Re: Paulsen's Sunburst Community -- KRIYA YOGA DISCUSSION BOARD

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Date Posted: 09:57
Author: Hendrik - 25 Jun 2001
Subject: Re: Paulsen's Sunburst Community
In reply to: Hendrik - 24 Jun 2001 's message, "Re: Paulsen's Sunburst Community" on 09:51

However, the typical millenial aspects of the former "Sunburst" era now seem to have vanished almost completely.

As I suggested. The first version of his book surely must have contained lots of the UFO stuff (because it was written yet in a UFO-hype era) part of which he obviously omitted in the later versions.

I prognosticate that now as the year 2000 and along with it the millenial fad has passed, in the next edition of the book more of that stuff will be omitted and - as I proposed - the size of the book be reduced to 400 pages.

Paulsen has replaced the outer more by an inner journey meanwhile, it must be the wisdom of old age, and I would not be astonished if the Sacred Science meditation manual will now assume the central focus of Paulsen's literary efforts. Like "Sunburst" it will be full of fancies, so a new edition will be due sooner or later.

I say again that Paulsen does not look like a fraud to me, but he appears to go a long way round instead of taking the straight way. The straight way is always the guru. If you want a detour you are free to leave. And this is what Paulsen did.

Here is an excerpt of The Path by Kriyananda/Walters, where he relates of Norman Paulsen, and also of the same Jean Haupt who was mentioned in the excerpt from Paulsen's book which I had quoted in an earlier message.

Even today, when there are no new lands on this continent to conquer, our youths are urged to court novelty, to follow the will-o'-the-wisp of "fulfillment" wherever it might lead them, and to pay scant heed to such inconvenient considerations as commitment and duty.

"They change jobs, wives, and gurus at a moment's notice," Master lamented. "How can they expect to get anywhere, when they keep on changing direction whimsically?"

"Quite a few heads will fall," he had told me when speaking of the period of testing that began a few months before my trial at Twenty-Nine Palms. I grieved deeply when some of those I loved most left the ashram. I had known for some time that Boone was pulling away, but when Norman left, and then Jean, I was badly shaken.

Poor Norman! He loved God deeply, but moods of despondency came, and he allowed them to undermine his meditative routine to the point where it no longer sufficed to protect him from worldly delusions. But I knew he would always love God, and would continue to seek Him.

"This is the first time in many lives that delusion has caught Norman," Master remarked sadly. He added, "Divine Mother wants him to learn responsibility. But wherever he is, he is with me."

Norman visited Mt. Washington a few months later. "Do you remember how hard it was for me to get along with Jerry?" he asked me. "He was one of the main reasons I left here. Well, where I work now there are six men just like him!"

Over the years I have observed that when devotees try to avoid facing their karmic lessons, they only attract these very lessons again in other forms�and often in larger doses!

Jean had great will power, but he didn't concentrate so much on developing devotion. Master always taught us that we should meditate with no other motive than love for God, and the desire to please Him. "Mercenary devotion" he called meditation for personal spiritual gain. "'Lord, I have given You so many Kriyas. Now You have to keep Your side of the bargain and give me so much realization.' God never responds to that kind of devotion! He will accept nothing less from us than our unconditional love." When, after two or three years of determined meditative efforts, high spiritual experiences still eluded Jean, he grew discouraged. "I didn't come here to rake leaves!" he was reported as saying the day he left. Alas, dear friend, had you forgotten the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita, that, to the devotee who offers God even a leaf or a flower with deep love, the Lord Himself responds in person?

The problem that Paulsen had to face is a common one. His guru - Yogananda - was a staunch monastic and would have liked to see him become a monk, as he was still unmarried. As Paulsen couldn't take that step, he somehow may have felt compelled to set out on his own altogether - all or nothing at all. Perhaps the problem hence did not lie with Paulsen alone, but also with Yogananda's demands of him which he could not fulfil. However, Yogananda died shortly thereafter and we cannot know how the relationship of the two would have evolved if Yogananda had lived longer. During the time the above quote is referring to, the early 1950's, Yogananda knew already that he would soon pass away, and so he must have made his statement on Paulsen in consideration of Paulsen's future life going to be without his own direct personal guidance.

I have noticed that Paulsen in the excerpts I know is talking all the time of 'Christ Consciousness' once he got it. But Yogananda said that the goal is 'Cosmic Consciousness' which is still a step further. But Paulsen seems to have stopped with the first major realization he had attained soon after leaving his guru.

I see I will have to read Paulsen's book sometime. It will surely be an interesting read. Probably he will admit himself somewhere that he forsook the yogic path proper because he felt more at home in his self-created universe of UFOs and Creators. I concede him this lot of honesty.

What is there to criticize? -- Not that much. Nothing but his teaching a hybrid Kriya and posing as a Christ-like figure without sufficient grounds.

Myself having been a fan of von D�niken*, Ramtha etc. for some time I was playing with ideas similar to those that Paulsen promotes. But I was between 15 and 20 then; whereas Paulsen is in his seventies now and still into that stuff. People like Paulsen are rare, but it is a pity that most of them finally get caught in their own delusions. Like Yogananda said. What people like Paulsen need is a strong disciplining hand, but this is not popular in America or Europe where self-fulfilment comes first and ranges on top.
"Oh, we are so interesting and creative people. We surely have a mission to fulfil and feel we are elevated above average men. Sticking with one thing is so insipid and will curtail our talents. Let us go free-wheeling and demonstrate to the world what great things are going on in our minds, how glorious we are!"

My my my... What is it else but vanity?

--------
* Many years later, it must have been around 1996, I had the honor of meeting Mr. von D�niken. He turned out to be not only a gifted narrator, but also an extremely dynamic and an intelligent and knowledgeable man. Someone asked him about his religious beliefs. In his answer he distinguished clearly and decidedly between ufologic/pre-astronautic theories and spirituality; the opposite notion (the idea of the world being created by Gods who depend on UFOs was 'childish' and 'profane' to him) was apparently not unknown to him; I got the impression that with growing discernment he may have revised some of his earlier abstruse (strongly disputed in the 1970s) ideas.

Paulsen - who is strongly influenced by von D�niken (von D�niken is Paulsen's teacher and not vice versa) - does not make that distinction. Perhaps he is not strong enough - being subject to many spiritual experiences, he gets carried away by them and cannot muster up the courage and immobility to merely look at them without getting fascinated by their glories, and finally becomes entangled in the semi-mystical stuff he experiences.

Hendrik

"The Path" -- Chapter 35

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