Hello all,

I am happy to be a member of this community and look forward to reading, learning, and sharing with all of you.

I am a 51 year old musician/private music teacher. I am of Irish/Scottish heritage and grew up in a vaguely Christian home.

Briefly my spiritual journey has been this:
At 18 I read Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda and it changed my life. I was a highschool drop out and heavy pot smoker also experimenting with other drugs. After reading the book I stopped using drugs, became vegetarian and became a student of SRF.
I became ill and dropped the practice, but a few years later I returned to studying Hindu scriptures, meditating on Aum, and chanting the maha-mantra without being attached to any particular teacher or organization.

Eventually I discovered Zen Buddhism and took to that practice.
I wanted to meet with other Buddhists, but the only Buddhist Temple in my town is Jodo Shinshu (Japanese Pure Land...btw there is no Hindu Temple in my town)
I joined that temple where for the past 17 or so years I have served as secretary on the board of directors, pianist for services, and occasionally as a lay minister.

So why am I here?
Beginning in August of this year I felt that Yoganandaji was calling me back to the practice (though not necessarily to SRF/YSS) and I have been faithfully practicing Kriya Yoga for the past 5 months.
I love the people at the Buddhist Temple, almost all of whom are in their 80's or 90's (so the future of that temple is not bright unfortunately) and I feel the teaching is very very similar (obviously borrowing a great deal from Hinduism) Certainly Yoganandaji always encouraged people to see the common ground between religions. The Buddhist Temple has come to rely very heavily on me, and I will not let them down, but still I know coming back to the teachings, that in my heart Yoganandaji is my Guru.

I will discuss more of my recent experiences and discoveries with the teachings of Yogananda in a future post, but for now I just wanted to introduce myself, and then soak up some of the wisdom and inspiration of this forum.

Aum _/|\_