The Nondual Highlights
The Best of the Internet's Nonduality Email Lists, Forums, Web sites, and More

Editors: Jerry Katz, Gloria Lee, Christiana Duranczyk, Michael Read,
John Metzger

Highlights Issue #1049

Monday, April 22, 2002

Today's Highlights Compiled, Edited, and Designed
by
Jerry Katz

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Mystress Angelique Serpent
from the Kundalini Gateway List

Farewell to a friend.

   It is with great sadness that I report the passing of El Collie.

Most of the newer listmembers do not know El, but the
older ones will remember her well, and with much love.
All of us have found comfort from her work: the signs
and symptoms page, her writing, poetry and her own
ground breaking print magazine and website, Shared
Transformation. http://members.aol.com/ckress/st.html

She was a great spirit, wise, generous and
compassionate. She gave much of the last decade of her
life promoting awareness of the Kundalini process and
helping other awakened people in difficulty, even tho
her own life and process was marked with chronic pain
and illness. Yet, she rarely mentioned her difficulties,
and her sharing on this list was often very humorous as
well as insightful.

This community that so many of you, and including myself
have gained so much from, would not exist but for El. I
am greatly in her debt. I am very glad I told her so,
july 2000, when she retired from active participation in
this list. I wrote:

"You are one of the true Pioneers of the Western
Kundalini phenomena. Few people know that about you.
Now, it seems that gradually you are retiring from that
activism, and truly you have earned it. Your influence
on this entire social subgroup of awakened folks has
been tremendous, and you have always been an inspiration
to me. From back when I first came online, and came
across the "Signs and Symptoms list".. it changed my
perspective of my entire life. It makes me think of the
early feminists, and the brilliant blazing torch they
passed on the succeeding generations. My career as a
Kundalini activist has just begun, by comparison, and it
would not Be, if not for your efforts in creating the
legacy which I, among so many, are heirs to. It saddens
me tho, to see you departing the field. Those of us who
are just starting out, still need you. We need your
wisdom and insights. Your passion."
 

    Those words are even truer today. Her brilliance, and my
sadness to hear she has truly, "departed the field"
doubtless for greener pastures that she truly deserves.
My spirit is happy she is freed from pain, but my heart
grieves the loss.

The impetus and support for the creation of the K-list
came from El, it was inspired by her "Friends online"
site which was the first website to offer a place of
community and comfort for awakened people. She was an
original, and will be greatly missed by me, and everyone
who knew her.

The last thing she posted to shared Transformation was
an essay on Shamanic death and dismemberment last March.
http://members.aol.com/ckress01/darkness.html

Even through her own troubles she continued to reach out
and help others, to share her wisdom that it might
benefit any who might be in need. She retreated from
this list about two years ago, citing health problems
and a need to invest energy elsewhere, think about
something besides the process. Last time I wrote to her,
she said she was mentoring new writers. Yet, I noticed
when her name reappeared in the member list, although I
did not mention it to anyone. She chose to be in
seclusion and I respected that, and did not disturb it
... but it gave me great joy to know we were again
blessed by her presence.

Over the next few days I will be forwarding some of El's
posts from the archives, as a memorial and tribute to
this great lady. If you wish, go to the archives search
engine
http://www.kundalini-gateway.org/klist/search.html

and enter El Collie or ckress to find her posts. The
search will take a while, she was prolific in her
generosity of sharing. I did so and found this poem:
 

KNOCK KNOCK
by El Collie

I AM
all that ever was or will be.
I AM
always and forever
nameless, formless, selfless.
I AM
source and substance,
the magic All, the quintessential Who,
the What It Is
behind the many guises
of this, that and the other.
I always AM
nothing and no one
but the light of consciousness pouring through
prismatic dreamspace and illusion-time
into a trillion variations on a single theme:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
 

   Following is a letter from her husband Charles, to Bob
Boyd who passed it onto Jerry, who sent it on... please
pass it on it turn, to anyone you know who knew El, so
they may know of her passing and include her and Charles
in their prayers.

      Blessings...

  Hi Bob,

This is Charles, El's Husband. El Passed away on
Wednesday 17 April. As you can imagine I am still in a
state of shock and grief. I feel like my heart has been
ripped from my chest. My family has been a great help in
assisting me and spending time with me. El was such a
great source of strength and compassion, but in the last
few years her health deteriorated and her pain and
suffering kept getting greater. Now she is liberated
from the pain of the body, but we who are left behind
miss her greatly. I hope at some point to be able to
post more of her writings and poetry to the web, but for
now I am still too broken up to do that. She Is being
cremeated as she wished and her ashes will be scattered
at sea on the 3rd of May. If anyone wishes to make a
donation in her name she always liked the IRC
(international rescue commitee), Project open Hand, and
Habitat for Humanity. Prayers for her and our family are
also appreciated. Thanks for all you have done. You have
always been a beacon of light and love.

Love

Charles

PS you can share this message If you like on your web
site or with those that knew her.

_______________________________________________________________________

Ramon Sender
from Sufi Mystic list

"No, I have absolutely no idea what water is," said the
fish. "Why do you ask?"

quote from "Quantum Touch: The Power To Heal" Richard
Gordon

Photo selected by John Metzger for Highlights #1047

_________________________________________________________________________

MATTHEW
from Highlights #423

i honestly don't give a rats ass who is enlightened. In
fact i really care whether or not i am enlightened. It
is a totally irrelevant issue to me. The above post of
mine about testing for enlightenment was sarcasm about
the need people have to test teachers. I live snuggled
up with my fears. It's not an adventure and it's not
heroic to me, none of it, it is just life.
__________________________________________________________________________

STEFAN
from SeekersAfterTruth list

My name is Stefan Ramon Bajon and I have been a seeker
all my life. It was not until some seven surgeries i
endured in the late nineties that brought me to
surrender more and more of ego death.....I picked up the
power of now in 2000 and that book has led me to much
deeper teachings and to deeper truth.....If anyone in
this list lives in the Santa Rosa area of North
California please call me for community of like oriented
beings.....707 837 8076
 

_________________________________________________________________________

JEWISH HAIKUS
from personal correspondence

A lovely nose ring--
excuse me while I put my
head in the oven

Sorry I'm not home
to take your call. At the tone
please state your bad news

Is one Nobel Prize
so much to ask from a child
after all I've done?

Jewish triathalon:
gin rummy, then contact bridge
followed by a nap.