I've done extensive and productive Inet-research on "Hu"...but I'm wondering
if anyone can spare me some re-invention of the wheel...what have you found?
Where does "Sugmad" come from? For example, is it borrowed from the Sufi's?
[I think not. But I did find alot of HU there, for example]
Appreciate any links or guidance....thanx!
Blessings,
_g
You must seek among the Sihks:
jYsy kurMk nhI pwieE Bydu ] qin sugMD FUFY pRdysu ] Ap qn kw jo kry
bIcwru ]
jYsy kuraMk nhI pwiE Byd ] qin sugaMD FUFY paRdysu ] Ap qn kw jo kary
bIcwr ]
fi; soQK joD fJ; G/s ~ Bjh A ikDdk, fe e;s{oh dh y[Fp{ T[; d/ ;oho ftu
jh j? ns/ T[j fJ; ~ pkjotko Gkbdk j? < J/;/ soQK jh gqG{ gqkDh d/ nzdo
jh j? .
As the deer knows not this secret, that the fragrance of musk is
within his body, and he searches for it abroad, similarly the Lord is
within the mortal.
http://www.gurbani.com/bani.asp?PageNo=1196
qin sugMD FUFY pRdysu ] (1196-11, bsMqu, Bgq rivdws jI)
tan suganDh dhoodhai pardays.
the musk is within its own body, but it searches for it outside.
I have it on file somewhere... If I find it I will poit in
Love
Michael
"Greg" <Gr...@Stillsearching.com> wrote in message
news:a3imi...@enews4.newsguy.com...
Rosencrantz wrote:
Hard to sort out the first quote but the second.... sugMD = musk?
--
o
|
~/|
_/ |\
/ | \
-/ | \
_ /____|___\_
(___________/
Rich~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sailing the CyberSea~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--
Colleen
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/execkankar
"Rosencrantz" <rosencra...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:65f7c3d5.02020...@posting.google.com...
Rosencrantz wrote:
> "Michael" wrote:
>
>>Rich has some excellent information...
I do? <g> If Michael was referring to me, I've forgotten what he is
referring to. :-)
> Hard to sort out the first quote but the second.... sugMD = musk?
> attar, fragrance, musk . . . its a common, traditional, poetic
> metaphor for God.
>
> . . . and I suspect that Paul lifted the transliteration 'sugMD' from
> the Granth, and turned it into SUGMAD. There are several levels of
> irony here, but we'll pass over that.
:-D
> Rumi, says:
>
> "Even if the body should lie amidst fragrance and musk,
> On death it will petrify and give out its stink.
> So scent not the body, but perfume the soul with musk,
> What is that musk except the Name of the Glorious Lord? "
>
>
> See also, 'Fragrance of Sufism' by Muhammad Mahmood Ali Qutbi.
>
> Didn't Harold write of Hafiz's master, Mohammed Attar, the perfumer?
> Can't seem to lay my hands on it at the moment.
>
>
> ARISE, oh Cup-bearer, rise! and bring
> To lips that are thirsting the bowl they praise,
> For it seemed that love was an easy thing,
> But my feet have fallen on difficult ways.
> I have prayed the wind o'er my heart to fling
> The fragrance of musk in her hair that sleeps
> In the night of her hair-yet no fragrance stays
> The tears of my heart's blood my sad heart weeps.
>
> --Hafiz
>
> Surely the highly valued message of Hafiz is worshipping and loving
> God. According to him, loving God is the essence of the existence. Man
> and the angels depend upon the love and every thing will be mortal but
> love.
>
> In the love toward God there is no limit, nor lacking of anything.
> There is nothing common in the other kinds of love. If one finds no
> limit and briefness, unity and perfection in his work, is due to the
> fact that he had felt the fragrance of love in all his body.
>
>
> Through the wine of mystical ecstasy and breathless ecstasy, the
> Yogi-Sufi transcends the body-mind and breathes in the rose-fragrance
> of God's omnipresence.
>
> Breathe in the fragrance of God's presence through intense devotion
> and find real freedom, the freedom that the renunciant is truly
> seeking, in wine-Bliss.
>
> Men have left their own country, their fathers and mothers, their
> households and kinsmen and families, and have journeyed from Hind to
> Sind, making boots of iron till they wore out to shreds, haply to
> encounter a man having the fragrance of the other world. How many men
> have died of this sorrow, not succeeding in encountering such a One!
> As for you, you have encountered such a One here in your own house,
> and you turn your back on Him. --Rumi
>
> I realised the Essential Nature of my body and mind, that it was like
> the fluidity of the oceans of fragrance surrounding the Isles of the
> Blest. I came to realise that I had been all along throwing the broken
> shards of my thoughts of personality into the pure limpidity of my
> Essential Nature.
> --Surangama Sutra
>
>
> Before thee the soul is hourly decaying and growing,
> And for one soul's sake how should any plead with thee?
> Wherever thou settest foot a head springs up from the earth;
> For one head's sake why should any wash his hands of thee?
> That day when the soul takes flight enraptured by thy fragrance,
> The soul knows, the soul knows what fragrance is the Beloved's.
> As soon as thy fumes vanish out of the brain,
> The head heaves a hundred sighs, every hair is lamenting.
> I have emptied house, to be quit of the furniture;
> I am waning, that thy love may increase and wax.
> 'Tis best to gamble the soul away for so great a gain.
> Peace! for it is worth, O master, just that which it seeks.
> My soul in pursuit of thy love, Shamsu 'l Haqq of Tabriz,
> Is scudding without feet, ship-like, over the sea.
>
> --Rumi
>
> Every morning a voice comes to thee from heaven:
> 'When thou lay'st the dust of the way, thou win'st thy way to the
> goal.'
> On the road to the Ka'ba of union, 1O, in every thorn-bush
> Are thousands slain of desire who manfully yielded up their lives.
> Thousands sank wounded on this path, to whom there came not
> A breath of the fragrance of union, a token from the neighborhood of
> the Friend.
> In- memory of the banquet of union, in yearning for his beauty
> They are fallen bewildered by the wine thou knowest.
> How sweet, in the hope of him, on the threshold of his abode,
> For the sake of seeing his face, to bring night round to day!
> Illumine thy bodily senses by the light of the soul:
> The senses are the five prayers, but the heart is the seven verses.
> The moon and the sun and the axis of the seven heavens are swallowed
> By the Canopus of the soul, when it rises from towards the southern
> angle.
> Look not in the world for bliss and fortune, since thou wilt not find
> them;
> Seek bliss in both worlds by serving Him.
> Put away the tale of love that travelers tell;
> Do thou serve God with all thy might.
> From the Sun who is the glory of Tabriz seek future bliss,
> For he is a sun, possessing all kinds of knowledge, on the spiritual
> throne.
>
> --Rumi
>
> His Mathnawi is a mine of spiritual thoughts and a sea of knowledge
> about Sufism and man's spiritual possibilities. His Diwan-I-Shams-I
> Tabriz from the artistic and literary point of view is a great book,
> but in spiritual appeal and in the wider world of the heart and beyond
> the Mathnawi has no parallel. It is more penetrating than the echoing
> songs of the mountains and more fragrant than the fragrance of
> flowers.
>
> In Persian literature, the most popular books are: Firdawsi's
> Shahname, the Diwan of Hafiz, Sa'di's Gulistan (Rose-Garden and his
> Garden of Fragrance) and Rumi's Mathnawi. In the entire Muslim world,
> the importance of these four books is so great that no man is
> considered educated who is not acquainted with them.
>
>
> Now, Twitchell claimed that Firdawsi was instructed by Fubbi Quantz,
> that Rumi was an ECK Master instructed by Shams-i-Tabriz, a Mahanta,
> Paul also speaks highly of Hafiz. Say what you like about Twitchell,
> he had good taste in poetry.
I agree.
> Have you looked into Paul's recommended poets? do you understand the
> common traditional metaphors they employ? This is a classic bit of
> imagery found in the Granth and a recurring leit motif in the work of
> the great Persian poets:
>
> "As the deer knows not this secret, that the fragrance of musk "is
> within his body, and he searches for it abroad, similarly the Lord is
> within the mortal."
>
> Illusion is the cover of all things; reality is the depth of things.
> The body is the illusion; the soul is the reality. The flower is the
> illusion; the fragrance is the reality. The fragrance is the spirit of
> the flower; it persists.
All good stuff. Thanks for the info.
> So, Rich, when you chant HU and think about the SUGMAD,
I almost never think about the Sugmad when I sing HU...
> you are
> participating in an ancient tradition,
No doubt in my mind that HU has been around since before recorded
history.
> but like the deer, you know not
> from where the fragrance originates if you do not take the time to
> discover your own spiritual roots.
My experience comes from a different perspective. I don't have to
guess at the derivation of words to Know my spiritual roots. While
I often dearly enjoy intellectual pursuits, those are far from
paramount to me.
The Ancient Song of HU
The HU has been in use for thousands of years by many different
cultures and religious groups as a means to have a greater conscious
contact with the Light and Sound of God. It is by no means exclusive
to Eckankar. Texts or practices of the ancient Egyptians, Gnostics,
Greek mystery schools, Druids, Sufi, Hermetic, early Christian, Coptic
and Africans have, or still use the HU.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary http://www.oed.com/
The word "God" can be plausibly derived from the Sanskrit word "HU"
Information Submitted by Rich Smith, Hawaii
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
General Background:
Most indigenous cultures throughout the world have the word HU in their
language. In almost every case, the word refers to Spirit, or some aspect of
Spirit.
In Eckankar, we refer to the HU as a Love Song to God. It is an essential
practice of most ECKists to sing this word as they go through their day, and
especially when some difficulty arises. Many who are not members of the
teaching have also found respite and comfort when singing the HU.
Under is some basic information on this most ancient of Mantras for you to
read.
Quotes and comments on HU
"HU is the main mantra used in Eckankar. It has also been used in
other spiritual traditions in the past. What makes this one-syllable
word so powerful?"
"It's powerful because it's the ancient name for God. It's a name that
some of the Eastern religions are aware of, but in the West it's pretty
much an unknown name. And it is much more effective as a love song to
God than just the simple Anglo-Saxon word God."
"HU is ancient. When they come back to ECK, it's the name people
recognize from other lifetimes. When they come back to ECK, they're
going to remember. They're going to find help in their lives when using
it, when singing it, because it makes a connection all the way back
through the earliest times when people came to this planet."
From "The Slow Burning Love of God", by Harold Klemp, pg 67
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
"HU is both a name for God and a sound of the Audible Life Stream,
which we know as the ECK, or Holy Spirit. HU, along with Sugmad,
is a charged name for God that can spiritually uplift the people
of any religion."
"People glimpse a quality of the Supreme Deity and fit a name to
their concept of the All-in-the-All in their native tongue. Despite
the many names for God, none is God. It exists alone and supreme,
beyond the grasp of the human mind. God exists in and of Itself."
"In ECK, we do know this: HU is foremost among the ancient names
for God. It is the true, universal name drawn from the Sound
Current Itself, for HU is woven into the language of life.
It is the Sound of all sounds. It is the wind in the leaves,
falling rain thunder of jets, singing of birds, the awful
rumble of a tornado. Again, Its sound is heard in laughter,
weeping, the din of city traffic, ocean waves, and the quiet
rippling of a mountain stream. And yet, the word HU is not God. It is
a word people anywhere can use to address the Originator of Life."
"The word HU descends from the highest spiritual realms. It springs
from the tenth plane, the Nameless World."
"The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad, Way of the Eternal, says of the sacred sound
HU: 'In this mantric sound all the positive and forward-pressing forces
of the human, which are trying to blow up its limitations and burst
the fetters of ignorance, are united and concentrated on the ECK,
like an arrow point.'"
"HU, adds The Shariyat, is the way out of 'personal misery of every
kind; out of the meaninglessness of life; out of boredom,
discouragement, failure, obsessive anxiety, or depression; and out
of fear.'"
From THE LIVING WORD, Book 2, by Harold Klemp, pg. 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
"This word has a spiritual force that speaks volumes by itself.
It has little need for a human agent, except for the Light Giver.
He is the Mahanta, who links Soul with the Sound Current.
He helps each find spiritual freedom by passing along this forgotten,
holy name of God."
"The word is HU. It depends upon no human authority for validation.
No priest, minister, or spiritual figure can say HU is this or that.
It is what it is. From a practical standpoint, it is love's golden
thread, drawing Soul closer to God, like an infant to its parent."
"HU is a love song to God. It uplifts and purifies us of the evils
that make life too much to bear. It heals our wounds, soothes our
brow: sweet, but mighty, name of God."
"In all heaven and earth no name is mightier than HU. It can lift
the grieving heart to a temple of solace. A companion in trouble,
it is likewise a friend in times of prosperity. And is it any wonder,
for HU is Soul's most precious gift from God."
"Anytime you sing HU as a love offering to Sugmad, the Lord of all
creation, your heart fills with the Light and Sound of God. They
are the twin aspects of ECK, the Holy Spirit. HU, the name of God,
brings us into a holy alliance with the Light and Sound, the Word
of God. Should the worlds tremble and all else fail, HU carries
us into the ocean of God's love and mercy."
"So sing HU softly, gently. Once among the most secret names of God,
the Order of Vairagi Adepts has now brought it into the world for the
upliftment of all. It is for those who desire true love, true freedom,
wisdom, and truth."
From THE LIVING WORD, Book 2, by Harold Klemp, pg. 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
"The Living ECK Master at that time was a man named Rama, who came
from the dark forests of Germany and traveled to Tibet. On his way
there, he left the message of ECK--the teaching of the Sound and Light
of God and how to reach the Kingdom of Heaven in this lifetime--
with the primitive people of northern Europe."
"Even today, there is a faint remembrance of HU, the secret name of God
that he left with the people. This word can be chanted or sung quietly
to yourself when you are in trouble or when you need consolation in
time of grief. It gives strength, it gives health, it opens you as a
channel for the greater healing of Divine Spirit."
"When Rama spoke of HU, he was referring to the divine Light and Sound.
The Sound of God, the Audible Life Stream, is the purifying element
which uplifts Soul, so that one day It may return home to God,
Its creator."
"The word HU was later used among the Druids, but they eventually lost
the information about its true meaning. All that remained of Rama's
teachings was a dim memory of the Light, and the brightest light they
were aware of was the sun. This is why historians today claim the
Druids worshiped the Sun God HU."
from "How to Find God" by Harold Klemp
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
When one is united to the core of another, to speak of that
is to breathe the name HU, empty of self and filled
with love. As the saying goes, The pot drips what is in it.
The saffron spice of connecting, laughter.
The onion-smell of separation, crying.
Others have many things and people they love.
This is not the way of Friend and friend.
- Rumi
"Open Secret - Versions of Rumi"
Translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
"HU is the ancient name for God, a love song to God.
When Soul has heard this sound, Soul yearns to go home."
- Sri Harold Klemp
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Recognize that your imagination and your thinking
and your sense-perception are reed canes
that children cut and pretend are horsies.
The Knowing of mystic Lovers is different.
The empirical, sensory, sciences
are like a donkey loaded with books,
or like the makeup woman's makeup.
It washes off.
But if you lift the baggage rightly, it will give you joy.
Don't carry your knowledge-load for some selfish reason.
Deny your desires and willfulness,
and a real mount may appear under you.
Don't be satisfied with the name of HU,
with just words about it.
Experience That Drunkenness.
>From books and words come fantasy,
and sometimes, from fantasy
comes UNION.
- Rumi
"We Are Three" Translated by Coleman Barks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
"On the historical side, an ECKist who has studied a collection of
Coptic texts known as the Nag Hammadi Library learned something of
interest to Eck initiates. The text of the Nag Hammadi Library are
mostly fourth-century copies of earlier Greek versions. The original
texts were based upon the inner experiences of the gnostics.
In those first three hundred years of the Christian church, however,
the outer path had lost the inner journeys of Soul. All that remained
were degenerated myths that reduced earlier spiritual experiences
into nothing more than allegories.
"In his research, this ECK initiate found a dimension to the original
biblical teachings that has been lost in today's church. In the
Marsanes, a fragmentary codex, there is a guide to thirteen planes
and a discussion of sound keys to the planes and luminaries of those
planes. The Paraphrase of Shem talks of inner travel as the mind's
separation from the body, "as if in sleep". Another text, the
Apocalypse of Paul, tells of Paul's heavenly journeys and his
transformation upon reaching the tenth heaven. But it is The
Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth which is most interesting for us.
"It gives a hermetic exercise for travel to purely spiritual planes,
including chanting a secret "name" that can be transliterated from the
original Coptic as HU.
"The Gnostics were people whose spiritual path was an inner one.
Unfortunately, they did not balance it with a strong outer path, which
is why they succumbed to the institutional church of orthodoxy.
Therefore, the secret name of God which had been set into their midst
by Zadok was eventually lost.
"The future of Eckankar could hold the potential for a repeat of those
early times. The difference between (Eckists) and the Gnostics,
however, is that we must be sensible enough to keep a balance between the
inner and outer teachings--giving the needed attention to both. Unless this
balance is maintained, there is but a broken, one-sided path that cannot truly
minister to the spiritual needs of people."
Harold Klemp
from "Wisdom of the Heart"
NB: Zadoc is considered in ECKANKAR to have been the Living ECK Master during
the time of Jesus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Muhammed is said to have said,
"Whoever belongs to God, God belongs to."
Our weak, uneven breathings,
these dissolving personalities,
were breathed out by the eternal
Huuuuuuuu, that never changes!
A drop of water constantly fears
that it may evaporate into the air,
or be absorbed by the ground.
It doesn't want to be used up
in those ways, but when it lets go
and falls into the ocean it came from,
it finds protection from the other deaths.
Its droplet form is gone,
but its watery essence has become
vast and inviolable.
Listen to me, friends, because you
are a drop, and you can honor yourselves
in this way. What could be luckier
than to have the ocean come
to court the drop?
For God's sake, don't postpone your yes!
Give up and become the giver.
- Rumi
"One-Handed Basket Weaving"
Translated by Coleman Barks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Dennis Webber wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------------
poetry of Sultan Bahu 1628 -- 1691, a Sufi Master of the Light and
Sound of God (Qadriya Order) who lived in northern India.
The following ecstatic poems, translated from Punjabi, sometimes
contain the word "HU," pronounced "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," a name of God
which symbolizes and even mimics to some extent, the Kalma or Word,
also known as the Sound Current -- the Music of the Spheres.
In most all of his poems, in the original language every other line
ends with a HOO, for example:
akkheen surkh te mooheen zardee,
har wallon dil aaheen HOO
Muhaa muhaar khushboi waalaa,
pahuntaa vanj kadaaeen HOO
Ishq mushk na chhuppe raihnde,
zaahir theen uthaaeen HOO
Naam faqeer tinhaan daa Baahoo,
jin laamakaanee jaaeen HOO
The name "Bahu" means, "with God."
___
Then, in an ecstasy of love,
you will repeat the Name of HU constantly,
devoting every breath of your life
in contemplation of Him.
Only when your soul merges
in the Essence of the Lord,
will you deserve the name 'Bahu.'
___
HU is within, HU is without,
HU pervades everything;
where then is Bahu to find HU [God]?
He has wounded his own heart,
he has tortured his own soul
with austerities of all manner,
with worship of all kinds.
Having read millions of books,
he has also come to be called 'wise.'
But the name 'faqir' befits only him, O Bahu,
whose very grave breathes life!
___
Mystics live in this world as HU personified;
they practice the Name that is the essence of God.
They live in HU --
beyond religion,
beyond belief and unbelief,
beyond life and death.
If you explore the Path within yourself,
you will find God nearby, through the Royal Vein.
He now lives in me and I in Him, O Bahu:
not only distance from Him
but even nearness to Him
have become irrelevant!
___
HU is within, HU is without,
HU always reverberates in my heart.
The wound in my heart aches constantly
with the unabating pain of HU's love.
The darkness of ignorance departs
from the heart lit by HU [God, Allah].
I sacrifice myself to the one, O Bahu,
who has realized the significance of HU.
-------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
HU is an ancient name for God. It's a love song to God...
It represents the love of God for Soul. And we are Soul.
It represents the enormous love that the Creator has for ITS creation.
--Harold Klemp
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
The Supreme Being has been called by various names in
different languages, but the mystics have known Him as HU,
the natural name, not-man-made, the only name of the Nameless,
which all nature constantly proclaims.
- Hazrat Inayat Khan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
By filling our world with the creative sound of HU, the unknown name
of God, we will become a channel for divine spirit. When used properly,
uttered aloud or silently, the creative Soul will enable our Soul to
ride the divine vibrations through all the realms of time and space
to our own glorious destination.
Paul Twitchell - The Flute of God p. 84
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
"You have the potential for greater happiness, love and understanding.
Singing HU can bring these to you--through the Light and Sound of God.
Throughout the ages, followers of many spiritual traditions have used
prayer, the singing of holy words, and meditation to bring themselves
closer to God. In the same way, those who have discovered HU, an
ancient name for God, sing it for their spiritual upliftment.
Regardless of your beliefs or religion, you can sing HU to become
happier and more secure in God's love.
HU is woven into the language of life. It is the Sound of all sounds.
It is the wind in the leaves, falling rain, thunder of jets, singing
of birds, the awful rumble of a tornado.
Its sound is heard in laughter, weeping, the din of city traffic,
ocean waves, and the quiet rippling of a mountain stream. And yet,
the word HU is not God, ITSELF. It is a word people anywhere can use
to address the Originator of Life."
--Harold Klemp
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Official Eckankar HU page
http://www.eckankar.org/hu.html
More quotes and great info at:
Unofficial HU Page (recently updated)
http://www.sourcetext.com/hupage/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
INTERESTING SNIPS
The images below came from a Sufi (Whirling Dervish or darvish as he calls
himself)
He wrote:
"I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how a darvish
might send Hu to someone."
"... below you will find two image files. The second gif file is a very simple
rendition of how Hu would commonly be written in Arabic or Persian (or old
Turkish). It is read from right to left and it is common to use the image as a
visual remembrance."
"The First image, hu.jpg, is much more complex. It is my rendition of
a classical way of representing the Zikr "Ya Hu ya Hu ya man Hu, la
illa ha illa Hu". (Which means basically, "Oh Hu, there is no divine
reality but Hu"). You can find the basic pattern of this design at the
Hageia Sophia and Rumi's tomb."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Ya Hu ya Hu ya man Hu, la illa ha illa Hu
"Oh Hu, there is no divine reality but Hu"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
An Example of how HU might be written in Arabic
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
"Rosencrantz" <rosencra...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:65f7c3d5.02020...@posting.google.com...
> "Michael" <harm...@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:<tD978.86484$HW3.1...@newsfeeds.bigpond.com>...
> > Rich has some excellent information...
>
> Hard to sort out the first quote but the second.... sugMD = musk?
>
>
>
> --
> o
> |
> ~/|
> _/ |\
> / | \
> -/ | \
> _ /____|___\_
> (___________/
> Rich~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sailing the CyberSea~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> attar, fragrance, musk . . . its a common, traditional, poetic
> metaphor for God.
>
> . . . and I suspect that Paul lifted the transliteration 'sugMD' from
> the Granth, and turned it into SUGMAD. There are several levels of
> irony here, but we'll pass over that.
>
> Have you looked into Paul's recommended poets? do you understand the
> common traditional metaphors they employ? This is a classic bit of
> imagery found in the Granth and a recurring leit motif in the work of
> the great Persian poets:
>
> "As the deer knows not this secret, that the fragrance of musk "is
> within his body, and he searches for it abroad, similarly the Lord is
> within the mortal."
>
> Illusion is the cover of all things; reality is the depth of things.
> The body is the illusion; the soul is the reality. The flower is the
> illusion; the fragrance is the reality. The fragrance is the spirit of
> the flower; it persists.
>
> So, Rich, when you chant HU and think about the SUGMAD, you are
> participating in an ancient tradition, but like the deer, you know not
> from where the fragrance originates if you do not take the time to
> discover your own spiritual roots.
>
> namaste
This is so typical of Colleen. She comes here claiming to be an
expert on Eckankar, but then posts some innane information about
Meister Eckhard, claiming that this is the source of the word "ECK".
The word "ECK" or "EK" is Hindi for "one". It is a common word
througout the Indo-European languages. It means "corner" in German.
Meister Eckhart's last name translates roughly as "severe corner", but
may be better translated as "strength through unity".
ECKANKAR comes from the Pali, where ECK is "one" and ANKAR is
"spiritual pathway", so together the word refers to the spiritual path
back to the one, or the path to God.
What is quite revealing, however, is Colleen's speculations regarding
something about which she knows almost nothing.
By the way, Colleen presents herself here as one of the founding
members, as does Sam Orez. They were founding members of the ECK
Youth Council as teenagers. As former teens they obviously have a
grossly inflated image of their own self-importance to Eckankar
overall. Neither has any demonstrable experience with Eckankar as a
mature adult.
A Chela