October, 2021 Bardo Buzz (03-10)

The Joy of Sacrifice

Secrets of the Sufi Way by E.J. Gold

THE SACRIFICE OF EXISTENCE

Ordinary Life

At this stage, one returns to the practices given in the Sacrifice of Comfort, the first stage of the real work. The work schedule takes up one's entire day. The only difference is that now one may give service outside of the community of work. One may take the role of the teacher, allowing the method to channel through oneself for the benefit of others.

to be continued...

CONSCIOUS COMMUNICATION

Barbara Haynes

Since last month's Bardo Buzz submission, I've been contemplating the concept of conscious communication. What is it? What does it mean? How is it done? Being an inhabitant of the digital age, I looked it up on Google. As you might expect, there are lots of entries.

One entry in particular caught my attention "The key principle of conscious communication is making it as easy as possible for another person to meet your need." That entry struck me in just the wrong way. So rooted in the emotional, psychological ground of a human being. "Well, then," I said to myself "what is your definition?" So, I offer this as the beginning of my exploration of conscious communication. Communicating consciously with another being involves caring, listening, understanding. It's focused on them, not on me. Did they hear, did they understand, was it received with the intention I had? When well done, communication involves the physical as well as the energetic unseen vibration beings can share. It's a beginning exploration, as I said. I'll be continuing my contemplation through this month, and perhaps next month I'll be better able to communicate what is, for me, at the moment, ineffable. I invite you to consider what conscious communication means for you. Communicating can be a bit like breathing -- we do it without thinking. Take some time to consider. I know it has changed my relationship to communication and to those with whom I communicate. I hope it can do the same for you.

THE PULL TOWARDS THE GROUND OF BEING

Christiane Wolters

It is that time. Time for what...well, time to submit your article for the buzz. Okay, here goes a second month without making a year in review IDHHB collage, with the thought, will I ever finish that self imposed project, now with this old/new computer set-up?

How many projects are being left undone, unpublished, half finished, some finished but only playable on another, very old computer operating system and literally no one will ever see it. Someone I know from another life many years ago recently got an unexpected stage 4 inoperable mostly unknown type of cancer diagnosis. Death knocking at one's door like that does put things into perspective in a way nothing else will.

Time here on earth, despite it all, is our most precious currency. Have I used mine well, am I using mine well now? How can I use it better? Play better? Because, soon enough, it will be: time's up, for all of us, and possibly humanity itself. A wondrous adventure it was, and is, this life here on this beautiful planet we call earth. This polyphasic game environment of the Absolute mind. Experiencing this LIFE wanting to be lived.

This internal pull towards more fluidity, more openness, total freedom, which for me is an internal affair, feels strong, along with the boundaries containing this life. It might be age related, but the pull towards the ground of being feels stronger these days, thoughts of preparation to go back, egolessness, doing less, losing everything, being as if never existed as an individual have resurfaced. At the same time my work towards the best physicality ever has just begun. The great mystery of Being is still mysterious to me, and, despite all the stories in and of the world, of you and me and myths in all the different culturs, there is again that sense that the only moment that matters and ever mattered, is NOW. If nothing else, the many garden chickens who went back there taught me that.

"Cedar Bar Expressions", a limited edition print of E.J. Gold's original pastel on velour paper, recently sold as a print via auction on rareandunusual, E.J. Gold's eBay site. Now available as a 10" x 15" print on Arches BFK paper. For more info, contact Yanesh through our contact form.

WHY THESE ESSENCE HABITS

Musings of a Labyrinth Reader

Marvette Kort

"If I can accept the visions and sensations of the macrodimensions without resistance, even though there may still be fear and confusion, knowing that all apparitions, sounds, lights and radiations are projections of my own consciousness, that they are in reality no more than swirling patterns in the living energy field of infinite light, then they can have no power to overwhelm me." -- American Book of the Dead by E.J. Gold, page 102 "Manifestation of the Unresponsive Guides"

The above quote embodies the behavior, emotional attitude and strategy for voyaging through the labyrinth no matter whether I see it as my everyday, ordinary life or perceive myself moving through the Bardos.

The following are the key phrases to this formula that I am targeting to focus on:

1) Accept without resistance. This means listen, accept input, allow for someone else's reality to exist. Their side of the story could have happened.

2) Allow, tolerate that there may be fear and confusion. Just because I feel fear or am swamped by confusion does not mean that I panic or fixate on judgments. Discerning how to be appropriate in the moment does not require stability or a coherent understanding of the situation.

3) Know and operate as if all apparitions ... are projections of my own consciousness. All apparitions include sounds, lights, radiations, the person in front of me arguing, my dog barking, the whole "picture show", whether events are all going "my way" or not -- all originate from oneself.

4) The implication that my consciousness is equivalent to swirling patterns of light within the living energy field of infinite light. Everything is alive. I am one, there is no other.

Then the equation -- If the above, then the assumed-all-consuming-big "they" have no power to overwhelm me is true in all levels of reality, even my daily life.

The work on self takes effect by putting the four focal points into daily practice. I need to walk through my interactions with people, the environment, all the machines and technology I deal with, all and everything, employing the four identified points as governors of my behavior and emotional and mental postures, with the aim of developing them as habits.

This requires attention and sustained discipline. I am not aiming for casual habits, but habits I ingrain so as to penetrate to the essential self.

This strategy marks the path for not succumbing to being overwhelmed. This path allows for one to achieve liberation from the wheel of karma, and thus, the ability to voluntarily return for the Work.

GOD WANTS TO BE KNOWN

Jewel McInroy

Within us we have a presence which, by invoking our presence into the present, we bring life into the space we are occupying. The otherwise dead creation, that body of automatic conditioned responses acting in sleep, awakens through direct contact with an awakened, alive source.

The presence within us is truly alive -- real in a way that one who knows and has data can differentiate from other states. It has a certain vibration that emanates from within and can be experienced by another who is capable of receiving it.

I had an experience which I'd like to share. During a recent vist to my dentist, as I sat in the chair, I was intentionally making efforts to invoke my presence. I feel it's a gift I can give to her and, because I also care for her, I strive to have as real a relationship with her as I can.

That morning as I sat there quietly (can it be any other way at the dentist ? - lol), my inner voice started to say, "God wants to be known". I sensed that alive presence within was wanting contact, wanting to be seen, to communicate. I'd never had this experience before. It came to me that my body was acting as a host for the Living Presence. And, in retrospect, wanting to be a good host, I welcomed the Guest, being open to their wishes as one would be with a lover. It also dawned upon me that this is what it means to be of Service.

Remembering Prayer Absolute, I was aware that the Absolute has a chance to experience the creation through an awakened machine -- I was acting as the eyes, ears, voice and heart of God. The essence of the Guest that wanted to embrace and engage with the surroundings was love. For the hour of my visit, the vibration of the Living Presence reverberated in both of us and we were One.

The content of our brief conversation was not outwardly any different, but the tangible presence was there like a dance, the atmosphere alive, gentle and open.

For someone who struggles with doing the "right" thing and being of "real service", this powerful experience and these insights have been a tremendous blessing. I hope that, by sharing, they encourage the reader to continue the practices that provide the much needed sustenance that nourishes the Being and helps God to be known.

"HOW TO FIT THE LOCK:

The Human Biological Machine (HBM)
excerpt by T. Jones

"If you would achieve the most wonderful thing in the human life ever -- I don't know what that would be -- but you achieved a status that was the greatest human being whoever lived. In 4½ billion years, it'll be stardust, just all kinds of dust in space, which will coagulate and form another group of stars and planets.

"Every single atom in your body came from a star. It's recycled star stuff. That's what it is. You are made of star stuff, you're star material. Or you could be a star. You were a star. Every single atom in your body came from a star, not necessarily from a star anywhere close by. As a matter of fact, it didn't come from the sun. The sun came from the same stars that make up the components now of your present organic body.

"So that's what you look like in silver -- you're silvery with a little glint of stuff and you actually sparkle just a bit. Any shaman will tell you, that's what you actually look like. Your reality is a single point. It's a bright, bright point, which is kind of a purplish blue. As anyone who is a shaman will tell you this -- greenish blue sometimes, purplish blue sometimes, but it's a blue that is not a color, it's a hole in blue, it's a blue hole that you're seeing, a hole in space. That's you, that's the object. And then everything else is the animation.

"So you have rigging, which attaches you to the body. Now that rigging is called the key and lock. The key has to fit the lock, so you go to the lock that you fit best. Okay, here's what happens:

"You arrive in a universe. There's no place for you to go. You are a coherent waveform. You are always coherent, you're always that waveform, that is you forever. You can change it. You can metaprogram it, but that is you. You arrive in a universe, no matter when or where you pop in. Remember, time-space is very localized. It's very local phenomenon. Wherever you come in, you are assigned, you automatically go to the next nearest fit -- wherever you fit, that's where you go.

"So, if you can make yourself fit into, let's say, a llama or a Monk or whatever it might be, as someone who is a Spiritual Master -- it's because you fit the lock. No other reason. You can't make yourself into that. You can't grow into it. You make yourself that by agreement largely. You agree to serve. And you do it in little bits and pieces and you're tested each time along the way. And should you at some point decide: fail to serve or decide not to serve, you just get dropped off just like if you drop out of class in the university; it's okay, no big deal, you get an incomplete, not an F, and you try again later on when you feel you can do it. But if you do succeed in this lifetime to do that, to make yourself fit a higher lock, your avatar is going to help you focus on that, your avatar is going to help you target that.

"So you want to fit a higher lock, a lock that is not dirty, a lock that is clean. You want to fit in a body that is a clean body, that is a non-greedy body, that has a non-greedy mind, that has a non-organic mind, that is still open to higher influences and is willing to serve the higher. Now you have a chance to actually achieve what is called 'spiritual evolution,' but it is not evolution. Evolution does not exist in that way, not at all. It is meta-programming. You are changing the building blocks -- that is you -- around to be more clean, to be more effective, to be more serving, to be more healing, to be more love, to be more open, to be more concerned for the suffering of others, including the Absolute, of course."

BLIND SPOTS

Michele Marie

One afternoon, according to an old Sufi tale, Nasruddin and his friend were sitting in a cafe, drinking tea, and talking about life and love.

"How come you never got married, Nasruddin?" asked his friend at one point.

"Well," Nasruddin said, "to tell you the truth, I spent my youth looking for the perfect woman. In Cairo, I met a beautiful and intelligent woman, with eyes like dark olives, but she was unkind. Then in Baghdad, I met a woman who was a wonderful and generous soul, but we had no interests in common. One woman after another would seem just right, but there would always be something missing. Then one day, I met her. She was beautiful, intelligent, generous and kind. We had everything in common. In fact, she was perfect."

"Well," said Nasruddin's friend, "What happened? Why didn't you marry her?"

Nasruddin sipped his tea reflectively. "Well," he replied, "It's a sad thing. Seems she was looking for the perfect man."

This little fable always makes me smile. I suppose because I so readily see the irony in our tendency to detect the imperfections in others while overlooking our own. It is so easy to see what our friends don't see, or, for that matter, other community members, family members, friends and co-workers. If only they would stop doing that, they would be so much better off.

What I have learned is this. No matter the situation, we do better when we don't waste our energy trying to get someone else to be different than they are. As long as I am alert to that and even to the notion that I have blind spots of my own, I can cultivate some compassion both for myself and the other. I can cut "the other" some slack. I can pause my reaction and see if we need a conversation two days from now. The delay allows me to choose my response and to focus on the things I can do something about. Speak my mind. Express my concern.

With some exceptions, I believe that people are doing the best they can, with what they know, in the circumstances in which they find themselves. Do I believe that at every moment I am doing my best? No. What I mean is that over time, I manage to fall down and get back up again, over and over. I trust by focusing on the Work and practicing how to Work with the help of my Beloved Teacher, that things will come to me to teach me everyday how to get better and better in every way.

"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." - E.J. Gold

"It takes a long time to develop vision, but with proper training and a solid conceptual framework, one can learn to see in different categories." - E.J. Gold

"The veil is in the mind not the heart. Only the heart will lift the veil." - E.J. Gold

Yanesh's Monthly Favorite Quote