• by Dawn King • Our world is changing so fast around us. Today, a child in Africa, India or Siberia with a smartphone has access to more information than the leaders of the world had not so long ago. It’s an exciting time to live in, one in which the future is hard to predict, and it seems our actions have greater consequences.
It’s becoming evident that preserving and nurturing our planet Earth is more important than ever. We don’t have another place immediately available on which to live out our lives. Meanwhile through the Internet, we’re all connected like a hive of buzzing bees. We can express ourselves, see others, and experience a oneness with rest of humanity. How can we best utilize this connection?
The things we can do with life—have relationships, be creative, create knowledge—are what give life meaning. Human ideas can change the world, and you can overcome any obstacle with the right idea. – Ray Kurzweil, inventor & futurist
We are each blessed with and can develop tremendous innate, creative powers beyond what we might normally consider. What powers are these, and how can we use them?
We each have the ability to imagine, to use willpower, and to be creative. Our thoughts and active willpower constantly recreate us and our environment. Through experience, we find that if we dwell on a thought of being sick, or in pain, we “own” that thought and magnify it. Likewise, if you consistently think “My life is wonderful!” life will reflect positive feedback to you.
Imagination and willpower go hand in hand with creativity. Your thoughts and willpower are creating your life. The more persistent and detailed your thoughts are about something, the greater its ability to manifest. This is how Cosmic Intelligence created everything we perceive.
How do we make our muscles stronger? We imagine that we can do it. Then we use our willpower to exercise and grow stronger. It’s the same with developing our spiritual nature. Let yourself imagine what it would be like to feel the ecstasy of Spirit living within you every moment, and enjoying your life to the fullest. The more you can imagine this, the more you will manifest it by your thinking and your actions.
Our very DNA evolves and is reprogramed through our life choices, our meditation, and our direct connection with the Divine. The Creator wants to dance, sing, and enjoy this creation through each of us. We are sparks of that Creator. Just like a drop of water in the ocean, each of us IS the ocean. It is only for us to realize our oneness with the ocean, our oneness with living Spirit.
The divine joy and ecstasy of life is contagious. I truly believe it’s spreading through humankind today. Amidst all its trials, humanity is evolving, growing into cosmic/Christ consciousness. In fact, trials increase our desire for and appreciation of divine Light and Life.
Like yeast raising dough, we each can help consciously raise the vibration of humanity to one of greater divine love and peace. This is our inherent nature, our birthright. We are offspring of the first Light, children of the one Source of All. Let us embrace the gift of Life, to dance, sing, and run with it!
“We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.” – Alice Bloch
Light on Sunburst Sanctuary – Stand Unshaken • Master Yogananda has told us: “You must learn to stand unshaken amidst the crash of breaking worlds.” In that spirit we carry on at Sunburst Sanctuary. In fact, we are making the best of it, letting “breaking worlds” send us deeper into oneness with Spirit.
[Opening image above: Al King hiking at Sunburst Sanctuary.
Meanwhile, we’ve certainly had our share of breaking equipment this winter. But our guys, sometimes with a bit of outside help, get it up and running again.
And who could be unhappy amidst the beauty of Sunburst Sanctuary? Here are some photos taken right before and right after morning group meditation.
Then there’s the bounty of the land. We’re still enjoying persimmons and a late crop of potatoes and strawberries from some personal gardens.
Plenty of great activities keep us busy: Around the Temple, Curtis was weeding; Craig was cleaning and fixing the rain gutters.
Heiko was working the organic fertilizer spreader. Haley was turning compost rows.
[Below] Al & Anna (visiting) gathered wild mushrooms. On a recent morning after meditation, we saw the horses waiting for fresh hay. So much to see and do at Sunburst Sanctuary. You can visit, explore, retreat.
• by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder • As you walk through this life, you begin to realize how short it really is. When we’re young, we think life is forever, and no matter what we do we are somehow going to get out of it. As we grow older, and we’ve seen the consequences of our actions, we realize how our actions can imprison us, or can set us free.
Life is short here—not even a moment in eternity, hardly. The experience of the soul’s immortality must be gained, must be tasted. It is an ecstasy beyond description. Once tasting it, you can never fail. You will always return to that which is sweetest, which tastes the best. That’s why we have to make the effort.
Don’t count your failures. They don’t exist unless you count them. When you count them, you replant them. Every day you are reborn anew. Dismiss the past. Throw it into the field of power around you, and plant your consciousness with divine Light that will consume whatever is negative, whatever is no longer helpful in your life.
Today you are reborn in Spirit if you believe it, if you receive it. The failures of the past no longer exist if you cast them out. You are free!
By attempting to live in compassion and virtue every day, whether you succeed or fail, just by attempting it you plant positive seeds in the field of power around you. The law of cause and effect has no choice but to return those virtues to you. Therefore, the more you attempt, the more you reap. The more you reap, the stronger you get. The stronger you get, the more determined you become. The more determined you become, the greater the Light within you.
Once seeing the Light, once experiencing the bliss and peace of meditation, you know it’s real. You will not need to be convinced anymore. You have gained a foothold and a handhold to scale the mountain. You become a force to help our brothers and sisters toward their freedom.
It’s not only important for each one of us to attain the final evolution for our own salvation, it’s infinitely more important for us to do so that we may become a Light. And in becoming a Light, not to hide that light—to have guts enough to stand forth and use that Light. Yes, become divine warriors, because that is what is needed here.
by Catherine Mauron • Norman Paulsen (founder of Sunburst) has told us: You are a reflection of the whole creation. As the light of God rises within your soul, so does it occur for the whole planet and everyone on it in the coming Golden Age. I like to reflect on these words by Brother Norman and restore my hope as to what I, a little bubble in the vast ocean of life, can do to help our beautiful planet.
Sometimes we feel trapped in this world that seems to go all wrong. We seem to be somehow powerless when we look around at all the misery happening everywhere (floods, famines, wars, climate change, etc.). But we are more powerful than we know.
As the little “i” becomes the big “I” in deep meditation, the little bubble of me becomes the cosmic sea, and is permeated with joy. Thus the Light arises in all, through my efforts. I then interact with the world creatively expressing that divine joy and purpose.
We can quicken this unfolding beauty, in ourselves, around us, and everywhere! The fire kindled in a tiny being can eventually light the whole creation. Be strong in your meditation, for the light you generate in your own soul sparks the wider generator of the Universe.
A Blessing
by John O’Donohue, from Eternal Echoes
May you awaken to the mystery of being here, and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you respond to the call of your gift, and find the courage to follow its path.
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.
• by Norman Paulsen, Founder of Sunburst • There is but one force manifesting throughout the universe. That force is I Am That I Am. Its nature is dual, masculine and feminine. Its existence is absolute ecstasy, continuous and ever new. Once tasting this ecstasy, nothing can ever take its place.
God can be seen visibly within as the great Light of inner space. God is seen outwardly in the billions and billions of star systems throughout all dimensions.
Spirit is felt as ecstasy; it is heard and known as sound. The movement of the cosmic forces in creation, all vibrating and radiating on different frequencies, compose and play the great cosmic symphony. One sits in awe and listens to the sounds, as waves upon waves roll in from the cosmic sea, breaking and roaring through the center of your being. Sometimes one feels as though every hair is standing at attention as the Great Spirit, which you have become one with, moves through the frail body of flesh and bone.
From the great cosmic forces in eternity we have all come forth. Miraculously we are visible to each other. Each one of us has been given a special beauty, wisdom and love. Each spirit is endowed with a different face. What a miracle it is to look at each other.
Our Divine Mother and Father have never conceived two things exactly identical; they reflect infinite variety in duality. Each soul is fashioned with uniquely reflecting facets, like the finest jewel. Each soul spreads divine light in variations that are different from those who came before, or those who follow after.
The Divine Playwright, Mother-Father God, marches on through eternities in the great halls of creations, images infinitely abounding, love transcending, in waves of color and sound—this is the cosmic sea. One sees it, and one knows it. Our soul ships sail forth immortal.
Imagine an experience of immortal ecstasy! You can experience this while conscious and alive in the body. For each one of you who remains steadfast on the path, with heart’s devotion set true upon the Godhead, Mother-Father Creator, you will taste that ecstasy and see that Light, and sail on that eternal sea.
Pray! Pray to your Mother and your Father who reside within your body. They are your constant companions. If they were not, you would cease to exist. Therefore, know that God, our Father and our Mother, are right within you and around you. Pray sincerely and unceasingly that you might feel and see their presence. It is through the devotion and love of your deepest heart that they reveal themselves to you.
