Gangaji, (born Texas in 1942) is an American born spiritual teacher and author. She currently lives in Ashland, Oregon. Her most recent books include A Diamond in Your Pocket.[1]
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Gangaji, born Merle Antoinette Roberson in Texas in 1942, grew up in Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1964, she married and had a daughter. In 1972, she moved to San Francisco. There, she pursued many paths to change her life including relationship, motherhood, political activism, career, and spiritual practice. She took Bodhisattva vows, practiced Zen and Vipassana meditation, helped run a Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Center, and had a career as an acupuncturist in the San Francisco Bay area.
Feeling unfulfilled by her seemingly successful life, she and her partner of thirteen years, Eli Jaxon-Bear, sold their house and moved to Hawaii in 1989, where they were married shortly afterward.[2]
In 1990 Gangaji traveled to India, where she met Sri H.W.L. Poonja, also known as Papaji. This meeting changed her life, and ended her search for fulfillment. In the biography of her life, Just Like You, she is quoted as saying, “The extraordinary event in this life was that I met Papaji. Until then I looked everywhere for the transcendental or the extraordinary, but after meeting Papaji I began to find the extraordinary in every moment.”[3] Papaji gave her the name Gangaji, and asked her to share what she had directly realized with others. For Gangaji’s own account of her spiritual path and essential experiences see her article “The End of All Excuses.”[4]
Today, Gangaji travels the world as a teacher and author. Her teachings find wide acceptance among spiritual seekers interested in self-realization. She teaches that the truth of who you are is already free and at peace, and that it can be discovered by simply ending one’s search.
“I invite people to just stop and be still. And in that you discover who you are, because once you discover who you are, you can stop fragmenting into pieces. I know that in any one day there are moments were there is nothing going on, but we link up what is happening from thought to thought without any space. We overlook the spaciousness that it is all happening in.”[5]
In speaking with people Gangaji uses her own form of self-inquiry (or self-enquiry), first associated with Ramana Maharshi, Papaji’s teacher.
“I use inquiry as a way of getting the mind to turn inward to the silence. It could be the question, “Who am I?” Or it could be “What am I avoiding in this moment?” Or, “Where is silence?” “What is needed in this moment, right in this very moment, what is needed for true peace?” “What is needed if this was my last moment on earth?” Rather than sending the mind outward to gather information or experiences, it is really sending the mind inward to question our basic assumption of who we think we are.”[6]
In facing strong emotions such as fear and anger, or in dealing with traumas which keep people locked in personal misery and unable to experience freedom, Gangaji teaches “direct experience,” or meeting whatever emotion is present. For example she says, “Fear is about survival. When you drop under that and experience the fear without trying to change it, just letting it be, then it becomes still. When you open your heart to fear, rather than trying to fight it or deny it or even overcome it, then you find it is just energy." [7]
Although Gangaji states that her realization and meetings are not part of any particular religion or philosophy, her teaching has sometimes been described as consistent with Advaita Vedanta.[8]
Since 1993 Gangaji’s work has been supported by The Gangaji Foundation, a non-profit headquartered in Ashland, Oregon. Its mission statement states: “The Gangaji Foundation serves the truth of universal consciousness, and the potential for the individual and collective recognition of peace inherent in the core of all being. It is the purpose of the Gangaji Foundation to forthrightly and respectfully present the teaching and transmission of Gangaji, through the grace of Sri Ramana Maharshi and Sri H.W.L. Poonja.”[9]
The Gangaji Foundation produces events, publishes books and videos, hosts a website and runs several outreach programs including a prison program.
In October 2005, Gangaji's husband, Eli Jaxon-Bear, admitted to Gangaji that he had a three-year affair with an adult female student working and teaching in his organization, the Leela Foundation. After a brief separation, Gangaji and Eli fully reconciled their marriage. At the student’s request, the information about the affair was not made public at that time. In January of 2006, Gangaji and Eli merged their foundations, continuing to teach together and separately.
In October 2006, Eli’s extramarital relationship was disclosed to the Gangaji Foundation Board of Directors and staff. Subsequently, an open letter from Barbara Denempont, Executive Director of the Gangaji Foundation since January 2006, was written to the public. "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,"[10] She 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."[11]
For a time Eli Jaxon-Bear stopped teaching. Both the Gangaji Foundation and Eli held open meetings with the stated purpose to heal whatever wounds that may have been experienced in their spiritual community.[12] In addition, Gangaji and later Gangaji and Eli together held retreats on the subjects of disillusionment, betrayal, and relationship.
In 2007 Eli was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a severe form of blood cancer. After undergoing extensive treatment he made a partial recovery. In January 2008, Eli reestablished the Leela Foundation and resumed teaching on his own and with Gangaji[13]
Gangaji continues to teach, traveling worldwide to offer meetings and retreats. 2010 will be her twentieth year teaching.
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