šŸ“– Day 6 Cookbook Discussion Prompt - BHAKTI YOGA

Beautiful. Following Ram Dassā€™s path with hospice work.

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Once, and only once, I felt this infinite love. Many years ago I was sitting in Quaker meeting, on a Palm Sunday, meditating, and just felt an incredible experiential realization of the deep love that God felt for his son Jesus.

It was such a foreign thought because I donā€™t really identify as a Christian and Quakers donā€™t celebrate Christian holidays so much.

The love and bliss that swept over me, was so enjoyable, that I have always sought to repeat that feeling. It has not repeated. In fact, I kind of feel like Iā€™m going backwards in the love for humanity department.

As someone who has worked with and hung out with other Baba lovers, it was always a blessing to be around them, some drunk with love.

I am trying to reach back and experience that love again.

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This is meaningful to me. A lesson I got from here is that love is loving itself. I see this and I feel this in devotion to the guru. But this gives me new insight. I have an issue with an individual. I can meet them in love, love for my guru. My love for my guru. But in guru loves them too. And if I have that awareness and the thought of love loving itself, then when I meet this person if I access that place perhaps the love will grow and spread to where they can experience it. It would take the relationship beyond tolerance to a place of actual love that is big and all encompassing, and not being attached to the outcome, but realizing that love is big and love grows.

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Hello beautiful people :palms_up_together:

I have experience deep LOVE :two_hearts: ā€¦.Iā€™ve experienced ultimate ā€œLOVE ā€œ a connection to divine LOVE in a ceremonyā€¦

I FELT the Love of God. I got to witness & feel the Love :heart:Of my love onesā€¦

Through devotion , meditation , right action & self realization, I trust that on this journey I will reach omnipresenceā€™s fatheršŸ™šŸ½

How powerful would it be to be of service to humanity through vibration of Divine Love :heartpulse:ā€¦

:balloon:

Oh wow, thank you for sharing the beautiful story! I keep waiting for that aha moment, but havnt got there yetā€¦

I definitely feel the pull to Bhakti, and loving everyone/everything, but I too struggle the the deities. Kirtan can be difficult sometimes, because I donā€™t feel that pull towards Krishna, But I struggle to find that focal point.

Can I ask, since you went from kirtans to devotional practicies towards Christ, do you have any specific daily practices?

I really liked the lesson and meditation. It was a great way to start my day. A beautiful little reminder to love all as I love my own daughters.

I also had this thought pop into my head of ā€œmaybe if I unconditionally love all, ill finally feel it.ā€ :exploding_head: still need to process this a bitā€¦

Hi Joshua!

I mostly just listen to Christian worship music and sing along! :slight_smile:

This is a Spotify playlist I made of this kind of worship music:

And thereā€™s a lot on YouTube as well, like this video for instance:

Ah, very beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing!

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You are so welcome, Joshua! So glad you enjoyed!

What lights your heart up with devotion?

Erin, I am sad to say that is a hard questionā€¦ I feel like it shouldnā€™t be, but part of me is still looking for some grand aha moment I guess. Still pretty new on my journey, and looking for a place to dive deep. I continuously get pulled back to Ram Dass, and his lectures, which is why Iā€™m here.

For me, love is the answer. I believe that everyone and everything is God. Love is the most powerful energy, so God is love, and everything is love. Being able to unconditionally love everyone, every situation is the tricky bit. I can have moments of it, but not as many as I would like of course.

I do get great joy talking to my daughters, being in nature, and helping others. I like to use my talents to help, so usually fixing or building things.

Thatā€™s why I asked you about your practices, because I know ā€˜traditionalā€™ Bhakti practices involve Kirtan, and Japa. I do have a place I can do Kirtan, and I tried doing Japa for a bit, but I really donā€™t have a pull to Krishna. I feel more of a pull towards Hanuman, but donā€™t really know ā€˜howā€™ to deepen my devotional practice. I just try to read a bunch, and do some mediations/chanting in the morning.

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This all sounds really beautiful, Joshua!

Maybe instead of waiting for the grand ā€œahaā€ moment, you could lean into all this simple beauty, kindness, sweetness, love, and service? :purple_heart:

I feel immense gratitude for the phrase, ā€œLove has to spring spontaneously from within.ā€ When I think of love in this way, I think of another phrase about God: God is everything or nothing. In this sense, love and god are one, and if love is a supreme vehicle, and I am a channel, an instrument, another vehicle, then when I embody this presence, whatā€™s able to happen is an outpouring of love through me and empowered by its passing through me (as itā€™s gathering power, as Meher Baba describes). How is love shared? As an offering, or a reminder.

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Thank you for saying that Erin. I really needed to hear that. I think itā€™s a great idea :smiling_face:

Awww, yes of course! Be here now, right? :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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