How to reference an included file in OSGi bundle when performing java.io.File or FileInputStream

I am using the aQute Bnd toolset to create an OSGi bundle and have packaged with some dependant 'resource' files. This includes *.css files and *.xsd files in a resources directory I have created.

I have included the following in the bundle.bnd file:

Include-Resource: resources/=resources/ 

and when I do a build, the generated *.jar file has the *.css and *.xsd files in the resources directory in the top directory of the jar bundle file.

However, in the actual code I am having difficulty in trying to refer to this as part of my class path:

I have tried the following:

new File("resources/example.css");

I have also tried:

URL cssFile = this.getClass().getResource("resources/example.css");
try
{
   file = new File(cssFile.toURI()));
}
catch(Exception e)
{
   e.printStackTrace();  
}

I either get a NullPointException error or a File cannot be found IOException error (depending which one I use). I get this error when running in both Eclipse Equinox in Debug Configuration mode as well as Apache Felix (which we are using for our deployment). Note I am trying to do this in Java classes outside of the BundleActivator.

Do I need to always refer to the context of the BundleActivator e.g.?

 /*
 * (non-Javadoc)
 * @see org.osgi.framework.BundleActivator#start(org.osgi.framework.BundleContext)
 */
 @Override
 public void start(BundleContext context) throws Exception 
 {   
     /* Service to host the Bundle interface. */
     ServletContainerService service = new ServletContainerService();
     service.addServlet(new ServletContainer(new AxisServlet(), true));
     this.serverReg = context.registerService(ServletContainerService.class.getName(), service, null);

     cssFile = new File(context.getClass.getResource("resource/example.css")); 
 }

I think the above will work, but will mean I will