![](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads6\/tumblr_oaz2ojf7KR1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
3 Meditations.
\nAnanda Vrindavana Devi Dasi: Before I pick up my beads to do my chanting meditation, I have 3 points of focus \u2013 I\u2019m not this body, God is a person, and I have a relationship with Him.
\nI\u2019m not this body is one of my favorite meditations. I like to sit quietly and hold my body still. I am the observer. I am conscious of my hands, my breath, my thoughts. I remember \u2013 yesterday, years ago, minutes ago. I think ahead \u2013 tomorrow, old age, the next hour. When I remember I am not this body I feel relief, more complete, and a real sense of freedom.
\nMy second meditation, another favorite, is that God is a person. Although I heard this from a very young age in Catholicism, it wasn\u2019t until I studied the path of Bhakti yoga that it made more sense to me. Krishna, the Sanskrit name for God, makes the idea of a personal God very attractive. The source of all life has to be credibly incredible. When I meditate on the premise that God is a person, I sense His presence, I sense protection, grounding, connection and belonging.
\nMy third meditation is another, another favorite. Here my meditation is that I have a relationship with Krishna. When I hold still, slow down, or rise early I reflect on this. What does this relationship look like? Is it one of fear or love or both? How do I present myself? What do I ask for, or not? What does Krishna ask of me? What does the best, most complete form of this relationship look like?
\nWhen I pick up my beads and begin to chant the mantra, I am facing into that relationship. My 3 meditations have brought me here. Now I connect. Throughout the chanting I find myself returning to them in different ways. I chant with a longing to return to the spiritual world, a desire to engage in service, and a wish to develop affection and love for Krishna.
\nI also ask not to blow it \u2013 that I don\u2019t lean too much on spiritual rules that my emotions are tied, or fall too much on the human side that I don\u2019t touch transcendence. I pray for balance \u2013 that my humanity can nurture my spirit and that my spirit reminds me to be a better person, and a better human.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![](\"http:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/36d33ec88097c6a29c6e7e33e71deec0\/tumblr_oaz2ojf7KR1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
3 Meditations.
\nAnanda Vrindavana Devi Dasi: Before I pick up my beads to do my chanting meditation, I have 3 points of focus – I’m not this body, God is a person, and I have a relationship with Him.
\nI’m not this body is one of my favorite meditations. I like to sit quietly and hold my body still. I am the observer. I am conscious of my hands, my breath, my thoughts. I remember – yesterday, years ago, minutes ago. I think ahead – tomorrow, old age, the next hour. When I remember I am not this body I feel relief, more complete, and a real sense of freedom.
\nMy second meditation, another favorite, is that God is a person. Although I heard this from a very young age in Catholicism, it wasn’t until I studied the path of Bhakti yoga that it made more sense to me. Krishna, the Sanskrit name for God, makes the idea of a personal God very attractive. The source of all life has to be credibly incredible. When I meditate on the premise that God is a person, I sense His presence, I sense protection, grounding, connection and belonging.
\nMy third meditation is another, another favorite. Here my meditation is that I have a relationship with Krishna. When I hold still, slow down, or rise early I reflect on this. What does this relationship look like? Is it one of fear or love or both? How do I present myself? What do I ask for, or not? What does Krishna ask of me? What does the best, most complete form of this relationship look like?
\nWhen I pick up my beads and begin to chant the mantra, I am facing into that relationship. My 3 meditations have brought me here. Now I connect. Throughout the chanting I find myself returning to them in different ways. I chant with a longing to return to the spiritual world, a desire to engage in service, and a wish to develop affection and love for Krishna.
\nI also ask not to blow it – that I don’t lean too much on spiritual rules that my emotions are tied, or fall too much on the human side that I don’t touch transcendence. I pray for balance – that my humanity can nurture my spirit and that my spirit reminds me to be a better person, and a better human.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38268,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29945\/revisions\/38268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}