AWAKENING 101
Saturday, March 26, 2011 9:38 AM
From: Scott
Hello wanderling,
I find myself glued to your dispersed pages on the internet. I had briefly glanced at your sites in the past, but now for some reason they have taken a whole new significance to me along my spiritual journey. Even funnier to me is the fact that I have recently moved to SOCal from Boston and was living in Hermosa Beach where alot of your story takes place. I am glad to see that now that I have re-found your websites, it says on your blog that you have returned from a hiatus. How this all plays out I do not know, but I feel a strong pull towards your work and your path towards enlightenment. I look forward to any updates in the future and will be reading the Razor's Edge shortly.
With Warmth
Scott
p.s. is Awakening 101 coming back?
W RESPONDS: Nearly all the pages used in AWAKENING 101 have been edited, rewritten, or updated along with almost all of the links. The links giving trouble are mostly third party links usually related in some fashion to confirmations of my sources. Pages just disappear, change URLs, and some authors, tired of being bothered by people contacting them after running into their pages linked on AWAKENING 101 ask me to stop linking --- inturn requiring me to find alternative sources --- sometimes difficult if a specific quote or a specific author's idea is used in my pages to back-up some thesis or the other I am presenting. However, so said, my intention is to have AWAKENING 101 finished by the end of summer and up and running by the start of the Fall Semester 2011.
OOPS! Didn't make it. Sorry folks. Will try to get it up and running soon.
01/28/2011 4:12 AM
As found on Sustained Reaction> Castaneda's Legacy> The Wanderling:
Can we please talk about the Wanderling? Does anyone have any information about this mysterious Angelfire guru and his marvelous tales? The only person to claim to see Castaneda at the Nogales bus station and at the same time say his uncle was the man who taught Castaneda about datura. Somebody must have some insight!
I LOVE the Wanderling!
The next day Talking Brujo Dog responded with:
01/29/2011 9:06 AM
To me, there's little one can say about 'the Wanderling', except that this person offered up a lot of opinions that can't be corroborated.
W RESPONDS: Suggest both refer to Castaneda's 1960s Paper on Datura and accompanying footnotes.
As for "there's little one can say about 'the Wanderling'" of some interest may be what Sarlo of Sarlo's Guru Rating Service has to say along with the comments found at Windswept, Zen-swept, Mind Dunes and the December 12, 2009 comments by Arjuna Ranatunga found by scrolling down this page. If you want to express your own two-cents on the Wanderling and Castaneda, pro or con, go to:
Sustained Reaction> Castaneda's Legacy> The Wanderling
Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 2:50 pm
Post subject: the Wanderling
Ableton Forum
Anybody ever heard of this? http://the-wanderling.com
There is something a bit Forrest Gump about the whole thing, the guy seems to have done everything, while meeting everyone, and ended up Enlightened to boot. Yet his website has taken up about 6 hours of my evening.
The Carlos Castaneda stuff is gold
http://wanderling.tripod.com/bus_station.html
REGARDING ALEX APOSTOLIDES:
Because it continued to grow bigger and bigger, ALL of the information that appeared in this page previously regarding Alex Apostolides, plus much more and updated, has been moved to it's own stand-alone page. Please see:
ALEX APOSTOLIDES
A reader of my works, using the feature that allows you to post anonymously on my Blog wrote:
"Pretty clever using those Mayan glyphs all over the top of your page on Alex Apostolides. Took me awhile to figure out it wasn't some gimmick, but that they actully 'said' something."
August 20, 2010
Toward the end of Windswept, Zen-swept, Mind Dunes the anonymous author, making reference to me, writes:
"I can say one thing about the Wanderling though: It seems to me that he writes quite a lot about himself and his own history and that seems to be at odds with the Truth as it is related in eastern religions."
W RESPONDS: For the most part, on the surface, I can understand where Anonymous might extrapolate such a view. At onetime all of my pages, if they did not belong to it specifically, they fed into or were peripheral to, in some manner or fashion, my onetime online free self-paced college level Dharma course, AWAKENING 101. The course opened with a few introductory pages followed then by ten folders in numerical order --- the contents of which were put into place to focus and expand one's thoughts on nothing but the Dharma in an effort to ensure one's "mind was ripe," thus then increasing the potential possibility of a "breakthrough." Although AWAKENING 101 has set idle for months and months --- possibly even years --- and a good number of the links are no longer valid or updated, I still have most of it stored away. In the opening paragraphs of Folder One, is the following, and of which approaches the concerns of Anonymous. From the mind, writing, and thoughts of Dogen Zenji:
"If the speaker brings no personal, egotistic delusions into this expression, the occasion speaks for itself, the total situation alone determines what is said or done. Thus, in the case of the Zen master, what-is-said is simply what-is. In the case of the deluded person, however, the "what-is" includes his excess conceptual baggage with its affective components, the deluded ideas about the nature of "self," "thing," "time," and so on that constitute the person's own particular distortion of what actually is."
The above quote is the lead in paragraph as found in The "I" In Thus I Have Heard from Nagarjuna's Exegesis on The Great Perfection of Wisdom.
02/15/2010
Althought not an email or letter in the classical sense, following this brief introduction are two paragraphs from a link to a webpage sent to me the other day via email by a reader of my works. How anything ever shows up in search engines related to me or anything else so someone can find it --- and then actually read it to such a point that they act on it --- is a mystery to me. To wit:
For years my page on the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi used to show up in the top five of a Google search. When I discovered the page went down awhile back and switched the page to a new server and URL, even though it was still the EXACT same page --- it has never moved higher up in a Google search than some three pages back.(see) People who previously copied my Sri Ramana page verbatum and then put it on the net, which, continue to contain outdated links to this day, gleen higher up in search than my original. A Ramana related blog that has not been active since March of 2006 even shows up ahead of my Ramana site.
One of the most important Ramana pages on the net, SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: The Last American Darshan, documents down to the final nth the last American alive that actually had darshan under the Maharshi --- and attained Awakening at that --- and that page doesn't even show up in a search for Ramana no matter how many pages deep you search unless you specifically type in the title or the word "darshan" or "Wanderling" or both along with Sri Ramana. No casual search for Ramana will call it up.
In any case, "the reader of my works" sent me the following two paragraphs that show up on WIKISOCION The Free Encyclopedia of Socionics which offers of sorts, an interesting if not fairly accurate comparison between myself and Ramana adherent Ed Muzika:
USER: Thehotelambush/Religion
TOPIC: Some religious teachers
The Wanderling teaches the Dharma indirectly, presenting his varied personal experiences, and tends to avoid talking about the inner psychological aspects of practice; for example the description of his actual Enlightenment-event is brief and undetailed, whereas e.g. Muzika describes his realizations in detail, in the order they occurred. The Wanderling's style of teaching is to expose the seeker to a wide variety of texts and views, leaving one to interpret them and glean the aspects that one finds most pertinent. He also includes comments on the various texts, but does not pass judgement on their accuracy at any length if at all. The Wanderling, on his online course in the Dharma, Awakening 101: This course starts from a very simple double-premise, and that is that the phenomenon known as Enlightenment in the Zen tradition IS, and in so being...can be realized outside the doctrine, that is, beyond the scriptures and any ritualized formulas or patterns layed down therein.
Muzika's website Freedom starts off with a list of truths about reality, numbered Wittgenstein-style. Similar as Christopher Langan, Muzika gives it to the reader as straight as possible. He sometimes offers harsh criticism of others' methods and calls people out on their delusive ideas or incorrect practices. Although he acknowledges the inherently paradoxical nature of the stuff, he expounds fairly strong views about what constitutes correct or incorrect practice (or exposition). A funny contrast between the Wanderling and Muzika occurs: Muzika explicitly says to avoid comparing teachings by different people - "It will only make you nuts." On the other hand, the Wanderling's site is full of articles by various different authors, and his course Awakening 101 is just a long sequence of such articles, which continue until the reader has been so thoroughly bombarded with words that he realizes their ultimate futility. Both methods are acceptable in my opinion.
December 12, 2009
The following question was asked on YAHOO: Answers:
Are there any online Buddhist teachers?
Arjuna Ranatunga, who goes by the screen name Goodfella and working on his Master's Degree in Buddhist Studies in a traditional setting, and a YAHOO: Answers respondent since April 17, 2006, replied:
The most famous site with perhaps the most integrity is "Awakening 101", authored by "the Wanderling." I met an Enlightened person who'd used it in His approach / initial studies / on His journey.It has facilities to ask questions of the Wanderling, too.
- http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/awakening101/index.html
- http://sped2work.tripod.com/web_ring_list.html
Best Wishes in your Quest, Friend,
W RESPONDS: See also A CHILD OF THE CYBER-SANGHA: Enlightenment From the Internet?
In the realm of things, Arjuna is no small-potatoes guy. Google his full name and see what comes up.
10/20/2009
Hi Wanderling,
I have been a seeker since 1966. (I) have always enjoyed reading your sites and wanted to study the Awakening 101 course you had on the web. Now I see that it has been removed. Why was it removed? Is there anything I can do to receive the information contained in the Awakening 101 course for a price. I have learned a lot from you and appreciate everything you have done for everyone. I know you are very busy but I joined myspace just to contact you. I would appreciate it very much if you would reply. If you request a financial donation, I will be glad to donate to you, your organization, or your favorite charity as long as the amount is reasonable.
Peace and Love,
TomW RESPONDS: The above email was received, as the date will attest, in October. It is now into December and during that time I have received countless numbers of emails expressing similar or like concerns. At first I was just going to let it go, Awakening 101, that is. Little did I fully realize that any of it meant anything to anybody.
For those who don't know, AWAKENING 101 is/was a FREE, self-paced online Dharma course arranged in such a way as to assist in easing the Dharma Gate for spiritual explorers, seekers along the path, wanderlings, the simply curious, and others who may be so interested. AWAKENING 101 was orginally thought up, assembled, put together, invented and maintained on a variety of websites by me, the Wanderling. Because of a number of mitigating circumstances I made it no longer available. HOWEVER, because of similar and like concerns as the above and similar emails, the the main aspects of the course are currently being revamped and updated with new pages being composed, links being reconnected, and lost pages being restored. It will just take awhile as there are hundreds of links and pages to sort through.
For those who may be interested in continuing along the path with assist from Awakening 101, and how Enlightenment may or may not come about, it is suggested you go to Google and type in any Buddhist name, word or term or Zen name, word, or term you can think of in any area of concern and type it in along with the word 'wanderling.' By doing so, as the new pages by me related to Awakening 101 are revamped, put under new URLs, or recaptured, you should be able to get the most recent or lost pages. You can also reach some of the new pages, and via them, reach additional new pages and links by going to:
ZEN BUDDHISM, ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT
As to the subject of donations, for those of you who may be interested in doing so as it applies to the greatfulness of my works, I invariably suggest any funds be directed toward THE WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT and/or THE AMERICAN RED CROSS.
Bowing in deference, the Wanderling.
AWAKENING 101
Friday, October 9, 2009 1:12 PM
From: Richard B
To: the Wanderling
What has become of the master-work of yours, Awakening 101?
All I seem to find are pages now stating, "AWAKENING 101 IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE".
Do you need assistance in maintaining, hosting the web presence?
Is there anything that could help restore this to the World?
This from Joseph Marcello, Seeker and Practioner:
Jun 8, 2009 3:24 PM
It would do you - even as advanced as you may privately deem yourself to be - and your readers much mercy if you would run all of your writings through a Clarifier, then a Truth-Teller, and finally a Simplifier so that, at the end of the their convoluted journey, they achieve that divinely rare fruit: Awakening.
Otherwise, those who have truly done their homework and pierced the tissue of their inherited and fabricated illusions, and seen the overwhelming simple truth that they've spent their lives avoiding -- will be tempted to consider the sometimes lofty, but too often self-fouled, writings of "the Wanderling" as the mere ravings of a spiritually hooked eccentric with too much learning under his septagenarian belt.
W RESPONDS: -- For those who may be so interested, although not the end all to end all, there is a Clarifier and Simplifier of sorts on the net that can be found half-way down a page called THE WANDERLING AND WIKIPEDIA. The content of that page addresses some of the issues and other issues so mentioned in the above email. On that page, again about half-way down, is a quasi cut-to-the-quick breakdown, of which is included the SIX MAIN PAGES everything points to one way or the other. Those six main pages are also listed stand-alone, in the order they are meant to be read, but WITHOUT the quasi cut-to-the-quick breakdown or explanation at DELICIOUS. The INTRODUCTION page to AWAKENING 101 offers a clarification as well for those who may chose to follow the more outlined structure of the course. See also my MySpace Blog on the same subject.
As to the comment by Marcello: "even as advanced as you may privately deem yourself to be," never mind, I suppose Inka Shomei, the Seal of Approval, at the Fourth Level, or ken-chu-shi as they may or may not apply to the Wanderling as deemed by others.
Sri Ramana Maharshi's opinion on the matter may count for something as found in The Last American Darshan.
May 31, 2009 5:26 PM
It has taken me at least a month to get through to folder three: I would love to know your real name, but that's not so important except that you set up the "my mentor" and "yourself" as a sort of treasure hunt --- like a carrot dangling, implicating that at the end of the story all will be revealed --- which I don't think it will, yet it still catches one's interest like a hook. Thankfully I have moved on from being interested in your life, though I guess you must have used opium and or heroin for more than a couple of days to get a physical habit.[1] So, from Doing Hard Time In A Zen Monastery to writing with all the spider web links, it in itself reminds me how our mind works --- and at the end you have the Koan of the monk chopping off his arm and asking Bodhidharma to pacify his mind: the exact same Koan I am presently on: so maybe master I beg you to pacify my mind. Thanks for your endeavours and the space to write. Gassho Tetto,
Karen
[1] W RESPONDS: It is not known the actual length of time that transpired between the time initially being abducted by the warlord's men and finding myself coming out of a near Nirodha state sitting in front of the monastery. It could have been merely days to being weeks or possibly months. It is my guesstimate any major use or subjectation under the auspices of the warlord's men was frontloaded toward the beginning, perhaps at the most the first half or so of any elasped time, eventually fading to zero (forever) somewhere past, near, or before the mid-point.
THROUGH TWITTER
Thursday, April 23, 2009 12:33 AM
From:Geocities shutting down. What will happen to the most brilliant web project ever? Awakening 101 http://bit.ly/1w9wxi
AWAKENING 101
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 7:37 AM
From: "Andrew B"To: the Wanderling
I have been reading through your course, Awakening 101, for the past few weeks and, having some pleasing results, thought I should drop you a line to say thanks.
A bit about me, I have been a spiritual seeker for about 17 years, begining meditation within Zen about a year into that, and having my first Kensho three or so months into that practice. I then became interested in Western Ceremonial magic and came to adopt that as my primary path, but I continued my interest in the mystical side of the coin too.
About three years after my Kensho, I performed a daily invocation of a god over about 6 weeks (Pan), the culmination of which was the basic dualities of the universe resolving themselves in me, then perceiving the fundamental emtpiness of everything, and then this sense of dissolution, dissolved itself. So there was notning, no me, no universe to work in and no path. The equivilant state as Satori.
I continued with my magical practice and a few years later I returned again to mediation, as part of that, mediating everyday for about a year within the Yoga tradition, until reaching Atmadarshana, and then Shivadarshana. My state of being improved greatly, after the basic duality state that follows Satori (between the emptiness you and everything is, and 'conditioned existance), but I knew this was not the ultimate state. These states are divorced from the normal flow of thought. I wanted to experience my awakening in every moment.
After 15 years of work I completed my magical path recently, as represented by the Qabalistic Tree of Life, but still felt a last piece missing. I started to feel drawn towards Zen again, as at the begining of my path, and soon found your web-site. I began to meditate using Zazen, while reading your site, pursuing the ultimate state of Nirvikalpa Samadhi.
Well about 10 or so days ago I entered this state and it has been settling in me ever since. It is a joy to at last have that ultimate state of spirituality I have been working for for so long where everything is perfect and just works all by itself. The Nothing and the All are the same thing at last. (Interestingly, on reading the Susan Segal page, I worked out how long it had been since my Satori and it was 12 years and five months!, so the twleve year rule was the case with me also.)
So once again thanks for your site. It really cut to the core of the issue and I will tell anyone I meet in the future who is genuinely intersted in Awakening to check out your site.
Yours in thanks,
Andrew
the Wanderling
Aug 9, 2008 2:58 AM
From: One NothingnessSubject: I want to thank you.
Over the last 4 years I have been directed and visited your page over and over again. It guided me on my journey of awakening since the first satori experience I had in the summer of 2004.
It helped deepened my understanding of Buddhism and particularly Zen Buddhism, even though I come from Vietnam and was aquainted with Mahayana Buddhism at an early age.
I visit your site now and then, and everytime I visit your site, I learn something new and gain a deeper understanding. Thank you!
Namaste
Monday, January 02, 2006 - 4:10 pm
I was a PCV in Jamaica and stayed at Bamboo Lodge with Rick Stock - I believe we were the first PCVs to stay there. When were you there?
Dorothy Rozga
W RESPONDS: The photo/jpg is of Dorothy Rozga around the same year she posted the above email (2006). During the time period she is talking about being in the Peace Corps in Jamaica, age-wise, she was somewhere in her mid to late twenties. The answer to her question, "When were you there?" can be found on page three of ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT: The Path Unfolds.
Further down the page from the answer I write about drinking a warm tea-like broth offered me by the Jamaican man of spells called an Obeah and in the process mention Bamboo Lodge that Rozga refers to:
"With absolutely no effort I was able to swoop down the darkened mountain gullies and high into the air, eventually passing above Bamboo Lodge recognizable along the mountain road even in the dark because of a large empty swiming pool. Then, just barely above the treetops I picked up speed and headed toward the lighted streets and tall buildings of New Kingston. Soon I was even higher in the air over Port Royal, Lime Cay, and the Caribbean. Then somehow the exhilaration began to fade. I turned back toward the mountains as a creeping apprehension seeped into my thoughts. Then nothing."(see)
Bamboo Lodge must be like Grand Central Station. Back in the days I lived in Jamaica I always thought of it as a sort of a remote and secluded spot high up in the Blue Mountains, but instead all kinds of people are coming out of the woodwork right and left as having been in the Peace Corps and stayed there. Who knew? The latest is the unnamed person in the photo below that someone says they knew as a PCV who stayed there:
PEACE CORPS ZEN
Jamaica
BELOW IS A COPY OF AN EMAIL WRITTEN BY A CONCERNED ADEPT THAT WAS SENT TO AN ASSOCIATE OF MINE WHO THEN FORWARDED IT TO ME. IN THE EMAIL, THE ADEPT VOICES CONCERN THAT SOMEWHERE IN MY WRITINGS I "TRASHED" ENLIGHTENMENT INTENSIVES, A METHOD TOWARD THE AWAKENING EXPERIENCE HE FINDS FAVOR WITH:
I found this site and your's was the ony name associated with an email address. Perhaps you can put me in touch with the fellow that pontificates and hides behind cutsey nature pictures. Old metaphors. You can do better. If I'm wrong, perhaps you can rectify that.
You trash Enlightenment Intensives with absolutely no discussion, clarification, explanation, nothing. Just a blot. Do you even know what you're slandering? I don't think so.
Alan Watts knew about them. He called it A True Western Zen when I discussed it with him personally, on his houseboat in Sausalito, a few decades ago. Afterward we went to the Trident and ate boullibaise and drank white wine.(see)
It's clear to me you've never taken an intensive or talked to anyone who runs them, or even a participant.
Sure, they charge a few bucks and oversell their product - so what? These are everyday folks working straight jobs and renting a venue that can handle 20 to 50 people. They take time off from work, buy groceries, recruit a staff, pay their transportation, marketing and so forth and so on. There is no guru, no organization, no doctrine, no cult, nobody boffing the devotees. There's no glory, (Well, maybe a little adoration of the master at the end of an intensive - people are pretty emotional). Nothing, except the uncountable rewards of helping people find their true nature. It's just far too much heartfelt, spill-your-guts, let it all hang out work, solid work. And nobody leaves the same as when they came in.
And its been going on for nearly 40 years, and people keep coming. What fools!
Certainly, nobody walks out of there as Ramana Maharshi. Are you?(see) Are you that enlightened?(see) Or are you a little attached to an ego(see) that says if somebody pays for their food and lodging and a few bucks to the staff that works their butts off, it can't possibly be true. If you don't sweat your cojones off in sessin, it can't be so? Zen, and sessin are developments in technology, the technology of getting people more consciousness. Why can't there be a further development in technology.
What if you had a sessin but instead of holding silence and only rarely speaking to the master, you worked with a partner who stood in proxy of the master and heard what happened whenever you held your question? What if it turned out that the silence in the sessin was a mistake? What if the practise of communicating with a peer, a democratization of the imperial model of development, worked?
I only know two people who studied under Joshu Sasaki Roshi at the Mt. Baldy Zen center. They attained Kensho. They say the experiences they have on intensives are wider, deeper, more profound and a lot faster.
Maybe you ought to find out what the truth is before you set yourself up to trash a useful practise.
I think you have done harm to the effort to get people more conscious, and thus your karma. You've maligned an honest effort, an effective practise. Get your karma clean.
If you can tell me something substantive, something real as to why this is not a beneficial practise, do so. If not, change your tune, clean up your act, and get off your ego.
Ken
W's RESPONSE:
I am not sure what specific reference to Enlightenment Intensives the above writer is refering to. In that many of my pages have come and gone over the years it may or may not still be available somewhere on the net and I may or may not written whatever his concerns are. However, I do recall that on one of the pages of AWAKENING 101, my onetime free online Dharma course that had been on the net for eight or ten years and is currently unavailable, there was a reference to Enlighten Intensives on a page within the course titled "Enlightenment Knows No Master." On that page the following, written by me, was found:
What I am getting at, in the end it doesn't matter: Enlightenment is Enlightenment is Enlightenment. If it comes from overhearing a stanza, hearing a pebble being swept striking bamboo, the offerings provided here, or someone offering something like The Sedona Method, CoreLight, or Enlightenment Intensives then so be it. For me, however, there is a bottom-line punchline that all the bells and whistles never quite reach. It is hoped what is offered here in AWAKENING 101 will carry for you the right escort in your endeavors, that the veil of Samsara dissipates, and that Sunyata be realized and remain your abode forever.
For the author of the above email to take it personally is to miss the crux of my meager Zen droppings. It is not Enlightenment Intensives per se' but all forms of formalized endeavors: rituals, satsang, study-practice, meditation, that the end expectation is supposed to be Enlightenment. Except for one's "mind being ripe" none of it is really necessary.
"The Buddha said that neither the repetition of holy scriptures, nor self-torture, nor sleeping on the ground, nor the repetition of prayers, penances, hymns, charms, mantras, incantations and invocations can bring us the real happiness of Nirvana. Instead the Buddha emphasized the importance of making individual effort in order to achieve our spiritual goals. He likened it to a man wanting to cross a river; sitting down and praying will not suffice, but he must make the effort to build a raft or a bridge."
.(source)
As John Wren-Lewis, an Enlightened person in his own right following a Near Death Experience, says pretty much same in relation to the above:
"Against this background, the main positive advice I would give to spiritual seekers is to experiment with any practice or idea that seems interesting - which is what the Buddha urged a long time ago, though not too many of his followers have ever taken that part of his teaching seriously. Ancient traditions and modern movements alike may be very valuable as databases for new adventures, but to treat them as authorities to be obeyed is not only 'unscientific' - it seems to go against the grain of the divine lila itself, since novelty is apparently the name of the time game."
Following up on the same theme, Wren-Lewis is quoted in LOTUS-FEET OF CLAY: A Reluctant Mystic Looks At Spiritual Movements and of which, because of my own experience, I am in agreement with and most likely would not be able to improve on in my own words:
"Indeed, as my research progressed I became irritated and concerned by the way most systems protect themselves in advance against any expectation of a substantial success-rate by representing Enlightenment as a very high, difficult achievement requiring years or perhaps lifetimes of intense effort; the most articulate modern cartographer of the spiritual life, Ken Wilber, actually makes the comparison with becoming a master musician, scientist or athlete. Such a model is totally at odds with the key feature of God-consciousness as I know it in my own firsthand experience, namely its quintessential ordinariness and obviousness --- a feature actually emphasized by many mystics from whom Wilber himself quotes. While I wouldn't go as far as Krishnamurti by totally denying that mediation and other disciplines could ever help towards realizing God as "just the way things are," I know absolutely from my own case that such intensive training isn't necessary, and I see no evidence either from history or from modern movements that it's any kind of sure road to awakening."
Refering to Karma and cleaning up one's act, in Enlightenment and Karma the following is presented:
Cause and effect, just like birth and death, lose their significance at the Enlightened level because at the level of basic nature there is no one to receive the effect of Karma, whether it is good or bad. Therefore, at the extreme, when one is Enlightened, the law of Karma is not applicable. All that the Enlightened one does, says, or thinks is through free will, a manifestation of basic nature, and not the effect of past Karma.
Also found in The Truth of Karma, the Buddha taught the following principles:
- One who makes numerous offerings to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, helps sentient being, and does many good deeds, and yet dedicates all the merit accumulated thereby to one's own or one's relatives interest such as making more money or enjoying a longer or better present or future life produces limited effects.
- One who does those same good deeds but dedicates all the merit to saving sentient beings from suffering in Samsara receives much greater merit than the one with selfish purposes.
- Finally, one who does the same good deeds with no specific purpose or desire at all receives infinitely greater merit than the two cases mentioned above.
It should be brought to the attention of the readers that the editor of Self & Other, linked below with an article by the same Ken that sent the above email, says within the contents of his publication, that Ken, at a Mount Baldy intensive, attained a state of immortality.
The definition for Kensho or Satori should, within the perimeter of their definitions, if not encompass totally, should most certainly do so peripherally, the meaning behind, as used in context, the above quote: "attained a state of immortality." However, one's personal being, encompassing either state (Kensho, Satori), does not say anything at all about the ability of the experiencer to teach others or in any way be of assistance to the spiritual needs of others. Which brings us to those who provide instruction to participants seeking Awakening in intensives or similar or like enterprises. A clear distinction must be made between a person who has an Enlightenment-experience and an Enlightened Person. The latter category should be confined to those individuals who have the wisdom and moral character to rightfully influence others plus the charismatic abilities to do so in an entirely non-exploitive manner. This would define an Enlightened Sage or holy person. Such a person may have had a Enlightenment-experience, sudden or gradual, OR may have a natural spiritual maturity which excludes the need for a Satoric-experience; although if we depend on historical records, a natural sage without an Awakening experience operating at or near the level of an Enlightened Sage is far, far rarer than one having a similar or like natural spiritual maturity AND Enlightenment experience. (source)
Many have Awakened to the Absolute out of nowhere with little or no formal religious background, and definitely without a personal guru or extensive or expensive intensives --- so, as stated previously, in the end none of it may really be necessary. Two high profile examples being the venerated Indian holy man the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, mentioned in the email above, and the Sixth Patriarch of Zen, Hui Neng. A much lower example of such an Awakening basically out of nowhere --- with no more that just an HOUR within sitting range of Ramana's presence AND with none other than possibly the clean spiritual plate of a young innocent and the mind being ripe --- and for sure with NO previous religious training, meditation, or studies or knowledge of the scriptures, can be found in the following:
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
PLEASE SEE:
CRITICAL CONCERNS WITH AWAKENING 101
As is easily seen from the above not everybody considers AWAKENING 101, my various presentations or pontifications as so aptly put in the above email by Ken, as a valid vehicle. Others, as in the Critical Concerns link, have expressed similar viewpoints. I mean, you ought to see the scathing attack presented in IN THE WAY OF ENLIGHTENMENT: THE TEN FETTERS OF BUDDHISM. You would think the Wanderling was one of the Fetters! Oh well, what can I say, in the end it's your call.ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT IN A NUTSHELL
Both AWAKENING 101 and ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT IN A NUTSHELL are FREE. Both offerings, the same as with the ancient and classical masters, are instilled with opening the Dharama Gate along the path for those who may be so interested not unlike like conceptually available to the female Zen adept Chiyono for the "mind being ripe" when the bottom of the pail breaks through.HOW TO RECOGNIZE ENLIGHTENMENT
THE BIG FAKE OUT
Please note the article "The Big Fake Out" is by the same Ken as the Ken in the above email. Currently there is no return email address available to contact Ken regarding the content of his above email or the linked articleDEATH HAD A FACE
Compare the Death Had A Face link with the contents of the previoulsy cited Big Fake Out link.
AND NOW THIS:
It is often said that when you truly need a teacher, one will appear. This may due to some inexplicable serendipity. It may be due to the fact that the seeker has searched deeply within himself or herself and determined what sort of instruction seems to be required. It could be swept over him or her like the First Death Experience of the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, or the Bhagavan's little known Second Death Experience, or a spiritual desperation on the part of the seeker, or maybe no more than a successful sales pitch by a teacher (sincere or not). It may be a combination of the previous factors, or some intuitive awareness beyond expression. For whatever the reason, the saying often applies and the coming together of the results of inner and outside forces, some within one's control, some without, can be found most eloquently as they all come together in the following:
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
It should be noted that Adam Osborne, who, as a young boy grew up at the Ramana ashram and the son of one of the foremost Ramana biographers Arthur Osborne, played a prominent role in the Last American Darshan as linked above.
Long before there was an internet there was a man of great spiritual Attainment by the name of Alfred Pulyan. In lieu of the internet Pulyan had in those days what would be called a mail order following. People that came to hear about him and his level of Attinment 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 combined with it is thought, the weight behind the meaning of the four lines of the stanza attributed to the First Patriarch of C'han Buddhism, Bodhidharma that starts with A special transmission outside the scriptures. Pulyan claimed to have a 70% success rate, more than ten times higher than the ancient Zen masters.
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 the free online Dharma course exploring the Enlightening experience, AWAKENING 101 came about.
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. The one major example of claimed Attainment fully through such an approach is 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.(see) 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.
By the way, don't let the above letters sway you --- not everybody considers AWAKENING 101 as a valid vehicle. I mean, you ought to see the scathing attack presented in IN THE WAY OF ENLIGHTENMENT: The Ten Fetters of Buddhism. You would think the Wanderling was one of the Fetters! So too with what is found in THE WANDERLING AND WIKIPEDIA. Oh well, what can I say, in the end it's your call.
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.
(PLEASE CLICK)
AWAKENED TEACHERS FORUM
ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT IN A NUTSHELL
GASSHO
(PLEASE CLICK)
CLICK
HERE FOR
ENLIGHTENMENT
ON THE RAZOR'S
EDGE
SEE ALSO:
THE BUDDHA AND THE QUALITIES OF A DHARMA TEACHER
REACHING 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. Below are two suggestions on how to reach me through e-mail --- either through the Wanderling link directly below and follow the steps OR the MySpace link below that. Be advised your message could be lost in the shuffle or forgotten to death using the first method 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:
THE WANDERLING
(please click)
The author of the email writes:
"Alan Watts knew about them. He called it A True Western Zen when I discussed it with him personally, on his houseboat in Sausalito, a few decades ago. Afterward we went to the
Trident and ate boullibaise and drank white wine."
So who hasn't? Long before the email was sent to me, my page, ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT: The Path Unfolds, was made available, as mentioned in The Letter, on the net. Page two has a longtime appearing paragraph that, without mentioning Alan Watts or Sausalito DOES mention Emmanuel (Alfred) Sorensen, known as Shunyata, who, if one knows their history, was invited to stay on the Watts houseboat in Sausalito --- in the "marina," spoken of below, where I picked him up. The reason Watts wasn't mention regarding picking up Sorensen is because Watts had died the year before, in November 1973, but I had been to the houseboat --- actually a former 1870s stern-wheel ferryboat named SS Vallejo once moored in the mudflats off gate 5 road --- several times previously over the years with my mentor, just not in connection with Shunyata:
"In 1974 another of the few occurrences where the man next door mentioned someone specific transpired, only this time, unlike above, how I downplay the extent of my meeting with
Swami Ramdas, I actually met the person involved. My Mentor sent word requesting I pick him up along the California coast and take him to one of the marinas in the Bay area to meet an old friend visiting from India. It had been at least twenty years since he had been on the mainland, so it was quite clear something important was up. Plus, except the brief encounter with Swami Ramdas as I have described it above, with me being brand new at the time I had never really met anyone from his past. Now, with some experience under my belt I was most anxious to do so."The old friend turned out to be Emmanuel (Alfred) Sorensen, known as Shunyata, a man of great spiritual renown, although much to my chagrin, that I was not totally familiar with at the time. He was European, at the very least in his eighties, spoke with an accent, dressed somewhat like an east Indian, and, as it turned out, truly one of the most remarkable individuals I have ever met. Sorensen, it has been said, was BORN Awake. My Mentor and Sorensen had known each other from the early years when both inadvertently met while travelling in India and had, unlike
Upaka the Ascetic on the road to Benares, immediately recognized in each other the aspect of Awakening. The man had remained in India since the early 1930s and had only recently arrived in California for a short stay."
It should be noted the visit by Sorensen in 1974 was his first or initial visit. In 1978, at age 88 he moved to California on a permanent basis, under the auspices of the Watts' leftovers. In July, 1984 he moved into a house in Fairfax several miles north of Sausalito. After living almost his whole life in India and with only a few short years in California, in 1984, at age 93, he was hit by a car while crossing the street in Fairfax and died in hospital soon afterwards. In 1978, when Sorensen moved to California to stay, I was living in Jamaica. During that period my mentor died. When I returned to the states I wasn't even aware Sorensen had moved to California until sometime later when the circumstances surrounding his death filtered down to me.
It was during that same trip north to take my mentor to meet Shunyata that, while visiting a friend in San Jose' that I met a young Steve Jobs, the eventual founder of Apple Computer, who was at the time contemplating a trip to India. Within weeks, or maybe even days, of our meeting Jobs made his decision and left for India.
