109. Eli Jaxon-Bear

Eli Jaxon-BearEli Jaxon-Bear was born Elliot J. Zeldow in Brooklyn, New York, in 1947. His eighteen-year spiritual path started in 1971, when he was a federal fugitive during the Vietnam war. In 1978, Kalu Rinpoche appointed him the president of the first Kagyu dharma center in Marin County. In 1982, he was presented with a Zen Teaching Fan at ChoShoJi Zen Temple in Japan.

After a search took him around the world and into many traditions and practices, his path and his search ended when he was pulled to India in 1990, where he met his final teacher, Sri H.W.L. Poonja. Confirming Eli’s realization, his teacher sent him back into the world to share his unique psychological insights into the nature of egoic suffering in support of self-realization.

Eli infuses the teaching with his teacher’s living transmission of silence. He presents a unique map of egoic identification as a vehicle for ruthless self-inquiry and final realization of true freedom. He dedicates his life to passing on the transmission of his teacher.

Eli currently meets people and teaches through the Leela Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to world peace and freedom through universal self-realization.
He is the author of Sudden Awakening into Direct Realization, (New World Library), The Enneagram of Liberation: From Fixation to Freedom, (Gangaji Foundation Press), and he is the editor of Wake Up and Roar: Satsang with H.W.L. Poonja, (Sounds True).

Interview recorded 2/5/2012

2nd interview with Eli

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Illusory Medicine for Illusory Disease
  • 00:03:34 – The Relevance of Meditation and Different Types of Teachers
  • 00:06:39 – Awakening to Pure Consciousness
  • 00:09:17 – Following the Mission, Searching for Enlightenment
  • 00:11:51 – Meeting the Sufis in Nizamuddin and Lucknow
  • 00:13:54 – The Search for Punja
  • 00:15:52 – Discovering the Living Zen Master
  • 00:17:33 – The Miracle of Waking Up
  • 00:18:54 – The Concept of “I am Emptiness, I am Consciousness”
  • 00:20:43 – Surrendering to Love
  • 00:22:18 – The Sticking Point in Willingness
  • 00:24:01 – Seeking the Truth and Surrendering to the Unknown
  • 00:26:03 – The Difference Between Living as an Ego and Your True Self
  • 00:28:02 – The False Identities of the Ego
  • 00:30:17 – Fixation and Freedom in the Enneagram
  • 00:32:04 – The Enneagram of Character Fixation
  • 00:33:48 – The Sacred Use of LSD and Enneagram
  • 00:35:25 – The Book “Sudden Awakening” and the Possibility of Awakening
  • 00:37:19 – The Spread of Zen in Mainstream Culture
  • 00:39:19 – The First Enlightenment and Individuation
  • 00:41:08 – Disillusionment with Spiritual Teachers
  • 00:42:51 – Being Authentic and Facing Judgment
  • 00:44:53 – The Definition of Enlightenment
  • 00:46:59 – The Trap of Egoic Madness
  • 00:48:47 – The misuse of non-dual realization
  • 00:50:29 – “Take the transmission, leave the rest”
  • 00:52:16 – Living with Multiple Myeloma
  • 00:53:56 – Facing Death and Regrets
  • 00:55:50 – Ramana Maharshi’s Function and Continuation after Death
  • 00:58:07 – The Power of Awakening and Healing
  • 00:59:51 – Interview with Eli Jackson Bair