by Dawn King•We are always delighted to learn about the life of another great, illumined person from earlier times. Today I’m writing about Guru Nanak who became a spiritual teacher (“guru”) during his extraordinary life. With deep devotion (bhakti) to Truth, he equated God with the ultimate Truth, and he saw all people as bearers of Divine Light.
Born in what we call Pakistan today—but in the 1400s and 1500s—Nanak refused to favor a sex (male or female), religion (Hindu or Muslim), or one caste over another. Women were not given equal status with men at this time. His attitudes shocked his contemporaries also because competing religions and the caste system were firmly established in that era. Followers of Hindu and Muslim faiths were in constant conflict; something Nanak continually tried somewhat to reconcile.
Stories of Nanak’s early childhood state that as a sleeping child he was shaded from the hot sun by a venomous cobra’s hood, or a magically moving tree. While 7 years of age, upon learning the first letter of the alphabet, he associated it with the number “one”, and described it as a symbol of unity and the one God within all. Like Jesus, at a young age the precocious Nanak debated with both Hindu and Muslim religious scholars about the nature of God.
He is quoted as saying: “There is but One God. His name is Truth. He is the Creator. He fears none; he is without hate, He never dies. He is beyond the cycle of births and death. He is self illuminated.… He was True in the beginning…. He is also True now.”
Another saying attributed to him: “Even Kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God.” He was attributed as hearing the “word” of God, a divine guiding sound.
Revelations from God inspired Nanaks’ teachings. Popular tradition offers ways in which his teaching may be practiced: 1. Be of service to others. [“Share with others, help those who are in need, so you may eat together.”] 2. Earn an honest living, without exploitation or fraud. Daily life offers opportunities to serve. 3. Meditate on God’s name, in order to feel His presence, and to control the five vices or thieves of the human personality. The “thieves” steal one’s common sense: lust, wrath, greed, attachment and excessive pride, or ego. 4. Maintain connection to the Divine in your heart with every breath.
Nanak travelled extensively during his life, exploring religious practices in many areas far from his home, and offering his own views on the Truth. Consequently, he made an impression, and is celebrated in Sri Lanka, Tibet, Nepal, Iraq, Russia, and China.
My favorite story about Guru Nanak is that about his passing from this world. Both Hindus and Muslims wanted to claim him as their saint. When representatives of both religions showed up to claim his body, the shroud was removed to reveal a heap of flowers. Each group was able to take flowers and treat them as they would their revered saint’s body.
Today we have the Sikh faith, all followers of their original saint, Guru Nanak. Sikh means “seeker of truth,” meaning the divine Truth within.
by Norman Paulsen • When we become aware of the cosmic forces existing Within and around us, we begin to receive divine imagination, the creative will of God. By using inspired imagination we can visualize and create mental images. Observing them to be rooted in virtue, we can spin them into the field of power—the life force surrounding us. Like seeds, they will take root, causing events to appear in the future.
Divine intervention in our lives creates inspiration. Inspiration excites imagination; imagination seeds the future; the future becomes visible in time. How do we know what images to put forth? By calling on divine intervention to create inspiration; by opening up our limited imagination to the unlimited creative will of God. We have to reach with our consciousness into the future for God’s direction. We can induce the power of God’s presence to descend into us when we work for the benefit of all beings in our projections.
To begin this practice of positive visualization and projection, we have to be patient and receptive. This practice is like an infant child; if nourished, it will grow. Meditation every morning and evening should be pursued. You must water the seeds with God’s presence. Test daily the field of power that is generated by your efforts. Consider that all the forces of creation are rooted in your body temple to assist you.
When it’s possible, come together with other like-minded souls to practice your meditation. The power of being together in a circle of meditation will quicken the evolution of your spiritual advancement. Even without saying a word, you are mixing your energies. You intuitively learn what you have, and what each one present has to offer to the whole group. To participate in a circle of meditation is to receive advancement in spiritual knowledge, and to participate in the projection of positive images rooted in virtue.
Whether you meditate alone or in a group, always remember to ask for positive inspiration, and upon receiving it, place it in the field of power and make it appear. This is faith that whatsoever you plant will grow. Plant it not for yourself, but for the benefit of all beings.
by Fredd Dunham • Brother Lawrence became a monk in the seventeenth century. His whole life was devoted to practicing God’s presence. When he worked in the kitchen he said he loved to cook and clean for his fellow monks. Although at first he disliked the chores, he was happy to be of service. Later he was moved to a shoe repair shop on the premises. He was happy there, but location or occupation seemed to make no difference to him. All he cared about was his connection with God. He viewed work time as equal to time spent in traditional prayer. His goal was to be aware of God every moment.
For Brother Lawrence, this meant denouncing everything that distracted him from the presence of God. His soul knew he should entertain a continuous conversation with his Creator, a conversation of utmost simplicity, free of mystery. He sought, every moment to ask for and discern Divine Will in all doubtful things. Doing well the things asked of him, he offered his labors humbly to God—with prayer before doing them, and thanks for the opportunity to serve after doing them.
In this continuous conversation we, likewise, can be unceasingly engaged in loving God. Brother Lawrence asserts, “We should ask for grace in every moment, in every action. In time of doubt God never fails to enlighten us when we have no other purpose than to please him and ask for his love. People always mistake the means for the end, attaching certain importance to the work they do….” He found that the best way of reaching God was to do ordinary work, performed entirely for love—not for the value man places on it. He thought it a great delusion that time set aside for prayer should be different from other times.
Something that has brought me closest to actively knowing God’s presence is feeling the vortex of Spirit’s energy spinning above me, around me, and entering my body through the crown of the head. I first became aware of this in quiet meditation. But we can talk to God at any point in our day, and may subtly or dramatically feel God’s presence moving through us. That Presence brings with it a feeling of ecstasy.
Once feeling the life force of Spirit, you can expand the vortex to include your environment and ultimately the whole planet. Imagine it nurturing everything. I’ve found, that if something happens in my life causing me a moment of need, I can draw on this vortex and be protected by the Spirit of God. Having Spirit’s love around me gives me the peace of knowing that everything is going to be okay. We each can harmonize with God’s will through our devotion and practice.
Brother Lawrence lived in times much simpler than ours, but he managed to disengage himself from the complications of daily life by focusing on his inner connection with Spirit. We can do much the same in our busy lives. If you can devote even five minutes twice a day in meditation—morning and evening—to connect with Spirit, you will help yourself and others immensely. Brother Lawrence advised us to practice awareness of God all day and night. Through that dedication he was able to live a humble, purposeful and joyous life, and so might we.
•by Jake Collier•What an incredible imagination the Great Spirit has—to not only bring into being all of creation, but to have the imagination to create these amazing bodies, our earthly temples. Sometimes we might ask ourselves, “Why is the energy of karma woven into this divine plan?”
The original concept of karma was to perpetuate ecstasy in these bodies so that in each lifetime souls who walked in the body would live in virtue, peace, and harmony. In this way they would be creating wondrously helpful energies to take into the next life [good karma], further perpetuating ecstasy in each existence on Earth.
Think of life here as being like taking a hike in the wilderness. No matter how hard we try to not break or hurt anything, we crush the grass that we walk on; we might step on some insects; branches break under foot. It’s impossible to make the journey without affecting something, and creating karma.
How many of us, when we go on vacation, pack a bag, or several. Yet when we get to our destination, we’re inspired to purchase more things, more bags with souvenirs and gifts from that experience, that existence. So it is with karma. All the energetics of our past actions are packed, and coming into this life with us—we bring our soul’s baggage from past existences due to the law of cause and effect.
Karma belongs not only to individuals—there is group karma, community karma, city karma, and country karma. It can be seen throughout history, wherein civilizations have risen and fallen, countries have flourished and perished.
Cause and Effect is really a wonderful cosmic design because, like the scales of justice, we can pack our virtuous thoughts and purely motivated actions onto one side of the scale, tipping it toward a better life for ourselves, a higher consciousness, and toward a positive effect on others and our communities.
Many times people use the idea of karma as a cop-out, an excuse: “Oh, it’s my karma to do this.” In reality, each moment we have the ability to change our lives, to perpetuate pure thoughts and actions. Thankfully, there have been those souls, those evolved beings, who have come here and passed on techniques of meditation through which we can burn up karmas that we brought into this life, as well as karmas we are generating.
When practiced on a regular basis, meditation can transform our lives, altering our future. We can begin to experience the taste of ecstasy, and once we have that taste, it’s all we desire—to taste it again and again. When we feel God’s ecstasy, we know there is nothing in this life better than that. When we are totally in that moment, feeling the Divine vibrating all around and within us, it’s such joy, such peace.
Mother Father God, make your truths known to us. May our vision become clearer and our thoughts purer,
that we might dwell in your house here on this Earth
as a pure reflection of you. Amen
•by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder•In our deep meditations, each one of us can sit in the presence of I Am That I Am, our Creator, our beloved Father and Mother. We are all connected in that energy, in that wondrous Spirit. Like the wind, it blows life through all our souls and caresses our hearts.
Oh Beloved, we all want to see you as you really are, face to face. Like a son, like a daughter looks at their earthly parents, so we want to look upon you, to really see you, to hug you, to have our hearts filled with your great love. This is what this life is about. You created each one of us—each one with a different face—that you might enjoy and work and live through each of us, and that some day you might awaken us to your presence within. Yes, to know who we really are, to know that you really exist—we can know, see, and feel you.
I know this Being that we call by many names loves each one of us so very, very much; and cares for each one of us, and has so uniquely created each one of us. Just look at all the faces, each one different. All the faces of our Creator cover this world today, but how many really know who they are? The Infinite One is pleading with us, its children, that we sit down and find out who we really are.
The opening of the way that is being offered to all of us, if we seek it, can save our planet. This beautiful jewel floating here in space has become polluted by the mismanagement and waste of mankind, yet it struggles on. The effects of this maltreatment can be seen in the weather and the natural catastrophes that continue to come. We each need to live a virtuous life the best we can, and make the effort to sit down in stillness and meet our Creator face to face.
Our energy emanates out through our meditations and prayers and it becomes a tool in God’s hands for helping others, and for saving this world. We really need to do something about what is happening around us in our world.
The good news is that God is present in the hearts and minds of each one of us, hearing us as we think, feel, and desire. Our work within and without becomes a force for good to turn the tide.
“Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it, and find out the truth about who you are.” – Anne Lamott
by Sibylle Custer•One of Sunburst’s eight paths of conscious living is Recreation. This story is about recreation. When I was a teenager living in Germany, my family visited a farm in the north because my Mom knew the people there. They were friends of hers, and had invited us to visit them.
At the time, I went to a very rigorous school, requiring a lot of academic learning. I was doing homework and reading books all the time. Going to that farm was a totally different life experience for me because we were helping out there, and that meant hard, physical work, which I was not used to at all.
The work went all day long, and the hardest part was being out in the field in the hot, summer heat. Although the oat field was ready to be mowed, a tractor couldn’t be used because the ground was too boggy, too marshy. The whole field had to be cut by hand with a scythe.
The women were working behind the men who were cutting. We had to gather together all the cut oat stems, put them in a bunch and tie it up with some other oat straws. It was hard work, bending down all the time and picking up oat stalks. This was in a big field; it went on and on. The sun was burning down on us, but everybody was moving ahead. I tried to keep up.
When I went back to the house at night, I was so tired and hot. Wringing out my T-shirt, I could see drops of sweat dripping onto the ground; that’s how hot it was. And this was supposed to be a vacation!
Although I was dead tired, somehow I felt absolutely great, really elated. Having been out there and a part of the process of getting the grain harvested and ready to go into the barn for threshing, I felt very good about myself. I was feeling excellent just for being part of a crew working together like that. I thought “Well, this vacation turned out really great!” It was such a balance to what I was usually doing, and it gave me all these new life experiences.
Since that time on the farm in Germany, the borderline between what is work and what is recreation got a little blurred. At some point, I couldn’t tell anymore. “Is this work now, or is this vacation time?” I saw no difference.
Recreation, really good God-felt recreation, can give you the deeply satisfying feeling of being in unity with everything. Do an activity out in nature and be in unity. Feel all the parts of the experience, and be happy that you’re there.
Sunburst founder Norm Paulsen says that conscious recreation is discovering your true Self within, and I think that’s what I discovered out there in the oat field. My innermost Self was part of everything. No matter what my body felt, or how tiring it was, my inner Self was enjoying life there.
The best thing we can each do for ourselves is make time in our day—in our years—to discover this true Self in us, this spark of God within that resonates with everything around us.
Dear Spirit, when ewe find unity with you, then we’ll know that we have picked the right activity on this vast playground, the activity that gives us fulfillment. Please help each one of us to find this joy of unity with you.
