Finder Questionnaire Responses

Finder Questionnaire Responses

See Teachers’ biographies here.

TAT Teachers

Anima Pundeer

Bob Cergol

Paul Constant

Shawn Pethel

Tess Hughes

TAT-Affiliated Teachers & Friends

Bob Harwood

Other Teachers

Daniel Ingram

Tyler Matthew

Anima Pundeer 5/26/24

1. What did you find?

My Source…what I am. Found the Real and also the illusion.

2. What is your general advice to seekers?

Finding your purpose comes from disillusionment with what you feel will make you forever happy. When we are done with worldly games and realized that nothing is curing us of our inner angst, we start to get serious about finding what is eternal, if anything. When we make a commitment, no matter to what, the universe will align itself to help fulfill that purpose. Without a commitment to finding Truth, we are simply piddling away our time and energy. Conflicting desires will keeps us away from becoming serious about our spiritual search. If Truth is what you seek, then love truth in all things. Starts with self-honesty about what you really desire. The three D’s—Doubt your beliefs; Practice detachment from self; Be discerning about how you are using your energy and time. Spiritual practices prepare the mind’s capacity to hold Truth. Loosens the sense of ‘self’. The main obstacle, the ego, cannot be seen from the inside. One must look at it from the outside to see what we are not.

3. Answer any or all of the following that you feel are relevant. What are your thoughts/feelings about:

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Bob Cergol 10/3/24

1. What did you find?

I found what I was essentially, and what I was essentially not. I found that there was no death because there was nothing to die. What I had taken myself to be, i.e., personal self-consciousness, was not independently alive, but rather it was born of experience, a stream of experience that gave rise to an experience-er. I found a pure living Awareness that was omnipresent, unborn and undying, that preceded all, that contained all, yet was simultaneously utterly empty and containing all life and all things seen and unseen. I found that I was this eternal impersonal omnipresent Awareness. Yes, the body dies and turns to dust, and the mind we proclaim to own is dependent upon that body and so likewise vanishes in the dust. What remains of you is nothing. But what you are essentially is eternal. The dreamer in the dream and the dreamer of the dream are no more—yet that which was always watching, was present before the dream began and remains after the dream ends. I am that, and so are you. You’re just too busy being you and staring at your body in the mirror of experience to see your true Self.

2. What is your general advice to seekers?

Define yourself. Go within. Develop an inward momentum of attention sufficient to not be deflected outward by the ceaseless stream of experience. Never look away from self-diminishing experiences that throw you back upon yourself. Always look behind and underneath self-affirming experiences that bind you to the false and temporary. Be wary of thought. Cultivate doubt. Know your priorities. Watch your fears and desires and be suspicious of the thinking that both generate. Strive to see clearly, to understand, and to live your understanding. Overcome your self-centeredness by helping others.

3. Answer any or all of the following that you feel are relevant. What are your thoughts/feelings about:

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Bob Harwood 3/14/24

1. What did you find?

I found answers to all of my dozens of existential questions, and realized that I was NOT who I had thought I was. I discovered that the culturally-conditioned sense of “me” had been an illusion and that all apparent separation is also a cognitive illusion. I discovered that what I am is Reality, or THIS, momentarily manifesting as a particular human being.

2. What is your general advice to seekers?

Keep seeking until you find whatever it is that you want to find or understand. Contemplate what you want to know, and then shift attention away from thoughts until a deeper level of mind than the intellect reveals the answers. The methodology that I recommend is similar to what Zen people and many scientists recommend. If you have a specific question, state the question explicitly, mull it over intellectually, and then shift attention away from thoughts using whatever meditative activity appeals to you. Periodically, bring up the question for review, and then shift attention away from the question again. The primary form of meditation that seemed most beneficial to me is what I call ATA-T (attending the actual minus thoughts). I spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours shifting attention away from verbal thoughts ABOUT reality to direct sensory perception of what could be seen, heard, felt, etc. This involves shifting attention away from ideas, images, and symbols (words). As the intellect became increasingly quiescent, answers to various existential questions would suddenly appear and become obvious. Formal breath awareness meditation (which is a form of ATA-T) frequently resulted in deep states of nirvikalpa samadhi in which everything disappears except pure awareness. I have speculated that this state in some way loosens up the neural circuitry of the intellect and often triggers cosmic-consciousness events that can result in many huge realizations all at once.

3. Answer any or all of the following that you feel are relevant. What are your thoughts/feelings about:

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Daniel Ingram 4/8/24

Daniel Ingram caused an uproar in the American Buddhist scene when he released his practical guide to awakening Mastering The Core Teachings of the Buddha (which you can find for free here: MCTB.org – The home of the evolving Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha) some twenty odd years ago, advocating for a hardcore, pragmatic style of meditation that can actually lead to Awakening. Since then he has helped to popularize the fire kasina meditation technique, a free guide of which can be found at: Fire Kasina – The Fire Kasina Meditation Site. Though he does not consider himself a teacher now, and he is not specifically affiliated with TAT, he has helped many folks, including TAT member Shawn Pethel. He now devotes much of his time to philanthropic work. You can find more about him at his website: Integrated Daniel. Watch his interview with Shawn Nevins, and read Daniel’s reponses to the Finder’s Questionnaire.

1. What did you find?

A vast range of things, from everything being just where it is happening as it does and knowing itself intrinsically, to deep states and stages across a wide range from horrible to weird to amazing, a vast range of strange energetic effects, healings, some traumatic stuff as well, amazing teachers who were often all too human yet somehow reassuring in that ordinariness and imperfection, tons of theory both helpful and confusing, a vast range of orthodoxies and sects to promote and argue about those orthodoxies, an internet full of opportunity and toxicity, earnest friends and co-journeyers as well as dedicated “worthy opponents” and detractors, the Eight Worldly Winds — pain and pleasure, gain and loss, fame and ill repute, praise and blame; magical powers both remarkable and disappointing, amazingly compassionate and saintly people helping to support the process, as well as power-trippy psychopaths wanting to own, control, exploit, and do other really unfortunate things to the institutions and seekers on the path, and lots of people who were some mix of those elements to various degrees; shadow sides, shadow sides to shadow sides, light, space, amazement, grief, peace, suffering, humanity, projection, transference, countertransference, deep and often apparently contradictory philosophy, and ultimately the soteriological effects that were, if nothing else, realistic, if not always exactly conforming to my ideals, appreciations of broader perspectives, meta-perspectives, and meta-meta-perspectives; and, perhaps just as important as any of the rest, various ethical considerations, systems, and practices. Of note, the answers I am giving in these small boxes are superficial and understandably limited, so please take all of them in that light. For more, please see https://mctb.org and the numerous other sources it references from a wide range of traditions.

2. What is your general advice to seekers?

Keep your wits about you. See for yourself. Seek ethical and wise companions and teachers as the first priority. Know and learn not only where the metaphorical accelerator pedal is, but also the steering wheel, brakes (regular and emergency) and when to step from the burning car and run. If you are in a map-based tradition, work to cultivate a mature relationship to them. If you are not in a map-based tradition, consider that there are maps out there that sometimes are normalizing and explanatory, as well as skillfully prescriptive, but also may have a steep learning curve, and can cause competition and comparison and judgement and all of that, so see the previous point. This moment, however sometimes unappealing, must somehow be both the basis of the path and its result. This body, mind, and heart contain many answers if you can learn to perceive them clearly and go through the organic process. The journey is very unlikely to be linear or all pleasant and upward. All traditions contain some wisdom and some shadow sides, and may be better fits at some times and for some people than others. Higher dose practice generally produces more rewards but also more potential risks, so consider the proper dose, and titrate and modify based on current circumstances, goals, logistical, functional and social realities and obligations, and risk tolerances.

3. Answer any or all of the following that you feel are relevant. What are your thoughts/feelings about:

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Paul Constant 3/21/24

1. What did you find?

I became the Absolute, One Awareness, Heart, Love, Reality, Truth—which permanently resolved a profound spiritual heartache. I found an amazing confluence of nothing and everything; a metaphorical death and rebirth.

2. What is your general advice to seekers?

Carve time out of your schedule every day for your spiritual path. Persist in using every tool at your disposal. Use those tools with discernment and intuition to retraverse your individual ray of awareness back to your source. Use a combination of meditation and self-inquiry to go within. Respect your mind and body as powerful tools but understand their limitations. Find spiritual friends you genuinely want to help and who are capable of helping you. Work with a trusted spiritual teacher who prioritizes your search over money, power, sex, or control—but doubt everything he or she says until you’ve proven it for yourself, and never cede your own authority. Be honest with yourself. Have faith in your ability to realize the Absolute. Find ways to nurture your love of Truth!

3. Answer any or all of the following that you feel are relevant. What are your thoughts/feelings about:

  1. Abiding and non-abiding awakening (i.e., knowledge of the Self/Truth vs. abiding as the Self/Truth)
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Shawn Pethel 3/24/24

1. What did you find?

An end to the need to shrink reality down to concepts or feelings. The cessation of the delusion that such a thing is possible. “WHAT IS” is beyond the mind, is given freely, and is utterly satisfying.

2. What is your general advice to seekers?

Seeking is looking. Look at your problem or mystery. Something will arise. Now look at that. Repeat.

3. Answer any or all of the following that you feel are relevant. What are your thoughts/feelings about:

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Tess Hughes 9/03/24

1. What did you find?

The source of creation. This sounds grandiose or abstract but is in fact simple and intimate. In a way I think words can throw us off course.

2. What is your general advice to seekers?

Don’t give up on yourself. Take breaks, ease up on yourself when you feel like you are getting nowhere, try a different approach.

3. Answer any or all of the following that you feel are relevant. What are your thoughts/feelings about:

    a) Abiding and non-abiding awakening (i.e., knowledge of the Self/Truth vs. abiding as the Self/Truth)

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Tyler Matthew 3/14/24

1. What did you find?

I found that this is a literal and true statement: “the world is an illusion, only Brahmin is real, and the world is Brahmin.” In other words, that everything we hear, touch, taste, smell and see is a testament to who and what we have always been—realized or not. And that was a big find, but in my experience it is not the whole picture of what I found a seeker must confront as they walk the Razor’s Edge to salvation. There is another movement that runs parallel, or at least intertwines, with the search for Absolute Identity; think of a double helix. That other parallel movement can only be described as the erosion of the many human attachments and aversions that encompass the human experience, as well as the erosion of what could be described as self-partiality or the personal will (which I have found to be the natural offspring of all the attachments/aversions taken in the composite). This movement could be described as an “emptying out” process.

I can testify that if one is willing to not grasp at absolute truth (even if one has genuinely awakened to it), and is instead willing to take a look at (and move through) the mostly subconscious tendencies and beliefs one is naturally identifying with, then eventually, walking on their own two feet and following their own unique path, one can come upon some genuine peace and freedom—while appearing to everyone else to have a completely normal human life.

2. What is your general advice to seekers?

If lack of access was once a problem for seekers, too much access is now the contemporary seeker’s problem. There are as many teachers, books, retreats, and YouTube videos as there are stars in the sky. And trying to navigate that plethora of access is no easy feat. So my common refrain is to “focus.” Find a teaching stream or lineage that you feel is the right one for you and then jump in with both feet. The straddling of teaching streams is a psychological ploy of avoidance—and it is very seductive. I remember it well.

I will also just say, this isn’t a one-sized fits all type of business truth seekers are in. What may work for one seeker, may not work at all for another, so be weary of anyone giving fixed advice. If push comes to shove, and a seeker asks for a suggestion, I will recommend dwelling in the immediate sense of “I” as that I believe helps one to disidentify with the content of thoughts (facilitating spontaneous truth realization) as well as hurries along the erosion process mentioned above. At least that is my experience.

To me, the path is a lot like walking backwards in a pitch-black room. We have a flashlight, but we can only illuminate and see where we have come from. As we continue to feel our way backwards, we bump into furniture and can get disorientated, but I think eventually anybody can reach the door (and the light on the other side of it) if they just keep feeling their way one small step at a time with sincerity and increased focus.

3. Answer any or all of the following that you feel are relevant. What are your thoughts/feelings about:

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