for general reading on this Zen master's realisation. He passed
away about 10 years ago but left behind only a few books.
You can read his realisation free of charge on his website.
http://www.richardrose.org/
Below is a chapter taken from his book " The
absolute" online.
"It began with a tremendous pain right in the top of my head.
Now I've had pain before, but nothing like this. Tears were
streaming down my face. I couldn't stand it. My head felt like it
was going to explode, and I thought, 'Oh boy, three thousand miles
from home and here I go.' I was convinced I was dying. Nobody could
have that much pain and live. I remember thinking it must be a
stroke, and I worried about how my people were going to get my body
back home. They didn't have money to be shipping bodies across the
country.
"Then, at the peak of the pain, I went out the window. I could
see the Cascade mountains from my hotel room, and that's where I
went--out the window and towards those snow-capped mountains. I was
aware of seeing people on the street, except that I was above them.
I passed over the people, and then over the mountains, and I
watched this just like I was in an airplane. And I kept going out
until I arrived at a 'place.' I don't say where. It wasn't the
Cascades or anywhere else I knew. It wasn't on Earth because there
was no sun, there was no sky. I simply arrived at a high place, and
it was beautiful.
"I became aware at some point that I was in a causal realm--that
I was the reason for its existence, that whatever I thought became
a reality. In other words, I was causing things to happen,
to be created, merely by desiring or thinking about them. The
thought passed through me then that I was alone and that I wanted
to see humanity--all of it. And so they appeared, all of
humanity--everyone who had ever lived, everyone who ever
would live--covering a huge mountain below me, crawling
over each other like maggots, trying to get to the top. I was aware
that they were engaged in a struggle that had an ultimate spiritual
goal, but their immediate lives and pleasures were pathetic. I was
still in some sort of astral form at this point--still maintaining
an attachment to the body and to these people--and so I felt a
tremendous amount of grief and sadness for their seemingly
senseless struggle.
"I knew that if I desired I could pick out individuals, that I
could see any man or woman who ever lived or ever would live.
Because there was no such thing as time. These people were all
living now--no matter what the earth time was for their lives--and
all I had to do was pick them out, if I wished.
"So I thought to myself, if everyone is down there, then I must
be there, too. And I looked down into the maggot pile, and there I
was--Richard Rose. I could see myself struggling down there, the
little man, happy in his illusion. I could see his whole life
pattern.
"And then I thought, 'If that's Richard Rose down there, who's
watching all this?' Suddenly I realized I was not just my
individual self. I was the whole mass of humanity and the
Observer watching it all--I was Everything. This propelled
me into an indescribable experience of what I can only call
‘Everything-ness.’
