Eli Jaxon-Bear
Encyclopedia
Eli Jaxon-Bear is an American spiritual teacher and author currently living in Ashland, Oregon
. Before he met his final teacher, Sri H.W.L. Poonja in 1990, he was best known for his work with the Enneagram
. Following his meeting with Poonjaji he continued to teach, carrying his teacher’s message to the West.
, graduating in 1968. In 1965 he was part of a group of students who traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to take part in the civil rights marches. Later he wrote of this experience, “Getting on the bus represented a much deeper commitment than simply enduring a few weeks of dangerous adventure. Finally, I had to give my life fully to getting on the bus for freedom without a thought of getting off.” After graduating he became a community organizer in Chicago and Detroit. Freedom of Information documents show that the FBI began a file on Jaxon-Bear after his arrest during the Democratic Convention in the summer of 1968. After six months of working in a steel mill in Homestead, Pennsylvania, he was awarded a Fellowship for a Doctorate at the Graduate School for International Studies at the University of Denver
. He was part of the student strike committee that shut down the University in the spring of 1970.
, when he became a federal fugitive during the Vietnam War
. As he described, "I was brought face-to-face with death. Through grace, I passed to the other side: I awoke to the truth of my own nature as empty, immortal consciousness." This experience led him on a spiritual search that took him around the world and into many traditions and practices. In 1978, Kalu Rinpoche
appointed him the president of Kagyu Minjur Choling, the first Kagyu
Tibetan Buddhist dharma center in Marin County. In 1982, he was presented with a Zen Teaching Fan at Cho Sho-ji Zen Temple in Beppu, Japan. Through the 1980s, Jaxon-Bear ran a Clinical Hypnosis and Neurolinguistics certification program at the Esalen Institute
. Also during that time, he studied the ancient Sufi wisdom teachings of the Enneagram
. His first writings and teachings on the Enneagram emerged in 1989. He was a keynote speaker at the first International Enneagram Conference at Stanford University in August, 1994. His talk was entitled “The Enneagram and Self-Realization”.
In 1990 in India, Jaxon-Bear met the teacher Sri H.W.L. Poonja, who is called Papaji by his followers. A few months later, he took his wife, Antoinette Varner to meet Papaji. She too became a devotee and Papaji named her Gangaji
. Subsequent to the meeting with Papaji, both Jaxon-Bear and Gangaji were allowed to teach satsang in the West, and given conditional permission to publish Wake Up and Roar.
In 2004, Jaxon-Bear wrote Sudden Awakening Into Direct Realization. “In this book, I offer you the gift of awakening that was given to me by my teacher, Sri H.W. L. Poonja, a fully awakened satguru called Papaji. Awakening is real: it is actually the only reality. Awakening is permanent: it doesn’t come and go.”
In October 2006, Eli disclosed his extramarital relationship to the Gangaji Foundation Board of Directors and staff. Subsequently the Executive Director and Board of the Gangaji Foundation issued an open letter stating, "What was initially seen as a matter between two adults is now recognized to be a betrayal of the teacher/student relationship and an abuse of power," The letter added,
Following the disclosure, Jaxon-Bear publicly apologized for the pain he had caused his wife, the woman he became involved with, and his community. At that time, Jaxon-Bear resigned from teaching. He and Gangaji held open meetings to heal the wounds experienced in their spiritual community, as well as holding retreats on the subjects of disillusionment, betrayal and relationship.
Subsequently, in an interview with Bertrand Coquoz of Wegweiser Magazin in Germany, Jaxon-Bear said of his affair, "My worst mistake thus far in this flawed life was allowing myself to be in an intimate relationship with two women at the same time. They were the two loves of my life and they both loved me deeply and truly. But it was an impossible situation for all three of us. I caused suffering to the two people that I loved most deeply. That first mistake led to my lying about my affair. This was a great mistake. I had never lied to my partner over our thirty years together and it was a terrible mistake. It was shocking to see that I was capable of this. Bearing having caused suffering and falling into the trap of lying was the greatest pain that I have ever experienced in my life. It burned a holy fire in a place that had not yet burned. As I tried to satisfy my obligations to both my partner and my lover I continued to make many mistakes."
, a severe form of blood cancer that attacks the bones. He underwent surgery for multiple fractures of his spine and participated in an experimental treatment protocol that included tandem stem cell transplants at the Myeloma Institute in Little Rock, Arkansas. He continues with maintenance level chemotherapy. In January 2008, Jaxon-Bear reestablished the Leela Foundation and returned to teaching.
Ashland, Oregon
Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, near Interstate 5 and the California border, and located in the south end of the Rogue Valley. It was named after Ashland County, Ohio, point of origin of Abel Helman and other founders, and secondarily for Ashland, Kentucky, where other...
. Before he met his final teacher, Sri H.W.L. Poonja in 1990, he was best known for his work with the Enneagram
Enneagram
Enneagram may refer to:* Enneagram of Personality, a model of human personality which uses an enneagram figure* Fourth Way enneagram, a diagram used in the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and others associated with the Fourth Way school...
. Following his meeting with Poonjaji he continued to teach, carrying his teacher’s message to the West.
Early Years
Jaxon-Bear was born Elliot J. Zeldow in 1947, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of PittsburghUniversity of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, graduating in 1968. In 1965 he was part of a group of students who traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to take part in the civil rights marches. Later he wrote of this experience, “Getting on the bus represented a much deeper commitment than simply enduring a few weeks of dangerous adventure. Finally, I had to give my life fully to getting on the bus for freedom without a thought of getting off.” After graduating he became a community organizer in Chicago and Detroit. Freedom of Information documents show that the FBI began a file on Jaxon-Bear after his arrest during the Democratic Convention in the summer of 1968. After six months of working in a steel mill in Homestead, Pennsylvania, he was awarded a Fellowship for a Doctorate at the Graduate School for International Studies at the University of Denver
University of Denver
The University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....
. He was part of the student strike committee that shut down the University in the spring of 1970.
Spiritual Path
Jaxon-Bear's eighteen-year spiritual path began after the 1971 May Day Protests1971 May Day Protests
The 1971 May Day Protests were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., in protest against the Vietnam War. These began on May Day of that year, continued with similar intensity into the morning of the third day, then rapidly diminished through several following days...
, when he became a federal fugitive during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. As he described, "I was brought face-to-face with death. Through grace, I passed to the other side: I awoke to the truth of my own nature as empty, immortal consciousness." This experience led him on a spiritual search that took him around the world and into many traditions and practices. In 1978, Kalu Rinpoche
Kalu Rinpoche
Kyabje Kalu Rinpoche was a Buddhist meditation master, scholar and teacher. He was one of the first Tibetan masters to teach in the West.-Early life and teachers:...
appointed him the president of Kagyu Minjur Choling, the first Kagyu
Kagyu
The Kagyu, Kagyupa, or Kagyud school, also known as the "Oral Lineage" or Whispered Transmission school, is today regarded as one of six main schools of Himalayan or Tibetan Buddhism, the other five being the Nyingma, Sakya, Jonang, Bon and Gelug...
Tibetan Buddhist dharma center in Marin County. In 1982, he was presented with a Zen Teaching Fan at Cho Sho-ji Zen Temple in Beppu, Japan. Through the 1980s, Jaxon-Bear ran a Clinical Hypnosis and Neurolinguistics certification program at the Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute is a residential community and retreat in Big Sur, California, which focuses upon humanistic alternative education. Esalen is a nonprofit organization devoted to activites such as meditation, massage, Gestalt, yoga, psychology, ecology, and spirituality...
. Also during that time, he studied the ancient Sufi wisdom teachings of the Enneagram
Enneagram
Enneagram may refer to:* Enneagram of Personality, a model of human personality which uses an enneagram figure* Fourth Way enneagram, a diagram used in the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and others associated with the Fourth Way school...
. His first writings and teachings on the Enneagram emerged in 1989. He was a keynote speaker at the first International Enneagram Conference at Stanford University in August, 1994. His talk was entitled “The Enneagram and Self-Realization”.
In 1990 in India, Jaxon-Bear met the teacher Sri H.W.L. Poonja, who is called Papaji by his followers. A few months later, he took his wife, Antoinette Varner to meet Papaji. She too became a devotee and Papaji named her Gangaji
Gangaji
Gangaji is an American born spiritual teacher and author. She currently lives in Ashland, Oregon with her husband, fellow spiritual teacher Eli Jaxon-Bear.-Early life:...
. Subsequent to the meeting with Papaji, both Jaxon-Bear and Gangaji were allowed to teach satsang in the West, and given conditional permission to publish Wake Up and Roar.
Core Teaching
Jaxon-Bear's teaching focuses on the nature of egoic suffering in support of self-realization. Today, Jaxon-Bear offers the living transmission of silence received from his teacher Papaji. He also helps students address egoic identification using the Enneagram as a vehicle for self-inquiry and realization of true freedom. What Papaji called “stopping the mind,” Jaxon-Bear called “ending the fixation.” He wrote, “The great gift of the Enneagram is that it describes who you are not. It shows the veiling of pure, pristine consciousness by habits of egoic identification.”Writings and Publications
In 1990, Jaxon-Bear established the Pacific Center Press to publish books and videos. Volume One of Wake Up and Roar, a compilation of spiritual dialogues with Papaji edited by Jaxon-Bear, was published in 1992. The second volume of Wake Up and Roar followed in 1993. In 2001, he wrote From Fixation to Freedom: The Enneagram of Liberation to reflect the evolution of his teaching of the Enneagram in light of his teacher’s transmission.In 2004, Jaxon-Bear wrote Sudden Awakening Into Direct Realization. “In this book, I offer you the gift of awakening that was given to me by my teacher, Sri H.W. L. Poonja, a fully awakened satguru called Papaji. Awakening is real: it is actually the only reality. Awakening is permanent: it doesn’t come and go.”
The Leela Foundation
Jaxon-Bear established the Leela Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The organization offers events, books, videos, audios, and outreach programs dedicated to world peace and freedom through universal self-realization. Jaxon-Bear’s holds public meetings and retreats in the US, Europe and Australia.Personal Life
In 1975, Jaxon-Bear met his life-partner, Antionette Varner in Berkeley, California. They spent their first five years together living on a small farm in Bolinas, California. In 1989, they were married in a cave in Haleakala Crater on Maui.Affair
In October 2005, Jaxon-Bear admitted to his wife Gangaji that he had recently ended a three-year affair with an adult female student who was at the time employed as a teacher at his organization, the Leela Foundation. After a brief separation, Jaxon-Bear and Gangaji reconciled in December 2005.In October 2006, Eli disclosed his extramarital relationship to the Gangaji Foundation Board of Directors and staff. Subsequently the Executive Director and Board of the Gangaji Foundation issued an open letter stating, "What was initially seen as a matter between two adults is now recognized to be a betrayal of the teacher/student relationship and an abuse of power," The letter added,
"The repercussions of this betrayal are reverberating in ways that were never imagined, but are very painful. The deepest truths do not excuse or justify our failures and betrayals as human beings. Gratefully though, without minimizing or spiritualizing the damage done, love remains and sustains all. It is only in love that we can truly meet the pain that comes with being human. Ever more so, we can commit ourselves to the compassion that love provides and to tell the truth more clearly and honestly to others and ourselves."
Following the disclosure, Jaxon-Bear publicly apologized for the pain he had caused his wife, the woman he became involved with, and his community. At that time, Jaxon-Bear resigned from teaching. He and Gangaji held open meetings to heal the wounds experienced in their spiritual community, as well as holding retreats on the subjects of disillusionment, betrayal and relationship.
Subsequently, in an interview with Bertrand Coquoz of Wegweiser Magazin in Germany, Jaxon-Bear said of his affair, "My worst mistake thus far in this flawed life was allowing myself to be in an intimate relationship with two women at the same time. They were the two loves of my life and they both loved me deeply and truly. But it was an impossible situation for all three of us. I caused suffering to the two people that I loved most deeply. That first mistake led to my lying about my affair. This was a great mistake. I had never lied to my partner over our thirty years together and it was a terrible mistake. It was shocking to see that I was capable of this. Bearing having caused suffering and falling into the trap of lying was the greatest pain that I have ever experienced in my life. It burned a holy fire in a place that had not yet burned. As I tried to satisfy my obligations to both my partner and my lover I continued to make many mistakes."
Illness
In 2007, after suffering severe bone pain, Jaxon-Bear was diagnosed with last stage multiple myelomaMultiple myeloma
Multiple myeloma , also known as plasma cell myeloma or Kahler's disease , is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell normally responsible for the production of antibodies...
, a severe form of blood cancer that attacks the bones. He underwent surgery for multiple fractures of his spine and participated in an experimental treatment protocol that included tandem stem cell transplants at the Myeloma Institute in Little Rock, Arkansas. He continues with maintenance level chemotherapy. In January 2008, Jaxon-Bear reestablished the Leela Foundation and returned to teaching.
Books
- From Fixation to Freedom: The Enneagram of Liberation (2006), (ISBN 978-1-893840-26-3)
- Sudden Awakening Into Direct Realization (2004), (ISBN 1-932073-11-6)
- Wake Up and Roar: Satsang with H.W.L. Poonja, Editor (2002), (ISBN 978-0-963219-41-1)
- Healing the Heart of Suffering: Using The Enneagram for Spiritual Growth (1989) (Droemer Knauer, Germany.)
- Flame of Freedom, (1998) Luchow Press, Germany
Articles
- Connections Magazine (May, 2010), “I Love, Therefore I AM”
- KGS Magazine, Hamburg (2008), “Saints, Sinners and Self Realization”
- NOVA Magazine, Australia (August, 2005), “Mirror, Mirror”
- Sein Magazine, Germany (2005), “Interview with Jaxon-Bear”
- Pathways Magazine (April, 2004) “The Awakening Power of Two Simple Questions” (with Gangaji)
- Visionen Magazine (March, 2004), “Meditation”
- Connections Magazine (2004), “Therapy and Spirituality”
- Connections Magazine (April, 2003), “Uncovering Self-Betrayal” (with Gangaji)
- Wegweiser Magazine (June/July, 2003), “Questions on the Roots of War”
- Advaita Journal, Germany, (December, 2003), “The Essence of Evil”
- Sein Magazine, Germany (2003), “Being a True Friend: Putting Relationships in Service of Truth”
- Visionen Magazine (August, 2002), “Commitment to Truth – Do I Want to Be True or To Be Right?”
- KGS Magazine (2002), “What Do You Really Want?”
- Wegweiser Magazine (September, 2001), “New York Report”
- Connections Magazine (May, 2001), “Interview with Jaxon-Bear”
- Recto-Veseau Magazine, Switzerland (March, 1999), “Interview with Jaxon-Bear”
- Connections Magazine (1997), “Interview with Jaxon-Bear”
- Gnosis Magazine (1996), “Preserving the Transmission and Spiritual Context of the Enneagram” (Letter)
- Enneagram Monthly (1995), “Journey to the Land Down Under”
- Enneagram Monthly (1995), “The Enneagram and the Silent Tradition”
- Enneagram Monthly (1995), “Eights: The Outlaw Mentality”
- Enneagram Monthly (1995), “The Soul of the Six”
- Enneagram Monthly (1994), “The Enneagram of Character Fixation”
Audio/DVD Compilations
- From Fixation to Freedom, CD, 2008, ISBN 978-1591795933
- Self Realization and The Enneagram, DVD, 2005, ASNI: B000B5KX10
- Living Freedom, DVD, 2005, ASIN: B000A36K8I
- Space for it All, DVD, 2005, ASIN: B000A36K8S
- Trust of Your Nature, DVD, 2005, ASIN: B000B5KX0G
- Chasing the Smoke, DVD, 2005, ASIN: B000B5KX0Q
- Staying True, DVD, 2005, ASIN: B000B5KX06
- Seeds of Awakening, DVD, 2005, ASIN: B0009XBR0K
- Way of the Bodhisattva, VHS, 2000, ASNI: 1893840093
- Interview with David Freudberg: Humankind/NPR Radio