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 2/5/2012

2nd interview with Eli

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