A RELIABLE INNER COMPASS

"Inner Compass," Please click & meditate!

I have my opinions about "enlightenment."  These opinions are informed from having come up through challenging experiences, in sacrifice for locating my own answers to a reliable inner compass.

My first consideration is that no one for whom Life has always been a bed of comfort and support has any initial need for "it," (enlightenment) but for myself...having grown up in a seventies' industrial environment with limiting prejudices, a pinch of religious exposure, and a family curse of parental alcoholism...there was always a need for a saving guidance.

I began with an inner sensation of "magic," which had no anchor in any traditional influences I knew of in childhood.  In fact, my own sense of awe, of higher connection, was mysteriously independent of it all.  I began with no frame-work for understanding where the source of "connection" actually came from.  I merely sensed "it" from within, but "it"   had no name.

When there are no supportive guide posts in one's particular society to reflect one's "inner rightness," there can be great struggle to believe that the feeling of "inner knowledge" has any validity.  One is usually educated to take one's cues for how to live.  We may feel isolated, alienated, and diminished, when our own inner compass is diminished or shattered by others.

That possible lack of societal support, may be why many "seekers" look outward to other cultures with greater value placed on metaphysical teachings. I feel that meta-knowledge must always be grounded in real-world connection, in order to be well-balanced.  After all, most of us do live in the material or manifest world of tangible steps, and interpersonal responsibilities to loved ones who depend on our present-mindedness.  There is a time to meditate with complete focus on the internal world, and then all the other times when one moves actively through work and errands and nurturing relationships, where complete outer awareness is key.  It is always valuable to notice what is key on the higher perception of personal alignment (of values), even as one is aware of "what is," which can be obstacles or perceived challenges in the moment, so that our spiritual intention and physical reality are "one."

When each path is uniquely personal....one must learn to trust that the highest calling for the individual may only be discovered listening to the inner teacher "in connection," or opening to higher answers.  Does this not make sense, for what outsider can truly look inside our mysterious natures and truly know what our unique purposes are unfolding into?  Other point-of-views are forever mirrored from the perspective of what they themselves want to see...and so when pointed at us, are often not reflecting our sincere inner truths, but that other point-of-view's own personal references.

The only bridge between point-of-views, is the fine art of listening to one another without judgment...

Therein lies the universal struggle...how one comes to trust the inner teacher who requires no learned mediator to dictate the access points of spiritual well-being or finer ethics to live by.  Even in stating that everyone has an inner teacher, I feel that everyone must gather their own resonating guide posts toward making peace with existence in all its emotional, psychological, social, and individual challenges of experience.  In this sense, I am no different than anyone else who is "on a path."  I haven't arrived yet...I am constantly arriving to a newer place of comprehension!

I am a self-described Transcendentalist in perspective.  I choose to interpret reality as an interconnected net of exchanges, as meaning-filled existence with symbols, sign-posts, opening and closing portals of opportunities, teachers and lessons to temper one's soul with challenges and illuminations, on the path of  personal evolution.  I empower my pathway by inter-weaving liberated spiritual point-of-views, devoid of controlling dogma, to determine the freedom of my own unique unfolding.  As in Nature, we begin as the bud of promise, and then unfurl the petals to all of our potential.  I listen for my inner voice, my center, which recognizes "truth" when it resonates within me.  I trust in my quest to achieve a higher good.  I trust that expressing my own voice of experiences, will be to share the "why" of why I am here now.

My nut-shell of spiritual tools:  theater training taught me values of discovering my inner nature while adapting flexibility for self-transformation, Wicca suggested how I could channel visualization or manifestation into the material world, Buddhism suggested how I could see through illusions of reality and reconsider the meaning of pain, yoga science taught me a tradition of purging and shaping my own self to attune with healthy directions, Pagan culture offered a model for the equality between feminine and masculine ~ Goddess with God united in their role-honoring natures, and with First Nations' culture or Shamanism, invited me to look for eternal truths in what Nature reflects to me.  I include spontaneous or stream-of-consciousness writing, which for me, has been a direct conduit into the truth of my own voice.  I am grateful to All...and gain self-guidance from all of these paths, taking what resonates within me, and leaving what doesn't.

My accredited teacher training in the holistic Meta-Science of Yoga, derived its origin through the lineage of yoga master and western medicine practitioner of 38 years, the late Doctor Swami Gitananda,  from Pondicherry India.  I was certified as a Science of Yoga Teacher on the west coast by David Goulet and Marina Halleran.  David Goulet, my primary teacher and a former monk, studied for two years with "The Lion of Pondicherry," at his Ananda Ashram, in order to absorb the full range of metaphysical practices into a collected knowledge base.  This "transmission," of yoga meta-science was brought to North America by David, and has become the core of my own transcendental practices. Swami Gitananda's own Guru had been the great Master and "Siddha" (one who has achieved spiritual realization and reputed supernatural abilities), Ram Gopal Majumdhar.  I am forever grateful for receiving the education of this noble heritage into my life.

I will impart ongoing "flavors" of these influences, philosophy, commentary and poetry, along with clarifying a foundation of transcendental practices for connection and self-empowerment.  My personal experiences with the deeper practices will wait for the sharing, in my meta-novel I am writing with intent to publish...

With these aspects introduced, you have an understanding of what my blog's intention, information and expression will be about.  Anything I have yet to mention will be found along the way...

Welcome to "TRANSCENDENTAL KRIYA!"

Andre Hirsch Todorovich