•by Fredd Dunham•At the beginning of my spiritual path, I was blessed with an experience that utterly changed my life. The events that led up to this experience remind me that God is always watching over us with divine love, watching and helping us with our choices in life, if we only ask.
As a young man in the early 1970s, a deep longing for Spirit awakened within me. I had been involved in many of the distractions of that era, but was struggling to find my way out. I heard about a meditation center in the mountains above Santa Barbara and was immediately attracted to the energy. I attended one of the meditations and met the founder, Norm Paulsen, who invited me to live in the downtown office of the retreat center as its caretaker.
At the time, I was not totally clear on the necessity of staying away from drugs, alcohol, and other distractions in order to live a spiritual life. So one day I accepted the invitation of an old friend to her party in the foothills of Santa Barbara. She asked me to bring firewood, and gave me money to pick up a bottle of wine.
I went back to the retreat office to load up the firewood, and ran into Norm there. I mentioned my plans as we sat down. Norm looked at me compassionately, then said: “If you want the experience of divine illumination, you won’t find it in something outside of yourself. As Jesus said, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is within you.’ It’s already there. Seek and you shall find.” I could feel the power of truth emanating from Norm as he quietly spoke.
After further discussion, he left to drive up the mountain and attend group meditation. I was alone, struggling to make my decision. My inner spirit was saying, “Yes I want to meditate and awaken God’s Spirit within me; this is what I want in life.” But my self-conscious mind argued, “You promised to go to the party, to bring the firewood, to buy the wine. You have to go! You promised!”
I loaded up the wood, but didn’t buy the wine, thinking that I would just give my friend her money back. I headed up to the party, praying fervently, while a battle was going on within me. The closer I got to the party, the more agitated I became as the struggle within me intensified.
The road to the party was full of curves as it gently climbed and wound in and out of canyons. Turning the first curve, I could see a huge, beautiful cloud above and in front of me. Each time I rounded a curve I would lose sight of it. Then around another curve, there it was again as if it was following me, watching me.
As I was about to round the last corner I realized I had to make a choice immediately. In my anguish, I cried out: “Oh God, I don’t want to tempt you, but please show me a sign!” Turning the next corner, I saw the huge cloud had changed. It had become a giant arrow pointing toward the top of the mountain, right toward the meditation retreat!
In the depths of my soul, a great sigh of relief expressed: “Thank you Lord!” I turned the car around and didn’t take my foot off the accelerator until I returned to the road that led to the retreat. Arriving just as meditation started, I joined the circle without a word.
It has been said that God comes when we least expect it. As I sat down in the meditation room, over my head I suddenly beheld the radiant, living body of Christ, a sphere of light brighter than the daytime sun. It was composed of ten thousand orbs of light—suns within a Sun. They were constantly moving at incredible speed, like bees outside of a hive, each one striking me on the crown of my head with divine power. I was filled with indescribably ecstasy, and knew in that moment what was meant by: “I stand at the door and knock.” The loving light of Christ eternally stands at that door on the crown of each person’s head, knocking and waiting to be invited to enter in.
This experience set my feet on the homeward path to Divine Spirit. Although it’s often hard to hold onto that energy in daily life, I know that God doesn’t look at how many times we fall, or what mistakes we make. Instead, our Divine Parents are very much like loving parents in this life who are watching their young child learn to walk. If the child falls, there’s no reproach, only love and encouragement to get up and try again. If we reach up one hand to Spirit, Spirit will reach down two to help us.
•by Norman Paulsen • One morning while meditating, I experienced a vision. I found myself standing on the ridge above the lodge at our wilderness sanctuary. In the vision, I was looking out across the hills and up the canyons, It was foggy and the sky was gray. I wondered what the meaning was for this early morning vision. Then I noticed it showed that the livestock gate was open to the mesa.
As I drove to the sanctuary several hours later, Spirit said, “You’d better check the bulls.” So I went up the road and onto the mesa. Out towards the water tanks I saw two of the younger bulls, but none of the older ones. I looked all around, then went back up the ridge toward the gate. Here was the same scene that had been shown to me in my meditation earlier that morning. Upon reaching the gate, I could see that someone had left it open. It was clear that the older bulls were now loose on the sanctuary somewhere! We had a big job to do now!
This experience continued to show me that we can be in tune with God, with life, with our projections and responsibilities. Yes, we can receive direction and inspiration to help us see things BEFORE they happen, and try to prevent them, or make them easier to deal with. After many years of meditating daily, I cannot function correctly in my work and carry out my day if I don’t go to the well of Spirit and drink with God. It has become a habit for me to sit down and meditate each morning.
To meditate in the morning with the rising sun is to bring the sweetness of God’s presence into our life for the whole day, to receive instruction mentally and visually. We arrive at the right time and the right place for the right thing to happen for us, not too early or too late. When we are on God’s time, meditating and praying every morning, wondrous things begin to happen in our lives. We see God fulfilling our selfless desires, and freeing us up for the journey ahead.
•by Letha Kiddie•The real aim of meditation is unlocking our heart’s natural devotion for God. The Kriya meditation technique helps us to detach ourselves from the demands and images of daily life. By focusing our awareness on the breath as it moves through each chakra, we purify and energize those centers in our spine and brain, become more receptive to the currents of life force which give us life.
The meditation technique is essential in overcoming the ceaseless flow of thoughts that would keep us from realizing our goal of illumination. Even if you start with five minutes of meditation in the morning and five minutes in the evening, as long as you do something every day, changes will happen.
An important factor is the devotion with which we meditate. Over time, your desire to sit with God will grow. Your thought processes will slow down and your heart will open. You can then enjoy deep communion with whatever image of God you hold, or simply be bathed in the peace, joy, and healing of the Divine.
“Meditate more; go deep. By changing your habits you will awaken in your heart the memory of God’s wondrous Being, and knowing God, there is no doubt that you will love the Divine.” – Paramahansa Yogananda
It is our birthright to experience the uplifting that comes from growing closer to our Creator, experiencing the “breath of life.” The dual aspect of our Creator as Mother and Father can continually wrap us in a cocoon of love, peace, and rapture. The more we fully concentrate with love and devotion in our meditation, the more progress we will make on our inward journey, and the more we will feel at home with the meditation process.
Norman Paulsen, Sunburst’s Founder, has said: God is a living Being we can know and communicate with personally. Our secret thoughts and deepest desires are known by God. The greatest moment of all occurs when we truly realize that God exists and is teaching us how to walk through this life. We then know that we are not alone. We must listen deeply for our Creator’s instructions on how to live correctly; then happiness will come.
To meditate deeply requires us to sit very still; still in mind as well as body. Actually doing so, of course is a problem that we all have in varying degrees. It is important, though, because God’s voice inside of us is a quiet one that only grows louder as we make the effort to listen to it. That means stilling ourselves to all of the other voices around and within us.
If you live with other people, and they are not also trying to meditate, then there can be quite a bit of distraction around you. If so, try to meditate after everyone else is in bed, or have a set time for meditation when others agree to be quiet. Having a regular time for meditation also helps your body and mind become accustomed to that time and makes it easier to be still. A comfortable pair of ear plugs could also help.
When you stretch before meditating, it relaxes your body and prepares your mind for the idea that you are about to be still. Three slow deep breaths in and out can energize you at the start of the day, or let go of a busy day when it’s over.
At home and at work, there is always more than enough to do, but the spiritual path needs to be a balanced one. We need to convince ourselves that making time specifically for Spirit is important. Spirit created us and gave us free will. That’s because our love for Spirit would mean nothing if we were all programmed like robots to love our Creator. By our free will we can choose to love Spirit and make time to express it: “Nothing else matters as much to me right now than sitting in quiet meditation to experience Your Presence.”
Helpful to meditation is the practice of God’s presence in all that you do throughout the day. Being still within involves training our mind to be one-pointed; we can make an effort to keep the mind from wandering during daily activities. Likewise, we can maintain focus on Spirit as the doer through us.
Sunburst’s Founder, Norman Paulsen shared: By continually planting positive seeds of focused meditation, and making the effort to live as Spirit intended us to live, we overcome the negative forces—we split the darkness around us, and experience the Divine with its radiant spheres of brilliant light. Once seeing, we know.
• by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst’s Founder • The experience of Cosmic consciousness is ecstasy beyond description, far beyond the self-conscious mind and its perimeters of existence. It is That which innumerable writers and poets have tried to put into words: Gautama the Buddha in the sutras; Jesus in the parables; Shakespeare in the sonnets.
Following this ecstatic state comes the illumination of the intellect, again quite impossible to describe. In that great flash of light, all is known—or should we say, all is comprehended. The very essence of life force, the Breath of Life which created all images, is now dwelling completely exposed within and around you. This penetrating force shatters all your previous concepts concerning God, the visible and invisible universe, and Life itself.
You no longer see planets, suns, and galaxies as inert, lifeless matter. All images become alive, and are pulsating with the rhythm of eternal energy combinations. In an instant, you learn more than many existences could ever contribute.
The infinite floodgate is breached, and that flood never ceases in this life or hereafter. Above and beyond this, God, I Am That I Am, is experienced as ever new and expanding joy, love and bliss which rests on the surface of eternal peace. The experience reveals that the very essence of the creation is Love!
For lack and want of words, how can I express this divine state, this pearl of great price? You, dear reader, can only know this through your own experience of it.
•by Sean Fennell•We give ourselves over to the influence of the breathing Earth. Sleep, the shadow of the Earth, seeps into our skin, spreading throughout our limbs, dissolving our individual will into the thousand and one selves that compose it—cells, tissues and organs taking their prime directives from gravity and the wind, as residual bits of sunlight caught in the long tangle of nerves, wanders through the drifting landscape of our Earth-borne bodies, like deer moving across the forested valleys.
Where Spirit, nature and humans meet in oneness—in activity, as well as non-activity—I find my center. Permaculture is not just about growing gardens; it’s about growing infinite possibilities. It’s the marriage of the spiritual with the natural and social, and therefore, one of the highest expressions of co-creating with Spirit.
Everything belongs to Spirit; it’s designed, created, operated and maintained by Spirit. We humans are merely caretakers of this divine creation. As such, we are obligated to share all Spirit’s gifts fairly with others.
The basic principles of permaculture are Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share. It’s at the intersection where these three practices converge that infinite possibilities exist. In meditation we strive to commune with Spirit inwardly; in permaculture we strive to connect with Spirit outwardly.
Acknowledging this fact, I’m faced with the questions: “What does permaculture look like at Sunburst?” and “What infinite possibilities can I co-create with Spirit moving forward—not only for the immediate future, but for generations to come?
We sleep, allowing gravity to hold us, allowing Earth, our larger body, to recalibrate our neurons, composting the keen encounters of our waking hours (the tensions, joys and terrors of our individual days), stirring them back as dreams into the sleeping substance of our muscles.
As we move forward, the future of Sunburst looks brighter than ever, for what can be greater than honoring our Divine Mother and Father, by loving and caretaking Mother Earth and all her creatures, utilizing her natural resources with utmost respect and care, loving others as we do ourselves, sharing the fruits of our labor and our God-given talents with passion and commitment?
In the vast, endless sea of eternity, My body, mind and spirit with Thee,
In truth I strive to be the best I can be, Better than none, but simply all I can be. In silence amidst the inner worlds I dance, Feeling Thy presence. Oh the Divine Romance! How can I contain this gift from Thee, How can I let it flow unceasingly? Awakening gladly to the Sun-kissed day, Knowing love cannot be held, simply shared, Given to Nature and to all brothers, sisters dear. This gift, my offering, I humbly bear.
