Episode 7

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Published on:

14th Mar 2025

#7 - Japa Mala Meditation: Finding Peace, Purpose, and Presence with Every Bead

Let this episode land softly in your day, right where you are. We're Mark and Maria (Juicy MagiK On the Daily) and today we’re sharing a practice that holds us close when the world gets loud: Japa meditation. It’s all about the feeling of the beads, the sound, memories tied up in repetition, and the simple joys of walking and chanting under the trees or in a quiet room (or even a cemetery, but that’s a story you’ll have to hear inside). You’ll hear family tales, sweet mishaps, loving ribbing, and what it’s like to come from a different tradition and slowly find comfort with a new, living practice. There’s room in this for everyone, whatever name or language or way brings you calm. No pressure, just presence. Find a few minutes of peace with us, maybe pick up your beads (or not, you can just listen). Thanks for stopping in. Peace, Haribol, and see you tomorrow.

Transcript
Speaker:

I must say I must say are you all and peace be with you

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welcome I'm Mark

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and I'm Maria and we do see magic on the daily

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thanks for coming in

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welcome and hope you're feeling well today

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and if not

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I hope that you feel better after today's podcast

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um I hope this is a little bit of a breath of fresh air

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soft warm and soothing voice in the

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in the craziness of modern the modern world

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you wanted to get me some beads today

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well yeah

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we thought that you know

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if you can

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part of our practice

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which we love to share with others is

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is Japa meditation these are really beautiful

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yeah

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I once gave these beads to my father in 2,001

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and he had them by his bedside

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and he used to pray on them

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he used to say the Lord is my Shepherd prayer

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I think it's Psalm 23

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and after he passed away I was able to

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to take them back you know

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my mom said you could take them now

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it's so nice

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I carry them with me as I did before I gave them to him

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and then literally like 20

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21 years later there they are back in my pocket

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though if I had to grab anything

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out of the house out of the house

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it's on fire it's on fire

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I would definitely probably grab my beads

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um I have an

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another set of special beads that

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a friend of mine actually made for me and

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and he made them with fishing wire

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ha ha they're so strong

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but they've been with me through thick and thin

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so thank you dear friend

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for making me those beads all those years ago

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I still have them in my bead bag

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typically uh

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a full set of beads is a hundred and eight

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first to the hundred and eight Apache beads

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and this is a 1/2 round it's fifty four

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and Japa meditation

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it engages another sense and when we're

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when we're saying and singing

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or repeating the names of god on

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in garonga or when we do the Mahamantra in kirtan

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we engage the sense of hearing and the sense of

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of the voice and the and the vibration

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uh and this really

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the nice thing about Japa

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and these Japa malabes

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is that they engage the sense of touch

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and everyone likes you know

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part of the reason that

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people have a hard time giving up addiction sometimes

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is also because of the

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there's all these rituals and habits around it

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and also sort of the

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the touching and flicking of a cigarette

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you know or so this engages the touch

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the sense of touch and I find it extremely comforting

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uh you know

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sometimes I'll be in looking around where are my beads

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you know and I wanna have them with me

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I put typically wrap them around my wrist

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or you even pick on your fingers

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and that's when I know you need your beads

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and you need my beads yeah

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they help me they've helped me immensely with

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just focusing my mind

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and putting my heart on transcendent subject matters

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and very comforting to me

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and they might be comforting to you too

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so we'll just teach that you know

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the headbeat you don't usually count on the headbeat

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usually say goronga on the headbeat

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we'll just teach you a little mantra

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another mantra that we love to chant on our beads

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it's Gopala Gobindarama Madanamohana

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these are not sectarian words

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these are these are just names of god

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that they're in a particular language

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but you can say whatever names you're attracted to

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whether in Russian or Arabic or Chinese

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or Hebrew or Aramaic Greek

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you see a lot of people around the world carrying beads

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some call it ziccar and others call it the Rosemary

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oh not the Rosemary

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the rosary ha ha ha

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although we love Rosemary

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we picked some wild Rosemary

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oh that's right

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that's right yeah

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we picked some wild Rosemary the other day

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we made some really nice Rosemary potatoes

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but um yeah

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those are good yeah

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I you know

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coming from a a practice of not moving

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being silent

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totally absorbed in yourself

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for me that that was a little bit strange

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so it took me a couple months actually

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um and I

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I had this thank you for

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that was a friend in from Italy

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I I left my beads at her house

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and she sent the beads in a little bead bag

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so sweet that was so sweet

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that was actually

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you should just take care of your beads

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keep them in a nice place

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you're like a good friend

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you know and she

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she was so kind that she she knew that those beads

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those are also beads that I had given to my father

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yeah

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and then they came back to me and I had forgotten them

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yes and I

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although I was like okay

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maybe you can keep them

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she knew that they were very special to me

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and she so kindly offered to send them back to me

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she sent them in the mail

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but she put them in a little bead bag

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yeah so I said Maria

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you take them and use them please

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yeah and I

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I couldn't use them

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because I'm coming from a meditation practice

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where you don't move

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the best practice is when you lose

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you lose the

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you know the

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the the feeling of your body

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you're somewhere else

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you merge with something bigger that you can't grasp

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the white light yeah

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yeah the void drama

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Joti or we'll talk about that yeah

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there's lots to talk about

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so I kept you know

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merging with something and I didn't wanna move

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so always when I moved or something was itching

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and I gave in into that I got out of that state

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so it was uh it was a bad thing to move for me and uh

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um

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you know no sound that

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be completely quiet

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because every sound gets you out of the state

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you try that in the modern world

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if you have a baby in the house or yeah

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a roommate but that was my

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that was my preferred practice

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you know

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no movement it was mine too

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for a long time no style

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I went through that process

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yeah no nothing

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you just nothing

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I spent several years at the pastor centre

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so yeah

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so so when Mark gave me these beads I

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I I

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I just couldn't use them

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so I was carrying them with me in my

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in my bag or in my you know

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and just and I just kept giving my hand inside

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and playing with them

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so I didn't sand on them for a couple months

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many months cause I just couldn't

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you know

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this feeling of moving and getting into meditation

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I had so many blockages from that

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and I just had this restrictions

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no no

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no that's not the way

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but slowly

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it's getting

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it's getting addicted to the feeling of the beach

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and now I wake the last two nights

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I woke up at exactly 4:00

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beautiful time if you wake up at 4:00am

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I know don't get stressed

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pick up your beads and watch

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it was exactly 4:00 twice now

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and I got up and I got into the living room

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and I just laid down and started chanting on my beans

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so um

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it could be that you have a lot of restrictions and

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you know barriers to do something like that

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because of many reasons

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I won't dive into that right now

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it's a very personal matter

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but just give it a try and see how it feels

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you might be surprised just like I was yeah

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and I I've been practicing for over 25 years now and

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and it's um

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it's always fresh it always feels great

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you know every time I sit down

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you know if it's really noisy outside

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I can plug one ear

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and just really absorb myself in the sound

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but also in the feeling of my beads

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you know sometimes I'm furiously wiggling them

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other times I'm just touching them lightly

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I find if I need to slow down

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I just sort of really slow on rolling them

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there's no hard and fast rules

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but we'll just teach you I'll just do

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you know if you can pick up a set of beads

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there's lots of places in local

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you know

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if you go down to a local place that sells crystals

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you know incense and things like that

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you usually can find beads oh oh

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you remember those beads that I got

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um I was in Glastonbury

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and I went into the store

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and they had this gorgeous beads

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you know made out of crystals

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ha ha

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you know and all this

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and I put them around my wrist

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because it looked so nice

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but they're very uncomfortable to chant on

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yeah and you always

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like they might break and it was really weird

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so I what did I say to you

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I said one of the best beads

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the ones you use yeah

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the ones you use they're not meant for

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for fashion decoration decoration

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although they they

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you know I

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I just love

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I feel like I always have a friend coming with me

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and I do in the in the transcendent sound

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but also in the beats

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so I always keep them in 1/2 set in my pocket

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uh I never feel like I'm bored or have wasted time

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if I'm online somewhere or walking somewhere

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some people go out every morning and walk their dogs

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faithfully and I

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I try to walk my beats faithfully

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and do you remember

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when we were parking at these cemeteries

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and we were traveling yeah

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yeah yeah

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yeah and Mike got up when the sun rose

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I I'm not good at getting up early

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but he was just walking through the cemetery

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in the morning when the sun rose

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and just walking his beads

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and it was so nice to watch

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and it's so nice and quiet

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oh and cemeteries actually can be

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most cemeteries are public

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we found that they're great to park near

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because there's usually a water

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there's water there for the flowers

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that people put on the gravesides

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and so if you're respectful and it's public

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cemeteries can be fantastically beautiful places

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quiet places to take your beads for a walk

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and also you're out in nature in the fresh air and uh

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you know um

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I've spent a lot of time in cemeteries in my lifetime

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and I used to work in funeral

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and cemetery for a period of time too

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so it's also

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it's humbling and sobering to just be reminded that

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yeah one day all of this will be gone

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and it's good to take stock of our life

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and if you can do that even on a daily basis

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it's great

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but if you can find a nice place to walk your beads

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in the morning even at night

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we sometimes go for jappa walks

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we'll just walk outside together

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but we'll be chatting on our beads

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and so we'll just I'll just quickly

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you know the

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the mantra we say on the head bead

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you kind of go through the whole thing

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and then instead of jumping over the head bead

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you turn it around and just start again

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uh

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on the on the

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the bead beside the head bead

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and so I'll just demonstrate Goranga Goppa

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Govinda Rama Madana Mohana

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and then move to the next beat

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go Palla go Vinderrama Madana Mohana

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and we can go a little faster

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go Palla go Vinderrama Madana Mohana go Palla

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go Vinderrama Madana Mohana copala

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govinda Rama madana mohana copala

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govinda Rama madana mohana copala govinda Rama

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madana mohana so copala

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govinda Rama madana mohana

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can you translate that

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these are

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these are all different names of God

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and there's no hard and fast rules

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um

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god there's only one supreme being

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and as enumerated in scripture

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there's as innumerable names

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too many names to count

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in

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in every scripture in the world I've

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I've read that God's names are to be praised

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in the Bible it says from the sun up to the sun down

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the lord's name is to be praised in

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I've seen I've read in

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in Arabic you know

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they have the hundred

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the 99 most beautiful names of Allah

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Alahim and

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and so many so many different

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languages for every language

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there's a name or names of

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that refer to the Supreme Person

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Watan Tanka

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in many native groups refer to the Great Spirit or

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I've heard so many different names

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and these ones are the ones that I find most attractive

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they were certainly taught to me

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and there's no hard and fast rules

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if you if you like a

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a different what are other ones

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oh we

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we also chant the Maha mantra

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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna

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Krishna Harry

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Harry Rama Harry

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Rama Rama

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Rama Harry Harry

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this means it's a

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it's a prayer which means Lord

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oh Lord

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oh energy of the Lord

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please engage me in loving service to you

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and Krishna means a person who's all attractive

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who attracts all

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and haray refers to the feminine aspect of God

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Radha and then Rama

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means he who gives spiritual bliss

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to those engaged in loving service to him

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it's of course

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it's a very blissful activity to render loving service

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and in this age of quarrel chaos confusion

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it's said that this is the

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prime benediction for humanity at large

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so grab your beads we'll do some more japa

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throughout the

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throughout the days and years and decades

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can you say the one with merari

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just gonna yeah yeah

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I'm thinking of the one that you're thinking of

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it's beautiful

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Madana Mohana Murari he who attracts 1,000 cupids

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or the conqueror of Cupid

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is so beautiful that even Cupid is attracted to him

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Madana Mohana Murari Madana Mohana Murari

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just three words

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3 names yeah

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absolutely there's no hard and fast rules

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you can I really like the word Morari so much

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yeah you might find that there are certain names of god

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or qualities of god

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or descriptions of god that you're really attracted to

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and that's a great um

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that's great indicator don't be shy

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yeah dive in

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I didn't wanna say my name in India

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so when somebody asked me what's your name

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I said Murari dasi das servant of

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you know

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servant of Murari

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yeah so I really like the merari one

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we we encourage you to you know

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when we we get together with people

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we often have a lot of

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I buy beads and then give them out I

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love giving out beads and giving out incense

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and

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we offer sometimes these lovely candies

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and give them out and it's really nice

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it's a nice way to even at a very short period of time

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give something that's really

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of great value and can really help people to

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engage in

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so we went a little over time today

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yeah but I think it's important because uh

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this is something you can do anywhere

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anytime

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you can't do impersonal meditation

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where you need a quiet stark

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not that you can't move spot

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that's that's something you

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you can only do in a really safe place

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and then we found it in the comfort of beads yeah

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so you can do anywhere so

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when we drive in the car and we're waiting somewhere

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or when we just go for walks

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we have it in our hands and sometimes

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I mean mostly in the last months I didn't chant

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I just played with them get got familiar with them

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remembered them ha ha yeah

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they start to become like an old friend

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you always wanna have them with you

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I know so it takes a while it really took me many

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many months to get close to them again

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and sometimes we lean into

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and sometimes we lean away from our practices

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and that's yeah

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we're not perfect and we're not uh

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you know

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we still have we're still practicing so it's so lovely

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it's it's a car it's

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there's no

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end to the different levels of consciousness one can

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yeah be in I'm sorry

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going all the time but for me

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this is really important

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because it was a change of mind that took many

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many months

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but I think many

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many people who who come from the impersonal

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silent meditation yeah

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um we're just in the same situation tomorrow

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remind me remind me to say the story about Bo Gaia and

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and people go shh

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you know

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people shushing people cause it said please be quiet

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you know and everyone was shuffling

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and there's hundreds of thousands of pilgrims

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and tell a story tomorrow yeah

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tomorrow tomorrow

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so peace be with you

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peace be with you and I must stay in Haribol

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thanks for tuning in to Juicy Magic on the daily

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I'm Mark and Maria and we thank you for your time

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energy and being

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and look forward to hanging out with you tomorrow

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I go bye

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yeah so do we get 3 in 3

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I didn't press stop yet

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do we get do we record three though

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yes

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you little shits

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it's not stopping

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About the Podcast

JuicyMagiK On the Daily
JuicyMagiK On the Daily Podcast with Maria and Mark
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