Introduction

[Guest guest]

OM!

 

I grew up in California. My family moved about every 2 years up and down

the California coastline, as my father took different industrial design

contracts, including part of Disneyland. I now live in Manhattan, New York

City, working in the IT department of an international law firm. Working

with them, I've travelled to London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and

Washington DC. I love my own family and friends, both cyber and

biological. I'm not married, but am dating, and will notify you all

when/if that day comes! :-)

 

My family, of British, German and Swedish roots, has been culturally

atheist for as many generations as I am aware of. Never a mention of

anything spiritual or religious. But for me, as young as age 10, I began

to do what I'd now call a kind of inquiry. As kids, my friends and I would

throw rocks at each other. If a rock hit me in the shoulder, I'd think

that it didn't hit "me," but rather my shoulder only. In fact, I couldn't

think of anywhere the rock could hit that would be "me."

 

This investigation continued into academic life. I studied for a B.A. in

experimental psychology with an avocation in philosophy. In grad school I

went for an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy. Along the way, I studied mostly

Western metaphysics, epistmology, axiology (the study of human choice) and

decision theory (the study of rational behavior). I experienced karma yoga

in the U.S. Army :-), as well as profound bhakti and karma yoga in the

fundamentalist pentacostal Christian church, which I felt mystically drawn

to in the mid-1980's. I was a deacon there for 4 years.

 

On my own, I studied Ayn Rand's Objectivism, Libertarianism,

microeconomics, solipsism, Western hermeticism, esoteric Christianity,

Kabbala, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy -- until the constant

mention they made of the Vedas turned me towards the East in search of

Vedanta. In the local bookshop, the first Vedanta books I found were the

Brahma Sutras with Shankaracharya's commentary, and the Mandukya Upanishad.

I began to read widely, and for about two years attended the weekly

Manhattan study group under the Chinmaya Mission. The instructor was Dr.

George Romney, a gifted, kind, insightful, intelligent, strict and devoted

teacher.

 

For me, Advaita Vedanta found its richest, clearest and fullest expression

in the teachings of Krishna Menon (Sri Atmananda). His teachings have been

facilitated by years of meetings with Francis Lucille, a student of Jean

Klein, who was a direct disciple of Sri Atmananda's. Sri Atmananda's great

works ATMA DARSHAN, ATMA NIRVRITTI and his massive, unpublished, two-volume

DISCOURSES made this great philosophy come alive for me. His works seemed

to articulated my own experience like pouring oil into oil.

 

Currently I teach a 6-month course in advaita philosophy at the Atmananda

Yoga Center in New York, based on the Chinmaya Mission teachings, as well

as the tradition of Sri Atmananda. We are in our 3rd cycle. The course is

part of a Yoga Teachers Training Course and is certified by the Yoga

Alliance. Privately I teach Madhyamika philosophy. I write articles on

Advaita, nondualism and Buddhism for the Nonduality website and

Magazine. I contribute to several e-mail lists on these

topics, including NDS, , Mahamudra, and NoDoer.

 

Hari OM!

 

--Greg