June 2009
Seeds of Meditation
God Gave Us a Clue
By Norman Paulsen
If thine eye
be single,
thy whole body
shall be full
of light.
—Jesus
Our two physical eyes can see the dual universe God has created, but
they cannot see God. Meditation reverses the process, as you bring your gaze
inward and to a single point. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says, When you
make the two one, you shall enter the kingdom of heaven. In meditation,
when you focus the two eyes on one point with deep concentration, you are
“making the two one.“ With practice, the spiritual eye will open at that point
and show you what it’s looking at! Yes, it will reveal to you the Light of God,
like a living sun or star spinning in front of you.
Within our bodies, God gave us a clue for how to find our way home.
When we look at our eyes in the mirror, we are looking at the outer, dual
image of our inner single eye. The light that shines through our two eyes is a
reflection of the divine light that shines within the single spiritual eye.
The single eye of God created our two eyes and everything that exists. It is
the projector, that featureless face of God that looks like a blazing sun or star
to our inner vision. Our physical sun reminds us that God is with us all the
time. When we see God with the single eye of soul, we can see him the same
way, as a blazing image of Light.
My teacher Yogananda once said to me, You must penetrate the star in the
spiritual eye—then you will have salvation. How do you penetrate the star?
It has to come after you. The star shines upon you at the crown of your head.
That’s as close as you are to the body of God! You’ve got to bring it in. You’ve
got to open the door so it can come into you. That’s what Sunburst’s teaching
is about.
We talk about the body of Christ, the real presence of I Am That I Am,
the living presence of the sphere of light that travels through us. We speak
of the garden universes, the parks it has created. The whole creation is full of
uncountable suns, planets and life forms. I Am That I Am is in everything as
particle energy, but it also travels individually as a sphere like the sun.
Yes, the source of it all is a sphere of light and consciousness, a being that
can come to us personally! It can speak to us. It can take us out of our body,
and show us the whole creation, all the colors, all the suns and worlds with
their natural phenomena. This is a personal experience of a living being; a living
presence of God that comes and talks to you. I’m talking about a sphere of
light so bright, it’s above the brightness of the sun.
Develop devotion and love for God. Try to attract this Being of Light to
come to you, to talk to you, to reveal Itself to you, through your offerings of
service, love and one-pointed concentration upon the Divine.
Natural Beauty
Mother Nature paints a colorful
canvas of wildflowers at Sunburst
Sanctuary each spring. This photo
shows one of the poppy fields. Almost
every Sunday, after our service and
brunch, hikers explore and appreciate
the current blooms, geology and wildlife
of this beautiful environment. You are
welcome to join in.
The best sermons are lived,
not preached.
– Anonymous
Prayer From the Heart
By Jake Collier
In my youth, my parents taught me
to always say grace before dinner and a
prayer before going to sleep. They always
used the same prayers and this seemed
strange to me. When we moved to
a different town and attended a new
church, the minister spoke from his
heart more than any minister I had
witnessed before. I soon became good
friends with his son. When I was invited
for dinner the minister said grace from
his heart, and every grace was a different
prayer. He was truly conversing with
God. I soon discovered that every
Saturday he would journey up into the
mountains by himself to prepare his
Sunday sermon.
What is prayer? Prayer is a conversation with God. Prayer develops a
relationship with our Creator; it invites
universal consciousness into us. We can
express our love, our frustrations, and
project what we would like to see in
the future.
When Moses had his experience
of seeing God as a burning bush, he
asked the Light, “What shall I call you?”
The answer came, “I Am That I Am,”
meaning: “I Am” the past—everything
from the first ignition of light to this
moment; “That”—the present and all
its vastness, the space between our
thoughts; “I Am” the future—everything
going forward, all projections, God’s
divine intelligence moving out from
the smallest of all places to the vast
expansiveness of creation. I Am That I
Am is all-inclusive, all-knowing.
A daily practice with the tool of
meditation peels away the layers of
life’s illusions and burns up our karmas.
It slows our thoughts so we can have
a conversation with I Am That I Am.
It answers our many questions and
stirs deep feelings of devotion within
us. We begin to see and hear with our
inner senses that cosmic intelligence
moving through space and time,
communicating with us, loving us,
granting us peace and understanding.
The more we practice meditation,
praying deeply to the Divine, sharing
our inner thoughts, feelings, and
projections, I Am That I Am begins to
envelop us with love and life force. We
cannot help but share it with others.
We begin to understand our true life’s
purpose here.
Graduation
By Dawn King
At the edge of the Milky Way, our solar system is completing its twenty-seventh revolution around the galaxy according
to astronomers. Numerology calls 27 a number of completion.
Based on the Pleiades cycle, a popular Mayan calendar also
nears completion. Do you remember your own experience of
completion—graduation from high school? It wasn’t the end
of the world; it was the beginning of your adult life. So too,
our solar system is graduating into a new phase of life, and
humanity is graduating into an era of heightened moral and
spiritual awareness and responsibility.
We have been consciously taking steps toward this
graduation, starting on August 18, 1987, the Harmonic
Convergence. Sunburst and others recognized this transition
period. According to Mayan elders, Dec. 21, 2012 initiates the
World of the Fifth Sun.
A spokesman for the Maya recently conveyed: At sunrise on
December 21, 2012 for the first time in 26,000 years the Sun rises
to conjunct the intersection of the Milky Way and the plane of
the ecliptic. This cosmic cross is considered to be an embodiment
of the Sacred Tree, The Tree of Life, a tree remembered in all the
world’s spiritual traditions. Humanity will continue…but in a
different way.
Material structures will change. From this we will have the
opportunity to be more human. We are living in the most
important era of the Mayan calendars and prophecies. All the
prophecies of the world, all the traditions, are converging now.
There is no time for games. The spiritual ideal of this era is action.
Everyone who is here now has an important purpose. This is a
hard, but a special time. We have the opportunity for growth.
We are not on a precipice at world’s end, but rather we are
on the brink of graduating into the Age of Aquarius, when
humanity knows God. As Asia’s 6,000-year-old Yajur Veda
declares: When a man knows God, he is free; his sorrows have an
end, and birth and death are no more. When in inner union he
is beyond the world of the body, then the third world, the world
of the Spirit, is found, where the power of the All is, and man has
all—for he is one with the One.
Hidden in the heart of every creature exists the subtler than the subtlest, the
greater than the greatest. The all-knowing Self was never born, nor will it ever die.
Beyond cause and effect, this Self is eternal and immutable.
The intellect can never reach the Self, beyond its duality of subject and object.
He who sees himself in all and all in him can help others, through spiritual
osmosis, to realize the Self. Wise are those who seek the Self eternal. May there be
many more seekers like them!
The wise, realizing through meditation the timeless Self, beyond all perception,
hidden in the cave of the heart, leave pain and pleasure far behind. Those who
know that they are neither body nor mind but the immortal Self, the divine
principle of existence, find the source of all joy, and live in joy abiding.
–Katha Upanishad
Sunburst 2009
Calendar of Events
Dances of Universal Peace
Saturday, June 13 • 7 p.m.
2-4 p.m. Music & poetry of the East to
open your heart. 5 p.m. potluck dinner.
Permaculture Workshop
Saturday, July 4
Learn the principles of earth-friendly
permaculture, with hands-on activity.
Experience Sunburst
Honest Prayer
By John Powell
I now understand and approach
prayer as communication in a relationship of love, a speaking and a listening
in truth and in trust. Speaking to God
honestly is the beginning of prayer; it
locates a person before God. I believe
that the primary “giving” of love is the
giving of oneself through disclosure.
Without such self-disclosure there
is no real giving, for it is only in that
moment when we are willing to put our
true selves on the line, to be taken for
better or for worse, to be accepted or
to be rejected, that true interpersonal
encounter begins. We do not begin to
offer ourselves until we offer ourselves
PO Box 2008
Buellton CA 93427
Saturday, July 11 - Sunday, Aug. 9
in this way, for love demands presence,
not presents. All my gifts (presents) are
mere motion until I have given my true
self (presence) in honest self-revelation.
Martin Luther’s first law of successful
prayer is: Don’t lie to God! In speaking
to God in the dialogue of prayer, we
must reveal our true and naked selves.
We must tell the truth of our thoughts,
desires and feelings, whatever they may
be. They are not right or wrong, true or
false. They are me.
Charades with God is wasted time.
I have to put myself in the posture
of trusting God’s greatness and
understanding. This is the essential
beginning of prayer.
Immerse yourself in Sunbust community
life: participate in meaningful service,
learn Sunburst’s teachings, enjoy group
meditations, meals, and activities.
Awakening the Light Within
Thursday, Aug. 6 - Sunday, Aug. 9
Learn Kriya Meditation Technique
Be the change you want to see in the
world! Discover the healing power of a
personal relationship with the Divine.
Organic Harvest Weekend
Friday, Sept. 4 - Monday, Sept. 7
Experience hands-on basics of organic
gardening & cooking. Bonus: beekeeping.
Please call for more information and
suggested donations—meals included;
lodging separate. Reserve early.