MESSAGES FROM ROSE - Answers, aphorisms, advice from Richard Rose - Part 1

 

This is a collection of my favorite messages expressed by Richard Rose.

extrac from: book of Rose

 

discounted price on my store:

 

From the nightmare you survive BECAUSE you wake up...

Same thing with nightmares in the daydream called life.

 

 

 

 

 

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That which you see is never you.

 

 

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There’s thoughts — which are not yours, but come from elsewhere — and there gaps between thoughts.

When you get into that gap between thoughts, you have the opportunity to completely reshuffle you life.

This may sound impossible to you now, but try not to let your ignorance get in the way of understanding. I have just told you something of priceless value.

 

  

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Question: “How do you know you’re not deceiving yourself?”

 

Richard: “I have no self left to deceive.”

 

 

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When you find out that this whole existence is a projection, you lose enthusiasm for feeding people what they want to hear about the significance or appeal of the illusion.

 

 

 

 

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The view is not the viewer

 

 

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There’s nobody on earth who doesn’t want to know the Truth.

They’re all moving towards it at the precise speed of their commitments, which is usually very slowly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The biggest obstacle to Truth is ourselves.

That’s why you can’t lay down a set of rules for how to go about this because different people have different obstacles standing between them and Enlightenment.

 

 

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If we live long enough we’ll discover that they really only love that which we can give them. Everyone wants desperately to believe in love, though, because we’re so lonely.

 

 

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Question: “Does life get any easier after Enlightenment?”

 

Rose: “No, but it gets funnier.”

 

 

 

 

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Question: “Are you happy?”

 

Richard: “I’m free of happiness.”

 

 

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The whole path to truth is through the umbilical cord -- a mental umbilical cord. It links you to the Brahman.

We are the Atman.

 

You'll not find the umbilical cord by reading books. You find it by going inside yourself. By observing yourself.

 

 

 

 

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If you’re honest with yourself — and you have to be honest with yourself if you’re going to be a student of the Truth — you start by admitting that you don’t know what the Truth is.

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You need to continually awaken yourself, to arouse yourself mentally, to attack your systems of thinking. Because you don’t want peace, you want an answer.

 

 

 

 

 

-Gaming Channel: ... Richard Rose (mystic) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search For other people named Richard Rose, see Richard Rose (disambiguation). Richard Rose in 1974 Richard Rose (March 14, 1917 – July 6, 2005) was an American mystic, esoteric philosopher, author, poet, and investigator of paranormal phenomena. He published a number of books and spoke widely in universities and other venues across the country during the 1970s and 1980s. Rose developed a system which he described as the "retreat from untruth," an examination of personal belief systems and lifestyles. In that system one discards what one finds to be false on a case-by-case basis. He believed a spiritual "Ultimate truth" exists and can be found for oneself with sufficient application of effort, and recommended skeptical approaches such as his. He studied human psychology, human weakness and human potential, then wrote challenges to psychology, psychiatry, religion, academia, the legal system, and the New Age movement. His criticism included issues of group-think, dogmatism, financial motives, emotional appeals, and reliance on questionable authorities.[clarification needed] Contents 1	Biography 2	Teachings 2.1	Tenets 2.2	Recommended Study 2.3	Teaching Style and Methods 3	Influence 4	New Vrindaban 5	Publications 6	Notes 7	References 8	External links Biography Richard Rose was born in Benwood, West Virginia, United States. He entered a Catholic pre-seminary in Butler, Pennsylvania at age 12. He later recounted his delight at the prospect of living with monks and nuns who he believed had direct connection to God but that he was disillusioned by their insistence on blind faith acceptance of what they taught.[1] He left the seminary at age 17, still looking for God, and in college turned toward the study of science as a possible avenue to discovering the nature of reality. Here too he was disillusioned, losing hope that God or Truth might be found through science.[2] After college, he moved around the U.S. in a series of jobs such as on the first nuclear submarine at Babcock & Wilcox in Alliance, Ohio; on streptomycin at the National Jewish Medical & Research Center in Denver; and performing metallurgical testing for Martin Aircraft in Baltimore. While living in Baltimore, his older brother James was killed on a Merchant Marine vessel when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. This death provided a huge shock to Rose, who contrasted his brother's selfless attitude to his own spiritual ego. Rose was working in the spring of 1947 as a waiter at a tennis club in Seattle when he experienced what he described as "God Realization". Several months later, he wrote a description of what had occurred in The Three Books of the Absolute.[3] A few years later he married and raised a family. He supported the family as a painting contractor and by raising cattle on the family farm. He worked with people who were interested in parapsychological phenomena such as ESP and hypnosis, but said he never came across anyone working to answer questions about the nature of the mind and reality. During this period he compiled his first book, The Albigen Papers, outlining his philosophy, but it was not published until 1973. In 1972 Rose was invited to give a talk at the Theosophical Society in Pittsburgh. Two students from the University of Pittsburgh attended, and they were inspired to start a group at the university to apply Rose's teaching. In 1973, Rose and a handful of students set up the TAT Foundation — "a circle of friends with no head" — to promote their efforts to reach out to others. The acronym TAT stood for "Truth and Transmission."[4] The Pittsburgh group spawned groups at other northeastern universities and even a couple of western locations (Denver and Los Angeles). Rose made his farm available for group gatherings and individual retreats, and students built two large buildings for meetings as well as cabins for individual use. The following two decades saw hundreds of people inspired to launch their own spiritual searches. Rose continued to write and publish while his study groups expanded. His public lectures continued until the early 1990s, when he started to show signs of deterioration from Alzheimer's disease. Teachings Rose's student David Gold described his work as esoteric [5] and direct.[6] Rose chose not to establish a popular movement of students, instead preferring a sub-rosa network of close students, who then reached out to a larger circle, which included author Joseph Chilton Pearce. He came from humble roots, then studied as a scientist. His teachings were based on a lifetime of experience and research, and in particular an experience when he was thirty. Joseph Chilton Pearce described him: "Rose is a no-nonsense West Virginian who wants nothing more from life than to somehow pass on the cataclysmic spiritual experience, the Enlightenment that blind-sided him when he was a young man." Tenets His student John Kent felt Rose's teachings were difficult to describe, because Rose stressed inner work inherently subjective and intimate to each individual. They were more about pursuing personal insight and introspection than a set of specific techniques.[7] Nonetheless, according to Kent, Rose did formulate a system of teachings based on his study of other traditions and his own insights.[8] Kent summarized the core questions in the teachings as:[9] Who am I (ultimately)? Where did I come from (before birth)? Where am I going (after death)? Rose recommends a deep investigation of "who" is living and experiencing: clearly defining self and ego.[10] He also insisted that a life of activity is meaningless as long as the identity of the actor is not known. He thought approaching spirituality as a way to find peace or enhance one's life, which he called "utilitarian," was foolish. Instead he advocated total dedication to a search for truth — in particular concerning self and ego — in spite of the personal consequences. He used the term "Jacob's Ladder" (image) as a kind of transpersonal map.[11] Based on that, he then used the terms "Law of the Ladder"[12] and "Ladder Work" to describe different levels he observed among those seeking truth. He also believed that one could only effectively help, or be helped by, others who were on the same or adjacent rungs of the ladder. He felt "extra-proportional returns" were realized when a group of people combine their efforts in any endeavor, which he called the "Contractor's Law".[13] Rose cautioned against postulating what truth — with respect to self and ego, for example — should be and then trying to move toward it. Instead one removes misunderstandings. His working definition of truth was "a condition from which all untruth has been removed."[14] He used the phrases "retreat from error"[15] and "reverse vector"[16] to describe the process of moving away from the most obviously false, what he called "garbage," which would clarify the thinking and intuition to a point where more subtle untruth could be evaluated.[17][18] He published The Albigen Papers in 1973, which he called a guidebook for seekers. His theories about the transmutation of energy from the body through the mind up to what he called the "spiritual quantum,"[19] were published after that and similar to some recent theories describing the mind as a force-field. He produced a pamphlet on a method of meditation involving the dispassionate review of past traumatic events as a way to overcome psychological problems and to understand the ego. His book Psychology of the Observer encapsulated his views on the structure of mind-processes and what he described as the internal ascent from a personal, conflicted view of the world to a more Universal perspective. He was a hypnotist, occasionally giving demonstrations, and said that understanding hypnotism was a key to understanding the mechanics of the mind.[20][21] His criticism of spiritual and New Age movements often included references to their use of self-hypnotic methods.[22][23] Recommended Study His student John Kent described the culmination of Rose's philosophy as corresponding "most closely with the nondualism of Advaita Vedanta".[24] But Kent also writes that rather than presenting a concept-structure or a specific practice upon which his teachings could be based Rose instead advocated personal immersion into available methods and religious styles while always applying what he called "respectful doubt."[25] Consequently, his followers obtained an understanding of a wide number of esoteric groups and methods, which they were able to bring back and share among themselves. Rose also believed that progress on one's spiritual path was linked to one's efforts at helping others. Rose recommended a number of authors to his students and disparaged other authors, based on his research. Those he most highly recommended were Indian guru Ramana Maharshi, Chan master Huang Po, Christian mystics St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, George Gurdjieff, and researchers Paul Brunton and Richard Bucke. In Albigen Papers he described H.P. Blavatsky's books as "some of the most valuable a student can own," and in his publication of Profound Writings East & West, called her text Book of Golden Precepts (also Voice of the Silence) as "a condensed guide to the deepest teachings of mankind." Rose advocated the study of what he called thaumaturgical laws as a means to protect oneself from unseen influences, for anyone who would explore the dimensions of consciousness ("the mind dimension"), referring to texts by Eliphas Levi and others.[26][27] Teaching Style and Methods According to Kent, Rose advocated a very personal commitment similar to Gurdjieff and he discouraged casual commitment.[28] Aspects of his style which discouraged casual commitment included: a Zen-like method of confrontation, recommending a celibate lifestyle,[29] and strong criticism of what he described as social and political sacred cows. In personal interactions he would attempt to dispel illusions and falsehoods that students were hiding from themselves. This sharpness caused his students to call him a Zen master, even though he was highly critical of mainstream Zen. In fact, the first group established by Rose was called Zen Study Group, in Pittsburgh, reflecting his embrace of Zen methods, and other groups were called Pyramid Zen Society, an admission that those interested in total commitment would be few (the top of the pyramid) as explained in various recorded talks.[30] He felt that requiring students to be determined would produce a more committed group of thinkers and researchers. Rose gave a series of lectures in the 1970s which outlined his approach to Zen and which incorporated the term Zen in the title: The Psychology of Zen; Zen and Common Sense; Zen and Death; etc. Several of these have been transcribed from the audio tapes and published. He published for limited circulation a paper titled The Monitor Papers which established rules, guidelines and techniques to be observed during confrontation in the private group meetings where confrontation was permitted. Rose had a high regard for Alfred Pulyan, a Zen teacher in Connecticut, who gave him a method of Transmission referred to in Zen literature.[31][32] Rose wrote a handbook for local group leaders, The Monitor Papers, currently unpublished, giving instructions on how to create rapport, which in his view is a precursor to Transmission, and he published Energy Transmutation, Between-ness and Transmission in 1975. Stemming from his investigations into Spiritualism, in his early lectures he often related his findings on paranormal phenomena.[33] Influence He worked closely with groups, beginning with university students and professional people, mostly in the Northeast (e.g. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maryland, West Virginia). Over time, as the students graduated and entered professional lives, groups were also established in Colorado, California, North Carolina, Florida, and Maine. After he was hospitalized with Alzheimer's in the mid 1990s, many of the organizations failed, but some continued - notably, the Self Knowledge Symposium founded by August Turak at universities in North Carolina. His followers believe he never pursued widespread popularity.[34] Members of the TAT Foundation, the current umbrella organization, are dispersed geographically. People may attend study groups without becoming actual members of the umbrella group. New Vrindaban In 1967, Rose attempted to create an ashram of spiritual seekers on his Marshall County, West Virginia farm, and composed a letter which was published in the San Francisco Oracle expressing his desire to try "to form an ashram of sorts here in West Virginia, in the rural section where I own about a half a section. The conception is one of a non-profit, non-interfering, non-denominational, retreat or refuge, where philosophers might come to work communally together, or independently,—where a library and other facilities might be developed.",[35][36] Among the seekers who responded to his letter were Hare Krishna devotees Kirtanananda Swami (Keith Gordon Ham) and his partner Hayagriva Das (Howard Morton Wheeler). The two secured a 99-year lease on Rose's backwoods farm which eventually developed into the sprawling New Vrindaban Community which eventually included Prabhupada's Palace of Gold, and this community pressed against Rose's farm from all sides.[37] When Rose attempted to fight the Krishnas in court and win back his land for non-payment of taxes, there was some talk at the community about "eliminating" him, and a hit man allegedly followed him for a while. Despite his troubles with the Krishnas, Rose reportedly never expressed outright regret over his decision to lease his back farm to them. "In some ways the Krishnites are better to have around than the hillbillies," Rose said once. "At least they don't get drunk and steal the radiators out of your trucks."[38] Publications Albigen Papers, 1973, 1978 ISBN 1-878683-00-4, ISBN 1-878683-07-1 Energy Transmutation, Between-ness and Transmission, 1975 ISBN 1-878683-02-0 Psychology of the Observer, 1979, 2001 ISBN 1-878683-06-3 Meditation, 1981 Pyramid Press Carillon: Poems, Essays & Philosophy, 1982 ISBN 1-878683-03-9 The Direct-Mind Experience, 1985 ISBN 1-878683-01-2 Profound Writings, East & West, 1988 ISBN 1-878683-05-5 "The Three Books of the Absolute" appears in The Albigen Papers and in Profound Writings, East & West. Notes Gold (2002) pp. 42-43 Kent (1990) pp.1-2 Martin (2007) p.82 Kent (1990) p.6 Gold (2002) p.196, 319 Gold (2002) p.171 Kent (1990) p.50 Kent (1990) pp.50-51 Kent (1990) p.54 Kent (1990) pp.54-55 Kent (1990) pp.vi, 24, 32, 42, 254-255 Kent (1990) pp.121, 140 Kent (1990) p.140 Rose (1978) p. 206 Kent (1990) p.17 Kent (1990) pp.76, 120 Kent (1990) pp.213, 216 Rose (1982) p.144 Kent (1990) pp.190-191 Direct Mind Experience, pp. 28-29 and p. 291. Six unpublished, recorded lectures and demonstrations: 1978, 1980, 1981, 1986, 1988 Kent (1990) p.99 Martin (2007) p.86 Kent (1990) p. 35 Kent (1990) p.126 Eliphas Levi, Transcendental Magic; Arthur Edward Waite, Ceremonial Magic. Unpublished lecture at Kent State University on April 12, 1978. Kent (1990) p.76 Kent (1990) p.174 Lecture in Columbus, Ohio, April 5, 1977. http://www.searchwithin.org/download/columbus_ohio_lecture.pdf Attribution to Zen methods learned from Alfred Pulyan are in unpublished talk in Columbus, Ohio on Oct. 23, 1977. Laws, Yardsticks, Exaltations Mentioned by Rose occasionally in public and private talks, currently being transcribed. For example: http://www.searchwithin.org/download/columbus_ohio_lecture.pdf Also there is a series of unpublished correspondence between Rose and Pulyan in the possession of the heirs. Martin (2007) pp.74-75 Gold (2002) p.166 Richard Rose, Letter published in The San Francisco Oracle (December 1967) "McCreary Ridge Hippies Live Quietly in Hills Meditating" (July 13, 1968, Wheeling Intelligencer) http://selfdefinition.org/rose/richard-rose-farm-1968.htm Hayagriva Das, The Hare Krishna Explosion (Palace Press, Moundsville, West Virginia: 1985) Gold (2002) p.235 References After the Absolute: Real Life Adventures With a Backwoods Buddha by David Gold, 2002 ISBN 0595239943 Richard Rose's Psychology of the Observer: The Path to Reality Through the Self by John Kent, PhD, 1990 dissertation Peace to the Wanderer: The Philosophy and Friendship of Richard Rose by Robert J. Martin, 2007 link opens 324 KB pdf file External links The TAT Foundation - Philosophical group established by Richard Rose Richard Rose Teachings (Rose Publications) - Official site for his published materials Authority control Edit this at Wikidata ISNI: 0000 0000 3651 1436LCCN: n2006032246VIAF: 63432854WorldCat Identities: lccn-n2006032246 Categories: MysticsEsotericistsAmerican spiritual teachersAmerican spiritual writers1917 births2005 deathsPeople from Benwood, West VirginiaWriters from West Virginia  TAT Foundation ...friendship and the spiritual search The TAT Foundation, friendship and the spiritual search. "The highest form of spiritual work is the realization of the essence of man...." "You never learn the answer; you can only become the answer." "My purpose is to outline a system which will prove itself as it goes along, and which will reward us at any point along the line by finding for us a more disciplined and skillful mind, and a mind that is more aware of itself." —Richard Rose The life of the spiritual seeker is often a solitary affair. However, there are friends to find, books to read, and information to share. The TAT Foundation and its spiritual search site offer a place for genuine philosophical and spiritual inquiry on all levels, modeled on the principle that cooperation and interaction with fellow inquirers can expedite a seeker's own investigation. Within these pages, you will find an introduction to Richard Rose and his system for spiritual achievement, the continuing work of the TAT Foundation, and esoteric books and recordings of value to those interested in the search for Reality. The depth of friendship and a unique set of principles without the dogma—these form the basic precepts of TAT® videos, audio, publications, and events. TAT February 6, 2021 Spiritual Retreat Day Banner Attend TAT's February Virtual Gathering—In Thought, Word and Deed Site Contents TAT Forum Online Magazine A monthly spiritual magazine of essays, poetry, and humor that inspires seekers to action in the spiritual search. Read past issues of timeless inspiration. Subscribe to the Forum About the TAT Foundation Established by Richard Rose to encourage seekers to help each other. A dynamic organization with members who can help at the deepest level. Learn about TAT's mission. Become a Member Who is Richard Rose? Read about the founder of the TAT Foundation and the Albigen System. Learn why Richard Rose is one of the most profound spiritual teachers this country has ever produced. The Albigen System A brief outline of Rose's direct approach to finding answers to your deepest life-questions. A system with proven results. Books and Recordings New Book!Spiritual DVD Videos Publications of the TAT Foundation Press, Richard Rose books, recommended spiritual books, conference DVDs, and MP3 audio recordings. New! TAT Journal Archive Published from 1977 to 1986 for spiritual seekers to develop genuine friendships, share ideas, and understand themselves. Calendar of TAT Activities Information on TAT's four spiritual retreat weekends and a listing of member groups in various locations. It's the coming together of sincere spiritual seekers that makes the TAT Foundation so unique. Site search Use the quick search box above to search this website. Additional Spiritual Resources Best Spiritual Sites on the Web A survey of TAT members' favorites. Criteria for evaluation of gurus and unique systems. What is Meditation? Comments from Richard Rose and TAT Foundation members. Spiritual Gatherings Bulletin Board Worldwide listing of ongoing meetings and special events. Submit information on groups and events. Retreat Facilities/USA + Other Countries A guide to hermitages, cabins, and other places for spiritual reflection. Improve your solitary retreats. TAT Foundation on Facebook TAT Foundation channel on YouTube TAT is a registered trademark of the TAT Foundation. This site contains absolutely no harmful ActiveX, harmful scripts, malicious cookies, or spyware. JavaScript must be enabled for our e-mail links, audio players, and PayPal buttons to work. Home | Richard Rose | Books & Recordings | TAT Forum | About | Search | Site Map Keep informed of TAT events and receive our free monthly Forum filled with inspiring essays, poems and images. Email & Social Media Marketing by VerticalResponse © 2000-2021 TAT Foundation. All rights reserved. Back to Top Who is Richard Rose? Author, poet, philosopher, and founder of the TAT Foundation and the Albigen System. Richard Rose in his 30'sRichard Rose (1917 - 2005) is one of the most profound and unusual spiritual teachers this country has ever produced. A native son from the hills of West Virginia, Mr. Rose underwent a cataclysmic spiritual experience at the age of thirty that left him with an intimate understanding of the secrets of life and death. He was often referred to as a Zen Master by the people who knew him because of the depth of his wisdom and his ability to make direct mind contact with his students. But he did not expound traditional Zen or any other traditional teachings. What he taught sprang from his personal realization of Truth. Though Richard Rose authored several books on esoteric philosophy and had lectured widely in universities across the country, he remained largely unknown. He has been described, in fact, as "The greatest man no one's ever heard of." He appeared in newspaper articles and on local talk shows during lecture tours, and was featured in spiritual journals from time to time, but he was in some ways a throw-back to the stern Zen masters of a thousand years ago, and his hard-edged, uncompromising approach to life and spiritual work is not a path for the easy-going. From a very early age, Richard Rose was a man on a mission: to find an answer to the great riddle of life. One of his earliest memories was writing over and over in a child's hand, "Many are called, but few are chosen." At the age of twelve, he entered a Capuchin seminary in Pennsylvania to study for the priesthood. He wanted, simply, to find God. After five years he left, however, disenchanted with religious life and the constant admonitions to be content to believe church doctrines, not to seek a personal experience of God. Richard Rose in his 60'sDisillusioned with religion, he focused on physics and chemistry in college. He hoped to find the keys to the universe in atoms and molecules, but eventually realized that logic and science were yet another endless tangent. He then turned to yoga and asceticism, and in his twenties he maintained an extremely disciplined lifestyle. "I decided to make my body a laboratory," he said, "not a cesspool." He became a vegetarian, did not smoke or drink, and observed strict celibacy. He also spent long months in solitude on his remote farm in the hills of West Virginia. "Solitude is beautiful," he says. "Those years of celibacy and solitude were the most joyful of my life." But Mr. Rose also knew he needed to seek out information about the spiritual path, and find others who were on it. And so he often crisscrossed the country in search of someone who might have achieved true wisdom. This was in the '30s and '40s, however, and there were few books available, and even fewer teachers. He must have presented quite an appearance in those days. He kept his head shaved, wore a goatee, and in keeping with his years in the seminary, perhaps, dressed entirely in black, including a black snap-brim fedora reminiscent of the gangsters of the day. He would travel hundreds of miles by bus or hitchhiking because he had heard a certain book might be available in a distant library. He met with spiritualists, witch-doctors, shamans, healers, psychics, yogis, and gurus, most often coming away from those meetings disappointed, but wiser for the experience. He joined every spiritual and psychic group he could find, learned what they had to offer, then ended up rejecting almost all of them. Along the way, he began to develop his own unique way of sifting through the information and misinformation available, looking for that which was most likely to be true. His training as a scientist led him to approach the abstract realm of the spiritual scientifically, whereas the norm was usually blind faith, wishful thinking, and confusion. This scientific approach to a spiritual search was the genesis of what he would later call The Albigen System. He wanted to unravel the Gordian Knot, and lived only for that purpose. He decided he would rather suffer insanity or death than be ignorant of his destiny, his source, his true Self. Those who knew him then found him to be a man possessed by an insatiable desire to find out what lay behind the curtain of pretense so often accepted as a "wonderful life." He doubted everything, and questioned everybody he met about their philosophy of life—and death. He sought only one thing: a final answer that would dissolve all his doubts and questions. He wanted THE answer. Richard RoseThen, at the age of thirty, after a life of asceticism, searching, and eventually trauma, Richard Rose had a spiritual awakening of great depth. Years later, he discovered in the writings of Ramana Maharshi a descriptive term for what he had undergone—Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi—the Hindu term for the maximum human experience possible, in which the individual mind dies, and the individual awareness merges totally with the source of all life and awareness—the Absolute, God, Truth. Maharshi metaphorically spoke of this experience as a river discharged into the ocean and its identity lost. For many years afterwards Mr. Rose struggled to understand the implications of his enlightenment experience, and to translate it into a system that might help others achieve the same realization. Finally, he distilled his mountain of notes into a handbook for spiritual and philosophic seekers, outlining the many pitfalls as well as illuminating the essential elements for success on the spiritual path. It is entitled The Albigen Papers. Later, the spiritual path that this book describes became known as The Albigen System. Richard Rose lived, spoke, and wrote without the pretense or arrogance so often found in spiritual and philosophic work. He never charged any money for his teaching, and he never closed his door to any sincere seeker, or to anyone who was troubled and wanted to discover an avenue to peace and mental clarity. Since his first public lecture in Pittsburgh in 1972, Mr. Rose maintained a lifestyle unaffected by opportunities for wealth, fortune, and fame. He was a relentless man who had the determination, inspiration, and dedication it takes to discover the total answer to the riddle of life. Read After the Absolute: The Inner Teachings of Richard Rose by David Gold with Bart Marshall, including a Forward by Joseph Chilton Pearce. This fascinating account of one student's years with Richard Rose is also available in hardcopy. Obtain more information on how to purchase After the Absolute. Read the Wikipedia biography on Richard Rose, including details about his teachings and influence. Obituary: Rose, Richard S., 88, formerly of Moundsville, WV, died Wednesday July 6, 2005 in the Weirton Geriatric Center. The family would like to express their deepest appreciation to the dedicated caregivers at Weirton Geriatric Center, Alzheimer and third floor care unit. Richard Rose was born in his house in Benwood on March 14, 1917. He is the son of Richard V. Rose and Marguerite Orum Rose. He attended St. Alphonsus and St. James schools until the age of twelve when he entered the Capuchin Monastery in Butler, PA. At age 17, he left the monastery to finish his last year of high school at Wheeling Central Catholic. He enrolled at West Liberty State College to study English, then traveled the country taking various jobs in the field of chemistry and engineering. At age thirty he married Phyllis West and raised three children, Ruth, Kathleen and James. He worked as a painting contractor in the Ohio Valley. He wrote his first book, The Albigen Papers, around the age of forty, but it was not published until 1973. Around the same year he began giving lectures on philosophy at colleges and universities across the country. Included among those universities were Harvard, Brown, Case Western, Kent State, UCLA, North Carolina State, Duke, and University of Pittsburgh. Study groups were formed at the various college campuses and students visited Mr. Rose in a regular basis. At age sixty he married Betty Cecil Rose and they have a daughter, Tatia. Since the early seventies he published several more books, including The Direct Mind Experience based on his research on direct mind communication which he termed the direct-mind science. He also founded the TAT Foundation, a non-profit educational foundation based on his philosophic teachings. Friends and family received Thursday from 3 -5 and 7 -9 p.m. at the McCoy-Altmeyer Funeral home, 44 Fifteenth Street, Wheeling, WV, where services will be held Friday June 8, 2005, with Mr. Lee O. Warfield, III, officiating. Interment will be at the family farm in Marshall County, WV. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Family Services of the Upper Ohio Valley, 51 11th Street, Wheeling, WV, 26003, and Altenheim Resources and Referral Center, 1359 National Road, Wheeling, WV 26003. Goodbye, Mr. Rose A special obituary written by David Weimer A graduate student of philosophy at the University of Oslo in Norway played her violin at an open grave on Friday morning in rural Moundsville. It was a Scottish lament, or Irish Air, called Ashokan Farewell and it was featured in the Ken Burns documentary series on the Civil War. The haunting, nostalgic notes slid from Juliet Rose's instrument to lap like gentle waves against the worn pier of 40 people standing there. She was playing her fiddle at the graveside of her grandfather, Richard Stephen Vincent Rose Jr., of Benwood, known by many serious thinkers near and far as simply "Mr. Rose." Lee O. Warfield, III, of Baltimore visited Rose on his family farm in 1985 and found himself waiting for the man to return from an errand. "I had no photos of him, no preconceptions," Warfield said. "When he walked into the room, I stood up and shook his hand. He said to me, 'We've met before.' And I knew that he knew me and knew everything about me." Twenty years after their first meeting, Warfield led a burial service for Rose on Friday that began at a funeral home and ended with interment at the Rose family farm. "It felt like I was giving him something," Warfield said after the service. "I was very lucky to have met him, especially when I did. The morality that he preached saved my life." Rose is the author of six books on esoteric philosophy. The Albigen Papers, his seminal work, is an exposé of social, psychological, and spiritual misconceptions. Published in 1973 and written as a guide for others on the path of self-knowledge and realization, this work contains an examination of spiritual movements, blocks and aids to personal spiritual progress, and a large helping of common sense. How did this Marshall County man become what many would call a guru or mentor? It seemed to be his destiny. Richard Rose was born at home in Benwood on March 14, 1917 to Richard and Marguerite Orum Rose. He attended St. Alphonsus and St. James schools until the age of twelve when he entered the Capuchin Monastery in Butler, PA to become a priest. At 17, he left the Catholic monastery to finish a last year of high school at Wheeling Central Catholic. He enrolled at West Liberty State College and would eventually travel the country working in the field of chemistry and engineering. As a young man, Rose had left the track he had been on to become a priest. He became, instead, interested in yoga and spiritualism. He was a voracious reader on subjects of esoteric philosophy, religion, psychology and mysticism. He made of himself a laboratory, abstaining from vices including alcohol and tobacco. He gave up eating meat. In short, he was a wandering mystic, meeting and joining any group that he felt he could learn from. He was on a quest for the riddle of his existence. In Seattle, in 1947, at the age of 30, he was "accidentally successful." Twenty-four cars made the half-hour journey from McCoy Funeral Home in Wheeling to the Rose family farm east of Moundsville. Shawn Nevins is recreation coordinator for an outdoor team-building program in Louisville, KY. He drove five and a half hours to attend the funeral of a man who had been instrumental in his own search for meaning. In 1991, Nevins was in his early 20's attending North Carolina State University. "I saw Rose's picture on a poster for a lecture called, 'What is Enlightenment?' and it just got me curious. I wondered what it was all about." Nevins would eventually spend three years in Marshall County, where he could meet with Rose regularly. "It was inspiring and frustrating at the same time. Inspiring because here's a person who I felt answered the questions that I had. Frustrating because for one, he can't give me the answers—I've got to find the answers myself." This quiet-spoken Kentuckian said that Rose's legacy lies in the people who he helped and in those who he set in motion on a philosophic path. People he inspired. Rose founded the TAT Foundation, a non-profit educational organization based on his philosophy, in 1973 (TAT stands for Truth and Transmission). Today, TAT includes hundreds of members from throughout the U.S. and Canada. A number of its members attend four annual meetings near Moundsville. After returning from Seattle to settle down, Rose married and spent two decades raising three children while working as a painting contractor in the Ohio Valley. He got his first book into publishable form in 1973. This same year, he began giving lectures on philosophy, Zen, psychology and mysticism at colleges and universities across the country including Harvard, Brown, Case Western, Kent State, UCLA, North Carolina State, Duke, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Study groups formed at various college campuses and students began to visit "Mr. Rose" at his farm in West Virginia on a regular basis. This would begin another two decades and more of a second career: engagement in his true interest of esoteric philosophy. Culturally, the door was open and people were ready to hear what he had to say on the subject. Robert Cergol, of Raleigh, North Carolina, was 19 when he attended a lecture given by Rose. "I walked out of that lecture feeling like I had to reshuffle every viewpoint and thought I'd had up until that point. I was exposed to a world that I didn't know existed. It seemed like it was the missing piece—in not knowing what I was supposed to do with my life." That was 30 years ago. Cergol graduated from college and would eventually live in Bellaire, Benwood and Moundsville. He worked for some time on a grounds crew for the Wheeling Park Commission and today is a self-employed software developer, married, and father of two girls. Richard Rose, 88, of Benwood, author, poet, philosophic authority and friend, died at 5:50 a.m. Wednesday July 6th at the Weirton Geriatric Center after a ten-year battle with Alzheimer's. Decades earlier, when he was a young man, Rose had written a short poem that someone later would ask whether it was about his own death or not. Rose's matter-of-fact reply was, "Oh, sure." The poem is called I Will Take Leave of You. He is survived by his wife and children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and truly, a host of friends. I will take leave of you Not by distinct farewell But vaguely As one entering vagueness For words, symbols of confusion Would only increase confusion But silence, seeming to be vagueness, Shall be my cadence Which someday You will understand. Richard Rose 1917 - 2005 More Richard Rose Resources The Albigen System Mister Rose the video Insightful quotes Books and recordings Memorial Forum issue Audio clip: Intro / Albigen System What is the Albigen System? The Albigen System of Richard Rose, a spiritual system involving a threefold path for finding Truth. A threefold path for finding Truth... A way of living your life aimed at understanding that life. A life of brotherhood—helping and being helped by others with a common goal. A system not of learning but of becoming the Truth. Based on the Experience and teachings of Richard Rose... A man who reached enlightenment at the age of 30, in 1947, and dedicated his life toward helping others who were seeking self-definition. Who learned that the direct path to Truth is through retreating from untruth. And who thus recommended an approach that is "subjective, subtractive, immanent and designed for immediately changing and becoming." A system that... Aims at self-definition and considers all knowledge incomplete until the knower or experiencer is known or identified. Does not attempt to prove itself by the vanity of logic but is inductive and answers to common sense and intuition. Revolves around confrontation, both in friendly questioning that challenges each others' thinking to the point of retreating from error and in self-confrontational meditation. "The purpose is to find the Truth—meaning self-definition, and the true relation of man to his fellow man, and a true understanding of our life's events." Richard Rose The Albigen System is a method for stripping away the glossy veneer of life in the pursuit of the greater Reality that lies beneath its surface. It is a spiritual system of seeking for those who are sincerely interested in becoming the Truth. Becoming aware of our essential nature is a single goal with many paths leading to it—most of them very long and slow. Some paths, such as traditional religions, appeal to emotional-devotional people, some paths appeal to intellectually curious people, while other paths synthesize and employ techniques that combine aspects of many different systems. But there is another approach, one that aims directly at that elusive state of total knowledge often described as Enlightenment. There are few schools or spiritual systems of this type in existence. The Albigen System is one of them. It will help sincere seekers discover the ways and means to shorten the time needed to find their true state of being. An intense spiritual path such as the Albigen System will not appeal to everyone. But there is a certain percentage of people in every generation who are blessed, or cursed, with the ability to see through some of the illusions of life and who are curious about what may lie beyond the illusions. These people are inevitably drawn to books and people that purport to answer the questions that are beginning to haunt them and that can address the nameless hunger that is forming inside them. Today there are more spiritual organizations, teachers, and books than perhaps at any time in history. This is both good and bad. Good because of the wealth of information that is available. Bad because of the wealth of misinformation that comes with it. Chautauqua Building, previous site of TAT Foundation eventsIn practice, each individual seeker has a particular path to walk, and one person's path is never the same as that of another. But there are common denominators and universal pitfalls. The Albigen System is a practical approach to self-definition and spiritual achievement that also allows for the many and varied individual paths. It is at once a complete system itself and also a tool with which we may evaluate all other spiritual systems as well as our own thinking and philosophy at each stage of the search. It is a system that does not seek to define Truth, because Truth can not be defined for us by others. It can only be experienced directly. And until we have experienced Truth ourselves, how can we possibly know what it is or in which direction it lies? Therefore the only sensible approach is to retreat from untruth. That is, to seek out the phoniness, illusions, lies, and inconsistencies in our own lives and in everything else—including spiritual systems—and back away from them. In this way, by becoming more and more skilled at recognizing untruth and backing away from it, we will automatically be approaching Truth. That is the path. In his book, The Albigen Papers, Rose covers key principles for a spiritual search. A key to the Albigen System is it's maximum reversal technique, in which the natural direction of life's energy and purpose is reversed away from the material and mundane pursuits of ordinary life and turned in upon itself to retraverse the projected ray of life back to the Source. A useful analogy is that of someone in a movie theater who finally thinks to turn around and look back through the lens of the movie projector rather than be totally identified with the colored shadows on the screen. In this way, one can discover the source of the projections and also the true nature of the viewer of the picture show. The Albigen System looks at the looker and examines the examining instrument—the human mind. It is a mental technique for realizing the existence of your Essence and a method for redeploying your energy so as to achieve a direct experience of that Essence. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going when I die? The purpose of the Albigen System is to help you gain a direct experience of the answer to these questions for yourself. The Albigen System is a system with proven results. Several of Richard Rose's students have realized what he was pointing at with his teaching and, in turn, are working to help others in this grand adventure. Read a sampling of Richard Rose's writings by searching the TAT Forum index. In Honor of Richard Rose March 14, 1917 - July 6, 2005 And I had a friend . . . Whose dust with mine was not the bond, Whose love with mine was not the bond, Whose teaching with me was not the bond, Both of us had been to this same place, To the twilight in the narrow crevice, And because of this place, we are eternal. ~ From "Friendship" by Richard Rose This month's contents: Richard Rose Richard Rose Dear Father by Tatia Rose | Launch Pad by Tristan Bergh | Deepest Respects by Pratap Bhatt | Relentless Intensity by Ed Bronson | What Mr. Rose Shared by Bob Cergol | Consider Yourself Lucky by Paul Constant | Mystic Missal Memorial by Bob Fergeson | Presence by Linda Harmon | The Friend by Gary Harmon | Lack of Pretension by Richard Hood | The Guy Who Saved My Life by Jake Jaqua | Chance Encounter by Tony Kalar | Last Hours by Bart Marshall | Encouraged Me to Think by Shane Murphy | Quotes & Notes by Shawn Nevins | Flowers by Dan Niebauer | Don't Light a Candle for Richard (anonymous) | Master Storyteller by Paul Schmidt | Pass It On by Art Ticknor | An Appropriate Gesture by David Weimer | Additional Sources about Richard Rose Read books by Richard Rose or watch a video clip from the Mister Rose DVD. Sign up for e-mail alerts that will let you know when new TAT Forum issues are published. Dear Father by Tatia Rose I am with you here now as those who love you the most are—in spirit. What our time together lacked in length it compensated for in depth. Because of your guidance, leadership, and wisdom, I will never walk this earth without the companionship of brothers and sisters. You have given us ourselves. Our truths, our lives, strength, and love. And while this earthbound journey has been short, we have walked it side by side. Our first steps together were rich in bliss, poor in sadness, and pure of innocence. And although the next bend in the road would take us through a dark tunnel, the end finds itself in the light—here and now. I also know that the end is not nearly as important as the journey. I know that you will be with me as I walk the steps of my journey, and will make the path one you would be proud to walk with me. On this path will also be my mother, my family, and all those who love you as I do. I know they want you here as much as I do, but I also know we want your soul to be free as you have freed ours. I will always love you and I will always think of you. And when I want you by my side, all I have to do is think about walking up the hill through the autumn leaves, your hand wrapped around mine, and my cheek pressed against the sleeve of your flannel shirt. Launch Pad by Tristan Bergh I came into contact with Mr. Rose's work via the Internet in October 2002. Mr. Rose's teachings remain with me at all times: "That which you see is never you. That which sees is you. This is a subtractive path. God exists, I don't. If I can't honour the tiniest truths, how can I become the Truth? If the perceived world is a projection, from what is it projected?" Mr. Rose's teachings were that most valuable thing: a disposable launch pad for becoming Truth. He passed it on. ~ Tristan lives in Johannesburg, South Africa Deepest Respects by Pratap Bhatt I just want to acknowledge my deepest respects for Richard Rose, whom I never met or read much about. I have been just a recipient of Forum's monthly E-mails. Yet somehow I feel indebted to his teachings thru reading various articles from these mails. Thank you very much and I am sure He will continue to live among us... Relentless Intensity by Ed Bronson I imagine that friends, students and family of Richard feel rather numb now that he is completely gone. My sister and I offer our sincere consolations to those who knew him in his better days, some still trying to decipher the meaning of his ironic absent-mindedness as age took its toll. So many things remain mysterious about him. There was a relentless intensity to his insights, however, that shall remain immortally potent. We were privileged to attend the Spring TAT meeting and, although you wouldn't be able to tell from our silence afterwards, the speakers and people that attended that session affected us both very profoundly. It was as though we had found an entire group of serious truth seekers in one place that we otherwise would have been resigned to discover only singly and all too rarely (if even at all). In many ways it was so serendipitous to us, we were actually overwhelmed. After seemingly years of "drought," a full "vessel" of refreshment is almost too shocking to immediately consume or process. This, perhaps, is just another lamely stated (but real) testament to Rose's enduring influence. Thanks so much for all of the work that you do, in countless ways, to inform and assist other seekers as Richard Rose exemplified. His life was exceptionally human and inclusively divine. What Mr. Rose Shared by Bob Cergol Bob Cergol with photo of Richard Rose he'd taken in 1974 Bob holding 1974 photo I've often reflected on what direction my life would have taken had I not crossed paths with Richard Rose. I never get very far in that reflection. It's like asking what direction would my life have taken had my mother and father not been my mother and father. My mind can't process that question. All it can do is fall back into contemplation of what DID happen. I was nineteen years old when I met Richard Rose. He became my true god-father and mentor. The common meaning of godparent is a person who sponsors a child at its baptism and assumes responsibility for its faith. At the time that I first met him, I had already lost my faith in the Catholic religion in which I was baptized and raised. I had some nebulous belief in a Supreme Being, but that belief was irrelevant to my day-to-day life. With that loss of faith I had also lost what little conviction I had in my ability to find the life that I was meant to live. I seemed to have also lost what little confidence I had in my capacity to live any particular life that conventional thinking suggested I must live. I remember thinking while listening to him speak during my first encounter with him, that this man had the answer to that loss of conviction and confidence. And for me he did. In hindsight I can see that at nineteen, I was a boy that didn't know how to become a man. I was stuck in childhood and didn't know how to transition into adulthood. I had a spiritual hunger, starved for conviction. Not only did Richard Rose initiate me into my spiritual search, but he also filled the role of a father figure and mentor that helped me to make that transition into adulthood. To listen to him and to be in his presence was to KNOW that the possibility of discovering final answers to life's most fundamental questions, and, indeed of finding and knowing the Supreme Being, was unequivocally real, and immediately available—because he made you feel its presence in your very self. To listen to him, to be in his presence and to observe how he lived, was to witness what it means to "walk, not wobble" in the conduct of one's life. I had many remarkable, some would say miraculous, experiences in the course of my long father-son-spiritual teacher relationship with Mr. Rose. They remain engraved in my heart and mind. Suffice it to say that somehow this man touched the very core of my being and inspired the strength in me to engage life more fully than my innate diffidence should have allowed. I faced fears and challenges with the faith that I could, and the faith that there was a greater, living Good that could not fail me so long as I remained true to my self. Perhaps this is the simplest way to summarize what I learned from Richard Rose: To thine own self be true. Yet you must define what that self is, while knowing that you are capable of self-delusion. Therefore you must resolve to discover the real Self—that alone to which you must remain true. Finally, you must act on that resolve with intensity and integrity. I was nineteen years old when I met Richard Rose, and three months and two days after his death I will turn fifty-two years old, just five years shy of his age when I met him. The world drama seems somehow different without his character present on this stage, but that which he continually evoked in me while in his presence, has somehow found its way into the life of this character that was blessed to have shared that stage with him. These words from a poem he wrote will forever echo in my mind and heart: "Though you should seek me, or, still never know Me, I am with thee." But I know exactly where to look for him, because he told me. "Look deep into thyself for I am there. For I am Love, and I am everywhere . . . . A part of thee,—and happily I share." Consider Yourself Lucky by Paul Constant Richard Rose in public lectureLike so many times in the past, Richard Rose has once again provided an opportunity to reflect more deeply about our spiritual direction and ourselves. I'm surprised—though I shouldn't be—that his death drastically shook up life's daily shuffle one more time, for me and many of his students, friends and family members. My thoughts do not stray for long when thinking about who influenced my life for the better—my wife, my immediate family, TAT friends, and Richard Rose. But in my twenties, Mr. Rose was the most powerful influence, helping to refocus my efforts on something far greater than money, power or popularity that consume most young people. In writing about my Experiences with Richard Rose, I said years ago, and still maintain, that Rose's Albigen System is the most astute philosophical system in the United States, and possibly the best in present worldwide circumstances. This is not mere belief, but a fact proven through personal experimentation and investigation. In 1990, Mr. Rose responded to one of my letters, writing "We will do very good if we have people attending [group meetings] who are unsatisfied with themselves—and admit it. We must ask about knowledge—knowledge of Life (and knowledge of Truth), knowledge of Death and after Death, knowledge of the goals in life, and can you have all three." Those two sentences speak volumes. For me, what stands out the most is that Mr. Rose provided ample opportunities in his books, presentations and informal discussions. By "opportunities," I mean sound advice that allowed his readers and listeners to go within and find their Self. If you did not have the good fortune to encounter Richard Rose, you shouldn't feel cheated. His books and audio CDs are a shinning light for the sincere seeker. Consider yourself lucky—you live and seek during a time when these gems are literally at your fingertips. Richard Rose Memorial by Bob Fergeson Bob devoted the October 2005 edition of the Mystic Missal to Richard Rose. Presence by Linda Harmon I visited Richard Rose mostly in the late 70's and in the 80's when the retreat was so full of life and seekers that we could barely fit into that large wing of the old farm house. Luckily he and some others had built the huge pavilion that would hold us all when the farm house over-flowed. He always had open arms for all who were honest seekers of the truth; and some of my most treasured hours were spent listening to his wisdom, with his sometimes comedic touches. But astonishingly, the most important thing that I received from him was after he had broken free from some of the physical and mental chains of his physical existence. It seemed like his presence got even stronger and traveled to see you, instead of you going to see him. And the closer he came to breaking these physical bonds, the stronger his presence was felt. I also knew that this presence was getting vaster, and extending to all who were open to receive this grace. A day or two before his death, my head was electrified as strong as I had ever experienced, as I felt his presence extra strongly. I knew with all my heart that he had totally joined the other clear awarenesses. He was sharing this incredible joining with all who were open to it. A day or two later when I meditated into the Allness/nothingness, it was noticeably brighter and stronger. He had definitely added much energy to this already wondrous field. Richard Rose is and will always be a great spiritual force for the whole universe. The Friend by Gary Harmon Vividly I remember Richard Rose always insisting that there is no point in looking for anything until you look for the observer and discover what actually observes. "You have to find the anterior observer yourself," you can't just say you know where it is. Don't take anyone's word on that subject, he would say. "You must find out for yourself." He brought our attention to thought at a seminar I recall by telling us to discover who is thinking. He asked us if our thoughts are really our thoughts or are they from an alien source possibly. "Do we have thoughts or do thoughts have us?" It seemed like he just steered you in the more truthful direction with these question and answer sessions. He sometimes would say that if you think that you are thinking then try to stop doing it and see what happens. See if you can actually stop these thoughts that you think are yours. He commonly offered his teachings in a question format not an attempt to convince, done in a manner that might not be noticed until much later. A simple question which would automatically cause the mind to be challenged to respond somehow, but also might bring it to a standstill just long enough to realize that maybe, just maybe, your belief system was in grave error. When you left for home and had time alone to consider this, the challenge continued on and on. To hear Richard Rose say these things was to be confronted on the most fundamental of intensities. Just as you might have thought that you had it all under control, he would say some haunting truth again that sounded so simple, yet seemed impossible. Something stayed deep inside, a voice that might not have even been audible kept saying disquietude … disquietude. Something just wasn't right; and how right he constantly was. And that is what I remember most about him—the power of stating a simple truth with humor and compassion, being who he was which alone provoked thought, and also his tenacity to finish whatever he started. He is deeply missed. I have never met anyone quite like him. Time after time this would occur in his presence until you were sure that this guy could see right through you. Yes, there was something very special about this fellow, something that was compelling and trustworthy. And with time, if not immediately, you would know beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was your friend and always would be. Lack of Pretension by Richard Hood 1989 photo of Richard Rose by Richard Hood 1989 photo taken by Richard When I first heard about Mr. Rose, I had already been on a spiritual path for more than 10 years. After an initial enthusiasm when I began, I had seen a lot of gurus and spiritual leaders fail to deliver on what they promised and even some outright frauds. My initial reaction was here was someone else claiming enlightenment, let's see if there is anything to it before I get involved. As it turned out it was several more years before I joined a small group led by Bob Cergol, who kept insisting that Rose was for real. Since I had always wanted to meet someone who really had a profound spiritual experience, I made the trip out to the farm on a cold winter day with Bob and some other people in the group. What really impressed me about Mr. Rose was his directness and lack of pretension. There were no robes, ceremonies or arcane language involved. He had less ego than any spiritual leader I had ever met, but also a stronger sense of personal power. He had a tremendous amount of energy but seemed to want to use it only to help, not to build himself up. Since then I have used Mr. Rose as a standard to measure other spiritual teachers, and few if any have attained what he did. I only wish I could have spent more time with him and that I had applied more of his teaching to my life earlier. I do feel that he was able to transmit some of his awareness to me and for that I am very grateful. Now that he is gone I feel that it is important that his students keep the teachings and transmission going. Certainly world events now are similar to the crisis of the early 70's when a lot of confused young people wondered how to live in an insane world. I still haven't figured out how to do that, but the experience I did get has convinced me that there is a far more real world that we are a part of, that which Rose called the "Absolute." The Guy Who Saved My Life by Jake Jaqua I first met Rose at Kent State in 1975. I was irritated by the "You Are A Robot" posters around campus, and my girlfriend Beth and I went to hear Augie Turak talk, and then went to some Pyramid Zen meetings. I saw the end of bucolic college coming, with the prospect of a mundane life in front of me with no fulfilling meaning, and was becoming deeply depressed. Rose attended one of the Kent Pyramid Zen meetings and went to the ashram afterward, and after about an hour of listening to him, a light went off in my head, and I knew to myself "This guy is going to save my life!" I joined the group and shortly moved to the farm ashram for about 7-8 years. In retrospect now, I see the farm ashram was almost a magical place—a temporary oasis in a world dedicated to completely opposite principles. Rose did "save my life," and gave me some meaning worth living for, and probably at least half of the things I value in life I learned from him. Although as the years went by my philosophy changed somewhat, and I came to see that Rose was also just a man doing the best he could against big odds—the fact remains, He's the guy that "saved my life." Chance Encounter by Tony Kalar In the early 1980s, I was living in North Dakota of all places, and began to notice that a lot of interesting-sounding things were going on in Boulder, Colorado. Shambala Books for one, Naropa for another, and so on. Being the father of three small, wonderful, and very energetic children, I decided to catch a flight to Boulder alone, for a small vacation. Boulder was a pleasant and progressive town, but not as interesting as it seemed it might be from a distance. When I got to Naropa, for example, I walked up the impressive front steps and into the lobby, and the place was completely empty. I tried all the rooms, nobody was home. While I appreciated the Zen humor, I was mildly disappointed. So I began to wander around town to discover what I was doing there. One early evening I wandered into a small but pleasant bookstore near the college campus. I believe it was called Brillig Works. I didn't find anything to read, but noticed a sign saying that someone was giving a talk upstairs. Indeed there was, but I had been nearly bored to tears by gurus any number of times, so I paused halfway up the stairs. I couldn't quite understand what was being said, but the voice sounded animated and something about it decided me to finish the climb. I went through the door and there stood Rose in a suit, discoursing amidst a room of 15 or 20 mostly hippyish types draped across fashionably semi-decrepit furniture. My sort of crowd, so I sprawled out on an open sofa. I don't recall much about what Rose said that evening, mostly I recall a long, half-humorous, half-scary story about a troublesome Krishna outfit that was not too far from the farm. A guru from farm country was a new one on me, and Rose seemed quite the raconteur. Whatever the rest was about, it revealed solidity, insight, practicality and humanity. I enjoyed it and afterwards walked past Rose and offered my hand. Now that evening I was wearing a funky Cat hat and had been slouching on the couch with my eyes closed for the last 20 minutes. So when Rose extended his hand in return, and I said "MOST interesting talk," he got a big grin on his face. The eyes twinkled and he said "You should come down to the farm sometime." Sometime after I returned home I believe I mail-ordered The Albigen Papers first. Well gosh. I was raised Catholic, but left the church when I was 19 and a college science major. In Albigen I first encountered some facts about the church that helped me understand better what I'd found troubling about it. And what had happened to western spirituality. In those early college years I began reading outside of conventional European religiosity into Alan Watts, Ouspensky, Evelyn Underhill, and the like—mostly Western stuff from the early part of the century that was being republished as a result of the Beats, the 60s and psychedelics. Disenchanted with science studies, my "spiritual" reading and some scattered psychotropic experimentation had led to a number of increasingly intense experiences in late-60s, early-70s period. In the aftermath, I began fifteen years of study of everything I could lay hands on. At that time in America, apart from seekers, artists and a few popular writers like Watts, there was almost no native work to turn to for stable, non-trendy, practically-grounded help understanding "The Way." My chance Boulder encounter with Rose was near the end of my studies of what had been written in the past. In Rose's writings I found the voice of a modern and American and empirical man who'd not only walked the old road before me, but had studied and analyzed and carefully put his experiences and thought into words. Readable words that were lucid and practical, without mystifying or seeking to maintain some ancient tradition or ego. Words that help you to keep your paws out of the coconuts. Words that seldom strain to go beyond what words can say. Valuable words that will remain valuable. In the years since, I've found and lost many books. But Rose, some of Jung, and Ouspensky have always remained on my shelves. As years go by, one can turn to such books over and over, both to gauge one's progress and gain new insights. Last Hours of Richard Rose by Bart Marshall I met Richard Rose in 1990. I was in my forties—wife, kids, mortgage, angst. I’d been looking into esoteric matters for some twenty years by then and had a fair overview of the spiritual marketplace. None of it prepared me for Rose.... ~ Bart has written a moving account of the final days and hours. Read Last Hours of Richard Rose in a .pdf file. Encouraged Me to Think by Shane Murphy I didn't know whether to write an appreciation of Mr. Rose since I never met him and was only peripherally involved in TAT, living on the other side of the Atlantic. I do think, however, that Mr. Rose had a big impact on me, mainly because he was the first "spiritual teacher" to actually encourage me to THINK. After years in a blind and silly Zen organisation in which thinking was a kind of sin, it was incredibly refreshing to find someone who not only did not disapprove of thinking but actually stated that it was vital for self knowledge. It was liberating. His books, although sometimes heavy, were a joy to me when I read them first. I loved the fact that he brought out issues I had always suspected were important and gave them attention, no matter how wacky others might think them. He wasn't afraid to go off beam. I also thought he had a fabulously dry sense of humour—I still think his writings are wickedly funny in parts, as sharp as a scalpel. Most importantly, I do think the man was genuinely enlightened and there are not many I truly believe in this. I think his desire to help others was as free of self benefit as I've seen anywhere and in this field. In fact to my mind he's probably, along with Krishnamurti and Douglas Harding, the all round most important guide for truth seekers in the West in the last 100 years. The TAT organisation, a unique and genuine bunch of people, is a lasting testament to him. I'd like to extend my sympathies to Cecy, Mr. Rose's family and everyone in TAT who knew him. ~ Shane lives in County Cork, Ireland Quotes and Notes, by Shawn Nevins Meetings with Richard Rose, 1991-1996 3/2 - 3/4/91 - Trip to see Mr. Rose at the farm in WV. Informal rapport session (I know that he knows). [This was the trip that was recorded in the "Mister Rose" video —Ed.] 6/24/91 - Went to the Farm this past weekend. The message was between-ness. There is nothing that one can do. One can only watch and let things happen. Mr. Rose said my problem was I was still looking for a logical solution. There is none. He said, however, "You can also feel. Maybe you'll use both. I don't know." I don't know what that last sentence means. He said he advises no regular practices—no system. Each of us should know what he needs to work on. He said no to vegetarianism and the ascetic diet. Eat what is available and appropriate. "In a true rapport, you will know what the others are thinking." "Put a thought in your head, hold it there, then forget it." He said something about how you reach a point where you don't know what else to do, but you have to keep on looking. 7/8/91 - Went to the TAT meeting. A bunch of us were sitting at a round table in the side room discussing dreams. I was feeling good that some philosophical discussion was finally started. Mr. Rose looked in and said, "Ah, the warriors gathered in the cave." Mr. Rose told me that everyone has a different obstacle and unless they opened up to him, he couldn't help. Guys spent years on the farm and he never knew why they were there. He also said I had to find a place where I could think and I had to make a decision. He said I must have a plan for whatever action I take. 9/2/91 - Ten of us from Raleigh went to the TAT meeting. Mr. Rose said an autistic child is one who is honest. 12/2/91 - Spent Wednesday through Sunday at the Farm. Mr. Rose said we had to get a different point of view. It was not possible to view the earth while standing on it. He also told us to avoid those things which hypnotized us. He said none of us had read enough; sometimes things come to you when you read. 1/1/92 - Rose said you must get angry. He also said you must find what will settle your system. Each of us has something which is bugging us. 1/3/92 - Rose said we weren't asking the right questions. He said none of us had a blueprint for our fight. We were still concerned with what we might miss if we chose a spiritual path. We had no conception of what was at stake and what there was to gain from seeking. In regards to rapport, Rose said rapport can be built. We should only let one person in at a time. That way, after a couple of sittings, we'll know if he is an energy drain. Lack of revelations is a sign you are not on the path, but revelations are not a sign you are on the path. Rose said that because a person is low energy does not mean they are an energy drain. They may just have a slow metabolism. He said that in his experience, "I knew that I was home." In rapport, we can get a hint of this. 3/3/92 - Rose, "You don't fight battles by worrying about what you may lose." "You'll never know if what you're doing is right. You can only back away from untruth." Mr. Rose said that if we keep at this work long enough, we will become free. He also said that words can't record what we get from these meetings. There is also a feeling or a state of mind which results. 6/7/92 - Mr. Rose came by the lodge yesterday and talked to Bill, Georg, Danny, and me. He said we shouldn't work more than a half a day because this would stimulate the appetite and slow down thinking, and we should all learn hypnosis because it is a way to understand the mind. He said he would be available for advice, but other than that would let us do our own thing. 6/13/92 - Mr. Rose said we are looking for mechanisms to get what we want. We aren't moving. The secret is to apply an intense amount of energy to a question, then forget about it. One must be focused. 6/18/92 - Mr. Rose said when you have to work with your mind, you're losing bits of energy. His mind works by taking impressions of a person, then thinking over them. 6/26/92 - Mr. Rose said: You must have an iron will. You can't get to know him in order to facilitate rapport. You must know yourself thereby increasing your stature. People of similar stature have a natural rapport. You must dope out for yourself ways and means of speeding the process of obtaining spiritual knowledge. Going off by yourself and reading is very important. 6/27/92 - Mr. Rose said that thinking of nothing is slowly pulling away from all thoughts until none are left. This is not the same as his experience. He said Zen is a technique of harassing the mind, but one should harass their own mind. 6/30/92 - Rose said you just have to keep at it. A steady pressure is better than one muscular push. 7/13/92 - Rose said [the group] must be a group of independent seekers. No man should let another order him around. You must take inventory (mental) at least once a year; maybe every three months. He said we were at a threshold where we had to be able to focus in on something. When we start really focusing in, we'll start asking the right questions. 7/16/92 - Rose said you pretty soon realize you're a machine, then you want to know where the programming is coming from. You'll get enlightened before you find this out. 8/2/92 - Rose said that in the past, if a guy wanted some answers, he would go out into the desert and fast until he got them. 1/5/93 - Rose said several times that whenever you set your mind to something, forces will arise to stop you. I asked about the energy I sometimes feel in meditation. He said you should look at it as a gift and not pursue it. It comes after a successful struggle. 4/1/93 - A profound lecture by Mr. Rose at Chapel Hill tonight. The key to magic is to remove the ego from what you do. Take the attitude of "let's see what might happen" rather than "let's make this happen." Mr. Rose says don't brag about what you do. Be grateful that it happened. He implied that you bump into things; you don't make things happen. Mr. Rose said that in the old days, a master would send the pupil to the mountaintop and tell him to stay until he found the answer. 8/1/93 - Mr. Rose said not to seek out pressure. If you are seeking, then pressure will come to you. He said he listens to the tone of a person's voice and not what they are saying. He said our job was to ask questions. Our group deteriorates into a clubhouse and we don't ask enough questions. He said we must perfect ourselves, choose a direction, and become a vector in that direction. 8/11/93 - Asked Mr. Rose if I would ever feel I was doing everything I should. He said no, and that that had been the curse of his life. 9/13/93 - Talked with Mr. Rose today. He said that a discipline will pay off after time whether it be reading cards or being celibate. He downplayed the idea of a teacher and had no comment on transmission. He very grudgingly said it's worthwhile sitting for rapport, but said it just happens. He seemed to agree that asking him questions was how to use his friendship, and that being friends is most important. 9/14/93 - Talked with Mr. Rose for four hours. He said after a year of celibacy you have the power. Just don't let your ego get involved. If you want to try healing, take a what-the-heck attitude and just give it a try. He said women could not give energy to men and so couldn't use their own energy in healing. He said you shouldn't touch people. He said that you have a vector built up, and if you relax then a lot of things will take care of themselves. He said he always just took the first job he could find. He said don't procrastinate making decisions or else they'll become bigger and bigger worries. I asked why he opened the Farm up to people and he said so that one could have a place to be alone and think. He said the guys even needed to get away from each other because there was a tendency to sit around and bullshit. 10/6/93 - Talked about three hours with Mr. Rose. He said I should set a goal such as stop smoking and go for it. That way you set greater and greater goals and gain more control over oneself. He said "service and selflessness" is not a thing to strive for; that these traits would come to you if you were on the path. He said he knew I would get complacent out here [on the Farm]; that I was living an idyllic life. He said I must keep my mind stimulated; books were one way. 10/15/93 - Rose keeps saying that a sign of progress is that you will gain power to cause things to happen—like healing. He said don't go out and look for people to heal. When the opportunity presents itself, use it without fear of failure. Rose said reason and logic will not take one to the Absolute. 10/17/93 - Rose said the women in the group were more spiritual than the men because they could "pick up on it." He said a woman could have a soul if she wanted to look for it. 10/21/93 - Rose said you can see the ego working. He said you must have faith in yourself, but also not let the ego get in the way. 10/24/93 - Mr. Rose said he had failed to inspire people. He again pointed out how few people ask him questions. He wants to operate by question and answer; not by preaching. Said 9 out of 10 group people are unwilling to change their lifestyle. Said knowledge and power are interlinked. The most interesting [thing] he said was about the Farm section near the boundary of B and C sections. He said he gets a nostalgic feeling out there; that there is more of the spirit of the group out there than there is down at the house. He said he has a couple of "false faces"—joking and bitching. 10/29/93 - Rose said, "A person shouldn't get angry because that saps power. A person could break into my house and I would kill him, but not with anger." Be determined without anger. He said it's okay to work just enough to get by. Work is a trap. The country is ideal for a spiritual life. In the city, you'll always have somebody knocking on your door wanting to go get a beer. He said physical habits start with mental habits. When a person becomes celibate and gets his power, he should make up his mind to help others. I said I didn't have any more questions. He said, "Oh, yes you do, you just don't know them yet." 10/30/93 - Mr. Rose said daydreaming was a loss of energy. 11/25/93 - [regarding healing] Rose said you must care about the person and have confidence in, or indifference to, the results. If you get peace of mind then you're free because your habits are no longer needed and fall away. At the same time, it takes trauma for realizations to occur. 12/1/93 - Talked to Mr. Rose. I asked why I didn't pick up on things like others. He said he thought I was sensitive, but my sensitivity was in a locked box. He said I was reserved. He said that's fine, you can just be that way, and let others do the talking. I said "don't I have to change if I want what you have?" He said yes and that's what you work on in meditation. 12/15/93 - Rose talked of the path of solitude. Each person must find their own way; do what they feel they should. Go to him when you have questions. He also said never plan on expanding the group. Growth should be automatic. He emphasized how you should tell him what troubles you're having, how your experiments are working, because he might spot something you missed. Each person has a slightly different language. 1/11/94 - Alex and I went to see Rose. Lots of talk about why you have to "be single and expect to be for a long time." "You can't carry your girlfriend on your back to enlightenment." I worried about chasing that feeling I get from Three Books of the Absolute. "It's alright to chase it, just don't be disappointed if you don't find it." About depression: analyze it, it's sending you a message. Analysis will ease it. He said you get inclinations from your parents. Get away from these inclinations and you'll "start to see down the road and know you're digging for gold." I asked if I should be training so I could read five hours non-stop. He said no, when you need a break take a walk. When walking, your mind will think some more and get some oxygen to it. 1/23/94 - Rose said something is speaking to me when I have moments when I feel I could let go and die. He said analyze it. He said the pleasure of sitting in the woods was OK. I take it that any pleasure which becomes a habit is using you. He said a girlfriend or marriage was alright, but was a step towards the basement. He said exercise, but don't strain yourself. Rose said summon determination even by getting angry at yourself. Sooner or later, he said, you see life is a bunch of crap. 2/17/94 - I mentioned how a person once asked if they'd get enlightened if they went out to a cabin and said they'd stay until enlightened or dead. Rose told him yes. To this story, Rose told me, "Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it. The determination is to be admired, but the attitude is wrong. You're challenging whatever is up there. You're saying 'enlightenment or death,' but that may be not following the natural course. If you get help it will be because you ask for it, not because you demand it." Richard Rose farmhouse with meeting wing Farmhouse with meeting wing He said chief feature is chief weakness. 3/10/94 - Other things of interest which Rose said: "The more I talk, the less you listen." "You are alone." "Through consistent effort, you become." He said he plays a very minor role in one's becoming. That is your job. "You are the path; you are the way." 3/12/94 - Rose said you can't get straight answers from an enlightened person. 4/2/94 - Rose said he could transmit, but it would be his experience and not your own. 4/17/94 - Rose said he wanted to turn away from the meeting being a b.s. session and have a discussion. He said he didn't have much time left and wanted to have some people speak up and say what they wanted. He's looking for people interested in "the relationship between the mind and the eternal part that knows." He said people come to the Farm for three reasons: vacation, meditation, and spiritual insight. 4/29/94 - He said a person wouldn't get a realization in a rapport, but would know the other people better and might get an idea of a direction that their self would need to take. 5/1/94 - He said when the mind is stilled you can pick up on something. 5/8/94 - Rose said that even though it might only be a minute quantity of energy lost, don't let anyone touch you. 5/15/94 - Rose did say that a person should sit for rapport with themselves. This was different from meditation because the mind would eventually go blank in meditation and it'd turn into dreaming. 5/17/94 - Rose said that if you are determined, the group (rapport) can't hold you back; they may only provide a small push, but they can't stop you. He said the other day that you can hear rapport. Reading is our counter-programming. Rose said that you find a peace within you. 5/29/94 - Rose said that if a guy went into the desert and could focus, he might gain consciousness of life after death. He would be like a dead man talking to himself. 5/23/94 - Rose said there was a restlessness in the room as if people were trying to decide something; perhaps some are too carefree. It's like a battery, he said, there might not be enough people. He put the nix on further rapport sittings. 8/6/94 - Rose: I am not a Zen master. I know the Zen techniques, but I don't think they fit my personality. Don't go looking for people to help. That's ego. If someone standing in front of you needs help and you see that what you said helped them change, that's great. 8/31/94 - I asked Mr. Rose about [the poem] "The Dawn Breaks." "I like that," he said, "even if no one else does. Sometimes I get in a mood of reality." I asked about the Wilder play "Our Town," specifically the graveyard scene. "I think that's accurate," he said, "they're all sitting around real stiff in chairs. Silence, then someone brings something up which sparks a bit of association." 9/4/94 - "Make yourself a vector in one direction." "It's what you read that's important. Now, I don't mean books. I mean phenomenon and what your mental state is when they happen." Rose said, "I am absolutely convinced that those people who have consciousness after death spent the most time thinking about it while they were alive." 9/5/94 - Rose said you had to be sympathetic toward a person to get rapport with them. If you get too sympathetic, then you lose energy. 9/10/94 - Rose said, "All of you are distracted." He said analyzing thought processes was indeed part of exploring. 9/18/94 - Rose said [about X], "He never did develop his own philosophy. Some people are joiners. They want to be in a club or something." 10/2/94 - Rose said, "If you speak the truth, maybe truth will come to you. Don't amplify what you have done. Don't' try to please people by touching on their philosophy." Why people left the group: "Most people get sucked back into the mundane mind before any realizations happen to them." He said to avoid "bopping" around the country. "You should get a job around here and cement yourself in." To my question of him also knowing how to act and what to say: "The fact is, I often think I should have said this or emphasized that." "The closest that you get to god is that some changes occur within yourself and then you see the infinite possibilities." He also said, "some part of you knows who you are." He said a good place to begin is by writing down what you believe or what you think yourself capable of. He said it's good to read, sit alone, think, and write. "Intensity is what matters." 10/20/94 - Rose on hypnosis: what matters is that the subject senses that you mean them no harm; that you want to help them, then they are willing to cooperate. He said if he was in a happy-go-lucky mood, feeling good about himself, he could heal anybody who walked through the door. 10/22/94 - Rose on lectures: I always go in with the attitude of not wanting a person to have to go through what I did [in my years of searching]. 11/25/94 - Besides celibacy, how do I improve my chances of getting hunches? "Through applying enough energy to the problem." What does it mean to look between thoughts? "Things will come to you, which were not reached by thought." Could a man unravel his personality on his own or does he need others to point things out? "You can do it on your own." 12/21/94 - Rose said, "Take it two by two; don't plunge all in at once." You'll get confused if you plunge right in. 1/23/95 - Rose on lecturing: "make yourself common. Go in with your head empty. Go in as a seeker. If someone might help you by talking, listen to what they have to say." Rose said don't brag about saving three cents. 1/28/95 - Asked Rose, "What should I be doing in the next year, if I could do anything I wanted?" "Whatever you want to do." He said that between-ness and "making a commitment and putting it out of your mind" were different. He said he doesn't know how between-ness happens: "it's like grace." I asked if it were like no-mind in the Zen writings. "Possibly," he said, "You don't have any thoughts of yourself in your head." I asked if he had to make an effort to keep his ego out of it. He said, "Oh yes, I turn away when those thoughts come up." 1/29/95 - "Live your beliefs." "Your inner self knows [if this work agrees with you]." 2/8/95 - "A lot of people act like they want to be your friend, but they just want something from you. A real friend is rare." I asked, "What has to change for me to advance spiritually?" He said, "You don't have to change." I countered, "But there's things I want to change." "Of course," he said, "like with the guy calling you names. You'll find new ways of communicating and certain things won't matter." 2/19/95 - Told Rose I wanted to be able to sit with nothing like the guys in the desert did, but found I could only do so for a short time. He said, basically I wasn't fed up enough with the world. He said the guys in the desert already had some wisdom and wanted to get away from the world. He said there's hurdles I have to cross like a runner does. Those hurdles may be celibacy, drinking, etc. He said he never felt he had much ego, but was kind of shy. "Sooner or later you have to come out of that shell." In regards to healing: "you need to have compassion." 2/20/95 - Rose said to choose a book that grabs you and take it into isolation. If you have three or four books it will confuse you. 3/9/95 - Rose said, "You can't do this for yourself. You're doing it to impress on people that there is a higher way of life." 3/15/95 - He kept talking about healing. Finally, I asked what that had to do with spiritual realization. "Healing relates in no way to spiritual realization," he said. "What caused enlightenment is the agony within the man." "There's no formula or rules which can be written out in a book." "I need more agony," I said. He just laughed. "Going into the desert, having few or no people to talk to, not eating, you know, is a way." I asked if my attitude toward celibacy should be to stay celibate until I have a realization. "Well, that's the wrong attitude; don't challenge," he said. "Is saying that I want to know an answer, the wrong attitude?" I asked. "A drowning man should scream for help," was his reply. Tonight, Rose was watching "Married with Children" on tv. "I can't take much tv, but Bundy, he's pretty good." 3/31/95 - Rose said that different poems affect different people. He said poetry shows you that there is more than logical deduction. 5/12/95 - Regarding transmission: "if a person is spiritually hungry enough, that's what matters." He said going within was where it was at; that that was seeking self-definition. "Everybody's head has a different mud in it. You may go out to the Farm and get you head clear and you do. But then you start thinking that you don't need to read books or examine other people's religions, and so your head is muddied up with that." Rose said that if you shit yourself don't go out and tell the world, but be honest with yourself. Rose said you have to be cautious because some gurus can hypnotize. They may zap you and you feel completely changed, but after a week you're back to your old self. They'll have an explanation, though, which lays the blame on you. 7/9/95 - "People are taught from an early age that you have to 'take it.' I don't have to take anything. All I have to do is die." I told him how I get inspired and think I'm close to an answer, then boom! I fall. He said, "I know." "This is important. You have to accept what comes. You should say to yourself, verbally, what you want, but accept what comes." 7/18/95 - Someone called Mr. Rose weeping. Afterwards, Rose said the fellow was being attacked, but it was a spiritual attack. Rose said you just start crying, but you don't know why. He said it's a good thing because once you get through it you find you gained understanding. The attack opens your head. He said the thing to do is wait it out, knowing that it will end. Go off by yourself because others will think you're going crazy. 9/2/95 - Rose on celibacy, "those were the most beautiful years of my life." 11/13/95 - I asked if hypnosis could put one in a state where they would be open to a revelation. He said absolutely. He said to be aware as much as possible and that meant paying attention to what you were doing and why. 2/10/96 - Rose once said, "You guys, one by one, will forget there is a path. It won't be a momentous decision, but a slow forgetting." Flowers by Dan Niebauer Richard Rose in the San Gabriel Mountains, 1979 Richard Rose in the San Gabriel Mountains, 1979 Dan Niebauer and Richard Rose, 1985 Dan Niebauer and Richard Rose, 1985 I remember vividly a short walk that I took with Mr. Rose on one occasion around 1975. I had been feeling pretty miserable after my relationship with a certain young woman had ended - in no small part because I was torn between her charms and the potentials of the Path. We walked along, neither of us saying much, but we both were observing the variety and colors of the flowers that were in blossom at that time. Finally Mr. Rose said, simply: "It is not necessary to pluck the flowers in order to appreciate their beauty." He could not have said more with many more words, and it has stuck with me ever since. My deepest condolences to Cecy and the entire extended Rose family. Don't Light a Candle for Richard There is an experience, possible right now to know what Is. Richard was that experience and at the same time after he had it, he built a house for himself, milled his own wood to build it with, and when the time so dictated, would attempt to convey his experience. This is really not quite right, for It is never his/our experience, It simply experiences Itself. This experience was available to all who Richard touched, yet the "us" can never experience it. He confronted us by saying " A Mirror of A Mirror." Did Richard do it (create the experience)? No, he manipulated the mind to be able to receive It. Can you know It right now? The "you" can never know what Is, only what Is, Is. What have we lost? The Truth Is, simply put, and you are It, yet you cannot ever know It. It is not possible to find it, yet you are It and never were anything else. That you never existed is something you will find when you Know. That Richard was not, was something his experience showed him. For you do not find it, you can go so far and then you are taken. Sokei An calls this God coming into this world and taking what is His. What was lost? Everything, the Great Journey right in front of you, beckoning you to follow, and telling you how to find It. The perfection of That Which Is, and at the same time "the void and the darkness are part of the unknowing." When you find It, or maybe more correct, when It grows tired of the multiplicity of Itself, In Itself, As Itself, It Remembers Itself. In this way "All that Remains Is All." Don't light a candle for Richard. Light a candle for yourself. For He That Is still holds a candle there to pull you up. Read the "Three Books of The Absolute" until that time where you reach a peaceful pool of Knowing. In that Great Nothingness, All Is There. "Such is Satori." (The author wishes to remain anonymous. —Ed.) Master Storyteller by Paul Schmidt Mr. Rose was my teacher in the school of Life. In the modern age it is a real anomaly to have a Socrates or Plato teaching young people about the essential values, virtues and ideals. I was fortunate to find such a man. He taught me so many things that I had missed or probably would miss on the course I was stuck on. What being a real man means. What being like a child means. How deep the matrix goes. He was always pulling away curtains that I didn't even know existed. He showed me how to look at life and death in ways I never imagined before. One of his views of life was a struggle between tension and relief. And he offered a psychology of action which could make the most of this fact for the individual seeker. There are a couple of things I am especially grateful to Rose for. One was his very sound advice in the area of sex and his advocacy of celibacy for the individual seeker. By his own life's example he showed the way to gain self mastery and the power to affect or invite change. It was a state of being that opened my eyes a little and inadvertently brought a sublime happiness. And the other thing was his encouragement to spend time in isolation, or "stepping into silence" as he put it. Both of these things have left lasting impressions on me. Mr. Rose was the exceedingly rare individual in that he dared to question love and sex critically. He was able to bring out and confirm the latent sense in some of us that these things weren't what they were cut out to be, but somehow were unable to fit into a larger context. He never copped out to—"All you need is love." But I think he was one of the few people who knew what real love meant, in the highest non-emotional impersonal sense. And he was capable of real friendship. Alfred Pulyan said that everyone is capable of betraying their friends, except for the individual who is awake. I had the feeling that Rose would go all the way to help anyone. He was courteous, hospitable and generous to a fault with his time towards me and others who visited him. Around the time of 1995 to 1996, I was fortunate to spend a number of hours interviewing Mr. Rose for a biography I was intending to write. It was in the year before he started losing his memory and slipping into the illness which finally took him. I was always nervous before driving up to his house in Benwood. Mr. Rose and his lovely wife Cecy always made me welcome in their kitchen, and the hours of talk never seemed long. Mr. Rose probably knew I wouldn't finish my book, just as many others he'd known had been fired up and then fizzled out. But he gave me his full attention and commitment, answering all my questions on subjects he'd covered a thousand times before. And I remembered how, whenever making eye contact with him, it was a vivid focus, with the periphery just kind of whiting out. He always had the power of attention and commitment to whatever he was engaged in and it rubbed off on you—even a little went a long ways. And lastly I want to mention one other thing. I can easily say that I’ve never encountered a person who could make people laugh so hard—people of such disparate backgrounds and sense of humor (or lack thereof). Laugh that physical hurting kind of laugh. Rose was a master storyteller and many of the hilarious episodes from his life and search were inseparable from the lessons he was artfully conveying to those who were listening. Pass It On by Art Ticknor Richard Rose was my first contact with the Genuine. In fact he "rang my bell" the first time we met. It was as if a brass gong within me, whose existence I hadn't even been aware of, had been struck. The words that formed in my mind were: "This man is telling the Truth. I've never heard it before, but something in me recognizes it." bronze gongThat something was the sleeping inner man, which Mr. Rose had awakened. And an intense joy accompanied the awakening. A year or so later, as I was leaving for California, I told him I wished there were something I could do to repay him for all he'd done for me. "That's not the way it works," he replied. "Pass it on." Since then I've tried to make my life an expression of thankfulness for what he's done for me and many others. The search for Truth, for the recognition of our essential state of being, requires momentum for a possible long haul. After the initial enthusiasm wears off and we find ourselves in an apparent stalemate, how do we keep going? One of the other memorable comments he made that formed my life-action was: "If you can't inspire yourself, find someone else to inspire." He was strongly convinced of the value of a person's working with other seekers and helping those on the rung of the ladder below them. While the individual's efforts may be tinged with egotism, the chain of helping and being helped thus formed has a great impersonal beauty and can be instrumental in pushing the seeker beyond the bounds of limitation. Richard Rose— an angel, not a saint a messenger projected by the Self thru the viewer testifying to the fact that all answers lie within. An Appropriate Gesture My Tribute to Richard Rose by David Weimer When I met Richard Rose, I was surprised to meet myself in the form of an unfamiliar familiar old man. When I met Rose I was surprised to find that someone, anyone, had made their life a dedication to finding The Answer. I was chagrined at the time that I hadn't thought of it myself—taking my dreaming and thinking about life and turning it into a career, the only career that ever could matter. I have my dad's dying to thank for meeting Richard Rose. If he hadn't drowned in Lake Superior in 1985, I wouldn't have spent two years in Germany, living and breathing the unblinking questions, What is? What is? Why? Why? What? I wouldn't have gone to North Florida after leaving the Army where my family had moved to make a new start, leaving painful memories back in Michigan. If I hadn't attended Lake City Community College, I wouldn't have met my first wife in the last semester and wouldn't have followed her to Pittsburgh to attend Pitt, where I was a campus reporter in the spring of '92 covering the first meeting of the Zen Study Group that semester. Later that year, I interviewed Rose on the phone for a story about his coming lecture on Zen. I was in shock at the funeral of my father. I was eighteen. The guy lying there in the coffin wasn't Dad. When I stood before Rose's coffin twenty years later, I had the same sense of no one home anymore. Only this time, I found myself laughing. "Well you went and did it," I said. I addressed the body in the suit that vaguely resembled Richard Rose. At both funerals, I was saying goodbye to the same person. Another TAT member told me that Richard Rose influenced him at least as much as their own father had. I nodded. My dad taught me how to work. But there is no one else who impacted me more than Rose. He was the right person at the right time. If I'd met him earlier I would have thought he was an interesting nut, maybe. Maybe not. I automatically related to this man who was two generations ahead of me and who had marched his life, unexpectedly, to a tune that I somehow recognized. I heard bells when he spoke. He talked on a wavelength that I had thought only I was on. I didn't think anyone else pondered the unknowns of the universe like I did, staring at the starry winter sky countless times while growing up. Rose's life example inspired me. If he can do it, I can. I wish I had engaged in my own life quest for the Ultimate before meeting Rose. I hope that I would have come up with the notion if I'd never met him. I don't know. Rose said a person's yearning would result in their finding or running into a book or a teacher. I can't argue with that. I had wanted a personal guru to advise me on what to do with my life, step by step. Rose wasn't interested in the job. He just didn't reinforce me like I wanted and needed. I reluctantly let drop my hopes of such a relationship. By default, I became self reliant. Around this time, I was sitting at the kitchen table in Rose's house in McMechen. "What specific advice can you give to me?" He answered without missing a beat. "Be celibate." It's not what I asked. I wanted spiritual advice. I drove back to Pittsburgh. When I got home to our apartment, I sat in front of my desk and examined the unwanted souvenir that I'd brought back from West Virginia. I put it on the table with no great enthusiasm. Then I found myself thinking, I'll try it. Even though I don't think there's anything to it. At least I'll know for myself. Instead of an unwanted bauble, I had received a multifaceted gift. I discovered that when I began to cultivate purity in all things, as the author Santanelli said in his book on hypnosis, I stopped scaring little children. Living a clean life, I no longer did things to be ashamed of and was free. The experience of celibacy allowed me to focus my energy and attention on a single goal. I might be a goat, but I'm not only a goat. The second gift that I got from Rose was a frightening commitment. It gave me something to do with tension, and with my life. It was the career called My Search for the Meaning of Life. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I'd heard the echo of him saying that a person has to make a personal commitment to achieve any goal they have in mind. I'll probably never forget when I did it. Either commit to this thing or dump all the books in the trash and walk away from this stuff forever. This is what I said in my head with my feet on a bookshelf of philosophy and mystic books, leaning back on my chair in the corner of our apartment where I thought every night as my wife watched TV in our bedroom with the cats. I'd been a TAT member for a year and a member of the University of Pittsburgh Self Knowledge Symposium somewhat longer. I'd learned the shop talk and read the canon of required authors, including Rose, and was reading more each day. For some reason, it all came down to this solitary night in Oakland and a flash of knowing that I would be a hypocrite and worse if I spent another minute talking the talk without taking a first actual step. I think someone can spend years without being a real philosopher. When there's no life commitment, there's no life. People are what they do. I have discovered this myself as well as many other things that I first heard a West Virginian say on recorded university lecture tapes. Only one tribute is possible for this man who is now cold and gone. If I have to attempt an appropriate gesture, I can live. I have been informed by him and his life. And beyond that, I feel paradoxically that it wouldn't matter if a single other soul ever learned that he had existed. The fact that such a man once upon a time lived his solitary shooting star arc in this infinite seeming tapestry of time is all that matters and all that ever will. I hadn't planned on having to make an unbreakable commitment to myself to find the truth no matter what. The university group and TAT were fun and interesting. But in a single dark night I was faced with something ominous. Making a real, binding commitment. It felt like the stupidest thing in the world. Committing to finding the big answer. Who in the hell ever does? The alternative of being a hypocrite was, unfortunately, not an option. Between a rock and something worse, and to myself and to the All as my witness, I said, Here goes nothing. I was wrong. Additional Sources of Information About Richard Rose Selected Writings of Richard Rose on MysticMissal.org. Full text of After the Absolute on RichardRose.org. Richard Rose books and CDs on RosePublications.net. Philosopher's Dreams: A Man Who Changes Lives on SearchWithin.org. Greatest Teachers on Self-Discovery Portal. Books by Richard Rose on Spiritual Books Worth Reading. Richard Rose on SpiritualTeachers.org. Richard Rose biography on Wikipedia. Sign up for our e-mail alert that will let you know when new issues are published. Contact the Forum for questions, comments or submissions. Want to help? Your donation of $5 or more will support the continuation of the Forum and other services that the TAT Foundation provides. TAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization and qualifies to receive tax-deductible contributions. Or, download this .pdf TAT Forum flyer and post it at coffee shops, bookstores, and other meeting places in your town, to let others know about the Forum. Richard Rose & The Albigen System Several months ago while talking with Rich Hughes and Buck, I heard one or both of them say that they were done with finding new ideas to add on to their personal paradigms and were working on tearing everything down, throwing everything they could not prove as "truth" away to the curb. I recall then that I understood intellectually what they were saying, but it was not a technique or process that I was using at that time. In the last month several concepts have finally sunk in. These days I'm having trouble identifying anything at all that is "true." The more I read and learn the more I realize how much more there is to read and learn if I want to master the dreamworld. Fortunately, I am simultaneously owning the concept that my main objective is not about mastering the dreamworld but in transcending it all together, so I don't have to worry about reading and learning about all that. So my quest for the last month or so has been to seek out material that will help me throw out all of the rest of the material in my mind. If it is a system of BUILDING my paradigm, I don't want it. If it is a DECONSTRUCTIVE system, that is what I'm currently interested in. To that end, my reading and web-surfing has led me to an interesting character named Richard Rose. There's a lot written about this guy, although this is the first time that I've really taken notice of him. (I think I landed on a website referring to him sometime late last year, but it did not ping strong on my radar then.) I'm becoming quite familiar with the mainstream authors and teachers (Tolle, Hawkins, J. Krishnamurti, Richard Moss, Leonard Jacobsen, and the lighter crowd of Dyer/Katie/Williamson etc.) I'm starting to find my way to the anti-teachers. Along with Ramana Maharshi, Richard Rose seems to come with favorable recommendations and he's reasonably well published so it's cheap and easy to acquire his material. His first book is named after his method: The Albigen System. I found a page that gives you a good idea of what his approach is. Here is an excerpt from the site: [i]"The Albigen System is a unique path created several decades ago by teacher/author Richard Rose when he first began working with those who wished to find a retreat from error and a vector that would bring them to a full realization of Truth or Enlightenment. Based on his book, The Albigen Papers, along with personal notes and observations he held about the psychology of observation and action, he “prescribed” a ways and means of “Becoming” as he put it – so that one could identify their obstacles and chief feature in order to become the Truth. He would often refer to the phrase, “becoming as a little child,” to bring about the understanding that a person must rid themselves of their “barnacles and bugs” to even begin to develop an intuition and clarity which would eventually bring them to an understanding of their essential nature. The Albigen System aims directly at Self-Realization or Enlightenment. It is a practical, subtractive system. It is not jaded by political correctness, positive thinking, devotion, dogma or ritual. It is simply based on going beyond illusion, beginning with the self. His system of meditation is likewise simply based on going within and observing your thoughts, humiliations, errors and egos with a detached “massive indifference.” It does not seek for definitions of Truth but instead encourages the individual to develop a vector that leads away from untruth. He referred to this as the Maximum Reversal System. By uncovering and acknowledging the illusions, untruths and inconsistencies in our own lives we stand a chance of stumbling upon our true nature and our very Source."[/i] CLICK HERE to read more about this process. There's a ton of free resources to be had. Basically, this material is focused on you realizing there is no truth to be understood in this human form, it is to be experienced, and to experience it you need to realize that there is no self and there is no Self... there is absolutely nothing.  "Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet." - Ralph Waldo Emerson Richard Rose Richard Rose (1917 - 2005) This month's Missal pays homage to Richard Rose, one of the most profound and unusual spiritual teachers this country has ever produced. It was my great fortune to have known Mr. Rose personally and as a teacher. A native son from the hills of West Virginia, Mr. Rose underwent a cataclysmic spiritual experience at the age of thirty that left him with an intimate understanding of the secrets of life and death.  He is often referred to as a "Zen Master" by the people who knew him because of the depth of his wisdom and the spiritual system he conveyed to his students. But he did not expound traditional Zen, or any other traditional teachings. What he taught is unique because it sprang from his direct personal experience of the Truth. Richard Rose lived, spoke, and wrote without the pretense or arrogance so often found in spiritual and philosophic work. He never charged any money for his teaching, and never closed his door to any sincere seeker, or to anyone who was troubled and wanted to discover an avenue to peace and mental clarity. Since his first public lecture in Pittsburgh in 1973, Mr. Rose continually maintained a lifestyle unaffected by opportunities for wealth, fortune, and fame. He was a simple, humble man, who had the determination, inspiration, and dedication it takes to discover, possibly by accident, the total answer to the riddle of life. "The purpose is to find the Truth-- meaning self-definition, and the true relation of man to his fellow man, and a true understanding of our life's events." "My purpose is to outline a system which will prove itself as it goes along, and which will reward us at any point along the line by finding for us a more disciplined and skillful mind, and a mind that is more aware of itself." - Richard Rose- Richard Rose I first made contact with Mr. Rose through a newspaper article which contained his photograph. At first glance, something in me knew this man was on the level.  A handwritten response to my initial letter confirmed this. I read his books, and knew he had something to offer, but this was not on the level I found in meeting him face to face. I often felt that sitting next to him was akin to being close to a live nuclear weapon, one never knew if and when it would go off.  His inner power confirmed my initial reading of him through his writing and photograph; I knew he had found, or become, the Truth. I realized that if he had found it, and I could sense it, then it was possible for anyone with enough drive and intuition to find It also, including myself. This was his greatest gift, to be a living example of Man's potential. He also had an enormous capacity for friendship and compassion. He would tell stories for hours, bringing his audience to tears with laughter, and leaving them in wonder at the possibilities of our awareness. I never doubted him, and trusted him implicitly, though my ego was often left battered and quaking in its boots. Though the time I spent with him was relatively short, I never lost site of what I had picked up from his presence.( for more on my encounter with Mr. Rose, click here ). Richard Rose reached enlightenment at the age of 30 in 1947, after years of unrelenting search. He had promised that if he ever found anything, he would pass it on to future generations of fellow seekers, and he lived true to his word. He taught that the direct path to Truth is through retreating from untruth, rather than postulating a heaven, and then going about projecting this personal concept to others in the hope it would thus come true. He dedicated his life toward helping those who were seeking self-definition and recommended an approach that is "subjective, subtractive, immanent and designed for immediately changing and becoming." He called this method The Albigen System, a threefold approach for becoming the Truth: A way of living your life aimed at understanding that life. A life of brotherhood--helping and being helped by others with a common goal. A system not of learning but of becoming the Truth. This system aims at self-definition and considers all knowledge incomplete until the knower or experiencer is known or identified.  It does not attempt to prove itself by the vanity of logic but is inductive and answers to common sense and intuition.  It revolves around confrontation, both in friendly questioning that challenges each others' thinking to the point of retreating from error and in self-confrontational meditation.  The Albigen System is a method for stripping away the glossy veneer of life in the pursuit of the greater Reality that lies beneath its surface.  It is a system of spiritual seeking for those who are sincerely interested in becoming the Truth. "You learn sooner or later that you are not running the show and that if you relax, the show runs better. Things will happen if you just relax; many things are under control in many respects. You quit and things happen, you let the door open, you stop the obstruction, you eliminate the ego. The ego is one of the biggest obstructions to the achievement of anything." The TAT Foundation formed as a result of the life of Richard Rose. It was his dream to form an organization grounded in what he found so little of in his years of searching - sincerity.  TAT was founded on the belief that your investigation of life's mysteries is expedited by working with others who are exploring, perhaps down a different road, so that you may share your discoveries, exchange ideas, and "compare notes" in order to come to a better understanding of yourself and others. TAT is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization established in 1973 to provide a forum for philosophical and spiritual inquiry. Information on the life and teaching of Richard Rose can be found by visiting the TAT Foundations web site at : www.tatfoundation.org . " Truth is a path because it is never fully realized, and because many aspects of the search for Truth remain relative. Man is a being whose consciousness depends upon fickle senses and a mind largely capable of witnessing in a relative manner, and largely incapable of direct knowledge." - All quotes by Richard Rose - For the serious seeker who has read one or more of Rose's books, see The Key Passages , compiled by Shawn Nevins. - Related  Sites - Richard Rose: Zen Master - Poet - Philosopher - Friend. Richard RoseThis site contains "The Three Books of the Absolute" - Rose's epic poem on his realization; the full text of After the Absolute: The Inner Teachings of Richard Rose - a student's memoir of life with Rose; and an account of "The Last Hours of Richard Rose." http://www.richardrose.org/ The TAT Foundation: TAT is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization established in 1973 to TAT Foundation -Community Buildingprovide a forum for philosophical and spiritual inquiry. TAT was founded on the belief that your investigation of life's mysteries is expedited by working with others who are exploring, perhaps down a different road, so that you may share your discoveries, exchange ideas, and "compare notes" in order to come to a better understanding of yourself and others. Rose Publications: Richard Rose wrote seven books over a span of thirty years. Each deals Rose Publicationsdirectly with a specific aspect of spiritual seeking. Richard Rose's books are made available through the publishing and distribution services of Rose Publications. Rose Publications also publishes and distributes several other titles. These are generally out-of-print works that Richard Rose thought were valuable and wanted to make available in reasonably priced reprint editions. Those who venture into the mind and thought of Richard Rose via his books will come away from the effort changed in an undeniable way. http://www.richardroseteachings.com/products_books.html Richard Rose: "Richard Rose (March 14, 1917 - July 6, 2005) was an American mystic, esoteric philosopher, author, poet, and investigator of paranormal phenomena." From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rose_%28mystic%29The Albigen Papers - Richard Rose Richard Rose: "Without a doubt, Richard Rose was an enlightened man. He devoted his life to giving people the tools to find their Real Self." from Guide to Spiritual Teachers, http://www.spiritualteachers.org/richard_rose.htm Biographical Sketch of Richard Rose, from the Greatest Teachers Section of The Self Discovery Portal. "Richard Rose was born in Benwood, West Virginia, on March 14, 1917. He was the third of four boys in an Irish Catholic family and was born under circumstances that may have set his life's direction." by Art Ticknor. http://www.selfdiscoveryportal.com/gtBioSk.htm#RSR In Honor of Richard Rose, The TAT Forum Memorial Issue March 14, 1917 - July 6, 2005 Richard Rose And I had a friend . . . Whose dust with mine was not the bond, Whose love with mine was not the bond, Whose teaching with me was not the bond, Both of us had been to this same place, To the twilight in the narrow crevice, And because of this place, we are eternal.  ~ From "Friendship" by Richard Rose http://www.tatfoundation.org/forum2005-08.htm Richard Rose - age 24"I Will Take Leave of You" ( by Richard Rose, from his book Carillon) I will take leave of you Not by distinct farewell But vaguely As one entering vagueness For words, symbols of confusion Would only increase confusion But silence, seeming to be vagueness, Shall be my cadence, Which someday You will understand. Tricks and  Traps Trap: Judging our own projections. Half of our thought-pattern is unconscious, being projected by us before we are even aware of it. This projection is taken for granted as real, as what we usually call the 'world',  and then reacted to in a semi-conscious fashion. We are constantly tweaking our thoughts and feelings in reaction to our own unconscious creations, believing we are dealing with something we call 'reality'. It's a game we'd best become aware of, this living one step behind ourselves. Trick: Learning how to meditate, or truly observe. In reviewing our actions in hopes of practicing self-observation, we often look at memories of our body and its recent escapades. But this body is as much a mental fabrication as our judgment of it. To find worthwhile material for meditation, it's best to look instead at what thoughts and feelings motivated the body. These patterns of thought are clues as to how we build our personal universe, and then endow it with realness as well as universality. For more on this topic, read pages 21-23 in Richard Rose's Meditation Paper. * * * * * "We live in a cloud of illusions and rarely realize that we are spinning this web of fiction for all the hours and days of our lives, unless we are fortunate or unfortunate enough to die slowly. Perhaps slow death may be the only moments of reality for the total life of many earthlings. Because the dying person is forced to face the fact that he is about to become zero." - Richard Rose Direct Mind Experience Richard Rose Click Here for A Page of Prayers Commentary                                                            Mystic Missal  Monthly Missal meditation philosophy  zen religion "Every last one of us thinks we are right" - Richard Rose The Dividing Mind Our mind has an amazing ability to split itself. The effect of this on the seeker of self-knowledge is to lead him about in endless circles of egos, never getting a true look at himself.  "The world is divided into people who think they are right" also applies to the world inside our heads. The ego has to maintain this position of being right, or the center of the universe, in order to keep its position as the unquestioned 'I'. It accomplishes this by splitting into different roles. This is the Ego1-Ego 2 game, in which the main ego, or Ego 1, creates a scapegoat,  Ego 2, on which to place all negative aspects about itself. It cannot be wrong and maintain its absolute rule, so when the facts speak otherwise, Ego 2 becomes the culprit. The variations of this are legion. Thus, a ceaseless internal conflict is perpetuated and any attempt to go within is effectively blocked. And we wonder why the unexamined life is misery. This process is started long before memory, when the parents use this same escape mechanism on their children. The parent keeps its attention away from its own negative aspects by using the child as Ego 2.  The child is then taught the trick, growing up using this mind-splitting to remain 'right' regardless of the facts of its own behavior or thoughts. The voice of the parent will remain in them, goading them to create their own endless versions of Ego 2 as facets of their personality, to be planted eventually in children of their own. This process can be seen most clearly in extreme cases where either trauma or frustration reached such a level as to cause the mind to escape by creating another 'person' complete with its own world. In cases of trauma so intense as to be completely unacceptable, the mind may create a new, safe personality and forget the former one which was subject to the traumatic event. All conscious connection with the traumatic event is thus lost. In cases of frustration or extreme boredom, the mind may compensate by creating a grandiose paradigm in which to reside, where it lives in inner fantasy to escape the 'average' existence of the fact state. The ego cannot tolerate 'average'. "Always remember your unique, just like everyone else." In either case, the mind has succeeded in creating a refuge where it can remain 'right'. This is all simply a mechanism of nature to insure that the individuals of the species do not self-terminate prematurely. The sad part is our ignorance of it all, and our continuing identification with the mind's creations. We are not very good at observing ourselves, but most excellent at creating new 'selves' and their worlds. If we come to the point where no fantasy will do the trick, however grandiose or safe, and where we begin to see we are not 'right' or 'wrong' but simply ignorant, we may begin to yearn for something more than the ego can provide. The Inner Self is continually trying to draw our attention to how we fool ourselves, and relentlessly showing us how to get back in touch with the facts. This is an inner process to which we have a right and need, and with which we can reconnect. It lies beyond the ego-centric position, and comes about when we start to observe ourselves rather than create or visualize 'selves' we then identify with, in either a positive or negative manner. The adage "know thyself" now has new meaning. It does not say "if you don't like what's happening, but wish to stay identified with the manifest, create a new 'you' ". Learning to observe, or listen, takes courage and patience but leads to an amazing situation. You become everything when you are not anything. There are many techniques that can help us learn to listen. In the quiet of a mind at peace, the tools of dream interpretation, intense self-analysis, group confrontation, time alone in contemplation, and even life itself can teach the earnest seeker what he is not, and how to re-establish contact with the Inner Self.  Listen with attentiveness;  the Inner Self may be heard above and beyond the mind-splitting clamor and dis-ease of the ego and its creations. Bob Fergeson Lead me from dreaming to waking. Lead me from opacity to clarity. Lead me from the complicated to the simple. Lead me from the obscure to the obvious. Lead me from intention to attention. Lead me from what I'm told I am to what I see I am. Lead me from confrontation to wide openness. Lead me to the place I never left, Where there is peace, and peace, and peace. - The Upanishads - Quotes of the Month - " The highest form of spiritual work is the realization of the essence of man. You never learn the answer;  you can only become the answer. " If we become spiritual agents, then our meaning makes us spiritual beings. "Our immortality is dependent not on our ability to extend our personal illusion indefinitely but to transcend it. " Find out why you are doing things. When you do, your life will change. " Man must develop a system of work, and work with persevering dynamism. " Every last one of us thinks we are right. Which means that we think we have the Truth or that if we do not have it, no one else will do any better. But everyone has a different definition of it." - Richard Rose " All depends on self-practice...". - Hui-neng " Prayer is only another name for good, clean, direct thinking." - Mr. Gruffydd, from How Green Was My Valley " Let there be a silent understanding and no more. Away with all thinking and explaining." - Huang Po Comic Philosophy Richard Rose: West Virginia zen Click to rate this teacher! [Total: 8 Average: 4.4] You've already voted for this teacher richard roseWithout a doubt, Richard Rose was an enlightened man. He devoted his life to giving people the tools to find their Real Self. I studied his system for several years and even spent a couple of years on his rural retreat in West Virginia. At times, Rose literally exuded profundity. I imagine it was akin to what many felt when they sat with Ramana Maharshi. Only with Rose, I wasn’t blissed out. I felt like my mind was teetering on the edge of an abyss. Drawn to this abyss and scared to death of it, I was sure that in it lay the answer to who I really was. I never made the leap, though. Perhaps I would have in time, but Rose fell victim to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease and I eventually left. Richard Rose’s spiritual system is called the Albigen System and contains much practical advice for the spiritual seeker. He felt the spiritual search was the greatest undertaking of one’s life and so would take all the energy we had. One had to focus the broad spectrum of their life’s energy into a laser beam directed at finding the Truth. I think a hallmark of his system is the advice to back away from untruth rather than postulate truth and set out to prove it. In this way, one does not find what they want to find: they find what Is. He gave advice on first steps to take in the spiritual search, developing the intuition and reason, ways to meditate, and methods to conserve and direct one’s energy. He even delved into the mechanics of mental phenomena such as magic, hypnosis, and ESP. Richard Rose passed away on July 6,2005. I will do the best I can to pass on the hope and friendship he gave to me. Rose lives on in his books and tapes, in the people who knew him, and through the work of the TAT Foundation. If nothing else, you should read his poem “Three Books of the Absolute” that is in The Albigen Papers. He wrote it shortly after his enlightenment experience and it is a striking example of the beauty and power of spiritual poetry. I also recommend listening to a recorded lecture to get a feel for the man and his message. Books and other information about Richard Rose are available at the TAT Foundation website. A extensive documentary capturing Richard Rose’s lectures and interactions with students is available for rent or download. SearchWithin.org is a companion site to the TAT Foundation page has downloadable writings by Richard Rose, Bob Cergol,  Bart Marshall, Bob Fergeson, Amina Pundeer, Art Ticknor, Paul Constant, Tess Hughes, Shawn Nevins (that’s me!), and others in the spirit of Richard Rose’s teachings. Also available at searchwithin.org is John Kent’s dissertation: Richard Rose’s Psychology of the Observer: The Path to Reality Through the Self. An easy-to-read introduction to Richard Rose is found in After the Absolute, Dave Gold’s remarkable story of his time with this teacher. Related Posts Alfred Pulyan: The transmission of Zen I have little information on Alfred Pulyan of South Kent, Connecticut. While I suspect he… Richard Moss Long ago, I spent three hours listening to an audiotape of Richard Moss entitled Opening… AuthorShawn Posted onAugust 23, 2016 Categories5 Star 11 thoughts on “Richard Rose: West Virginia zen” SRRsays: March 9, 2017 at 6:29 am Hello, I read John Kent’s “Psychology of the observer”. At the end of it he interviews a few people. One of them, named Alan K, struck me the most, and I have kept the printout of it by my bedside. I read it often along with “I am that”. I have also placed an order for Bernadette Robert’s book. Since you seem to have known so many people from Richard Rose’s group, can you throw some light on the mysterious “Alan K” ? Will be grateful. Thanks. Reply Shawnsays: March 9, 2017 at 7:37 pm That is Alan Kahaney, but that is all I know about him. Reply SRRsays: August 10, 2017 at 3:33 pm Thanks. I am googling him. Not done yet. Reply SRRsays: August 10, 2017 at 3:40 pm Well, his name appears in full in the same thesis by John Kent, under Acknowledgements. Oh how could I have missed it ! He seems to have passed away on 25-Apr-2014 at 85. He also had visited Nisargadatta in Jan-1981 in Mumbai. Reply H Ksays: May 19, 2017 at 8:49 pm Hello, I would like to know which books of Richard Rose should be read or contain his ideas best. I saw some videos by Bart Marshall on youtube and this made me interested in Rose’s ideas. Thanks Reply HKsays: May 22, 2017 at 11:06 am Hey, I would like to get a suggestion for 1-2 books of Richard Rose which contain his ideas best. Thanks Reply Shawnsays: May 28, 2017 at 3:59 pm For an introduction, I recommend reading the second half of The Albigen Papers beginning with the chapter called “On Gurus and Unique Systems.” The first half of the book has a lot of social critique and sometimes people get turned off by that and never read the second half. Read the second half first, then read the first half. Psychology of the Observer is my second recommendation. It’s a short book that lays out Rose’s view of the landscape of the mind. Lastly, Dave Gold’s After the Absolute is a nice introduction to Rose’s work in a narrative form. Reply H Ksays: May 30, 2017 at 2:30 pm Thanks!!! Reply Carlos Plazasays: August 1, 2018 at 8:52 pm Hi, i would like to know: how can you be sure of who is enlightened and who is not? Are you enlightened? How can we trust you? Reply Shawnsays: August 10, 2018 at 5:44 am How can you be sure of the stance or true stance of anyone on any subject? Especially in this day and age where truth has become . Here, all we have is the written word. What you have is your logic and intuition. Employ both. Reply Leonardsays: September 5, 2020 at 7:57 am it does not matter. if an enlightened person writes a book and their name is wiped off… is it still not worth reading? Reply