This file contains Wolff's desktop photos, which he describes as follows:

I have on my desk, easily visible from where I sit . . . photographs of the four individuals who have been most important in my life . . . Sherifa, who was my first wife and with whom I lived for thirty-nine years; her son James Briggs, who was a strong masculine support in connection with my work; and also Gertrude, who was my companion during nineteen years after the passing of Sherifa. [The fourth picture is that of Shankara]—with whose mind I have felt for many years a certain rapport . . . Although there was never any formal relationship of that sort, I acted as though he were my guru. I find a particular sympathy with his kind of thinking. Actually, Gertrude’s picture is next to his.[1]

[1] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, “Running Commentary Following Gertrude’s Death,” part 46 (Lone Pine, Calif.: November 19, 1981), audio recording, 2-3.

Since the early 1950s, Wolff regularly had his visitors sign a guestbook. The pages of the guestbook for the years 1970 through 1982 are reproduced here. (86 pages)

The pages of Wolff's guestbook for the years 1982 through 1989 are reproduced here. (56 pages)

The pages of Wolff's guestbook for years 1989 through 1994 are reproduced here. (59 pages)

This broadside contains a number of Buddhist quotes that highlight the idea of compassion as well as right action towards others. The verso reveals that was a gift to Wolff from his first wife, Sherifa (Sarah).

This certificate, dated 11 December 1922, acknowledges Wolff’s election to The National Geographic Society.

The Wolff Archive contains a reproduction of the death mask of Helena Petrona Blavatsky, an image of which (both front and verso) is posted here. The original was apparently in the hands of Francia La Due, who discusses the provenance of this item in the May 1913 issue of the American Theosophist; a copy of the article and few other pages from this issue follows the images.

A gift from La Due to Sherifa, Wolff discusses the mask in an audio recording from December 1978:

The likeness of H.P.B. . . . abides in a special nook in the hall in the north part of the house. I have heard that there were only my two copies of the death mask made—one was the original with the eyes closed and this one, which was reproduced from [the original by] an artist opening the eyes; and, I have seen both. They were originally in what was known as the headquarters cottage at Halcyon where Mrs. La Due, or Blue Star, lived, and both Sherifa and I lived at one time.[1]

(7 pages)

[1] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, “Where Do We Go from this Point?,” (Lone Pine, Calif.: December 12, 1978), audio recording, 3.

Wolff kept this business card size reminder of the Kwan Yin Vow on his person.

This business card is from the time that Wolff and his first wife lived in Santa Barbara (1956-59). The notation on the verso is likely related to the two apartment buildings that Wolff owned in the area.

Prajñāpāramitā means “perfection of wisdom” in Sanskrit, and the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras are a body of aphorisms and their commentaries that represents the oldest of the major forms of Mahāyāna Buddhism—one that presents the perfection of wisdom as the realization or direct experience of voidness or emptiness (shunyata). The content of this wisdom is the realization of the illusory nature of all phenomena—not only of this world, as in earlier Buddhism, but of transcendental realms as well.

The statue known as the “Prajñāpāramitā of East Java” is probably the most famous depiction of the goddess of transcendental wisdom, sometimes called the “Mother of All Buddhas,” and Wolff kept this photograph of the statue in his office.

In January 1972, Tarthang Tulku traveled to Lone Pine to meet Wolff. At the time, he was looking for some land on which to build a Tibetan monastery and retreat quarters, and Wolff offered to gift him some acreage if he found it suitable for his purposes. Given the remoteness of Wolff’s property, Tarthang Rinpoche decided on a parcel in Sonoma County, Calif. to build the Odiyan Buddhist Retreat Center. The two exchanged gifts and continued to correspond for a number of years after their meeting. Shown here is a picture of a Tibetan thangka that Rinpoche gifted to Wolff; not shown is a Tibetan hat that accompanied the thangka.

John Lilly was responsible for getting Wolff’s books, Pathways Through to Space (for which he contributed an introduction) and The Philosophy of Consciousness Without an Object, both republished in 1973 (by Julian Press). The result was a resurgence of interest in Wolff’s work and a steady stream of students and visitors to the Wolff residence for the remainder of his life.

The Wolff Archive contains over 430 recordings dated from 1951 to 1985 (the last, a recording of Wolff’s eulogy). Wolff owned a number of reel-to-reel tape recorders, one of which is shown here.

To be posted.

Wolff’s second wife, Gertrude, was an avid videographer who recorded their travels using an 8 mm camera (in fact, at one point the couple had a camera mounted to the hood of Wolff’s Mercedes Benz for this purpose). The couple’s treks included trips to Alaska in 1964 and 1966 (where they hired a plane to fly them around Mt. McKinley, as Mt. Denali was known then); a 1965 vacation that took them to Monument Valley in Arizona as well as the Valley of the Gods and Capital Reef in Utah; and, a trip to East Coast of the United States. Wolff also enjoyed taking an annual trip to the redwood country of northern California, which he continued after Gertrude’s death in 1978. In his later years, Wolff spent many hours watching these chronicles of their travels. Shown here is a photograph of the video equipment (a camera and a tripod) in the Wolff Archive.

To be posted, including a recording of Wolff’s honeymoon trip with Gertrude.

Wolff was a meticulous record-keeper: for example, he kept a daily log of morning temperatures at his Lone Pine, Calif. home (which unfortunately was not preserved). The record here was kept on an envelope, and it tracks his expenses during a trip in January 1984 to Phoenix and Tempe to visit Erma Pounds and Lama Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist master from the Karma Kagyu lineage.

This is a brief note from the president of Stanford University congratulating Wolff on his ninety-eighth birthday. This letter, as well as the following two birthday wishes, were written at the request of Beverly Oliphant, MD, who was a frequent visitor during the last three years of Wolff’s life.

At request of Beverley Oliphant—who was the personal physician to the United States Secretary of State—Secretary Shultz sent Wolff an autographed picture with the following inscription:

Happy Birthday, Dr. Wolffe,
Sophia’s Son and Song of Freedom,
Brother and Teacher of all Mankind
George P. Shultz

The verso contains the date and Dr. Oliphant’s signature, which notes that she is a member of the “U.S. State Dept Medical Division.”

A birthday card from the First Lady and President of the United States for Wolff's ninety-eighth birthday.

The remainder of the files in this section of the Wolff Archive contain images of photographs of people that in one way or another were important influences in the life of Wolff and/or his wives.

Wolff acted as though Sankara was his guru, given that he found "a particular sympathy with his kind of thinking."

Wolff kept this photograph of Albert Einstein on a bookcase in his office.

Wolff keep this photograph of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in his office.

Wolff kept this photograph of W. Q. Judge prominently displayed in the foyer of his Lone Pine ranch home. He considered the group work that he and Sherifa started in 1928 as “tied in to the Blessed One, or the Great Buddha, through the line of descent which occurred in 1875 through H. P. B and W. Q. Judge.”[1] The image here is not of Wolff’s copy, which was discarded after his death.

[1] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, “Running Commentary Following Gertrude’s Death,” part 46 (Lone Pine, CA, November 19, 1981), audio recording, 2-3.

Thubten Chökyi Nyima (1883–1937) was the ninth Panchen Lama of Tibet, as recognized by the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, the traditional seat of Panchen Lamas.

Sri Ramana Maharshi was an Indian sage who, at the age of sixteen, became aware of a “current” or “force” that he recognized as his true “I” or self. As he related to B. V. Narasimha, this occurred shortly after a sudden fear of death had gripped him, when It came to him that even if the body was dead, that the “I” was not dead:

I thought of the gross physical body when I used the term body, and I came to the conclusion that when it was dead and rigid . . . I was not dead. I was, on the other hand, conscious of being alive, in existence. So the question arose in me, “What was this ‘I’? Is it this body? Who called himself the ‘I’? So I held my mouth shut, determined not to allow it to pronounce ‘I’ or any other syllable. Still I felt within myself, the ‘I’ was there, the sound was there, and the thing calling or feeling itself ‘I’ was there. What was that? I felt that there was a force or current, a centre of energy playing on the body, continuing regardless of the rigidity or activity of the body, though existing in connection with it. It was that current, force, or centre that constituted my Self, that kept me acting and moving, but this was the first time that I came to know it. I had no idea of my Self before that. From that time on, I was spending my time absorbed in contemplation of that current.[1]

In Pathways Through to Space, Wolff notes that he was “deeply interested” in a book about a living Indian Sage, the reading of which precipitated in a sudden recognition “that Nirvana is not a field, or space, or world which one entered and that contained one as space might contain an external object, but rather that “I am identical with Nirvana, and always have been and always will be so.” This Recognition likewise had its persistent effects upon the personal consciousness.”[2]

[1] B. V. Narasimha Swamy, “The Death Experience of Bhagavan,” The Mountain Path 18 (1981), No. 2, 68.

[2] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, Pathways Through to Space (New York: Julian Press, 1973), 4. Wolff learned of Ramana Maharshi from Paul Brunton’s book, A Search in Ancient India (New York, Dutton, 1934).

Francia La Due (also known as “Blue Star”) was the first “Guardian-in-Chief” of the Temple of the People, an organization that she and William H. Dower founded in Syracuse, New York, in 1898. They dedicated the organization to the continuation of the Theosophical teachings of Madame H. P. Blavatsky, as had been carried on by William Quan Judge. In 1903, the Temple of the People moved to Halcyon, California. Wolff joined the organization in 1912, and moved to the Halcyon community in 1915. There he met his first wife, Sherifa (Sarah), who was very close to Mrs. La Due.

To read more about Wolff’s association this organization, please refer to the Temple of the People page, which is located under Organizations and Group Work tab on this site.

The Temple of the People is a continuation of the work inaugurated by H. P. Blavatsky, who claimed to have received teachings from living men that she called adepts, Masters, or Mahatmas. The Masters are considered to be beings that have evolved far beyond ordinary human beings, are not subject to the limitations of ordinary matter, and are able to function consciously and at will on more than one plane of being.

It is further maintained that some individuals have the capacity to “channel” the Masters by a process wherein the intelligence principle of a Master is transferred to the “channeler,” effectively taking control of that individual’s body—and particularly the mental functions of the individual—for a limited period of time. During the channeling process, the channeler is said to “step aside,” and may listen to what is being said through their body or may step aside completely and remain unaware of what is said. Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine is thought to have been written this way, and so too the teachings of the Temple are believed to have been transcribed by this method. In the case of Blavatsky’s work, the principal contributors were the Masters Koot Hoomi and Morya; in the case of the Temple of the People, the principal contributor is said to be a Greek adept known by the name of Hilarion.

Mrs. La Due (Blue Star) claimed to have the capacity to channel the Masters, and before she died, she taught Wolff’s wife, Sarah, how to contact Hilarion. The Wolff Archive contains almost two-hundred pages of transcribed messages that Sarah received from Hilarion, as well as several from Koot Hoomi, Morya, and even Blue Star herself.

A photograph of Hilarion is presented here; the following two entries here contain images of Koot Hoomi, and Morya, respectively.

One of the Theosophical Masters.

One of the Theosophical Masters.

After leaving the Temple of the People at the end of 1922, Wolff’s first wife Sarah became interested in the work of Alice Bailey, who Sarah had come to know when Bailey was a member of the Theosophical group at Krotona—which at that time was located in Hollywood. In 1923, Sarah went to New York to work with Bailey, but after a chance meeting with Inayat Khan, she left New York to escort the Murshid and his party to California.

There several of Bailey’s books in the Wolff Library that were inscribed to Sarah in 1922. In Letters on Occult Meditation (New York: Lucifer Publishing, 1922), Bailey penned “To Sarah, with love”; the copy of Initiation, Human and Solar (New York: Lucifer Publishing Company, 1922) has this note: “To ‘S’ and ‘A,’ Staunch Warriors of the Light and Faithful servants of the Hierarchic, as a token of my love and respect for your unflinching devotion to the Master’s Cause, and as an indication of my moral and spiritual support in your noble stand on behalf of Justice, Right and Truth. With the Master’s Strength and Benevolence, Your Comrade on the Path, E. A. B.” The Wolff Library contains about ten of Bailey’s books, and she and Sarah apparently corresponded for quite a number of years.

Shown here is an autographed photo that Bailey gave to Sarah, inscribed with the message, “Affectionately Yours, Alice A. Bailey.”

In 1923, Wolff’s wife met Inayat Khan in New York, and she traveled with his party on their trip west to Los Angeles. Wolff met them at Union Station in Los Angeles and drove the party to San Francisco, where the Murshid was slated to give a series of lectures. Wolff and his wife remained in San Francisco for about a month, listening to Khan’s lectures and occasionally meeting with him; the couple then arranged for a number of lectures by Khan in the Los Angeles area. He gifted the couple the autographed photograph here, which is inscribed “With blessing, Inayat Khan.”

To read more about Wolff’s association the Sufi Order of the West, please refer to the Sufi Order of the West page, which is located under the Organizations and Group Work tab on this site.

Wolff had a great respect for Sri Aurobindo, whose work first came to his attention in 1949, and he would spend the better part of the next decade studying Aurobindian literature—finding this “to be a very fruitful period.” Indeed, he discovered that many of Aurobindo’s conceptions were more effective for “interpreting certain facts of my own ‘imperience’ than any other schemas with which I am familiar.”[1] More important, however, was the collective value that Wolff saw in Aurobindo’s work:

The particular value of Sri Aurobindo lies in this fact: that more than any other Oriental sage, he effects a crossing between Western man and Eastern man, and the methods that he teaches are therefore more apt to be adapted to the peculiar nature of Western man than any of the ancient Oriental teachings. Aurobindo is familiar with the intellectual and scientific background of Western man. Here, then, there is the possibility of techniques that are more universal in their availability than those which we have known heretofore.[2]

[1] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, "Further Thoughts on the Relation of Buddhism and the Vedanta with Special Reference to the Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo" (Lone Pine, Calif.: May 1971), part 7, 1, audio recording.

[2] Franklin Merrell-Wolff, “Aims of Yoga,” (Lone Pine, Calif.: December 6, 1951), 1, audio recording.

Mirra Alfassa (1878-1973) was a Parsian who in her youth became interested in occultism (studying with Max Théon in Algeria) and later worked with several groups of spiritual seekers in Paris. Having studied at the Academie Julian, Alfassa was an accomplished artist, as well as a pianist and writer. She first heard of Aurobindo from her second husband Paul Richard, who had visited him in Pondicherry in 1910; in 1914, Richard brought her to Pondicherry to meet him herself. She found Aurobindo to be the “dark Asiatic figure” that she had seen in visions during her childhood, and stayed on for nearly a year helping to publish Arya, the periodical in which Aurobindo published his writings. Forced to leave during World War I, she returned to Pondicherry in 1920 where she would spend the remaining of her life.

Aurobindo recognized Alfassa as an embodiment of the dynamic expressive aspect of evolutionary, creative Force that is customarily identified in India as the “Supreme Mother” or simply, “The Mother.” As such, Aurobindo considered Alfassa to be an equal in his work, and he entrusted her with the oversight of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, which was founded in 1926. In 1952, she established the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, and in 1968 an international township, Auroville.

Wolff’s first wife, Sherifa, played a similar role in his work, and indeed, was often called “Mother” by their students.

This was a gift to Wolf—likely from the 1950s or 1960s. The note on the verso reads:

“When I was a child [I] was fascinated by a white marble sculpture of King Saul—looks just like S.A. and the pose is identical. This is an extra copy—thought you might like”