ALFRED PULYAN

S. KENT, LITCHFIELD COUNTY, CONNECTICUT

Alfred Robert Pulyan was a man of great spiritual prowess, an "American Zen Master" without the Zen nor the Buddhism, yet Enlightened in the Finality of the Absolute in the same tradition as in the spiritual Awakenings attributed to the ancient classical masters.

Pulyan is thought to have been born somewhere in the New York area having lived in New York City most of his life. Little of his early life is known, that is, growing up as a young boy to graduating from high school, although afterwards it is known he attended college and studied mathematics. In his later years he continued to stick with numbers becoming a public accountant, then an executive and office manager. Along the way he got married.

Sometime in the late 1950s when Pulyan was around age 62 or so he and his wife Madeline moved to a small rural community that was not much more than a crossroads of a town called South Kent in rural Litchfield County, Connecticut. There he bought some basically left-alone, albeit nearly jigsaw-puzzle picture perfect acreage where he and his wife and some friends settled in.

One of the friends joining him in the compound was his teacher, the person responsible for his transformation.[1] Prior to his Awakening he was an unknowing seeker along an unknown path, investigating any and all routes for a solution to his angst, real or imagined. One day in the process of those investigations, he was exploring what he had heard was a new or unique approach to psychotherapy when he came across a young woman that was somehow different from all other people he had ever met. In an intellectual joust on his part he confronted her with all his knowledge of science, philosophers and the like. Like a master swordsman or kung-fu master she blocked and parried each blow, leaving herself unscathed and himself defeated. Although she claimed no teacher or any lineage it was apparent, like Queen Chudala, her Attainment was deep and to reach the same level of Attainment he decided to dedicate any further seeking to be guided under her auspices --- a decision that ended in his own Fulfillment.

How do I know these things? Years ago, in my youth, I had started study-practice under a man who himself had Awakened to the Absolute under the grace and light of the venerated Indian holy man, the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Much to his chagrin, in my study-pactice, my Mentor noticed little or no headway over the years on my part. He decided my approach and temperment suited more of what Zen had to offer than what was found on the Indian side of things. In so saying, he arranged for me study under the noted Japanese Zen master Yasutani Hakuun Roshi. That too, did not reach the results he had hoped for. Knowing that as a young boy I had met with the American Franklin Merrell-Wolff high in the mountains of the Sierras with somewhat striking results, and, in that I would not quit bugging him, in a last ditch effort he decided for a middle ground, between his own approach and that of Zen. The results of that decision can be summed up rather quickly in the following paragraph from page two of ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT: The Path Unfolds:

In November of 1964, returning home after a two year stint in the military, I sought out my mentor once again with the intention of at least a semi-return to practice. What he saw he didn't like, saying the military brought out a beast in me, plus all I really wanted to do was use my college time to party and chase girls. He agreed that my unsuccessful foray under Yasutani should have ended somewhat differently and was unsure why it didn't. By spring of 1965 he had pretty much mellowed and so had I. Thinking I needed something in between Yasutani and his own teaching he arranged for me to go to Connecticut and visit a nearly invisible man of great spiritual prowess by the name of Alfred Pulyan. Just as spring was reaching its final count down I showed up at Pulyan's wooded rural compound and began a most unsual almost non-study study --- the visit growing through to well past the middle of summer because, I'm sure, of my mentor as well as Pulyan's own graciousness. He inturn introduced me to his teacher, a woman of extreme attainment who lived close by. Before I could return the following year Pulyan died. I never learned if my mentor knew him personally, however he was visibly set back on news of his death.[2]

As you can judge by my comments if you clicked through to the footnote that appears somewhat lower on the page, Pulyan in his egoless state was not much one to talk of himself or fill in the gaps personally. Most had to extrapolated from his actions or out of larger general conversations. He also wasn't one to have visitors, especially so, those who wished to study under him or stay any length of time. Somehow my mentor had some sort of pull and Pulyan never questioned his request nor me for being there. The second I stepped into the compound and we met it seemed as though I had been there a million years.

His compound as I have called it, was comprised of several acres, how many I am not sure because everywhere we walked seemed to be on his land. It was a combination of wooded and cleared area with several small barn-like structures scattered around and at least three houses, one that he and his wife lived in and the others that various people lived in including one for his teacher. They were sort of self-contained and pretty much kept to themselves going about a very basic daily non-routine routine. Making meals, things like that. There was no study-practice in the classical sense either. Most of what we did we just did. Sit under a tree during the day, along the edge of a close by lake, or on the porch after dinner and talk late into the evening while Pulyan enjoyed an after dinner cigar.

As mentioned, Pulyan had a background as a mathematician and was extremely interested in the fact that my Uncle knew Albert Einstein and that my uncle had actually introduced me to the scientist. One day in casual conversation I mentioned that as a young boy I was a witness to the fly-over of the huge object of unknown origin associated with the so-called "Battle of Los Angeles" or the UFO Over L.A.. The giant object, seen by literally thousands, was never identified and thought by many to have been of non-Earth origin. In that I was at the compound primarily for spiritual pursuits I made no emphasis on any possible origin of the object because the idea in such surroundings seemed flippant. Most people, as I did at the time, would think that a person in an Enlightened state such as Pulyan would have no interest in such things. However, my experience was that Pulyan had no bounds or limits as to the depth of his intellectual interests. Unknown to me at the time of the conversation, in 1960 Pulyan had written a published article titled "What Is It We Fear in Visitors from Space? That They Might Be Like Us?" A few days after my brief mention of the Battle of Los Angeles he handed me a copy of his article without comment. The following two paragraphs are excerpted from that article:

The only available evidence for "visitors from outer space" has come so far from highly imaginative individuals who wish either to achieve a little notoriety or to promulgate their particular religious theories and ethical concepts. We are told that some of these visitors come from planets of this solar system with the intention of preventing us from blowing up our earth and as a result, disorganizing the whole system. Their advice consists, as it must, of variations on the golden rule. It is doubtful if there are any other living beings in this system.

In the case of visitors from planets revolving about far distant suns, which seems the only possible place of origin, there seems no other reason for their coming than curiosity and scientific research, unless they have a genuine desire to share their attainments with others.

It was with the last sentence of the first paragraph and the whole of the second paragraph that Pulyan had his belief --- or at least that he threw his weight toward. However, as a mathematician he cautioned his belief with such theories as the Drake Equation and the results of how such theories would actually impact the chances for an extra-terrestrial visitor.

Pulyan had what I would call a mail order following. People that came to hear about him would write hoping for insight into what one could do to Awaken to the Absolute, and Pulyan would respond, asking for no more than a stamped self-addressed envelope. Pulyan presented through his teaching what he called Transmission, somewhat extrapolated from a working mixture of his own experience garnered mostly through his teacher, combined with (my conjecture) the weight behind the meaning of the four lines of the stanza attributed to the First Patriarch of C'han Buddhism, Bodhidharma (4-6 Cent. AD) that starts with A special transmission outside the scriptures. Implementing his personal version of transmission through the mail Pulyan is reported to have had a 70% success rate, more than ten times higher than the ancient Zen masters.[3]

The footnote not withstanding, it was largely because of the purported success rate of Pulyan's mail order efforts that in the age of computers that the idea of AWAKENING 101 came about.(see) However, where Pulyan reached only a few people through word-of-mouth the internet provides easy access to thousands. It worked well initially under Blackboard as there was a password sign-up for access to the material. When that platform was eventually discarded because of costs, before long the weight of it all overwhelmed the ability to keep up and others have since come on board to assist.

People constantly ask if my stay with Alfred Pulyan ended in a positive outcome. As stated above, initially I had not had much actual success along the path. My mentor sending me to Pulyan in 1965 and the events that followed in May of 1969 as outlined in Dark Luminosity are all part of the Dharmadhatu[4] as was my even earlier childhood experience with another American of great spiritual Attainment, Franklin Merrell-Wolff, and explored more indepth in The Tree.

Although it is extracted from its original context below, when asked, I usually refer them to the following paragraph that shows up on page two of the previously cited ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT: The Path Unfolds:

After an intermittent slow start as a teenager, followed by twelve years of serious practice, in the month of May of the year 1969, at age 31, because, for the lack of anything else to call it, a Collision of Infinities occurred and the bottom of eternity consciousness literally broke through, and thus therefore, the equivalent of Inka Shomei, the Seal of Approval, at the Fourth Level (ken-chu-shi), was graciously accorded me by the person from which I sought guidence; he himself, having experienced full realization under the grace and light of Sri Ramana Maharshi some thirty-nine years earlier, also at the age of 31.

For further insights in a similar theme, that is, did being in the presence of Pulyan or studying under him contribute toward Attainment in any way, I refer you to Fear in Enlightenment and Zen.

In that Pulyan sort of sprang on the scene from whole cloth basically out of nowhere (i.e., appearing post-Enlightenment following study practice under an unhearlded yet super highly-accomplished, albeit as well, even more mysteriously unknown teacher) and it has been difficult for biographers or researchers to accumulate much hard information from his younger years to his early background, it has been surmised by some in some circles that "Pulyan" may not have actually been his real surname. I have some suspicions that such might be the case --- although not based on anything more than a gut feeling rather than actual facts.

Because the groundwork for Buddhism was laid down along the foothills of the Himalayas and surrounding environs, then moved north across the mountains to China, the mountains continue to hold an esteemed place among the lore of Buddhism and Zen --- as well as holding mysterious and legendary significance with such references in the Sutras as Gyanganj, AKA Shangri-la, and Shambala and said to be a home for immortals in a deeply hidden valley in Tibet. Interestingly enough, for many climbers on their quest to the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest and one of the most challenging of mountains in the world, or simply those on a spiritual quest, there is a small village or hamlet by the name of Puiyan that sits at around 10,000 feet, or about one third of the way up, that many trekkers pause and use as a resting place or to acclimate prior to finishing their final ascent. I often wondered if in the process of seeking or gaining full Awakening that somewhere along the way in his quest along the path he may have had the confidence that he was at or near such a position himself in life, and in so saying, Anglicizing it a bit, just named himself. [5]

For an equally as interesting and equally as mysterious person along the same philosophical lines as Alfred Pulyan, albeit of English descent rather than American, for your reading pleasure please consider the little known and viritually anonymous Terence Gray (1895-1986), who went by the pseudonym Wei Wu Wei.

NOTE: If you have not read any of the attending Footnotes so linked, please do so by scrolling down to the bottom of the page. Of some importance is the footnote specifically on Pulyan's teacher.

Fundamentally, our experience as experienced is not different from the Zen master's. Where
we differ is that we place a fog, a particular kind of conceptual overlay onto that experience
and then make an emotional investment in that overlay, taking it to be "real" in and of itself.

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AWAKENED TEACHERS FORUM

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THIS SITE LISTED ON
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FOOTNOTE [1]:

PULYAN'S TEACHER:

As I look back it seems I spent nearly as much time in the company of Pulyan's teacher as I did with Pulyan. If one removes oneself from the environment --- say like flying back home and on the airplane soberly review passing events from a more distant perspective --- abiding in the Self as the two of them has a tendency to immerse and vaguely distort a person, and it is easy for an accepted neophyte, in an unaware sort of way, to be graciously absorbed in the milieu.

Several years following Pulyan's death found me in the general New England area. By then my uncle and I had been in contact again after many, many years of not seeing each other. Knowing I was traveling on a road trip around the east coast for several weeks he asked, if possible, that I visit an old friend of his, an artist he knew from his old Art Students League days. Me meeting artists was important to my uncle. In my youth he had taken me to meet an artist he worked together with on the WPA, Jackson Pollack. The reason being primarily because at the time Pollack was considered the greatest living artist in America.(see) Now my uncle was telling me the mother of the man I was to meet, although long since deceased, was, according to my uncle's estimation, the greatest woman artist America had ever seen. Her son, my uncle's friend, was George Laurence Nelson, an artist of no small repute in his own right. As it happened Nelson lived in South Kent.

During that visit, fully aware Pulyan had died some ten or twelve years earlier, on a whim, I made the decision see what became of the old compound and possibly cross paths with Pulyan's teacher. The compound was basically abandoned and none of the locals seemed to know of her whereabouts, where she had gone to or if she even existed. The artist who had been on the compound, of which I only knew his first name and of whom Nelson was not familar with, had as well, wandered off into the hinterlands --- leaving no trace.

Even though many summers had slipped by since I said my goodbyes at or near the middle of the summer, 1965, the closer I got --- and the more energy I directed toward going to the old Pulyan place --- the more and more a very strange feeling came over me. For whatever reason I was not totally able to overcome the feeling and actually access the property. Intstead, I went around and down to the spot by the lake Pulyan, his teacher, and I used to walk to and sit and talk. All the while the strange feeling stayed with me. It did not leave fully until I actually departed the area. I remember having nearly the exact same feeling many years before under similar circumstances during the late summer of 1960. That summer, on a day filled with destiny, found me waiting to catch a bus to Los Angeles, California, from a Greyhound bus station located in the then small border town of Nogales, Arizona. Three years later, after a series of events, including being in the Army and the aforementioned destiny, I was strangely driven to return to the bus station, of which the following I have written about that return:

"To tell the truth, even though it had been only three years since I had been there I was not able to fully experience a total recall of the place, only a vague rememberance. Walking across the border and to the bus station I knew I had been there and seen the place before, but even so, for me it was more like standing in front of Edward Hopper's painting Nighthawks. Something about it is familiar and maybe even hauntingly based on reality, yet, although you know you could fit in and might even belong, you are still somehow removed because you know it is a painting and cannot step into it."(source)

NIGHTHAWKS by Edward Hopper. Oil, 1942, 30X60 inches. Chicago Art Institute

Considering the circumstance of how they lived I suppose it is not totally out of character that no one in the vicinity of Pulyan's old compound knew anything about his teacher. It is odd however, that while I was there in 1965 no one at the compound, including Pulyan, seemed to know anything about her either. Other than maybe likening her Awakening experience to that of the female Zen adept Chiyono from time-to-time they were not talking --- nor did they divulge any information about her to others or even to each other, including me, under even the most innocent and casual of conversations. Nor too, was she talking. In so saying, even though she seemed to know my circumstances and by inference I have extrapolated that she knew I had study practiced under my mentor, anything else I may have learned or happened across, like with my mentor, I continue to respect her anonymity.

One day in passing I did overhear her say that she was friends with, or at least knew or was in contact with one Mary Farkas. Farkas was a Rinzai Zen Buddhist and longtime director of The First Zen Institute of America in New York City. Farkas, who had been fully ordained as a Rinzai priest in 1958, was either coming to or had visited the compound. I neither saw her or met her. I know Farkas did do some writing on and off over a period of time and for those who may be so interested, it is possible a serious researcher might be able to unearth or come across a tidbit or morsel of information about Pulyan's teacher. Farkas died in 1992. I never contacted her to see if she knew the whereabouts of or what happened to Pulyan's teacher.

If you have had the opportunity to go through my various online offerings you will find located in a variety of places that I have studied under, met and interacted with many highly respected teachers and members of the Enlightenment community --- including of course, my own mentor, as well as Sri Ramana Maharshi, Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Swami Ramdas, Yasutani Hakuun Roshi, Shunyata, Alfred Pulyan, and Wei Wu Wei. Most of it has not been of my own making but somehow came about on its own. For what reason or why I cannot say as I do not know. However, meeting the teacher of Pulyan was an extraordinary experience.

A few years before my mentor sent me to Pulyan's compound, while in the military, in the court of a Laotian warlord, I was requested to participate in, without many options to opt out or do otherwise, a ceremony that circled around the heavy use of opium. Dressed in local garb I layed on the floor on my side with a thin, three-foot long pipe, attended to by an ancient man that assisted me through the various paces. A couple of times afterwards, on my own and with others, I partcipated in a much less formal ritual called "chasing the dragon," but instead of a pipe, using a matchbox. That was ages ago. Those days, as well as any other such youthful indiscretions, are long gone and long over. The thing is, when the effects of the opium took over, it was like I had disappeared or no longer existed, having melded into the larger whole. Yet my eyes still took in, in a very high super-clear intensity, all of my surroundings. Where or what my eyes were connected to or how they were able to work or record my environment --- and for me to still know about it I don't know --- as there did not seem to be a back of my head or even a head.

Early on I can remember engulfed and removed from everything, but still looking down and seeing my toes barely sticking out of what seemed to be a wavering silver or mercury surface spreading out before me with a shimering reflection almost mirage-like with me somehow floating without weight or body. It was warm, embracing, enticing, and euphoric.

When I first met Pulyan's teacher that was the way it seemed to me. Warm, embracing, enticing, and euphoric --- with no back to my head and what there was of me, if there was a me, melded into the whole.

In the end, about both Pulyan and his teacher, I like what W. Somerset Maugham wrote at the end of his book The Razor's Edge about his centeral character Larry Darrell following his Awakening experience:

"He has no desire for fame. To become anything of a public figure would be deeply distasteful to him; and so it may be that he is satisfied to lead his chosen life and be no more than just himself. He is too modest to set himself up as an example to others; but it may be he thinks that a few uncertain souls, drawn to him like moths to a candle, will be brought in time to share his own glowing belief that ultimate satisfaction can only be found in the life of the spirit, and that by himself following with selflessness and renunciation the path of perfection he will serve as well as if he wrote books or addressed multitudes." (source)

FOOTNOTE [2]:

Showing up at the Pulyan compound I was only just out of the Army. Because my Mentor had put some emphasis on his opinion that the military had brought out a beast in me Pulyan was well aware of my recent discharge. He was also aware through my mentor of the fairly formidable fact that I had Flatlined for a somewhat long period of time under somewhat dire circumstances in a military hospital --- an event ending with, if not a total whisping away of the ego, at least no viable or measurable footprint of something representing or resembling the ego being there enabling it to search out, crab-like, and stop, or at the very least, hold in abeyance, any residual remains of a rapidly dissipating lifeforce.

Looking back it seems rather interesting that nothing said that touched on the subject ever led to any expanded discussion regarding the event, my service, or the military. There never was a hint of any past military experience related to himself either, even though having been born in 1896, he was at the exact right age to have served in the military during World War I (general conscription --- the draft --- was reinitiated in World War I with the Selective Service Act of 1917. All men from 21 to 30 years of age and later extended 18 to 45, inclusive, had to register. Pulyan was age 21 at the time). Equally interesting, considering the silence on the subject of the war, was his response one day when I mentioned that my father had thought the giant unknown object that I mention later on and that flew over our house one night was going down --- and was as large as a Zeppelin --- Pulyan, apparently visualizing the whole event in his mind's eye as I described it, turned to another man with us at the time, an artist that lived in one of the houses on the compound, and said --- not to me but to the artist --- and I quote, "It acted like a wounded Height Climber, hey?" The artist nodding in aggreement said, "Jousting with dragons."

I had heard that EXACT same phrase from my mentor years ago when I asked him about a scar that looked like a burn mark on his shoulder the size of a man's hand, but could never figure out what he meant. I asked the artist what HE meant and he took his hand cupping them together then swiftly expanding them out in a circular motion like an explosion. It dawned on me jousting with dragons meant attacking and bringing down the giant hydrogen filled airships.(source) I wasn't sure how either of the two men could know one thing or the other about wartime Zeppelins generally or Height Climbers specifically --- especially them blowing up, coming down, or crashing --- although both seemed to have more than a simple working knowledge of the crafts. Later on, when I was cleaning brushes for the artist one day I asked him if Pulyan had been in the War. He said he himself had been in WWII but thought Pulyan, like Ernest Hemingway during WWI, may have been an Ambulance Driver, albeit possibly for the French or British rather than the Americans --- having gone over prior to American involvment after dropping out of college. The artist, who had been on the compound a few years with him, did admit Pulyan had never been very forthcoming about related topics, hinting weakly to him at times that he may not have been a driver even, but a mechanic --- maybe even on airplanes. More than likely as time went on he progressed through a number of jobs. My only reason for even the remotest curiosity regarding Pulyan and the possiblity of his participation in the war at the time was my mentor. He was three years younger than Pulyan and flew for the British, crossing the border into Canada and joining up there by not admitting to his real age. Seeing his best friend die in front of his eyes during the war is what sent him on his quest for Enlightenment in the first place. His life is well chronicled in a book by W. Somerset Maugham titled The Razor's Edge. Although I cannot say for sure, IF Pulyan was in Europe for England or even the French during the war prior to any formal entry by the U.S., the possibility exists the two of them, that is Pulyan and my mentor, as Americans amongst a bunch of Europeans, in an Esprit de Corps sort of way, may have met somewhere along the way.

RICHARD ROSE:

In real life my suspicions tend to point in another direction. It is my belief that Pulyan's teacher was the actual person my mentor knew and it was through HER my mentor "knew" Pulyan. That is to say, I do not know for sure if he and Pulyan knew each other in the classical sense or if the two just "knew OF each other," say through a letter of introduction or word of mouth of a mutual friend. If Pulyan's teacher had been a student of my mentor or they just happened to travel in the same circles at one and the same time is not known. The interesting part is a connection between my mentor and a man by the name of Richard Rose. Richard Rose was a man of great spiritual Attainment that would eventually become one of Pulyan's most avid advocates.

Many years before that eventuality --- or I ever heard of Richard Rose --- while still in high school, I worked for a former merchant marine that had been badly burned when the ship he was on was torpedoed by German submarines. Some ten years following that torpedo strike, between my sophmore and junior years in high school, the merchant marine, due to long term complications from injuries incurred during the attack, his body just basically shut down and he died. A year later the man who would come to be my Mentor bought and moved into the house next to my grandmother's, who I was living with at the time. I truly missed the camaraderie, friendship and talks with the merchant marine. When my mentor came along, although what he and I discussed seemed on the opposite end of the spectrum, and because neither my father or a father figure was really around much in those days, my mentor filled a huge empty gap in my life. One day, for no real reason I can remember, my experience with Franklin Merrell-Wolff came up right on the heels of me rattling on about the merchant marine --- like I often did --- but this time how my merchant marine friend had survived being nearly burnt to death following a torpedo attack only to by found weeks later still alive mysteriously floating out in the middle of the open ocean strapped to a piece of debris.(see) It was like I had hit my mentor in the head with a hammer. He told me while traveling he met a man either in the Pacific Northwest or from the Pacific Northwest who was similar to Merrell-Wolff and that oddly enough the man's brother, a merchant marine, was killed when his ship was torpedoed by German submarines during World War II. The shock of his brother's death in war, that is his brother's selfless attitude compared to what he, either right or wrong, deemed to be his own rather shallow ego-based pursuits at the time, is what sent him on his spiritual quest --- basically the exact same thing that happened to MY mentor when he saw his own best friend die in front of his eyes at the hands of the Germans during World War I. (see)

As I viewed things from my then pretty much limited in scope teenage mind it was almost as if all the tapestry-like weaved-together incidents and events were some sort of a giant intertwined Omen --- or some other closely interrelated cosmic-imbued happenstance. Using Indra's Jeweled Net as an example my mentor related it more closely to what he called Dharmadhatu than an omen. He insisted on knowing all the information I could muster regarding my merchant marine friend. Over and over I told him what I could remember and in the process I remembered a yellowed old article my friend had given me recounting his survival that I had stuffed away between the pages of a book he had given me once. I gave the article to my mentor and that seemed to end it.

A year or so passed and one day out of the blue my mentor brought up what he was able to ascertain from the facts he found. He told me as far as he could tell my merchant marine friend and the brother of the man he met had been in the same convoy at the same time. Although it wasn't likely they were shipmates, the ships they were on went down under similar circumstances during the same U-boat attack.

My mentor gave me the above information near the end of, or just following the completion of my high school years. During or before that period of time the names of Rose or Pulyan was never mentioned that I recall. As for Rose himself, I am not even sure he ever heard of Pulyan until the early 1960s. I am sure I never heard of either of them until well after that. Matter of fact, it was only when my mentor sent me to the Pulyan compound in the spring of 1965 that I became aware that Pulyan even existed. As for me hearing about Rose, that itself did not happen until many, many years after my stay at the Pulyan compound. Even then I never met Rose personally nor am I totally familiar with his works per se. But, in all fairness not everyone supports him universally.(see)- I do know that he thought very highly of Pulyan and communicated with him on and off on a regular basis.

Not to play down or denigrate Rose in any way, but my primary emphasis here is not directed toward Rose himself or who he was --- or any level or quality of his Attainment or abilities --- BUT the coincidence of the torpedo attack surrounding my merchant marine friend and the death of Rose's brother in potentially the same attack, and how, in a manner similar to that of my mentor, Rose was then driven to go on his spiritual quest. In ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT: The Path Unfolds I present the following about my mentor:

"During World War I, at age sixteen, he (the Wanderling's mentor at the original source) joined the Canadian army, became a pilot, and fought in Europe. He was aware that many thousands of young men were dying on the ground beneath him, plummeted to death by artillery shells, gassed, and rotting to death in the trenches, but it wasn't until his own best friend died in front of his own eyes that he was shaken to his spine with remorse and repugnance. Driven by an unquenchable desire to find the accountability of life and not knowing what to look for, he embarked on a ten year journey that took him through Europe, China, Burma, and India in search of an answer."

The following, about Richard Rose, who died in 2005 and his brother James, who died at the hands of the Germans during that U-boat attack circa 1945, speaks for itself. It comes from a biographical sketch on Rose and presented here without comment:

"What probably ended the period of bliss was the death of his older brother James who was serving in the Merchant Marine on a vessel that was torpedoed by a German submarine. Rose had a strong bond with this older brother who was generous and fatalistic. He'd taken the most dangerous job on the ship, working in the boiler room on the night shift -- typical of his lifelong concern and sacrifice for others. His death shocked Rose to the core, seeing in comparison the gigantic egotism of his own spiritual quest."

FOOTNOTE [3]:

As stated above Pulyan claimed to have a 70% success rate, apparently via his his efforts through the mail. To my knowledge, other than myself, he had no study-practice individuals personally under his auspices, at least in any great numbers --- and for sure, none during the summer months I was there. It is also not known what the term success rate actually translates into. Pulyan was an honorable man. In that he was dealing with small numbers with specific individual inputs on a personal one-on-one basis the percentage of positive results may reflect a higher success rate than say with the ancient masters as listed below. However, because of the unusual nature of the outcome, I do recall one man by the name of Frank or Fred or some other "F" word or name who may have been a mailorder follower. He drove all the way up from Houston, Texas, one day to see Pulyan. Shortly after arrival the man got into a rather heated one-sided debate with Pulyan regarding Enlightenment and any merits thereof and out of nowhere, sort of mumbling under his breath, just stomped off not unlike Upaka the Ascetic following his encounter with the Buddha.

As for the present day and internet numbers of attemptees, there are no doubt countless numbers and successful results are, I am sure, quite low. I know of only one example of claimed Attainment through such an approach and that is listed in the Awakening Experience in the Modern Era as A Child of the Cyber-Sangha.

A second very strong example, albeit sort of hybrid in nature, which is typical, because the individual started out initially using various aspects of Awakening 101, which inturn led him to going to and doing study practice in an established Zen center. The results of his endeavors ended wherein, I have been so told, he attained a state of immortality. For more, please see the footnote in Enlightenment In Three Days. Over the years I have received numerous letters and emails from a variety of individuals telling me how much Awakening 101 contributed toward their Awakening, albeit, like the above, almost always hybrid in nature --- that is, most of them have been pursing Enlightenment in one fashion or the other most of their lives and in the process of that pursuit, after coming across Awakening 101, something just clicked. (see)

There are several classic records of Zen histories such as Ching Te Ch'uan Teng Lu (Record of the Transmission of the Lamp); Tsu T'ang Chi (Collection from the Halls of Ancestors); Wu Teng Hui Yan (Five Lamps Merged in the Source); and Ku Tsun Su Yu Lu (Records of Sayings of Ancient Venerable Adepts) that together compile information on well over 600 Zen masters. Among those masters cited, for example, are Kuei Shan (771-853) whose community numbered 1500 and produced 43 Enlightened disciples (2.8%). Hsueh Feng (822-908) 1500 community followers, 56 Enlightened disciples (3.7%). Fa Yen Wen I (885-958) never less than 1000 followers and 63 Enlightened disciples (6.3%). Yun Chu (d. 908) led a community of 1500 and produced 28 Enlightened disciples (1.8%). (source)

TRANSMISSION OF SPIRITUAL POWER:

Also, as stated in the above text, Pulyan's teaching unfolded via a method he refered to as Transmission. According VIGNANA (Final Reality) there are three ways of Transmission of Spiritual Power and they can be explained through example:

Suppose there is a sweet and ripe fruit at the top of a tree. To enjoy the taste of the fruit,

1. PIPILIKA MARG: An ant slowly comes to the trunk of a tree, slowly marches forward to the branch and enjoys the taste of the fruit. The way is known as Pipilika Marg (Ant-path).

2. MARKAT MARG: Jumping from one tree to another a monkey comes from a distance to the branch of the tree and directly starts tasting the fruit. This way is known as Markat Marg (Monkey-Path).

3. VIHANGAM MARG: A bird flying in the sky, directly pecks at the fruit with its beak and starts eating. This is known as Vihangam Marg (the Birds’-Path, the Birds' Sky-way).

   There is a Marge seldom mentioned as such, but considered the Fourth Way for the Transmission of Spiritual Power known as APARKA MARG (sannyasa-vidvat). Again, suppose there is a sweet and ripe fruit at the top of a tree.:

4. APARKA MARG: To enjoy the taste of the fruit the ripe fruit falls to the ground just at the exact time as an unsuspecting hungry-being is there. Aparka Marg is the way Realization falls upon the Self.

   
   

   Typically associated with the Buddha at Vulture Peak holding up the flower and the Venerable Mahakashyapa's Attainment thereof via a "Transmission" of sort. Enlightenment occured for Mahakashyapa through a sudden flash of insight and not through a gradual process of reasoning. Loosly stemming from that thesis, Zen master Huang Po (circa 770 - 850) taught what has come to be called Transmission of the Mind, that the nature of Mind cannot be transmitted by speech or by writing and is not a conceptual object which can be transmitted from person to person or from place to place --- but can only be transmitted by a sudden flash of intuitive insight if conceptual thinking is transcended.(see) It should be stated the transmission-event does not have to be triggered through the process of another person, only that the mind be ripe, a classical example being the bottom of the water pail breaking through with Chiyono, aka Mugai Nyodai.

   The Bhagavan Maharshi Sri Ramana would be a prime example as possibly would be the rare born mystic Shunyata and the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Hui-neng who, as a young boy collecting firewood, experienced Awakening basically out of nowhere. A modern day example would be Suzanne Segal. See When Infinities Collide. An example of transmission involving Sri Ramana no less and a young boy at the ashram is described in the following:

   
   

   "Within an hour of his face-to-face meeting with Sri Bhagavan, his mental barriers were reduced to nothingness."

   
   

   The whole reduction of mental barriers event was tripped-wired into existance from nothing more than a glance from Ramana:

   
   

   "A mere spark has ignited his spiritual fire. So, that casual look was a spark of tremendous power."

   
   

   In question-answer session regarding Transmission Sri Ramana responded:
   

   
   

   QUESTIONER: Swami Vivekananda says that a spiritual Guru can transfer spirituality substantially to the disciple.

   SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: Is there a substance to be transferred? Transfer means eradication of the sense of being the disciple. The master does it. Not that the man was something at one time and metamorphosed later into another.

   
   

   SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: THE LAST AMERICAN DARSHAN
   RECOUNTING A YOUNG BOY'S NEARLY INSTANT TRANSFORMATION INTO THE ABSOLUTE DURING HIS ONLY DARSHAN WITH THE MAHARSHI
   

   
   

   
   

VIGNANA:

Suppose we collect water from the ocean and bring it home. The ocean water will have a salt taste to it. When the same ocean water is converted by the sun's rays into vapor and then comes down as rain from the clouds, there is an amount of "sweetness" which is associated with the same water. The knowledge which we get by reading or listening to Sutras and Sastras compares with the water collected directly from the ocean. Vignana is comparable to the ocean water when it is converted into rain from the clouds -- that is, sweeter than the ocean water it originally came from. Vignana is the difference between the knowledge we get from just reading or listening to Sutras and Sastras and the knowledge that we get from actual experience.

FROM: the Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba during the Summer Course in Spirituality and Indian Culture
held for College Students at Brindavan, Whitefield, Bangalore District in May/June 1974
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust

FOOTNOTE [4]:

Dharmadhatu literally means "realm of dharmas," and refers to the collection of all dharmas. "Attaining Buddhahood" (Enlightenment, Awakening to the Absolute, etc.) --- as the Buddha had to do in resolving his Great Doubt --- means having transcended all and any limitations that are due to artificial concepts, subconscious activities, desires and feelings, will and attachment, time and space, etc., and having regained the original state of Dharmadhatu in harmonious oneness.

Dharmadhatu is neither limited by space nor by time. According to the correct view of Dharmadhatu all dharmas in the past, all dharmas at present and all dharmas in the future are all together in the Dharmadhatu. Ordinarily people can experience only a minute part of all dharmas at present, and therefore people sustain the view that dharmas in the past are gone and future is unpredictable. If one practices according to Buddhist teachings and thereby comes out of the bondage of the fixed view of a space-and-time framework, then it is possible to experience or witness dharmas in the past as well as dharmas in the future. (source)

The sentence this footnote is referenced to in the main text above, reads:

"People constantly ask if my stay with Alfred Pulyan ended in a positive outcome. As stated above, initially I had not had much actual success along the path. My mentor sending me to Pulyan in 1965 and the events that followed in May of 1969 as outlined in Dark Luminosity are all part of the Dharmadhatu."

The reason I had not had much success along the path initially was because of, in so may words, a nearly impenetrable, thick dark curtain that had been drawn across the access to any level successful achievement --- hence some of the reason for the DARK in Dark Luminosity. Over and over in my works you will find the following:

"Fundamentally, our experience as experienced is not different from the Zen master's. Where we differ is that we place a fog, a particular kind of conceptual overlay onto that experience and then make an emotional investment in that overlay, taking it to be "real" in and of itself."

As stated, most people have a "fog" that overlays access. For me, rather than simply the fog, the fog itself was blocked before I even got to it by a thick dark curtain. If you went to the link found at the bottom of Footnote [3], SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: The Last American Darshan, you will see how that curtain was pulled, blocking even my access to the fog let alone access to Attainment.

(please click)

FLATLINE:

Outside the world of things academic, religious, and philosophical, three clinical tests commonly determine brain death and, thus then, death:

• First, a standard electroencephalogram, or EEG, measures brain-wave activity. A flat EEG denotes nonfunction of the cerebral cortex - the outer shell of the cerebrum.

• Second, auditory evoked potentials such as clicks elicited by ear speakers measure brain-stem viability. Absence of these potentials indicates nonfunction of the brain stem.

• Third, documentation of no blood flow to the brain is a marker for a generalized absence of brain function.

In my case, except for the flatline of the EEG (Electroencephalogram) signals which was duly noted by a number of outside observers and medical attendants, for me, IF the less than gossamer-thin membrane between the still alive and the that which becomes the now-not-alive was actually crossed or breached, it is not known because no difference was remembered if detected.

In what would appear to be an almost diametric opposition to such a scenario, (that is, NOT breaching the gossamer-thin membrane between the still alive and that which is the not alive even though the EEG seemed to indicate otherwise) any previous or residual "fear of death" after being brought back or coming back as the case may be, seemingly dissipated along with the ego. Loss of both ego and fear it is surmised stemming from the experience in which "I" was in a totally unflawed flatlined state (or non-state) for close to thirty full minutes, and, except for maybe not being totally zipped up, put into a body bag even longer and stacked in a row along with other corpses.(source)

A onetime bottom-of-the-line GI everybody called "the Cat," who went on eventually to receive a bronze star, was a former or to-be 1st Air Cav medic on TDY doing routine corpse duty when he came across my partially unzipped body bag. In the process of closing the bag we BOTH somehow discovered I most likely no longer fell into the specifically dead catagory.

Months later he told me that sometimes shift workers, when they find that a person has died on their shift, will put the body in the shower and let hot or warm water run on them --- sometimes for hours --- then, just before they go off shift, put the body back where it belonged for the next shift to find and deal with. The only thing is, in my case, this time the GIs who did it were caught. Even though my body had dropped quite a bit less than normal temperature, if not "warm" (because of the hot running water of the shower), my body was still at least supple. In the fact that I had absolutely no vital signs that anybody could tell --- and it had been previously noted that I flatlined --- I was hastily stuffed into the body bag without further checking. Hours later the Cat came across me no longer DOA and helped me out of the bag.

If, as in the above I write:

"...any previous or residual "fear of death" after being brought back or coming back as the case may be, seemingly dissipated along with the ego --- loss of both ego and fear stemming, it is guessed, from the experience --- in which "I" was in a totally unflawed flatlined state (or non-state) for close to thirty full minutes..."

the question always arises about "a loss of or dissipated ego" as it relates to my experience of several years later in ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT: The Path Unfolds wherein I write "...the bottom of eternity consciousness literally broke through..." which refers to Awakening in the classical sense and what Sri C. R. Rajamani writes in The Last American Darshan about my even earlier experience under Sri Ramana Maharshi wherein he says, speaking of me, "Within an hour of his face-to-face meeting with Sri Bhagavan, his mental barriers were reduced to nothingness," HOW then, if Enlightened by Ramana, then the loss of the ego in the military, then why or how the need for Enlightenment under my mentor?

Albeit seemingly complicated on the surface, for a clarification, the following from the works of Peter Holleran titled The "Lost Years" of Ramana Maharshi, the following is offered:

In 1912, when he was thirty-two, he (the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi) went through a lesser-known Second Death Experience which seemed to mark his complete return to normal outward activity. He remarked numerous times that the current of the self he had realized at aged sixteen had never changed, but while this new experience may not have upstaged his previous realization it did serve to reintegrate him with his bodily vehicle and with life. This is how he described what happened. While walking back from Virupaksha Cave one day he was suddenly overcome with physical weakness. He lay down and the world disappeared as if a bright white curtain was drawn across his vision. His breathing and circulation stopped and his body turned a livid blue. For fifteen minutes he lay as if in a state of rigor mortis, although still aware of the Self within. The current of awareness that was his daily experience persisted even with the shutdown of all bodily systems. Then suddenly, he explained, he felt a rush from the Heart on the right to the left side of his chest and the re-establishment of life in the body. After this he was more at ease in everyday circumstances, and began to increasingly associate with those seekers who gathered around him.

Many of the exact same symptoms manifested themselves in my Flatline state. Especially by the time I was found in the body bag. Breathing and circulation stopped, body turned a livid blue, an awareness, although from a seemingly distance, that daily experience persisted even with the shutdown of all bodily systems. No rigor mortis (being found by the Cat before it set in), however, as the warm water from the shower apparently kept the body supple. The answer to the question, of course, is the need for the following:

This new experience may not have upstaged his previous realization (but) it did serve to reintegrate him with his bodily vehicle and with life.

After this he was more at ease in everyday circumstances, and began to increasingly associate with those seekers who gathered around him.

DEATH OF THE EGO: A BUDDHIST VIEW

FEAR IN ENLIGHTENMENT AND ZEN

THE SAIGON TEA GIRL

During the last summer as a kid with my uncle he came up with a plan, which had taken a couple of years for him to put into place. It circled around the two of us to meeting the smartest man in the world, the greatest artist in America, and then, the greatest artist in the world. In those days the three were, at least as far a my uncle was concerned, none other than Albert Einstein, Jackson Pollock, and Pablo Picasso. My uncle knew the first two himself so he was able to set those meetings somewhat easily. Jackson Pollock coming down from his studio on Long Island to the city after a one man show in Paris and the finishing of his last action painting ever. Albert Einstein along some lake one afternoon while we watched a rowing team practice. The meeting with Picasso never happened. My dad ending the trip before we got the chance to go to Europe.

ROGERS AND DEVINE

ROSWELL UFO

FOOTNOTE [5]:

PUIYAN

Trekking toward Mount Everest from Bupsa (7,710 ft.) to Surkey (7,875 ft.) takes about five hours. From Surkey there is a steep two hour trek to Khari La Pass (9,450 ft.) all the while passing through rhododendron and oak forest including small Sherpa settlements and teashops. From that point there are excellent views of several different mountain peaks such as Numbu (22,835 ft.), Cho-oyu (26,906 ft.), Gyangchung Kang (25,990 ft.) and Thamserku (21,750 ft.). The trail gently descends and flattens out toward Chaubar (8,956 ft.) passing through bamboo forests and into Puiyan (9,088 ft.).

NANQUAN PUYUAN

Consider as well Zen master Nanquan Puyuan (Nan-ch’uan P’u-yuan, Nansen, Nansen Fugan), 748-835 as a possible source. A Dharma-heir of Ma Tsu (Mazu Daoyi), one of the foremost "direct transmission" or "transmission of the mind" masters. Puyuan had seventeen heirs, among them the venerated Chao-chou Ts'ung-shen. Puyuan appears in Gateless Gate 14, 19, 27, 34 as well as in Blue Cliff Records 28, 31, 40, 63, 64, 69. Master Puyuan is recognized most for the Number 14 Gateless Gate koan, Cutting The Cat In Two, wherein it is discussed if a cat should be cut in two in order to teach students:

Nan Ch'uan Cuts the Cat in Two

Nan Ch'uan saw the monks of the eastern and western halls fighting over a cat. He seized the cat and told the monks: `If any of you say a good word, you can save the cat.' No one answered. So Nan Ch'uan boldly cut the cat in two pieces.

That evening Chao Chou returned and Nan Ch'uan told him about this. Chao Chou removed his sandals and, placing them on his head, walked out.

Nan Ch'uan said: "If you had been there, you could have saved the cat."

I saw Pulyan do the exact same thing when I told him about my mentor's response when, many years before, I asked about Enlightenment. I didn't care about the Buddha, what Enlightenment is, how much flax was something or not. What I wanted to know was how I, that is, me specifically, could reach, attain, do, or become Enlightenment. So I asked:

"What is Enlightenment?"

My mentor, turning and pointing slightly inward beyond the edge of the park lawn behind us, replied, "Dog poop turns white in the sun."

Sure enough it seemed a dog had left his calling card on the grass, but, having enough of the Zen answers I asked, "How can I be Enlightened?"

He said, "The grass grows in a circle much taller and darker green than the surrounding grass." (source)

Pulyan, albeit in a quasi-satrical way, making fun of steadfast tradition and my naivete, put one of his shoes on his head and in an up-down missing shoe balance-to-keep-it-on-his-head-gait, walked out.

MARY FARKAS:

My uncle, of whom I mention many times in my works, was an artist.

Prior to any sort of success in his career he was, from his early post high school years through to the end of the depression, mostly a struggling artist. He did almost anything and everything to earn a few bucks as long as it was art related. In the early 1920s he took a job doing minor art resoration for Edward I. Farmer. Farmer was an art dealer in New York City with upscale galleries at both 5 West Fifty-sixth Street and 16 East Fifty-sixth Street. He offered a variety of Chinese works of Art as well as European antiques. He is remembered for the most part for mounting fine Chinese porcelains and jades into decorative lamps and desk accessories. While my uncle was working in the gallery studios he met a Japanese man by the name of Yeita Sasaki that was sculpting jade for Farmer. Sasaki, who, unknown to my uncle at the time, was a formost Zen adept and one of the first major Zen Buddhists in America. In 1928 Sasaki would become a full-fledged Zen master known as Sokei-an, receiving Inka Shomei from his teacher Sokatsu Shaku --- Sokatsu himself being a Dharma heir of the noted Zen masters Soyen Shaku and Kosen.

Sokei-an was an advocate of "direct transmission," as was his student and follower Mary Farkas. If you recall from the above Pulyan too was an advocate of "direct transmission" (as was Richard Rose). In an interesting connection you may also recall that Pulyan's mysterious female teacher, the person most responsible for his transformation, stated in conversation she was a friend of Farkas. About "direct transmission," Sokei-an, in his own words, says:

"I am of the Zen sect. My special profession is to train students of Buddhism by the Zen method. Nowadays, there are many types of Zen teachers. One type, for example, teaches Zen through philosophical discourse; another, through so-called meditation; and still another direct from soul to soul. My way of teaching is the direct transmission of Zen from soul to soul."

In an interesting twist of fate, in 1969, a Rinzai Zen follower who taught under the name of He Kwang for 40 years traveled to New Mexico teaching spiritual dances and giving darshan. After coming across a series of silk screen drawings and paintings in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque area depicting Native American dancers done by Native Americans in my uncle's studio, He Kwang saught him out. He Kwang was originally one Samuel L. Lewis, known in later years as Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti. In 1930 Lewis received dharma transmission from Sokei-an in New York, the same Sokei-an my uncle worked with in Farmer's studio.

In that Lewis come He Kwang come Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti had studied under Sri Ramana in the late 30s and was said to have received initiation from Swami Papa Ramdas sometime in 1956, and I had met both as well, my uncle tried to put into place a meeting beween Lewis and me, a meeting that for reasons I do not recall, did not came off.