I have done a particular form of meditation since 1993 called Raja Yoga, practiced and taught by Paramahansa Yogananda. (He wrote a book called "Autobiography of a Yogi"). He had been trained in Raja Yoga ( also called Kriya Yoga), by Swami Sri Yukteswar. Yogananda was the founder the organization of Self Realization Fellowship in the the United States, and the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Paramahansa Yogananda lived in organized Self Realization in the United States beginning in 1920 and he passed away in 1952. You can get Yogananda's lessons on How to Meditate from Self Realization Fellowship. Kriya Yoga has changed my life! It helps me leave the normal world behind daily, and recharge my brain, and heart with hope, peace, and with the "love of Jesus Christ." Yogananda had great respect and love for Jesus Christ's teachings...
Correction: Paramahansa Yogananda organized the organization called "Self Realization Fellowship", specifically to give people lessons on how to meditate.
I’m intrigued and would love to hear more about how you discovered that form of meditation, what inspired you to try it, and how it has changed your life! You’re welcome to email me privately if you don’t want to comment here.
There is a book that I would like to read by a Richard Davidson, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry who began measuring Tibetan Monk's brainwaves. He studied eight long term Monk practitioners of Traditional Tibetan Meditation. I don't know the year or years he did this. He also wrote a book called "The Emotional Life of Your Brain, " by Richard Davidson and Sharon Begley, which I noticed in Amazon Books. I do not know how good that book is. I am intrigued and want to read this book.
When I was a graduate student in a Master of Arts Program at Central Washington State College, Ellensburg, WA, a fellow graduate Student in the graduate Painting and Drawing Program there at Central gave me a copy of the book "Autobiography of a Yogi", written by Paramahansa Yogananda. At the time I read the book, and it partially made sense, and partially did not make sense to me. I was 23 years old with little life experience when I read the book. ( I had gone to an undergraduate school-Pacific Lutheran University, in Tacoma, WA, and had started having my own adult ideas about the Vietnam war, religion,etc., and yet didn't feel confident in my own identity as an artist, and confident as my own person). I was at Central Washington State from 1973 to Fall of 1975. I sought out a Therapist at Central Washington State because I had realized i was deeply upset about a situation in my family. I went home at Christmas of 1973, and my mother seemed to be depressed, more depressed than I had ever seen her before. To backtrack, I was the oldest of six kids and my sister (fifth child) was mentally handicapped (mentally age of five years old in a teenage body of a 13 year old). Before I went to college I had "helped" my mother with this sister for years. This sister I will call Nelly. Nelly had ADHD, mental retardation, and was acting out rebellious teen hormonal rages. So when I saw how depressed my mother was at home at Christmas of 1973, dealing with Nelly I sensed something needed to be done. So in January I sought out a psychologist to talk to at Central about my family's situation back in Alaska. I concluded after talking to him in several sessions that I would send my parents a letter, and a cassette tape of a session with my Therapist. In the cassette tape I basically said to my parents that they needed to have Nelly put into a specific institution to meet Nelly's needs because at that timeAlska didn't have the ability or the institution to handle Nelly. I cried on the cassette tape stating to Mom and Dad that I knew that Pastor Groth would be the one to help them find a "Lutheran Institution" that would be appropriate for Nelly. My parents did get lots of support from pastor Groth and his wife, and they did send Nelly to a Lutheran Institution for the Handicapped in Nebraska. After this happened I realized that I had to grapple with my own anxiety about succeeding in a graduate program in ART at age 23 to 24. I was alone and on my own. I had taken care of my parents, and had not learned to take care of myself. When I realized that I went into the first and only full blown panic attack I have ever had. (I have partial ones at various times in my life because I have an anxiety disorder. Was I going to succeed? I was beginning to like my two main art professors, but had not found my own unique "voice/ visual handwriting". So for about twenty four hours I could not eat or sleep. I checked myself into the medical clinic overnight. And when I was there in my bed there I gradually calmed down. I realized God was with me and was going to help me. I didn't read the "Autobiography of a Yogi", then. I read about a year later...It was not until 1984 that I read " Autobiography of a Yogi" for the second time, ten years after I had read before, that it made sense to me. I had completed another Masters of Art Therapy in 1982 and had been hired as an Art Therapist, at a "Day Program for Group and Recreational Therapy of Schizophrenics and Bipolar clients.. I was fired from my first job as an Art therapist. I learned later from a coworker that my boss had fired the previous art therapist before me. That night I looked at my bookshelf and I saw that book "Autobiography of A Yogi". I picked it up and this time when I read it it all made sense to me. I started taking the lessons from Self Realization Fellowship in 1984 on meditation techniques. By 1993, I was ready to taking the Kriya Yoga Meditation lessons. I find that all the SRF meditation lessons help me become calmer, and feel the love of Jesus, and other saints. By the way Mahatma Gandhi was one of Paramahansa's Students, and he took the Kriya Lessons. His story is in "the Autobiography of a Yogi."
Wow, thank you for sharing all of that, Laura. Very powerful story, and I’m glad you and your family got the help you needed. I’m glad the book, lessons, and meditation practices have been so beneficial to you, and fascinated to learn that Gandhi also took the Kriya meditation lessons.
I have done a particular form of meditation since 1993 called Raja Yoga, practiced and taught by Paramahansa Yogananda. (He wrote a book called "Autobiography of a Yogi"). He had been trained in Raja Yoga ( also called Kriya Yoga), by Swami Sri Yukteswar. Yogananda was the founder the organization of Self Realization Fellowship in the the United States, and the Yogoda Satsanga Society of India. Paramahansa Yogananda lived in organized Self Realization in the United States beginning in 1920 and he passed away in 1952. You can get Yogananda's lessons on How to Meditate from Self Realization Fellowship. Kriya Yoga has changed my life! It helps me leave the normal world behind daily, and recharge my brain, and heart with hope, peace, and with the "love of Jesus Christ." Yogananda had great respect and love for Jesus Christ's teachings...
Correction: Paramahansa Yogananda organized the organization called "Self Realization Fellowship", specifically to give people lessons on how to meditate.
I’m intrigued and would love to hear more about how you discovered that form of meditation, what inspired you to try it, and how it has changed your life! You’re welcome to email me privately if you don’t want to comment here.
There is a book that I would like to read by a Richard Davidson, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry who began measuring Tibetan Monk's brainwaves. He studied eight long term Monk practitioners of Traditional Tibetan Meditation. I don't know the year or years he did this. He also wrote a book called "The Emotional Life of Your Brain, " by Richard Davidson and Sharon Begley, which I noticed in Amazon Books. I do not know how good that book is. I am intrigued and want to read this book.
Let me know what you think of that book if you do read it please, Laura!
When I was a graduate student in a Master of Arts Program at Central Washington State College, Ellensburg, WA, a fellow graduate Student in the graduate Painting and Drawing Program there at Central gave me a copy of the book "Autobiography of a Yogi", written by Paramahansa Yogananda. At the time I read the book, and it partially made sense, and partially did not make sense to me. I was 23 years old with little life experience when I read the book. ( I had gone to an undergraduate school-Pacific Lutheran University, in Tacoma, WA, and had started having my own adult ideas about the Vietnam war, religion,etc., and yet didn't feel confident in my own identity as an artist, and confident as my own person). I was at Central Washington State from 1973 to Fall of 1975. I sought out a Therapist at Central Washington State because I had realized i was deeply upset about a situation in my family. I went home at Christmas of 1973, and my mother seemed to be depressed, more depressed than I had ever seen her before. To backtrack, I was the oldest of six kids and my sister (fifth child) was mentally handicapped (mentally age of five years old in a teenage body of a 13 year old). Before I went to college I had "helped" my mother with this sister for years. This sister I will call Nelly. Nelly had ADHD, mental retardation, and was acting out rebellious teen hormonal rages. So when I saw how depressed my mother was at home at Christmas of 1973, dealing with Nelly I sensed something needed to be done. So in January I sought out a psychologist to talk to at Central about my family's situation back in Alaska. I concluded after talking to him in several sessions that I would send my parents a letter, and a cassette tape of a session with my Therapist. In the cassette tape I basically said to my parents that they needed to have Nelly put into a specific institution to meet Nelly's needs because at that timeAlska didn't have the ability or the institution to handle Nelly. I cried on the cassette tape stating to Mom and Dad that I knew that Pastor Groth would be the one to help them find a "Lutheran Institution" that would be appropriate for Nelly. My parents did get lots of support from pastor Groth and his wife, and they did send Nelly to a Lutheran Institution for the Handicapped in Nebraska. After this happened I realized that I had to grapple with my own anxiety about succeeding in a graduate program in ART at age 23 to 24. I was alone and on my own. I had taken care of my parents, and had not learned to take care of myself. When I realized that I went into the first and only full blown panic attack I have ever had. (I have partial ones at various times in my life because I have an anxiety disorder. Was I going to succeed? I was beginning to like my two main art professors, but had not found my own unique "voice/ visual handwriting". So for about twenty four hours I could not eat or sleep. I checked myself into the medical clinic overnight. And when I was there in my bed there I gradually calmed down. I realized God was with me and was going to help me. I didn't read the "Autobiography of a Yogi", then. I read about a year later...It was not until 1984 that I read " Autobiography of a Yogi" for the second time, ten years after I had read before, that it made sense to me. I had completed another Masters of Art Therapy in 1982 and had been hired as an Art Therapist, at a "Day Program for Group and Recreational Therapy of Schizophrenics and Bipolar clients.. I was fired from my first job as an Art therapist. I learned later from a coworker that my boss had fired the previous art therapist before me. That night I looked at my bookshelf and I saw that book "Autobiography of A Yogi". I picked it up and this time when I read it it all made sense to me. I started taking the lessons from Self Realization Fellowship in 1984 on meditation techniques. By 1993, I was ready to taking the Kriya Yoga Meditation lessons. I find that all the SRF meditation lessons help me become calmer, and feel the love of Jesus, and other saints. By the way Mahatma Gandhi was one of Paramahansa's Students, and he took the Kriya Lessons. His story is in "the Autobiography of a Yogi."
Wow, thank you for sharing all of that, Laura. Very powerful story, and I’m glad you and your family got the help you needed. I’m glad the book, lessons, and meditation practices have been so beneficial to you, and fascinated to learn that Gandhi also took the Kriya meditation lessons.