Experience Spiritual Growth and Fellowship

“Polycrates was known as a very fortunate man who was blessed by the gods in all ways. His friend and ally, a very wise Egyptian pharaoh, once tried to explain to him that life has its ups and downs, that an up cycle must always be attended by a down cycle. This is the nature of life, the pharaoh said, the balance which always occurs. It is part of the rhythm of living.
Polycrates merely laughed. To prove his ongoing favor with the gods, he removed an expensive ring from his finger and threw it in the sea. Then he calmly turned and walked away.
The next day a fisherman came to the castle clutching the ring in his hand. “I found this ring in the belly of a fish I caught this morning,” he explained to the guardians of the gate. “It is obviously a royal ring. I would like to return it.” The palace officials rewarded him handsomely and brought the ring to the tyrant.”
“In ECK we realize that whatever we face – good karma as well as the bad, the up wave and the down wave — is here only to make us a more experienced Soul who will one day become a full Co-worker with God. Even now, we are each functioning in varying degrees as a Co-worker with God, imperfect but in the process of becoming more perfect.”

—Harold Klemp, Unlocking Your Sacred Puzzle Box, p. 78-79

“This is how the Holy Spirit will work with you. It will give you a little instruction here, and a little there.
Sometimes it isn't an instruction; the Holy Spirit will send a person to help you. Sometimes you miss the help because you are looking too far away. You are looking ten rows back, and the person is right in front of you.
“Sometimes you have to take the smallest step, just to gain momentum to take another step, then another. Set your goal small enough so that you can win, so that you can achieve something. As you gain the small step, as you gain more momentum, you’re going to gain confidence in your ability to do something with your life. This is how you go about it. And then you'll find you have plenty of divine love.”

—Harold Klemp, What is Spiritual Freedom? pp. 60-61

“Whatever comes along in your life, it's good to remember that it's always a gift from the Holy Spirit, to strengthen you. There will be days when you seriously wonder if you can bear up to one more such gift, even one short hour more of purification. But you can. It does take lots of love and trust, though.
Above all, know that life itself is a gift. When you look around and can say, “I'm still here!” - then some of the old circumstances that have sorely tried you will lift from your heart.
Say thank you to the ECK for the blessing. You know that Spirit and the Mahanta, the Inner Master, are one. He will help you in whatever way possible, because he desires even more than you that you rise in consciousness. His help, in fact, is the foremost blessing of all.”
“The experiences of life will teach how to make better choices. And how to profit with lessons learned from old, hard-to-manage conditions.”

—Harold Klemp, Wisdom of the Heart, Bk. 3, p. 186-87

“We don't learn and grow if everything is always smooth and pretty and nice. Sometimes you have to get other experiences in life. It's necessary, like salt and pepper on your food. It adds spice to your life.
We are talking about recognizing God's help in your life. This help is like little presents. But often times we don't think of them as presents.
The reason life gives us more lessons is because we can handle more. We've learned the old lessons, the ABCs. Now we can go on to the arithmetic and geography and other things.”

—Harold Klemp, Truth Has No Secrets, pp. 38-39

“Each of us comes into this life with a different length of string. That part can be called fate, or destiny. How we deal with it, however, depends upon our spiritual understanding of life. Do we fight life or go with it? Fighting, resisting, or other ways of not dealing honestly with the changes that come to us have the effect not only of making our lives less happy and fruitful than they could be, but also of shortening them.
Rules are hard to remember. Whether they are spiritual laws or the desires of others to run our lives, we try to ignore them. We don't want to become like the centipede that tripped because it's got to wondering how to keep all those feet marching in time.
The natural way to keep in step with the spiritual laws — and thus lessen the wear and tear upon ourselves by a wild display of emotions by habit — is to simply love.”

—Harold Klemp, Wisdom of the Heart, Bk. 2, p. 154.

“God's love is around us all the time, so much so that most people are unaware of it. We take God's love for granted because it's as commonplace as the grass, the trees, the birds. It's so commonplace that we overlook it, even forget about it.
God's love flows equally to all people. But all people do not recognize God's love equally, because everyone's state of consciousness is different.”
We’re all different. Some people are very aware and grateful for the blessings of God. Others just plod along through life saying, “Well, it’s just life. What does God have to do with it?” So when we look at God's love in action, we are not talking about God's love in action as if it suddenly exists whereas before it never did. We are talking about our state of consciousness, recognizing this love of God that is with us all the time. Awareness — this is a hard thing.”

—Harold Klemp, Our Spiritual Wake-up Calls, p. 153

“Q: Could you talk about how to balance the active and passive states in our daily life?
“HK: The human consciousness has a natural inclination toward lethargy and procrastination. This is because of attachment, which is one of the mind passions. We learn to work with it. In your personal life, you learn to set goals. Set little goals, any goals, just so that you do something. Soul is here to gain experience, and you are not going to get a lot of experience without doing something. Paul Twitchell and the other ECK Masters have always tried to get us to be active.
Make your goal as positive as you can. If you are not sure if it's positive or negative, rather than sit still and be in doubt, do it and find out. The law of life will tell you soon enough. But it's important to do something.”

—Harold Klemp, How to Find God, p. 100-01

“In some way, God's love will open our hearts so that we have the courage to face the darkest secrets from our past.
God speaks to us through past lives, dreams, and Soul Travel.”
“The play of karma underlies all relationships.”
“Soul travel is a more direct, conscious way to transcend the human consciousness in order to hear God speak through its voice, the Holy Spirit. Most saints in history knew this ancient science of Soul Travel. They used it often during their prayers or meditation.”
“Past lives, dreams and Soul travel are all parts of Eckankar. They can help your Spiritual ears open to the Divine love that's around you every minute of every day.”

—Harold Klemp, The Living Word, Bk. 2, pp.210, 211, 212 & 213

“Any experience a person gets, whether here or in the other worlds, adds to the sum of what he is, knows, and perceives.
“For example, a camera is a camera. Yet put it in the hands of two different people, and the result is two different grades of pictures. One photographer may be a world-class portrait photographer, while the other is your average birthday-party-snapshot historian. What accounts for the variation in the quality of the photos, since the camera is the same?
It is discipline — the discipline of love. The quality depends upon each person’s inner development. Put another way, it shows how much more disciplined love one can put into a photo than the other can. Any great achievement is always powered by disciplined love. A great person has discipline in the field of his expertise, and this is where he lets his great love shine.”
“The discipline of love means doing something to overcome harmful states like loneliness, and thus we become a greater channel for God.”

—Harold Klemp, Wisdom of the Heart, Bk. 1, p. 65 & 66