{"id":77,"date":"2020-07-10T20:59:44","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T20:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/msmaffins.com\/?p=77"},"modified":"2020-08-03T21:16:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T21:16:53","slug":"first-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/?p=77","title":{"rendered":"First Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F77&print=pdf\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/pdf.png\" alt=\"image_pdf\" title=\"View PDF\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F77&print=print\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"http:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>In the summer of 1970, I was deeply immersed in the hippie subculture of Ithaca, NY, home of Cornell University. In that subculture there was a great interest in Eastern religions. The Beatles popularized interest in Eastern religions when they went to India to learn Transcendental Meditation. While working in the graduate library at Cornell, I became a voracious reader of books about Buddhism and Hinduism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"823\" src=\"http:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Passport-02-Alt-1024x823.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-90\" srcset=\"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Passport-02-Alt-1024x823.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Passport-02-Alt-300x241.jpg 300w, https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Passport-02-Alt-768x617.jpg 768w, https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Passport-02-Alt-1536x1234.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Passport-02-Alt-2048x1646.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A plan began to solidify in my mind. I had a commitment to work in the library until the fall of 1970. I would save money like crazy through the summer months and then head for India in September. Getting my first passport was a first step in the process. I also decided to live in the woods through the summer of 1970 so that I could save a maximum amount of money for my Indian odyssey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1010\" src=\"http:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Paul-Summer-1969-2-1024x1010.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Paul-Summer-1969-2-1024x1010.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Paul-Summer-1969-2-300x296.jpg 300w, https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Paul-Summer-1969-2-768x757.jpg 768w, https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Paul-Summer-1969-2-1536x1515.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Paul-Summer-1969-2-2048x2019.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the summer of 1970, I was deeply immersed in the hippie subculture of Ithaca, NY, home of Cornell University. In that subculture there was a great interest in Eastern religions. The Beatles popularized interest in Eastern religions when they went to India to learn Transcendental Meditation. While working in the graduate library at Cornell, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/?p=77\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">First Steps<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/msmaffins.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}