Self Realization Fellowship.... Kriya Yoga

Sooooo yeah.....my yoga journey has taken some sharp turns and pauses along the way. I was attending the beginner yoga classes at Indigo, but I stopped because of work and I began gaining weight and the poses started getting harder for me to do. I refused to go to the Wednesday classes with the NOISY instructor. 

I also never made it over to Ananda Dallas the yoga center that combines Christianity and Yoga that I wrote about way back when.

Instead I have been attending a weekly Buddhist Meditation Class (of the Kadampa Buddhist Tradition- http://www.meditationintexas.org/ ) and have been meditating on my own and attending church whenever I get the chance.

The Buddhist classes have been AMAZING.  I even considered converting to Buddhism (not entirely) and starting their Foundation Program which is an in depth study of Buddhism. After my trip to California and truly thinking about this decision I decided that Buddhism is not the way for me. Mainly because I want to have a relationship with God and Buddhism does not really concern itself with God, mainly just ones ability to detach from earthly things to be released from samsara. The concepts are shockingly similar to Christian teachings.

One of my closest friends and I have similar outlooks when it comes to religion and spirituality. She took me to this place in LA called Lake Shrine. It is one of the retreat centers of the Self Realization Fellowship. (here are a few pics)

(This is the shrine dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi it contains a portion of his remains. The Founder of SRF, Paramahansa Yogananda, initiated Gandhi into the Kriya Yoga path.)

(If you can see it has a statue of Krishna, and a quote from the Bhagavad Gita)

Buddha

(Statue of Jesus Christ, he is at the highest point in the Meditation Gardens and is also the focal point)

Below is a representation of all the major faith traditions with their correlating prominent symbol.

The SRF was founded by Paramahansa Yogananda. He was a very well known Guru of the Kriya Yoga path that preached tolerance and involvment in all major faith traditions. For the most part he focuses on Christianity and Yoga.

When I first was looking at the website and researching, I thought it might of been a little cultish, but then I read over the main principles and began reading his book:

And I've decided that its EXACTLY what I'm looking for....I have ordered the Self Realization Lessons (the first 20). I won't receive them for another 4 to 6 weeks. I'm kind of nervous about it though. I'm scared....mainly because its completely different from what I'm used to.

As always, I will keep you posted.