April 2019 Bardo Buzz (01-02)

Each issue of The Bardo Buzz comes with an installment of The Joy of Sacrifice

THE JOY OF SACRIFICE:
Secrets Of The Sufi Way by E.J. Gold

The human lifespan is abnormally shortened compared to what it could be. Scientists today wonder how 'primitive savages' were able to live very long lives without the so-called benefits of modern medicine.

Until recently human beings lived normal lives for the organism, which was placed under continual tension and stress, thus developing the essence automatically by preventing the formation of personality, which can only function under extreme low-voltage conditions of the nervous system. Stress produces high voltages, forcing the essence to operate the organism.

At the same time, life was much simpler, allowing one to maintain oneself internally without the need for externals demanded by today's mechanical culture. Now all this has changed and life no longer presents the stress and simplicity it once did...And if by accident it happens to, why, there is always some pill or other one can take to make it go away...That stress which was in ancient times called Alchemical Fire.

Today these factors are not found in nature, and in a school we are constrained to introduce them artificially. But in this comfort-oriented, labor-saving civilization there are very few who wish actively for a life of stress and friction for themselves, when they can simply slide through life just 'getting by'.

Under conditions normal for a human being, the continual state of tensions keeps the individual at least in the organic sense, awake. Through practices of self-calming, stress is dissipated, thus allowing the individual to plow himself even more deeply into sleep.

The lifespan and experience of a human being can be quite long; subjectively many thousands of years, even though the organism is now limited to a span of sixty or seventy years objective time. On the other hand, the lifespan of the psych is only as long as each 'mask', or 'posture' is in control of the organism...Usually about fifteen seconds. This is not sufficient time to accomplish anything, much less the processes of the collection of higher substances, and their perfection and crystallization into a real soul

The essence was intended to experience life in an unbroken chain of consciousness, regardless of variations in situation, state or organic conditions,

Thus one was intended to experience the movement from one formation of the psyche to another without losing the connecting thread of consciousness.
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to be continued....

AM I IN THIS WORK?

Reading the excerpt from The Joy of Sacrifice, the profound words reverberate through my fragmented mind. It reminds me that taking hold of the vehicle and attempting to meld the "intellectual, emotional and physical centers" comes from EJ. So many Work ideas I find upon reflection I have stolen them from EJ including words for songs. I feel the force of his presence now which I take for granted much of the time.

Am I in this Work? A strange loner on the fringe? I follow creative impulse and extreme necessity in equal measure. Without the Work I would be long dead. Being so driven I tend to have many things on the go but few completions. The opposite would be preferable.

Through fasting, exercise, breath work, cold water, the experiment is to strengthen and open the nervous system to a unified energetic presence. This can allow the mind to sit integrated and not be pushed into excess activity by an over active nervous system. Emotions usually get stuck and need to enter and exit freely. Physical well being depends (in part) on the quality of each and the general input including food plus unknown factors. In the bodywork I do, this integration process is what I attempt. The subtler realms are lost on me.

Steering attention away from animal passions and aggression toward the Love of God and creativity is a tough process I find. Lurking in the shadows, the beast waits for its moment.

If anyone read my 30 years of extreme attempts at breaking out of the box I could be committed to asylum. All have failed miserably and despite the "horror and terror of it all" (Mr. Lee) I'm grateful.

Hanging in there is all I can do and none of it's pretty.
Cameron Watson

FAVORITE QUOTES FROM YANESH

"The single greatest technique for work on Self is to embrace the unpleasant manifestations of others without resentment, expression of displeasure, or the demand for intelligence, reason, justice or conscience on the part of others. Embrace silently and cheerfully and suffer in the stew pot of tension."

E.J. Gold

RESISTANCE AND THE Love3 ORB

A few weeks back E.J started working on new orbs. My understanding was they were for helping us beat the odds, to improve our chances of making things right, to stack the odds in our favor. I was all for that. As of late my inner world seemed to have taken a turn toward darkness and despair. I was looking for an uplifting spiritual experience. I was dismayed and disappointed when I ran Love3. It seemed to me to be all about wishes and hopes for the all elusive thing humans call love.

Because I work on the orbs with E.J., Dick and Claude I was running through Love3 over and over to check it and make mechanical corrections. Then I had one of those wonderful aha moments. I began to see my resistance to even the simplest expression of love. I was steadfastly resistant and unwilling to let myself give or receive love at even the most basic levels. The resistance I felt as I repeatedly ran through the orb was showing me just that. Suddenly I was overwhelmingly grateful to my guide and teacher for creating the Love3 orb. There it was; a magical environment, wrapped in beautiful colors with wonderful magical tools. An opportunity to see my resistance and to work with it. To be uncomfortable but do it anyway, to allow the energy of each of the magical objects I picked up bless me. To let the Love3 orb increase my willingness to accept the gift of love.

Writing about the Love3 orb in a recent blog E.J. Said: 'What kind of love are we talking about here? Actually, it doesn't matter -- they all blend together after a while . . .'

E.J. Gold from the blog Self-Meta Programming https://www.gorebaggsworld.com/2019/03/feeling-alright/

Because of running through Love3 I began to understand just what he meant.

Barbara Haynes

THE MASON BEE COCOONS ARRIVED

A snapshot of some practical aspects in the garden: Spring has sprung, the daffodils are a delight, general garden clean-up and growing bed preparation is in process and, new this year, the bee houses are up! Twenty cocoons of mason bees, called by that name because they use clay mud to create walls between their egg chambers, arrived in a box smaller than a matchbox, one bee was already emerging.

As with any endeavor into new territory, soon one realizes the next level of intricacy, as in: now that winter is unexpectedly reasserting its presence with rainy days NOT 50 degrees or warmer and the main orchard is not yet blooming, does there need to be a change of plan, which originally was to set out the cocoons inside the prepared bee houses? How long can emerged bees stay in the fridge and in what kind of container and how does one feed the ones emerging? Luckily, the internet has information on just about anything these days.

Why mason bees, you may ask? I based it on an observation during the last few years: when the orchard here is ablaze in an ocean of blossoms, and there is that delightful humming of a lot of bees, there are a lot of apples at harvest, and later, lots of apple sauce and apple crisp deserts. In recent times there were two years in a row with very few bees in our orchard, and consequently, not very many apples. A lot of people seem to lose their honey bee hives after just a couple of years. Mason bees are solitary. They are 100 times more effective than honey bees in pollination. They are non-aggressive as they have no hive to defend. We have plenty of the clay mud they need and I have seen an occasional black/blue bee in the garden, but thought I'd help things along this year, chuckling, as if I needed another project, especially one involving live creatures. After all, assuming responsibility for live beings is not a small thing. Yet, for an integrated as well as productive garden, pollinators are essential. Mason bees in the spring and later, just as importantly, the summer leafcutter bees, or, for that matter, creating habitat for a variety of native wild bees, might just be a good idea.
Christiane Wolters

GETTING CONNECTED

Working with Intention:

Attention follows intention. Knowing this I make my Work intentions often, in the morning on awakening and particularly when I sense my sleeping machine. Going through a doorway (the Doorway Exercise), moving (with this body's fingers "I" type on the keyboard) or using the mantrum "I wish for these small efforts to be used for the benefit of all Beings everywhere" in everything I do, including walking across the barn floor to go to the office. All of the exercises we have are intentions.

Since we live in machines that are chronically automatic, it is essential to repeat intentions often. And since the effectiveness of one becomes ineffective very quickly -- what worked today, will probably not work tomorrow - having a Work tool chest with a variety and ample supply of intentions becomes critical. On my desk I have a small calendar called "Wisdom of the East" which contains quotes from spiritual teachers. I find it useful for connecting me to Home Space, seeing the truth of the situation, cutting through the illusion. It is a good tool and I use it daily.

Tools can be found most anywhere if one is looking -- if one has intention. Here is a site you might find to be of value

https://www.facebook.com/ejsays/

May you prosper in your Work.
Jewel McInroy

MUSINGS OF A LABYRINTH READER

"To the divine silence of the great sacrifice;
We offer homage, love and hope;
But above all we give our gratitude."

from Obligatory Reader's Invocation, American Book of the Dead, E.J. Gold.

Giving gratitude is like spreading the wealth, a currency far above ordinary "coin of the realm". I am grateful to be working as a group in the ashram specifically in a couple of ways. The cumulative effort of a group focused on an intention produces a far greater work force that's perceivable to many and very effective toward the aim.

On March 7th Rocky and Nortiana hosted at the Amethyst Healing Circle, aka Gorby's Medicine Wheel, a special healing circle in English and Spanish for Harry Lundell, a fellow voyager and strong supporter of E.J.'s work and our community over the years. The attendance was exceptional which mirrored the space of the healing meditation and vigil.

The next day I posted on Prosperity Path and the LRS forum Harry's expression of gratitude and the news that his surgery had been accomplished in half the expected time. Harry expressed that "peace and calmness never left me" which was attributed to the extended focus of the circle. When sitting in the circle, I was grateful for the opportunity to ascend with our large group to such a refined healing space.

Besides special events of this nature, I am grateful each week to be working in a small group of ten at Science Fiction Radio Theater (SciFi Radio Theater). We re-enact scifi stories and books that E.J. has recommended in order to bring the story to life and practice our skills of evocation and invocation. If all the elements are working together the invocation comes alive and the spaces the stories take us have a crystal clarity and sometimes an exquisitely high vibration. I clearly remember...

On March 13th, the first week we started The Seed by Dan Thomas which has a large cast giving nearly everyone a part was just such a strong invocation. When Ray said that his body leaned in to hear better just before the narrator read that his character leaned over the conference table was just one indicator of several that the magic was working. His character had descended upon him contributing to the refined vibration of the space.

I extend an invitation to all readers to join us for the magic of SciFi Radio Theater on Wednesdays at 5:00 pm at the Convention Center, upstairs in the ashram. Getting into Second Life is free and easy. If you need help getting there, post in the Prosperity Path forum and numerous offers of help will appear, I can assure you. See you there.
Marvette Kort

SURRENDER CAN BE GOOD

As long as we are governed by our attachments, we will never know the true meaning of freedom. How can we be truly free when we reside within the prisons of our attachments? Who would know better than we, ourselves - what we are really attached to and how these attachments have led us down paths we truly regret. It is really not about renouncing life; it is about renouncing our very bad habits, attachments, fears and insecurities. Real renunciation comes from us breaking ourselves away from our attachments.

One of my biggest attachments revolves around yearning for approval or recognition. This has led to me to do many things which I have come to regret and also some I am grateful for. It brought me here to be part of a Work Team. I realized that the true fulfillment I received came from being here and doing spiritual work all together. Sometimes it takes the form of doing ordinary tasks of life.

The wonderful book, Everyday a Holy Day helped me to understand the importance of being present to be able to integrate spiritual experience in ordinary life. Everyone's learning curve is unique. Just as everyone's pace and time to blossom and bloom are also very personal.

I used to compare and compete, I used to look everywhere to see where I was and could never find myself. I used to accumulate things to make me feel safer or happier. I'd like to not do these things anymore and just concentrate on what I need to do and do them with the best of my ability. Most importantly, do them with all my heart.

I love this message from E.J. Gold below:

"Whatever you are doing now, do not look at others on
your left or right, you just look straight ahead and do it!"

I sincerely thank every single person who has helped me, supported me and especially those, who never gave up on me. Most importantly, I thank my teacher E.J. Gold for his unconditional love, patience and kindness and for guiding me and lighting up the Path.

Thank you from my heart.
Michele Marie

THE ABD AS A DIVINATION TOOL

From The Poet's Cafe

The Prosperity Poets gathered in the Ashram, at the Little Zen House, and we continued our experiments with using the American Book of the Dead by E.J. Gold as an inspiration for our writing. Our exercise was to open the book (and this could also be Angels Healing Journey or The Lazy Man's Guide to Death & Dying) and choose a line at random. We went clockwise around the group and typed in our chosen lines--to make a group composition. After that, we each wrote a short meditation or poem based on our particular chosen lines.

Here below is the group poem--made entirely of texts chosen from the books:

TRANSITION

It is the radiance of the grace of the guide of the transit world
The transitional form--as a result of the extreme domination of organic habit --
will at first tend to be a rough approximation of the human primate form,
together with its mental and emotional sets
Now the white light of the mirror of wisdom,
transparent, glistening, and dazzling, beautiful and terrifying...
If that happens, then the bringer of beauty,
along with the light from the human dimension, will appear.
But this body is not flesh and blood
I prepare myself to survive transition
(Thanks to Loralilah, Myra, Auntiematter, Llara34, Agenbite, Grokkey)

This group is open, by the way, to all who would like to join us on Monday evenings, 7:30 to 8:30 P.M., Pacific Time.
Iven Lourie

SPECIAL ATTENTION

(Here is a short hand-written talk given by E.J. in 2015)

Special Attention is a kind of attention. Without it, you notice the absence of it. With it, you notice it. Defining it is not that easy. It's Special Attention. That is the definition. It's not attention that is ordinary. It's not attention that would ordinarily come from anything you normally would do. There is nothing you can do to provoke it in an ordinary way, but through the use of a particular type of alchemical operation, let's call it.

So your Special Attention doesn't just happen. Special Attention has to be activated, triggered, in a particular way. You can almost say it is ritualized. It sort of looks like that because it's always done the same way. I guess that qualifies as a ritual, if nothing else. And so you are always acting the same way and Special Attention is not ordinary attention, There is nothing like it. Its not the same thing. Its not spent the same way, it doesn't have the same purposes, the same technique, the same technology to it at all.

Special Attention is different and requires triggering -- conscious intentional triggering. And what Special Attention does is whatever event you are in becomes an observed event. But I call it presence and attention. And it comes about in a particular way, you enact it. So the event becomes an observed event. It becomes a particular event rather than a wave event. It's very important, how that works and what it does. It puts energetics into the space-time which moves you into a better position from a Work standpoint, and that is what the trigger is all about.

Compiled by T.A.Jones

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. We are addressing the question, how can we help you in your work with others. We would love your input to this question!
2. We are reintroducing Karma Yoga. Our first Karma Yoga Day is Thursday,
   April 4^th. Let us know if you want to participate. Contact us at thebuzz.happenings@gmail.com.
3. Community Meeting April 14. 2:00 -- 3:30 p.m. All invited! Come if you can.