“Man’s right to doubt is sacred.”
“Look under every rock.”
Mr. Rose was born in 1917 and his trajectory could be seen as three phases:
- Youthful practices up to his experience in 1947 at age 30 in Seattle.
- Continued searching to understand and communicate his findings,* encountering the writings of G.I. Gurdjieff in 1952, J.J. van der Leeuw in 1958, Alfred Pulyan in 1960 and meeting Paul Wood in 1963. He extended his commitment with attempts to build an ashram at the farm in 1967 and 1968.
- An intense two-decade teaching career consisting of public speaking ** beginning 1972 with a talk to the Theosophical Society in Pittsburgh; publishing his first book, The Albigen Papers, followed by several others; formation of Albigen System working groups at universities and at the farm, along with personal guidance and teaching. This continued until the early 1990s when his health began to suffer.
* See Alan Fitzpatrick’s article Assimilation on this site.
** About 100 lectures and intensives in the 1970s, about 50 in the 1980s and 20 in the 1990s, across the US and at the farm. We have audio of about 120 of these. See Direct-Mind.Org/../Recordings
Early Life Influences:
In his personal search Mr. Rose studied Christianity as a youth in a Catholic seminary, psychology and the physical sciences in college, then Theosophy, especially H.P. Blavatsky, along with related interests such as hatha yoga, raja yoga, Rosicrucianism, magic and others. He carried his teenage interest in Spiritualism (following the lead of Blavatsky) into later life. He experimented with hypnotism, as recounted below. He confessed to being an atheist in his college years, saying in a lecture on hypnosis, “So I kind of gave up and became an atheist for a few years … I had an obsession for discovering the human mind when I was fairly young, and prior to that I had an obsession for finding God.” [1]
1. 1988-0217-Hypnosis-Lecture-Demonstration-Akron PDF (21 pages, 120K) [Wiki]
The teachings on this page are presented approximately in order of Mr. Rose’s emphasis, although this is subjective and impossible to quantify.
Mr. Rose gives a system of evaluating teachers, groups and systems in The Albigen Papers, Chapter 4, “On Gurus and Unique Systems” under the heading “Cults and Other Systems”. This is followed by remarks about various systems that he looked into. [2] In Yoga: Hatha, Shabd, Raja he mentions his initial formulation in the early 1960s of the principle of reversing the vector.
2. See Richard Rose’s Early Search (on this site), an extract from Chapter 4 that talks about a group of seekers that Rose worked with.
A caveat about this page is that these “teachings” are not intended as material to be learned, but as the side-effects of years of investigation. It is not presumed that by absorbing information one progresses toward realization.
Q. Don’t you have to have faith in your own path?
R. You have to have a certain kind of faith. I always say, “Doubt everything except your ability to doubt.” You have to have faith in your ability to accomplish, your ability to sort. [3]
3. “Lecture at Boston College”, November 19, 1975 in The Direct-Mind Experience
This page does not present teachings popular among Richard Rose’s students late in his life and after his passing. These would include such figures as Nisargadatta Maharaj, Douglas Harding, Vernon Howard, Roy Masters, William Samuel, various teachers of Advaita-Nonduality and Tibetan Buddhism, and some currently living teachers. Exposition of these will be left to those individuals.
Links provided in this section are directed to SelfDefinition.Org unless stated otherwise. The original purpose of that website was to source the wide amount of material that Mr. Rose covered in his recorded lectures. His distributed talks (PDFs) contain many footnotes linked to that site.
Quick links for this page
Zen
Of the related teachings, Zen would be the most prominent based on the number of lectures Mr. Rose gave with Zen in the title. Please refer to the separate article on this site Richard Rose and Zen.
- Hubert Benoit
-
Hubert Benoit, a psychotherapist, provided seminal ideas about the psychology of Zen, specifically in his illustration of the principle of creation: the image of a triangle, at the base of which are two “inferior principles of creation”, the positive and the negative, with the apex representing the Superior or Conciliatory Principle. See The Supreme Doctrine: Zen and the Psychology of Transformation (1955, Chapter 2). Rose extended Benoit’s ideas and diagrams in a lecture titled “The Psychology of Miracles” (Akron, Ohio, 1981), which is published in The Direct Mind Experience. Rose took this even further with a complete diagram of the mind in The Psychology of the Observer that involves three stacked triangles, which he called “Jacob’s Ladder–The Path to Realization.” Note that Rose reverses the positive and negative corners of Benoit’s diagram. (Click image to see full size, Back button to return.)
Hubert Benoit
Richard Rose
However, Rose says that Benoit didn’t go far enough, in that he missed the possibility of Betweenness, brought about by tension, which leads to enlightenment. “This is the whole secret of the path: what’s in-between.” See 1974-1022-Case-Western-Reserve-Cleveland, “Zen, Spiritual Steps & Spiritual Systems”, serialized in the TAT Journal beginning Nov. 2005. (For easier access, all on one page, search the talk in the Wiki entry on “Benoit” and “tension”.)
- Huang Po
-
Rose believed that Huang Po was a valuable exponent of Zen, in that his teaching, which was direct and precise, espoused a path of reversal or negation, and included the principle of Transmission. See The Dharma of Mind Transmission, ancient compilation by P’ei Hsiu, translated 1986 by Lok To, and The Zen Teaching of Huang Po On the Transmission of Mind, the Blofeld version, 1958, full text. Rose’s references were to the Blofeld version and to Garma Chang’s book, below.
Rose said in lectures that Huang Po’s definition of Enlightenment was beyond the “eureka” milestone that Japanese Zen calls “Satori”. He commented that Huang Po was at the same level of teaching as Ramana Maharshi although they spoke different languages. (See the Ramana section below.)
Rose said that the true meaning of the famous quotation attributed to Huang Po, that there is no Ch’an (Zen) in China, specifically, “There are no teachers of Ch’an in all of China,” (Blue Cliff Record) was that there was no transmission; that there were no teachers who could transmit. That is, Rose took the literal meaning. See 1976-Spirit-of-Zen-Pittsburgh and other talks. This is consistent with Zen writings which report on monasteries that had many monks, even thousands, but none being enlightened.[4] Rose contradicts the traditional or mainstream interpretation, which considers Huang Po’s statement to be some kind of koan, explained with vague suggestions that Zen is beyond teachings and teachers, that the idea of a teacher is just a concept, or that the real teacher is within.
4. Others such as The Biography of Hui Neng, a.k.a. The Platform Sutra, do demonstrate transmission by the teacher. Please see next.
- Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch
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Richard Rose thought enough of The Platform Sutra by Hui Neng to include it in his collection Profound Writings East and West. This is a powerful text that can’t be done justice here. Two versions of Hui Neng appear at SelfDefinition.Org: the Dwight Goddard Edition (1932) and the Christmas Humphreys Edition (1952).
- Garma C.C. Chang (historian)
-
Rose thought that The Practice of Zen (1959, full text at link) by Garma C.C. Chang was a valuable summary that was honest and full of good information. The book contains numerous quotes from Huang Po and other masters. Rose said that most other books on Zen were a waste of time. Garma C.C. Chang also wrote on Tibetan Buddhism, which is mentioned in the “tummo” section below.
More Zen is here: selfdefinition.org/zen/
- Sokei-an
-
“I was acquainted with Sokei-an [5] and I’m acquainted with disciples of Sokei-an who got nothing from years of attending Sokei-an’s meetings in New York City and on the west coast.” ~ 1974-1023-Laws-Yardsticks-Exaltations-Columbus-Ohio PDF (23 pages, 140K) [Wiki]
5. (1882-1945) Mentioned by Pulyan in his letters of 9/23/60 and 11/14/60. Sokei-an’s focus was koan study and interviews with the teacher. Wikipedia: Sokei-an
- Alfred Pulyan
-
While Richard Rose always spoke highly of Alfred Pulyan (1896-1966), he gave scant details about his work or life, although he said that the name was Hungarian. Rose’s correspondence with Pulyan (1960-1961) was released late in Rose’s life: Letters from a Zen Master . [6] Some other writings of Pulyan were subsequently discovered on the web: Pulyan Writings Index .
6. This is the Pulyan side of the conversation only. For a link to both sides, please contact this website.
In a lecture Rose said,
“I studied with a fellow by the name of Pulyan; I had already had my experience but I looked up this fellow. At that time he was in Connecticut, close to New York. He was a good man. He had no price. At the time, I had heard this word transmission and I realized that I couldn’t transmit. So I went there and met the man, and stayed with him long enough until it entered my head.” ~ 1992-0326-Truth-Lies-Ultimate-Reality-Pitt. PDF (37 pages, 217K) [Wiki] [7,8,9]
7. This account doesn’t 100% square with the Pulyan-Rose correspondence, at least on the surface, but in the big picture this is how it worked out.
8. In the early group there was an embarrassing myth that Rose, already enlightened, had “disguised” himself as an ignorant seeker and went to Pulyan to “steal” the secret of transmission. This makes no sense and is dispelled by reading their correspondence and by Rose’s statements about Pulyan here and below.
9. For an example of Rose’s thinking (in 1955) prior to meeting Pulyan, please see Deposition of Conclusions of Life’s Philosophy (on this site).
Other Statements by Rose about Pulyan
“Alfred Pulyan went right to work sorting garbage from truth, didn’t make it a business, no money.” ~ 1993-1101-NC-State-University-Raleigh-November [Wiki, incomplete]
“I could feel his head in mine.” ~ Esoteric Library Recording Notes [Wiki]
“I was watching his method of transmission. I found incidentally that it was part of my nature but I had never exercised it. … I knew that when I was quite young I was able to get into people’s heads, when I was a child. But I was always rather backward about it … as I approached people I picked up their thoughts. … So I more or less schooled myself to ignore it rather than develop it. And when I saw that [Pulyan could do it] I allowed myself to develop it. ~ 1974-Fall-Public-Meeting-Kent-State-Q-and-A [Wiki]
“I was studying with a Zen master from Connecticut, and he was able to project a certain experience, without words. And I picked it up. And he didn’t tell me but I knew. I not only knew, but because I had been fooling with this before, I knew how he did it, and I was able to do it.” ~ 1988-0217-Hypnosis-Lecture-Demonstration-Akron PDF (21 pages, 120K) [Wiki]
Pulyan does mention “transmission” several times in his letters to Rose, most notably in October 12, 1960, in the context of friendship:
It is the state previously illustrated in detail. It is the “transmission” of Zen. It is when each is “open” with the other. It is an approach of the One Self in each. It is a way to realization. It demands a certain discrimination & a certain culture.
A website called The Wanderling has a lengthy and involved article on Pulyan, whom the author said he spent a summer with, at Pulyan’s home in Connecticut: Alfred Puyan, Richard Rose, My Mentor and Me. The article contains some biographical information on Pulyan and shares favorable information on his character, ideas and associations, notably his teacher. The article has grown over the years, and gets into some polemics about Sokei-an, Mary Farkas and other figures. Despite the title, he mentions Richard Rose only in passing, but the article is certainly informative.
For more comments on Pulyan, please see Richard Rose and Zen on this site. Also see SelfDiscoveryPortal.Com: Alfred Pulyan: Zen Master Without Lineage & Master of the Lost Art of Transmission. And you can search the Direct-Mind.Org Wiki with the search term Pulyan.
Systems Other than Zen
- J.J. van der Leeuw
-
Van der Leeuw was part of the Theosophical school and a close friend of Jiddu Krishnamurti. Rose spoke highly of his work Conquest of Illusion, even remarking that had he been aware of this text he wouldn’t have taken the trouble to write The Albigen Papers.
Rose wrote to his friend Robert Martin in 1958: “I am convinced that my enlightenment in Seattle is as close to God Realization as any man may come. This conclusion comes from comparing it with accounts in Van der Leeuw’s Conquest of Illusion. Before reading him I thought that no man had experienced this the same as myself. Then Gurdjieff surprised me with his references to the Allness, and his differentiation between the relative and the absolute.” [10]
- G.I. Gurdjieff and P.D. Ouspensky
-
Rose closely studied the teachings of Gurdjieff as presented in All and Everything and in the books by P.D. Ouspensky, and he said that Gurdjieff was one of the greatest psychologists of all time. [11] Rose incorporated many of Gurdjieff’s ideas into his own teaching, such as the classification of man as number 1, 2, 3, etc.; man’s lack of being, consciousness and will; his robot nature; his multiple and conflicting ‘I’s; his lack of purpose and direction. Rose felt that Gurdjieff’s insistence on attending a School was very important. Rose resonated with Gurdjieff’s abilities as a hypnotist and his concept of “the sly man” who attempts to outwit the gods in order to gain his freedom. He incorporated some of Gurdjieff’s principles of energy transmutation into his own teaching. In Rose’s guidelines for evaluating systems, he appraises Gurdjieff favorably as being in the category of Change of Being systems, with the goal of the acquisition of Cosmic Consciousness. (See The Albigen Papers, chapter 4 and elsewhere.)
11. Rose first discovered Gurdjieff in 1952, and he wrote about Ouspensky’s In Search of the Miraculous, “I think it is one of the most valuable books I have ever read. Certain things were brought out very clearly that were not explained in anything else I have ever read.” ~ Peace to the Wanderer
Despite this high praise, Rose was of the opinion that Gurdjieff had never achieved the highest state of consciousness described by Ramana Maharshi as nirvikalpa sahaja samadhi. Rose regarded Ouspensky as more of a serious character, without Gurdjieff’s fanfare and flair. Works of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky are available in PDF here: SelfDefinition.Org/
gurdjieff/ Because of Rose’s straight-to-the-point style he had little patience with fictional writings in general, and this extended to Gurdjieff’s All and Everything, although he commented on it favorably to Martin as above. He was repelled by Gurdjieff’s practice of manipulating people for money to finance his operations. He objected to what he perceived as Gurdjieff’s attempt to anoint himself as a messiah—although Rose admitted that some of his impressions of Gurdjieff came from media accounts, specifically a review in Time Magazine. [12] Anecdotally, as told in The Albigen Papers, Rose had a very negative real-life encounter with a self-styled Gurdjieffian, a charlatan, to whom Rose had provided hospitality at his farm, and whose parting gift to Rose was to burn down the trailer in which Rose had given him shelter.
12. The Albigen Papers, Fourth Paper: On Gurus and Unique Systems.
- Ramana Maharshi
-
Rose “discovered” Ramana Maharshi seemingly by accident,[13] remarking in 1974:
“I have a little book I picked up by accident. I don’t know how many of you have seen it. I don’t know who the man is. Sometimes you run into a book that’s well publicized and it has nothing in it, and you find some little, obscure book that has quite a bit more in it. This man’s name was Ramana Maharshi. This is put out by Shambala Press. I found it at a rummage sale.”~ 1974-1022-Case-Western-Reserve-Cleveland [Wiki]
“I was rather amazed that the man who speaks the most fluently and eloquently about enlightenment is a man who never uses the word enlightenment, and that’s Ramana Maharshi. And he doesn’t know anything about the word Zen I don’t think; he doesn’t care about it. He was a Hindu mystic. He calls it sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi – that’s the highest experience the mind can reach, after the mind is destroyed.” ~ 1974-1023-Laws-Yardsticks-Exaltations-Columbus-Ohio PDF (23 pages, 140K) [Wiki]
13. Rose had been exposed to Ramana’s teaching earlier in life but he said it didn’t register much with him then, as described in the section on Paul Brunton below, and in Rose’s essay on this website Yoga: Hatha, Shabd, and Raja.
This book was The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi, published by Shambala. Rose mentioned Ramana Maharshi in nearly every lecture, occasionally remarking on the following chart:
SLEEP KEVALA SAHAJA 1. Mind is alive; Mind is alive; Mind is dead; 2. sunk in oblivion. sunk in light; resolved into the Self; 3. — like a bucket with the rope, left lying in the water in a well; like a river discharged into the ocean and its identity lost; 4. — to be drawn out by the other end of the rope. a river cannot be redirected from the ocean. Ramana’s further explanation is here: selfdefinition.org/../sahaja.htm
- Paul Brunton
-
Paul Brunton sitting with Ramana. Click to see full size, Back button to return. - Paul Brunton (pen name of Raphael Hurst, an Englishman) is both someone whom Rose studied in his youth and recommended later in his life. The recommendation was not as a teacher but as an honest researcher and seeker. Rose admired Brunton for saying mid-career that he had not understood well what he had written in earlier books and that this writing was unreliable. Rose did recommend A Search in Secret India (1934), The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga (1941) and The Wisdom of the Overself (1943), which became group favorites. The three works (large files, OCR) are available in PDF at selfdefinition.org/
brunton/ Brunton has three chapters in A Search in Secret India that relate his encounter with Ramana Maharshi at the Arunachala Ashram; the Ashram has published these in an extract titled The Maharshi and his Message (PDF, 87 pages, 290K). As Richard Rose suggests in Yoga: Hatha, Shabd, Raja, Brunton’s ornate prose tends to distract from the philosophical import. However, Brunton does speak of the profound peace he experienced in the presence of Ramana, the extraordinary psychological effect it had on him, even moments where he felt a “telepathic current” (transmission). His writing style at that time was directed toward creating colorful images, rather than providing hard factual information that Rose was looking for in his youth. However, Rose says that it was his own realization that made the difference between his initial reading of Ramana and the later rediscovery in 1974.
- H.P. Blavatsky (Theosophy)
-
Blavatsky was a profound inspiration to Rose in his twenties, and her encyclopedic volumes of esoteric wisdom and history stirred his intuition. He often remarked on his living hermit-style at the Rose farm, with an ascetic vegetarian diet, without heat in winter, bathing in the icy creek below the farm, practicing the art of “tummo” (yogic heat) and reading Blavatsky while wrapped in a blanket. During such times the supernatural mental powers that Blavatsky ascribed to the yogis, such as receiving astronomical information by concentrating on distant stars, seemed perfectly plausible. He said that at times his reading would stop and his mind would open to revelations, seemingly unrelated to the topic at hand, such as childhood experiences and how they had affected the trajectory of his life.
Various elements of Blavatsky’s teaching became part of Rose’s philosophy according to TAT’s expert in Theosophy, Mark Jaqua, as explained in Richard Rose, Blavatsky and Theosophy on this site.
Mr. Rose included Blavatsky’s The Book of the Golden Precepts, a.k.a. The Voice of the Silence in his Profound Writings East and West. See SelfDefinition.Org: The Voice of the Silence.
- Theosophy, Other
-
Richard Rose studied other Theosophical writers besides Blavatsky, such as Rudolf Steiner, Alexandra David-Neel and Walter Evans-Wentz, as remarked on the section on tummo below. He accepted the idea of tulpa creation as described at selfdefinition.org/../tulpa-creation
He had a high regard for Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom he said was very inspiring, although Rose noted that he didn’t have a system, and that he involved himself in ideas about making a better world. About 45 PDFs of his talks are available at SelfDefinition.Org/krishnamurti/
Rose also admired Krishnamurti for his rebellion after being groomed to be a new Messiah by Annie Besant at the Theosophical Society, rejecting the role they had prepared for him. These comments are published in “Lecture at Boston College” in The Direct-Mind Experience.
Rose always cultivated good relations with local Theosophical Society groups, although he had no connection with national figures. His first public lecture was given at the Theosophical Society in Pittsburgh, PA, and he spoke to T.S. groups in Akron, Miami and possibly elsewhere.
- Franz Hartmann, MD (1838-1912)
-
Franz Hartmann was a Theosophical writer and scholar, and Richard Rose highly recommended his Magic, White and Black. Because the book was hard to find, Mr. Rose published a version with the following note:
“This author courageously lays down certain truths without compromise and without any appeal to the reader for the reader’s agreement. The reader soon perceives that the author possesses a great mental quantum, or else might mistakenly judge the author to be a fanatic. The reader who has previously understood the concept of an illusory life and world, will eagerly read on, waiting for the real magic of additional revelations.”
Q. What do you think about Magic White and Black by Franz Hartmann?
R. I agree with his advice. He believes in purity. This is the way. You have to keep your mind pure. If your mind isn’t pure, it’s exceedingly materialistic: you’re down to the earth, you’re down to breeding and eating, raising hell and that sort of thing. There’s nothing that’s going to come of that except a memory of living like an animal. That’s basically what Hartmann’s advice is. ~ 1991-1006-Augies-Apartment-Raleigh PDF (42 pages, 355K) [Wiki]
In Profound Writings East and West Mr. Rose included some extracts from Magic White and Black in a chapter that can be found at RichardRose
Teachings .Com titled “The Wisdom of Franz Hartmann”. This is followed in the book by a short quote, reproduced at SelfDefinition.Org: Appendix: A New Guide on the Path . Rose also frequently mentioned Theophrastus von Hohenheim Paracelsus (1493-1541), whose works were translated and illuminated by Hartmann in Life of Paracelsus and the Substance of His Teachings.
- Hypnotism:
- James H. Loryea a.k.a. “Santanelli”
-
Mr. Rose put great stock in the abilities of famed hypnotist “Santanelli” and his writings: What Hypnosis Really Is (long article) and The Law of Suggestion (1902, full book in html). Rose said that the later was the only book he ever found that properly defined the mind, and that properly explained how to hypnotize. He studied hypnosis while he was in college, and said this practice led him to discover rapport, a necessity or precursor to transmission.
Under the heading “Ultimate Betweenness”, in the 1981 lecture “Psychology of Miracles” (in The Direct-Mind Experience) Rose says: “My first encounter with a writer who showed some insight into Between-ness was in a book by Santanelli. His field was hypnosis. He contended that hypnosis was a state of mind in which the mind was on dead-center,” and Rose goes on to explain this more fully.
Mr. Rose gave hypnosis lectures/demonstrations in various venues in 1978, 1980, 1981, 1986, 1988 and 1991 (two), some of which we have recordings of. For example: 1988-0217-Hypnosis-Lecture-Demonstration-Akron PDF (21 pages, 120K) [Wiki]
- Paul Wood, Christian mystic
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Paul Wood, a.k.a. Leon Paul Wood, didn’t have a teaching so much as a presence. He was a Christian man whom Rose said experienced Enlightenment through a path of trauma, specifically as a WW2 bombardier who couldn’t reconcile himself with killing thousands of innocent people. Rose had met him in Akron, Ohio in 1963 (not long after Rose had met Pulyan) at the house of his friend Robert Martin, when Martin had invited Wood up from Texas.[14] Rose listened to him speak for hours, and said that Wood was the most deeply enlightened man he ever met. Wood advocated a path of meditation on the Lord’s Prayer and total reliance on the will of God. Mostly he communicated by talking about what had happened to him. Several accounts of his story are available here: The Story of Paul Wood. This section contains extracts from six of Rose’s lectures where he talks about Wood, plus a newspaper article and obituary.
14. Peace to the Wanderer, Martin.
-
Rose: “Then I found a fellow by the name of Paul Wood, who had had an experience that was possibly much longer than mine; it seemed to be more profound and detailed. I met him in Akron, Ohio. He had come to this realization by meditating on the Lord’s Prayer. And I was utterly amazed, because I thought that system was all washed up and that you have to find, as Chilton-Pearce says, a new set of symbols to go by. That you have to toss out these old ones, that weren’t delivering results.” ~ 1976-Definition-of-Zen-Kent-State PDF (26 pages, 110K) [Wiki]
- Jim Burns, a.k.a. James J. Burns, III (1931-2016)
-
Jim Burns, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was a mystic with a psychological approach, whom Rose called a profound genius, and was another man he said was enlightened via a path of trauma. Jim was a friend of the group for three decades and attended Pittsburgh meetings regularly. Rose said that on his first meeting with Burns, at the farm, Burns talked for hours, and that if he had a tape recording of that talk it would be one of his most valuable possessions. Tapes of some group meetings were transcribed and compiled by Mark Jaqua and published as At Home with the Inner Self by Jim Burns. Bob Fergeson wrote an article titled Jim Burns, Teacher, Mystic and Psychologist, reproduced at SelfDefinition.Org, that has about 2 hours of audio samples at the bottom of the page.
Also please see the TAT Foundation tribute page to Jim: In Memoriam, James J. Burns, III.
- Christian
-
Richard Rose’s teenage seminary life and studies, intended to inspire devotion, resulted in almost the opposite, converting him to practically an atheist in his early twenties. He commented on his happiness to find an English translation of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica that he could finally study. But the clear English brought disappointment on two levels: first, that Aquinas’ proof of the existence of God was “fallacious”, and second, that Aquinas had come up with a checkmate on searching – reinforced by the clergy – that the ultimate solution was only to believe, because “the finite mind will never perceive the infinite.” And since this was unacceptable to Rose, he began to look elsewhere. Rose used to say in his lectures, “The catch is of course that the finite mind can become less finite, or more infinite. And this the path.” [15,16]
15. See 1974-1017-Carnegie-Mellon-Pittsburgh PDF (26 pages, 176K) [Wiki]
16. Also see Deposition of Conclusions of Life’s Philosophy.
“I think my own direction came basically from a dissatisfaction. I was born and raised a Catholic, and in fact I studied to be a priest not too far from here. I took a little trip there not long ago with some of the boys who wanted to see the [St. Francis] seminary – in Herman, Pennsylvania, near Butler – and the place was completely empty. Back then they had a student body of at least three hundred.” ~ 1992-0326-Truth-Lies-Ultimate-Reality-Pitt PDF (37 pages 217K) [Wiki]
John of the Cross:
In The Grand Work of the TAT Society Mr. Rose wrote, “… we realize that enlightenment is not the property of any particular level alone. Some Believers, like St. Theresa, and John of the Cross, penetrated their level and transcended it.” See Dark Night of the Soul (PDF, 148 pages, 1.4 megs)
Mr. Rose talks about the heights and the limitations of Christianity as it is practiced in “Lecture at Boston College”, in The Direct-Mind Experience:
So after I had this realization I looked back then and saw certain accounts, such as the one of Saint John of the Cross. And I realized that John of the Cross had made the trip. And remembering my earlier training, I was rather irritated that my teachers in the church had not tried to bring this out to those who were sincerely looking. Especially to the theological students. This was in a seminary,–why didn’t they bring this out? But they only gave out indoctrination on faith. In other words, “Believe this.”
Mr. Rose was inspired by Francis Thompson’s poem The Hound of Heaven. He thought highly enough of this to include it in Profound Writings East and West, along with a biography of Francis Thompson and another poem, “In No Strange Land”.
Richard M. Bucke provided a catalyst in the development of Rose’s understanding of his own enlightenment experience. Rose recommended Bucke’s Cosmic Consciousness as a way to give the average newcomer an immediate indication that higher experiences are possible, beyond just theory. See Bucke’s Personal Experience of C.C. (1872) and the chart Psychogenesis of Man. Rose deduced from Bucke’s chart of human development that only about 1 in a million people ever reach Enlightenment.
The Cloud of Unknowing (Anonymous, Late 14th Century England) was a group favorite for several years, but no specific endorsement of it by Mr. Rose has been located in the database. See The Cloud of Unknowing.
- Joseph Sadony (1877-1960)
-
Joseph Sadony was a late discovery and a group favorite. His appeal to Rose was the scrupulous and innocent lifestyle which was the basis of his profound intuition. Although Sadony was famous in his day, even corresponding with world leaders and top scientists, he is nearly forgotten now. His autobiography Gates of the Mind, The Proven Psychic Discoveries of Joseph Sadony and four other books, and his Obituary (1960) are indexed here: Joseph Sadony index page.
- Norbu Chen, healer
-
Norbu Chen (Charles Vernon Alexander) was neither a teacher nor a philosopher, but was often remarked on by Rose as someone who had harnessed the power of “zapping”, that is, of transferring “spiritual” energy from himself to another person by means of shouting, pointing or touch. Norbu Chen claimed to have developed this ability in a monastery in Tibet, at which his stay was unproven, and some of his statements were seemingly plagiarized from Alexandra David-Neel. While currently almost unknown, he was a colorful and popular figure in his day according to articles in Newsweek and Fate Magazines. According to one account he gave a public demonstration to an audience of 5,000 at the Dallas Convention Center in 1974. He was controversial due to his history of incarceration and pattern of arrests, and a personality reminiscent of a con artist. However, despite Mr. Rose’s ability to detect a fraud quickly, upon reading the article in Fate Magazine his intuition rang true on Norbu Chen’s abilities if not his character. The reader can make his own evaluation from several articles we have collected. Please see Fate Magazine, August 1974 , Norbu Chen Article Index, and comments at #richard-rose-connection.
- Radha Soami (kriya yoga)
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In 1974 or 1975 Mr. Rose wrote an article Yoga: Hatha, Shabd, Raja which details his youthful interest in hatha yoga, the discovery of raja yoga and the books of Paul Brunton, specifically A Search in Sacred India, which is featured in the article. In the book Brunton mentions his visit to the Radha Soami sect and multi-day conversations with their leader Sahabji Maharaj. Rose then says that he was initiated into a Radha Soami sect, somewhere near Cleveland, in the early 1950s. Rose said that Brunton’s chapter contained truths that Rose didn’t know the significance of until he was initiated into the sect ten years later. Brunton’s description of Sahabji Maharaj was of a figure who represented a high degree of spirituality, intelligence and culture. Sahabji Maharaj said that their yoga practices are more important than their doctrines, but can only be understood by practice. Their philosophy says that sound is the force that called the world into being, and their practice has to do with listening to mystic sounds and heavenly internal music.
I was initiated into a yogic group one time, the Radha Soami sect, from the Punjab area of India, the Kashmir section. … Basically the belief of these people was – they called it Darshan – you concentrated in the middle of your forehead on the picture of your guru. … Kriya yoga was concentration upon the third eye, so to speak, but darshan was now putting the guru in the third eye. They had another thing which they called Shabd. You listen to the sound current in the right ear. The right ear was where the right music came, and if it came from the left ear you had to be careful. … What was it all aimed at? – it was aimed at immortality. That by the darshan with the guru you established something like a silver cord, and when the guru died he went ahead and prepared a place for you. You kept in touch with him with this sound current and this cord, which I call the guru-chain. ~ 1977-0915-Zen-and-Death-Washington-DC Youtube (full talk, 1hr 10 min, audio only, this comment is at 3:09) [Wiki] CD available at richardroseteachings.com/audio-video/
However, in Mr. Rose’s paper Meditation [17] he makes some rather cryptic comments about the people he met in the group. That he felt they were highly intelligent men, but that sometimes the most intelligent are the most easily duped, because they have the ego that they are intelligent people.
“When I first heard the instructions of the sect (which I prefer not to name) I immediately thought to myself, that any instruction of process of listening to sounds, or concentrating upon the third eye, might well result in some phenomena which were new and not previously experienced. However I wondered if, once I witnessed these phenomena, I would ever be able to determine their realness, knowing all the time that I may be creating them by visualization.”
17. Available as a 30-page booklet at TAT Foundation. [Wiki]
Reading between the lines in Rose’s comments, one might surmise that he had a very high personal regard for the individuals he met, but was not satisfied that their beliefs or practices would lead anywhere profound.
- Raja and Hatha Yoga, Tibetan Yoga
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Raja yoga has already been mentioned above in conjunction with Yoga: Hatha, Shabd, and Raja. Rose began with hatha yoga at age 21 and then practiced raja yoga, which continued until age 28. He said his learning came primarily from books, and he doesn’t mention instructions or a teacher. He didn’t say much about his practices but he did joke about standing on his head, and he said that he would meditate sitting in a yoga posture because it would provided stability. Raja yoga interested him because of the problem of ultimate survival, beyond the death of the body.
“For instance, the whole system of yoga, mental yoga, is traceable back to a fellow by the name of Patanjali. His descriptions of experiences and that sort of thing were very profound and very accurate.” ~ August Chautauqua in The Direct Mind Experience.
Raja yoga is one of the disciplines that Rose said kept him going during his dark night of the soul. He remarked later that he didn’t realize the significance of some of Brunton’s writings because in the early days he did not appreciate the real aims of raja yoga, alluding to samadhi. Rose said he had experienced bliss from his yoga and meditation, in some cases on the syllable “Om”, but came to feel that this was leading him nowhere. However, he persisted with it, and he said he was seated in a meditation posture on his hotel bed in Seattle when his spiritual breakthrough began.
“Well, I never got anyplace with raja yoga. I never found any great truth. But I kept it up. The funny thing was, I couldn’t get away from it.” ~ 1979-0418-Direct-Mind-Approach-to-Absolute-OSU [Wiki, in process]
Rose frequently mentioned the ancient text Tibetan Book of the Dead, translated by Walter Evans-Wentz in 1927, with respect to the idea of the bardo, the dream-worlds that people experience as they are dying. (The Tibetan view is that the material world as well is one of the many bardos that we repeatedly pass through in our life strand.)
A selection from the Tibetan Elegant Sayings, attributed to Sakya Pandit (13th century), appears in Profound Writings East and West. Full rendition (234 stanzas) is here: A Precious Treasury of Elegant Sayings .
Tummo, or heat yoga
In group meetings Rose used to remark on the practice by Tibetan monks of tummo, the mystic heat. (A direct quote from recorded talks hasn’t been found.) Tummo historically is one of the “Six practices of Naropa”, whose exponent was Milarepa, although Rose never seems to have used these names.
Garma C.C. Chang, whom Rose recommended as a writer on Zen, also wrote about tummo, which he spells Dumo, in his book The Six Yogas of Naropa (PDF, 128 pages, 1.4 megs, search the PDF on “heat” or “dumo”). But this was not published until 1962, so Rose would not know about it in his youth.
Investigating three possible sources of Rose’s information: Walter Evans-Wentz, Alexandra David-Neel or H.P. Blavatsky …
The most likely would be Evans-Wentz, author/
translator of Tibetan Book of the Dead, which Rose had read. Evans-Wentz also wrote Tibetan Yoga And Secret Doctrines (1935), which has a chapter on tummo, but Rose does not mention that by name. It is available at SelfDefinition.Org in PDF (441 pages, 2.7 megs, search text for tummo). Alexandra David-Neel was occasionally remarked on by Rose for her Magic and Mystery in Tibet (1936, the original was in French), but her comments on tummo are very brief. She gives a little more detail in My Journey to Lhasa (1927). Her spelling is “thumo”, in the text at Archive.Org.
Blavatsky, whom Rose read extensively, surprisingly did not seem to have much to say about either tummo or Naropa, according to Generative AI, although she claimed to have spent seven years in Tibet, a claim that has not been proven.
For a video on the science of Tummo and an icy-wet sheet demonstration see this link to Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXskULb5648
Wikipedia has a lengthy and detailed article: Wikipedia:Tummo.
- Miscellaneous Books
- In his teaching, Richard Rose recommended various other books that became group favorites:
- Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 1949. Frankl posits that man’s primary or most important motivation is his meaning or purpose, rather than sex or power, as in the Freudian school.
- Robert S. de Ropp, The Master Game: Beyond the Drug Experience, 1968. PDF 113 pages, 748K at SelfDefinition.Org/psychology/
- Harold W. Percival, Thinking and Destiny, 1946. Percival (1868-1953) mentions that he had the experience of being “conscious of Consciousness” in 1893 and once again later. Percival mentions sublimation of sexual energy, somewhat like kundalini. A huge book, the PDF is 1,080 pages, at The Word Foundation. Rose briefly mentions Percival in 1980-0313-Are-Your-Values-Working-Pittsburgh [Wiki] and 1983-0626-Are-We-Complete [Wiki], and in The Albigen Papers, chapter 7. See Wikipdia: Harold_W._Percival
- Karen Horney, Neurosis & Human Growth, 1950, which was mentioned to Rose by Alfred Pulyan.
- George Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion, 1890, later retitled The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion.
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Bill Wilson of Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, 1952. Being from Akron, Ohio, Bill Wilson was known to Rose’s friend Robert Martin, but Rose never met Wilson. In a lecture Rose said,
“Bill Wilson evolved that system because he was an enlightened man. … He came across this idea that the only way you’re going to get cured from the hypnosis of alcohol was to give yourself over to a power greater than yourself. This is a very simple formula that works in all walks of life.”
See “Bill Wilson & AA” in 1988-0217-Hypnosis-Lecture-Demonstration-Akron: PDF (21 pages, 120K) [Wiki]
As Rose did on one occasion, Wilson experimented with LSD as a way to explore the ego. See Wikipedia.
10. See Peace to the Wanderer: The Philosophy and Friendship of Richard Rose by Robert J. Martin. PDF, 137 pages, 601K at SelfDefinition.Org/rose/
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