by Norman Paulsen • The wonderful experiences that I have been blessed with were given to me for one reason only. Through all my trials, my heart never desisted from loving and seeking my divine Mother-Father. No matter what I was doing, good or bad, I could never quit loving God. If I made a mistake, I always asked forgiveness and started again.
By our love and devotion to Spirit, we begin to taste immortality. It can be seen; it can be heard; it can be felt. It is the most incredible experience. Yes, touching the hem of the divine garment.
As each and every one of us moves toward heaven within, we begin to feel God’s power in us. We are each tested to see how much we can take, like steel is thrust into the fire again and again to increase its temper. At times, you may cry to God: “Why am I so mistreated? Is your hand so set against me?”
If you listen to the silence, you will hear God saying, “I want you so strong for future work that no matter what happens, you will never break.” Our Creator cannot pour into you tremendous life and light, power and wisdom unless you, the vessel, is prepared to hold it. That is why the path to illumination is difficult, and described as a razor’s edge.
I bear witness today to the heaven we can experience within, and to the immortality of each spirit. If we persevere, each and every one of us can gain that experience, to see and know, and understand our Creator, Divine Mother-Father-God.
Oh Divine Comforter, no matter how difficult the path,
I know You have blessed me with the faculties
by which I am able to bear what comes to pass.
As I journey homeward, please hear my soul calling.
I will pursue you every moment of my conscious life.
I will forever persevere, Oh Spirit Divine,
to develop the willpower to never give up!
I must meet you face to face.
I must hold you in my arms, if you will allow.
You are my Father; you are my Birth Mother, the Creator of my soul.
From you have I come forth into this world, into this sea of faces.
I look for you in every face, Oh Beloved.
Will you please come forth and reveal yourself to me
somehow, somewhere, someday?
I will continue to pursue you in every image and in every place,
until I find you hiding in the mirror image of my own face.
by Dawn King • Perhaps you are like me, finding yourself trying to sort out the true from the untrue. Each day we are presented with a barrage of information and influencers, as well as personal decisions large and small that require knowing the truth. We each want to successfully guide our life, making the best choices for ourselves and our families.
Sometimes our choices affect the community around us, for instance voting. We are all more connected than we realize. I recently listened to a person’s near-death experience explaining that a living thread connects each of us to every other living person. The founder of Sunburst, Norman Paulsen has explained that every choice we make affects the present and future of humanity. For example, when we choose to overcome a bad habit, it helps everyone move in that direction.
It’s sobering to realize that we are each a powerful “Influencer” and that our thoughts and actions have a lasting effect on everyone else. So where do we turn for guidance when we are unsure of what to think and how to act about certain topics, or we need advice on a decision? And perhaps we should make it a point to pause and reflect before we make a judgement or action, to be certain we are assessing things correctly. It’s very easy for the ego to think it knows everything.
Paramahansa Yogananda advises:
Every morning and night go into silence or deep meditation. Meditation is the only way to discriminate between truth and error. God is the whisperer in the temple of your conscience. And He is the light of intuition.
You know when you are doing wrong. Your whole being tells you. And that feeling is God’s voice. If you don’t listen to Him, He becomes quiet. But when you wake up from your delusion and want to do right, He will guide you.
Thoughts and sensations are like searchlights: they throw their rays in front on material objects; they do not reveal the soul behind them. Intuition is like a spherical light, with rays on all sides, revealing the soul and also its outward projections of thoughts and sensations connected with the ego. Intuition is the bridge between the soul and the ego’s thoughts and sensations.
If one can for a sufficient length of time remain unidentified with thoughts and sensations, and without being unconscious, he will know through the development of intuition the nature of the soul. When one is thus perfectly calm, neither thinking or sentient, nor unconscious, yet knowing he exists—a keenness of joyful being in which the thinking, thought, and thinker have become one therein is the soul’s consciousness.
by Dawn King • From the earliest human cultures, fertility and gathering food were given sacred status. Early Amerindians revered the Corn Mother. Starting in ancient Sumeria the Virgo Maiden became associated with recording the harvest; thus the mental skills of writing, noting details, and engaging in commerce were added to her areas of influence.
Sunburst associates Virgo with a virtue we call Continence. Here, Continence means self-discipline, self-control, exercising self-restraint sexually and otherwise. We should not allow ourselves to become addicted; we should be abstemious in all areas of life., instead aspiring to maintain the state of inner joy and comfort that is Christ consciousness, knowing our Divine Parents and gaining their guidance in daily life.
Today addiction lurks insidiously close, right in our computers and phones. They invite us to over-stimulate ourselves with gossip, entertainment, conspiracy theories, gambling, bullying and so many other self-indulgent behaviors. Abuse of our devices is not nurturing for our minds or spirits.
In our normal way of life, we let ourselves be controlled by powerful thoughts and emotions, which in turn give rise to negative states of mind. It is by this vicious circle that we perpetuate not only our unhappiness but also that of others. …Nurture new inclinations by deliberately cultivating virtuous practices. This is the true meaning and object of the practice of meditation. – Dalai Lama
Continence in thought, word and deed is devotion to God, allowing us to return our love to our Divine Parents. Norman Paulsen, Sunburst’s founder said: “The conservation of life force through living the virtue of continence allows the seeker an abundance of concentrated life energy to be redirected for a higher use.”
The absolute truth cannot be realized within the domain of the ordinary mind. And the path beyond the ordinary mind is through the heart. This path of the heart is devotion. – Sogyal Rinpoche
You have to turn the key to this world in the opposite direction if you want to know God. – Sri Ramakrishna
• A Prayer by Norman Paulsen •
Oh Divine Comforter,
No matter how difficult the path,
I know You have blessed me with the faculties
By which I am able to bear what comes to pass.
As I journey homeward,
Please hear my soul calling.
I will pursue You every moment of my conscious life.
I will forever persevere, Oh Spirit Divine,
To develop the willpower to never give up!
I must meet You face to face.
I must hold You in my arms,
If You will allow.
You are my Father;
You are my Birth Mother,
The Creator of my soul.
From You have I come forth into this world,
Into this sea of faces.
I look for You in every face, Oh Beloved.
Will You please come forth
And reveal Yourself to me
Somehow, somewhere, someday?
I will continue to pursue You
In every image and in every place,
Until I find You hiding
In the mirror image of my own face.
• by Sandy Anderson • Divine love is the mother of all virtue. That is where it all starts. Love is the root and the source of compassion. Love makes our hearts beat. It makes our blood flow. It makes the sun shine inside us, and it brings us to understanding and compassion for our fellow beings. Our hearts can include them all.
We are all beings of divine light, of love, from the same Being whom we call God. Our greatest fulfillment is to celebrate our Creator, to embrace him and her, to live a life acknowledging the Divine Being day to day. And to know this being lives in each of us.
As parents, we wish to nurture our children with true unconditional love, total forgiveness, complete embracing, moment by moment. How could you ever reject your own child? That is how Spirit feels towards us. Each of us is their child, and we are each other’s children. I am so grateful to be a part of the human family.
In the vibration of Leo, celebrating compassion, we come to the heart, to living love, to forgiving, to holding the hands of the people next to us, rising above judgment. We all know self-righteousness is not really righteous. Understanding and compassion are righteous.
Visitors to Sunburst sometimes ask, “How do you do it? How do you get along with each other, with so many different personalities?” Living compassion, understanding, living love is the essence, the answer.
Many times, if I have a conflict with someone, I’ll say my prayers and let it float, praying for resolution. As time goes by, I will find myself in meditation with that person, and somehow their feeling is made known to me. A door opens in my heart bringing understanding, and I feel for them. Forgiveness comes spontaneously. I love that. God unites us and brings healing love as a balm, as the comforter of all hearts, solver of all problems, as the joy that we live.
Words on Conduct from three spiritual teachers •
Paramahansa Yogananda: Don’t depend on death to liberate you from your imperfections. You are exactly the same after death as you were before. Nothing changes; you only give up the body. If you are a thief or a liar or a cheater before death, you don’t become an angel merely by dying. If such were possible, then let us all go and jump in the ocean now and become angels at once! Whatever you have made of yourself thus far, so will you be hereafter. And when you reincarnate, you will bring that same nature with you. To change, you have to make the effort. This world is the place to do it.
Norman Paulsen: Self-discipline arises from commitment to the vision you seek: knowing what you want and dedicating your life to bringing it forth into being. To walk the spiritual path, the utmost discipline is required. Threefold development must be pursued: physical, mental, and spiritual. Through the attainment of virtue, the ego-centered consciousness must abdicate the throne to the pure Self. This is the crowning achievement of the spiritual athlete.
Helping you to achieve this goal of virtue is Spirit, I Am That I Am, existing within your soul. Yes, we all have this energy nearby, and centered deep within.
It has to be identified and brought forth. Meditation alone will not take you home. Without practicing virtue and walking the a balanced path, you may see the goal, but you will not be able to hold onto it.
By attempting to live the virtue every day, whether you succeed or not, you plant positive seeds in the field of power. The law of cause and effect has no choice but to return these efforts toward virtue to you.
Swami Guru-Bhaktananda: All beings are manifestations of God alone. This is the vision of the great Indian scriptures, the Vedas. The worship mentioned is also unusual. God in the form of each being is worshipping God in the universal form! Life takes on a completely new meaning when lived in accordance to what this verse implies. This vision creates the right feeling in us in all our daily activities. Every act becomes an act of worship.
The fact that we do not feel in this way is due only to one single factor: Our Ego steps in between and tries to snatch away all the glory for itself!
