About

Richard Rose was one of the most profound and unusual spiritual teachers this country has ever produced. A native son from the hills of West Virginia, Mr. Rose underwent a cataclysmic spiritual experience at the age of thirty that left him with an intimate understanding of the secrets of life and death. He is often referred to as a “Zen Master” by the people who knew him because of the depth of his wisdom and the spiritual system he conveyed to his students. But he did not expound traditional Zen, or any other traditional teachings. What he taught was unique because it arose from his direct personal experience of the Truth.

Though he was the author of several books on esoteric philosophy and lectured widely in universities across the country, Richard Rose has remained largely unknown. He has been described, in fact, as “The greatest man no one’s ever heard of.” He appeared in newspaper articles and on local talk shows during lecture tours, and was featured in spiritual journals from time to time, but his teaching is a throw-back to that of the stern Zen masters of a thousand years ago, and his hard-edged, uncompromising approach to life and spiritual work is not a path for the masses.

From a very early age, Richard Rose was a man on a mission: to find an answer to the great riddle of life. One of his earliest memories is writing over and over in an awkward child’s hand, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” At the age of twelve, encouraged by his parents, he entered a Capuchin seminary in Pennsylvania to study for the priesthood. His mother was most adamant about his becoming a priest, while he wanted, simply, to find God. After five years he left, however, disenchanted with religious life and its constant admonitions to be content to believe church doctrines, not to seek a personal experience of God.