170. Eli Jaxon-Bear, 2nd Interview

Eli 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).

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded 4/14/2013

First BatGap interview with Eli.

YouTube Video Chapters:

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction to the Interview with Eli Jaxon-Bear
  • 00:04:20 – The One Cosmic Being
  • 00:06:49 – Lovemaking and the Mystery of Consciousness
  • 00:09:21 – The Truth of Self-Identification
  • 00:11:21 – The All-Pervading Intelligence
  • 00:13:34 – The Consciousness Before the Big Bang
  • 00:16:15 – Being Present Before Perception
  • 00:18:39 – The Permanent Realization
  • 00:20:58 – Using Crisis to See Deeper
  • 00:23:14 – The Capacity of Emotions
  • 00:25:33 – The Fall of the Roshi
  • 00:27:40 – Spiritual Names and Practices
  • 00:29:49 – The Usefulness of Spiritual Practices
  • 00:32:02 – Dissolving the Ego and Individuality through Meditation
  • 00:34:22 – Finding the Balance Between Enlightenment and Normal Life
  • 00:36:53 – The Middle Way and the Eightfold Path
  • 00:39:03 – Trusting the Universe’s Support for Awakening
  • 00:41:11 – Letting Go and Letting God
  • 00:44:04 – The Wounding of the Egoic Shell
  • 00:47:06 – The Insanity of the Ego
  • 00:49:48 – The Search for Truth
  • 00:51:37 – The Mystery of Traveling
  • 00:53:46 – The Significance of Devotion and Higher Beings
  • 00:56:24 – Meeting Siva at the Banks of the Ganga
  • 00:59:00 – The Importance of a Final Teacher
  • 01:00:59 – The Psychedelic Experience and Ayahuasca
  • 01:02:41 – LSD and Awakening
  • 01:04:47 – The Mystery of Freedom and Love
  • 01:06:45 – People Waking Up
  • 01:08:22 – A Global Awakening
  • 01:10:13 – Introduction to batgap.com