Reviewer: Shawn Nevins (sanevins@earthlink.net) from Austin, TX
It is interesting to read the author as he interacts with questioners. Rose comes across as sincerely attempting to help people uncover their spiritual blocks. I've read all of Rose's books and find this the easiest to read. It's a good introduction to his work.
Reviewer: David Weimer (dwweimer@aol.com) from Memphis, TN
This one's great. I can relate to the students asking questions at the lectures. I feel this speaker is right on target. This guy knows something.
Like the best NOVA special on esoteric philosophy, or a search for truth, 'The Direct-Mind Experience' is undiluted and to the point.
At the front of the book are good introductions to the six lectures (given at various universities) by Richard Rose. After the talks, there is a chapter about points of reference for a spiritual searcher. He concludes with a one page statement directly to the reader.
You won't find this information anywhere else. July 18, 1999
Reviewer: Art Ticknor (selfinq@aol.com) from Moundsville, WV
This is a perplexing book. Entertaining, inspiring, and perplexing. Mix the gentleness, humor and compassionate affection for foolish, suffering mankind of Ramana Maharshi with the confrontational, heaven- and earth-moving directness of Hui-neng or Huang Po and what do you get? A very inadequate description of the remarkable character of Richard Rose. Let me begin by admitting my bias, which is that Rose is light years beyond any other human being I have met, in terms of my respect. He is the man who accomplished what I believe we are all here for, what we are all striving to do, consciously or not -- and that is to define ourselves, to answer the riddle: Who am I?, to find the way back along the projected ray of our existence to the source of our essential being. The Direct-Mind Experience is a collection mostly of talks given by Rose at universities -- not academic lectures but talks, amazingly, organized by students who wanted to share their "find" with their fellow students. They range in time from a WKSU radio interview before a talk at Kent State in 1974, a talk at Boston College in 1975, and a lecture on "between-ness" at Ohio State University in 1980, to informal talks given at the rural retreat center Rose established at his farm near Wheeling, WV in 1982 and 1983. Along the way were lectures on such topics as "Moods" and "The Psychology of Miracles." Having been present at some of those talks, I can tell you that they caused consternation -- Rose probably never gave a public talk where some listeners didn't get up and leave out of anger at what they heard; dismay -- when the realization sank in of how deeply cemented we are into our habitual mode of viewing and action; and effervescent hope -- from hearing the testimony of a man who had cut the Gordian knot that prevents finding the answers, and who testified that anyone of average intelligence could find the answers, also. What would it take? Not post-graduate work in accumulating more and more knowledge, because Truth is not something that a person can learn. What it takes, Rose said, is a change of being. And how is this change of being accomplished? Through the direct-mind experience. What, then, is direct-mind experience? My immediate response is to recommend that you read what Rose had to say rather than relying on some garbled version that I could present to you. My understanding is that returning to our true nature, our innermost being, involves a transmission of Mind -- a viewing of the earth-man, and the dualistic mind we now experience, from a deeper perspective. Boddhidharma's four pillars of Zen (a special transmission outside the scriptures; no dependence upon words or letters; a direct pointing at the soul of man; and seeing into one's own nature and the attainments of Buddhahood) also represent this "out of the box" experience. Zen masters sometimes referred to the mind as a bridge to cross. What takes us across is, in my understanding, the direct experience of the One Mind which is our source.
Transcripts of six lectures by an enlightened man.
This one's great. I can relate to the students asking questions at the lectures. I feel the speaker is right on target. This guy knows something.
Like the best NOVA special on esoteric philosophy or the search for truth, The Direct-Mind Experience is undiluted and to the point.
Vince Lepidi (lep3@westol.com), from Greensburg, Pa., November 28, 1999,
A wealth of insight into the mind and the path of Self-Realization
This book contains lectures, notes, informal discussions, an interview, and a Chautauqua talk by Richard Rose, esoteric philosopher and teacher, during the years 1974-82. In part because of encountering dead ends and deceptions in his own spiritual search, Rose vowed he would help others in their search, in order to find the answer in this lifetime. Topics include the Zen versus the devotional approach to the truth, moods, states of mind, and the effects of fear, seduction, and nostalgia on the spiritual search. Rose warns of the dangers of 'religious democracy' and stresses the importance of employing doubt until one knows for himself. I found this volume to be a lively, easy to read, and refreshingly frank explanation of the quest for spiritual enlightenment. It is certainly one of the finest and most practical books I've ever read on contemplative mysticism and spirituality.
Also recommended: Zen and the Psychology of Transformation by Hubert Benoit
Shawn Nevins (sanevins@earthlink.net), from Austin, TX, November 24, 1999,
Excellent introduction to a sincere spiritual teacher
Contains transcripts of Richard Rose in lectures and meetings. Captures much of his philosophy and method of working with students. His sincerity, breadth of knowledge, and being really show.
Also recommended: Look for Yourself: The Science and Art of Self-Realization by Douglas Harding