by Al King
My teacher, Norman Paulsen, always stressed that Sunburst’s teachings were not a religion, but a way of life. I recall that Paramhansa Yogananda also stressed that one did not have to give up or change his religion to use the path of Kriya Yoga to help himself grow in his relationship with his Creator.
It continually occurs to me that I’m much less concerned with which religion a person practices than I am with their integrity, and fairness. Jesus was asked by a Pharisee lawyer, “Which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
Jesus answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
To me this should be of primary importance in one’s religion and in one’s life. The dogmas that have come into being are the ossification of teachings that were once fresh and alive. These teachings were given to people to help them live better lives, live together in virtue, and grow closer to their Creator. Members of different religions and sects would do well to realize that there is only one God, though there are many paths to Him. His ways of reaching out to people are as infinite as He is. God is unlimited in his methods of expression. Religions should help men to understand and love one another, rather than serve as rallying points for confrontations.
When I reflect on the vastness of God, it seems natural that God would accept and enjoy a wide variety of methods of worship. Norm has long encouraged us to strive to see the Spirit in every person with whom we have contact. And hopefully, we realize every face is a reflection of our own.
God is all around us, in every animate and inanimate object, as well as in every person we meet. If we want to be with God, we must learn to find Him in all we see around us, and in every person we see. All men and women are sons and daughters of God and God is in each one of us, waiting for us to recognize Him and love Him.
Seeing God in others will help us learn the action of Love. Christ Consciousness is the embodiment of Love. As we express our love to the Spirit we see in others, so will the Love rain upon us from Spirit.
by Norman Paulsen
Contemplate the fact that in whatever direction you may gaze into space, there is an end to the visible expanding sphere of creation. Reaching the outer limits of the expanding sphere, one would be confronted with the unmanifested, primordial sea of life and consciousness. Our self-conscious; minds cannot conceive of an endless eternity. The forces of speculation and meditation lead us on to this realization eventually, that eternity does indeed exist. The soul, the center of our consciousness, is able to contemplate eternity. Why? Because it is our true home.
True meditation is direct contact with the eternal, living, Divine Spirit; the experience of being one with life; of Spirit’s dual forces, entering into us, embracing us, circulating freely; of Divine Mother and Father encountering one another in the stillness of our heart, bringing the conception of the Christ deep within—the ignition of birth and light.
Each day, a tremendous amount of life force exits outward through the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. This is necessary in order to experience the phenomena of our physical world. Very often our conception of a living, Divine Spirit, in time and space, consists of only the limited perceptions of our five senses. If one can succeed, in deep meditation, to still the parade of images before the conscious mind and senses, the life and vision of Divine Spirit, I Am That I Am may be experienced. We then see into the great, boundless immensity of inner space.
The form of meditation we practice at Sunburst was present within the forces which generated the first ignition and birth of the expanding sphere of creation. Many ancient civilizations in the remote past have used this technique. If practiced with devotion, along with a life of service, it can lead to a face-to-face encounter with the Great Being, the Christ Light, I Am That I AM.
I had seen visions,
gazed across celestial panoramas,
encountered spheres of light
and sat beneath brilliant rainbows of color in inner space.
I had conversed with saints and adepts from the remote past,
and visited ancient and future civilizations.
I thought my progress on the spiritual path was good,
until my first encounter with I Am That I Am, the Christ.
My body, mind and spirit were so shocked,
that all I had experienced in the past
was nothing before the incandescent brilliance of His gaze.
by John Kiddie
We join together as one family, and offer up all that we are to Spirit. We do this with our meditation technique and the devotion of our heart. We reach down into the center of our Mother Earth and bring her energy up to our spine and offer it to our Father. We open the door at the crown of our head, looking for the white light, and draw the Father’s energy down through our spine.
As we do this, we are mixing and melting our Mother and Father’s energies in us, healing us, giving us strength, and wisdom. We’re also growing our spirit bodies. You can imagine that, as we bring the energy up and down our spine, a layer of light covers our spirit body, one breath at a time. With each circulation, we’re adding to that spirit body. It gets larger, and spreads out in all directions. Spirit wants to experience the joy of the creation through us.
As we grow our spirit bodies through meditation, and through our daily lives of virtuous living, we are holding space for Spirit to share our earthly experience. In this way, we become a vehicle for Divine Will.
As we meditate today, let’s open our hearts up to our best Friend, our dearest Companion, that we may be filled and transformed into that vehicle of white light. Thus, our actions may be in harmony with Spirit’s will, manifesting the kingdom of heaven here on earth.
People of good heart, find one another;
Together there’s much work to do.
The natural laws of our Mother and Father
In our hearts are written anew.
Amen.
by Letha Kiddie •
When I think of mother’s, I think of the protective, creative force of Mother Nature.
There are so many examples of this, from the mama birds building their nests in my yard, to my friends who are mothers—constantly sending love, strength, care and encouragement to their children.
But the mother’s energy exists in both men and women and can be seen and felt through the heart.
Especially during these pandemic times we find ourselves needing to be reassured that “everything is going to be all right.” And mother’s energy is so good at giving reassurance!
When I think of all the hardships that humans endure in their lifetimes, I am so grateful for the mother figures that stand by, offering their sometimes silent support of what we are going through, and sometimes offering their physical, emotional or spiritual help as well.
Let us all give thanks for this beautiful part of our natures and cultivate it within us to help soften the sometimes harsh realities around us.
The Divine in me, bows to the Divine in you. Namaste
by Norman Paulsen
How blessed we each are to be alive, to be present in this moment, and when we ask God to reveal himself to us. I see him in every face, beating in every heart, existing at the center of every soul. To find that light within us, to let it grow, to nourish it, to receive its love and allow it to open our hearts, this is why we meditate.
This Being that has created all of us wants to become conscious in our minds, in our thoughts, participating in everything we do that is virtuous, giving and loving. We each have this wonderful gift of God’s presence in our souls—that light of consciousness, that spark that God gave each one of us.
Years ago, I began my journey, seeking the light of soul within myself. I was finally led to a teacher who gave me the direction I needed to begin my meditations. Meditation is the key that unlocks the door to our souls. I spent many hours in meditation every day, calling on God to reveal himself to me. I wanted to see God face to face; this was my desire. Could it happen? is it possible that the Creator of everything we see could reveal itself to each one of us?
After years of meditation and service, God did come to me in a body of light as bright as the sun shining in the sky today. Wondrous it is that God will come to us if we persist and call with all our love, and open our hearts to receive this visitation. With diligent practice, meditation will bring us to that point in our lives when God is going to open up the window of our soul and say: My son, my daughter, it is me; I am here! It has been me all along that you were searching for.
What a supreme unimaginable day it is when we meet God, our Creator, face to face, when we can actually get our hands around God and hug him, love him, and bare our hearts to him. God is so close. My teacher, Yogananda, used to say, “If you only knew how close God is, you would see him right now.”
God wants you to know him, wants you to see him. The unimaginable can be seen. When the inner eye of soul is opened, God comes blazing into our consciousness, filling you with the greatest love you can ever conceive of. Why meditate? To find God within yourself, to follow a spiritual life, a virtuous life, to become a true servant of God that you may help others, that you may support our world that so desperately needs support today.
Meditate on the fact that when Jesus was baptized in the waters by John, the Spirit was seen descending like a dove upon his head. What was actually seen were the dual sacred forces, the right and left hands of God that descend like spirals, the baptism that waits to settle upon each of us if we seek to receive it. It brings with it the sacred birth, the birth of the Christ child inner-dimensionally within our hearts of love.
Yes, Jesus spoke of the new creature we can all become if we but receive and believe. That Christ child is waiting in the center of our souls to be born in its light, and ascend to the throne of consciousness within us.
This can happen for each one of us in this lifetime. This is the promise, this is the pledge that Spirit has made to all the children. I bear testimony of it; I humbly submit that it has happened to me. We need but to ask; the promise is: “It shall be given,” if we but believe, if we but make the effort. Breathe in that light of God through the crown of your head. Let it descend into your heart. It builds a mighty heart within us that can withstand anything. It makes living virtue wonderful and simple. It makes our work and our lives a joy.
