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I have been associated with Vedanta since 1987, in Portland, Oregon.  I was in inner turmoil with my teenage daughter and heard of a spiritual teacher who was a woman.  I went to a meeting of a chapter of the group and the pictures on the walls began to talk to me.  This was very startling!  I had nothing in my experience to explain this, and yet, it was very compelling.  I began to study with Gurumayi Chidvelasanda whose lineage is Kashmir Shavism and elements of Vedanta.  I took a correspondence course for 12 years with one of her teachers. Writings on the true nature of reality!  

 

I became more and more interested in studying the teachings, but they were only available by going to India (which I did) or to the lineage's main ashram in New York (which I did).  I longed to be able to study the teachings every day.  In 1995, through a book by Lex Hixon, called The Great Swan, I found a group here in Portland that was studying the divine poems of Ramprasad, with commentary by Babaji Bob Kindler.  I was introduced to Ramakrishna and Holy Mother through this association and began a long journey of studying many of the scriptures of India, through the translations of Ramakrishna Swami's, and read all of Vivekananda under the supervision and help of Babaji Bob Kindler, along with the Nondual scriptures of Buddhism.  I fell in love with Ramakrishna and Holy Mother!  In 1997 I was initiated into the Ramakrishna Kali Advaita Vedanta lineage by Babaji and stayed with this group until 2018.  I understood that Babaji was not recognized as an initiator by most of the Ramakrishna lineage.

 

Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism have changed my life and my work completely.   My understanding of Vedanta took me into writing a therapy book that takes the client through rescuing aspects of self that are out of awareness that keep consciousness in the outer sheaths into the gift of the Atman.  I currently Coach in a program of Nondual teachings and study the Nondual teachings and the scriptures of Tibetan Buddhism of Dzochen.