We all share an ancient story. We have left heaven and forgot about it. But some of us still remember. We are not in heaven, because we live in a world of greed. The companies make a lot of profit because they can sell their products to us, because we are not satisfied with simply being natural. We are not in heaven, because we live in a world where being natural is called being alternative, instead of that being natural is just natural. On earth, there exist things like disease and disharmony. These are all signs that the realm of earth is not heaven and that we have to go beyond earth to enter the realm of heaven. That means we have to kill everything that is earthly in us and liberate ourselves from all the patterns and identifications that enslave us on earth.
A self realized soul has done this. They are a spiritual master. They are in heaven because they have transcended their earthly mind. If we can observe our own mind, being in the presence of a spiritual master can help to transcend our minds. When the greatest longing we have is our spiritual liberation, we might look for an enlightened spiritual master. The relationship to the spiritual masters is the deepest relationship we can have because it is transcendental and unpersonal. The love that comes from beyond the mind is also the purest form of love, because it is without any egoism. When we love selflessly, we merge with the spiritual masters. But we have to give up our personality and our selfish interests to become like them. When we have a strong ego, it is difficult to be devotional.
If we cannot be in the physical presence of an enlightened master, we can also visualize them in a meditation. It does not have to be a master who is still in the body, example names are Laotse, Dogen, Bodhidharma, Confucius or Shakyamuni. Our souls might have been disciples of these ascended masters in many incarnations and that's why we feel an attraction to them without having met them in person. But we keep coming back to earth until we manage to become enlightened and pure like them. Along the journey, we might forget the intimate relationship which we have with the ascended masters, but with initiation, we are consciously on this path again. It is always our higher self that's initiating us. Our higher self can only enter us when our mind is silent and when we are not busy with everyday consciousness and socializing and functioning as our worldly identities, because when we are not busy with our minds, we open up a space to remember.