December 2019 Bardo Buzz (01-10)

Each issue of The Bardo Buzz comes with an installment

The Joy of Sacrifice

Secrets of the Sufi Way by E.J. Gold

Luzon, 25 December

Dear ones, Hope of God:
It is hoped that this letter finds you in good spirits and in good health. In the letters which have reached me during these past few weeks, I see that there are some serious questions abut beginning work.

There are three main lines of work for the beginner in which one can store up a great deal of work material for later, when one is able to make inner world change.

First -- One can learn to accept displeasing manifestations originating in others and in the environment, without becoming either inwardly or outwardly agitated or resentful. This provides real material useful for "fanning the sparks of the purifying fire" which fuses the centers into a unified entity.

Second -- One can perform one's daily tasks with extreme and powerful attention. In this way, one forms material for later work in self-observation and makes a basis for inner exercises which can be added to ordinary tasks.

Third -- One can learn to surpass the ordinary limits of the organism, mind beliefs and attitudes. Thus one forces the ordinary centers of gravity of the personality to seek new sources of energy"¦Possibly to tap the force of the Power Center, which under ordinary circumstances does not come into play.

In one letter, which came a few days ago, the question was asked: "Is it possible to make small temporary change in essence without inner effort?" In order to answer this question seriously, it is first necessary to take a little time to view the underlying factors which make this possible.

As you are quite aware, the psyche is a mechanical and artificial device which makes possible the operation of the organism without any participation of the part of the essence.

Thus the psyche is the substitute for what should be the real operator of the organism.

Just how this state of affairs came about is the subject for much more than a letter, but suffice it to say that it happened more or less to every human being on the planet Earth.

On the other hand, essence, although ordinarily not in control of, or responsible for, the manifestations of the being, is that part of a man which can be said to be genuine. This deep self is not a real identity, however. As it exists presently, it is nothing more than an accidental accumulation of tendencies and habits.

While the psyche is lodged in the mind, nervous system and skin, the essence is represented by the muscle system.

Although some changes can be made in the behavior through the mind, perceptions and emotions, no real inner changes can be made through these ordinary channels of access.

There is a very good reason to make a change in essence"¦ For instance, to help someone pass a barrier they otherwise could not overcome. Even though the change is temporary, it may give the boost needed.

If one understands that the essence has no possibility of formulating an aim, and that only by giving an outer aim is it possible to form a "temporary magnetic center," one will understand the use of this method I am about to introduce to you.

A small, temporary change in essence can be made through the muscles. This alteration can be made artificially with the use of radical posture change combined with certain techniques of massage. Since these are induced from external causes and not through continual practice, they do not make a lasting change.

In some cases, such a change is necessary, as, for instance, in the case of drug addicts and alcoholics, who need a respite before beginning longer-term therapeutic treatment.

Over a longer period of time, one may make permanent changes through the muscle system with the use of gymnastic and rhythmic exercises, combined with inner mental and emotional exercises designed for that individual. In order to do this, however, one must know exactly which changes to make.

If one understands the application of this method, the exact changes necessary for conscious life, along with the understanding of the laws of world creation and maintenance, development on conscience, objective obligation, the means of the collection of salts and their transformation into higher substances, crystallization of the higher being bodies and law conformability"¦ Hmmm"¦ It just now has occurred to me that there may be, as many have said before me, more about this than can be conveyed in letters.

Perhaps it would be wiser to wait until we are able to work together in person. There will be time then to make all the experiments and ask all the questions you might wish. Until then, I will refrain from wiseacring about such serious matters and tend strictly to my business here. No more letters for the moment. Enough!

to be continued...

FAVORITE QUOTES FROM YANESH

"The great work consists in transforming a helpless other-directed puppet into an inner-directed unified being that understands its place in the scheme of things." E.J. Gold

IT HAPPENED AT THE ASHRAM

We had some wonderful visitors in November.

Nishitt visited us for a week at the beginning of the month and worked hard helping Bill, Dan and Iven with the stucco painting. Thank you to Nishitt for helping us come closer to completion of the project.

Tushit, a friend and student of Rajen's visited us mid-month. He was here from India doing some business with his brother and thought he would explore the Ashram. He ran some Orbs, worked with the Super Beacon and participated in the morning talks.

In addition to the scheduled power outages we had, there were two unexpected ones as well. We're getting really good at the routine we have for setting up for power outages. Everybody does their part and in just a few minutes we're ready for living in the dark.

Barbara Haynes

TEAM WORK TEAM PLAY STAYING WITH THE PACK OF GREEN

Helping another member of our team to finish their work, or cover for them in emergencies without agenda is an essential practice. It is better to not fight about other people in our team. If we have issues, let's talk it out in a pleasant manner and tone with the attitude to solve the problem. If we have reacted negatively to someone, apologize from the heart when you have calmed down. Apologies do not make you lose face in the long run. In fact, it helps us to gain face. When we are in resistance, there is no space in us to plant the Work seed that could grow in us, so be caring with each other and bring harmony to the group.

The Secrets of Staying with the Pack of Green

E.J. Gold, along with Claude Needham, reveal the secret of how to "stay with the pack of green."

A simple and direct method with an immediate practical application in the ongoing Bardo Safaris practice.
https://www.bardotraining.org/tools-for-transformation/bardo-safaris/

Michele Marie

SLOWING DOWN

Unless you grew up in the tropics, or the North Pole, chances are you know the four seasons. It is late Fall here in the Northern hemisphere. Fruits have been made, cocoons spun, hibernation preparations come to an end as nature and her fauna and flora slow down, goes quiet and into a potent slumber. Not a mindless slumber, just that pause at the end of an out-breath, the resting point at the end of a cycle. I am not sure if my body just has an ancient cellular memory of slowing down, going inward, pausing, conserving energy at this time of year, or if it is my nervous system trying to cope with the immensity of what is happening globally on so many levels (in either case, still doing the daily chores and fulfilling obligations in my attempt to help or fulfill my life's purpose), or both, but some things are coming full circle, or close, a shedding of sorts is occurring, a not knowing, and while the silence and pause is not empty, my body knows, this is not the time to burst forth.

I hear about transcending this and that and everything, and also, the only way through is in, about divine embodiment, sacred activism and all sorts of things. I am reduced to simply paying attention to what is going on inside this living, breathing body, and it feels like the attention honors it and cares for it. Solstice is fast approaching. May you all have a blessed HolyDay season.

Christiane Wolters

THE MATRIX

ICW March 31, 2012

Think of the Matrix as a router to a spiritual internet. That might help you understand what it is. Or through a spiritual internet to stations which are planted in a variety of universes, not all of which, hardly any of which, are in this universe. This universe had three local stations as opposed to some that will have thousands of stations.

What a station is is a place of gathering where millions or billions of entities can gather.... or three or four. Think of the universe as a string of characters, actually a string of values, but let's call them characters, that are shaded from incident to value. This string of characters expresses a multiplicity of universes, one of which is the universe in which you happen to be currently.

It depends on the strength and the scale of the gathering. The megalocosmos is a composite of all universes that exist. You cannot composite it. Neither time nor space apply to the universe outside this universe.

The same moment doesn't mean time frame, actually it is an event. Event related rather than a time related calculation. There is no evolution, only adaptation. Evolution is not necessary. Natural selection is necessary, yes, and adaptation is necessary.

"We are immortal in the worst sense of the word." -- E.J.Gold.

"It is not Be Here Now -- it is -- Be Everywhere." -- E.J. Gold

"Enlightenment is just the beginning, later on come other skills -- patience, a forgiving nature, extreme attention." -- E.J. Gold

Tabatha Jones

Habits

Excerpt from the Seventeenth Sermon
American Book of the Dead Guidebook, E.J. Gold

"The habitual tendencies which you have cultivated in yourself or which have become ingrained in you, create for the most part the physical, emotional and mental incarnation which you have "chosen" for this lifetime. I say chosen but in fact these habits have chosen this lifetime for you.

All you need do in order to change not only future lifetimes, but also this very lifetime you are in right now, is to change those habits. In fact another very good definition of the word "karma" is "the result of habits".

You may have forgotten about those habits of yours, but they have not forgotten about you. Out of all of the experiences of trillions and trillions of years, what has basically survived in you and makes up your "soul" is the accumulation of habits and tendencies. Even whether this incarnation of yours is male or female is determined by those habits and tendencies which have followed you through the centuries.

All your likes and dislikes were created by those habits, and your skills and failures were made by them also. Even the youngest child has in him from the first day, likes and dislikes. Where do you think they came from? They came from these same habits of the past incarnations. Knowing this should help you to always act from wisdom and not from like and dislike."

Readings from the Guidebook occur every Sunday morning at 11 am (PST) in the Prosperity Path Ashram. You are always welcome to attend.

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Prosperity%20Ashram/230/154/21

Jewel McInroy

Ode to Milt

E.J. Gold, acrylic on canvas, Â© 2007 HEI.
Available as Shoestring Print,
14 in. ht. on Arches Rives BFK,
Pencil signed and numbered.

Musings of a Labyrinth Reader

Daily Practices Assist in Navigating the Bardo

The following is a quote from the American Book of the Dead, specifically from the "Six Dimensions." Please consider it in the light of acknowledging it as one's forthcoming approaching reality.

"I now realize, with sudden clarity of understanding, that there is no sequence of events making up the time track and that the apparency of time is simply a random connection of pictures and sounds associated by significance to each other, which only makes sense during the dream of life....I am surprised to find that I still have sensations in this state, and my sensations, perceptions and thoughts are starting to bother me a little. I feel as if I'm at the top of a roller coaster that's about to let go ..."

Upon hearing this recently, I feel a necessity to reassess what skills are most essential to enhance and how am I going to develop them while I still have a body, to be appropriate habits for the Bardo? Will of attention and identification with one's presence are keys to maintaining a coherent thread of consciousness. All three are employed in navigating the Bardo rather than passing through, being a victim of overwhelming emotions and reactions to the visions and perceptions of the Bardo.

One's success is predicated on, in part, to what degree one has developed a burning beacon of attention with which one can place, focus, divide, diffuse, collect it, follow with or fixate your attention on something tangible or intangible.

To this end, every day I focus on certain practices -- Zen Basics, The Popcorn Exercise and Diffused Vision. And even if it is just for 5 minutes, the every day is important.

Zen Basics was my doorway to sensing and working with my higher attention. In addition, following my physical movement with collected, focused attention through the motion of "to touch a rock" calls into play The Popcorn Exercise. Starting simple with The Popcorn Exercise builds continuity and strength of attention.

I was able to parley this daily foundation and transform walking each day for health reasons into a daily whole body attention practice, incorporating both The Popcorn Exercise and Diffused Vision. These efforts make it possible to lift out of full identification with the human biological machine. Even if it is for a short time, working with this aim every day allows the perspective of appreciation of the machine for what it is -- a tool I have adapted for functioning in the organic world.

These 3 practices have opened up far more than is mentioned here. They are synergistic and form the core of my daily practices. However, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. And based on one's beginning point, different combinations can be worked into one's daily routine to address the same aim. The unlocking key is doing it and doing it daily. Best wishes for you on your path.
Marvette Kort

MY HEART IS FULL WITH GRATITUDE

In the month or 6 weeks leading up to the day I'm about to tell you about, I'd been struggling a lot with my physical health. I'd been in severe pain and unable to eat anything solid. Over the previous week, my body had explosively released two massive balls of gallstones mixed with necrotic biliary sludge, which scared me and made me realize that I have no idea exactly what kind of disease I'm really dealing with, no idea how dangerous really.

But when those sludgy stones came out, it felt like waking up out of a long nightmare.

But it also felt like something was broken inside and I realized that E.J. is never joking when he says: "You don't have as much time left as you think you do ..."

That day I was experiencing especially scary symptoms, and it finally dawned on me that I really might be dying, and it could even be that very day, and so I decided to die consciously.

I thought through all my connections with the world, what I owe to others but have not yet repaid, not wanting to leave a big mess behind, make sure the family is OK financially after I'm gone, and what should be done with the magical artifacts and books?

Well, it turns out it's actually all very simple. 5 simple steps and everything falls into place. I wrote them down as a letter to my wife.

Then I made a few preparations. Cleaned up my room, straightened out my "altar area," lit my 4 Angels Wishing Candle, seated my avatar in the healing circle at the Ashram, put on my Lucky Rodney and favorite ammies, added Norton/Gemini/Cosmo St. pennies to the mojo I carry in my pocket, read a few sections from the ABD and the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, lied down in bed and listened to How I Raised Myself from the Dead, then, I Can Free You.

I realized, I can go now. My accounts with the world are settled. I don't need the world anymore either, there's nothing I want that it can give me. And if this is my time to enter Transit, then I must have accomplished my mission here--I'm done. And so I accepted it all as a blessing, with gratitude. Ah, the freedom! And in that freedom, it seemed like I might have passed through some kind of inner gate. I drifted off to sleep while waiting for Death the way I would await a lover.

But I woke up in the morning, apparently still alive and feeling somewhat better. As I write this, several weeks have passed and I still don't know what kind of disease I'm dealing with, don't know when Death may come. But now I seem to be at peace with that, and somehow as a result, more at peace with all of it. Maybe a little more grounded, a little more able to gather and tolerate my presence.

And when I think of E.J. and Claude and Yanesh and Patti and Jewel and Barbara and Garrett and Paula and David and Iven and too many others to name from IDHHB who have touched me, our soul group members, how you all have reached out to me from across space and time to share your presences and teachings through every possible media and means, giving me the means to make something of my life while I still have the time to do so. I could write on and on about the ways you each have helped me, but it would be longer than Moby Dick ...

My heart is full with gratitude.

Robert Grossman

BOOKS HONESTLY

Amazing and wonderful books have been flowing our way for decades. Now we'd like to share some of these rare and beautiful books with you. Visit our Amazon store, Books Honestly, and do some of your Christmas shopping with us. Each book you buy benefits the Institute. Rose Gander