From Mindfulness to Soulfulness

for us to become aware of? A state of being beyond the body, emotions, and mind? Soulfulness? This touches on an eternal spiritual principle, which ECKANKAR calls the Rule of Destiny, and that holds that people at some time will begin to awaken to who and what they are. Well, there's no time like the present. And we have a guest here who has his own story on the road to awakening and discovery. He's an avid Spiritual Explorer, and a longtime student of the ECK teachings, Mark Richardson.

And then I just flew off to some other world, some other experience, experiencing this freedom and this love and this sense of myself as something other than my body, which I had just seen in the chair. And then for some period of time later, I don't remember how long, all the sudden, I'm back in the body sitting in the chair. And it was like immediately having some of those questions answered, because I knew I was more than the body, I knew that I live, I'd survive, or there was

something after death. So I went to tell the instructor about it. I was all excited. And he said, Well, you know, meditation is about quieting the mind, so I would suggest you don't do that anymore. Well, I didn't even know how I did it to begin with, so that wasn't a problem. And then for the next year, I meditated every day trying to reproduce the experience. And it never happened. So after the year, I kind of went back on my search to try to find the answers. And

then fortunately, I was in a bookstore one day, this is in high school now. And a friend of mine found a book in the bookstore called ECKANKAR, Key to Secret Worlds. Well the secret worlds part - I didn't know what ECKANKAR was, but the secret worlds part really interested me. And as I opened the book, it was like someone dropping a Spiritual Traveler's guide on me. It had a roadmap to these inner worlds. It had spiritual techniques to have

more spiritual experiences. So it really opened me up to a whole world and multiple worlds of possibilities. So I was pretty, I was pretty excited and just amazed. And it reminded me of a time when I was with my girlfriend and we brought her granddaughter to Disneyland. And so we go into the middle of Disneyland and we go to Cinderella's Castle and she's all excited because that's what she really wanted to see. And after a little while, we said, Okay, let's go see the

rest of Disneyland. She goes, What? There's more to Disneyland than Cinderella's castle? And that's how it was for me with this book. It was like my, it was my friend, it was my guide, and it was just opening up this world. So I wasn't alone

anymore. I had these techniques and I had this book that was describing everything, and the book gave me all these possibilities, like, to, to journey into past lives, to open up my dreams to these inner worlds, to experience what they call the Light and the Sound of God, which they talk you could actually have the experience of. Now in that book, it had techniques for past lives, for dreams, for Soul Travel, which I was excited

about. And there was also a very special word in there called the HU, H-U, like in the word human. And that word, if sung with, with an open heart can actually begin to open the spiritual ears to hear the Sound. So that would be something that someone, and I often practice for 20 minutes - the HU, so that could be one way

to start to hear the HU. So, you know, this book really was the roadmap to all these experiences I wanted, and it took some practice like mindfulness does, and other things, too.

like this -- Huuuuuu. And just a nice, easy, outgoing breath, HU,

as part of this love song to God. Okay, going back to your journey. So Mark, here you are having some incredible experiences in your younger days. What's been your experience as you've moved along in life in working with the Spiritual Exercises and, and the HU?

receive divine love. And in turn, love brings into our life the possibility of healing, it brings guidance, and it brings this adventure. And also, as Soul, we're able to see the threads of why things happen to us. It's like being, Soul Travel's like going above the chessboard so you can see why things happen to you and that your whole life is orchestrated around what does it take to

learn love. I remember there was a time when my parents were getting divorced, and my mother took it very hard emotionally and physically. She was having physical symptoms from the pain she had. And, you know, knowing about the HU, she's a Christian, and I introduced her to the HU as a love song to God that anyone from anywhere in the world can sing, and people of other cultures and other teachings sing it as well now, and I introduced, I said, Maybe

this will help, you know. Maybe it'll help your heart and what you're going through. And out of desperation, I think, that night she tried it before she went to bed. And the next day, she had an experience to report to me and asked me about. She said, you know, Mark, I woke up in the middle of the night, sat up in bed, and there was this blue light filling the room. And I was crying, but it was a crying of joy and love and fascination with, What is this blue light? And I was able to explain to

her. I said, Mom, that's the light of God. And it can come as white as, you know, as yellow sometimes, but it actually in that case came as blue. And I was so happy to be able to introduce her to this light of God. So it's, you know, something for, that anyone can experience. And in this case, a time of need, so it was just wonderful that she was able to receive the real start to her healing over this breakup.

in that way. And of course, the outer teacher is Harold Klemp, the spiritual leader of ECKANKAR, and has amazing amount of Spiritual Exercises. These techniques offer direct contact with the Light and Sound of God, the divine life-giving current that runs through all worlds and touches all people. In this next audio clip, Harold Klemp talks about the art of going within and connecting with divine spirit.

seeing what happens within. You can do this if you are . . . doesn't matter what faith you are. You can do it with prayer. You can do it with the Lord's Prayer. You can do it with any of these things. Very quietly contemplate on the Lord's Prayer or look at a Master who is compatible with you, someone you respect. It follows the same principle. You can look either to one of the ECK Masters, or you can look to Jesus, or you can look to any other saint who

means something to you. The purpose of this is to establish trust and confidence before you go to that stillness within. And then you begin actively looking for either the Light or listening for the Sound. There may be a number of different sounds that you will hear which is only this spiritual force vibrating at a certain speed at a certain level. Sometimes it sounds like whistles. It can

sound like running water. It can sound like the swishing - oh, I don't know how to say it - if you take a wire, a wire and whip it through the air, it can be a sound like this, or it can be music. This spiritual sound will have many different manifestations. And what it's doing is cleansing and uplifting you in your consciousness to have a broader understanding of the life you lead. And this is for your benefit, of course.

Sing HU, an ancient name for God, one of the most powerful words for spiritual upliftment. As you sing HU, listen for an inner sound. It may come in any number of ways - like the sound of a rumbling train, a singing bird, buzzing bees, a mellow flute, or even soothing guitars. While singing HU, even if you don't hear a specific sound, just imagine the holy Sound of God cascading over you like a waterfall of sparkling pure waters. It is cleansing the blemishes of Spirit. Open your heart to

its blessings. It brings peace, joy, and spiritual freedom. These exercises are for you to experiment with. You can adapt them, create your own, find out what opens your heart. And with time, contemplation becomes a divine language that speaks to the highest of who we are. If you want to explore this language, you're invited to visit our webpage, giftofHU.org. That's gift of H-U dot org. And you'll find videos, Spiritual Exercises, a free app with a twenty-minute HU recording, and a lot of other

resources. You can also link to this HU page from the episode notes on your podcast platform. Also, in those notes, we've got links to the ECKANKAR bookstore. So if you have an interest in the book ECKANKAR Key to Secret Worlds by Paul Twitchell, the modern day founder of ECKANKAR, you can link to it there, or The Spiritual Exercises of ECK book by Harold Klemp. Many, many Spiritual Exercises in there. Well, we've covered a lot of territory today. Mark, thank you

so much for being with us. And thank you all for listening in. Stay tuned for future episodes on a quarterly basis. All the best on your Soul Adventures.