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). 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