January, 2022 Bardo Buzz (04-01)

The Joy of Sacrifice

Secrets of the Sufi Way by E.J. Gold

THE SACRIFICE OF SELF-PITY
Life of Benevolence

Until one is actually able to help others, one cannot hope to attain Real Benevolence. Compassion alone is not sufficient -- one must also have ability, so that compassion is transformed into mercy.

In this stage one learns the relationship between the movements and the aphorisms -- the language of The Dance -- and begins to transmit and read through choreography the fragments of truth necessary to future generations.

One learns to encode and decode the Method through movement, architecture, painting, sculpture, music, and dance; those fragments which may be lost otherwise during ages to come through accidental loss, warfare, or as a result of superstition and fear. One learns the language of relativity, or ratios, becoming an Objective Mathematician.

to be continued...

E.J. Gold "Alone In The Hallway" Acrylic on masonite

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

Barbara Haynes

Some exercises take longer than others before they seem to produce some effect or result. Or before we feel we "get it" - whatever that means. I've been practicing not talking in the kitchen for over twenty years. Not continuously. I would "fall off the wagon" for months at a time. But I would always return to my intention to not talk in the kitchen. In a communal kitchen it seems difficult to not talk. It's a gathering place and there's often more than one of us in the kitchen cooking, doing dishes, making a snack. It's so easy to remember that thing you wanted to tell someone when you see them right there in the kitchen. All of us agree not talking in the kitchen is the preferred behavior when we are there. We do our best to support each other.

A few months ago we decided as a group to make not talking in the kitchen one of our group intentions.

For me, this group decision was very helpful in remembering my own intention to not talk in the kitchen. Several weeks after we began working with our intention, I began to notice a change. The spaces created in the kitchen began to feel contained, solid -- in a not solid way. It was as if those spaces always have existed, but now we were beginning to get access to them. Then as I was cooking lunch on one Burger Tuesday, I found myself engulfed in silence. It was palpable and I could hear the silence ringing. I felt I was experiencing the kitchen in its role as the heart of the community. I felt a sense of gratitude to the group for helping make my experience possible by the added power of the group intention . . . that magical moment when I could hear the sound of silence.

WAKING UP OR GROWING UP?

Christiane Wolters

Generally, when expanding into new areas of interest, there is learning required, study, familiarizing oneself with the words used, the methods, techniques or practices. You are a newbie and it can be humbling as well as leading to a lot of fun to explore and learn.

And then there are areas of personal growth one might be expanding into. Individually and collectively, a growing up of the parts of the embodied self that never did might be urgently necessary to be able to take on a different kind of obligation, to expand, grow, move into new territory and to become a harmonious human being. This type of growth appears to be a whole lot more challenging and can not only be unfamiliar, but downright uncomfortable all the way to close to - hell no, what was I thinking of doing?

The reason why one chooses to engage in such growth and transformation is going to be important to maintain the resolve, the going forward. If you don't need the new level skills for what you do in life, you very likely won't go there. Transformation just isn't necessary in that case.

The more challenging this growing is, the more important your WHY seems to be. At least that is my experience. This why is not necessarily a mental plan or even a passion - turned purpose, it also isn't the pain that might have propelled you forward at other times. It can be an imperative coming from your deepest self. When aligned with that, there is an aspect that will make the process trajectory unstoppable as that impulse is not originating in one's own little ego self. You will do this because you must. Your life cannot proceed without it....or if it does, you get depressed or ill or some such thing.

Still, it is challenging, to say the least. The very nature of growing one's self into a new area means: you don't know, you have not traversed that area, you have little experience....and in your gut it can feel like fear, the same fear as if a wild animal is trying to kill you with the usual machine options of run, fight or freeze, as in do nothing and be paralyzed. That is what the body does, or ego does. After all, there is dying involved, if only to the old self, until the final...dying to all of personal self.

If you are not in touch with the deep impulse that comes from "you don't even exactly know where" -- you will just do what you have always done. Comfort and inertia will become stronger and the ego-mind will make up one excuse after another till it finds one you will believe.

Little side note on neuro-chemistry: anxiety and excitement have the same biochemical neurotransmitters as their base, norepinephrine and dopamine. Often, switching from anxiety to excitement by saying I am excited 3 times is more effective than 20 minutes of meditation. (There actually was a study on this when they found out the same neurotransmitters were involved.)

In such growth time it is good to remind yourself that you don't have to be perfect. Everyone else might think you do, people might complain. For the sake of reminding you of the necessary growth container you may or may not have, I tell you this. You can be brilliant, creative and - imperfect.

Transparency can be your friend, and then there is that dreaded vulnerability. You still need to choose wisely. Discernment, courage and humility are all required. The skill of utilization is a plus. What is that? Using situations and mishaps as growth opportunities, as opportunities to practice the skills necessary to traverse the new level.

Of course, you could always "just" be present with total attention to the present -- and simply do what needs to be done. In that case, you won't be stuffing all kinds of unresolved issues into your unconscious, only to reappear in not so favorable ways some other place some other time. It also seems that there is repressed, unconscious material in just about everyone as well as in society. It is possible that to be present with attention in such a way as meant above, that unconscious material will have to be dealt with in some way before the next move can be made successfully...ie, be embodied with presence and attention doing what needs to be done. Okay, how about then simply not be identified with whatever arises? That is a whole other direction to go.

And maybe both waking up AND growing up is needed.

A fuckhead Buddha may have done the work of awakening, but not the work of growing up, and as a result, keeps hurting others.

At the same time, for anyone in the process of maturation: be kind, patient and compassionate with yourself -- and others.

It is okay to be a work in progress.

"To be in the world and not of it is a question of levels of functioning, not of dissociation and alienation. We should be concentrating more on our inner, essential natures, and the electrical nature of the being, not what we think about or how we feel or how we behave"

Quote from Talk of the Month #60 Asleep On The Wheel E.J. Gold

In any case, have a great work year. May transformation happen as needed.

"E.J. Radiates Compassion," photo by Kathleen Dreier, 2012. Photo title given by me, author of this article, because compassion is what I sense perceiving this photo. In 2013, this photo was chosen as the first page of a special book designed for and presented, at a dinner, to President Obama, in person by a close associate of E.J. Gold. It was reported that upon receiving the book, the President opened it to the first page.

GRATITUDE - A CONSCIOUSNESS TOOL

Musings of a Labyrinth Reader
Marvette Kort

This past Thanksgiving in 2021, we had a workshop entitled Gratitude Attitude. During the 2-day assembly on Zoom, the transmission was indeed delivered. That invisible yet palpable work force spurred numerous folks to declare, at the closing circle, their inspirations for creative projects. Some self-initiated work projects involving gratitude have been shared via online with the community and on social media expanding the audience.

Gratitude has been added as a new line of work to idhhb.com with a presentation of a wealth of resources, including links to E.J.'s pertinent blogs as well as links for downloading mp3s of the workshop itself.

https://www.idhhb.com/worklines/gratitude/

Living up to its name, the workshop propelled many of its participants into a daily Gratitude Practice. My daily practice of gratitude over this past month has had a beneficial impact on my inner work, my ordinary typical awareness and my approach to interacting with the picture show that surrounds me. In the natural course of events, I am observing myself acting out of compassion and kindness in situations that formerly triggered a weakly suppressed irritable response.

In the notes below E.J. gives clues about gratitude and the important role it plays in one's work life.

Gratitude is a conscious tool to be used consciously to accumulate Merit. To explain Merit simply, if you're in a rocket ship, it has to overcome inertia and gravity and have dynamics -- thermal and structural considerations. But you have to have sufficient force to get out of the planet's influence and break free of the orbit. And to get to a balance point takes even more energy than that.

So you're in a round of human rebirths. Assuming you've done what you've come to do in that space, you need to accumulate enough energy to get up out of orbit and move on. You need to accumulate enough Merit/rocket fuel to get off the planet. Gratitude fits into the picture because it earns us Merit.

Automatic gratitude is for things that we feel we need and that satisfy us, for things that make us comfortable and make us happy. Conscious gratitude serves a higher purpose and serves a higher realm.

The point is, you're consciously grateful and that earns Merit. You need to earn Merit to achieve your escape velocity, your escape from the tendency toward and the attraction to returning to organic life.

Gratitude in itself doesn't have to be for something. Blanket gratitude can work for you as a conscious tool; it's a powerful tool to earn Merit. You can apply it to anything. Gratitude can show up in guitar practice.

Don't depend on accident and just having it happen. You want to construct, make that happen like all the forces that you are dealing with in a multiplicity of universes. You are constructing gratitude; it doesn't just come by chance. You have to consciously decide to be grateful.

I invite you to discover the Gratitude Attitude. "Allow yourself to flow into the state of perfection where gratitude exists." -- E.J. Gold

KARMA REDUCTION
by E.J. Gold

Tabatha Jones

Prosperity Path Workshop Excerpt Pt 1, 6-24-2012

In the Godd games . . .

"Your character looks as if it's running. Actually what's happening is that it's not running, it's changing location so rapidly that it looks to you like running. It looks smooth, it looks like this character is the same as that character -- it isn't; it's a thousand characters later, but it looks like the same character. It keeps getting recreated and uncreated -- uncreated, recreated -- uncreated, recreated -- uncreated, recreated -- that's how it works, that's how the rendering works. But it also is karmically how it works.

"Anyway, so . . . tied to karma, you have a number of things; if you reduce the karma, you reduce those things. Fear is one of those things. Also is tied to karma, it's tangentially tied. It's from the side, it's not direct. But, reduction of karma will also reduce some amount of fear. Anxiety, depression -- these are all potentially driven by karma, so you could actually tie them to karma for the purpose of determining whether your karma reduction was working or not.

"So, if you do a karma reduction, you should have a reduction in fear, anxiety, depression, stupidity -- you know what I mean by that -- being stupid, in a stupor, turgidness, lack of energy, So your energy should go way up, your pain level should go down measurably. You should actually feel a difference in pain level. Specifically, ailments should be temporarily, at least, alleviated to some degree. If you're getting a good karma reduction.

"If any of those is counter to the aims of the Essential Self, that will not happen. The Essential Self can and will override any action that is counter to its purpose.

"Here's an interesting thing: Each Orb has its own purpose, it's goal-oriented, goal-driven, and every Orb has a specific purpose, and only that purpose. It is comlpetely uniquely directed. So don't try to use a pain orb for an anxiety problem. Now the intention is not that . . . you have a lot of anxiety, so use this to reduce anxiety. No, you have a lot of anxiety. Use this to reduce your karma and, because you have a lot of anxiety, you'll easily be able to see if there's any change in the karma. You're not acting on the anxiety, you're only acting on the karma.

"I can't give yout machine or device or anything that will act directly on the pain, directly on the fear, directly on the anxiety. I can only give you something that will act on the karma, that will help you act on the karma. And that can be read by indicators such as: pain, anxiety, depression, melancholy, confusion, stupidity, carelessness, accident-proneness, anything that you have going on.

"Stubborness . . . the reason karma causes stubborness is because stubborness is an impaction. You're actually stuck somewhere; you're in a stuck place because you're impacted by a lot of issues and that makes you stubborn. Those issues come from karma."

"Most people will not ever know that the pain reduction is tied to karma, and they don't have to know. Why make them know that? Why force them to know that? It's kind of like forcing your religion on somebody, that's not right. Let them enjoy the benefits without knowing why they get the benefits."

Right Motivation

Michele Marie

A simple way of checking our motivations, can be posing these questions to ourselves:

Is it just for me or for others?

For the benefit of the few or for the many?

For now or for the future?

These questions may help clarify our motivations behind our actions with objectivity, impartiality, with discernment and without judgment with what we do.

"There exists a magic phrase, but in order to understand how to use this magic phrase, you must have already come to complete agreement about its truth. There are two parts to the statement.

The first part is, You can't change what is, which at least means if you look at your situation clearly and objectively in the abstract, you realize there's nothing you can do ...In other words, if you can keep your eyes open in the abstract Absolute long enough, if you can sit in full appreciation of your situation long enough without panicking, without getting upset, without reacting to it, then you can realize that you cannot change what is.

Now comes the other part of that all-important shamanic phrase: You can't change what is, but you can learn to like it.

If change is possible, the only change that is possible is to learn to like it. To learn to like something which is intolerable is going to take some finesse, obviously. Whatever it is that you're in, whatever you can't change, whatever is the truth -- what the Sufis call Al Haqq, which is the undeniable, horrible truth -- if you can really sit with that truth, you can learn to like it.

Learn to like it doesn't mean you already know how. When you address the problems of learning, it doesn't automatically follow that you realize that the process of learning begins with not knowing how, and that learning actually does suppose that you're going to acquire knowledge and skills which you don't presently have".

Question of Motivation? Talk of the Month # 67 p8-9 by E.J. Gold

https://www.talkofthemonth.com/totm/totm067.html

Ten Mantras for Motivation

I act in the Present to affect the Future.
I am ready for whatever comes.
The moment to begin is now.
I take one step at a time.
I have the courage to take action.
My focus is perfect.
I make some progress every minute.
My momentum carries me forward.
My passion for the Present makes a Perfect Future.
I breathe in, I breathe out.
Mantras as Resonant Thought-Forms by E.J.Gold
https://www.gorebaggsworld.com/2021/11/mantras-as-resonant-thought-forms/

Mantras as Resonant Thought-Forms by E.J.Gold

https://www.gorebaggsworld.com/2021/11/mantras-as-resonant-thought-forms/

RUNNING THE INFLUENCE ORBS

Jewel McInroy

After a recent challenging day where I experienced a significant degree of inner turmoil, I needed and was looking for a direction to take to get out of the state. I listened and my Inner Voice told me to run the influence orb of the card I had chosen earlier in the day. As a result, sure enough, after running the orb, the challenges of the day quieted, the turmoil abated and a direction presented itself. I experience this often and am truly grateful.

The Influence Deck and running the suggested orb often acts as a stabilizer for my Work day, providing a solid foundation for my presence, bolstering my confidence and so often, like today, pointing me in a direction which is beneficial. The inner support I receive inspires and connects me to what, for me, is real.

On the front screen of every Influence Orb are the words "It's Not a Game". It's true!

"We work to develop what remains after personal annihilation, because only that is truly able to work. To understand love is to dissolve the self and the subjective mysteries of appearances into it...And nothing, but a nothing with a functioning presence and attention, is exactly what we'd better become if we expect to get some work done in the vast domains of this great cosmic labyrinth!" -E.J. Gold.

From "Sounds of the Golden Opera"

submitted by Yanesh