•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 Emily Wirtz• Paramahansa Yogananda used to talk about how a wave is the same as the ocean, but it is not the whole ocean, just as we are each a wave of creation in the eternal ocean of Spirit. The ocean can exist without the waves, but the waves cannot exist without the ocean. There’s a still, deep part of the ocean, which is the substance of our very existence in this ocean of Spirit. You can call it whatever you want: God, Source, or any other name.
What happens for me is the thought that I’m separate from other people. I’m thinking I’m separate from those trees over there and I’m separate from other people. We forget that we are all connected and come from the same Source. And, as human beings, we get to choose whether to listen to the voice of Spirit, the voice of oursoul, or to listen to the ego voice that thinks we’re separate from each other.
When I went to college, it was about seven hours from home. I didn’t know anyone there, and had the sense that I was going to try to get life figured out. I wanted to find out who I really was, what I wanted to do, and to expand my horizons.
I took lots of different classes, some philosophy and religion courses, and there were a lot of ideas going around in my head. But I noticed that none of the things I read or learned about were helping me figure out what to think about my future.
I didn’t find the answer right away. In fact, I didn’t find the answer in college, although I really enjoyed all the ideas I learned about. It wasn’t until many years later when I learned to meditate that I discovered that there’s a space beyond thought. This helped me to feel that there’s something greater than the thoughts we’re thinking, symbolized in that image of the wave and the ocean.
So if my mind is the wave, calculating things and examining how the past went and how the future might go, and doing it’s best to be helpful, the most satisfying thing to me is knowing that there’s something beyond that, knowing that this ocean of Spirit is my very nature, is all of our very nature.
Where is that ocean of Spirit? What is that ocean of Spirit? Who am I beyond the personality that I know? It’s only as far away as our breath, and an open heart, and a practice of being present so that awareness can fill us.
Now when I walk around, I still think of the past, I still think of the future, I still think of ideas, I still make judgements about myself or other people. But now I know there’s more to life than that. I can turn to my breath, and to the present moment. To open up to an awareness of Spirit, to learn from direct experience with that Presence, is a practice. Keep practicing it and over time it will develop, and help you immensely.
There’s a beautiful word that’s used a lot. It’s an ancient word: Namaste. It roughly translates to: “The Divine in me bows to the Divine in you.” It’s a remembering that our substance is that divine Source, and remembering that who we’re interacting with is that source also.
If we’re walking around in nature, the substance of nature is divine also. Even when we’re in something that we consider “manmade” like our cars, there’s nothing that isn’t made up of that Source, made up of God. So as we go through our days, may we each remember that idea in our hearts: the Divine in us recognizing the Divine outside of us, and in each other. Namaste!
• by Dawn King • Each morning we face a new day with excitement or dread, or some feeling in between. Whatever our thinking and feeling, let’s check in and realize it is creating the day we will encounter. Our attitudes and thoughts effect our experiences more than we realize. They can “make or break” our happiness and enjoyment in life.
The title of this article is lyrics from a beautiful Sunburst song. Waking up with an inspired song on your mind is a great way to start the day. I know because it often happens to me. But I find life exciting and fun each day. I make a point of embracing this experience because life is NOW, and it is in my power to make the best of it, whatever it brings.
My mother told me that when she was growing up, at one point she thought life was kind of boring. We’ve all probably been there at some point, thinking it was pretty routine and less than exciting, especially when we were growing up. I certainly did.
So Mom, as a child wished for some excitement. The next thing she knew, her youngest brother fell out the upstairs window and broke his leg. To her this was a tragedy. Life became exciting, but not in a good way. She learned to be careful what she wished for, and to appreciate things being “normal.”
Normal is good in so many ways. When we keep a gratitude journal, or somehow reflect on the goodness we experience in a normal day, we realize what a blessing it is. The sun comes up. We are able to function. There are things to do; we have purpose in our day.
Ever since a bad fall and concussion experienced in June while backpacking, I am thankful that I can walk, talk, think straight, type this story, etc. Things could have been so much worse.
How often do we each come through a day physically unharmed and think nothing of it. We take it for granted that we’ll be able to function just as well tomorrow. When we age (as I am), we start to realize tomorrow may not find us functioning as perfectly as the day before. It’s best to be thankful for what you’ve got; use it and hope to improve it; and embrace the moment, the NOW. This is your life.
Yesterday I was reflecting on how we are each victims, but should not have victim mentality. Yes, we are victims of our own thoughts and attitudes. Yet, we can change them and make them serve us better. Our bodies respond to our thoughts, especially habitual ones. We should always be looking for the positive side of every situation, what benefits might be found in it.
Tonight the United States will see the longest eclipse in almost 1000 years cross its land from east to west. For over six hours the full moon will be darkened, appearing red at its fullest eclipse around 1 p.m. PST. Some people are saying it portends coming earthquakes or other natural Earth changes, maybe weather phenomena. Others say eclipses are symbolic of human transformation. Let’s celebrate spiritual transformation and the ways we can lift our own spirits. Likewise, we can celebrate whatever changes our planet Earth will bring to uplift the consciousness of humanity. Pause in the NOW, and be grateful.
“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky,white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”–Thich Nhat Hanh
