Vision of Elders

Vision of Elders

by Jake Collier

When I was a young boy, about eight or nine, my friend and I were anxiously anticipating the end of school. We raced home to his house because it was the beginning of a new show on TV that afternoon called “The Mickey Mouse Club.” It became a daily goal of mine to watch that show.

On one of the shows they revealed an answer to one of my questions—how all the wonderful images were created on the screen. They did a show about going into the Disney Studios and interviewing animators. They explained how they sketch a figure, and then on the next page the figure would be slightly different, and so on. When you flipped the pages, this figure came to life. On film, each scene or frame is a still image. All those stills are put on celluloid and run through a projector, and merge into motion and life on the screen.

The greatest animator and filmmaker is our Creator. We look around us, and we see such incredible images. From the very outer rim of creation to the very core of it, our Divine Creator projects images and gives them life. This incredible creation keeps growing; new galaxies are being born, new images are being created.

Each breath is a new beginning, a new chance, a new opportunity.

With high-powered microscopes, we learn how hard rocks, surfaces, and metals are made up of particles that have space around them. Sometimes we feel like our body is a solid mass, but when we sit in deep meditation, we can feel the space, that Divine space and energy that gives life to all we see within, and all around us.

The greatest storyteller of all time is our Creator. The greatest director and screenplay writer has set into motion this creation. It fashioned these bodies so that It may play all the parts and experience its own creation—to hear it, see it, smell it, touch it, taste it.

On a vacation or a trip, when we see a beautiful scene or image that moves us deeply, we snap a picture of it to share with others. Somehow the camera doesn’t capture what we felt. No matter how much we try to describe that experience, the other person viewing the photograph doesn’t really feel the full impact. That’s because we have to experience it on a cellular level to receive the full impact of this life.

With a tool of meditation, one can dive deep and experience the Divine, to experience our Creator. We can feel our inner senses open up, inner vision, inner hearing. Through meditation, we can receive answers to our questions. We’re able to view life around us like a motion picture, and we begin to be able to discern our direction in this life, our part in this play, this Divine motion picture. Meditation is the key that unlocks the doors, that solves the mysteries of this life.

We learn about how much thrust it takes for a rocket to overcome the field of this earth’s gravity. Likewise, meditation takes will power; it takes conditioning; it takes practice. To break out of these images that we see around us, and discover who we really are, takes an incredible amount of effort and dedication. How we’ve lived our lives in the past, how hard we put forth an effort each day, and how much Divine Grace we are given, all factor into how and when we make a break through. Men and women before us have done it, have broken through and become one with their Divine Creator.

In a motel room one night, I started to meditate. As soon as I sat down and started circulating the light, a room opened up before my inner vision. Ancient ones in white robes were walking into the room, about seven of them. They began to sit down and face me in meditation. The figure closest to me held up his hand with the palm facing towards me. I felt an energy of acknowledgment, understanding, and willingness to help and be a part of our lives here.

What we see with our physical eyes is just one plane of existence. There are so many other planes, wonderful places of beauty. By meditating and going within, we can discover these places and experience them. They become an aid in helping us get through the trials of existence here.

The ancient ones are watching us. They cheer us on and celebrate our victories; they feel our pain when we’re struggling. They are here to help us, to encourage us. They understand how hard it is here to break through.

I was so overwhelmed and overjoyed to experience their presence. The next night in my motel room when I began to meditate, there they were again, all sitting in meditation with me.

We have each other, and we have the help of the angels, and the ancient ones that have walked this journey before us. They have blazed the trail and marked the way. All we need to do is make the effort. Then we can realize and experience things in this life that are beyond description, beyond words, for when we experience a touch of the Divine, we are changed forever. It gives us an insatiable thirst to be divinely touched again and again.

Almighty Spirit, our Creator, our true friend,
We give thanks for the opportunity to participate in this drama we call life.

Guide us, keep us strong and healthy, that we might maintain and overcome any obstacles that confront us. Open up our inner senses, that we might experience the oneness that truly exists here in this creation, the oneness of Your life and Your love. Help us to see your face in everyone we meet, and may we always see your divine fingerprint in this creation.
Amen.

Preparing the Vessel

Preparing the Vessel

by Norman Paulsen

The wonderful experiences that I have been blessed with were given to me for one reason only: that through all my trials, my heart has never desisted from loving and seeking God. No matter what I was doing, good or bad, I could never quit loving God.

If I made a mistake, I always asked His forgiveness and started again. By our love and devotion to God, we begin to taste his 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, toward the blessed experience of immortality, we will begin to feel God’s power in us, more and more. He tests each one of us to see how much we can take, like thrusting steel into the fire again and again to increase its temper. At times, you may cry to God, “Why am I so mistreated? O God, 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.” God cannot pour down his life and light, power and wisdom unless he is sure that the vessel is prepared to hold it. That is why the path to heaven is difficult, and described as a razor’s edge.

I bear witness to heaven, to immortality, today. If we persevere, each and every one can gain that experience, and see and know and understand our Creator, Divine Mother and Father God.

O 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, O 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, O 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.

December Traditions at Sunburst

December Traditions at Sunburst

by Letha Kiddie

The Sunburst Annual Cookie Baking and Craft Making Event took place on a rainy Saturday in early December. This has been a Sunburst tradition for many years, a time to gather in celebration of the upcoming holidays, to decorate the beautiful Chakra Christmas tree (also a Sunburst tradition), and share in a potluck dinner. Many delectable desserts are baked and decorated to be served over the upcoming Sunburst holiday events. Stay tuned! 

Make Every Moment Count

Make Every Moment Count

By Norman Paulsen

Almighty Spirit, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Krishna, Buddha,
all ye teachers divine, illumined beings residing in the body of Christ,
meditate with us. Enter into us and reveal your presence
in the Light of God, through our consciousness today.

The man Jesus, through his sacrifice and his great love, became one with the body of Christ, that great spherical orb of brilliance that is God’s first creation. Years ago when we first began Sunburst, I awoke in a vision one night as the wind blew fiercely through the trees. A gigantic wooden cross was before me. On the cross was the body of a man crucified, his head down on his chest.

The spirits riding the gale began tearing his hands and feet loose from the spikes which held them. Suddenly, he fell upon the ground. The spirits of the wind fell silent. I jumped forward, trying to assist him. He began to push himself erect; his penetrating eyes were open and looking right through me, projecting a message of eternal love. I shall forever see those eyes! They are emblazoned in my heart. With my arms open wide, I thought to embrace him. But as he moved toward me, he disappeared within me! I heard his voice speak: You now have the authority to teach in my name those things that were not taught to the multitudes, but taught in secret.

As the years have passed, I have begun to understand the power and meaning of this incredible encounter as Jesus speaks to me from within. He wanted me to understand the story of salvation, the divine cosmology that exists within each one of us. All the realms in creation, and the brilliance of the body of Christ, await each one of us. He wants us to understand where we came from, what we are to do while we are here, and where we are going when we leave.

Jesus said, Enter thy closet when you pray. Yes, find a quiet place to meditate, pray and talk to God. Remember and know that all souls who have received Christ consciousness exist in that Light. They will administer to us this very moment, if we but ask. Practice meditation and imitate their lives. Our egos may put up a great fight, demanding that our will be done. We need to receive the Light of God, and the presence of the angels, and whomever that illumined being is that we wish to follow.

This life is so very short. We need to meet God face to face now, if God will permit. Make every moment count. Practice virtue and humility. As Jesus said, Not my will, but thy will be done through me. Let us surrender our will to God that we may receive the wisdom and power of God’s creative will.

Telling the Truth

Telling the Truth

By Ischa Lea

Recently, sitting, wondering what I might write about and figuring it would come to me, I decided to lay it to rest for a moment and turned on the tv just in time to see an older man holding on to a young fellow by his collar admonishing him, “I’m gonna get you to add another virtue to your list – how about telling the truth?”

“Wow!” I thought, “That’s what I’ll write about!”

The twelve virtues have been referred to again and again in many disciplines, being expressed also as the predominant energy of its astrological counterpart. Reflecting on the Sunburst teachings, one of the paths of conscious living happens to be Speech. Looking further, I realized that its counterpart among the twelve virtues is Honesty.

Thinking about this and focusing on the topic of “Telling the truth,” I realized that it takes great Courage to be truthful every day—before oneself, before God, and even more so before others. It takes Perseverance to continually practice being truthful. It takes Patience to offer with tender words the truth. It takes Humility to tell the truth, not caring in what light others may cast us for doing so. It takes Forgiveness and Compassion to honor someone who is being truthful, even if that truth may tug at our sensitive nerves. And above all, it takes great Love to be able to rise above the aftermath that truth often engenders.

In the following excerpt, Victoria Raynor writes regarding the great philosopher and mystic, Aristotle:
“He believed that the function of a human was to engage in an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.”

Reflecting on why certain companies, foundations, and spiritual organizations have endured, grown, thrived and gained respect over decades, one salient feature seems to stand out—that to the best of their abilities, they operated being truthful to their mission—to offer good products and services, operate in integrity, and take good financial care of all those upon whom their success depended. Respect for each other was key. People were more than workers or members; they were invaluable to the long-term survival of the whole.

As this New Year dawned, millions of people made new resolutions. It’s been said, however, that only a tiny percentage of resolutions are actually kept. Thinking about this, I realized that the reason might be two-fold: Firstly, that our old habits of thinking and behaving die hard. And secondly, that if we live truthfully in our lives, the very Universe would bend to our assistance, ensuring that our dreams, desires, and resolutions are fulfilled, bringing us more joy in our lives.

At Sunburst EarthLight Fellowship, a sacred seed ceremony was held to commemorate the dawning of the New Year and a new energy. Beautiful melodies filled the air as each participant offered into the fire the seeds of old habits, old thoughts and old desires. Prayers and seeds of new desires and good habits were also offered into the fire for divine blessings.

What an amazing feeling it was to release the old and bring in the new in such lovely settings, surrounded by loving soul travelers and filled with the blessings of Divine Spirit! How gratifying the thought that the New Year brings another opportunity for telling the truth, and living the truth.

Help me Oh Lord that in truth I may stand

‘Though tattered, worn, disappointed I may be.

I know that perfection yet a myth is to me,

But Lord keep me rooted in truth before thee.

 

May the good that I seek for myself of use be,

To all brothers and sisters thou hast sent to me.

Help me to carry out thy greatest command,

That with the same love, as for myself I hold,

I may take tenderly each brother’s, sister’s hand.

New Year's Eve Seed Ceremony

New Year’s Eve Seed Ceremony

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