THE OBSERVER’S NOOK that because hanging on my painting studio door was the following quote by

W.A. Murray (the fellow that climbed Volume One, Number Four Mt. Everest): September 1, 2006

“Until one is committed, there is “Know that while you are dying, that hesitancy, the chance to draw back, you have been dead for years.” always ineffectiveness. Concerning all -- Richard Rose acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of Sounds pretty dismal. But any seeker on which kills countless ideas and splendid a path of retreat from error knows this. plans: that the moment one definitely It’s no great secret. “We don’t get out of commits oneself, then providence moves this alive,” as a well-humored friend too. from the nursing home once told me. But not everyone gets out of “this” with “All sorts of things occur to help one awareness that they may have been that would never otherwise have “asleep” all their lives. occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s Richard Rose’s mission and commitment favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, to himself was to offer a ways and and meetings and material assistance, means for the sincere seeker to escape which no man could have dreamt would the illusion of life’s games. On the other have come his way. hand he advised not to wake the sleepers. Not everyone is convinced that “I have learned a deep respect for one of they have been dead for years. Goethe’s couplets: Whatever you can do, Regardless, he made himself available, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has day or night, to those who were troubled genius, power and magic in it.“ or questioning their purpose in being here. In his lectures he often referred the The blueprint is laid out for us to listener to Richard Bucke, who wrote in discover. The Albigen Papers is just one his book Cosmic Consciousness that source handbook for learning to read the there’s about a one in a million chance blueprint. There are many paths to Truth, of finding Enlightenment. However, as long as a person develops discernment Richard Rose continually encouraged and intuition to find the right one. It is people to “keep throwing mud at the our mission at Richard Rose Teachings ceiling.” Like Jim Carey said in “Dumb to provide you with a reference point – a and Dumber” – “So you’re telling me place to start as well as a place to finish. there’s a chance?” The contributors to the newsletter and the website continue to help make that Richard’s first advice to me when I met possible. To them we are deeply him all those years ago in Providence, indebted. Rhode Island was that if a person wants an answer to the question “Who am I?” --Cecy Rose and Staff they need to, first and foremost, make a Richard Rose Teachings.com commitment. There’s a formula, he said. It was synchronistic that he should say “I TELL PEOPLE TO LEAD A MORAL LIFE. knelt on the floor crying for some time. I URGE THEM TO THINK ABOUT THEIR But time was the farthest thing from my LIVES AND TO FIND THEIR OWN PATH TO mind. CONTENTMENT. EVERYONE HAS A SEPARATE NATURE AND A SEPARATE I wasn’t sure of the mechanics of the PATH…TO TRUTH. BE HONEST WITH experience, but I knew that Jane and YOURSELF. GET TO KNOW YOURSELF, Rose were linked in some way. His AND YOU WILL FIND THE RIGHT WAY TO words seemed to either help her out of LIVE.” the despair or drive her to more tears, –RICHARD ROSE, EXCERPT OF depending on the nature of his INTERVIEW FROM “ROCKY MOUNTAIN comments. He seemed to be along for NEWS,” DENVER, COLORADO 1983 the trip, but not able to control her every experience. After some time passed, Rose seemed to draw Jane out of the Pit by making favorable comments to her. A “PEARL” FROM THE ARCHIVES: When he would say, “you’re beautiful THE JANE S. STORY T J S. inside,” the crying would slow up or stop. Without favorable comments, she These notes were provided from a would seem to fall back into the Pit— written eye-witness account, circa 1972, explaining how hopeless and empty recorded by a former student of Richard everything was. Her face changed Rose. Initials have been used to protect dramatically again and she returned to the privacy of individuals mentioned the air-headed, energy-driven person I since this article is published via the knew. It was Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde Internet. before my eyes. Rose later said he coaxed her out because he didn’t feel she Jane S. went through an amazing could go any further. He turned his inner transformation during the “experience.” head away—shutting off the pictures she Her face changed physically into a was picking up on. He told her if she serious-looking, suffering person. What wanted to finish it off, she should come she was experiencing—her perspective, back and stay for a definite time period. had totally transformed her into a new person. She said, “I want to love you, I believe Rose said to Jane, right before Chuck (her husband), but you’re not the experience, “you’re inside my head.” there or not real.” She began to weep, Jane said, “I know, I’ve been there all tremble and fall apart before my eyes. I day.” Early in the day we were at Rose’s was amazed, but I never doubted that it farm walking around, J. (my wife) and was real—no one could act this way. I myself, Jane and Chuck, and Mr. Rose. was shocked to hear her husband say she Rose said he was able to get inside her was acting most of it out. I was head as we walked and talked. Also, convinced; I had studied books about before the experience, Rose was doing illusion (maya), states of mind, but now some hypnotic suggestions and he read I had witnessed a mind penetrating these the Three Books of the Absolute. I concepts in a very real way. remembered how alive all the words were. I seemed to drift into a state where We were all not there, not real to Jane, I was feeling or seemed to be and this made her, and me, very sad. She experiencing some of what he was energetic person who was able to pick saying. “Oh tender I-ness, what have I up on his head and this is what propelled done to thee.” He started to point at me the experience. masters call it as if he recognized my mental state. At transmission. that instant, Jane started to cry. All of the attention in the room, including mine, Jane had been into TM and EST before was shifted in her direction. we met up with Mr. Rose. She transformed during this experience. It I remember Rose had given Jane a post- changed her drastically so that she was hypnotic suggestion, something about trembling so much that she could barely sugar. I believe he said when she heard speak. Normally it was hard to shut her the word sugar she would crave up and she was highly egotistical. She something sweet. I remember she left the did all of her husband’s talking, too. I’m room and when she came back from the not certain if it was her fault or his kitchen, Rose said, “were you in the passive nature. sugar bowl – were you eating something sweet?” and she started to laugh as if she One night, months after her experience, was caught with her hand in the cookie she was doing some mescaline and I was jar. Then she started to cry. I believe taking notes and asking questions. I that’s when he said, “You’re inside my believe she started to go back into the head,” and she replied, “I’ve been there experience. She looked at Chuck again all day,” or something to that effect. and asked J. (my wife) to touch him. She said he has no feeling, that he is not real After the experience, I thought Jane or something close to those words. would become a totally spiritual person. Chuck was not upset at all and offered I visited her a few days or weeks later his hand to J. and I to prove he was real. and I was amazed. She was dressed in a J. refused, I didn’t. Jane seemed to get black mini-skirt on her way to a bar upset. maid’s job. Her make-up seemed excessive and she was in no mood to Shortly after that night Jane decided to discuss a spiritual direction with me. She divorce Chuck. Jane was a powerful said what she saw was death and that she personality. She did a million things at wanted to live. She didn’t want to get once. She was able to manipulate more into it anymore. I remember being upset than Chuck. J. was also under her spell with her because I felt her experience (energy or the Holy Spirit and voltage) was real and that it was important for her for some time when they moved into an to work with others and continue to apartment together. pursue her own final spiritual experience. Rose had said she had seen Even though I had meditated and sat only one part of the picture. The with people and searched for knowledge nothingness of life—illusion…but she and power during my years in yoga, I hadn’t seen that she was everything. was amazed by the energy that was present in the room the night Jane went In these days Rose was a powerful into her experience. It was true what the transmitter of thoughts. Jane, in my yogis had said…a person could opinion, was a highly sensitive and experience such an energy force without drugs. The room was electrified. I could quietly for 35 minutes could produce feel it. Rose later told me he could watch such wild results. it move around the room. He said it was working on my head when Jane entered None of the people that I sat with in the room and it hit her. It seemed to rapport were present during the Jane S. freeze my mind or lock it into a single incident so they could not fake or create vision. All the right place to find the true the events I have recounted during these self and get some answers. I was rapports. impressed with Rose. He was an older man in his 50’s, but he seemed to have During private meditation I would feel more energy than us youngsters. This energy, but never to the degree that I energy phenomena was not isolated to witnessed during the group rapports. The just the Jane S. experience. Following voltage seemed to help open doors for the formation of a group of people who people to see things about themselves or felt Rose could help them, I witnessed to help them change. It seemed to apply this energy again several times. In most pressure to them, they didn’t seem to cases, the voltage would transform enjoy it. It was not always enjoyable. whoever it descended on. I guess you Many people feel that anything that is could say they were all mild Jane S. not enjoyable cannot be good. But in types of transformations. These spiritual progress this seems to be totally experiences mostly happened when we false. Through self-discipline, sacrifice sat in small groups we called rapport and suffering, a person grows in stature sessions. The energy would build in the if he can bear the load. room and suddenly someone would receive a jolt. It caused tears, facial I often wondered how this energy was changes and new perspectives. Some manufactured. Some people seemed who experienced, namely A.F. and M.G. more sensitive to it. Others would say (from OH) and D.P. (from PA), told me they felt very little during a session. that they tried to fight it. I remember Rose says women have greater A.F. telling me how he felt the energy sensitivity so they would more often was trying to take something away (his than not, receive the voltage. This ego) and he fought it tooth and nail for prompted male and female rapport 20 minutes. A. He felt somewhat groups. Many people other than myself transformed—even though temporarily can attest to this phenomenon. I believe by these experiences. the number is close to 20 to 30 who have had minor breakthroughs as a direct To me, this proves that the energy was a result of Rose and his advised rapport universal principle and a teacher need sessions. not be present. Rose didn’t have a monopoly. He advised us on how to I admit this concept is nothing new. bring it about, and that it wasn’t really Quakers have used it. Christians talk of necessary for him to be there. the Holy Spirit moving people. But for many people who came into contact with I guess most street people would think I Rose, this energy was not just a concept, was crazy if I told them sitting in a room but an experience in life.

The energy phenomena happened to A meeting at my home developed into others in the company of Rose. J. was an intensive session. M.T. (from D.C.) sitting in Rose’s kitchen and felt an received the energy on this 1979 energy flowing between Rose and occasion. Rose was away from the group herself as it hit her in the heart area—she at this time. We had a meeting of all the started to cry. M.M. (from OH) was in group (Pyramid Zen) monitors. We sat the room at the time and put his head for a while and the energy began to across the table in the line of energy and build. When I saw the force that was on was jolted by the current. I was present M., I decided to point at him. Rose had for another similar experience. J., said when this was done at the proper myself, A.T. (from PA) and Rose were time, it would intensify the energy. I was talking about some historical events not sure if I was doing the right thing, when A. seemed to join a certain train of but my intuition was giving me the go thought that Rose was thinking. In my ahead. This session was intense. M. was opinion, he entered Rose’s mind. The trembling and seemed to get some words of a certain battle hymn came out insight from the session. Later, other of A.’s mouth and his eyes got big and participants confirmed my feeling and he started to get choked up. His felt that the pointing I had directed was transformation lasted a short time as J. appropriate. I was glad to see we could turned to him and said, A., what’s the produce something without Rose. matter? He slowly came back to earth. Someday he will be gone and I thought Later that day on the way to the farm I these types of experiences should help to asked him what he had seen. He said he keep a group together…or help to bring would never doubt that Rose was a in new people. genuine teacher. “He said Rose knows the answers, he really does. Most people Rose taught us on various levels at once. think he knows, but I know for sure.” I Questions were addressed to all believe he also said he felt that their subjects—anything from auto mechanics minds were one for a short time. to sex. Many of the early members were lacking the householder skills. I Rose, in evaluating his success as a remember how much I learned on a spiritual mentor, has been pretty hard on physical level, (and) learning to be a himself at the time of these writings. man which would help on a higher level.

March 10, 1985: No one has reached the Rose was a powerful communicator—he maximum answer “absolute truth”, but would talk directly, didn’t beat around many have received minor spiritual the bush. experiences as a result of their contact with Rose and the group. I wonder when My first encounter with Rose was at the compared to any congregation or University of Pittsburgh. A student at the religious group how well he would high school where I was teaching told stand. In my opinion, most people who me about him after he had attended his stayed with his system were affected in lecture. He said that he shook hands with the manner I have described. Rose after his talk and felt a tremendous jolt of energy. He thought I would like what he had to say. J., myself, Jane and Chuck decided to attend the following stressed direct transmission and his week. We headed for Pittsburgh to see student, Mary Farkas (1910 – 1992), how Rose compared to other outfits kept teaching his way after he died in the (T.M., EST, etc.) we had been internment camps in 1945. Pulyan had a investigating. We walked into an lady teacher. In 1930, Sokei-an opened apartment and Rose was sitting on a an American branch of Ryomokyo-kai in stool discussing . After New York City and incorporated it as listening for a few hours, I was The Buddhist Society of America. impressed. He talked directly and wasted Sokei-an described his way of teaching little time in making his points. I knew as “a direct transmission of Zen from from that moment, that he had soul to soul.” something that I wanted. Some self- knowledge that I was lacking. I bought “I AM SO SORRY I NEVER MET RICHARD his book that evening—that shows what ROSE. I HAVE SEARCHED FOR ABOUT 65 a good salesman he is, as I am not easily YEARS—YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN—AND sold. It made for interesting reading for MR. ROSE WAS THE ONLY MODERN DAY the next few weeks, but I was more ONE THAT WAS THE TRUTH” impressed with his discussions, so we –FRED C., AUGUST 2006 arranged to make a trip to Benwood to visit at his house. These weekend meetings became the highlight of my life. The more time I spent there, the more I wanted to return. He didn’t have as many irons in the fire then, and was able to devote much of his free time with us. We would spend many hours in discussions, trips to his farm, hypnosis techniques and rapport sessions. He would also read from the Three Books of the Absolute.

--F.M.

Editor’s note: To learn more about

Richard Rose’s views on the mechanics RICHARD ROSE AT AGE 57 UNDER THE SYCAMORE of transmission and the role it played in TREE AT THE FAMILY FARM his teaching, refer to Psychology of the

Observer and Energy Transmutation, Between-ness and Transmission. Briefly, “EMPLOY WHATEVER as brought to my attention by Andrew MacMaster, a contributor to this NECESSARY” newsletter, Sokei-an, who Rose met in BY ANDREW MCMASTER California, and Alfred Pulyan, with whom he corresponded after his I never had the opportunity to meet experience in 1947, were influential in Mister Rose, but I began to read his regards to the Zen connection. Sokei-an books, six months after he was gone. He cured me of . There are no organized that actually teach with my intuition, is his insistence that “ego death.” Of course, everyone is there was nothing to do, nothing to be, welcome to practice the way in which nothing to let go. We are all ALREADY they wish and most people DO NOT the Truth. It is our attachment to our WANT ego death. But to become the bodies, our belief in maya and karma, TRUTH, ego death is necessary. A our belief that our ego is us that prevents major section of Mister Rose’s manual us from becoming the embodiment of entitled MEDITATION is “Going the Truth. Within.” Mister Rose wrote, “Going within means to find Reality by finding Looking within, or Atma Vicara, is a the Real part of ourselves.” In the practice whereby the seeker pays Summary Notes, Going Within is the attention to the “I-thought,” I am sick, I fourth level. Mister Rose writes: am jealous, I am happy…..essentially the ego…. and follows it back to the source. “4. Going within. Employ whatever This is very much in synch with Mister necessary.” Rose’s instructions to retreat from the false by “thinking about thinking,” by As I seek to “go within,” and employ asking “why am I here, where am I whatever necessary, I read the teachings going, where do I go when I die,” etc. and the writings of people whom Mister Rose seemed to approve. I try to find If one still has difficulty with paying westerners, as that is where I was attention to the thoughts, Adams looking when I discovered Mister Rose. recommends the “I Am meditation,” A very effective method of Going within thinking “I “ on the inhalation and “Am” is Atma Vicara which can be translated on the exhalation. This is essentially as “self-inquiry” or “looking within.” repeating the name of “God” for taught this to his westerners, and is helpful for bringing students and his awakened student, the focus to Going Within. Adams says Robert Adams, recommended this ALL spiritual practices are for the ego, practice at Satsang, in his home near Los there is NO NEED for the Truth to Angeles, until his death in 1997. practice, but until we get to that point, Going Within helps bring about the Robert Adams appears to have had a necessary conditions for ego death. genuine “ego-death” experience at the age of 14 and seven years later he sought I recommend: “Meditation” by Mister out Sri Ramana Maharshi. He stayed Rose and “Silence of the Heart” by with Ramana Maharshi for three years Robert Adams. and traveled India for some years after that. He returned to the U.S. to sit The author of this article may be contacted at Satsang with a small group of followers, [email protected] near Los Angeles. He appears to have met all of Mister Rose’s criteria for a POETRY FOR CONTEMPLATION BY useful practice. It was never about HIM, JAMES CORNIE he made no money, he had no dogma, and really advocated no set practice Before I met Richard, I was befriended except finding the real Self through by another who I perceived to have a “looking within.” Even more in tune certain aura. He gave me a nudge that My universe is filled with molasses. lead me to explore Zen, eastern You enter my view. philosophy, Plotinus, esoteric You appear real Christianity and eventually Richard But on close examination I see a binary Rose. The first poem, “Lightman,” code reflects that source of inspiration and From eye to occipital brain. was written prior to meeting Richard Combine this precept with memory Rose. The second poem, “GAU Eight,” And I create you. is a contemplation about what I do for a You exist only in my mind. living as viewed from the vantage of the mid 80’s (a decade after meeting Rose). This absurd drama --- I still make a living feeding this same This universe of molasses --- beast and so “GAU Eight” is never far Those undulations and you from my mind. Have no meaning Unless there is awareness --- LIGHTMAN Something that views the play.

You tell me of wise things The history of man is a drama without Of matters beyond my ken plot Of truths most profound Played by a cast of fools And of the brotherhood of light. But a drama dedicated by a few To deconditioning, to removing filters But I ask --- To allowing awareness to be aware. Who are you? Are you too a Lightman? Struggling, stripping, sidestepping (for I sense your glow) The eye peering into the mind And your answer --- The mind trying to conceive God "What do you think?" And only grasping fog I reel backward And revealing the ignorance Into the agony of unknowing. Of the filtered being.

Are you or are you not? All the confidence born in vain Is your brotherhood with Plotinus Of this new season of my fourth decade A metaphor or a kinship of realization? Is gone with the revelation Was Eckhart, Gautama, Was the Of my abysmal ignorance. Nazarene? Years of study are as ashes Indeed, can such a condition exist? Distilled of essence And wasted with the wind. The heavens move. Must they have a mover? And yet --- something remains. An electron and positron meet The Absolute is With mutual destruction Though it eludes my efforts. And the creation of energetic photons. I cannot see God. Matter is a condensation of energy --- My mind is composed of crude stuff. Waves of probability undulating into A transmutation is required nothingness. An alchemy of the soul. To the desiccated valley. I am a fragment of you --Autumn is quiet and fluids retreat. Seeking to be what I am. The color of contemplation is brown. --Now it is winter. Cool breezes freshen the land GAU-EIGHT And set black distance to the stars.

...Our world has given to madness until madness is declared sane... III- Off shore is the San Andreas Fault I- Displacing twenty feet in a hundred The winter Sonoma surf rolls high years. Despite the gentle breeze. Behind me is the Coast Range-- A sea lion works the waves A mélange of tangled, faulted And with him, a cormorant. Solution-injected congelard The bird is avian indifferent Scraped as mud from the ocean floor But the sea lion and I have swum a As the Pacific Plate plunges beneath the distant sea continent, And walked some distance the Giving breath to the volcanoes of the mammal's trail. North.

We find rapport-- This land is being created I, standing on a jutting rock And destroyed each instant. He, bobbing in place Yes! Eyes afixed This is true As the Pacific continues the ancient For each star, planet rhythm. Each atom, electron Each instant of time. Perhaps it is his hunger ...That matter continues Or my urge. Is our most cherished illusion... We break the spell. I leave my perch. A small deer walks across my yard He dives for a fish. Jumps a fence and strolls toward a ravine. She pauses, looks my way, then bounds II- from view. My cottage overlooks the rain-mist shore. I yield gently to the narcosis of this IV- place. A friend’s problem had become my I have seen her many moods-- dilemma. --Sonoma Spring is sired by a tempest. I drove top-down through the Green The Pacific blows diamond spikes of Mountains pristine pain. In Vermont’s early-autumn glory --Summer blows hot over that ridge. To his factory. Here, the shore is a cool respite I received two visions-- My friend hiked with Boy Scouts The impeccable beauty of the And camped in a glade by a stream. Green Mountains My dreams were of splintered trees The maws of GAU-EIGHT. And mangled flesh.

GAU-EIGHT fires forty-two hundred Thirty millimeter bullets a minute-- V- Seventy a second. The deer returns, glances again my way A small part fails after twenty-five Then bounds from view. thousand rounds-- She reminds me that madness, like Six minutes of Hell. beauty Is a local phenomenon. With materials of my invention At low tide, I saw an anemone, My friend believes A sculpture in protoplasm GAU-EIGHT could fire seventy-five Clinging to a tide-exposed rock. thousand rounds It yielded beauty to my projecting eyes. From its six rotating barrels-- Yet, it is a by-passed form Eighteen minutes of Hell. Abandoned to a niche half-a-billion years ago. Behind a thick wall This too is madness, but of an other Windowed with laminated glass order. Stood GAU-EIGHT aiming at junked armored vehicle Resting on an esker POETRY FOR CONTEMPLATION BY Left behind by the retreated glacier. LEE WARFIELD

It was not a cannon's report, THIS SEED Rather, a roar-- Intense beyond imagination For without it I And felt in my every fiber. Am lost. It was as if some evil It is the stuff of life Was forcing entry That comes without cost. By resonating my body, Having it is all My every atom I need. To its beastly beat. Nothing else can compare. The esker became a maelstrom of steel Great is this seed Flying stones and twisted debris. Of life Dealt to me. "My God!" "Well", replied my friend, "Do you think the Russians DESTINY Are building ploughshares?" "No", I say to no one, Like a seed "They share our madness." bursting forth, Reaching up The following weekend to touch the light, Forever trying to meet Yet do not dare. the source of life That propels me VANITY through space and time To a destiny that awaits Vacuous are my ideals and is mine. As are many of my deeds Put forth merely to impress Others with my prowess LUST Rendering them meaningless

There is a fire. How can it be, ETERNITY Ever present and raging? Death, do I see thee How can I Rising up within Only And against me? Live to die, Gushing forth to Yet Overtake and consume, Not content to spare me. Have the desire Of Life afire, THE DRAGON Yet

Lies and deceit Hope to be Unleashed against me, One Such is the heat Living in Eternity, That dares to consume me. Yet

Lying in wait to For information on the St. Louis, MO Albigen Use and abuse me, Study Group write to: Andrew C. McMaster Such is the fate [email protected] 314 - 837- 6249 That wants to overtake me. For information on the Lexington, KY Albigen Lest I give in, Study Group write to: John Rose Unrelenting it pursues me, [email protected] Such is death and sin If you have comments, testimonials, articles or That threatens me. pieces of poetry that you would like to submit to the newsletter, please send it ATTN: Editor, [email protected] VAPOR

Very soon I shall go The Observer’s Nook Newsletter, © 2006, Rose And few will care, Publications and Richard Rose Teachings. Please address all inquiries to Neither to nor fro [email protected]. Into thin air, To the place I know