Rudi's Heritage
The diversity of teaching styles found in our practice is no accident. Rudi’s search for enlightenment occurred during the birth-pangs of Eastern spiritual transmissions in the West, and like determined seekers everywhere sought his awakening through exposure to several mentors and teachers. Complementing his thirteen years as a student of Swami Muktananda, Rudi pursued study with lineage holders who brought previously hermitic knowledge into the modern public assembly. In the mid-1960s, he spent several months traveling and studying with the Shankaracharya of Poori on an extended American teaching tour. And, notably, Rudi's pivotal one-time exposure to the great Indian saint, Bhagawan Nityananda, was a transformative meeting that has continued to inform the core sensibility of our practice.
Samadhi Bhavana acknowledges and celebrates the diverse spiritual paths that are expressed through practitioners in our lineage. Various teachers are connected with Hindu-Buddhist traditions, Sufism, formal and intuitive healing disciplines, and a wide spectrum of esoteric systems. Some of us have studied and taught Tibetan Dzogchen, Taoist energy systems, and Kashmir Shaivism, an ancient source of specific and distinct aspects in our meditation practice. Whatever the appearance and substance of a given teacher’s personal style, our essential connection is the Kundalini MahaYoga practice that Rudi evolved and transmitted for the benefit of all sentient beings. It’s fair to say that those of us devoted to this work are also connected through a Tantric ethos that embraces all of life as the ultimate teacher and vehicle of growth through awakened, active compassion.