Recently a reader of my works sent me an email thanking me for my page on Guy Hague, the man many think was the real life role model for Larry Darrell, the main character and spiritual traveler that attained Enlightenment in W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge. The author related that she first became privy to the Hague page through a footnote link in Wikipedia related to The Razor's Edge. From there, she said, because of the additional links and information provided on my pages, she encountered nothing but a continuing wellspring of information regarding Maugham's novel --- easing and widening in a sense her own understanding along her path toward Enlightenment.

Pleased that she was pleased, I went to the Wikipedia page, and sure enough there were two footnotes linked to my Hague page --- neither of which had been solicited by me nor put there by me or an associate. Reviewing the Wikipedia article I noticed something lacking. In that I am an editor of Wikipedia --- albeit, at the time, in a longtime limbo of such pursuits it must be admitted, thinking it might clarify some of the reasons why Larry Darrell chose to go to India in the first place, which to me is very important to the gist of the novel, in a relevant spot I wrote then inserted the following brief section at the end of one of the paragraphs:

"Meanwhile, Larry begins a sojourn through Europe taking a job at a coal mine in Lens, France where he befriends a former Polish army officer named Kosti. Kosti encourages Larry to look toward things spiritual for his answers rather than in books. Larry and Kosti leave the coal mine and travel together for a time then part ways. Larry then meets a Benedictine monk named Father Ensheim in Bonn, Germany while Father Ensheim is on leave from his monastery doing academic research. Father Ensheim, having certain insights other than strictly western spiritual influences, suggests Larry widen his spiritual perimeters and go to India in search of answers." (see)

At the same time, taking a hint from the very academic BESTSELLING NOVELS OF THE 20TH CENTURY: The Razor's Edge (Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), I footnoted the coal miner Kosti to a page on Kosti, albeit not written by me together with a another footnote related to the Benedictine monk, Father Ensheim, written by me. In so doing, there was no incidious intent on my part --- the idea being at the most to bring forth easy access and expand for whosoever might be interested, a more indepth or specific look at the two people responsible for Darrell going to India --- and of which IF he had not gone, there would have been no story.

Now, this is where things get interesting. I go back to the Wikipedia page a few days later and lo and behold, what do I find? The paragraph is still there and intact, but NOT my footnote links. Not only are both of the click-through footnotes on Kosti and Father Ensheim totally and fully removed and gone, but so too is the Hague link that I had nothing whatsoever to do with in the first place. Matter of fact, ironically enough, links by me missing or deleted notwithstanding, if you go to one of the links on the page that have been left in place (not mine), the one by renowned author David Godman titled Somerset Maughm and the Razor's Edge, you will find that by going to his page the ONLY click-through link on his page suggests that you go to my MAIN Razor's Edge page that inturn displays prominently the Guy Hague site.

The Guy Hague footnote links that were on the page originally were sought out, used and put into place by whoever wrote the article in the first place. Why use my Hague page as a footnote reference? Because, if you want to learn, know, or pass onto others any indepth information regarding Hague my page is the ONE that has it. Except possibly for the upcoming materials and information currently in the process of being accumulated --- albeit not yet available to the general public --- by Hague researcher Dennis Wills, mine is the most comprehensive, most researched, and offers a variety of sources and resources --- not to mention the fact that I knew Hague personally. Another page of mine, only this time related to the so-called city of immortals said to be hidden in a remote valley high in the Himalayas and known in the west as Shangri-La, Shambhala, disappeared too. Even a link on the Wikipedia page related to the object of unknown origin that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 I put on titled UFO OVER L.A.: The Battle of Los Angeles --- which, within the text, made numerous mentions of and related back to Roswell --- they would not let stand. Not only is the page written by an eyewittness to the event --- me as a young boy --- it has an exclusive one-on-one personal interview done only by me from an adult eyewittness that actually confirmed the route of the object as it came in behind the mountains and turned into the L.A. basin --- no matter, deleted. One would think almost anything would be a go when related to the Roswell UFO.

In anycase, I went back into the running tabs that Wikipedia keeps on editors and it shows that it had been over three years since I had put any links or edits on ANY of their pages --- the last being in 2006 on the Wikipedia page related to the Yaqui indian shaman-sorcerer Don Juan Matus, as written by author Carlos Castaneda --- who of which, by the way, I carry a semi-personal interest in because of having met and known Castantena over a period of years in my youth. So, I go to the page and guess what, no link. Thinking that anything can happen in three years, re-editing or whatever, I re-link it with the following link: Don Juan Matus. Not that it matters in the general overall scheme of things because, as it is, if you go to Google and type in Don Juan Matus typically my page comes up before Wikipedia anyway. But, agreeing with the presumed overriding view of the inherent general philosophy of WIKIPEDIA The Free Encyclopedia, that the idea is to make as much information with as many valid, credible, and varying issues to as many people as possible I figured what the heck, there are lots of pages that have come up over time that I could put links on so, "Why not?"

My page on the venerated Indian holy man the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi typically comes up if not in the top five at least the top ten in a Google search --- out of over 57,000. I go to the Wikipedia page on Sri Ramana and put a link to my related link SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: The Last American Darshan on the page. Checked back a few days later. Gone. At the sametime, in the main text, using Wikipedia's click-through link format I footnoted Ramana's First Death Experience at age seventeen as well as his Second Death Experience twelve years later. Both footnotes had been deleted by the time I checked the Darshan link. In the meantime the link I put on the Don Juan page, a person many think is not a real person, being no more than a figment of Castaneda's overwrought imagination, disappeared as well.

I have a page that is probably as good as any on Paris Hilton titled Paris Hilton and the Art of Zen Enlightenment relating to that time in her life when she decided to find spirituality --- that explores why it would NOT be impossible for even Paris Hilton to experience Enlightenment --- a stretch for some to embrace perhaps, but the whole thesis being to help ease the Dharma gate for ANYONE, Ms Hilton included, who may be interested. In so saying, I go to the main Wikipedia Paris Hilton page and put a link to my page. Checked back a few days later. Gone.

The thing is, if any of you have read or gone through any of my pages you will learn that, as mentioned above, ALL of it is put together to do no more than help ease the Dharma gate for ANYONE who may be so interested. Only the Dharma pure and simple offered through the free Zen Enlightenment related AWAKENING 101 and the somewhat more concise, compact, and academic Buddhism In Forty-Eight Chapters. Both are FREE and both are self-paced, requiring no registration and fully available on the net to anyone. No place among any of MY offerings are there any solicitations or requests for donations, fees or charges made on my behalf. Nothing, no books, audio tapes, speaking tours, tee shirts, ballpoint pens, caps or anything else, is sold, hawked or marketed through or by me or any associate. None of it is a commercial venture. Education only. Learning only. The pages that I have attempted to link through on the various Wikipedia pages are integral parts of both offerings. Everything is intended to be educational in nature on one hand and ripen one's mind on the other one hand clapping so that when the right moment manifests itself, Enlightenment will burst clear the veil of the Samsara world. Why, in real life, that any of the material offered through my meager Zen droppings would be misconstrued as being unacceptable to the Wikipedia seaching and reading audience to such a point that they would be actually deleted is beyond me and questionable at best. [1]

Sarlo, who writes, runs, maintains, and edits the absolute BEST of any and all of the online guru rating sites, Sarlo's Guru Rating Service, writes, in what I feel is a delightfully indepth insight --- in his own inscrutable way of course, that only he can do --- the following about ME and my various offerings:

"It's organic and sprawling, but intricately interlinked, linking also to outside sites. One of the most fascinating aspects of this interconnectedness is that his collection is not very systematic in the usual sense. Forget site map, there is nothing for it when visiting but to wander from one page to another without much sense of where you're going, and usually without completing the page you're on, which you may return to only after a long garden path. In reading, you become a wanderer.

"One more tidbit is the domain structure. The Wanderling has undertaken to create his project in free website places, assembling a myriad of apparently different sites, but all interwoven. As the free website places fold and merge and change their rules, he shifts accordingly, thus a migration happens on this level as well."

I love what Sarlo said and how he says it. Nobody, in all the years my stuff has been on the net, has anybody ever said or thought anything that came so close to the essence of it all. Everytime I read it I shake my head in wonderment. To the core the man went, to the core. The thing is, why again, is what I have to offer missed by Wikipedia to such a point that anytime I link something, it has to be deleted?

Sarlo's view is taken up by Jijimuge in Critical Concerns With Awakening 101 wherein Jijimuge writes in response to a Zen adept concerns and may offer a reason:

"Even Sarlo, who refused to "recognize" the Wanderling for years, says, albeit with somewhat more reverence and tongue in cheek, the same thing about him. However, not everyone, primarily because of drawing conceptual construct inferences while being firmly implanted in the Samsaric side of any equation, are willing to do so (i.e. as the poster calls it, navigate). Once the seeker realizes what is going on, things change. The problem is is that the Wanderling is not time-lineal. It is like throwing a rock into a still pond. The concentric rings radiate outward one after the other. The outer ring was once the inner ring and the inner ring will become the outer ring. For the Wanderling there is no difference, ring, rock, pond, first or last. All well and good for him, but what about us. It is like a joke. If you get it it doesn't need to be explained. If it needs to be explained something is lost."

Buddhism In Forty-Eight Chapters is more "time-lineal" in the classical sense while AWAKENING 101 is more like Sarlo and Jijimuge portrays my works. Even so, it is still fairly simple. Everything revolves around the following six main pages --- in the same numerical order --- as found on Delicious --- that ultimately lead to Enlightenment:

SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI: THE LAST AMERICAN DARSHAN

THE MEETING: AN UNTOLD STORY OF SRI RAMANA

ZEN ENLIGHTENMENT: THE PATH UNFOLDS

DOING HARD TIME IN A ZEN MONASTERY

THE RAZOR'S EDGE: W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM, SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI, GUY HAGUE AND ZEN

DARK LUMINOSITY: AN AWAKENING EXPERIENCE IN THE ZEN TRADITION

In-between and along the way to the above six I met and interacted with such spiritual personages as Franklin Merrell-Wolff at his compound high in the mountains of the Sierras, Swami Ramdas, the holy man intitally responsible for sending Larry Darrell to Sri Ramana in the first place, as well as Alfred Pulyan, an unknown, anonymous American Zen master of high Attainment among others of equal stature or Enlightenment.

Pages under my auspices come in two main catagories, both of which inturn, are broken down into three basic types. The two main catagories are 1.) those written by me and 2.) those presented by me. Those written by me are just that, written by me. Those written by me are just that, written by me. Those presented by me are written by others --- but specifically selected by me. Sometimes those written by others I just let stand, sometimes I include, but always stated as having done so, addendums, modifications, and additions by me. Some presented I am in agreement with, some that I present have a view I disagree with --- with explanations as to why. In a sort of introduction bottom up fashion some are from a layperson's view, some are highly academic, --- often covering the same subject mattter. Original sources are always cited, typically with easy click through links. Except for a few and a few that remain true to another's original, all the pages under my auspices maintain a similar, simple straightforward format and font type designed to ensure familiarity, trust, and a certain amount of comfortableness for the reader as they wend their way through the pages. Every effort is made to make sure all click-through links are up and working as well as up to date with valid information. In the main nearly every single page, in some fashion or the other, leads up to, clarifies, or is important either peripherally or directly to the above six pages. Taken together as presented in AWAKENING 101, the intent is to ease the Dharma gate for anyone along the path who may so be interested.

One night many years ago the female Zen adept Chiyono (1223-1298) was carrying water in an old wooden bucket when she happened to glance across the surface of the water and saw the reflection of the moon. As she walked the bucket began to come apart and the bottom of the pail broke through, with the water suddenly disappearing into the soil beneath her feet and the moon's reflection disappearing along with it. In that instant the young woman realized that the moon she had been looking at was just a reflection of the real thing...just as her whole life had been. She turned to look at the moon in all it's silent glory, her mind was ripe, and that was it...Enlightenment.

Although the Awakening of the Zen experience can be instantaneous or lightning-like in its execution, it does not necessarily translate into being short term in getting there. The Buddha's successor Mahakashyapa simply saw the Buddha hold up a flower and was transformed instantly. The Buddha's brother Ananda served both the Buddha and Mahakashyapa forty years before his Awakening --- and he had the direct benefit of both the Buddha and Mahakashyapa. Enlightenment can come after years of study or it can come from out of nowhere, from a mere gaze as in the Last American Darshan, listed above, or a slight touch from a hand on the shoulder as recorded in The Tree. In all cases it had to do with:

THE MIND BEING RIPE!

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FOOTNOTE [1]

In should be noted that whatever policy may or may not be in place, or whosoever is --- either team or indvidual, rogue or company backed --- the primary coordinating co-factor for ensuring the potential possibility of any of my offerings showing up or staying in place either as footnotes or links, THAT there are numerous cases throughout Wikipedia that they do remain --- both English language and foreign.

Since this page came online several readers of my works have brought forth to my attention many places where my works are and have been imbeded for years. One page that has over sixty footnotes relating to the main text has nearly 10% of them being from works done by me as cited by the author or authors.

Links or footnotes done by others that have been in place for a long time, apparently have slipped by the censors or the Wanderling Deletion Police somehow. Except, that is, for the Guy Hague footnotes. They had been put into place by someone else other than me --- with me being unaware of them until being brought to my attention. Unfortunately, the Guy Hague footnotes just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The question is, what is the difference in the pages by me that are left standing and the ones removed? Especially since, as I have written in the above main text: ALL pages under my auspices maintain a similar, simple straightforward format and font type designed to ensure familiarity, trust, and a certain amount of comfortableness for the reader as they wend their way through the pages --- with very effort made to make sure all click-through links are up and working as well as up to date with valid information.

WIKIPEDIA RULES

CITING ONESELF:

This policy does not prohibit editors with specialist knowledge from adding their knowledge to Wikipedia, but it does prohibit them from drawing on their personal knowledge without citing their sources. If an editor has published the results of his or her research in a reliable publication, the editor may cite that source while writing in the third person and complying with our neutrality policy. (source)

QUESTIONABLE SOURCES:

Just because a source is not self-published does not automatically make it reliable. Questionable sources are those with a poor reputation for fact-checking. Such sources include websites and publications that rely heavily on rumors and personal opinions, are promotional in nature, or express views that are widely acknowledged as extremist or pseudoscience. Because of this, they can be treated similarly to the way self-published sources are treated. Questionable sources should only be used as sources of information about themselves as described below. Any contentious claims the source has made about third parties should not be repeated in Wikipedia, unless those claims have also been discussed by a reliable source. (source)

WIKIPEDIA THREAD: Original Research

FYI:

The paragraph, which was originally written, composed and inserted in Wikipedia by me --- and, inturn, left intact and in place by powers that be although the footnotes were removed --- has since found it's way onto the page Larry Darrell's Spiritual Development, citing THIS page as the source.

It should be noted that Dennis G. Wills, who I have refered to in Guy Hague as "THE formost Guy Hague researcher around," and I have been in contact regarding Hague over a period of time. The two of us have highly compatible and shared interest in the man, however, it must be said, we have totally different end differences in mind when it comes to Hague. Wills' interest in Hague is him as a whole person --- who he was, where he came from, where he went to, what happened to him --- not as being somebody else or a role model for somebody else. My interest, except where and how it intertwines with Wills' research, circulates almost exclusively around Hague NOT being able to be Larry Darrell OR the role model for Larry Darrell under any circumstance. Much of my research and facts regarding Hague come from early personal interactions and remembrances with Hague while I was still a teenage boy in high school. Wills has done much more indepth and extensive hard research, including interviews with close relatives and close friends of Hague --- and done so on a much more recent basis besides. To show the extent of Wills research into Hague I have included below two exceprts from personal correspondence between Wills and myself:

"Many years ago I received the photo of Guy Hague with Ramana Maharshi from Ramana's great nephew in India, as I had been researching Hague for a long time. A reporter friend and I went to the Long Beach Public Library in l988, spread out many old city directories on the floor and eventually located Hague's youngest brother and interviewed him. This led to Hague's great nephew who provided me with scores of photographs and documents belonging to his great uncle and indicating just where he was and what he was doing, which I photographed. I eventually interviewed some people who knew Hague toward the end of his life, and I still need to drive to where he died and where his ashes ended up for further research."

Wills has gone on to say:

"You have probably also seen Anthony Curtis' reference to my Hague project in his Introduction to the Penguin edition of the book. Mercedes de Acosta was incorrect with regard to some aspects of Hague's past, but she did indeed provide enought clues to get this research started. Hague was not a causal link for the formation of the Larry Darrell character, as Maugham had been thinking about this theme for many years prior to going to India in l938. Hague will remain, however, an example of many who, touched by war or tragedy, set off on a spiritual quest. I had hoped for years that Hague, de Acosta and Maugham had met in Los Angeles in l941 when they were all there, but thus far I have not found any "smoking gun" proving this. At some point I hope to write an article or perhaps a small book about all of this. Throughout all of this I have been in touch with the major Maugham scholars around the world."

The following quote, as used in the main text above, is from the previously cited article by David Godman Somerset Maughm and the Razor's Edge:

"The similarities are striking but there is no evidence that Maugham met Hague either in India or anywhere else. Hague was not at Sri Ramanashram, or even in India, on the day that Maugham visited Bhagavan, and Dennis Wills informs me that despite intensive research he has been unable to come up with any evidence that Maugham met Hague in the years prior to the publication of The Razor's Edge."

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