More On Gangaji and Eli Jaxon-Bear

In my recent post about Gangaji and her husband Eli Jaxon-Bear I inferred that there might be financial motivation to cover up the affair or abuse of power that involved Eli with a former student. One commenter took issue with my conclusions suggesting that Jaxon-Bear and Gangaji (aka Eliot and Toni) were not living the high life. There is now a lively discussion with some excellent ranting and analysis taking place on the Topica email discussion list and I found the following comments purported to be from a former Leela Foundation staff member (or members) to be quite interesting in what they were charging:
"the two people who have taken my money for the past four years to support their increasingly lavish, 1st class, Trump Tower, gas guzzling, philandering lifestyles.”
"I mean they live like kings  off a mostly volunteer force that
literally slave away for them. 5 star hotels everywhere they go, 1st
class everywhere they go, face-lifts and the finest clothes from the
highest end shops, two homes, etc. etc. etc.”
The students and disciples of Eliot and Toni are having problems with the abuse of power exercised by Eliot over a student/disciple/patient thirty years his junior and Toni’s coverup of same. They feel it is a breach of trust. It’s a fascinating discussion which should be of great interest to anyone who has set a guru, teacher, pastor, or political leader on a pedestal. One can sympathize with how conflicted some of these followers are. We are getting lots of examples recently of how power corrupts in any sphere. I’ll bet Gangaji and Eli Jaxon-Bear/ Toni and Eliot aren’t even Republicans.

UPDATE: For even more, see Brian Hines' Church of the Churchless.

Comments

[Anonymous]

When I saw the new brochure for Gangaji I wondered to myself "What has Gangaji done?" She always talked about meeting all feelings, that lead to the ultimate meeting with death before death.

So when she was giving her recent talk at New York's Ethical Culture Society.

A friend said "She's had work done." I was stunned.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Definitely" And when I went to Gangaji's anual retreat this year, a week long silent event.

A woman got up who was even older than Gangaji and had, had a lot more "work" done on her.

And she pointedly said to Gangaji "We're innocent."

And in all my association with Gangaji I had never seen her not really reply with something probing. Along the lines of where's that comeing from Ego or self.

Instead she meekly said.

"You're right."

Well I was thrown into incredible confusion.

Something was way "off" here.

What had Gangaji done to herself?

And why had so many of her staff gone.

Manju, the director of the foundation left.

The man who had always done the audio-video, "Retired"

If Gangaji found out about Eli's infidelity then Manju would have known too.

And I believe that must have been part of the reason why she and so many of the staff left.

I'm sure Manju Bazell who I am told still lives in Ashland would have a lot to tell if she were willing to share it.

And the people around her seemed like fawning syncophants.

One man was "yumming"
after every sentence Gangaji said.

Though he was not techically "speaking" it certainly was loud and distracting.

I wrote him a note to please be mindful of the silence we were supposed to be in.

Turns out he was some new uppity-up in the organization.

So I find it tragic really that the Truth that was held so high to be true to, now seems to have been let go for second-rate adulation.

I wish I could say it was the early onset of Alzhiemers on Gangaji's part but I don't think so.

She loves Eli and though he's dragged her through the mud of unfaithfullness before she forgave him.

Actually, it was when she stopped pleading with him to be faithful and said do what you want I don't care.

That's when Eli said she became his teacher.

To me Eli was no where near Gangaji spiritually.

And I wonder if on some level his knowing this stirred some latent rage in what he has done.

For he has distroyed his foundation, but the real subconsciouls goal may be to distroy her's.

After all he found Papaji

But Papaji chose Gangaji to teach.

Then Eli starts his foundation and eventually Gangaji begins to particpate.

And then this.

Talk about addiction.

Someone has said elsewhere that Eli should be sent into exhile. I agree.

Unfortunately I don't think he has the sense to do it himself.

The thing that we must not let happen is for this to be swept "under the rug" for some new batch of innocents to be caught up in.

And for me what is most sad.

Is that Gangji was genuine, she really was, and she pointed out someting in me, in all of us that still burns brightly.

But like a heroine addict or alchoholic, her addiction to Eli, to covering up for him for a whole year changed her, compromised who she was, and thus all of her teaching became weirdly skewed. Which was bewildering to see before I had found out what was going on.

This is truly friends,a tragedy of momentous spiritual proportions.

I heard Eli speak of taking Bodisatva vows. A vow to do no harm in this lifetime.

But the consequences of his vow breaking lie not just with his own life but in the many lives, one who posted on one of these blogs saying they were turned off to the whole idea of sprituality.

The woman who sent me the first email about this.

Had been studying four years with Eli. She had become a "Leela Therapist" one who could help other wake out of the trance of conditioned existance.

This was going to be her life's work.

Suddenly all that was wiped out.

And his three year course was not cheap! It was $25O a month! With lots of meetings and emails from Eli to the various groups.

Plus 2 retreats a year and a trip to Europe!

No wonder she's in a rage, that's her email on here.

I was thinking about taking the course but the cost was way out of my range.

Now I thank God for that.

Can you imagine having that $10,000+ dollar rug pulled out from under you?

No, the consequences of this are far reaching and inescapeable.

I agree with another post someone put up saying there is a big difference between coming out of the bathroom with you fly open and dropping your pants repetedly.

Lao-Tsu said:
Having what is called insight, a good man, before he can help a bad man, finds in himself the matter with the bad man.

And whichever teacher

Discounts the lesson

Is as far off the road as

the other.

And one other:

"But as long as there be a foe, value him, Respect him, measure him, be humble before him; let him not strip from you Compassion, the one wealth which can afford him"

Thank you Lau-Tsu

Because although it is important that the truth is comeing out, I must see that I have not been perfect either.

And who knows how I would behave in a similar situation? Will adoration coming at me from all over.

That being said I do honor Eli's lesson for us all, terrible though it may be, may it make me ever more mindful.

People say Eli was pulling in the money more than Gangaji.

Well the point about all of this was not supposed to be about money.

And if Gangaji had not agreed to Join Eli in the "Three Year" Leela Class.

Something had changed, big time.

I wrote letters to Gangaji

She usually after each meeting picks up a pile left for her before a talk, and at a retreat there are two talks a day.

Not signing them because I felt I might become a target, she began to talk back at the meetings.

Along the lines of:

Someone says they're dissapointed in me. Well I'm not here to meet their expectations.

Then after another.

I don't care what you think of me personally. I'm not interested in your projections.

Then I began to question, was I projecting this?

And I began to think I was.

That somehow I had not seen

how judgemental I was of others.

This is a classic cult trick isn't it? Get the person to doubt their reality.

I do thank God that shortly after I got home.
I received an email saying the Leela Center in New York was going to be closing and that the person who had started it was severing all ties with both the Leela Foundation and the Gagaji Foundation.

I couldn't believe it!

They spoke of a deep betrayal.

The rest started to fall into place.

And soon it dawned on me that Gangaji's change was directly related to Eli's cheating.

She's human, a woman of a "certain age"

[mark timmins]

Seeing or believing any hypocrisy or betrayal is some version of fear. You cannot not be the absolute but any belief of fear(realized or not),stops you from being aware of yourself. Don't criticize what you cannot possibly ever hope to understand. Just for one second understand nothing

[R Blog]

Re: Anonymous Mark T...huh?

[anonymous]

oops,sorry.

[Skeptical Judas]

Skepticism is the vaccine for betrayal.!!

Not accepting what can not be proved under the scientific method, the key.

It includes gurus or gods invented to pick the money of our pockets.

[anonymous]

I have studied Gangaji for 3 years, and never ever has she picked my pocket. When I went on retreat, it was always my choice to go and spend the money required. The foundations charges roughly $435. for a 5 day retreat.You then pay the Tenaya lodge for lodging and meals,which charges the same thing to any other convention that is held at this lodge.roughly $700 as I recall. That is reasonable in my opinion. You speak of needing proof?This can be proved, but not in your mind.Just stop for a second and realize the proof is who you are. And you won't have to believe a damn thing. And no guru will steal your money.

[prema jaya]

I love Gangaji more than any one on the planet...even through all of this.

She led me right up to the moment in time when I realized that I was already home and every ounce of my humanly suffering became nothing more than fleeting pin-pricks in the vast ocean of Divine Love

[Skeptical Judas]

The human beings are so desperately weak that we need someone else to make us feel we are at home!!??
Give me a break please.!!
Americans are believers of everything, and you can tell that on the Opra Show, and the money paid by the citizens to obtain a hands reading!! Gangagi is not an exception. Apparently money in Education has been not correctly invested in this country!!!!

[prema jaya]

My money has...into a Masters of Divinity Degree from Emory University ;)

[Skeptical Judas]

Well, for a name like that! what's a quarter million less in our bank account, right?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone ever heard of a lawsuit actually being won with charges of adult sex abuse brought against a guru/spiritual teacher?

[anonymous]

It is so huge but you miss it anyway. There is nothing to believe.
Someone else? Where?Weak?
Who is weak? Perhaps you might want to listen to what Gangaji actually says rather than thinking nonsense and there by missing the truth she speaks.

[William Roberts]

I am astonished at how many people have been sucked into the vortex
created by the Gangaji charade. What they are teaching is a super
watered down version of what Ramana Maharsi lived, which was at least a
little close to the Advaita teachings which originated with Sankaracara
about 1300 years ago.

The whole Advaita process of self realization was rejected by Arjuna in
the Bhagavad Gita after Krishna explained the process in chapter six.
If the greatest Ksatria who ever lived rejected this process as "More
difficult then controlling the wind" then what honest person would have
the audasity to say they can follow this path.

Gangaji and Eli deserve everything they get. It's easy for them to tell
others nobody's hear, die unto onself, who's hurting and a whole lot of
other retorical nonsense that anyone with a half brain would immediately
recognize as a circus like hypnotic charade intended to cheat innocent
people. Better if all her nieve followers ran away as fast as they
could instead of stay on this sinking boat that has absolutely nothing
auspicious about it.

Destroy the darkness of ignorance with the torchlight of knowledge - Bg
10.11

[M. Dale Coughenour]

I find the most interesting aspect of all this, is that even though nothing has changed, Eli is still awake and helping people to see their own limitations, somehow the projections people are experiencing have gone from love to hate. It shows how projections work
much more than it says anything about Eli.
Where was it ever said that an enlightened being must live by the moral standards of his time?
How absurd. Then he would be just like everyone else. Instead of learning from him we all become Judas?

[Stuart]

>Has anyone ever heard of a
>lawsuit actually being won
>with charges of adult sex
>abuse brought against a
>guru/spiritual teacher?

Swami Kriyananda (aka Donald Walters), disciple of the famous Yogananda, was brought down by such a lawsuit.

[John Christian]

"Not accepting what can not be proved under the scientific method, the key.

It includes gurus or gods invented to pick the money of our pockets."

***I assume you dont pay taxes then?? Those UN-scientific goons who steal our money and send kids to die?? Oh you DO pay taxes...Hummm So are you a hypocrite then???

[henry]

a group of women,s got 3 million dollars from Sangyal rimpoche
Can anyone help that young women sexually abuse by Eli sue the bastard .

[Amadis]

My Grandmother who passed a year ago at 105years young said " Judge not, lest thou be judged"

Thank you.

[Datreya]

From the point of the apparent ego there are other (apparent) egos doing things. Seen as non existing, there is than no ego left at all doing anything in the world. But just things happening, from the indian point of view the divine lila, the One unique Being playing in the universe.
Learn from that only One to be without ego and be the Enjoyment of the Play.

[blanko]

I heard that Eli is dying of a blood disease.

[blanko]

I heard that Eli is dying of a blood disease. Anyone have any more information on this?

[Shiva]

Honestly, everyone on here is way to wrapped up in other people's business! However they handle it is up to them and anyone else involved....you all have nothing at all to do with it! get some lives! so quick to judge- easy and quick to find fault and point fingers...so infantile..work on yourselves and stop with your meaningless opinions and judgements....

[Constanza]

What is happening in America concerning Gangaji and Eli reminds me of that from my point of view ridiculous Clinton -Lewinsky hunt. All this moral judgement stuff reminds me of the puritan witch hunts in the 19th century. Eli has had an affair he "should not have had"? Who says he should not? Who owns the moral standards.? Why, Eli, do you have to sound so guilty, when guilt is that "monstruosity of mind" that Ramesh names? Like Clinton when he confessed to his `terrible` sin! Ugh. And what the heck has that to do with Gangaji, one of the finest teachers we have at the moment? Because she did not go out and accuse and crucify her husband Eli once she knew about it?
I feel sex is so much in the minds of people and it does not belong there. Can one not think about more important things than the fact that Eli had a lover and that he hid that fact? Let us please all look at our own lives, let the one who sits in the glass house throw the first stone.
Come on.
I am so grateful that such a true, compassionate and brilliant teacher like Gangaji exists in our time. Bless you Gangaji for your beautiful and generous spirit, your practical wisdom of truth and freedom. You have helped me more than any other teacher I ever heard or read.
The hypocrisy lies alone in those repugnant moral judges, that point their fingers at people who have, like all of us, a fate to live.

Eli, I know you are ill. I wish you to recover that sense of beauty and dignity that has always been a part of you. Bless you too and please stop being so sorry and guilty. No need. You are beautiful as you are.

[xacolyte]

Of all the ways of supplying meaning to one's life and creating the illusion of purpose and worth, none seems more effective than the voluntary subjugation of one's will to a church or a guru. After seeing through the deceptions of the mormon church my skepticism survived intact for three decades until i met Eli. And now another spell has been broken and i can return to full sanity. Henry Miller said, "When at last each man realizes that nothing is to be expected of God, or man, or friends, or benevolent tyrants, or democratic governments, or saints, or saviors, or even from that holiest of holies, education; when each man realizes that he must depend upon his own hands to save himself, perhaps then, perhaps..." Without any regrets I wish Eli well.

[Phil]

Maybe you should send the above quote by Henry Miller to Eli and Gangaji. They are PERPETUATING the very lie that Miller is pointing to. There is no problem in addressing the incongruencies between "action" and "talk" on the part of those individuals who profess to have something to "teach"....and feel it is worth paying for. It has nothing to do with NOT wishing them "well". Principle OVER personality...no matter "who" the personality happens to be.