These words are from the first chapter of my book Becoming a Sun.

Everyone’s world needs them to be a sun. If you and I have both awakened to this greatest of needs, we can become aware of each other. We can become aware that there are people around the world who have awakened to the reality that they are born to be suns. In fact, we are born to build One Sun. Not just a sun for your world. Not just a sun for my world. One Sun for THE world. Are you ready to be a Sun builder? The world needs such a Sun.

The Sun is a remarkable symbol of what is happening for us as human beings. Here are some gee-whiz scientific facts about what makes the Sun shine:

• Gravity on the surface of the Sun is 28 times what it is on Earth
• Gravity draws hydrogen atoms to the Sun’s core, where nuclear fusion takes place
• On average, it is 28 million degrees Fahrenheit in the Sun’s core
• It takes four hydrogen atoms to produce one helium atom
• Through nuclear fusion, some of the matter is converted to energy
• In just one second, the Sun produces about 118 times as much energy as the United States uses annually

What has to happen for us to build a Sun? Think of those hydrogen atoms. They have to be drawn into proximity. There has to be tremendous gravitational power that attracts them to the center of the Sun. Only there, where the hydrogen atoms are subject to massive pressure and unthinkably high temperatures, does fusion take place. We build a sun as we are drawn to compose a core of people who carry gravitational power.

What is that like in the human experience? We know scientifically what it’s like on the Sun. But what is that for us as human beings? For us, we have gravity when we show up in the world with courage—when we are unfailingly ourselves.

When a person has gravity, they attract others to join them. This is not physical attractiveness. This gravity is a vibrational force. When someone is authentically themselves, it evokes a desire, at least in some, to be around that person—to be near to them.

Here is another dynamic the Sun portrays for us. Mass creates gravity, and gravity invites proximity. And it takes proximity for there to be fusion. If you keep the world at arm’s length, there is no fusion.

For there to be fusion, there has to be intimacy. And here, I am speaking of it in a spiritual context, so this is spiritual intimacy. Spiritual fusion between us requires our spiritual intimacy. Physical proximity can help spiritual intimacy but doesn’t guarantee it because we are not talking about a physical thing now. We are talking about something vibrational. And it is quite possible to be physically close—in the same room or community—and spiritually distant.

We have to be open to be spiritually intimate to build a sun. We have to be that with each other. We have to allow ourselves to be drawn into the core of what this field is. There is not much fusion happening on the periphery, and again, we’re not talking here about physical proximity. You and I might be living halfway around the world from each other, yet still be spiritually intimate. We could find ourselves together at the core of this Sun we are building.

In the first chapter of my book, I point out that there has always been friction whenever people have undertaken to build a sun. Do you experience any friction with other people? There has always been friction when people build a sun.

Under normal circumstances, hydrogen atoms don’t participate in fusion. There are barriers to it by the very nature of a hydrogen atom. The same is true for us as human beings. People can be walking closely together down a crowded sidewalk and not experience fusion. People can also move into a community and not experience fusion because there are barriers to it. Something has to overcome those barriers for a person if they are to experience fusion.

Sometimes, friction helps. It helps break down barriers. Gravity helps. When a person feels the gravity of the core of the field, they’re drawn into that core. And then they think, O my god, there is pressure here! I’m stressed. The forces that create fusion are at work. God bless them. Give thanks. It’s breaking down our isolation so we can create a sun together. Don’t fight the processes of fusion.

For the hydrogen atom, in the process of fusion, there is a loss of mass and an energy gain. For us, there is a loss of elements of our human experience, born out of culture and heredity that are transformed into radiance. We begin to experience ourselves differently. In this process, we become more ourselves. The fusion we know transmutes the parts of us that are in bondage and subject to the dysfunctional patterns of our lineage. We become a sun.

There is a powerful assurance that enters us when we are simply willing to be ourselves—not ourselves as a personality, not as a product of our human heredity, but ourselves as that one who incarnated as us.

Jesus spoke of the process of becoming a sun in a saying that begins with these words:

Come unto me… 

Here was the gravitational force that creates a sun at work, inviting another person to know spiritual intimacy.

Elijah, the prophet, said it this way:

Come near unto me. 

He was building a sun.

This isn’t particularly addressing physical proximity and not even necessarily social proximity, even though physical and social closeness can help facilitate spiritual proximity.

Some of us are introverts, some of us are extroverts. Some of us want a lot of social engagements, and some don’t. They say an extrovert is recharged by being social with people, while an introvert recharges by entering their cave. So, many of us might think about inviting people close to us and think, Who needs that? Social connection can be overwhelming, especially when it brings friction. But we are not talking about social connection particularly.

Do you think communities are void of friction? There is friction, but something might be happening in that friction if we let it. The barriers to fusion might be breaking down.

Some of those barriers are created by a person’s beliefs, even ideals about how it should be. Our ideals, dreams, and visions might be what brought us together. But at the end of the day, what we’re talking about doesn’t conform to anyone’s ideals and visions. It is what it is. The process is what it is.

Personally, I’m here for what it is, and I’m here to let it happen. And to be the one who says, Come near unto me, come near to this fiery core of fusion.

That is not so much about social relations. My experience is that a little social relationship goes a long way. There is only so much of that you can take. And part of the art of living in spiritual community is learning to be with each other and not overdosing on social relationships. That gets burdensome. But there is a way to be spiritually intimate and then find social relations that are generative as a part of that.

As we become a sun, we find that something is happening that transcends your personhood and mine. There is the power of Love at work, and it’s a transcendent Love. Human personality can be lovable, and it can be terrible. And there is a Love that transcends all that. I don’t love you because of your personality. I love you because I remember who I am and who you are. It is an unconditional Love, not conditioned on personality or how someone behaves.

That is the power of gravity at the center of the Sun we are becoming. If we let it, that power penetrates right to the core of who we are. I know it does for me. There is a reawakening and a remembering, and in all that, the power of fusion lights up our world.

These things are a matter of spiritual principle. More than that, they are a matter of supreme practicality. Do any of us really want to build community without building a sun? You can have it! It’s absolutely futile. And yet, when we are building a sun, our approach to community is infused with solar power. It’s the power to do the deed and, at the same time, it is the reason why doing the deed is fulfilling.

Knowing the fusion of universal Love together fills all we do with a blaze of glory. The gravity of that experience brings together the things that ought to be together as a part of the field we’re creating. It attracts the people who need to be here and who are irresistibly drawn by the gravity of the sun.

We are becoming a sun. So good to know that with you and to let it happen.