• Dawn King (text & illustrations) • It’s interesting to reflect on the judgmental biases that we each acquire from the environment in which we grow up. Today a long-forgotten memory came to mind while I was cleaning my bathroom. Many years ago when Sunburst first started, we had an office in Santa Barbara. It was on Cota Street. One of the functions of this office was to find employment for Sunburst Farm residents.
Because everyone needed to chip in some money to help Sunburst Farm feed its residents and develop the property, each resident needed to pay “rent”. We had not developed our chain of natural foods stores yet; later working at a job there was considered as payment of rent, although no money was exchanged.
At one point I was the volunteer who scoured local papers to find jobs for us. I sent myself on one of these because nobody else was available. This job was to spend a few hours cleaning someone’s home in an upscale neighborhood. I had grown up in an environment which saw cleaning someone else’s house as the lowest and worst job a woman could take. So I had to put that prejudice from my upbringing out of my mind.
With an at-your-service attitude I rang the doorbell, and followed instructions for cleaning some hard to reach areas of the client’s beautiful home. I was happy that I could easily crawl behind the couch, and climb a ladder as needed. It was a successful job.
The homeowners seemed very happy with my work, and insisted I have some milk and cookies before I left. Very new to Sunburst at the time, I was 26 years old and weighed 95 pounds due to anorexia, which I suffered for a year or more before arriving. The generous homeowners most likely were concerned that I was malnourished, and after the work I appreciated their kindness.
Today, I’m very happy that I took this job and actually did it despite having grown up in an environment that said this kind of work was supposed to be “beneath my dignity.” The experience taught me many things.
1. Honest work is never beneath one’s dignity. “Honest” means it is not stealing, lying, or involved in anything illegal.
2. We should honor and appreciate others who perform honest labor; so many menial and even “dirty” tasks are vital for the functioning of society. My humble husband never shied from dealing with the community septic system or any other task that would turn others off.
3. It’s worthwhile to reflect on and realize what prejudices we have been exposed to, and whether we’ve accepted them as part of our own belief system.
4. When we perform any honest task with a glad heart in true service to others, or an attitude of service to Spirit, no task is too far beneath us, and no task is too large or too hard.
Selfless service is always attended to and aided by unseen angel helpers. What a blessing! You can feel it!
“I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that I will fall heir.” – Gautama Buddha
These words remind us that we are each responsible for our own actions and our own karma. It fits this time of year, the fall equinox.
In Jewish tradition Rosh Hashanah comes at the start of the fall season, and is a time of reckoning. Likewise, Hindu tradition sets two weeks aside for facing one’s own responsibility for one’s karmic lot. This time is especially aimed at overcoming victim consciousness around family issues. We need to recognize how we ourselves have been negligent in our thoughts and actions, or perhaps used bad judgement. Just as we want to be forgiven, we must forgive those we judge as having wronged us.
Here are Paramahansa Yogananda’s words on personal karma:
You should make a greater effort. Forget the past and trust more in God. Our fate is not predestined by Him; nor is karma the sole factor, though our lives are influenced by our past thoughts and past activities.
If you are not happy with the way life is turning out, change the pattern. I don’t like to hear people sigh and ascribe present failure to past-life errors: to do so is spiritual laziness.
•by Norman Paulsen, Founder of Sunburst (photo shown)•In your deep meditations, you can sometimes see your body as a shadowy form filled with scintillating tiny stars. When you see this, your consciousness is beginning to merge with cosmic mind, God’s mind. These spinning, darting lights that look like distant stars at night are subatomic particles; highly intelligent beings of light. These beings are the building blocks of the creation, and are responsible for the appearance of all images, including our bodies. They are the pure visible manifestation of life as a force, which is God!
This force is unidentifiable until it appears around, and in visible thought-produced images. Yes, the Spirit of God is the force of life which in our words is “a great unknown”. Life, as we call it, cannot be seen or defined. Yet, it manifests miraculously before our eyes in nature as an endless variety of forms, from minerals to plants, animals, and people.
Divine imagination, moving as thought-forms, creates subatomic particles. These in turn spin atoms into existence and direct lifeforms into the density projected by divine mind. We are, after all, a swarm of divine thought-forms projected by cosmic mind, God, each one with a different face.
In the silence of my being, I hear the pulsating hum of all creation moving through every atom of my body. This sound, Oh Lord, is the divine comforter. If we but listen, we can hear you; we can feel you; we can see you. I know I am a being of consciousness without form, beyond light. I am eternal. I am a part of you, Mighty Spirit.
•by Trish Dunham•Millions of people all over the world have had experiences with the Light in the form of near-death experiences, due to serious illness or accident. Often the person sees and enters a tunnel, leading to a brilliant Being of Light, who loves them unconditionally. An intensely personal encounter with divinity ensues, and then, the patient finds himself back in the hospital room, or at the scene of the accident.
We all long for that kind of love. We unconsciously long to reunite with the most brilliant, radiant Light, personal and sweet. You can have this experience without the pain and trauma of nearly dying.
I had an experience of the inner-dimensional tunnel without going through near-death. I was meditating while facing the morning sun, sitting above a gently gurgling creek. After some time, I blasted myself with effort and briefly lost normal consciousness.
My head seemed transparent, not there. Where it should have been, there was a glowing sun. I watched it in awe. The cells of my body began rising into the sun. In pairs they came to the center line of my body and rose upward in the joy of expectation. Although it sounds odd, they were gaily shouting and laughing their extreme joy at making this journey at last, of going home, of regaining that which they had lost—their brightness, their birthright. Like children in line, they were ribbing each other, carousing in playful delight.
Shortly after I had this experience, I found myself gazing at a painting done by the late Hopi chief, White Bear. It was the Hopi symbol for the sun. My eye was attracted to small black lines, like dashes, that ran up the center line of the painting. With a jolt, I understood what they meant. They are the cells moving up the center of the being. How many times had I heard Sunburst’s founder Norm say, “The spine is like a hollow tube.…Inner-dimensionally, it’s the tunnel seen in near-death experiences.”
It’s one big hologram! Seek and you shall find. You can fly through the tunnel to eternity by your own effort, and to the eternal delight of the universe of yourself.
Has this experience somehow miraculously transformed me into a perfect vessel of virtue? Far from it. It gave me hope. It told me my path is a true one. It refreshed my soul.
•by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder•I Am That I Am, Mother-Father Divine, will create us anew while yet we live, if we will allow, if we will remain steadfast, if we seek. The ego is afraid to let go of its grasp, but in seeing through the eyes of Spirit, you become fearless; in dying to the ego, you become immortal. This gift is what we seek; this is the gift to be administered.
Speak God’s name; chant it. Think of your Divine Mother-Father the livelong day. One drop of that Light will change your life forever. The great bliss and ecstasy is here before you! He alights on your head. He walks with you; he makes the air to move. He touches the secret places in you—the body starts. At his touch, one dies to ego and is reborn free.
To gaze upon the past is to look upon shadows. One thinks of reincarnation; it is comforting that another chance might be given. But reincarnation is itself an illusion. If one can see, feel, and taste immortality, one does not need reincarnation. If one dreams of other lifetimes, are we sure that they are true? Can we prove it?
All those who have seen I Am That I Am stress the fact that this very moment and this very life of which you have possession should be deemed extraordinary. It’s extraordinary to be alive here and now, in these wonderful bodies; it’s more extraordinary to become aware of eternal life, and the fact that it can be attained.
Earthly life is short. Having gained all you may desire in this world, it will not fulfill you. It will never fill the great emptiness that can only be occupied by I Am That I Am, that one most sought after by all beings, whose face blazes forth as the eternal Sun. One feels transformed by a mere glance at it. Do we dare to look upon his face? We dare if we seek our true home. She is the wellspring of all worlds, all images; each one of us is the inmost Self of I Am That I Am. Seek it diligently.
• Patricia Paulsen • There are many spiritual traditions that exhort you to: “Hurry and finish up your karma so you can leave this planet and go to a more heavenly realm.” The beauty of Sunburst’s teachings is that we’re not in a hurry to get out of here and never come back. We are to fully enjoy the amazing miracle of this life, the sacredness of our Mother Earth, and all life here. That’s what Sunburst is about.
You and I are not this body, not this mind; we are immortal souls, each one of us. And that immortal soul has been given free will to love the Infinite Being, or not. That’s a really powerful gift.
When we live in alignment with divine will, we can move through this life experiencing ever-new joy, love and peace. Even in the midst of life’s storms, there’s a place in you that is Peace, but you must discover this and cultivate it. You can feel at one with the immortal soul that you are.
You hear of “mindfulness, mindful living”—what does this mean? It means being present and centered in awareness, noticing the rising of your thoughts, without reaction. This requires a certain amount of mental discipline and effort. I love our brother Norman’s statements on mindful living:
Mental discipline arises from commitment to the vision you seek— knowing what you want and dedicating your life to bringing it forth into being. It is foolish for anyone to think that they can attain any true level of realization without a life of self-discipline. True discipline is never a restriction; it is liberation!
Meditation is a practice that helps us clear out subconscious habits and conditioning that are no longer of service to us. Discipline of the mind opens a whole canvas onto which you can project and receive. It’s not empty space; it’s full of Presence, life, love, our true nature, who we really are. We were made in the image and likeness of our creator Mother and Father. That’s powerful.
Where do we start? How can you be mindful about your activities in life—what you’re doing with your life force—if you’re not aware of your conduct? Consciousness is with you all the time. You have to become aware of it and focus it to make good decisions. This effort of focus will allow virtue, your divine nature, to come forth through mindful living, making the right choices in life. How often do we act unconsciously and make decisions?
Asking ourselves to be self-disciplined and control our thoughts may seem an overwhelming task. But if you guide your awareness to watch your breath, and feel at home in your body, you gain confidence: “I think I can do that.” You’ll realize that the more you practice conscious breathing with a full in-breath and full out-breath, you begin to calm your heart. By doing so you begin to calm your mind, your thoughts. This is a simple way to calm mental restlessness.
Be kind to yourself; have compassion, not judging when your thoughts keep moving all over the place. Come back to your center of “being here now” and say, “I will keep returning again and again to this present moment, this next breath.” Through such a simple practice, you’ll begin to discover that prana, the life force of Spirit itself, rides on your breath.
Spirit is always trying to help us find our way back home to peace, equanimity and joy, for this is our true nature. Our Creator doesn’t want to see us suffer. We’ve been given tools so that we have a way to return home right within us. The kingdom of heaven is not somewhere else. It is within us, and when we find it within, we find it everywhere around us. We simply have to do the inner work first.
Our dynamic will and conscious awareness is the seat of virtue. It can help us create the future we want to see—not by grasping, but by willingly allowing ourselves to be an instrument for this Presence to work through for the betterment of the whole. Conscious conduct is the wellspring of mindful living. It brings joy to our lives.
