Teacher and author brings ‘consciousness’ teaching, her husband — who also teaches — and her staff to Ashland

ASHLAND — New Age teacher and author Gangaji has moved to Ashland from Marin County with her staff of 12, occupying the old Tara Labs building on Highway 66 as a base for seminars, which orient adherents to overcome suffering by tapping into the "silent, intelligent love" in the individual.

Gangaji and her husband, fellow teacher-author Eli Jaxon-Bear, join other "consciousness" leaders and authors who have made Ashland a New Age haven in the last decade, including Jean Houston, Gary Zukav, Jose Arguelles and Neale Donald Walsch.

Why relocate to tiny Ashland from densely-populated Marin County, a nucleus of New Age activity? "Quality of life, no commuting — and the people here pretty much demanded we move here when we lectured in Ashland last August," joked Gangaji.

Gangaji and Jaxon-Bear were taught by holy man Poonjaji in India in 1991 and were instructed to bring the information to the West, she said. Separately and together, the two teach at workshops and retreats in the United States and in Europe.

Gangaji attained note in the 1990s with her book "You Are That!" and her shows on cable access television, where she became known for her simple message, delivered in calm, soothing tones.

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Jaxon-Bear, an anti-war and civil rights activist in the South in the mid-1960s, wrote "Sudden Awakening" and "The Enneagram of Liberation." He rejected the "politics of blame and confrontation" as he realized that blame is "only a projection of what’s wrong with oneself," he said.

Gangaji, born Toni Varner in Mississippi, will merge foundations and operations with Jaxon-Bear’s Leela Foundation, which is dedicated to "world peace and freedom through universal self-realization."

Gangaji’s teachings are "very simple," she said. "Take a moment, stop everything you’re trying to do, be still and investigate what’s right here without letting your mind and ego overlay it. What’s here is peace, satisfaction and fulfillment. That’s the nature of the true self."

Jane Sterling of Ashland called the arrival of Gangaji "an incredible gift that brings a whole community and family here to expand the consciousness community that’s already here."

At an open house Wednesday evening, Gaelyn Larrick of Ashland said "in a community already blessed with many spiritual teachers, this gives people direct access to one of the great ones."

Although Gangaji is considered one of the top alternative spirituality teachers in the country, she eschews doctrines, beliefs and concepts, preferring instead, she said, to help people "forget all teachings, forget what you have and don’t have and find what’s at the bottom of it all, what was here before all this and will be here after all this – the simplicity and thrill of reeling back the mind and knowing the miracle of being here."

Jaxon-Bear echoed similar themes, garnered from the same teacher, Poonjaji, himself a disciple of Ramana Maharshi.

"To find freedom, you have to know what you want and most people don’t examine that," said Jaxon-Bear, noting that most spiritual teachings are rationalized and conceptualized to serve the personal ego, which leads to further suffering and ignorance of who we really are.

Who are they really? "Silent, empty, conscious, intelligent love," said Jaxon-Bear.

Society, he said, has suffered many "psychic wounds," such as Nazism, Vietnam and 9/11, all of which have presented the opportunity for "openness and treating people with kindness and enlightenment," but all of which have been "papered over."

"All the preaching has to stop," said Gangaji. "All concepts and beliefs are useful along the way, but they’re finally in the way. They’re finally traps. If we believe our thoughts are reality, it’s crazymaking."

Although most meetings staged by Gangaji and Jaxon-Bear are out of the area, they will be holding some in Ashland, starting in February. The cost for such meetings typically is a donation of $10-$15, and more intensive programs are available. Call 482-3100 or visit leela.org.

John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org