• by Norman Paulsen • Sunburst Temple a.m. photo by Dawn King • We can refer to daily life here as being “part of the show.” In this great show that goes on every microsecond of time there are heroes and villains; there’s drama and action, and sometimes seemingly insurmountable obstacles. When we go to a movie, we always find ourselves rooting for the hero to overcome the obstacles, to defeat the villain, and to have a happy ending.
Our lives here, our spirit’s journey, is being witnessed not only by God, but by all those beings that have walked this path before us, who were able to defeat the villain, overcome the obstacles, and attain eternal life. These spirits exist; they are around us all the time. Sometimes they appear to us; sometimes they are called angels. They are all rooting for us, that we too can stay the course and never give up in our quest to realize our oneness with our Creator. They are here to help and encourage us, and if we call upon them they will come.
Truth must be experienced, must be understood on a cellular level, and we can do this by calming the mind, stilling the body, and going into a deep meditation every morning and every evening. This process will help us all evolve and overcome any obstacles that are in our way. It will give us the strength and courage to greet each day with a smile. Each of us every day should try to treat others like we would like to be treated, to be kind and love others like we would wish to be loved.
Oh Heavenly Father, thank you
for being with us this day and every day.
Instill in us a deep commitment
to seek true understanding,
to love one another and
to dedicate our lives to finding you,
gazing upon your face
and hearing your voice. Amen
• by Diane Hope (photo by Dawn King) • In the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda, friendship is far more than personality, preference, or shared interests. Divine friendship is a sacred companionship, one that helps us remember who we truly are—souls walking one path back to God.
In worldly friendships, we often bond through stories, struggles, humor, and mutual support. These are beautiful and human. But divine friendship adds something luminous, the intention to uplift one another spiritually. A divine friend doesn’t just listen; they remind you of your highest self. They don’t just comfort you; they encourage you to return to stillness, to prayer, to meditation, to truth.
In a spiritual community, divine friendship becomes one of the quiet miracles of daily life. It might look like a gentle check-in after a hard week. It might be a shared walk in nature where both hearts feel closer to the Infinite. It might be a moment in group meditation where you sense, without words, that you are not alone.
Yogananda often spoke of the power of sangha, holy company. When we surround ourselves with sincere seekers, we begin to absorb the vibration of devotion. We grow stronger in our discipline, softer in our hearts, and steadier in our faith.
Divine friendship is not possessive. It is freeing. It is not about being needed. It is about being reminded. When friendship is rooted in God, it becomes a bridge—between two souls, and between the soul and Spirit.
May we cherish these friendships as blessings. May we become the kind of friend who brings peace, truth, and light.
When souls seek progress together in God, then divine friendship flowers. – Paramahansa Yogananda
•. by Dawn King. •. We can count our blessings if we reside in a country whose citizens celebrate personal freedom of expression, including the pursuit of one’s personal dreams. However, we may find that the feeling of happiness this freedom should bring eludes us. We are each living in the aura of our own thoughts, attitudes, and emotions. Recent and past personal experiences may color these. Where does happiness live?
Recently, I found myself a bit down from the mostly negative world news coming my way. Likewise, I found myself thinking repeatedly that I was failing miserably in all areas of life. I’ll spare you from why this appeared to me to be the case. Even having these kinds of negative thoughts about myself didn’t fit with my idea of success, or certainly of happiness. Knowing my repeated thoughts would be self-fulfilling, I prayed for a way out of this destructive mental loop.
The answer came in the sweet instant I LET GO of thinking, of expectations, and opened my consciousness to the NOW, the present moment. Breath filled my lungs; love and joy filled my being. With no expectations, I could feel the perfection of life within and around me. Mine became a sense of wellbeing.
“This is a perfect moment,” replaced negativity. Now, as often as I can remember throughout my day, I stop my busyness and think: “This is a perfect moment.” I stop and inhale the perfection of the NOW. My consciousness immediately expands to realize the wonder and blessing of life. How calm, and calming it is simply to BE. This is my salvation. And each NOW moment is freedom from fear, stress, and feelings of failure.
The same practice helps me deal with trying to plan the future. In James Kelleher’s July Jyotish Newsletter he writes: Uncertainty isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually the natural state of the mind when it’s centered in pure consciousness. It can heighten intuition and bring a pleasant sense of wonder, the beginner’s mind.
Pure consciousness is not grasping or achieving. It is not concerned with the past or future; it is simply now. While editing articles by Norman Paulsen, founder of Sunburst, I’ve come to realize his favorite word is “now,” and he uses it frequently. How interesting that “now” is at the heart of the word “know.” To know God, and to know lasting freedom, we must live in the NOW.
A Prayer for Earth and Life
• by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder •
Almighty Spirit, our divine Mother,
Our divine Father, we thank you for our lives.
We thank you for our bodies,
For each other, and for this world,
So magnificently beautiful,
Floating like a jewel in the sea of infinity.
Almighty Spirit, inspire us, direct us,
That we do those things
Which will preserve the lives
Of our children and our children’s children,
And preserve this world in all its beauty,
That it may not be destroyed
Through greed and selfishness.
Almighty Spirit, you are the pure clear air
And the gentle breeze upon us.
You are the life that beats in our hearts;
You are the gift of speech.
You are the love we feel for all things.
Fill us this day with your presence.
We know you are here; you are alive.
You are each one of us,
All of these faces, each one unique.
All of these faces are you;
All of these bodies are yours.
Make us aware of the sea of infinity
Which stretches away from us in all directions.
We know you are alive.
In the brilliant orb of your Sun, the life giver,
The projector of all images in this solar system.
We feel your warmth.
We feel your brilliance shining within us.
We know you are alive
In the magnificent beauty of the Earth.
Help us to nourish and protect our planet
With love and husbandry.
Mother-Father, we love you.
The Sun above, the Earth below.
AUM, Mighty Spirit, we love you.
• 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.
