Looking back now, my path to “A Course in Miracles” probably all started in 1969 when I accepted Jesus my own Lord and Savior, beneath the influence of the Campus Crusade for Christ. However, after joining a Christian brotherhood of aspiring monks, where I was daily quizzed how many Bible verses I had memorized and could recite verbatim, I was totally confused by it all. Their version of reality just didn’t sit well with me. I felt such as a parrot of Bible verses, that I didn’t even begin to comprehend, or town crier that nobody wanted to hear. Jesus would show me more, much more.
As divine synchronicity would have it, I ingested a hallucinogen that resulted in a near death experience the day after Christmas, 1970. When I was in the black void, with only the consciousness that “I Am”, George Harrison’s song My Sweet Lord began playing. Which was my voice singing to God, not George’s! Soon an excellent white light began appearing from the darkness, as my soul sang “I genuinely wish to see you Lord “.Then somebody started initially to emerge from the light. This Holy One oscillated between masculine and feminine. As I’d been praying to Jesus, I thought it might be him, but with out a beard. I began crying from the depths of my soul, since the Holy One communicated telepathically into my heart. I knew this Being to be nothing but pure love. Then it absolutely was over. I was shot back to my body, hearing the words to a new song telling me “this has been quite a long time coming, it’s likely to be quite a long time gone.” How true that’s been.
Per year later, I saw the cover of Autobiography of a Yogi. It absolutely was Paramahansa Yogananda who’d come to me! Next came meeting Baba Ram Dass, who confirmed that I wasn’t crazy and stated that Yogananda had appeared to numerous young spiritual seekers on drugs. He also autographed my copy of Be Here Now. My next decade was spent as an aspiring yogi and practicing Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship lessons and exercises, chanting, meditating and receiving initiation into Kriya yoga. Yogananda’s path and linage of gurus brought the necessary clarity for me personally to comprehend Jesus and Christianity better. Yogananda also showed me the primary truth behind the oneness of all religions. And he brought me to Babaji, the Mahavatar who sent him to America in the 1920s. Since I heard the name Babaji, I knew I knew Him a course in miracles david hoffmeister. He and Jesus interact, behind the scenes, in the cosmic scheme of things. And Babaji was to be the next step in my ongoing spiritual evolution. However, I did not know at this point that He had supposedly manifested a human body again and was residing in the tiny village of Haidakhan, in northern India. That will come later, combined with the mystery and myth of the current manifestation.
After hearing Bhagavan Das sing, I bought a dotara and began chanting mantras to God daily. This simple, ancient two- stringed instrument is simple to play and lets one follow the drone sound into silence. Now, I purchased my own invest the woods and met a person who’d lived with Babaji. He conducted a Vedic fire ceremony that Babaji had taught him to initiate my new abode. I questioned and grilled him repeatedly, asking if this new Babaji was the exact same entity Yogananda wrote about. Yes, one and the exact same but peoples egos still question His true identity. Babaji’s new Kriya yoga was the road of truth, simplicity and love while performing karma yoga- work - and keeping one’s mind on God, through repetition of the ancient mantra Om Namaha Shivaya. Babaji stated this mantra alone was stronger than a thousand atomic bombs and His 1-800 number. I began at this point seriously doing japa, or the repetition of the mantra on 108 rudraksha beads, to get this vibration into my sub consciousness. I also learned many ways to chant it on my dotara. With all of this going on, I bought “A Course in Miracles” and began the daily lessons immediately. I tried to create sense of the Text but got nowhere; each sentence bogged me down and must be re-read over way too many times to assimilate. I was just too young, I told myself. I was thirty-three. I’d deal with this particular Text later, someday, maybe.