• by Diane Hope • In the heart of spiritual longing, we often feel that the Divine is distant—far beyond the reach of our daily struggles and worldly burdens. Yet Paramahansa Yogananda, a spiritual master who brought the teachings of yoga and meditation to the West, offers us a powerful reframe: “You do not have to struggle to reach God, but you do have to struggle to tear away the self-created veil that hides Him from you.”
This quote pierces the illusion that the Divine lies in some remote heaven, only accessible through monumental effort or religious rituals. Yogananda gently reminds us that God—or divine consciousness, truth, peace, or however we name the Infinite—is already here. The separation is not real. It is self-created. What is this veil he speaks of? It’s made of the mental and emotional clutter we accumulate: attachments, ego-driven desires, fears, regrets, and distractions. It’s the inner noise of constant thought, the restlessness of our modern lives, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we need to be whole.
Struggling to “reach God” implies the Divine is somewhere else. But Yogananda says it’s not about chasing—it’s about removing. The spiritual path, then, becomes less of a ladder to climb and more of a curtain to pull aside. This isn’t always easy. The “struggle” Yogananda refers to isn’t against God—it’s against our own inertia, illusions, and resistance to stillness. The path is inward. It may involve meditation, prayer, self-inquiry, or even just moments of quiet honesty with oneself.
But the promise is beautiful: we’re not chasing a mystery—we’re revealing a truth that has always been with us. In practice, this means we stop looking outward for fulfillment and instead start paying attention to the quiet whisper within. We pause. We reflect. We breathe. And slowly, the veil begins to thin.
Try asking yourself: What mental habits or beliefs are keeping me from feeling connected today? What might I gently let go of, even for a moment, to glimpse what lies beneath?
Yogananda’s message is not just for monks or mystics. It’s a universal call to wake up. The Divine isn’t absent—it’s obscured. Our task is not to search endlessly in the distance, but to come home to what is already ours, hidden only by the veils we’ve woven.
The struggle is real—but it is also worth it. Because behind the veil is the peace we’ve always longed for. The true feeling of unconditional love.
by Jake Collier – In my youth, my parents taught me to always say grace before dinner and a prayer before going to sleep. They always used the same prayers and this seemed strange to me.
When we moved to a different town and attended a new church, the minister spoke from his heart more than any minister I had witnessed before. I soon became good friends with his son. When I was invited for dinner the minister said grace from his heart, and every grace was a different prayer. He was truly conversing with God. I soon discovered that every Saturday he would journey up into the mountains by himself to prepare his Sunday sermon.
What is prayer? Prayer is a conversation with God. Prayer develops a relationship with our Creator; it invites universal consciousness into us. We can express our love, our frustrations, and project what we would like to see in the future.
When Moses had his experience of seeing God as a burning bush, he asked the Light, “What shall I call you?” The answer came, “I Am That I Am,” meaning: “I Am” the past—everything from the first ignition of light to this moment; “That”—the present and all its vastness, the space between our thoughts; “I Am” the future—everything going forward, all projections, God’s divine intelligence moving out from the smallest of all places to the vast expansiveness of creation. I Am That I Am is all-inclusive, all-knowing.
A daily practice with a tool of meditation peels away the layers of life’s illusions and burns up our karmas. It slows our thoughts so we can have a conversation with I Am That I Am. It answers our many questions and stirs deep feelings of devotion within us. We begin to see and hear with our inner senses that cosmic intelligence moving through space and time, communicating with us, loving us, granting us peace and understanding.
The more we practice meditation, praying deeply to the Divine, sharing our inner thoughts, feelings, and projections, I Am That I Am begins to envelop us with love and life force. We cannot help but share it with others. We begin to understand our true life’s purpose here.
• by Dawn King • We know how magnets work; south poles repel each other, but are magnetic to north poles. Did you know this applies to astrological Sun signs as well? I suppose it’s because being with a person of the same astrological Sun sign could be like being with yourself—same old, same old—or, nothing different to find new and interesting. Actually, I find it comforting to be with others who have the same Sun sign as myself. I can relax and enjoy our similarities.
But I didn’t intend to write about Sun signs exactly; this article is actually about Virtues, in particular the Sunburst Virtues that go with the zodiacal Sun signs. Yes, each zodiacal sign can be associated with a particular Virtue. Norman Paulsen, the founder of Sunburst, revealed these 12 Virtues and their zodiacal associations. He explained that these Virtues are the Divine Creator’s personality. As children of the Creator, we can assimilate and express these Virtues to exemplify our true own divine nature.
During the year when our Sun in the sky is transiting each tropical zodiacal sign, we are challenged to focus on the associated Virtue. During 50 plus years of my life in Sunburst, I’ve found these monthly challenges to be real!
On Sunday, May 18, 2025, Sandy Anderson led Sunburst’s Sunday service. She talked about the Virtue of the zodiacal month Taurus (4/19 – 5/20), which was near its end (they vary slightly year to year). Taurus is the month of Patience. Our challenge has been to be patient, and not fall into the trap of getting angry. Yes, each month has its temptation as well.
Of course, the sign we’re born under naturally challenges us to remain steadfast to its Virtue. Furthermore, in my experience and that of other long-time Sunbursters, we’ve found out something else also happens. The zodiacal sign opposite our Sun sign can also challenge us to manifest its Virtue!
So, if you are a Taurus (wonderful earth sign), you not only need to be patient, and keep your cool, you need to embrace the courage of Scorpio. You will most likely find courage is an important trait you need to exemplify. Incidents will come up to prove this out. Here is a list of the Sun signs, their tropical dates in 2025, their Virtues, and their temptations.
At the least, you can notice which Virtue you should focus on during the coming month, and see if it doesn’t challenge you during the time shown. it’s much food for contemplation. Have fun with it!
• by Vimala Rodgers • Honesty means always speaking to the God within the other person, just as we appreciate their speaking to the God within us.
Honesty is not to be confused with “the facts”, knowing that the facts are often bent and gnarled from our interpretation of them. To speak honestly is to speak in such a way that our words are never injurious but a source of grace and healing for both ourself and the person to whom we are speaking.
But honesty does not stop there. It stretches beyond the boundaries of simply telling the truth and embraces integrity. Like a body without a heart, without the one the other cannot exist. Integrity is that quality which prevents us from doing, acting, thinking, or saying anything that conflicts with our value system. To some it may imply keeping one’s word. When teamed with honesty, it shifts in depth to encompass “being your word.”
Brother Lawrence, from The Practice of the Presence of God:
We ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking frankly and plainly, and imploring assistance in our affairs, just as they happen. I have often experienced that God never fails to grant it.
Norman Paulsen, from Sacred Science:
Integrity, an internal moral compass, starts at home and spreads outward into the world in which we live. Practicing the virtue of honesty reveals the law of cause and effect: whatsoever a person, group or nation sows, that shall they also reap. The law of cause and effect is the eternal law created by God, spoken of by the ancients. We cannot escape it. Another name for it is the law of karma, or action and reaction.
• by Norman Paulsen • The by-product of Christ consciousness is ecstasy beyond description. This is the ecstasy that exists far beyond the self-conscious mind and its perimeters of experience. It is divine in all respects, transcending states produced by the five senses. It is indeed the complete experience of the new Christ Sense, and that which all writers and poets have tried to capture in words. With Gautama the Buddha it was preserved in the sutras; Jesus in the parables; Paul in his epistles; Dante at the end of Purgatorio and in the beginning of Paradisio; Shakespeare in his sonnets; Balzac in Seraphita; Whitman in Leaves of Grass; Edward Carpenter in Towards Democracy.
Following this ecstatic state comes the illumination of the intellect, again quite impossible to describe. In that great flash of light, that moment when divine rays penetrate the realms of the self-conscious mind, all is known—or should we say, all is comprehended. The very essence of life force, the Breath of Life, which created all images, is now dwelling completely exposed, within and around the self-conscious ego. This penetrating force shatters all previous concepts held by the self-conscious mind concerning God, the visible and invisible universe, and life itself.
One no longer sees planets, sun and galaxies as inert, lifeless matter, but rather the contrary. All visible images now become alive and are pulsating with the rhythms of eternal energy combinations. God himself, within and surrounding all images, now becomes visible to the beholder.
In an instant, one learns more than many self-conscious existences could ever contribute. The infinite floodgate is breached, and that flood never ceases in this life or hereafter. Above and beyond this, the greatest realization is experienced. God, I Am That I Am, is experienced as a state of ever-new joy and peace, Cosmic consciousness.
This experience reveals that the very keelson of this creation is love. Ten, twenty, thirty, fifty years afterward, the flood of divine wisdom comes pouring down on the newborn being, the Christ child. For lack and want of words, how can one express this divine state, this pearl of great price? You, dear reader, can only know this through your own experience of it.
What else is there to seek in this life? when we see those before us disappearing over the horizon and into the grave. We can see that the material pursuits are for nothing. God is everything! When we lay down our energy in this pursuit, the reward is all space, all time and all images to play with.
