A 3rd Chin?

There was an article in the LA Times today about the world wide convocation that Self Realization Fellowship had last week. In the summer of 1970 I was a member of SRF and celebrated it's 50th year, and except for the change of hotel venues, last week's events sounded exactly like the one I went to. It's a week of meditating, listening, chanting and field trips to some of the most amazing real estate scores in Southern California.
Paramahansa Yogananda came to Los Angeles in 1920 and bought land on Mt. Washington, Sunset Blvd, both in Hollywood and Malibu, and a beautiful piece of land in Encinitas, right over the ocean. The surfers call it Swami's. I guess when you have the power of the Lord behind you, you have the keenest insight as to where to buy. Location Location Location.
As I gazed at the photograph in the Times of the people sitting with blankets wrapped around them, and their eyes gently shut, I remembered the feelings of calm and weirdness. The wool blankets provide insulation from the earth's pull as one meditates, and allows an easier access to the higher realms. The closed eyes are to keep the mind focused on the 3rd eye, the portal to see God's Vision.
As my sonny boy grew up, he had a birthmark right between his eyebrows. I used to call it his 3rd eye. He also had a birthmark just next to his chin, and his elementary school friend, Amanda, used to call it his 3rd chin.
Yogananda is buried in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. The field trip there was probably the most awkward for me. Everyone had a turn at going to his internment spot and could touch the brass plaque with their forehead, and say a short prayer. When it was my turn, clunk goes my head against the blessed plaque and those marble vaulted rooms really echo. I wanted to laugh. I might have. Yogananda had a magnificent sense of humor, or so I have heard. I hope he laughed with me.