Wizard Baldour
Wizard Baldour currently abides in the forest at the Wizard’s Den at the very end of Boone Village Trail in Cedar Grove, North Carolina, 27231.
“John Troy” is a horizontal story line. As
such, it is written in third person. It has a beginning. It will end. It
is imaginary in the sense it is not what you think it is.
Wizard Baldour is the ever-present vertical
paradigm. It is not imaginary. It is nameless. It always is.
Beginning-less. The preceding portion of this manual is written from the
stance of the vertical paradigm of existence, the here and now.
The following is the illusory linear
story-line of John’s transition to Wizard and the domicile of the wise,
Wisdom. As you read and digest, accept the message and Wisdom as a
reflection of your own, if it resonates with you, and reject the
messenger as just another temporary story line. A horizontal paradigm.
Let it fade away like the tail of a comet.
John Troy (Wizard Baldour) is a North
Carolina native, born and raised in this gentle, southern state. Born a
twin in 1939, a Sagittarius with a full moon rising in Gemini. East of
the Sun and west of the Moon.
As a child, summertime found him at a farm in
the Blue Ridge Mountains where he began to learn all about the natural
world of foods, forests and fellowship, firsthand. His Grandmother was a
wonderful mentor. He spent his time harvesting strawberries, shucking
corn, collecting eggs from the henhouse, churning butter and even
milking the cows. He helped his Grandmother prepare lavish meals on a
wood cook stove.
His Uncle Frank lived on the farm in the
mountains, too. He was an old time country lawyer and loved law and the
court as he loved the mountains. John and Frank would go with their
uncle to the pastures, law offices, courtroom and Saturday night square
dances. No TV or radio, then. They watched the stars at night.
Mealtime was the highlight of the day at his
Grandmother’s farm and he loved the notion of feeding people. Mixing
savory smells, good times and mighty fine eating became dear to his
heart.
John and his brother, Frank, loved to play in
the woods and climb the mountains. When it showered, it was time to rock
on the front porch.
Back home in Durham, John was pretty much of
a rascal as a child and in school. He didn’t fit in well,
scholastically. As John grew older, he was in and out of trouble,
repeatedly. He struggled with the academic world, even though he came
from a very educated family.
Once out of school, John started a stereo
component business that became a leading retailer in the Southeast in
the sound equipment business. Music being what the business was about,
lyrics of the recordings of the sixties and seventies began to speak to
John.
Then, one evening, John had a spontaneous
event at a friend’s home that changed his life. It was a sudden paradigm
shift of profound magnitude. A grand realization occurred while reading
through a newly released book titled, “Be Here Now”, by Ram Dass.
John was also listening to a recently
released record album, “A Question of Balance”, with stereo headphones.
It was novel that the sound from the headphones was heard in the middle
of the head rather than from an outside speaker system. That is where
the attention focused, turning attention inward to the sound of music
where the narrator “I” usually is. It all happened spontaneously and
quickly.
John’s attention fully introverted on its own
volition. All attention was drawn upstream in a river of light towards
its apparent source in the head. Reaching its source, local identity
imploded. Awareness was free from the body, form and gravity. In pure
space. An awesome low resonate vibration was felt as a colossal
sustained bell ringing in and as his entire being.
Blissful formless existence was very briefly
experienced before completely being Self absorbed as the unknown eternal
Divine realm. It was rapture. No doubt. All "otherness" was obliterated.
Beyond description. The ultimate experience of this absorption and pure
bliss proved unknowable and the only recollection was through subtle,
but unshakable, intuition.
The fruit of this intuition was a perception
of oneness as Love and the maturing and deepening of Faith. The thorn of
the fear of death was removed.
John later learned that the formal term used
in Hindu philosophy to describe this event is Nirvikalpa Samadhi. A
legitimate spiritual experience. This is a total but temporary
absorption in the Divine, in which all bodily awareness is dissolved
along with all form to reveal the formless nature of God or One’s True
Self.
The experience of conventional reality upon
resuming bodily awareness was interpreted by John as “turning
inside-out”. Being was instantly non-local. The first eye contact after
this experience was with a small girl in the same room. When John looked
into her eyes, he realized that he was looking at his Self! Not as a
reflection of a form in a mirror but the very essence of both were
really one and there existed a continuum. What was the form of reality
was now transparent.
When the sun came up the next morning, he
recognized the sun within the same infinity of his Self. Everything was
within the infinity of Self. John had stumbled on Self inquiry by fate
and turned inside-out.
John was stunned by this realization and had
little context in the world in which to frame it. He had been convinced
he was literally the voice in his head. That proved untrue. He was not
religious, at all. He lacked the vocabulary and literate skills to
express and articulate any insight.
Shortly afterwards, he began to lose touch
with the realization and started searching for a way back to it. He had
not the coaching or conviction to abide in this realization.
He started reading other books that were
mentioned in “Be Here Now”. His appetite became ferocious for
information about what had happened. He longs for the Divine. It begins
to consume him.
Then came a chance meeting with a truly
remarkable man, James Campbell. It was in Jamaica.
A party of folks, including John, staying in
Negril are invited to go up in the hills to visit a Rasta camp. This was
a chance for a new adventure. John met Jamesy at this camp.
Jamesy-Man, as he was called, was the first
person that John met who truly shared that deep understanding of Being
“inside out”. Jamesy, a little man in the mountains of Jamaica with a
heart as big as all outdoors became John’s elder and spiritual Godfather
without notice or fanfare.
The meeting was quickly cut short by
synchronistic circumstances and the party had to leave. Jamesy mentions
to John, in parting, that he (John) will return and pointed to a
mountain on the horizon and said to meet there, on top. He said he will
prepare a place. John is somewhat doubtful.
John returned to North Carolina and his
domestic “story-line” totally fell apart. His stereo business was
failing and his wife left him to be with his best friend. His heart was
completely broken.
In the midst of the emotional turmoil, John
could not get Jamesy off his mind. Within a few months, he sold his last
possession, a Volkswagen, and purchased an airplane ticket and backpack
and left loved ones, home and garden behind to go be with Jamesy in the
mountains of Jamaica. He had no money or worldly possessions left to
take with him. He trusted his newly discovered intuition.
He arrived at James’ camp, on top of the
mountain that Jamesy had pointed to, a few miles into the wild mountain
country of Jamaica, outside of Cascades. It took several hours of
strenuous mountain hiking to reach his campsite. When John finally
reached the camp, Jamesy was actually expecting him and had just built a
grass hut for him to stay in. The hut or Gate as they would call it was
woven with bamboo and situated on a knoll under a Mango tree. John could
see the Caribbean Sea in the far distance. It was a welcome reception,
in-deed.
The camp was permeated with a deep and
profound stillness. He was introduced to the others in the camp. There
were several other Caucasians staying in the camp with similar
circumstances as John’s. They all had very interesting stories about how
they were drawn to be there with Jamesy.
John stayed with Jamesy in the mountains for
that entire winter. Jamesy began to teach John the lessons of Love
through nourishment in every conceivable way. Jamesy literally fed John
out of the wild. There were no roads, no electricity, no mirrors, no
running water, etc. There was no money around as money was not even
used. The huts were made of bamboo and straw with dirt floors. There
were no schedules, no books, no names of days and months and no watches
or time references within the environment.
John was treated and respected like a God.
Jamesy’s mantra was “I & I One Love Jah Rastafari”. The idea of “you” or
"other" was not in his mind or vocabulary. Jamesy never asked for
anything from anyone in return for his profound generosity. He taught
John not to put faith in money.
Jamesy’s way was totally natural and out of
the wild. Jamesy could not read or write. He taught by example. John
adapted the skills of preparing healthy food with what the good earth
freely provided. Days were spent gathering and preparing food from
scratch out of the wild harvest. Jamesy taught John the power of
blending love, fellowship and food….. naturally, gracefully and
peacefully.
There was such a profound sense of peace and
generosity about Jamesy. As John spent time hanging with Jamesy, he kept
noticing something uncommon. In a mostly nonverbal way with subtle
nuances, Jamesy continues to share this understanding of “turning
inside-out”. He was constantly affirming the awakened paradigm for John.
He at times referred to it as “I & I One Love” or “overstanding”.
Sometimes he would just say, “Yes, I” At other times he literally seemed
transparent. It was all so perfectly integrated in the course of daily
life.
John was in awe of Jamesy. When he would
awake in the morning, Jamesy would be returning from the wild, string
bag loaded with wild yams, coconuts, veggies and fruits to feed
everyone. He prepared herbal teas and nursed peoples’ sores. At nights
his laughter would ring through the mountains and brighten hearts as he
shared Wisdom. His actions always appeared to be so graceful.
Coincidence became commonplace as “accidents” became extinct.
John’s conventional time paradigm melted away
into the eternal “Now”. Days were spent preparing food, time alone in
the wild, watching white birds fly against the tropical background,
bathing in the waterfalls with wild oranges, carrying water, tending to
biological needs and hanging with Jamesy. John was in Zion, as the Rasta
would call it. It was timeless. It was just happening.
John began to see this illiterate black man
in the mountains of Jamaica as one with a profound saintly nature,
similar to the sages he had read about from India; Neem Karoli Baba,
Ramakrishna and Swami Nityananda. During that winter, several of his
friends were also drawn to Jamaica for varying lengths of time. Everyone
was treated with equal love and respect. Others from different parts of
the world trickled in and out with stories of remarkable synchronicity.
The local people would visit frequently. They would bring gifts of food
and always be good company in the camp.
The environment was free of conventional
religious trappings. There was no organization or hierarchy and nothing
to “join”. Everyone enjoyed the simple company of Jamesy and one
another.
From time to time, Jamesy would share a little story that he would make
up on the spot. One story, in particular, has been a profound teaching
for John.
On one occasion, when a friend left the camp
to go see a young Guru in the US, Jamesy appeared at the door of the
grass hut where several people were spending their morning. He was very
animated and playful. He started acting like a puppy dog as he started
telling the story.
“There was once said puppy dog who wanted so
bad to find said bone. It was all puppy could think about.” James
started saying. “So, puppy looked and looked and looked.” Jamesy started
ransacking the place like a puppy looking for something. He became
obsessed with looking for the bone. He saw a stick on the dirt floor and
grabbed the stick with his mouth just like a puppy dog would. He acted
so happy to find the bone, holding the stick in his mouth!
“Puppy dog has bone. Puppy dog happy” Jamesy kept saying. He was
strutting all over the place being proud of his new bone (stick). “Puppy
dog comes to pool of water in stream. Puppy dog sees reflection of bone
in still pool. Puppy forgets bone in mouth and is attracted to bone in
reflection. Puppy goes for bone in said reflection.” Jamesy says.
In a very animated way, as the story goes, Jamesy then goes for the
reflection of the bone in the imaginary pool as if he did not already
have the bone in his mouth and immediately the stick (bone) drops from
his mouth. “Now puppy dog not happy, lost bone!” Jamesy says as he
starts acting like a puppy that is fretting.
Jamesy starts looking for the bone again.
After another very fretful search, he finds the stick (bone) and is once
again happy.
“Puppy quickly looks to same said still pool
with bone,” Jamesy says, holding the stick in his mouth. “This time
puppy looks very carefully.” Jamesy says slowly cocking his head to the
side “Puppy sees it’s only a reflection of bone already in mouth. Puppy
overstands puppy has bone. Puppy holds on to said bone with conviction”.
Jamesy then swiftly departed and left the small audience to ponder the
teaching.
And so it went with John that winter in James’ camp. As winter turned
into spring and thinking about friends and family back home, John took
leave of Jamesy and returned home from his sojourn to Jamaica and
“Zion”.
When John returned to the US, he was drawn to
and became a devotee of Swami Muktananda who was visiting North Carolina
from India.
Swami Muktananda initiated John with full
blown yogic Shaktipat. Following was an extensive mystical awakening and
tour through the world of mystics and visions. John was in and out of
Muktananda’s gracious company for several years. Muktananda blessed him
and his work, consistently. John received Muktananda’s permission to
establish an ashram and teach in North Carolina. It was to be the Maha
Siddha Yoga Ashram.
John and his friend, Philip, reasoned that a
Hindu motif with Indian customs was not going to fly in North Carolina’s
neck of the woods.
John co-founded The Lindenself Foundation
with Philip and began retreats and gatherings with Muktananda’s
blessing. Here is where the Wizard dimension emerges. The Lindenself
Foundation embraced a more familiar Celtic motif rather than a Hindu
Motif. More in keeping with their natural heritage.
John’s Co-founder at Lindenself, Philip Rego,
asks John to help develop the Wizard character for a musical drama he
was working on. The nick-name sticks. The Wizard character continues to
develop out of the playful fellowship and motif of the Lindenself
Foundation and its community of the arts.
At Muktananda’s last evening Darshan in
America before departing back to India and discarding his physical form,
Swami Muktananda placed the Wizard’s hat on John’s head and blessed him.
This turn out to be John’s last Darshan with Muktananda
Muktananda returned to India and shortly
thereafter dropped his body.
John becomes one of the founding fathers of
the natural and organic food industry. They get to know him as Wizard
Baldour, like his community at home. In the beginning, it was the first
power bar called Wizard Baldour’s Power Pac. The Wizard becomes a folk
Wizard locally as well as in the organic food trade.
Inspired by the advent of a first traditional
soy facility in North Carolina, Wizard Baldour concocted his first
bottled sauce. Wizard Baldour’s Hot Stuff. This miso based hot sauce is
still popular today.
This was the beginning of the prolific storm
of sauces, dressings and condiments that were to follow. Many became
worldwide flavor sensations; Honey Mustard Dressing, Soy Ginger, Lemon
Tahini, Balsamic dressings to mention a few.
The products are of very high quality
ingredients with outstanding taste characteristics. Organic food
products that function as delicious delivery systems loaded with healthy
nutrients, nutriceuticles and antioxidants that enhance good health like
miso, garlic, honey, ginger, apple cider and balsamic vinegars, exotic
chilies, herbs, etc. It was a very fulfilling and supportive livelihood.
From his growing reputation, the Wizard
received an invitation from the prime minister of Grenada to consult on
how to best utilize their small truck farms in reaching the culinary
markets of the world.
In addition, The Wizard coached an artisan
food company in the UK where they developed and formulated organic
dressings for Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury. He continued to work with
many small food artisans, coaching them to be organic and how to scale
up for larger demand.
The following year, the governor of Vermont
asked The Wizard to consult with the State of Vermont, helping small
food artisans develop and re-formulate products and scale up for entry
into the natural foods industry. He worked with this coalition of
Vermont food artisans and, today, many of these companies that the
Wizard coached are successful national gourmet and natural food
companies.
The Wizard’s consulting business also took
him to Japan where he learned about the wonderful world of Asian
cuisine.
Meanwhile, John came across Ramana Maharshi’s
teachings originally through the early literature of Bubba Free John.
John later purchased a text of “Talks With Ramana Maharshi” from a
bookstore in California.
Here again in this text of Ramana Maharshi
was someone who seemed to articulate and understand John’s experience of
“inside-out”. It became a source text he truly treasures. John had
intuited but had not been able to articulate very well his Wisdom.
Ramana Maharshi’s understanding and expression of Advaita Vedanta (non
dual understanding) to his devotees was the key that opened that door of
the intellect. It provided a simple language as well as insight into the
powerful paradigm shift that John had experienced. Ramana Maharshi
called it Self Inquiry. John had stumbled on Self Inquiry,
spontaneously, when his attention was introverted.
Some 20 years after taking leave of Jamesy,
John is, again, drawn to Rasta country in Jamaica. The synchronicity was
just as intense as it ever was twenty years earlier. John’s intimate
partner, Carol, his son, David, and a few others go on a pilgrimage to
Jamaica. John meets Jamesy again and it is no different than the first
time. A profound sense of peace is at hand.
Jamesy recognizes John, seems to be expecting
him, and they both pick right up where they left off. The sense of One
Love was so pronounced, that all seeking and questions were dissolved in
the stillness of the moment. John is humbled by his reunion with Jamesy.
They spend very precious moments together. John is left speechless.
When John returns from Jamaica, an Indian musician, K. Sridhar, is
graciously introduced into John’s story line.
Sridhar is a very accomplished classical
Indian musician. Sridhar’s mother was a devotee of Swami Nityananda, a
great saint in India, and Muktananda’s Guru. Sridhar had grown up with
Swami Nityananda in India as a small boy. He played music for many
masters and other genuine spiritual mahatmas in India, spent lots of
time in seclusion and meditation, had gone on pilgrimages to the
Himalayas to be with his Guru, or at Arunachala. He was the youngest
player ever to play with Ravi Shankar. A real yogi in every way. He
travels the world performing sublime concerts that leaves the audience
in the state of Silence.
Like Jamesy, he understood John’s perception
of being “inside-out”. He asks John about his relationship with Adida,
Jamesy, Nityananda and Muktananda. He informs John his guru in India
sent him (Sridhar gives all credit to his Guru); He notices a photograph
of Swami Nityananda on John’s mantel over the fireplace and acknowledges
the photograph as a sign from his guru. He begins immediately to build
more confidence in John’s own self-realization, just like Jamesy did.
Again, there are no money issues. You can’t
give money to Sridhar. He won’t take it. He will give it away. He will
only accept money for concerts or CD sales. You may feed him and offer a
place to sleep. That’s it! Sridhar, like Jamesy and Nityananda never
went to a formal school.
Sridhar began spending informal time with
John. He offered constructive criticism about relationships with Gurus.
Sridhar became an authentic “Knee of Listening” (Upanishad) for John.
John is left with a refreshed understanding of his own tendency to
re-seek for what he already has.
On a subsequent visit, Sridhar said he was
instructed by his guru to accompany John on a sojourn to India for a
month, with specific dates and places. John agrees to go. John’s friend,
Paula Roberts, joins them.
The sojourn began after a short stay in
Bombay visiting Swami Muktananda’s and Swami Nityananda’s ashrams in
Ganeshpuri and then spending a short time with Papa-Ji in Lucknow just
before he died. John received Papa-ji’s Darshan and blessing.
Muktananda’s and Nityananda’s Ashrams seemed
like museums for spiritual tourists with the associated trinket
business. For the most part Papa-ji’s scene looked more like a model of
other new age communities with western seekers, formal organization,
pictures, books and western aspirants. It was in a budding religion
business stage.
Sridhar was teaching John what organized
religion business is all about, first hand. It depended on the devotee
dropping the bone. It depended on devotees staying within the confines
of a religion or belief system. Deification was always evident and
solitary. Compounds were built up to contain devotees. Social
engineering was apparent. Local economies were benefitting from
spiritual tourists.
This was the turning point in his trip to
India. John felt he had totally transcended any need for organized
religion in all its forms, once and for all. The whole world was John’s
spiritual community and it could not be contained or owned. He remembers
his original perception after “turning inside-out”.
They rented a car with a driver and traveled
overland to the ancient city of Benares on the Ganges River. This is a
very holy city in India. It was sunset. Sridhar leaves John and Paula in
the car at a round-a-bout at the edge of the mystic maze that sprawls to
the sacred Ganges River. Sridhar is winding his way to find the rooms
that were by the Ganges and will return with help for luggage.
While sitting in the back seat of the car,
waiting for Sridhar to return, John has an apparent “sighting” with Sri
Ramana Maharshi, an Indian Sage who died in 1950.
An Indian gentleman approaches the car. The
gentleman looks just like Ramana Maharshi. He speaks to John. John gets
out of the car and stands next to him. He strikes certain classic still
poses as John gazes in his eyes from a slightly side angle as the
gentleman gazed steadily. He appears indistinguishable from Ramana
Maharshi, walking stick and all. John is awe struck.
Sridhar returns with help and is talking and
waving at John to get his attention through the crowd. John turns around
to see Sridhar and when he turns back, there in no one there. The
moments that follow are filled with the same stillness and perfection
John experienced at James’s camp.
John was suddenly and effortlessly on the E
side of E=Mc2. That is to say that for John, there was no longer solid
matter or any "noun" to be separately identified with or to hold on to.
The only resort for his sense of Being was the infinite, eternal and
silent expanse of consciousness that is ever and all pervading.
All phenomena was literally E or energy,
simply a non binding light show. Phenomenally, John is looking over the
Ganges River, next to the burning Ghats with dead bodies being cremated,
watching candle lit flower pujas float down the Ganges with a profound
sense of Déjà vu. All was exquisite perfection. He spent that night in
Benares, India opening and surrendering. Mortality was missing, even
amidst the burning bodies.
The following morning Sridhar returns. He
affirms the experience as a “Darshan” from the sage. John is then
instructed by Sridhar to go down to the banks of the Ganges. A Brahman
Priest meets him and instructs him to take three complete dips in the
river. He does so. He then sits on a bamboo mat facing the Ganges, while
the priest applies Tiki to his forehead and performs a series of Vedic
chants before dismissing him. The rest of the day is spent spontaneously
in bliss. The knot of separateness was dissolved for John.
John finishes the India trip with a stay in
Southern India (Tamil Nadu) at Ramana Maharshi’s Ashram. When they
arrived at Arunachala, the mountain icon of Peace in India, they were
welcomed, fed and given a place to stay for no charge. When John entered
his assigned room, he was stunned! There was a photograph on the wall
facing him directly. It was of Ramana Maharshi exactly as he had
appeared to John in Benares a week earlier.
There was stillness throughout the campus.
Money was never mentioned or even expected. There was not a set of rules
or anything to join. It seemed free of the religious trappings found in
the Guru Ashrams of Northern India. The sense of separateness again
dissolved so easily in this ocean of silence.
What John was learning with Sridhar in India
is exactly what Jamesy was teaching. You are the one you seek. You are
the very reflection you see in holy people, literature and places. You
are your own “bone”. You are silence. John embraces the conviction
needed to not drop the bone of self-awareness. He began to see everyone
and everything more seamlessly in God.
When John returned to Jamaica after being in
India with Sridhar, the same synchronistic patterns emerged. Jamesy had
moved to a new camp in the mountains. Nothing had changed about Jamesy.
John shared with him about Sridhar and his journey to India. They
laughed, talked about earlier times on the mountain, and “reasoned” as
he would call it about “spiritual matters”. The teaching was always the
same. I and I One Love.
He gifted John with a bowl he had
hand-fashioned from a calabash. The party bid farewell and left,
returning to their accommodations on the cliffs of Negril.
It had been very dry in Jamaica that year. It
was the rainy season and there had not been enough rain. Water was
scarce everywhere. John and his wife, Carol, were staying in a small
bungalow on the cliffs overlooking the Caribbean Sea, facing west. John
and Carol had just returned from visiting Jamesy in Cascades. It was
sunset. They enjoy a light dinner. Then, large dark clouds started
rolling in. Lightening is striking all around. It grows dark fast and
the torrential showers begin.
John takes off his clothes to take a shower
in the storm since the running water in the bungalow was dry. On the way
out of the small house, he spontaneously grabs the calabash bowl that
Jamesy had given him earlier. He takes a wonderful shower naked outdoors
in the heavy tropical rain.
Upon finishing his shower in the storm, John
offers the calabash bowl in outreached hands to receive the rain for a
drink of rainwater. He takes the bowl to his lips and begins
hallucinating that the bowl has become a female breast and he is
drinking from the breast of the great Mother. The stillness was
profound. He drank from the breast and then the calabash transformed
into a large green jade egg before returning back to a calabash bowl.
Still naked, he returns inside the one-room
bungalow and stood facing the Ocean through an open door with lightening
flashing everywhere. Drops of rainwater started dropping steadily
through the ceiling anointing the very crown of his head. He felt the
presence of Jamesy.
He moves forward and takes a seat and is
transfixed, staring at the ocean flashing with lightening for some time,
deeply absorbed in the silence, within which, was raging a great storm.
Jamesy was communing with Wizard Baldour at the most profound depth of
silence and transparency. At times the Wizard would rage back, “Yes, I!
Yes I! I and I One Love!” Wizard Baldour was God-intoxicated and began
dancing with the lightning.
The next time the Wizard sees Sridhar,
Sridhar inquires about Jamesy. He said that his guru in the Himalayas
informed him Jamesy was the Wizard’s guru. They were all coaching the
Wizard to not drop the bone of Self Realization. The real teachers are
all on the same team. Are all One. They empower. Jamesy, Muktananda,
Nityananda, Neem Karoli, Sridhar, God, Guru, Self and in truth,
everyone, are all one and the same in transparent spirit. Empowering one
another was the common trait.
The Wizard was being taught that Love is far
more gracious than a just a particular belief, name or person. Love
makes no claim of its own and is universal.
The last time the Wizard saw Jamesy was the
summer of 1998. Carol and the Wizard traveled with Carol’s daughter,
Lisa, and the Wizard’s son, David. David and Lisa brought more of their
friends who wanted to visit with Jamesy. The party visited the market,
bought fruit, veggies and a rope of tobacco and set off to visit Jamesy
outside Cascades. As always, the synchronicity became more apparent.
Jamesy was thrilled to see everyone and began
fixing a meal for the group in his primitive outdoor kitchen. The
fellowship, as always, was sublime. He was saying “Jamesy Man Rasta Man,
John Man Rasta Man, I & I One Love”. He asserted, “color doesn’t matter,
dreadlock hair doesn’t matter, John Man Rasta Man”. At the same time he
insisted that he was just an ordinary person. As Sridhar says, “an
elephant knows not its own weight”.
Jamesy started”reasoning” about the
environment, organic practices and the use of GMOs in his own way of
communicating. He referred to the abuses that were even destroying our
precious oceans. He spoke of the nourishing power of the seed. How
important it is to protect it.
The Wizard understood exactly what he was
speaking of. He was coaching in right livelihood. The Wizard knew right
there changes were coming into his personal and business life. He heard
Jamesy, once again. It turned out to be the last “reasoning” he had with
Jamesy.
When the party left, the Wizard kissed Jamesy
all over his head and told him how much he loved him. Jamesy was
repeating “I & I One Love, Praise Jah! I & I One Love, Praise Jah!” The
Wizard knew he had found a love that was free of the ownership of
religion and the death of forms. His true Self.
The following year, the Wizard implements an overall organic strategy
for all products of the company. He shares his feelings about his
relationship with Jamesy more openly. The silence and peace continue to
emerge as the common denominator of all his experiences. The company,
Wizard’s Cauldron, flourishes.
A year later, while John was being The Wizard character at a natural
food trade show, he felt so powerfully the silence and peace, even
amidst the trade show noise and traffic. He actually started talking
like Jamesy, saying Yes, I, Yes I, I & I. Little did he know, that
Jamesy had just discarded his physical form.
When the Wizard returns home he hears from
Jamaica that Jamesy dropped the body. The Wizard hosts a memorial
service on the last Halloween of the twentieth century. At a fire
circle, the Wizard burns and sacrifices the Wizard hat, that Muktananda
had placed on his head, as an offering to Jamesy in the spirit of
equality and unity.
The Wizard’s organic enterprise did indeed
thrive under enlightened leadership and a commitment to high quality
organic offerings. Jamesy’s teaching were put to practice in business
life on all fronts! His picture even showed up at the board meetings at
the request of another board member.
Utilizing the consulting fees that he had
earned, and funds from the growing business, and excellent credit, the
Wizard was able to invest in and build an even larger bottling plant in
North Carolina.
The Wizard’s Cauldron began to attract and
assemble a skilled and energetic team of people with shared principles.
The company targeted proprietary branding for folks who were looking for
a qualified team who understood the need for a natural and organic way
of providing delicious food products.
As CEO and Coach at The Wizard’s Cauldron
John championed the company’s marketing strategy as “The Wizard of Oz”
strategy. The vision of the company was to see the “Tin Man” coming on
the yellow brick road and bringing out and showing the heart of the Tin
Man to the Tin Man, all packaged up. The Tin Man returns home with his
heart on his sleeve. It is a strategy of empowerment. The Wizard allowed
the customer to retain ownership of what was discovered and developed.
The customers took ownership of the products and became the sales agents
for John’s company.
As a result, the company currently
formulates, produces, and packages over four hundred different products
for the organic food trade, nationwide. Customers and brands include The
Wizard’s, Whole Foods Market, 365 Organic, Wild Oats, Central Market,
Full Circle, Albert’s, Premier Japan, Oliv, Simply Delicious, Spectrum,
Rainforest Organic, Earth Fare, Garlic Gold, OrganicVille, Redbone
Alley, Real Wasabi, Western Family, Annie’s and Kraft. You’ve probably
already had a taste of Wizard Baldour’s organic saucery and never knew
it.
As John was approaching age 65, The Wizard
was putting in place a succession strategy as his business grew more and
more successful. He encountered yet another chance meeting. It was in
North Carolina at AHAM. This time it was with V. Ganesan, the great
grand-nephew of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.
The Wizard meets his Heart Brother. V.
Ganesan. They recognize one another. Like with Jamesy, Ganesan enters
the relationship in a synchronistic fashion. He is skilled, educated,
articulate, bright, alert, peaceful, enlightened and profoundly
responsive.
Ganesan grew up until the age of fourteen, in
the Presence of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. After the death of the
Maharshi in 1950, Ganesan went on to get a master's degree in
philosophy. Then, he came for good to the Ashram at Tiruvannamalai to
look after the Old Devotees of Sri Bhagavan as his spiritual practice.
As a result, he was able to absorb
reminiscences of Bhagavan Ramana that had not ever been recorded
before. In addition to this, close contacts with Sages, like Yogi
Ramsuratkumari, Swami Ramdas, Mother Krishna Bai, Nisargadatta Maharaj
and J. Krishnamurti, helped Him to deepen and widen His understanding of
the essence of the Maharshi's direct teaching of Self-Enquiry.
For 35 years Ganesan was also Manager of
Ramanasram, Bhagavan's Ashram, India, and for 25 years the Managing
Editor of The Mountain Path, the Ashram's newsletter. His expansive
collection and recording of the reminiscences as well as His own deep
Enlightenment have allowed Him an incredible ability to present the
Master in His own words.
His material originally seen in The Mountain
Path and still other recordings from his files have been the basis for a
number of other books written about the Maharshi by authors who came
later to the Hill. He is the best of editors for the Maharshi, as He
comes also from His own direct experience to verify the exact meaning of
the Maharshi's utterances and Presence. The gentle humility and the
Lion's voice of Vedanta that Ganesan exudes is worthy of a Sage and an
honor to His Guru, Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Ganesan and John spend high quality time
together. During several trips together in India and elsewhere, time
together in North Carolina at the Wizard’s abode, time at AHAM, and lots
of email exchanges.
In the midst of this sublime time with
Ganesan, John gets a mortal surprise. A diagnosis of Renal Cell
Carcinoma in his right kidney. A huge kidney stone was also discovered
in the left kidney that also required a surgical procedure before they
could deal with the cancer in the right kidney.
A year later, after six surgical procedures,
including a re-do, sans kidney, adrenal and some lymph nodes, John
begins a long recovery. He receives an offer from a board member to
purchase a majority of the company and keep people and management in
place. Right on time with just the right folks.
The fruits of labor came home and John’s time
and attention are now free to be in repose and good company at his abode
in Cedar Grove.
During all these events, Ganesan is gently
and unfailingly polishing the “diamond in the rough” into the smooth
surface that clearly reflects the One we are. His love and affection is
a nurturing, akin to how Jamesy would serve John and others. John
recognizes similar patterns of behavior that are so closely aligned with
Jamesy. These two are literally a world apart and both coming from the
same paradigm. When in India, Ganesan takes such wonderful care of his
guests, feeds everyone exquisite vegetarian meals, looks to every little
need or concern. And then there is the Wisdom inherent in all the
intimate company.
Ganesan introduces the Wizard to many of the
old devotees and sages in India and invites him to share in the good
company, both in America and in India. John and Ganesan walk hand in
hand, heart in heart. How fortunate! How synchronistic! How perfect!
This intimate sharing with Ganesan has
enhanced the Wizard’s Wisdom with clarity. It is honing the
communication skills needed to offer this manual for other sincere
Wizards.
Ganesan is sincerely a Wizard’s Wizard.
This Wizard’s manual and John’s story line
are offered in that same said sincerity.
Namaskar
(I bow to You)
The Wizard is a cosmic consultant. The Wizard is real. Be forewarned. He is still a rascal. You may communicate with him online at: Wizard@TheWizardLLC.com