• by Norman Paulsen, Sunburst’s founder • As little children, we are each born with imagination. When I was a child, my imagination created playmates for me! I made them so real that when the game was over, they were still there. They sometimes came home to supper with me, or were waiting the next day. I lived in the world of imagination as a boy. The world of imagination is the house of God.
Each one of us has this as a child, but most of us lose it by the thoughts we collect, perceived through the five senses. The accumulation of this data builds up a nucleus called the ego, which says: “I know because I saw, heard, felt or tasted. I know that I am because I see that I am.” The world of imagination flees from these reflections recorded in the ego-mind.
But if you seek to find your true nature, you discover that this nucleus of ego cannot truly tell you who you are, where you came from, or where you’re going. Following the interior command instilled in you by your true Self, you search here and there, until you find what you think is Truth. If it brings you to the experience of light, peace and bliss, then you have found a path of liberation, a way to regain your true spiritual nature, your divine heritage.
Upon the sensing of inner light, ego may become excited and now desire to use this experience to gain more power for itself, declaring, “I’ve seen what no one else has seen, therefore I must be something better.” Thus springs forth a spiritual ego, a stumbling block. By refusing the spiritual ego, and living in virtue as the ancients have counseled, we continue our path toward the light.
By offering selfless service every day, and desiring to know Truth, we eventually come to that place on the path where the light is within our reach. On that day, ego is put to the test: is it willing to give all it has and enter what it doesn’t yet know? Could this be its annihilation? On that day, if you are able to give an answer that is unselfish and full of service, faith, and love, you enter that light of truth and put on immortality. You meet the true Reality, the infinite Holy One on his own threshold, the sea of eternity. You experience love indescribable and ever-new—not a love that reaches a pinnacle and descends, but is forever reaching higher pinnacles.
Thus man and woman can ascend together, hand in hand, and put on their true spiritual selves. Once doing this, the false self, the ego, has lost its argument. Now you are actively reflecting your true nature, your true home. When you have a world in which everyone has reached this state, consider the power, the peace, the grace! This is what Jesus wanted to see, for surely mountains will move, but more important than moving mountains, spirits can be led to eternal light.