• by Cain Carroll•Happiness is a changing feeling that comes and goes with circumstances that appear to coincide with it. Since circumstances are largely out of our control, and constantly in flux, our happiness is always waxing and waning. It swells when we feel good (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and declines when we don’t Nobody can feel happy ALL the time because conditions (internal or external) can never be controlled to that degree. Trying will make you crazy.
The problem is that social conditioning, especially in the U.S., has us believe that there is something wrong with us if we don’t don a permanent smile. Actually, it’s totally natural NOT to—the sky is not always sunny, flowers aren’t always blooming, and even cats and dogs get the blues. Without sadness, pain, dissatisfaction, broken heartedness, confusion, etc., we wouldn’t be human (and there certainly would not be some good art or music).
Feelings come and go like changing seasons. It’s our reluctance to fully appreciate all of them that makes us feel divided inside. We were taught to feel bad about not feeling good. We learned this from a neurotic culture that is pathologically addicted to unattainable ideals (flawless beauty, eternal youth, perfect happiness.
We can un-learn it! Like removing corrupter software from our CPU…”Delete program!”
When we are in harmony with our life we feel happy much of the time. But it’s also possible to be at peace when dissatisfaction, pain, loneliness, confusion, sadness, or any challenging feeling comes along for a visit. It requires that we simply let go of our resistance to feeling what we feel. In other words, if we can fully accept whatever comes without judgment, criticism, or the need to understand why, then we find a sense of ease opening up inside of us.
That way, we can be free to feel dissatisfied without being anxious about it. Feeling less anxious, we have less dissatisfaction. The whole thing unwinds itself.
Admittedly, this takes quite a bit of courage, and the willingness to get comfortable feeling uncomfortable. But if we do this repeatedly, moment after moment, day after day, our inner conflict melts like a chunk of ice into a flowing stream. We discover a basic joy and peace that is available to us all the time, even amid the changing tides of our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and circumstances.
•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.
• by Dawn King • You may find yourself, as I do, feeling that this is a season of chaos. If not, you may find that happening soon as the busyness of the holiday season and its demands crescendoes. It’s a season in which we need to find a calm center within ourselves, or be out of harmony with Nature’s inward-moving season and our innermost selves.
We are all challenged to find contentment while living in a “universe that tends to disappoint.” (I’m borrowing a phrase from Jon Meacham, a current American historian). Discontent was the root cause for Gautama’s purposeful seat beneath the bodhi tree over 2,000 years ago. The search for truth, understanding of life, should goad each of us into quiet reflection until we have our needed awakening. Buddha’s Four Noble Truths: Suffering, pain and misery exist in life.
Suffering arises from attachment to desires.
Suffering ceases when attachment to desires ceases.
Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path.
Buddha’s Eightfold Path: Right understanding
Right thought
Right speech
Right conduct
Right living
Right effort
Right mindfulness
Right concentration
Perhaps because I haven’t studied it, Buddha’s Eightfold Path seems a bit vague to me. What I have studied is Sunburst’s similar Eightfold Path, which focuses on living a balanced life. Sunburst’s Eightfold Path: Conscious study
Conscious work
Conscious recreation
Conscious nourishment
Conscious association
Conscious speech
Conscious conduct
Conscious meditation
Sunburst teachings include an understanding of Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, and probably Buddha’s Eightfold Path. The founder of Sunburst, Norman Paulsen, had a Buddhist minister for a father. Norman was also inspired to spell out 12 virtues, which he ascribed to the personality of our Creator. When we strive to incorporate these virtues into our own personality, we find more harmony with Nature and our own strong, calm inner life force. Sunburst’s 12 Virtues: Loyalty
Patience
Honesty
Perseverance
Compassion
Continence
Equanimity
Courage
Humility
Temperance
Charity
Faith
Sunburst reminds us to live an authentic life, true to the joyous, contented, awakened being we were created to be.
What wind blows through my soul
Causes my heart to kindle in flame?
Who waits in the darkened silence
To greet me on my journey home again?
Oh Ancient Ones, you carry the Light so true
You carry my soul all the way home.
In winged flight, this falcon knows no rest
But to see Him, but to know Him.
Oh my Father, you wee there
When the foundations of Sun and Earth were laid.
As wind and flame gathered in spiral dance
Moving closer and closer in divine union
The great pressure and friction bore fruit.
The spark was kindled!
In an explosion of light and consciousness
Another Sun of God was born
As you watched with hoary gaze
Oh my Father, Ancient of days.
You speak: I am the Son of the Sun I am the Divine Command of the Most High I carry the energy and vibration of the eternal deep I am the unmanifest God As He begins His journey into Creation.
“A lesson will repeat itself until you learn it.” – Anonymous •
An Invitation to Introspection
From ancient Babylonian times, some Semitic societies have observed a time of repentance during the harvest season. It’s a time to search one’s heart and draw closer to God. For a month the shofar, a ram’s horn is blown each morning to awaken our spirits, inspiring us to search our souls, to ask for and grant forgiveness. This is also a time to visit the graves of loved ones, and to reflect on what we may reap from our past actions.
“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” – Wayne Dyer
Rosh Hashanah
Can you believe it? Another New Year Celebration! This one is called Rosh Hashanah, celebrated this year on September 7. It begins the Jewish New Year, and a new moon, a new lunar month and year. In the area of ancient Egypt, with Semitic agricultural societies (mainly Jews and Arabs) this time of year marked a new beginning.
Last month our blog noted the Islamic version of this celebration with our article on compassion (August 9). Rosh Hashanah reminds us to be grateful, to be humble before our Creator, to forgive, and to realize there are consequences for our actions.
“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” – Carl Jung
by Greg Anderson • As children, we all had questions. We heard the term God and wondered, “Who is God?” it’s not an unknown question on this planet. It’s been asked by many. And, “Where is he?” and “How do we find God?” These are questions that have existed for centuries.
We enter the path of Self-Realization when we first decide we want to seek God. And Self-Realization is when there is a union between the creative forces of divine Father and divine Mother in our heart which changes us forever. As we work with that union and it consciously resides within us permanently, we call it Illumination.
I believe that’s what Jesus meant when he said, “I and the Father are One.” Cosmic consciousness is what Sunburst’s Founder Norman Paulsen experienced as he followed the life stream of his Divine parents to the center of all creation.
Spiritual experiences are difficult to put into words. Brother Norm said that it took him over 20 years to be able to describe his experience of Cosmic consciousness. Each of our experiences are different just as we each have a different face. No two faces are exactly identical, and the way we perceive the Divine is unique to each of us.
A few years ago when my wife and I sat in our meditation room for evening meditation, I began performing Kriya circulations, counting them as I went along. Suddenly that part of me that was aware was whisked to a different dimension. Here I saw and spoke with those beings from this planet who had reached full illumination. One of them embraced me, and I felt prolonged bliss for the first time in my life.
Suddenly I was back in my meditation room, but instead of being consciously in my body, it was as if I was an observer watching my body sitting in lotus position on my meditation pad. Divine bliss is difficult to describe. It would be like describing chocolate to somebody who’d never tasted it. The best way that I can explain it is: every atom and every electron is suddenly spinning in synchrony, and in between the spaces of the electrons is nothing but love. As I looked as though from above, I could see divine life force circulating through the energy centers of my body and the chakras of my spine.
I also saw my own inner-dimensional tunnel; it was completely flooded with light, rising like a river from beneath me to my heart chakra. I saw rivulets of energy appear and disappear all throughout my body. As I looked above my head, a white string of light connected to the crown of my head. And as it entered through the crown it was like a waterfall of white light moving slowly downward.
When that great light from below met the great white light from above, there was not an explosion. There was an expansion. It was the union of our Divine Father and our Divine Mother in my heart. And as it expanded, waves of light in the color of gold moved out from my body and in all directions three or four feet away from my physical body. I felt connected to God in a very literal way.
Then I felt a hand on my arm. I was back in my body, and Elena was saying, “Are you alright? You were crying.”
My tears were of joy. I witnessed, in my own way, the true nature of our Divine Mother and Divine Father rebirthing, or recreating a new person within my heart. This is a process, and it will continue to be a process as long as I do the things that allow me to grow: as long as I continue to meditate, to live virtuously, and to ask for God’s grace.
At this very moment, YOU are equipped atomically, molecularly, cellularly in this very body, for Cosmic consciousness, Illumination, and Self-Realization. No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, God is within.
Oh Divine Creator, Mother and Father, reveal thyself to me. Live in my heart. Dwell in my spiritual centers. Show me how to find my life stream and ride it home to you. Amen
