September 2019 Bardo Buzz (01-07)

Each issue of The Bardo Buzz comes with an installment

The Joy of Sacrifice:

Secrets of the Sufi Way by E.J. Gold

Dear Beloved of God:

I hear that you wish further explanations about sacrifices, and realizing just how important explanations are in your world, I will comply with this wish of yours, of course, within certain limits.

To make the first Sacrifice of Peace of Mind, one need do nothing, and indeed one can do nothing. One is at this stage incapable of making efforts of any kind, and so this sacrifice is made for one by those already in the Work, through direct and indirect influences.

Just by hearing these ideas, one's peace of mind is sacrificed. One can never rest quite so easily again as before. By studying the ideas, one makes the initial efforts which for a prelude to real work. Simply by allowing yourself to come under the influence of the ideas, you have taken the first step on the Hazardous Journey.

In order to make the succeeding sacrifices, it is necessary to intentionally choose the path of struggle, to place oneself into certain conditions not at all pleasant for the personality. In beginning group work, you will be able to observe how conditions for work are arranged, and how barriers form themselves in one's path to either make one strong or to eliminate those who cannot complete the journey dues to personality weaknesses.

The arrangements of such conditions and the orchestration of people within these conditions are beyond even science. It is an art given only at need to those who can best fulfill the function.


to be continued...

FAVORITE QUOTES FROM YANESH

"If we believe that our postures and manifestations are self-directed and wholly arbitrary, we are steeped in a self-induced hypnotic illusion."

E.J. Gold
Practical Work on Self

THE PRAYER WHEEL by E.J. Gold

January 28, 2015

"If I set up a march around in a circle of some kind, through a particular set of circumstances that constitutes one pass of the Rosary, one pass of the Mala, actually 10-12 turns of the Prayer Wheel, it's the same deal. So when you're working in the Prayer Wheel area, the hamster wheel area, anything you can walk off, anything you can do circular, anything you can take into a circular motion, circular way -- can work as a Mala. It doesn't have to, but it can work as a Mala. It has to be energized. It has to be activated. You have to push the button that says 'turn this on'. You have to wire it so that it does perform the function of a Mala. You have to actually basically label it "Mala." It's a question of how fast can you do this? You have 9 billion liberations to perform before you move to the next level, 9 billion that you personally must perform of those liberations.

"The Tibetans figured out how to do this. Say Om Mani Padme Hum, fast, get all this stuff done, because you have lifetimes to work through and 9 billion names to blast through as a group; not individually, of course. So there are 9 billion liberations per/cycle. That is normal kalpa cycle. Sometimes you get more than 9, but 9 billion is the limit. The lower limit you have to achieve in order to pass to the next generative level, which is generally 5, may be 6 more black holes in the totality. That's not bad, over a period of time; that adds up quite well.

"So develop something cyclic, and march through that cyclic thing standing in place, or close to standing in place -- that's called Tai Chi. Each of those katas is a Mala. Anything circular, anything you can do rotationally, anything you can do where you can get back to square one, and through it again and again and again, repetitively, is a Mala."

-- from Gorby's Place, excerpt by T. Jones

CREATE A HABIT

30-day art challenge -

It is not too late to start creating a daily habit of doing art, in this case, doing five minutes of pencil drawing a day. Yes, you will need a desire to do something artistically creative every day, a belief that doing art is actually good for you, like growing your soul. You need a pencil, paper and a pencil sharpener and find a time that works for YOU and your life to create this new habit, a time where you can maybe hook it up to something you are already doing. For example, while waiting for your morning coffee water to boil, or before doing any social media, or after exercising, or in conjunction with another practice. You can share your drawings in the Facebook Group: Prosperity Art.
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The various posts of the 30-day art challenge - create a habit are on my YouTube channel.
After the creating, there will be an installation phase of the new habit. I will be teaching the Pencil Magic course during that time, which in turn, is based on E.J. Gold's "Draw Good Now" series. The videos are now viewable in a playlist on my YouTube channel. Check it out.

You can create new habits and a new way of being. There is still time. Given the current state of the world on fire, and the great transition humankind is in, what are you waiting for? Your habits will carry you through, after all. For the benefit of all beings everywhere, and the benefit of the Absolute.

Christiane Wolters

MUSINGS OF A LABYRINTH READER Activating the Attention of the Essential Self

A key strategy in the process of transformation, which is outlined in the book Human Biological Machine as a Transformational Apparatus (HBM), involves focusing the attention of the essential self on the machine. This caliber of effort is beyond the ordinary daily machine routine. It is applied intentionally through discipline or, more often the case, only when the machine is "up against the wall."

My experience falls under the latter. However, it came into play as a result of combining two practices -- Zen Basics and the mantra for the Invocation of Presence.

I do Zen Basics every day. Routinely, I set an alarm for 6:00 a.m. so I can hear it and know the time wherever I am in the barn. But one unusual day I forgot. Wow! This error was most unsettling.

When doing Zen Basics, you're sensing the attention and moving the body. So sitting down with a distracted, unfocused mind takes away energy needed for intensely working with the attention when doing the exercise.

There's a remedy for this. I remembered The Invocation of Presence book and the mantra: I wish this to be used for the invocation of the presence of my presence into the present. It's set up to use the chaotic, unruly emotions, thoughts, sensations churning within the machine. You collect them and pull them up the central channel as you internally intone each phrase, intensifying your attention as the force passes through each chakra. Your effort culminates after pushing the energy through the crown to feed your presence, then drawing it back down through the crown and pushing it out into the machine to be in the present.

This requires sensing and focused attention, both of which are engaged in doing Zen Basics. As near as I can figure, this demand burst outside normal bounds. Thus, I brought in the attention of the essential self to place it on the machine and continued the exercise with a quiet mind and attention focused on the task in the moment.

My experience perceptibly changed. I upscaled. The quality of the space was more refined. It felt like gentle waves lapping against the beach, which, over time, through repetition, produce a gradual transformative effect.
Marvette Kort

HAPPENINGS AROUND THE ASHRAM

Bill, Dan and Iven have been steadily working on the stucco painting project. E.J and Jewel offer their pointers and suggestions for good coverage. Bill says, "If this is not the easiest, funnest, most satisfying job around . . . you're doing something wrong." The project will continue through September. Donations for purchase of paint is much appreciated.

Rattlesnake catching and removal has been a big activity this summer. While we exercise caution moving around the Ashram, we remind ourselves that snakes are symbols of opportunities, healing powers, spiritual guidance and transformation.

The month of August has brought us several wonderful visitors. Cynthia Henderson's theater associate and friend visited us in order to get feedback on the play they will be performing during the coming academic year. E.J spent several hours discussing the play and giving suggestions and ideas. They were particularly interested in getting his ideas on how to incorporate the idea of death and dying into the play so the modern audience could hear the message and be entertained at the same time.

Our wonderful Indian friends were here for several days. They had the opportunity to ask E.J. questions concerning their spiritual practices and the nature of the Work. It is always a delight to have them visit.

E.J., Claude, Dick, Iven, Jewel, Marvette and Barbara continued the work of clearing storage. The goal is to consolidate one unit into the other. That goal was moved forward in a big way by the sale of three craps tables. They were very large and their sale and removal has made a big space available for the consolidation.

Barbara Haynes

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY AND TRANSFORMING OURSELVES

"When you borrow higher will, you're also borrowing the responsibility level, so your niceness factor goes up the more will you have.

The nicer you're going to be, the less fearful you're going to be, and the less angry with yourself for being afraid you're going to be.

Anger is just a result of being afraid of something, so you get angry. That's all anger ever is, just being pissed off that you're afraid. So you lash out and try to put it outside yourself. The cause of your fear and anger -- you try to get it to go outside yourself somewhere. So you don't take responsibility for that."
The Human Biological Machine by E.J. Gold

When we accept responsibility, we will transform ourselves by letting go of grudges, anger, expectations, projections, ignorance, to name a few.

We cannot expect others to transform.

We transform because we have our Spiritual Teaching, our Spiritual Practice, our Spiritual Guide and each other.

"One of the techniques that we are developing is to work as a group, a team, a pack of green. That is with the idea in mind that we are all sharing a single burden.

Each in our own way, we're sharing a single burden. We're all taking some responsibility for that burden." The Human Biological Machine by E.J. Gold

Michele Marie

Getting Connected

I'm coming up on my 40th anniversary of being in the School. I have lived here longer than I have lived
anywhere else. In looking back I see many of the values and beliefs I brought with me are still alive and
well - some of which is good, some not so. Good or bad, what is of the machine is still of the machine.

This morning I walked into the workshop space with the intention of announcing a snack - my machine
organized, efficient and in motion. Standing in the back of the room, awaiting my chance to speak, I had
time to look around. I sensed the atmosphere . It was tangible, rich with nourishment as E.J. talked to the group. It was quiet, yet alive -- no head brain chatter, a steady pulse began to resonate in my solar plexus, my heart opened and became alive.

The machine's momentum of announcing the snack had been stopped and we were transported to another space. One gentle and without hard edge dictates and directives. I went back to the kitchen and the snack, bringing much more to the food and to my fellow friends than when I had left.

Jewel McInroy

EFFECTIVE WORK LYRICS

When I attended an IDHHB workshop in 2016 in Penn Valley, I was handed a gift by Tamara Murray. It was a special and beautiful version of Gorby's Songbook. Since following the FAXL live concerts on Monday, the "meaningful songs" that contained certain value and which had a surplus amount of Work messages for the inner being, amazed me. I wondered whether those songs were available in any form. I was dimly aware about the Songbook and lo! and behold, the surprise gift came by.

The book comprises a specific 9-set based on various categories ranging from Angels, Gaming, TF2 and much more. The Set 1 is titled 'Green Felt' and contains songs on Gamblers, Apprentice, Masters, and Alchemists, to name a few. Well, the songs are not about these folks literally, but it conveys the Work Messages in a very subtle, simple yet profound manner, keeping these characters in the foreground. The Set 2 is funny, yet points directly to certain inner qualities. The Evolutionary Rag is the name of the set and lyrics are truly wonderful, too.

"Everybody's lookin' for the answer,
That'll make everything all right.
That's like dropping your keys in the yard where it's dark,
And looking for them where it's light.
Where, where it's light, it's easy to see,
But that's not where you dropped your key,
You've got to look within, you see,
That's the only place the key could be."

The one on the Chief Feature is incredible as the lyrics says:

"He's got to find a school,
And admit that he's a fool,
Or Chief Feature once again will get it all."

This reminds me of the famous quote by Socrates when he said, "One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing." He admitted the ignorance in its entirety. Because the "knower" in us tends to "know" a lot of things and hides in the form of Chief Feature. This breaks up the connection to any authentic source of wisdom within and without. Thus, unless the knower admits that it is a fool, the Chief Feature will get it all. Which probably means that Chief Feature can never admit that it is a fool because of the immensity of its Self-Love, Vanity and many hidden deeper negative attributes of its machine.

Well, there are many such beautiful songs in the entire book. I totally read them whenever I want some inspiration in simple yet meaningful format. And it is a "must-have" book for getting acquainted with meaningful Work lyrics, too. I am grateful to Tamara for this stunning gift.