Temple of Eck

Abdirahman Haji-Aweis Mrs. Julie Haider
PHIL 1760
May 7, 2013
2:00 pm to 3:15 pm Eckankar The temple was simply breathtaking. The structure of the building was magnificent. The white walls and all the paintings were fantastic. The main meeting room was amazing and the six sided blue star on the ceiling was the perfect finish. The building was kept nice, clean and smelling fresh. The whole time I was wondering, if the building was this well taken care of, how did the nature trails look? I assumed they would be kept as clean as the building because the speakers sounded very proud of the trails. The speakers were very friendly and seemed genuinely happy to see us. This made it easier to listen to them and take what they were saying seriously because their smiles pulled in the listener’s attention very effectively. The Paintings were beautiful beyond words. The imagery was just too amazing. Even thought the building was beautiful and the speakers were great, I didn’t find the religion appealing at all. First of all, the idea of reincarnation doesn’t sit well with me. More than that, I dislike the idea. Having to live life over and over again just doesn’t sound like a good thing at all. Even though life has good parts, the bad greatly outweighs the good and I wouldn’t want to have to go through it more than once. On top of that being reincarnated into the same family is confusing. Where does the family start? Who came first me or you? These types of questions come up and I doubt they would be answered. Secondly, I felt like the Eck religion was a mixture of many different faiths with most of its aspects coming from Hinduism and Buddhism. The idea of one main spiritual leader sounded very close to the Pope of Catholicism to me. The chanting seemed awfully close to the chanting of Buddhism. The idea of reincarnation also came from Buddhism and Hinduism. This didn’t seem right to me because it made it look like this was a made up religion. Also it seemed like a religion without much structure. I felt like they accept people of all religions because they are a mixture of many religions. Lastly, the religion was too individualized. I felt that even though they said they wanted to unite everyone, in the end it’s all about you. They put heavy emphasis that it was all about your individual relationship with God. I felt like this made the idea of having a spiritual leader insignificant. What would be the point of the leader if, at the end of the day, it was all about what you feel like is right. Overall, the trip was fantastic. The building was nice, the people were nicer and the paintings were the nicest I’ve ever seen. The idea of an individual based religion and very relaxed boundaries might be the biggest appeal this religion has but I don’t find it appealing. I regret the fact that we weren’t able to see the nature trails due to the weather. I don’t see myself ever following the Eck religion but I can see why many people follow it. This religion might just be what many people are looking for.