• by Jonathan King • The Sunburst congregation is such an intimate group of people who I love so much. We’ve been together for so long and we help each other so much. I want to acknowledge how blessed we are to have each other, that Spirit has brought us together, has answered our prayers.
Before joining Sunburst, I was asking Spirit, “Help me find someone that has met you face to face.” I read Yogananda extensively but he was no longer here physically. Then Spirit brought me to Sunburst and allowed me to get to know Brother Norm. This answered my prayer.
In Sunburst, Spirit gave me a family of brothers and sisters who reflect the living presence of God to me every day, and give me the opportunity to reflect it back. Norm’s Sunburst teaching is so precious and comprehensive, so all encompassing.
Here, we learn to combine all of these wonderful elements: striving every day to live a virtuous life, practicing conscious living, and the eight paths. We’ve been given a tool of meditation that teaches us so many things, and brings us to a place where we can say, “Dear Spirit, what is it you would have me do? Not my will, but your will be done.” Every day we can practice; every day we can feel an incredible consciousness growing within us.
Yet sometimes, in a dry spell, we might feel we’re not that devotional. No matter what our predispositions are, everything can go better with a little more devotion. Love is the key and each one of us has a heart full of love. When we are blessed by a visitation of living Spirit, we find our heart is so full of devotion we can barely contain it.
I was reflecting on this recently and remembered a story Norm used to tell about another brother at Yogananda’s who said he really wanted illumination. This person always pestered Yogananda to give him a little thump on the chest and grant him an experience. This monk would come to Norm and say “I’m meditating day and night, but I’m not getting any results. Nothing is happening.”
I remember hearing that story and being able to identify a little bit with it. I would ask Spirit, “Fill every meditation with unconditional intense love for you. May my heart be open, pulsing with devotion, and may I offer it to you.”
Little by little, as I expressed that love to Spirit, I started to feel it returning back to me. And I wanted more. Not for myself, but when I would feel the presence of God, I wanted to give of myself without any regard for what would come in return. This felt so good.
I continued my practice, and asked Norm questions, and asked Spirit questions. I realized in practicing our Kriya meditation technique that light is always reigning down on us just like the picture of Kir Paul Sing (above). That light is coming down all the time, full of divine consciousness and full of love and devotion for us.