liked how I listened and followed the promptings of the Inner Master. Offering encouragement was the right thing to do in each of these    encounters. I also realized that the Master might give me another encounter with these same individuals. Next time, maybe I could offer more “ECK items,” but I will just be in the moment, listen and give them what is best!

Noticing the Nudges and Unabashedly Following Them

Since February, I have been helping my aging parents after dad fell in the bathroom and had to be hospitalized. Although he has recovered some, he has not improved nearly enough to make it back home. Mom and dad have been married since 1947—it’s hard for mom to not have him in her house. She asked me many times, “When is dad coming home?” Surprisingly, her refrain was echoed by other family members.

Yet life goes on and decisions have to be made. By law I have the final say on behalf of my parents for their medical and financial decisions. But as difficult as that seems, I have confidence in the decisions I’ve made, because I have had the guidance of the Inner Master.

The day I arrived in Ohio, I wrote a letter to the Master asking for help on how to best assist mom and dad. The very next day a winter storm roared off Lake Erie dropping snow and   causing wind damage. One casualty was the American flag that proudly flew on a 24-foot pole in mom and dad’s side yard. I went out to retrieve it and noticed the rope had come down from the top pully. Only one way to fix that: go up to the top and re-thread the rope. I realized that I couldn’t repair the flag without a cherry-picker lift and I didn’t have access to one of those.

After coming into the house with the disappointing news that I couldn’t repair the flag, I realized the waking dream: I couldn’t fix things back to the way things were. Changes had come and the family had to adapt to new ways of surviving. Mom and dad would not be able to live in the house like they used to, and mom could not survive living by herself.

A week later the dream master gave me the awareness on another question: should I return to Missouri to plan and deliver the Arahata training that would start in early March? I had documents at home that were important in delivering and implementing the training. The dream, however, had me   going the wrong way on a highway. Several near misses sped past me as I swerved and missed fatal accidents. Waking up after a gut-wrenching miss, I recognized the important experience was a dream. I wrote the details of the experience in my dream notebook.   Before I finished writing it out, I understood the dream was telling me that I was going the wrong way in some aspect of my life. Another insight came to me as I paused and considered what was I about to do wrong. I didn’t need to go home to retrieve these    documents. I had some of the documents I needed in my briefcase. Other documents I needed could be retrieved from emails I had in my google account.  My idea of going all the way back to Missouri was what the Mahanta was telling me was the wrong way!

A problem after dad was hospitalized was a sense of loss and sorrow exhibited by dad and other family members—no longer could dad live at home, drive, and help out around the house. My Inner Guidance nudged me to recall family stories that shared good times that the family spent together. One such uplifting story was a family road trip to California. After talking to my sister, brother, and mom, I wrote up a several-page story, recalling some of the funny and exciting memories.

As my father read the story, he shared that after the trip he had constructed a scrapbook of the day-to-day events that took place on the trip. He lamented, “I made a scrapbook of that trip, but I have looked and looked around the house and I can’t find it.” My sister said, “Dad, we are going to find that scrapbook and bring it to the hospital.”

Right after my sister said this, I had a Soul Travel experience that showed me the scrapbook was up in the left-hand corner of a shelf in one of the closets in the family house. It was   underneath a bunch of other scrapbooks and photo albums. When I got home, I easily found it. What a treasure trove of good memories that scrap- book brought to the family!

Two important keys to helping myself make good decisions is the understanding that the Inner Master is always there, nudging me along the right path; and the importance of mustering up the fortitude to unabashedly follow Its directions.

Watch the Signs!

      On the way home from a recent road trip, I was pulled over by a police officer. He had clocked me going well past the speed limit on a divided highway. You probably have experienced driving on a dark highway where most of the cars are racing along at 65 mph. All of a sudden, as a city approaches, the speed limit abruptly drops to 45 mph.

That is just what happened that night when the blue and red flashing lights—plus sirens—went off. I immediately pulled over and parked right next to a 45-mph speed-limit sign. As the officer checked my drivers license and car insurance, I wondered how fast I had been going.

“71 mph,” he shared when I asked him. He added, “Where are you headed?”

“I’m headed home.”

“He looked at me for a few seconds . . . then said, “I believe in redemption. And I’m going to let you off.”  He paused, letting that sink in, and observed my surprised reaction. He warned, “Watch the signs!”

I realized as I carefully pulled onto the highway obeying the road signs and the rules of good driving: this was a message from God!  Just that morning I had asked for inner guidance on my goal of self-mastery.

In the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, Books One & Two p. 236, it says, “Man is not saved, but Soul is redeemed by the Mahanta, the Living ECK Master.”  To me, redemption is the means to spiritual liberation. As I do all I can on my end, the Living ECK Master helps unwind my karma and shows me the way home to the Ocean of Love and Mercy.

I am grateful for all the tools that I have to guide me as I make my way home to the Ocean of Love and Mercy. These include the Spiritual Exercises of ECK, as well as golden rules to live your life, such as “The Five Virtues,” and “The Five Keys to ECK Mastery” that you can find in Sri Harold’s book, ECK Essentials.

Yes, we have the rulebook and the Inner Guide, to take us home!

Unfolding My Vahana Skills

Every ECK Initiate is a vehicle for the ECK in his daily life as a carrier of the Light and Sound.

—Sri Harold Klemp, ECKopedia: The Eckankar Lexicon, p. 311

I’ve been learning a lot about unfolding my Vahana skills. Each morning, I make a declaration of being a Coworker with God. Each day brings new opportunities to love as God loves.

At the recent 2024 ECK Worldwide Soul Adventure Seminar, I stayed several days at a hotel near the Temple of ECK. During my stay, I noticed the maid service for my room was excellent. One afternoon, for example, I was in the room with other ECKists, and heard the maid lightly knocking on my door. Seeing several people in the room, she realized that providing maid service was out of the question, but she noticed the wastebasket near the door was full of trash. She said, “Would you like me to remove the trash?”

“That would be great,” I responded and got the other full trashcan by the bed to haul away as well. (We had carved pumpkins the night before!)

On the day to return home, the maid’s excellent service was on my mind. I wanted to give her a gratuity and share my thanks. I tuned into the Mahanta. I realized as I was packing up and taking my bags to my van, that I would probably have an opportunity to personally talk to her. A nudge had me put a tip and a HU card into my pocket so I would be ready.

Sure enough, I saw her cleaning a room near mine. I walked into the room she was cleaning and offered some money and shared that it was for the excellent service that I had received. She gladly took the tip. With the tip I also gave her a HU card and indicated she might also be interested in the benefits of the HU. I then decided not to mention any more, but to wait and see if she wanted to know more about the HU.

Right away, she mentioned the HU card, wondering what it was about. I said, “It is the way to connect to the God power,” and sang the HU aloud for her. “When you are working, you can sing HU and it will help you out. I find that everything is better when I sing this prayer song.” She smiled warmly and carefully put her tip and the HU card into her pocket.

Recently I had another opportunity to unfold my Vahana skills. This time I was to be a silent channel.

I had gone to a restaurant that specializes in sub sandwiches. I was waiting for a customer to pay his bill so I could make my order. As I waited, a woman entered the shop. I noticed her hands and voice were shaky. She asked the attendant a question about the security camera outside in the restaurant’s parking lot.

The woman explained that her daughter had been in an accident in the sub shop’s parking lot earlier that afternoon and even shared that her daughter was in a coma as a result. The attendant told the lady he hadn’t heard anything about this incident and added that he was not the owner of the shop.  He graciously added that after he had taken care of these two customers—me and another fella—he would be glad to discuss the matter.

I could tell the lady didn’t like his answer and seemed very impatient. In this moment I knew what I could do—I imagined the presence of the Mahanta. I felt the Master’s presence as a warm feeling, as I often do in my spiritual exercises. I knew that the Master was there. I looked over at the lady who had been tapping her foot on the floor. She seemed more in balance now. I ordered my sandwich and continued to recognize the presence of the Master as I silently sang HU.

She then made a phone call. I overheard her say in an even tone that she was at the sub shop and would soon get the information that she was seeking. I kept my attention on the Mahanta and singing HU quietly, made my order, paid for my sandwich and left.

As I reflect on these two stories, I realize that spiritual unfoldment has many dimensions for me: learning Vahana skills; improving my ability to write and tell ECK stories; learning how to remember and interpret dreams, to name a few.

There is a secret that lies behind all my attempts to spiritually unfold. That secret is the willingness to “try out my wings.” I like to ask the Inner Master for opportunities, and when I see an opening I’m willing to give it a try and reflect on how it went and what I learned. Often times, I get insights on what I could have done better. When a “next time” rolls around, I’m willing to try out my insight. Refining my spiritual skills is one of the most important ways to spiritual unfoldment. In addition to learning from experience is learning vicariously through others’ experiences. For example, The Mystic World is full of extraordinary stories of other ECK students’ lessons. I love to read and imagine their experiences. I often integrate what I’ve learned from others’ experiences into my everyday life.

My Cat “Moses” and Her Quest for Freedom

I now call my cat of fourteen years “Moses.” Even though we have tried to keep the cats out of the basement, they are still getting down there. How? Moses has learned how to open the downstairs door and lead her cat brothers to the promised land: the basement.

I witnessed Moses in action. She carefully extends her paw through the crack at the bottom of the door. Once she gets her sharp claws hooked on the other side, she pulls with all her strength. If the door has not been closed properly by her human hosts, it pops open!

Recently she successfully opened the basement door as I looked on. After springing the door, she looked directly at me as if to say, “You cannot stop me.”

The basement is exciting.

Behind the furnace, there must be a small opening (years ago I thought I boarded up all the openings) that goes to the crawl space under the front part of the house. Bugs, small rodents, and lots of dirt provide much adventure.

In the Road to Spiritual Freedom, Sri Harold Klemp says this about spiritual freedom:

This is the way life is. Whenever a challenge comes up, you can either stand up to it or give up the field. It’s your choice.

Sometimes people ask, Why do you bother? Why do you strive so hard? And you just say it’s the nature of survival. That’s what Soul does. It goes on and on, and It does the very best It can.

Moses, like all of us, is blessed with the creative spark of God. It took her a while, but she eventually figured a way to get into the basement. I admire Moses and her unrelenting attitude. She is not giving up the field. Persistence is the way she finds success. Opening up the basement door; telling me with her meows and her stare that the food and water bowls need my attention; and she will climb up in my lap over and over until I give her affection!

Yes, Moses has taught me a lot about what it takes to be successful.