The TAT Forum

This month's contents:

Tweeny Town by Richard Rose | Grand Work of the TAT Society (part 2 of 2) by Richard Rose | Form and Emptiness by Gary Harmon | Finding Balance by Shawn Nevins | Poems by Shawn Nevins | You Can't Lie to Yourself by Bob Cergol | Acrostic by Art Ticknor | Interpreting Experience by Bob Fergeson | Humor | Reader Commentary | Index of Issues to Date

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Submissions welcome.

The Grand Work of the TAT Society (part 2), by Richard Rose:

Katherine B., a lady who experienced Cosmic Consciousness, approached me twenty years ago, inquiring as to that which she could do with her Realization. We have another case of genuine Realization, but accompanied by no direction or method. She was overwhelmed with the urge to now become a healer. She knew that no one would listen to her advice unless she met them on some sort of sensational basis, and exuded some sort of dynamic purpose and compelling language. She argued that she would attract attention with her healing, as Christ did, and then give out her advice in the form of a devotional message. I could not find myself in that type of picture and our correspondence ended. She was a living, walking example of a person who has experienced all of life and death, and who is now walking amongst us. But this person cannot make herself properly understood. Nor can she work with people on the Becomers level. She too is back in the Believers section, because she is talking of healing through faith.

We can see where the highest of levels can become once more entangled with lower levels and lose their importance. There are also many individuals who have reached the highest experience but who despaired all their lives about communication, and did not ever communicate. I was one of these people until I accidentally met some energetic young people who pledged themselves to work at the grand task.

We can add more confusion to the problem when we realize that enlightenment is not the property of any particular level alone. Some Believers, like St. Theresa, and John of the Cross, penetrated their level and transcended it. The Kabbalists are investigators whose literature gives evidence that some of them may have reached an ultimate formula. And on the other hand, many of those who join a cult aimed at Becoming often get sidetracked in preconceptions of what they think becoming should be for them rather than allowing themselves to change in response to the inevitable refinements of Truthfulness, and the parallel labor of constantly retreating from untruth.

And so we, as a group, set ourselves a task. We realized that we must make available, if possible, more advantage than that which brought us forth from ignorance and uncertainty. The task lies in attempting to find better and better ways to reach into all levels or groups for the purpose of bringing fellows together. The aim is not gregariousness, but the sharing of many experiences that took many lives in the gathering. The aim is also the making available of the function of transmission for those who might recognize the usefulness of such.

The TAT Society undertook this in 1973, to bring together, in a sort of Chautauqua, people from all levels and experiences, so that people could meet other people of like and also of different interests. The Albigen System has seemed to many to be a monolithic and inflexible system. However this appraisal came about as a result of not completely understanding the system, or not reading the book [The Albigen Papers] comprehensively. We speak of a Spiritual Ladder, and a Law regarding it. How can there be a ladder without rungs? While we know that we cannot function expeditiously on all rungs, and also know we can function at best on three (the one we are on, the one above to which we look for advice and teaching, and the one below where we can help others without too much risk), we can still help someone on the rung below who in turn needs to work on still a more basic rung to help still more people. To provide people for all these opportunities needed to fulfill the Law of the Ladder we must be prepared to bring together people of all those many levels.

Of course you cannot go out into the crossroads and drag in, or allow in, everyone who wants to mingle. There must be some fundamental purpose in each besides being involved socially. And each must abide by certain simple rules. No one should make a pest of himself, and no one should bring alcohol or narcotics to the meetings, in their body or on their body.

We must distinguish between the function of the TAT Society and the Pyramid Zen Society [i.e. those working with the Albigen System]. The TAT Society is the parent, and the PZS is a function of it. While the PZS group should not be assailed or irritated by non-agreeing other members of TAT, no one should deny the opportunity for the formation of a unique group within the TAT Society, provided the TAT Society gives it permission.

If this above information is explained to new people coming into the weekly group meetings, they may find a comfortable place to work, even if they do not agree with the Albigen System. I feel that the TAT Society is strong enough at this point to withstand any attempts by newcomers to undermine or take over our work.

I know that many people who know of this effort of ours will minimize its importance, saying that things like this should be left to chance or gravity, or indicating that we can easily contact fellows of like interest through the media whenever we wish.

It is true that we can advertise and get large responses. But it is another thing when we try to communicate with hundreds of people for the purpose of sorting out two or three that we can work with. I have been honestly trying to bring these various esoteric factions together for forty years, and in the first thirty-four years was able to meet only about a dozen people who appeared to be in agreement with the idea of cooperation.

In the last six years I have been fortunate in meeting at least a hundred people who are in agreement. Part of this success has occurred because of a miraculous decade that began around 1965 and is now ending. The pendulum is swinging back into another long era marked by dormant, established religions, pressing against anything that appears less than that which is currently defined as being conventional. Esotericism has already been assailed as being the pastime of sinners, atheists and degenerates. And many of the cults that herded together under the banner of transcendentalism and Esotericism have rightly earned for themselves, and for the whole field of esoteric investigation, the criticism and disdain of the public.

We are returning to the dark days of forty years ago. The alchemist, Kabbalist and mystic must once more become inconspicuous. And this is going to make it harder for mystic to find mystic, or for sage to find students of worth.

The job is upon us, and it is worthwhile. The job is to encourage membership in the TAT Society, and to prepare at the farm a better place for them to meet.