Before moving on into "Who Is The Wanderling," which I will do in a momment, several long time followers of my online presence have been asking instead: "Where Are You," "What Happened To You." "Where Have You Gone?"

Like in many other recent emails, a person identifying himself as a follower of my works for over twenty years writes there seems to be a complete dearth or lack of any new articles or materials, saying he hasn't found anything really new or substantial online by me to speak of since the February 2021 incident that transpired in Myanmar, hinting at a possible connection.

While it is true the incident in Myanmar may have had an impact initially, such is not the case now. As for "nothing new or substantial," I have been working on two very, very different widely separated-in-concept heavy-duty long articles together with several back-up articles, for the most part, all at one time for quite some time. None have reached the point to be put online. One of the major articles, which even though not finished I do quote from often, is titled "A CIVILIAN G.I. In 1968 VIETNAM: Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols, the Highlands, and Cambodia" which because of a still top secret covert overlay in the air lingering about it, among other things, and a need to be careful in what is said or revealed, has taken longer to complete than I thought. Two examples of among other things, things, is one, the possible still to this day sensitive reason for the mission in the first place, and two, the being brought to my attention of a nearly full screen-size photo available online of me outfitted tip-to-toe in full LRRP military regalia, semi-automatic sidearm and all, related to the mission, but not described as such. The photo was put online unknowningly and innocently enough by the photographer, since deceased, who took it to simply show exploits of himself and own unit while in Vietnam. Things could be compromised if an astute observer were to put the two together like I was able to do. The article does however, answer within it's content the River Styx question, which I have been confronted with from various quotes.

The second article was originally intended to be the core for my PhD graduate thesis and still may be, similar to how Carlos Castaneda did with his third book, Journey to Ixtlan which was virtually indistinguishable from his graduate thesis. Mine has gone through several title changes and content revisions, but as of now carries the title "A Marvelous Path of Translocations, Bilocations, and Enlightenment," mainly because of my experience in The Meeting and how it revolves around the venerated Indian holy man the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. A seemingly unbreachable impasse has occurred within my graduate commitee by two members, albeit previously questioning but open. In their alliance is an unwavering demand that I wrap my thesis with previously established traditional academics surrounding the subject as my main thrust rather than opening academically unproven new venues stemming from my own experiences. The whole thing has given me cause to consider changing institutions rather than continue. I have approached three major universities through contacts in an attempt to learn how far back I would have to go if I were to change institutions mid-stream and/or if they would even be willing to accept me, with costs being a major factor. Ever price a PhD program lately? I mean, Musk please step forward.

In addition I have had to create a few supporting side articles for reference and expanded back-up for foototes. One is about Our Lady of Fatima and deals with translocation and bilocation, one is on Native American medicine wheels and their significance as found in the Dakotas and the impact visiting one had on me in my youth then later in the Peace Corps, and one is about the major biblical personage Mary Magdalene and whether she was at The Last Supper or not as some think because of the painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. My Mary Magdalene research, was, not unlike much of what I write about, highly time consuming. In addition to most of the traditional and some not so triditional biblical sources, I read 18 major books on her published between 1979 to 2016 with me comparing the differences that came up about her before and after the impact of feminism and the Da Vnci Code was released. Two of the back-up reference pages are done, but are not online because they link back to the two main pages not yet finished. It seems like every time I write a new paragraph I open up a can of worms.

"I have read so much of your writing and followed so many of your footnotes; 'please click image,' 'source' and other links that many times I had to just step outside for air and to release some of the wonderful energy that built up in my head!"

CHRISTINE in an email to the Wanderling

For a quick concise insight and overview into the Wanderling, from early childhood to grown man, one of the best sources around is found in a biography of sorts of one Adam Osborne. Adam Osborne was the son of Arthur Osborne, the esteemed and noted author of a whole series of the best books ever written about the venerated Indian holy man the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Adam Osborne spent his childhood growing up at the Ramana ashram in Tiruvannamalai south India, starting from a mere toddler to around age eleven. During that same period, also as a young boy, the Wanderling visited the ashram and he and Adam crossed paths. With Adam and the Wanderling being basically the same age, both of light-skinned Anglo heritage, and with birthdays only a few months apart, they spent a great deal of time together. However, still being kids sometimes creating a minor ruckus now and then --- even to the point of being, or so it has been said, eye admonished by the Maharshi. Intertwined in the Adam Osborne story, as found in the link below, are, in the main text and numerous footnotes, all of which are a must read, many, many references to the Wanderling concerning his childhood and adulthood. If what you are looking for doesn't seem to suffice, is not answered, leaves you unsatisfied, or just want more, go to or skip to the second link The Liverpool Letter.

Bowing in deference:

ADAM OSBORNE

THE LIVERPOOL LETTER

Away from the ashram and the influence of things spiritual, with a few exceptions and continuing to grapple with the ties that bind, the Wanderling moved without understanding into his teenage and post-teenage years connecting the past with the present. Girls, cars such as jeeps, Ford woodie wagons, MG TDs, and Maseratis, along with jobs, members of the Beat Movement such as Allen Ginsberg, study-practice under such Zen notables as Yasutani Hakuun Roshi, the draft, military and back to the ashram. Then on to Shangri-la, alternatively known to some as Shambhala. Along the way there was always the artist in me. See:

SEVEN DOLLS TEMPLE ON THE MORNING OF THE SPRING EQUINOX
(please click image)

THE WANDERLING AND JAMES JOYCE'S ULYSSES

THE SAME OR DIFFERENT?
(please click image)

THE WANDERLING: TAKING HIM WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

(please click image)

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GALLERY OF THE LOUVRE: INTERACTIVE

(please click image)

THE BOY AND HIS JEEP: ADVENTURES IN THE HIGH DESERT

(please click image)

AWAKENING 101 sites that had been moved from their original platform to free internet sites years ago to ensure the information would still be available to all along the path who may have been so interested when hit with huge costs to continue, has been impacted adversely a second time. Now, with a variety of new rules, major search engines, where never before, sites are now somehow being overlooked, blocked, ignored to death, made unreachable, or just plain invisible by being basically reduced to persona non grata. Pages that used to get 1500 hits a day now receive only 20 or 30 if lucky, some times even zero. To me that means a lot of people are missing out of all of that word of the Dharma that was once available on Awakening 101. If you don't know where to look for it you won't find it, yet the links below and the links within their texts still call up if you click them.

The freely accessible pages related to meditation, Enlightenment, and things Zen covered the meaning behind the words such as the three S's:

• Samadhi

• Siddhis

• Satori

As well as words and meanings behind such as:

• INKA SHOMEI

• SHIKANTAZA

• ANUTTARA SAMYAK SAMBODHI

And a variety of "number" concepts such as

• The Three Poisons

• The Four Sublime States

• The Five Varieties of Zen

• The Eight Jhana Factors

• The Ten Fetters of Buddhism

• The Twelve-year Rule

The same can be said about the free site links that show up in the below Althugh the content of the sites are not all Buddhist related per se' they do tie back and interrelated with most of the above sites and links:

Leonardo Da Vinci Ring Site


Best of the Roswell UFO Internet Sites


Best of the Carlos Castaneda Internet Sites


The Best of the William Someret Maugham Sites


Giant Birds and Flying Creatures In Fact and Fiction

You can also put any relevant word, term, phrase, or question into a search engine along with the words "the Wanderlng" in quotes as so presented and see what comes up. From there you can go on and on into infinity. Try it and see what happens.

TIME TRAVEL: MEETING YOURSELF

THE ZEN MASTER MISSES HIS MARK

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH WITH THE WANDERLING:

As most of you know, if an email address can be readily scaned by search engines the next thing you know you can't even find the legitimate mail in your box. Hence, the why of how difficult I've made it. Below I offer some suggestions on how to get any number of your questions or concerns along the path answered. However, if you feel a message or personal response would be helpful in your endeavors, e-mail me through the Wanderling link directly below and follow the steps. Be advised your message could be lost in the shuffle or forgotten to death using the above method anyway as there are a number of SPAM FILTERS IN PLACE that block just about everything --- BUT, and this is the secret, if you type AWAKENING 101 --- in capital letters with a space between AWAKENING and 101 --- in the subject line of your email it has a much better chance of being sorted out of the tons of unsolicited material and actually be read rather than being blocked or deleted:

E-MAIL
THE WANDERLING
(please click)

Also please be advised that I do not, that is DO NOT have any Facebook pages directly attributable back to me in any way, shape or fashion. Any Facebook page implying they are ME or MINE in some manner are done so by others on their own accord and without my sanction. Any poster thereof thinking I will read or respond to posts by anyone are mistaken. I don't go to the pages, I don't read the posts nor do I have any access to respond. Any responses to any posts have not been done by me.

"The monastery itself was a cold, stark environment high in the mountains above the tree line, far removed from the western world and civilization, operating beyond the bounds of time, whose lineage, rituals, and beliefs hearkened straight back unbroken and unfettered to the likes of Hui Neng, Bodhidharma and the Buddha. Doing so enabled me to be guided, via the master's skillful means, through to the full level of the unveiled truth, springing unhindered and unencumbered from it's original grounding source. Returning to America I have, because of that experience, through comparison and similes, been able to cut through and discard the trappings overlayed over the centuries, stripping bare to the undiluted core."

FOR MORE ON THE ABOVE AND THE WANDERLING CLICK HERE.

HOW TO ACHIEVE ENLIGHTENMENT

ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT IN A NUTSHELL

30 MINUTES TO ENLIGHTENMENT

VETERAN'S ZEN

THE NECKLACE
UNDER THE PROTECTION OF
THE LORD BUDDHA

FOR MORE, SEE:

THE STEPMOTHER

THE WANDERLING UNMASKED

THE WANDERLING AND WIKIPEDIA

DOING HARD TIME IN A ZEN MONASTERY
HUNTERS OF THE WHITE MONK

"Real Masters never charge for their services, nor do they accept payment in any form nor in any sort of material benefits for their instructions. This is a universal law among Masters, and yet amazingly, it is a fact that thousands of eager seekers in America and elsewhere, go on paying large amounts of money for "spiritual instruction." Masters are always self-sustaining and are never supported by their students or by public charity." ---Julian P. Johnson, The Path of the Masters (1939)

CODE OF ETHICS FOR SPIRITUAL GUIDES

SPIRITUAL GUIDES: PASS OR FAIL?

FALSE GURU TEST

On occasion people DO email me about Enlightenment, the Awakening process and any results thereof. Matter of fact, they do it all the time and on a regular basis. For some of the most interesting go to:

GETTING LETTERS AND EMAILS

.

If you would like information regarding a given Zen or Buddhist related subject, term, word, guru, teacher or Ancient Venerable or anything else you can think of, enter that or any name, word or term in the numerous variety of search engines that permeate the web such as Google along with the word Wanderling in quotes, i.e., "Wanderling" and see what comes up.

Seekers along the path and others so interested can do the same type searches in other areas as well, most of which when related to me, eventually lead back to Zen, Buddhism, and Enlightenment. As a young boy I was fascinated with flying things such as Zeppelins and underwater things such as U-boats and submarines, all for given reasons that are explained along the way --- and of which again, lead back to Zen, Buddhism, and Enlightenment --- sometimes even to the mysterious hermitage said to exist somewhere beyond time in a remote area of the Himalayas known under a variety of names such as Gyanganj, Shambhala or Shangri-La:

"From a young boy wandering from foster home to foster home with nothing of any real personal value to myself other than a Captain Midnight decoder, to being drafted into the military and having hours and hours of training, like an arrow shot straight and true to the very center of it's target, my life's trajectory placing me in the hands of a non-English speaking Buddhist monk, all within striking distance of the mighty Himalayas and unknowingly, the secret hermitage of Shambhala."(source)

Growing up I loved Leonardo Da Vinci, Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies, especially Tarzan and the Huntress, Warner Brothers cartoons, astronomy, the cosmos, rockets to the Moon and Mars, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, along with a myriad superheroes, especially the 'mortal' type such as the Spirit and Captain Midnight. So too, as a young boy, aligning myself as close as I could with the precepts found in the Cowboy Code of the West, high on my list were western comic book heroes and cowboy movie stars such as Firehair, the Durango Kid, Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers, their horses such as Champion and Trigger, and cowboy sidekicks such as Smiley Burnette, Gabby Hayes, and Andy Devine.(see)

SO, WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

IT FLOWS FROM MY SUPER HEAVILY INJECTED ACADEMIC BACKGROUND BRIMMING
WITH IN-DEPTH ENCYCLOPEDIC AND INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE OF INFORMATION
AND DATA, ALL COMING FROM COMIC BOOKS OF COURSE. TO SEE CLICK THE IMAGE.

THE DRAGON LADY
(please click)

WANDERLING AND THE PIRATES

SEE ALSO:

ZEN BUDDHISM, ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT

BUDDHIST LINKS AND SITES

WHAT SARLO HAS TO SAY

If in using the searches above as suggested and what you seek is not forthcoming in the fashion you desire, OR if you simply wish to email or contact me, again, please feel free to do so. Remember, in your quest, and for life in general, if the intent of your actions carries within it the RIGHT escort, any downstream outcomes from such endeavors will in their context, deliver the strength of favorable impulses as they unfold.

	THE BEST OF CARLOS CASTANEDA
<<< PREV ---- LIST ---- NEXT >>>

CASTANEDA, REDDIT, AND THE WANDERLING

SO, DID THE WANDERLING FLY?

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CLICK
HERE FOR
ENLIGHTENMENT

ON THE RAZOR'S
EDGE

As to the subject of donations, for those who may be so interested as it applies to the gratefulness of my works, I invariably suggest any funds be directed toward THE WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT and/or THE AMERICAN RED CROSS.

"The man I am writing about is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water. But it may be that the way of life that he has chosen for himself and the peculiar strength and sweetness of his character may have an ever-growing influence over his fellow men so that, long after his death perhaps, it may be realized that there lived in this age a very remarkable creature."

WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM The Razor's Edge

People often comment about my continued championing of Zen, Enlightenment, and Buddhism. As it was put in an email so blithely one day, me blathering on-and-on ad infinitum about my Mentor, so alluded to in the above quote, as though he was some sort of major Dharma-mover, but who in the end, like me they say, having no real of formal direct-lineage or training. In the end I sort of like what Hui-k'o, the Second Patriarch of Zen has to say:

"Hui-k'o, the Second Patriarch of Zen passed on the bowl and robe to his successor, the Third Patriarch, Seng-ts'an, signifying the Transmission of the Dharma. Hui-k'o, who had received the seal of approval from Bodhidharma himself, then went everywhere drinking and carousing around like a wildman and partaking in the offerings of the brothel districts. When people asked how he could do such a thing, being a Patriarch of the Zen school and all, he would respond with: 'What business is it of yours?'"

HUI-K'O: The Second Patriarch of Zen

CATHOUSES, BROTHELS, AND DENIZENS THEREIN
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What business is it of yours? Indeed. They ignore, discount, or don't give any credence to either myself or my mentor and our experiences in the normal flow of things under the auspices of the venerated Indian holy man the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi or mine specifically, directly related through my mentor to Yasutani Hakuum Roshi, Alfred Pulyan and the like.

So too, even if a short shrift would ensue for some regarding my 12 full weeks of study-practice in Vipassana Meditation at the Mahasi Meditation Center, the same meditation method as used by the Buddha, in Rangoon, Burma, mentioned further below, how can it be ignored me having spent a good portion of what has happened in my life Doing Hard Time In A Zen Monastery under a Zen master in a monastery completely free of western influences located high along the southern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau hearkening straight back to the First Patriarch of Zen, Bodhidharma and the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng as so described and so presented in the opening quote a the very top of the page.

In Doing Hard Time In A Zen Monastery, linked above, I write that after becoming fully immersed in the monastery culture and goings-on I began going into the village some distance down and below the monastery with a few of the monks on occasion. On one of those excursions a man in the village who had a rudimentary use of English tried to tell me something I wasn't getting the full grasp of. He signed me to wait while he went to get something, returning with a well worn magazine, possibly German or Dutch, and pointed to pictures of the women in the advertisements. What he was trying to say, showing his hands with his fingers up and counting, that 10 to 15 --- what I determined to be months before --- a western woman had come to the village. When I asked what happened to her he pointed toward the mountains. At the time I didn't quite know what to make of it and for the most part quickly forgot it --- until one day what he was trying to tell me bared fruit and high in the mountains I met a western woman traveling alone by the name of Hope Savage. Back in the village on a second occasion he tried to tell me something again, only this time more of a warning, and of which in that it wasn't clear I didn't take heed at the level I should have.

On that that second occasion, a morning super early, after a long trek to the village and back on my own, found me having just crouched down in the fields some distance outside the walls of the monastery doing my business before returning. In the process of doing so I felt the shadows of three men fall across my face. Evidently what the man in the village had been trying to tell me was that three men had been snooping around the village for a day or two seemingly looking for me. After I left they either got up or were woke up, then either heard or were told the white monk was in town. Learning I was gone they apparently followed along the trail in my wake in an effort to catch me before I entered the monastery and be beyond their reach. If I would have figured out beforehand three men were in the village, especially two from the west, I may have been suspicious enough to have looked them over first. Or, even without me knowing, had I not stopped in the fields outside the monastery I may have had sufficient distance and time between me and them to have made it through the doors unhindered. Instead neither happened and I fell within their grasp, being abducted by the three, all of which were military irregulars. That night, well down the trail after an all day travel from the village, under the cover of darkness several Buddhist monks stealthly spirited me away from the irregulars. Hours later, after stopping a couple times that second day with the monks begging food and sharing with the soldiers and myself during the stops, we pulled into a large area full of buildings and structures and got out. The monks were met by a few other monks, the truck with the two soldiers drove away, and I was escorted into a building apparently to sleep.

The next morning I was met by a man, a monk, that spoke English who told me I was at the Mahasi Meditation Center in Rangoon and brought there for, among other things, my safe keeping and overall well being. By the end of the day, over a period of several hours, I met with the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, the center's meditation master and Principal Preceptor. Through others it was explained that I was welcome to stay as long as I liked. The whole thing, well intentioned as it was, possibly even as an effort to detox me back to normalcy after my time in the monastery, was short lived. Within several weeks or so, after having entered their meditation sessions --- but most assuredly before I could turn around and really start making sense of things --- a couple of Burmese government suit-types arrived looking for me (nothing gets by the authorities). I told them I was not complacent in any of the endeavors that brought me to the center and it was, from start to finish, all done so without any previous knowledge or instigation on my part. Everybody in the pipeline seemed to agree and following an up-and-down the pipeline mutual agreement, without getting into too many of the logistics, I was soon back to my original starting point and back to the states as though nothing had happened.

HOW I RETURNED TO THE MONASTERY

Most people who have read through all that I have presented, with the thousands of interlinking footnotes and all, have had enough. However, every once in awhile there are those who come forward interested in the jump between the two paragraph quote below and how it was closed. That is to say, how did I, as an adult at the Ramana ashram return to the monastery. We know I ended up in Tiruvannamalai in some fashion with the help of the woman on the farm because I met the young boy with the Code-O-Graph there, yet no where does it show up how it was I ended up back at the monastery. It is clear that I did because in Doing Hard Time In A Zen Monastery I write that I was abducted by military irregulars outside the walls one morning and taken back to civilization

After exchanging photos with the young anglo boy I met that day in the ashram he returned with, not leading, but instead being yanked, dragged or pulled by one arm and his wrist across the ashram grounds, twisting on his knees while dragging the tops of his feet and toes trailing behind him in the dirt, by a nearly wild-eyed white woman who was basically running in my direction pointing a bony-like finger toward me while holding the decoder in that same hand and turning back to look at a white man some distance behind hurriedly trying to catch up --- two individuals I was sure I didn't want to meet or talk to at the time.

"I scooted as quickly as I could across what was left of the ashram grounds between me and the gate and out onto the street, melding into the small milieu of what counted as crowds in those days, disappearing.

"Years passed and one day a friend of mine helping me go through a few things ran across my rather loose knit so-called collection of decoders that were sort of doing not much more than just floating around in an unconnected fashion in a drawer."

The two sentences in the above quote appear in widely separated closing paragraphs of the main text of Doing Hard Time In A Zen Monastery. Although the physical visual-space that separates them is small as presented here, the gap between the two as related to the passage of time within the context of the sentences is huge. One moment, when all the trials and tribulations that have been laid out from childhood through to the Army, the monastery, the Himalayas, et al have ended, I walk away from the ashram, suddenly jumping to many years later, apparently comfortably safe back at home in the United States as though nothing ever happened --- simply hanging with a friend sorting through a bunch of decades-old Captain Midnight decoders.

Lets just say, in more ways than one, it involved war torn Burma, the Japanese invasion of India, the crash of a C-47 high in the rarefied air in the Tibetan area of the Himalayas after being lost on a flight from Calcutta, and a U.S. Army Captain who had flown over the "hump" from China, visiting the Ramana ashram at the same time I was there.

RETURN TO THE MONASTERY

BEFORE LEAVING CALCUTTA-----------------------------------------------------AFTER LEAVING CALCUTTA
-----

THE NECKLACE
UNDER THE PROTECTION OF
THE LORD BUDDHA

AND NOW THIS:

The Mahasi Meditation Center, located in what was once called Rangoon, Burma, but now called Yangon, Myanmar, was founded in 1949 by a group of highly involved Buddhist adepts, including the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw Agga Maha Pandita, whose sole interest was in expanding the knowlege and use of the same meditation method developed, used, and taught by the Buddha. So said, the center is a massive twenty acre compound set aside and designed exclusively for the participating in and the learning of Vipassana Meditation. Those who seek admission to the center undergo full-time Vipassana meditation for about six to twelve weeks which is considered an appropriate period of retreat for one to gain a basic knowledge and experience of Vipassana meditation.

Amazingly enough, for those who may be so interested, for foreign meditators, the entire period of their stay for study-practice at the center --- six to twelve weeks --- is FREE, including both full boarding and lodging.

COMPLETING THE MEDITATION CENTER'S THE FULL 12 WEEKS:

Again, for those who say I have no real of formal direct-lineage or training and, although above I mention that I was unable to reach completion of the full 12 week meditation regimen as offered by the center, that mention of same refers to that particular time and event. Thirty years plus later, after having volunteered with the American Red Cross and being deployed for weeks-and-weeks and working four hurricanes (Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike) I made it a point to return to the center. In-turn, from the beginning, re-participating in and completing all 12 weeks of the sessions. I did so primarily because I wanted a distinct separation --- and return to the quietude of the center mixed with the milieu of the Asian atmosphere --- without concern by or for others with my support system. For almost anything you would ever want to know regarding staying at the Mahasi Meditation Center, etc., please refer to the center's frequently asked questions section by clicking HERE and HERE.

A few days before I was to complete my 12 weeks, and for all practical purposes, on a countdown in hours to depart, one of the monks, in a highly unusual set of circumstances, came to me and said an American woman had arrived at the office requesting to see me. In that only a very small cadre of people actually knew where I was and what I was doing, thinking someone seeking me must have some importance behind it, I agreed to go back with the monk. When I got to the administrative area the woman was gone, leaving only a $100 dollar Desert Inn poker chip to be given to me. The poker chip led straight to Chiang Mai and the jungles of Thailand. See:

PHYLLIS DAVIS CIRCA 1980
(please click image)

ZEN IN TIBET

There are those who come forward on occasion taking issue as to what I have cited as Doing Hard Time In A Zen monastery, a monastery they take as being in Tibet --- with Zen and Tibet in their view not necessarily going hand-in-hand.

The monastery of which I speak is one of the ones operating independent of time. Such entities are beyond both time and place. Others aren't. If you have read of the exploits of the Buddhist monk Hui Shen, said to have traveled to what is now called North and Central America, but known in 500 AD as Fu Sang at the time of Hui Shen's travels, you will see he was, although a Buddhist monk, born somewhere within the landlocked area adjacent to China which now days would be considered Afghanistan. Borders, countries, religions, and present day deep-set cultures as they exist today have not always done so. What may seem out of place now, may not have been in the old days.

On the ancient Silk Road, of which I have made reference to in a number of places in my works, AKA The Tea-Horse Trade Route the Tea Horse Trail or Road and more formally the Chamadao, and of which regardless of what it is called, all being integral parts of the Silk Road, there is a place known as Dunhuang in northwestern China on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Sixteen miles southeast of Dunhuang is the Mogao Caves, a complex of some 700 or so caves dating back to 400 AD, perhaps before, carved out of the living rock above the Dachuan River. One after the other of the caves are adorned with Buddhist statuary and art, among them one cave specifically noted for having a hoard of manuscripts known as the Dunhuang Manuscripts discovered hidden and sealed away for well over a thousand years. The following is what Wiki writes on the manuscripts:

"By far the largest proportion of manuscripts from the Dunhuang cave contain Buddhist texts. These include Buddhist sutras, commentaries and treatises, often copied for the purpose of generating religious merit. Several hundred manuscripts have been identified as notes taken by students, including the popular Buddhist narratives known as bian wen. Much of the scholarship on the Chinese Buddhist manuscripts has been on the Ch'an (or Zen) texts, which have revolutionized the history of Ch'an Buddhism."

There is a book titled TIBETAN ZEN: Discovering a Lost Tradition (2015) by Sam van Schaik based on his study of rare Tibetan manuscripts discovered among the hoard of manuscripts found in the aforementioned sealed cave. Taken together van Schaik's works offer a heretofore unknown window into the existence of a Tibetan Zen tradition that has not been known previously to scholars and laypeople alike, whether Tibetan, European, or Chinese. See:

TIBETAN ZEN: DISCOVERING A LOST TRADITION

BACK TO MAIN PAGE

HOW THE WANDERLING GOT HIS NAME:

HAASHKE YAH NIYA, meaning "wandering boy" in native Navajo tongue, granted me by a tribal spiritual elder when I was a very young boy

In the year I was born a very well received novel that would ultimately receive a Pulitzer Prize titled The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, was published.

In the website The Battle of Los Angeles: 1942 UFO, wherein an incident about a giant object of unknown origin that overflew the city of Los Angeles is described, in a section subtitled A QUICK PERSONAL NOTE, the following is found:

"My uncle (i.e., the Wanderling's uncle in the original text) told me the first time he ever saw me I was basically not much more than a walk-around one or two year old toddler. According to how he remembered it he came by the house one day to see my mother and father while on a trip through Southern California. After that, nearly six years went by before we were to cross paths again."

Right around that six years later time when my uncle and I crossed paths again a movie version of The Yearling was released. Years before, when my uncle first saw me as a walk-around toddler, my mother was reading The Yearling as it was just published. At that time he called me a "Yearling." When we met again the movie just came out, and he was reminded of what he called me as a toddler. By then, of course, my mother was long gone, my father had married my Stepmother and I was no longer remotely close to being anything that resembled a Yearling. Knowing I had been to India and returned in a somewhat can't quite put your finger on it altered state where I seemed to "wander" in and out, my uncle, in an interesting twist of fate, began calling me "the Wanderling" --- a sort of play on the words of the term "the Yearling." A Navajo spiritual elder, upon hearing my uncle calling me a wanderling, graciously granted me in his native tongue the name "Haashke yah Niya," meaning wandering boy, a name that stuck and that I wore proudly and was often used in introductions when among Native Americans.

In later years the person that would become my spiritual Mentor in things Zen and who had studied under Sri Ramana, came across me and heard that my uncle had called me a "wanderling," he immediately took to it --- primarily because of a very important aspect regarding the historical background of Ramana's life as presented in the following quote from Ramana's biography. FYI, Venkataraman, so mentioned in the quote below, was the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi's given name:

"There was a curse on Venkataraman's family - in truth, it was a blessing - that one out of every generation should turn out to be a mendicant. This curse was administered by a wanderling, an ascetic who, it is said, begged alms at the house of one of Venkataraman's forbears, and was refused. A paternal uncle of Sundaram Aiyar's became a sannyasin; so did Sundaram Aiyar's elder brother. Now, it was the turn of Venkataraman, although no one could have foreseen that the curse would work out in this manner." (source)

Extraterrestrials, ray guns, UFOs, curmudgeon old desert-southwest types...the following quote comes from the source so cited:

"I have read quite a bit of The Wanderling's writings and found it very intriguing. Much of what he has to say about Zen and Buddhism was helpful, but at the sametime I was skeptical about his apparent fascination with esoteric, 'new age' type topics like Carlos Castaneda, shamanism, UFOs, etc."(source)

Often people who read my stuff have a tendency to run it all together, when in reality there was a big difference from that of my childhood being raised under the auspices of my uncle and when the person I call my mentor took over during my high school years and afterwards. In that high school, post-high school, pre-draft period was a growing and continued deepening and upwelling of a certain embryo-like spiritual insight, particularly as it related to Zen. It was all forced to a head as the time shortened just prior to my involuntarily imposed departure for the military.

At the start of my junior year of high school a highly unusual man moved into the house next door, a man who would eventually become my Mentor in things spiritual. The first time I saw him I was set aback by the calm serenity he seemed to abide in. Over time he revealed he had studied under the venerated Indian holy man the Baghavan Sri Ramana Maharshi at his ashram in Tiruvannamalai, South India between the wars. As the years passed and I got to know him I began asking him then nearly begging him to "make me like him." Time after time he brushed me off.

Finally, I guess, thinking he would never get rid of me he began making a few suggestions. He began gently coaching me through the finer subtleties of deeper and deeper meditation. Although early on the path and making sure I would keep into consideration the viewpoint and outcome of learning and practice when it came to books as it did with the Zen master Te Shan he urged me to read a whole raft of Zen related books:

BOOK LIST: ZEN BUDDISM

SUGGESTED READING

Eventually it was he who sent me to do "real" study under a Japanese Zen master.

One day and told me he would be leaving soon and I would be on my own. The pressure of the multitudes were crunching down on him and he sought a more solitary lifestyle. Prior to his departure he told me that a highly honored Japanese Zen master by the name of Yasutani Hakuun Roshi was visiting the United States for a short time and since what I seemed to be seeking and what Zen is paralleled, suggested I see him. He had taken it upon himself to make the arrangements for me to attend a special week long sesshin under the master, re the following:

"The sesshins ran from four in the morning to eight at night. About thirty people attended and we sat in two rows of fifteen facing one another across the room with our backs toward the wall.

"By the final day our numbers had diminished greatly and though the master spoke in private with the others, he refused to have private consultation with me. When the last day finally ended and we were leaving, thanking heavens we even survived, the interpreter came to me and said the master wished to speak with me. The master told me three of the our group had realized Kensho and berated me for not being among them. He said I had vast opportunities in my daily existence far beyond most and had not fulfilled the expectations of either him or my mentor. I thanked him, bowed, and left."

ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT: The Path Unfolds

It should be brought to the attention of the reader that my attempts at study-practice under Yasutani turned out less than successful, eventually in the process returning then to my mentor a few years later, post-military, with much more positive results having sent me almost immediately to study under Alfred Pulyan, the "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.

From my very early years on I had been known to have jumped off one-story porches, garages, and house roofs with a sheet made into a parachute or flaring behind my back tied to my wrists and ankles a la Captain Midnight's glider chute. My uncle stated many times that he felt the reason for such a fascination, or destiny as he called it, went back to an incident that involved the fly over of a giant airborne object that I witnessed as a young boy. The object, of an unknown nature and an unknown origin, was seen by literally thousands of people along the coast of California barely three months into World War II. See:

THE BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES: 1942 UFO

PEARL HARBOR P-40 GHOST SHIP

As for the battle, during the early morning hours of February 25, 1942 the whole city of Los Angeles and surrounding communities were in an uproar as thousands of rounds of anti-aircraft shells were expended in an attempt to pull down whatever it was in the sky that night. The slow moving object, said to be as big or bigger than a Zeppelin, was caught in the glare of the searchlights from Santa Monica to Long Beach and seemed impervious to the constant barrage of shells. It eventually disappeared out over the Pacific after cruising along the coast and cutting inland for a while. The huge object was never clearly explained and was basically hushed up without response from the authorities.

• THE WANDERLING AND THE PIRATES

• BATMAN AND LEONARDO DA VINCI

• ROY ROGERS AND ANDY DEVINE

• DA VINCI: 500 YEARS TO SOON

• SGT. PRESTON OF THE YUKON

• TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS

• FLYING TIGERS AND MORE

• TERRY AND THE PIRATES

• THE BLACK CONDOR

• CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT

• P-40 WARHAWK

• BUCK ROGERS

• FIREHAIR

The Buddha said "If a monk should frame a wish as follows: 'Let me travel through the air like a winged bird,' then must he be perfect in the precepts (Sila), bring his thoughts to a state of quiescence (Samadhi), practice diligently the trances (Jhana), attain to insight (Prajna) and be frequenter to lonely places."

AKANKHEYYA SUTTA, Vol. XI of The Sacred Books of the East

THE BLACK CONDOR: THE MAN WHO COULD FLY LIKE A BIRD
(please click)

(please click image) BATMAN: HIS REAL ORIGIN

CAPTAIN MARVEL HIS ORIGINS

THE ROSWELL RAY GUN

BILLY THE KID

THE BEST OF THE MAUGHAM BIOGRAPHIES AND SITES:

• WILLIAM SOMERSET MAUGHAM
  Good biography. Lots of Maugham graphics, from early childhood to late adult.
  

• W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM: A BIOGRAPHY
  

• MAUGHAM
  

• MAUGHAM IN INDIA
  

• LITERARY AMBULANCE DRIVERS
  Everybody knows Hemingway drove an ambulance during WWI, nobody knows Maugham did.
  

• THE ART COLLECTION OF W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
  

SPIRITUAL GUIDES, GURUS, AND TEACHERS INFLUENTIAL IN THE RAZOR'S EDGE:

• BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

• SWAMI RAMDAS

• YASUTANI HAKUUN ROSHI

• FATHER ENSHEIM
  Includes a section on the missing years of the Razor's Edge

• KOSTI

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(please click either image)

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(please click either image)

CASTANEDA, REDDIT, AND THE WANDERLING

CASTANEDA, REDDIT, AND THE WANDERLING

The following describing Reddit, what it is and what it's for, comes from the Wikipedia page related to Reddit as found at the source so cited:

Reddit is a website comprising user-generated content, including photos, videos, links, and text-based posts and discussions of this content in what is essentially a bulletin board system. The name "Reddit" is a play on-words with the phrase "read it", i..e., "I read it on Reddit." According to Reddit, in 2019, there were approximately 430 million monthly users, who are known as "redditors." The site's content is divided into categories or communities known on-site as "subreddits" of which there are more than 138,000 active communities.

As a network of communities, Reddit's core content consists of posts from its users. Users can comment on others' posts to continue the conversation. A key feature to Reddit is that users can cast positive or negative votes, called upvotes and downvotes respectively, for each post and comment on the site The number of upvotes or downvotes determines the posts' visibility on the site, so the most popular content is displayed to the most people. Users can also earn "karma" for their posts and comments, a status that reflects their standing within the community and their contributions to Reddit. Posts are sometimes automatically archived after six months, meaning they can no longer be commented or voted on.(source)

So said, Reddit has among it's communities or sections, one on Carlos Castaneda. Withing that main Castaneda section are a number of smaller sections devoted to specific breakdown topics, of which one in the Castaneda community is devoted to the Wanderling. It was initiated by a so interested Reddit party wanting to know what other Reddit Castaneda followers felt or thought of regarding the Wanderling and the vast volumes of Castanea information as found for example, in the site The Best of the Castaneda Internet Sites. The Reddit Castaneda/Wanderling sub section can be accessed by going to the following link. Having done so, you can read what Reddit contributors have to say pro and con as well as contribute to the ongoing discussion if you so choose. See:

CASTANEDA, REDDIT, AND THE WANDERLING

GOOGLE'S ALL WANDERLING PAGE