by Sibylle Custer • When we sit together to sing to God and to meditate at Sunburst Sanctuary, something very special is going on. We disengage ourselves from the world we live in. Our daily jobs fall behind us; our relationships fall away—they are not that important now. The skills that we have learned or that we were born with are not important, they are not with us right now. Our personality falls away, too. If we are assertive or gentle, have a short fuse or can endure a lot, it doesn’t matter at all. What is left of us, when we let go of this ego? Who are we, if none of that counts?
If we put our fingers on the pulse of our wrist, we feel something moving in there. It is life energy inside of us, life that we have not created, life that we receive. This doesn’t come from anything that we are doing. While we are living our daily lives, we are sustained by divine energy every day, and in this very moment. We are created beings. We would not exist if it was withdrawn. None of us!
Meditation is making the effort to get in contact with our Creator, to reach out to the energy that feeds us, that is our true being. There is a way to see God right now, right here, and we have the chance to make that contact. We are thankful, created beings that want to get in touch with our Creator. We are thankful we know how to do it. It doesn’t matter how much we have meditated before. It doesn’t matter if we are new at trying to do it or we have practiced a long time. Here and now is our unique effort, our unique chance.
Dearest Spirit, help us to be still. Give us ears to hear you now. Give us eyes to perceive you. Give us abundant love that we let flow back to you. Amen
by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder • God never told me anything about religions. God never said to me that there are Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, or Hindus. God never uttered a word to me regarding mankind’s religions, and I can understand why.
Religion is what man has produced, and the Light that all religions seek is what God has produced. Ultimately all religions, all spiritual practices, have but one goal: to meet this living Light, our Divine Mother and Father, face to face.
How can any one of us be satisfied without knowing God? I couldn’t. As a young man, I cried and prayed and worked in every way I could, that God might look upon me and let me know he was there and that he loved me. There isn’t any one of us that can accept anything short of personal realization in every fiber of our being, knowing that God is alive and is the creator of our bodies, minds and spirits. The truth behind all great religions is knowledge of the Divine Creator of all.
In all the religions I have studied, I found that those brothers and sisters who have experienced God described an ineffable, infinitely loving Light. They were engulfed in the brilliance of a divine inner Sun. They knew in a matter of seconds more than they had gathered in all the years of their lives—in one effulgence. They have been persecuted, nailed to the cross, condemned and done away with by the ignorant and those who do not understand.
Let us pray for the protection of those brothers and sisters, wherever they are, who have had the good fortune to meet God face to face within themselves and who try to describe that Being in their different ways. I pray that they be given protection for their uniqueness, that they might be able to bring through to their brothers and sisters what they have seen, known and felt.
Let us not condemn each other. Let us encourage each other towards God’s inner Sun. Let us pray that God blesses us all, each and every one. No matter who you are, what you have done or where you come from, each and every one can experience full divine illumination. If that vision of Light calls, may you find your way. In the end, there is no doctrine, no belief other than this Light of God. This has been my only desire: to bear witness that God is alive and can be seen, can be known right within you.
Think upon your freedom in God’s Light. Like the wind in the trees,
Like the light from the sun,
Can you catch it? Can you hold it?
God is life, sweet love within each and every one, throbbing in our hearts.
by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder • Let us feel the fingers of God on the crowns of our heads. It is here at the prism doorway of life, God’s dual vortexes of energy and consciousness enter into us. Life is knocking at the door on the crowns of our heads. Yes, that Presence is knocking at the door that was open and throbbing with each heartbeat when we were infants. Let us open the door once again and invite I Am That I Am to descend into the upper chamber of our minds and into our hearts.
Divine Mother and Father are here now with us as much as they ever will be. We have to realize this. God’s blazing light and presence exists just above the open prism door on the crown and beats within our hearts every microsecond of time. God’s presence is always here. We can see, feel, and talk to God if we persist in our desire and in the tithing of our love, in meditation, and throughout our days.
We will experience the second birth, the birth of the Christ Child within our hearts. This is the ignition of energy God has placed deep within our souls before our beginnings in these bodies. This is our own pure Self, the image God had for each one of us in the beginning.
I remember the first time I experienced and felt my own pure Self in meditation. My head was moving backward on my shoulders to its limits. I was looking straight up into a tunnel of light filled with colors, like a rainbow. I moved in through the opening toward a Being of Light brilliant like the sun, shining at the end of the tunnel.
Suddenly I realized that I was not breathing and began to struggle, feeling that if I did not breathe, I would surely die. As I struggled, I realized that a divine presence was standing beside me to my left. That presence was the Divine Mother, the birth mother of my soul. The presence spoke, “My son, be not afraid; breathe from my mouth the breath of life.” Coming through the tunnel, I felt a cool sensation, a breeze on my face coming toward me from the Being of Light at the end of the tunnel.
I ceased struggling to breathe, relaxed, and immediately realized that I was alive in my body without the necessity of breathing. I recognized the presence of the pure Self, the real me existing deep within my soul, the part of each one of us that is immortal. It existed before we came into these bodies. We all intuitively know this truth and at some time will experience it.God wants all of us to know this immortality again, to know who we really are. We are not limited to just a few years, a few orbits around this sun on this tiny world. It is only a temporary stop, a place to move onward from, and toward perfection. Perfection is allowing God to be in control, not little egos, not the false self with all its endless desires.
God moves through the open door on the crowns of our heads, into our bodies, and fills us with this realization, this ecstasy, this love and consciousness. This is what life is all about. When we are young, we are full of desires for the images we see around us, and we spend our time in their pursuit. But if we can stop long enough to say, “Not my will but Thy will be done through me, Oh Father,” we will begin to walk, play, work and talk with God in this life on our way to perfection. God is our only real and true friend, our eternal companion.
The tool of meditation that we have been given is only a means of reaching this end: to know God, to be fully conscious of God within us, not 99 and 9/10s percent, but 100 percent of the time. This Being, this power, this love, this joy, this realization, is the expanding awareness of the great upper brain. It is called the upper chamber and it contains the throne room that exists in each one of us. This great higher brain exists like an incredible, divine computer that can hold the knowledge and drift of the whole creation. This is a gift that humanity hardly uses today.
This is the miracle of our existence in these bodies. Through meditation we can open up and receive this miracle in the upper chamber with God, at the last supper as we leave the false self behind. Acknowledge that which illumines the great upper brain that God has built within us. The energy and presence that comes down in swirling vortexes upon the crowns of our heads is the anointment. This is why we meditate. This is where we come face to face with the real purpose of life. God himself will teach us. I Am That I Am will program our great upper brain for us to use with Him/Her, Mother and Father Divine.
by Joe Belton (edits and photo by Dawn King) • As I step outside into a beautiful morning, divine Mother’s presence in the creation is so obvious. We see the reflection of divine Mother in our Mother Earth. She provides for us, takes care of us, gives us food and water for our bodies, materials for clothing and shelter. Her beautiful natural images enrich our spirits. Who has not stood spellbound by a sunrise or sunset, by a certain mountain or valley, or a majestic forest…or the awesome expanse of the ocean?
Divine Mother is also reflected in our birth mothers, who helped bring us into the world, who took care of us and nurtured us. Each one is beautiful in her own way. Each one is a daughter of Divine Spirit. Reflections of divine Mother are everywhere around us. But divine Mother is never alone; her constant companion is divine Father.
In every image that exists, throughout all of creation, divine Mother and Father dance in the midst of it, weaving light and sound, creating wonderful visible images. Above the crowns of our heads sits the brilliance of I Am That I Am, Mother and Father. Emanating from that brilliance, the sacred forces of our spiritual parents descend upon each one of us. If we sit still enough, we can feel their presence.
Divine Mother’s swirling life force spins downward around our bodies to the base chakra, then returns up the inner-dimensional tunnel of our spines toward the heart chakra.She envelops us in a cocoon of light. Through the midst of Mother’s inner-dimensional spiral the life force of divine Father spins downward meeting divine Mother in our heart chakra. Mother and Father’s vortexes combine, sustaining life, and offering Illumination, Christ consciousness.
Divine Mother’s vortex is like her mouth upon the crowns of our heads; it whispers to each one of us saying, “Breathe from my mouth the Breath of Life.” It is for each one of us to open that door on the crown of the head and invite abundant divine life force to enter in, and to illumine us.
As we inhale the physical air, we also draw the energy of divine Mother up through the base of the spine. As we exhale, we draw divine Father’s life force down through the crowns of our heads. We circulate their life force within us, and thus we breathe the Breath of Life. We become more and more aware of the presence of those sacred forces, the presence of our Mother-Father Creator, I Am That I Am.
Scientists say that at the center of every galaxy there is a massive black hole. It only appears black because its brilliance is undetectable by modern-day instruments. For each one of us there also exists a black hole, that place Sunburst’s founder Norman Paulsen calls “the smallest of all places”. As we circulate our life force and breathe the Breath of Life, we begin to penetrate the darkness within and eventually perceive the tiny light, the star that shines at the mouth of the inner-dimensional tunnel. Over time, in meditation it appears to grow into a shining sun, unveiling the brilliance of that Being we call I Am That I Am.
One day, everyone on Earth will have grown into this realization and be able to say, as Yogananda said, “In the inky darkness of my mind I could behold the Sun of Cosmic consciousness.”
“All things have God within them. Our job as humans is to make conscious contact with God within all of creation.” – Dorothy Maclean, Findhorn Community
by Michele Pike• There are many ways in which those at Sunburst Sanctuary strive toward sustainability. Organically growing fruits and vegetables is just one of those. We also applaud and support the teachings of permaculture. Earth friendly building techniques have been applied where and when possible. Using power, transportation, and other modes of operating that are more sustainable is always our goal. Although there is plenty of room to include more sustainable practices in our lives, we feel it is crucial to try, to start somewhere and move in the direction of our goals.
At the heart of all these practices of sustainability is the principle of Ahimsa, nonviolence. No relationship can be sustained if violence is present within it. Our relationship with Mother Earth is no different. In order that we may continue to survive and thrive here, we are each responsible for making decisions, taking actions, and having a conscious mindset to live lightly on the Earth.
As we each grow toward revealing the Divine within us, we do so in fits and starts. We take baby steps, moving incrementally closer to our goal of living on the Earth as completely illumined beings. Along the way, we endeavor to practice nonviolence, compassion and love for one another and our precious Earth.
“When we include God in the things we do, the things we enjoy, our work and our play, God loves to be with us. This is what the whole creation is about. Our Divine Mother-Father wants to be conscious in all of us on this Earth.
“We were placed here to include God in everything we do virtuously, for the benefit of all beings. We were born to be the caretakers of the Earth with God, looking after all of Divine Mother’s life-forms.”– Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder
We each must chooses a diet that they feel best supports their vitality and health: physically, mentally, and spiritually. Needs vary from person to person and also can change from time to time for each individual. The most important thing is to notice the effect of what we choose to consume, asking, “Is this bringing me closer to, or farther away from, my goals?”
On the journey of Self-realization, we are aspiring to refine our consciousness, letting go of lower, denser energies, and reaching for more purified awareness. For this reason, on the spiritual path we choose to refrain from the use of tobacco, alcohol, non-prescription drugs, or other intoxicants.
“The ancient adepts all said that right nourishment comes from your own planting, if it’s possible for you—the placing of seeds in the soil of Mother Earth with your own hands, then the watering with love and the harvesting. There is nothing better than your own blessing of energy on the food that you have grown or prepared, or any food that you are about to eat.
“Realize that God is building the vessel of you that will contain him. Nourish your body, mind, and spirit so that you will have the life force to do the work you came here to do.”– Norman Paulsen, Sunburst Founder
