July 26, 2018 Thanksgiving Joy

✨🌠✨🎇✨🎆✨
There it is right there -
where it always is – inside!
JOY in the center.
✨🌠✨🎇✨🎆✨
11 26 2010 Arjuna’s first ThanksGiving feast
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July 13, 2018

🌙🧘🏿‍♂️⭐️🧘🏻‍♂️🌙
Infinite ocean -
Thinking of the Beloved.
Waves on waves of joy.
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Preparation for meditation:
• Find a quiet spot
• Sit erect and relaxed, cross legged or in a chair feet flat on the floor
• Chest out and shoulders back
• With chin parallel to the ground
• Hands with palms turned upward at juncture of the thighs and abdomen
• Close your eyes and gently lift gaze upward to the point between the eyebrows. No straining.
…. Then what ….
Consider going to the link here to continue to actual meditation practice ….
http://www.yogananda-srf.org/Learn_to_Meditate/A_Beginner_s_Meditation.aspx#.W0i8JvZFxYc

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“If the beginner yogi sits on the hard floor to meditate he will find his legs going to sleep, owing to pressure on his flesh and arteries. If he sits on a blanket over a spring pad or mattress, on the floor, or over a hard bed, he will not experience discomfort in his legs. A Westerner, used to sitting on chairs with his thighs at a right angle to his torso, will find it more comfortable to meditate on a chair with a woolen blanket and silk cloth under him, extending under his feet which rest on the floor. Those Western yogis, especially youths, who can squat on the floor like Orientals, will find their knees pliable, owing to their ability to fold their legs in an acute angle. Such yogis may meditate in the lotus posture, or in the more simple cross-legged position.

“No one should try to meditate in the lotus posture unless he is at ease in that position. To meditate in a strained posture keeps the mind on the discomfort of the body. Meditation should ordinarily be practiced in a sitting position. Obviously, in a standing posture (unless one is advanced) he may fall down when the mind becomes interiorized. Neither should the yogi meditate lying down, for he might resort to the ‘practiced’ state of slumber.

“The proper bodily posture, one which produces calmness in body and mind, is necessary to help the yogi shift his mind from matter to Spirit.”

— Paramahansa Yogananda, God Talks With Arjuna: The Bhagavad Gita

🌙🧘🏿‍♂️⭐️🧘🏻‍♂️🌙

Photo of Encinitas California Beach from this site
https://suebeeandkat.com/2016/02/29/encinitas-sunset/
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July 11, 2018 For Love of Hafiz

☀️🌸🌸🌸☀️

Through Shiraz, we run-

Hafiz laughing, I keep pace -

All the way to God.

☀️🌸🌸🌸☀️

Over and over I return to Hafiz. His love, his joy is catching. If I read his words long enough, i begin to see him as he tears down the streets of Shiraz and without hope of redemption or any chance of maintaining any restraint of dignified demeanor I tear after him. 

☀️🌸🌸🌸☀️

Here a taste of Hafiz:
☀️ A Potted Plant ☀️

I pull a sun from my coin purse each day.

And at night I let my pet the moon
Run freely into the sky meadow.

If I whistled,
She would turn her head and look at me.

If I then waved my arms,
She would come back wagging a marvelous tail
Of stars.

There are always a few men like me
In this world

Who are house-sitting for God.
We share His royal duties:

I water each day a favorite potted plant
Of His--
This earth.

Ask the Friend for love.
Ask Him again.

For I have learned that every heart will get
What it prays for
Most.
☀️From: 'The Subject Tonight Is Love'
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky 

☀️🌸🌸🌸☀️

A view of the interior of Nasir ol Molk Mosque located in Shiraz

☀️🌸 Attribution: Ayyoubsabawiki ☀️🌸

☀️🌸🌸🌸☀️xx

“Once a young woman asked me, “How does it feel to be a man?”
And I replied,
“My dear, I am not so sure.”
Then she said,
“Well, aren’t you a man?”
And this time I replied,
“I view gender
As a beautiful animal
That people often take for a walk on a leash
And might try to enter in some odd contest
To try to win prizes.
“My dear,
A better question for Hafiz
Would have been,
“How does it feel to be a heart?”
For all I know is
Love,
And I find my heart
Infinite
And
Everywhere!” HAFIZ

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