{"id":3000,"date":"2022-08-10T08:55:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T15:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/?p=3000"},"modified":"2022-08-10T10:24:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T17:24:22","slug":"thoughts-on-opening-my-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/thoughts-on-opening-my-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts On Opening My Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/hands-in-lap.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2311 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/hands-in-lap-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/hands-in-lap-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/04\/hands-in-lap.jpeg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/teachers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Swami Yasodananda<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Originally posted April 28, 2021<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve read stories and biographies of people who are considered to be saintly, to have a passion for the Divine. Most of those stories were inspiring and got me thinking about what my passion might be and how do I express devotion to it; how do I find it? I know it resides in my heart.<\/p>\n<p>What it comes down to is focus, concentration. I observe what comes forward from within myself. I also observe what is revealed by other people and by close friends whom I admire. I can\u2019t imitate any of those people or what they have done or written. The search has to come from within. Experiences by others can get me thinking, but bringing understanding to light needs my own exploration.<\/p>\n<p>This search takes patience; takes seeking awe and wonder, lit by a little spark that seems remote at times. Wisdom doesn\u2019t come from a smartphone, rather it comes by putting the phone down and listening inside. As Swami Radhananda said to me more than once, keep going. I understand that to mean keep listening.<\/p>\n<p>Where is my interest? Some of the practices I\u2019ve done that put me into a devotional frame of mind I am unable to do now. So I\u2019m finding a new way to seek the Pearl, being still, praying, asking for understanding. I am a human; the Divine Light created me with strengths and weaknesses. Influences from past lives and from the present have made me who I am at this time. What do I need to change? What do I need to develop to open my heart? Silently I say \u2018start by listening;\u2019 start by listening to the breath, the life force. Put aside restlessness and be still. Put aside restlessness and be still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0Swami Yasodananda Originally posted April 28, 2021 &nbsp; I\u2019ve read stories and biographies of people who are considered to be saintly, to have a passion for the Divine. Most of those stories were inspiring and got me thinking about what &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/thoughts-on-opening-my-heart\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3001,"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000\/revisions\/3001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasodharayoga.org\/spokane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}