by Valerie King • One recent Saturday I was reflecting on an extremely intense week. Work was so stressful, and my body wasn’t feeling well either. In short, I felt exhausted mentally and physically. It seemed that there was no end to the trials and worries of life.
But it was a beautiful spring day outside, the grass was vibrant and green, and the tiny wildflowers were starting to show. I decided to try walking our labyrinth as a healing practice. I took my shoes off so I could feel the wonderful life and presence of Mother Earth underneath me.
I remembered that a sanctuary guest had told me she liked to start her labyrinth walks with a question for Spirit, and that often she would get an answer while walking. So I looked at the radiant sun shining in the east and asked, “How can I find healing and balance?”
As I walked my bare feet gladly felt the cool dark earth and the soft wild grasses and flowers now growing in the pathways. All Earth seemed to be singing a deep hymn of gratitude for this beautiful morning. My heart began to lift and I started softly singing a song I remembered from my childhood.
It was a hymn based upon Saint Francis’ poem about Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Mother Earth, and all the creation. The chorus simply says, “Oh praise Him; Oh praise Him; Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!” This song echoed the gratitude in my heart for the joy I was beginning to feel.
As I came close to the center of the labyrinth, I was singing a verse about humankind: And all ye men of tender heart, Forgiving others; take your part. Oh praise Him, Alleluia! Ye who long pain and sorrow bear, Praise God and on Him cast your care….
And I smiled when I reached the very center as I sang these words, for I realized they were the answer to my prayer. How can I find healing and balance? “Praise God and on Him cast your care.”
I don’t have to try to carry all the worries and burdens of life alone. I just have to do my best with the responsibilities given to me, fill my heart with gladness and gratitude for God, and cast my cares into the brilliance of his light. That light can take much better care of my worries than I can! Thank you, Divine One.
Let’s greet that Light.
Let’s embrace the diversity of all cultures,
of all God’s children
for truly that Light within our souls,
which is the pure Self,
is the light in every created being.
The sun we see outside of us today,
winking at us through the clouds,
is that same inner sun,
our divine Companion that likes to play with us,
hiding in and out of the creation,
enjoying life.
In meditation we touch divine Love and Joy.
In the stillness between two thoughts
—any two thoughts—we come to know.
We come to get blasted by the Light,
like seeing the gap between cars
on a speeding freight train.
If we penetrate the gaps between the cars
with one pointed focus and concentration,
time stands still,
and we behold Light that was always there,
but we saw it not.
by Valerie Joy King•My husband Jonathan and I were getting ready to leave Flagstaff for the ten hour drive home. We had been visiting for a week, helping to get our natural foods store on track after its move to a new, larger location. I had really enjoyed our stay. I have always loved Flagstaff!
It is nestled against the foot of the San Francisco peaks, Arizona’s tallest mountains. The whole town is covered with ponderosa pine forests. The sky is crystal clear blue because of the high elevation. The Hopi people state that the Kachinas, guardian spirits and teachers of humankind, make their home in the sacred San Francisco mountains.
While we visited, every day would start out sunny and clear, then storm clouds would roll in amidst thunder and lightning, pour down buckets of rain, and then the sun would return again. I loved the exciting weather!
This particular morning I was sad to be leaving because during our visit I had been working at our store every day, and hadn’t a chance to walk in the pine forests and greet my friends, the trees and rocks, and wild animals. This is one of my favorite things to do.
I sat down on a curb beside our car and looked out across the valley to a rolling foothill adorned with pines. Suddenly I felt the soft yet powerful embrace of Divine Spirit spinning all around me, expanding outward, stretching to encompass my gaze. The hill now also became embraced by the spinning cocoon. I could feel all the trees, the rich, red earth, and the lichen-covered boulders, all living within me. How joyous was our communion! “Hello, dear trees,” I whispered. “Thank you foryour life in I Am That I Am.”
I noticed that everything I looked at seemed to be composed of tiny, shimmering orbs of divine life and consciousness. Even things I ordinarily consider ugly, like exhaust from a tractor, now was filled with the secret Presence.
As I breathed in and out, I felt the dancing, shimmering lights enter in and out of my body. I felt completely clean and renewed, as a favorite poem rang through my consciousness: In Joy I live. In Joy I breathe. In sacred Joy I melt. Thank you, Creator Spirit, I Am That I Am.
~ by Craig Hanson ~ Some years ago I had the good fortune to travel to England. I spent an early morning meditating inside the enormous, ancient stone circle at Stonehenge. It’s very easy to feel the two divine forces there—one vortex descending through the crown of the head, the other vortex ascending up the spine.
As I completed my meditation I glanced down at the grass in front of me and saw a dark green, humble plant. What struck me was that it’s leaves formed a perfect five-pointed star. I realized it was the same shape as the five-pointed star I’d seen in meditation.
By studying nature we begin to understand the imagination of our divine Creator. Studying nature can mean looking at a beautiful sunset, listening to the chirping of birds and the myriad sounds of the other animals. The great beauty of spiritual vision is that it feels so natural. Wondrous it is that we can use our senses to understand some of God’s nature. It’s a great blessing that what we find within ourselves, we may also see reflected without, and vice versa.
The deeper science delves into the mysteries of creation, the more it has to go within, to the spiritual mysteries behind it. Spiritual disciplines help to fill out that understanding. The more we reflect and experience within ourselves, the more we’re able to understand the processes of creation around us. The patterns of nature, the two forces of vortex, mirror the Kriya meditation tool that we’ve been given.
Brother Norman talks about the importance of being in nature, of deeply studying it, and meditating on it and in it. He recommends the greatest book we can ever read: our own Book of Life, so unique and personal for each one of us. We read it each time we sit down to meditate, and we read it when we engage with nature.
Oh Great Spirit, bountiful are your gifts to us. You pour out all the knowledge of the universe upon our heads. We have only to open, to see. You are not complicated; You are simplicity itself. You are the Divine; You are the spiral, the architect for everything in creation. May we come to be as Christ Jesus, a son, a daughter forever conscious in every particle of your creation. And someday we will smile within the shape of a flower, and within the spiral of a breaking wave upon ocean shores. Amen
by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder•I was so blessed to have been led as a young man to my teacher, Paramahansa Yogananda. Many years ago, he was planning to take me along on a steamship voyage to India. He even sent me shopping to get the right suit for the trip.
Only a couple weeks before we were to leave, Yogananda called one night and said: “Big Boy—he always called me Big Boy—Divine Mother has told me that I will be leaving the body shortly and that I would not go to India.”
I responded, “Sir, if you are leaving, I want to go, too.”
“Oh no!” Yogananda replied: “You have a work to do.”
I remember the day I was told of his passing out of the body. I rushed to Mount Washington to see him one last time. Master had told me before he left that he would come to see me after he left his body.
Some months later I was living in Santa Barbara, wondering if he would ever come back. One Saturday I came home from work and sat down in my room to read. Suddenly, the wind came up outside my apartment, shaking the front of the building.
The door blew open and Master Yogananda walked into my room. He stood before me and gave instructions as to how I should live my life.
I received the glorious message that he was immortal—that he could come back to talk to me, and that this was proof that we all have immortal souls. We can all come back to see our loved ones; our lives go on in this great immensity of God’s creation; I saw the resurrection of the man I loved.
Yogananda proved to me that through the practice of meditation and the ancient teachings, the way is open for all to come and enjoy life, with God-realization alive in our consciousness. That experience has brought me to this day and to this place, and I thank him, my teacher. I thank God for allowing me to be here with this message and this truth.
Through deep meditation and prayer, may we all seek those teachings that will guide us on our journey onward through our inner-dimensional tunnel, to the light that is right within us. Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is within you. Inner-dimensionally, it is all here. Not somewhere out in space, but so near that you can touch it, feel it, and see it in your deep meditation, if you persist. Resurrection of the soul is possible for each one of us. Love is the key that unlocks the spiritual gates.
Quote from Paramahansa Yogananda follows: by Paramahansa Yogananda • Resurrect your soul from all dreams of frailties. Resurrect your soul in eternal wisdom. What is the method? It includes many things: self-control, good diet, fortitude, an undaunted mental attitude, and relaxation of the consciousness from body identification by daily practice of scientific concentration and meditation principles. Refuse to be defeated. You have unlimited power; you must cultivate that power, that is all.
It is time to realize your unity with all by experiencing your oneness with God. Again and again, pray in your soul: “Oh Lord, come, clear away the dust of my indifference. Flood my consciousness, Oh Infinite Christ, with thy divine consciousness!”
