July 2020 Bardo Buzz (02-07)

Each issue of The Bardo Buzz comes with an installment

The Joy of Sacrifice:

Secrets of the Sufi Way by E.J. Gold

THE ETHICS OF SANCTUARY

The Meeting in Sanctuary is inspiration of truth. He who breathes it in truth will realize it in truth, while he who hears it with the lusts of his animal soul will only hear his own conditioning.

It is a rule that candidates do not behave in an affected manner during the Meeting in Sanctuary, and that they not attend for the purpose of being entertained.

It is said that to make one error in Meeting is worse than to commit crimes in the dream world.

It is forbidden to induce an artificial state of ecstasy or to rise and dance during Meeting. But if a guest does so, everyone must do as he does so that he is not embarrassed in his ignorance or lack of self-discipline.

To remain quiet, yet attentive, is best. To make all quiet inside is one of the foremost admonitions of the work space.

To be continued...

Attention All Jellyfish . . . by E.J. Gold

"The things that you do eat, if you are a higher being . . . I should be addressing higher beings . . . testing, one, two, three, higher beings, attention all jellyfish . . . attention all jellyfish . . . always thank your food by saying: Thank you for your service. What does it do? It acknowledges that whatever it is that is the food, is conscious, is aware, and is food, is being food for your benefit at this moment. Who are you really thanking? Your Self. How are you doing that? Well, if you don't know, then you don't need to know, and if you do know, then you do need to stop knowing that pretty quickly, because you don't really need to know that. You know what I'm saying?

"Oh, God, it's one of those things you can do without knowing at the same time as using it. You can use it without knowing what it is. You know what electricity is? If you do, please contact every physicist in the world, because they don't. Nobody knows what electricity is. They don't know what magnetism is, electricity is, gravity is. He may think they know what it is, but they don't really. All they know is that he is a differential from not heat. So it's not actually what heat is, it's a kind of energy. But it's not known exactly what these things are.

"People have to get excited about things and they only get excited about two things -- sex and death. Taxes don't seem to excite them, although they are the same kind of order of being. Death, sex, taxes -- same level, they're all very important things. Taxes you can't ignore them, not your whole life you can't. You've got to pay your taxes. That means your debts as well, your honest debts, the things that you really owe, the honest debts you must pay.

"So, you've got to pay your debts. You have to handle all your issues before you can leave here clean. You have to pay all your debts, all of them, not leaving any debt out, all of your debts. You must convert any feeling of anger, resentment, frustration, and so on. Specifically to gratitude, for which there's an angel of gratitude and to help you to do this, and you put a candle votive in front. To convert all of your resentment, all of your envy, all of your jealousy, all of your rage, all of your upsets into gratitude . . . gratitude. You have to find a way to do that, but you must, you must. It's not like an option. You can't fail. You've got to do it."

Excerpt by T. Jones

ICW 09-13-2014

SPIRITUAL GAMING

Each time I read Chamber 35 of the American Book of the Dead, I have the question about how to reconcile that I seem to exist and yet . . .

"Even the essential self itself, the void of the void, is non-existent in reality, and has been nonexistent from the very beginning. . . "

After my most recent reading of the 35^th Chamber, I read from Spiritual Gaming. There I found what was, for me, a clarification of the reading from Chamber 35. "In theory, your Avatar is never moving, he's always in the same place. In reality, your Avatar doesn't even exist, yet it is one with the entire game. Still, on a practical level, your Avatar seems to move through the game. We can easily imagine the Avatar has passed through all the sections of the game and achieved the goal, but that hasn't actually happened."

E.J goes on to elaborate about the Avatar and the player. "The player, which we call the Essential Self, is the observer and the learner, the one who saves and stores information and who directs the Avatar, but only experiences from the outside."

I say my thanks to the universe for conspiring to offer an answer to the question Chamber 35 always raises for me. Moving through my everyday life and seeing it as an Avatar moving through a game has helped me to understand more about the nature of existence / non-existence.

Barbara Haynes

Dancing in the Flame E.J. Gold
acrylic on canvas, 36" x 24", © 2001 HEI

MUSINGS OF A LABYRINTH READER

Creativity is a Doorway

The aspiration of many is to be creative. Creativity is not defined by activity. True creativity stems from "being in the flow." But what is "the flow?" And how does one establish a connection?

"The flow" on which I focus is related to the expression of "The Work." So how does "The Work" fit into the scheme of human consciousness? It doesn't. As I see it, "The Work" refers to a higher order of intelligence connected to a higher cosmic force sometimes referred to as Love -- another technical term.

With all this higher order of rarefied "things," for lack of a better word, what is the way into this higher game, for one who ordinarily walks around on planet Earth?

There are 2 keys I have used -- selfless service and necessity. Selfless service can carry one into the force of "the flow" if your focus is on serving a higher aim. Never allow being called into the limelight to trigger dropping down into personal expression and accomplishment. Your name may be a hook, but one does not need to fall for the seduction. One may receive acknowledgment and recognition for one's creative expression, but with a pure heart as one's foundation for being of service, one can graciously acknowledge the accolades and maintain your post in the space.

Necessity is another key that can activate a creative response. It seems to precipitate what needs to be created or needs to happen or needs to open up or to shift spaces. One is subject to necessity when being of service to a higher order of expression. Any skills obtained or personal benefit accrued is just a side effect of needing to get a job into manifestation.

"The flow" can be perceived, but one's perception is not necessarily another one's vision. And this could be a simple matter of circuitry -- what circuits one has enlivened and to what part of the greater body do those circuits connect.

All this can be uncovered by observation -- being attentive while fulfilling the purpose of the space as it is living in the moment. And maintaining the ethics of hospitality is a wise practice for one wishing to adopt a work life. For each moment can hold multiple universes and potentials for creative expression.

So my "Holy Hobo" prayer is:

I may not know where I am.

I may not know how I can contribute.

But I wish to allow the "living" process to unfold.

And I wish to be an open vessel for the flow of the creative moment.

Marvette Kort

SOME POINTS TO PONDER

You might have heard this from the ABD: "All phenomena is illusion." Or this quote from E.J. Gold: "All phenomena is illusion, do it anyway." Or; "All phenomena is illusion, not just some." Reality is an illusion (modern quantum physics).

So here we are, we have heard a lot of things, believe some, and sometimes even claim to know they are true, but what does it mean in actual daily life, the things we "know" and believe about reality? Like: we are ONE. This is where experience comes in, and work on self and self-knowledge. What do you know from experience personally experienced?

Having worked with animals now for a number of years, I have experienced some things and in my experience, that which is essential to us humans arising is the same essential in animals. It animates them and lives and sees through them with animal consciousness. Mammals especially are also feeling creatures. The consciousness that looks around is the same in them as it is in us, just having different experiences.

So this raccoon is seeking food and the other day also relief from the heat. But we all "know" raccoons and chicken don't mix well, right? So, is there really another way of being, of communicating, of co-existing? It is true that a raccoon, like a chicken, have programming they might not be able to escape at all, especially in times of stress (seems to me that the same applies to humans).

But is it that written in stone, so to speak? If everything arises from the same ground of being moment to moment, then what makes us still think no other way of coexisting is possible?

Maybe communication with this raccoon is possible in ways previously not even considered. Who knows?

I am no Beethoven and I am not an animal communicator, but maybe, maybe, it isn't all as fixed as we thought it to be. Maybe it is time to rethink everything. All phenomena is illusion, so what makes them appear in a certain way?

Just points to ponder.

Christiane Wolters

ACCEPTANCE

It is difficult to change a habit if we don't see and accept the truth of the situation. We must step back from the situation and try to see the facts clearly and notice the reality of the circumstances as clearly and honestly as possible. This may not be pleasant, but once we have accepted "reality as it is," we have overcome a major obstacle to taking acting and do the next step. When we find ourselves stuck, take a moment to acknowledge the thoughts and the feelings that are present and accept them fully.

One of our first Work tasks is to observe impartially without judging our machine's actions.

"Our most serious obstacle is the uncontrollable urge to convert everything to the familiar, to reduce it all to the level of the primate brain; to reject the living, breathing reality of the totality of all possible attention."
Life in the Labyrinth by E.J. Gold

Lines from the Holy Hobo Prayer:

"... Please let me first and always examine myself and my motives
Let me be honest and truthful
Let me be awake to what I am doing using every moment as if it
were my last ..."

Michele Marie

LABYRINTH, ORBS AND QUARANTINE

While I was re-reading the gem titled "Life in the Labyrinth" by E.J. Gold, the connection between labyrinth, the unraveling of its puzzle-like characteristics and using the domain of computer games to showcase labyrinth navigation now seemed experiential to me. And despite having a notion about this science, as I have read the book and have been playing orbs for so long, the chapter.

"The Ultimate Puzzle" was an amazing refresher to inculcate knowledge and experience! As Mr. Gold said, "Real learning is an eternal process. It never stops."

I will share few excerpts from that chapter, which might serve as a beautiful reminder for us. And it might be a good aid to navigate consciously the current puzzled section of the maze where we find ourselves.

Personal computers allow us to construct special games, played within user-interactive teaching mazes, where intuitive, deductive and inductive learning skills can become sharpened and reflex reactions tested. Playing a game within a self-generating repetitive maze, which unaccountably to the new and unskilled voyager, alters itself law-conformable in the same ways as the macrodimensions seem to alter, can provide a very accurate foundation for the understanding of right action in relation to the labyrinth.

As in the labyrinth, an individual is liable to wander endlessly through the same five, six, seven, eight, or nine different chambers* encountering a succession of macro-characters, responding with the same general gamut of acquired reflex reactions, which had determined the outcome of the game from its very inception. - Life in the Labyrinth

*The current quarantine reality provides a good platform to use active attention in observing our reactions to all digital world and real world chambers due to limited exposure to the outside world.

To be continued"

Nishit Gajjar