(( About ))

BIO

Swami Chetanananda (Michael Shoemaker) was a college student and political activist when he began watching the film David Copperfield on a dark, cold winter evening in the late 1960s. A question was posed in one memorable scene: "Will I be the hero of my own life?" That question provided a call to action, and Swamiji's response to it has directed his path ever since.

He realized that in order to be able to benefit others, he first had to do something about the quality of his own life. That insight led him to New York City, where he met his primary teacher, Swami Rudrananda ("Rudi"). One look at Rudi was enough to transform him forever. Swamiji says, "When I walked into his store, I looked at him and felt my heart shatter into a thousand pieces. From that moment on, I never had one second's doubt about the power of the experience into which I had entered." Swamiji studied with Rudi until Rudi's passing in 1973, when he took over leadership of the various ashrams established by Rudi. In the years following Rudi's death, Swami Chetanananda studied with Swami Muktanananda, from whom he took initiation (sannyas) in 1978. He became a swami in the Saraswati order and took the name "Chetanananda," meaning "the joy of consciousness."

Swami Chetanananda has dedicated his life to promoting the experience of total-well being for his students and everyone around him. He has become a powerful teacher with the capacity to transmit an immediate awareness of the state of intrinsic wellness at our core. With an understanding that spirituality transcends the confines of religious identity, he has the rare distinction of being a lineage holder in both the Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions.

Passionate about learning and growing, Swamiji has studied with accomplished masters from diverse backgrounds. He has explored in depth the ancient practice and philosophy of kundalini yoga. He spent time with Swami Lakshmanjoo, the last lineage holder in the tradition of Abhinavagupta, and studied with Professor Alexis G.J.S. Sanderson of Oxford University, one of the world's pre-eminent scholars in the field of Kashmir Shaivism. His most significant collaboration has been with Lama Tsering Wangdu Rinpoche of Kathmandu, Nepal, who conferred on Swamiji the lineage of the Pacification of Suffering (ShiJe) tradition of Padampa Sangye. Recently, he has also studied and practiced with tantric healers in the Kathmandu Valley and in India.

Swamiji has a working knowledge of a range of healing methodologies, from the ancient practices of hatha yoga and acupuncture to the more modern techniques of homeopathy and osteopathy. He studied for many years with Dr. Rollin Becker, a gifted cranial osteopath in the tradition of Drs. William Garner Sutherland and Andrew Stills. Dr. Becker's work had great impact on Swamiji's teaching. As Swamiji remembers, "Dr. Becker had a profound understanding of the potential that animates the human being and the process by which that potential is transformed into physiology, cognition and perception."

Born in Kentucky and raised in Indiana, Swamiji is the author of several books on spirituality, including Dynamic Stillness, Vols. I & II ;The Breath of God;Open Heart, Open Mind;Choose to Be Happy; Will I Be the Hero of My Own Life? and There Is No Other. He has traveled extensively in Asia and has a deep appreciation of Asian art. He now resides in Portland, Oregon, where he is the spiritual director of The Movement Center and the guide for hundreds of students around the world.

LINEAGE

Bhagavan Nityananda

The lineage carried by Swami Chetanananda originated with Bhagavan Nityananda, one of the greatest Indian saints of the last century. Nityananda, whose name means "bliss of the eternal," lived in southwest India from around the turn of the 20th century until 1961. Details of his early life are difficult to verify, but from the 1920s until his passing, he was surrounded by an ever-increasing number of disciples and devotees. By the late 1930s he was established in Ganeshpuri in the countryside near Bombay, where an active ashram developed around him.

Nityananda would come into a small room in this ashram which was lit by a few bare electric light bulbs, and sit there quietly with his eyes open. People would come from all distances to see him because, in India, the mere viewing of a spiritual teacher, called darshan, is considered a profound and important blessing. Nityananda would sit in this space with his eyes open, simply establishing a connection with each visitor according to his or her capacity to experience and sustain that contact.

Nityananda was well known in the districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, where he is revered to this day. In its essence, Nityananda's teaching is profoundly simple. Like the ancient sages of many traditions, he said that anyone who merges the individual into the universal is an enlightened person. To realize the universal nature of one's own individual consciousness is the goal of sadhana (spiritual practice). However, it is hard to describe Nityananda's greatness to most Westerners since his most profound achievements were internal. He never explicitly identified himself with a particular spiritual practice or tradition. In fact, he rarely spoke at all. The thousands of people who came to see him did so because in him they experienced the miracle of pure consciousness in human form. Such a holy person is called an avadhut. Timeless and eternal, the avadhut is a direct link to the absolute, encompassing all teachers who precede him and all who follow. More about Nityananda.

Swami Rudrananda (Rudi)

One of the thousands of disciples who made their way to Ganeshpuri in the late 1950s was an American named Albert Rudolph (“Rudi”). Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rudi had been actively pursuing his spiritual development from a young age. At age 30, he was at a crossroads in his life when an associate took him to meet Nityananda at his ashram in Ganeshpuri. Rudi wrote, "My first meeting, in India in 1958, with the great Indian saint Bhagavan Nityananda was of such depth that it changed the course of my life."

Rudi continued to study with Nityananda, and after Nityananda's mahasamadhi in 1961, traveled regularly to Ganeshpuri to visit his shrine and to study with Swami Muktananda. In 1966, Swami Muktananda initiated Rudi as a Swami into the Saraswati order, naming him Rudrananda, or "bliss of Rudra," a fiery and early aspect of the Hindu god Shiva. One of the first Americans to be recognized as a Swami, Rudi came back to the United States and established many ashrams across North America and Europe.

Rudi was instrumental in exposing many Americans to the spirituality and rich cultures of the East. He had a deep respect and appreciation for these different spiritual and cultural traditions and saw a need for them to be presented in a way the West could comprehend. Though recognized as a Swami in India after many years of study, he was not as concerned with the form of Eastern tradition as he was with the content. Rudi saw the art and culture of Eastern spirituality as the symbol of something profound and universal, a truth that cut across all cultural boundaries. To that end, Rudi's teaching was direct and to the point, transmitting his profound understanding with a style that was uniquely his own.

The foundation of Rudi's teachings was based on a deep personal wish to grow spiritually. Rudi talked about this wish to his students constantly. He described how a sincere wish to grow would lead to a deep and intense feeling which, as it matured in an individual, would evolve quite naturally into a deep love of God and of life.

According to his teachings, a shift will happen as this wish to grow would be further transformed into a deep state of surrender. To grow spiritually, Rudi taught that we must live and work in the world from a deep internal state of surrender without any exceptions. Rudi passed away in 1973. Before he died, he designated Swami Chetanananda as his successor. Swami Chetanananda established The Movement Center to carry on Rudi's work.