Forum

May 2024 TAT Forum


This month’s contents include:

Convictions & Concerns: I Am the Doer… Aren’t I? by Alex S.

TAT Foundation News: Including the calendar of 2024 TAT events and a listing of local group meetings organized by TAT members.

Humor

Inspiration & Irritation

Reader Commentary: Do you have clarity on what you really want out of life?
If yes, what contributed to gaining clarity? If not, what are you doing to gain clarity?

Founder’s Wisdom

A New Home for TAT update

Saturday, May 11, 2024
More information and registration.

Friday-Sunday, June 14-16, 2024
More information and registration.

Keep informed of TAT events and receive our free monthly Forum filled with inspiring essays, poems and images.


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(As an Amazon Associate, TAT earns from qualifying purchases made through links on our website … or save this link to use.)

Convictions & Concerns

TAT members share their personal convictions and/or concerns

I Am the Doer … Aren’t I?

Shortly after joining an online confrontation group several months ago, I was encouraged to explore my own answers to such ‘free-will’ questions as “Am I the thinker?”, “Am I the decision-maker?”, and “Am I the doer?”

I had already known that these questions feature in the spiritual literature but never paid much attention to the answers it offered. I was also briefly familiar with the philosophy of free will [1], which impressed as an example of elegant thinking, and the psychology of willpower [2], which followed an empirical approach.

My initial position was one that is perhaps commonplace: I am the thinker of my thoughts, the maker of my decisions, and their executor. If I make a decision that I think is against my long-term interests, it is because I lack willpower. I did not presume I had total control over my thoughts or decisions, but I found the suggestion that I might not be the decision-maker aberrant, if not preposterous.

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~ Thanks to Alex S. Image created by Alex. Comments or questions? Please email reader commentary to the TAT Forum.

TAT Foundation News

It’s all about “ladder work” – helping and being helped

Richard Rose, the founder of the TAT Foundation, spent his life searching for the Truth, finding it, and helping others to find their Way. Although not well known to the public, he touched the lives of thousands of spiritual seekers through his books and lectures and through personal contacts with local study groups that continue to work with his teachings today. He felt strongly that helping others generates help for ourselves as well in our climb up the ladder to the golden find beyond the mind.

Call To Action For TAT Forum Reader

With the intention of increasing awareness of TAT’s meetings, books, and the Forum among younger serious seekers, and to increase awareness of ways to approach the search for self-definition, the TAT Foundation is now on Instagram.

You can help! A volunteer is producing shareable text-quote and video content of Richard Rose and TAT-adjacent teachers. We need your suggestions for short, provocative 1-3 sentence quotes or 1 minute or less video clips of people like Rose, Art Ticknor, Bob Fergeson, Tess Hughes, Bob Cergol, Bart Marshall, Shawn Nevins, Anima Pundeer, Norio Kushi, Paul Rezendes, Paul Constant, & other favorites. (An example here is selected by the TAT member who volunteers to oversee the Instagram account.)

Please send favorite inspiring/irritating quotes—from books you have by those authors, from the TAT Forum, or any other place—to TAT quotes. If you have favorite parts of longer videos (ex: from a talk at a past TAT meeting), please email a link to the video and a timestamp.

Thank you!

After the Absolute: The Inner Teachings of Richard Rose

A transcript approved by the authors is now available, or purchase the book on Amazon.

Richard Rose was an unlikely Zen master…. David Gold was an unlikely student….

“After the Absolute is one of the most gripping, intensely interesting, dramatic, and indeed romantic-heroic-mythic, yet poignantly human accounts I have ever read….” ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg.

TAT Foundation Press’s latest publications

Message In A Bottle: Reflections On The Spiritual Path

 

Message In A Bottle: Reflections On The Spiritual Path relates the ongoing struggles and triumphs of fellow seekers. This collection of insightful essays serves as a testament to resilience, patience, and unwavering determination in the pursuit of inner truth and understanding. It is now available in print and Kindle versions as well as TAT Press’s first audiobook (individual purchase or membership) on Amazon.com.

=> READ A REVIEW by Gus R.:

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Please add your review to the Amazon listing. It makes a difference!

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Shades of Real: Poems in a World of Wonder

Shades of Real by Kevin Shuey is now available in print and Kindle versions on Amazon.com. Discover a captivating compilation of poems that gracefully ride the waves of each fleeting moment, inviting readers into moments of tranquil excitement and resounding quietude.
Within these pages lie enigmatic verses that lead us to the very heart of our true selves, unraveling the profound mysteries that define us.

=> READ A REVIEW by Bill K.:

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Please add your review to the Amazon listing. It makes a difference!

*

Pouring Concrete: A Zen Path to the Kingdom of God – Expanded Edition

Pouring Concrete by Bob Harwood is now available in print and Kindle versions on Amazon.com. Individuals who approach this book with receptivity and a readiness to scrutinize their culturally ingrained notions and convictions regarding the fundamental fabric of existence are likely to experience a multitude of profound insights. By embracing the diverse recommendations within these pages, one may unlock a series of existential revelations that have the potential to reshape their perspective on reality.

Please add your review to the Amazon listing. It makes a difference!

Random rotation of
TAT Foundation Books & Videos

Mister Rose: the video The Mister Rose video: "There's a system that searches for the Truth, and it's a process of challenging everything."

Richard Rose speaks directly to the hearts and minds of his listeners. This special video serves as an excellent introduction to his thoughts on the spiritual path. Read more and watch a video trailer.

 
 

2024 TAT Meeting Calendar

January TAT Talks online event: January 27, 2024 at 12 PM ET
February Virtual Gathering: Saturday, February 24, 2024
March TAT Talks online event: March 23, 2024 at 12 PM ET
April Gathering: Friday evening through Sunday noon, April 12-14, 2024
** May TAT Talks online event: May 11, 2024 at 12 PM ET **
** June Gathering: Friday evening through Sunday noon, June 14-16, 2024 **
August Gathering: Friday evening through Sunday noon, August 16-18, 2024
November Gathering: Friday evening through Sunday noon, November 8-10, 2024

Comments or questions? Please email TAT Foundation events.

Photo of TAT’s open door by Phil Franta

TAT’s YouTube Channel

Have you seen the TAT Foundation’s YouTube channel? Subscribe now for spiritual inspiration (and irritation)!

Volunteers have been updating the channel with hours of new content! They’ve also curated some great playlists of talks by Richard Rose, teacher talks from recent & not so recent TAT meetings, episodes of the Journals of Spiritual Discovery podcast, and other great TAT related videos from around the internet.

Featuring: Richard Rose, Bob Cergol, Shawn Nevins, Bob Fergeson, Mike Conners, Anima Pundeer, Norio Kushi, Paul Rezendes, Bob Harwood, Tess Hughes, Art Ticknor, Shawn Pethel, Tyler Matthew and other speakers.

This month’s video is an April 2012 interview of Art Ticknor by Iain McNay of conscious.tv:

Local Group News

(Groups with recently updated information are listed first. Click the “read more” link to see a complete listing of local groups. )

 Update for the Online Self-Inquiry Book Club:

> The current book is Jim Burns’s At Home With the Inner Self (Kindle and paperback or html), meeting first and third Sundays from 2:00 PM ET–3:30 PM ET:
  – May 5: Philosophy, Mysticism, and The Other Side, Q&A with Jim Burns 2006 (new to 3rd edition), & Biography.
> Then we plan to switch to the close 2nd in votes: Ashtavakra Gita, translation by Bart Marshall.
  – May 19: Preface, Introduction, 1: Instruction on Self-Realization, & 2: Joy of Self-Realization.
  – June 2: Chapters 3-8: Test of Self-Realization, Glorification of Self-Realization, Four Ways to Dissolution, The Higher Knowledge, Nature of Self-Realization, Bondage and Liberation.
  – June 23: Chapters 9-14: Detachment, Quietude, Wisdom, Abiding in the Self, Happiness, Tranquility.
  – July 7: Chapters 15-17: Knowledge of the Self, Special Instructions, The True Knower.
  – July 21: Chapter 18: Peace.
  – August 4: Chapters 19-20: Repose in the Self, Liberation-in-Life.

TAT Forum readers are welcome to drop in any time (invitation to Sunday meetings).

 Update from the Pittsburgh, PA self-inquiry group:

> Use the e-mail link below for invitations to all meetings and to receive internal email announcements.
> In-person bi-weekly meetings: (look for red raincoat on the back of a chair!)
  – Mon, May 6, 2-4PM: Dobrá Tea Pittsburgh, 1937 Murray Ave, Squirrel Hill
 – Mon, May 20: 7-9PM: Univ of PGH Cathedral of Learning, Main Room.
> Online group confrontation and individual contributions every Wed, 8:00 pm ET via Zoom.
 – Wed, May 1: Online: Rob from Leeds will host “Waking, Dreaming, Deep Sleep States”.
  – Wed, May 8: Online: Shawn Nevins guest.
  – Wed, May 15: Online: Tyler M. guest: “What are you struggling with?”
  – Wed, May 22: Online: Shawn Pethel guest.
  – Sun, May 26: Online meeting with Dublin Self-inquiry Group 2-4 PM ET.
  – Wed, May 29: Online: Phil C. guest.
> All Forum subscribers are welcome to join us.

Email to receive weekly topics with preparatory notes and Zoom invitations. Current events are listed on Meetup as Pittsburgh Self-inquiry Group and on www.pghsig.org.

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Members-Only Area

A password-protected section of the website is available for TAT members. (Note that there’s an occasional glitch that, when you try to link to the members-only area or a sections within it, you’ll get a page-not-found error. If you try the link a second time, it should work.) Contents include:

  • How you can help TAT and fellow seekers,
  • 11 NEW audio recordings of selected sessions from 2008-2023 in-person meetings and virtual gatherings,
  • Resources and ideas for those planning a group spiritual retreats,
  • Photographs of TAT meeting facilities, the Richard Rose grave site, a rare 1979 photo, and aerial photos of the Rose farm,
  • Presenters’ talk notes from April TAT meetings in 2005–2007, and
  • TAT News Letters from 1996–2013 and Annual Retrospectives from 1973 thru 2011. The Retrospectives from 1973–1985 were written by Richard Rose and are replete with ideas on the workings of a spiritual group—rich historical content.
  • TAT policies, TAT business meeting notes, and other information.

Latest recordings:

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Please us if you have questions. (Look here for info on TAT membership.)

Amazon and eBay

Let your Amazon purchases and eBay sales raise money for TAT!

As an Amazon Associate, TAT earns from qualifying purchases made through the above link or other links on our website. Click on the link and bookmark it in your browser for ease of use.

TAT has registered with the eBay Giving Works program. You can list an item there and select TAT to receive a portion of your sale. Or if you use the link and donate 100% of the proceeds to TAT, you won’t pay any seller fees when an item sells and eBay will transfer all the funds to TAT for you. Check out our Giving Works page on eBay. Click on the “For sellers” link on the left side of that page for details.

Downloadable/rental versions of the Mister Rose video and of April TAT talks Remembering Your True Desire:

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Your Contributions to TAT News

TAT founder Richard Rose believed that working with others accelerates our retreat from untruth. He also felt that such efforts were most effective when applied with discernment, meaning working with others on the rungs of the ladder closest to our own. The TAT News section is for TAT members to communicate about work they’ve been doing with or for other members and friends. Please your “ladder work” news.

Humor {(h)yo͞omər}

“One thing you must be able to do in the midst
of any experience is laugh. And experience
should show you that it isn’t real, that it’s a
movie. Life doesn’t take you seriously, so why
take it seriously.” ~ Richard Rose, Carillon

My Dog After Eating My Philosophy Book

~ Thanks to Dan G. Earliest source found was crunchy philosophy memes @philosophy_lol.

Just Two Words

There once was a monastery that was very strict. Following a vow of silence, no one was allowed to speak at all. But there was one exception to this rule. Every ten years, the monks were permitted to speak just two words. After spending his first ten years at the monastery, one monk went to the head monk. “It has been ten years,” said the head monk. “What are the two words you would like to speak?”

“Bed… hard…” said the monk.

“I see,” replied the head monk.

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~ Thanks to John Suler’s Zen Stories to Tell Your Neighbors, who comments: “This story is a favorite in many western monasteries. It may or may not be an original Zen tale. Like any good anecdote, it makes us laugh, but also encourages us to think about why it is funny.” Image by 🆓 Use at your Ease 👌🏼 from Pixabay.

No Self

The call to admit resentment(s).

“Many are called, few are chosen.”

The truth detector’s reaction to an unperfected intuition.

The apex of the emotional man’s viewpoint.

The admission of unrefined desire.

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~ Thanks to Dan McLaughlin. Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay.

Inspiration & Irritation

Irritation moves us; inspiration provides a direction

About the Rainbow Connection

Some observations by the co-writer of the “Rainbow Connection” from the 1979 film The Muppet Movie, with music and lyrics written by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher, which we featured in last month’s TAT Forum:

“The Rainbow Connection” is, in the words of its co-writer Paul Williams, Kermit the Frog’s “I Am” song….

“I just keep expecting the best and things keep happening. That song is a perfect example. There was so much unintended information. As we were writing it, I’m not sure we were thinking any of these things on that kind of level…. We weren’t thinking consciously about any of that. It’s only now that I see that’s what we did. Later on you can take credit for some of the stuff that’s just handed to you by your higher self or the Big Amigo or the muse or whatever you believe in.”

The same songwriter wrote another song with these lyrics: “Telling the truth can be dangerous business. Honest and popular don’t go hand in hand.”

~ Thanks to Brett S. for finding this additional material. See more at “The Rainbow Connection” at 40: Paul Williams Reflects on Kermit the Frog’s Banjo Classic. Photo by Frans van Heerden on Pexels.com.

Way of Thinking by Richard Feynman | The Cosmological Reality

“I expect that what goes on in every man’s head might be very, very different.”

“I think nature’s imagination is so much greater than man’s she’s never going to let us relax.”

What I Found
Questions and Answers From a Finder 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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~ Thanks to Daniel Ingram. See a short bio at Finder Questionnaire Responses. Photo of Thanka with Buddha (Buddha and his teachings) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a public domain image on rawpixel.com.

The Art of Being Alone: Lessons from Famous Philosophers

Covers Kierkegaard’s ideas on solitude from minutes 5:30 to 8:40:

“The idea of disconnecting of being alone with nothing but our thoughts for company seems foreign even frightening.”

“Solitude, for Kierkegaard, was a crucial ingredient in the process of self-discovery and self-understanding…. In solitude one could confront the existential anxieties and despair that often accompany the journey towards becoming a true self…. The more one isolates oneself the closer one comes to oneself.”

Please your thoughts on the above items.

Reader Commentary

Encouraging interactive readership among TAT members and friends

A reader wrote that what would make the Forum more interesting would be:

Hearing from people who are searching—and have questions instead of those providing endless advice and “answers.” What challenges they are facing. What their doubts and questions are. How they perceive their path is going. What they are doing in their lives. Where they think they will end up, etc., etc.

Can you help make the Forum more interesting?

The Reader Commentary set of questions for the May TAT Forum, thanks to Tina N:

Do you have clarity on what you really want out of life?
If yes, what contributed to gaining clarity? If not, what are you doing to gain clarity?

Responses follow:

From Ricky C:

Yes. I want to become the truth of who I really am and be ground down by life until it removes all that I am not so that what’s left over can be known.

Slowing down.
Facing myself by getting honest about what I want out of life.
Tracking my behaviors, seeing objectively where I am and where I want to be.
Going into nature where there is less judgement. Nature has it’s own pulse that is true to itself. I have that pulse too but it is interfered with by bad influences (and helped by good ones).
Writing down the bad and also the good helped.
Conserving my energy and allowing good energy in (not isolating myself from positive friendship and spiritual energies) also helps.
Reviewing my past and seeing the patterns of negativity before going down into depression, then seeing a light and rising back up into more positive optimism…and seeing both of those patterns from a higher perspective objectively helps.
Going through the pain, feeling and releasing the emotions that have been stuck.
Letting go of shame and pride that prevents asking for help and praying.
Praying for clarity and having intuitional insights.


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From Art Ticknor:

Yes, and I found/became it.

I saw with simple clarity what I really wanted from life during meditation one day. I’m guessing it was the result of intuitive processing that I hadn’t witnessed. I immediately began scanning the mind to see if there were any holdouts. When I didn’t find any, becoming what I really wanted automatically registered as my primary life-commitment. Surprisingly, I found that all my lesser desires and responsibilities then took care of themselves. I stuck with it, looking for it even after losing hope.

From Dan G:

Watching Basquiat, about 80’s Neo-expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat highlighted three versions of life games. On the one hand, success gets him wealth and fame, lower aims on DeRopp’s list (https://www.selfdiscoveryportal.com/arMasterGame.htm). On the other hand, artistry can bring beauty into the world for others. In that sense, it might be a neutral game above householder, a Prometheus game of fetching something from the gods of higher value to redeem the world a little, to make the world a little brighter.

Art and science as a form of seeking, as communing with something higher, as saving oneself in something more deserving of glory, could be where the higher games start. Still, aiming at losing oneself in beauty would be to play seeking half-heartedly. Don’t forgetfulness and sleep cover all the beauty present right now? Awakening to those transcendent values always present, but I forget, offers a purer version of what I want in all those other life games and aims.

Is God real? Is God alive? Is divinity still present here today? To not miss that would be nice. To miss that is to be lost in hell. I want out of hell, to go back to where I came from, where I belong.

From Patrick K:

Someone once said with conviction that the only thing you can know for “sure” is “who you are”, and that feels true to me. So this is the fundamental koan, “who really am I?” I intuit that I can find that answer if I apply myself like a Richard Rose or a Franklin Merrell-Wolff, etc. What contributes mainly to me going in this direction is because all other life based directions will and do “engage the ego”. So if I don’t follow a spiritual path “primarily” (as life will automatically impose it’s own paths onto me and everyone else), I will forever be vibrating on lower levels of being. It’s all about direction, isn’t it? I struggle with those who say it is foolish to have a goal on the spiritual path. Without a goal, how can I have direction? Without direction, how do I know what is right or wrong for me?

When it comes to “clarity” about what you want from life, you need to use prime examples of outcomes for a human life, don’t you? Using polarisation from the depths of being a dunce to the heights of being a genius, becoming a Ted Bundy or a Nikola Tesla. Using polarisation of love/hate, becoming like Jesus or becoming like Hitler. Basically one path leads to hell and the other toward heaven, in the words of Jordan Peterson. Intelligence tells me that when I vibrate on the lower planes, I’m being stupid, something I’m doing is dragging me down, how am I co-creating my own hell?

Really all this points to the law of attraction: I will attract negativity into my life when I am moving in the wrong direction and attract positivity when moving in the right direction. This is how I clarify my direction. My work is to be able to set into motion some kind of vector in the direction of heaven, away from hell. I didn’t take a fancy one day to become enlightened, no, I am just trying to follow the most prudent path for me in this lifetime, which really I feel is to follow a spiritual path. And again, a real spiritual path for me is to find who/what exactly it is that I am. It just feels like basic common sense to me now.


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From Tess Hughes:

This is a great question, and one I believe gave me the idea that one could have clarity about one’s life. It was TAT that introduced me to such questions.

It’s right at the core of self-inquiry. It prompted me to take stock or review of what had led me to that point in my life. This prompted me to clarify what really really mattered to me. Having clarified that set the direction and determination for what followed.

From Brad Stephan:

What I really want out of life is peace. Advaitic literature is what contributed to this clarity.

From Andrew S:

I really don’t think I have much clarity on what I want out of life. There are times when I think I have a handle on that question but then life happens and my mood and expectations change.

It does seem like we were put here to “get” something out of life and possibly part of the journey is figuring out what that is. My issue with this is the simple fact that I didn’t ask for life and therefore I never asked for this responsibility. I was born, I exist, and through life I have been able to realize something is wrong. Either with me or with the world or both but ya something isn’t right and so I guess I feel like what I’m supposed to get out of life is figuring out what isn’t right. I wouldn’t say that’s what I want to get out of life though because like I said above I never asked for this responsibility.

I wouldn’t say I’m doing a whole lot to specifically gain clarity. I do try to pay attention to my thoughts and feelings especially ones that come up often. I could talk a lot more about the things I have learned I don’t need out of life and I’m sure I’ll have more to add to that list as the years go by. I think by living life and continuing to make mistakes I may slowly, very slowly be moving towards realizing what I really want out of life but I’m not there yet.

From Anima Pundeer:

Yes. The very nature of life is its impermanence. No two moments are ever the same. So, my wants from life are also constantly changing. What I wanted was to transcend all my wants.

Disillusionment from what I thought would bring satisfaction — realizing that the wants are never-ending. Self-honesty about what I desire brings clarity.

From Lena S:

I do have a desire, but undefined so far, I dare say maybe a love.
In the absence of all else, maybe via negativa, it is still there.
A wanting, a desire, yearning, a direction, a pulling, an attraction, like an invitation.
When all else is quiet, it is still there.
Like a magnetic North, it can not be recognized, yet seems to be always present, an unseen pull throughout all else, yet never graspable, yet still there.
It has its distractors; life provides all its own. But it waits, it is still there.
Despite all mental gesticulations, personalities, dreams and identities inside, they are defied, because it permeates all, and is still there.
It has its ups and downs; at times I feel like I could burst, as if there is something I should do, or somewhere I should go, or become or go through, as it has its own continuum I do not understand, but watch. If it is a guide, then I have not realized how to follow; if direction, I sense not where to face; if it is only love, then I know not yet how to love. It remains always there.

From lennys3cents:

Yes – I want nothing except to lose my mind.

Empty mind. Celibacy. Seeing that “i” am nothing but a collection of egos and that all is nothing more than interpretation of/by/through mind/consciousness — turning away, letting go, retreating from, rising above the place of reaction – poking holes in the penny.

Next Month

The Reader Commentary question for the June TAT Forum comes from Bob Cergol:

What are your questions?

Please your response by the 25th of May, and indicate your preferred identification (the default is your first name and the initial letter of your last name). “Anonymous” and pen names are fine, too.

PS: What question(s) would you like to ask other TAT Forum readers?

Q: What are your thoughts on this month’s reader commentary? Please your feedback.

Richard Rose described a spiritual path as living one’s life aimed at finding the meaning of that life. Did you find anything relevant to your life or search in this month’s TAT Forum?

Steps in Moundsville, WV. 2010 photo by Art Ticknor.

We like hearing from you! Please email your comments, suggestions, inquiries, and submissions.

Sign up for notices of TAT’s four annual events and free monthly Forums by email on our contact page.

Founder’s Wisdom

Richard Rose (1917-2005) established the TAT Foundation
in 1973 to encourage people to work together on what
he considered to be the “grand project” of spiritual work.

The Path to Truth

First Paper

In order to express my thoughts that others may understand and perhaps coordinate their thoughts, convictions and actions with my own, we must have a medium language, and this requires definition. Much of philosophy is simply definition of desires or intuitions.

As far as I can gather by my studies, the path to Truth has two meanings. The more objective or physical manner is in scientific research into things material and metaphysical. The Abstract method is in the development of the Inner Man.

Those persons who endorse the first or physical method of pursuing Truth or complete self-definition, are evidently convinced that it is possible for a person to KNOW. They feel that the great riddles of the cosmos and the invisible forces can be analyzed and their analyzation can be verbalized. This analytical approach has inspired scientists from Archimedes to Einstein. Men have tried in their manner to analyze, form laws of nature, and to determine the essence of matter and the essence behind matter by objective scrutiny. Their results are not to be minimized.

On the other hand there have been persons dedicated to the second or Abstract approach to a presumed abstraction. They more or less assume that man in his present robot-like body and mind can never perceive the Infinite. In fact it is often quoted by theologians that the finite mind will never understand the infinite. Their course of study, then is not to observe objectively with a finite mind, but to transform the mind to higher perception, or to develop attributes of higher specialty. In more simple words, to become the Truth. Some might say that it could be likened to seeing not with senses, but with our mind or inner being. To this group belong such figures as Jesus of Nazareth, various mystical saints, Buddha, Mohammed, devotees of yoga of the higher type, the exponents of Zen and the authors of such monumental writings as the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and various Sutras.

There is indeed much criticism of persons who indicate an inclination to follow a path of inner development that tends to transcend mere church attendance and lip-service, yet none can really deny the fact that men such as Jesus and Buddha draw greater and more prolonged respect than the giants of the scientific fields.

To get back to categorizing. The Physical path or scientific approach to knowledge is in turn divided into two manners of pursuit, and these two in turn are the same, systematic analysis of tangibles or the material sciences, and a pretended systematic analysis of intangibles or philosophy and metaphysics. Again we have a physical and an un-physical category, and both are based on the conceit that we are able to KNOW.

In regards to the development of the Inner Man or the Abstract means or manner there are two methods again, the physical and the abstract. In the one sub-classification we have the problem approached by working on the physical body, and in the second sub-classification we have work on the mind, by working with intuition, meditation and the combination of qualities which we might preclude the mind to possess. To note roughly a few of the movements that prescribe work on the physical vehicle, we have hatha yoga, the many religions that advocate fasting, restraint of appetites, and body disciplines of severe nature even, and the religions that maintain that baptism or anointing precludes salvation. On the other side we have the same religions almost, for nearly all advocate meditation, the exercising of the will, or the control of the imagination. In other words the two-fold path is not alien to the conventional religious precepts.

Part 2 of 2 will follow.

Definition of Terms

Index of many of the key terms and principles in Rose’s work, with brief definitions, from Richard Rose’s Psychology of the Observer: The Path to Reality Through the Self by John Kent.

Jacob’s Ladder © 2001 Richard Rose. See this transcript of a talk on the topic by Rose.

Homing Ground Update

… A spot on earth where people can do retreats and hold
meetings; where the emphasis is on friendship and the search.

January 2024:

As we start the new year, December donations brought us to just over 20% of our 2023 fundraising goal of $15,750. The bulk of that total came from monthly, recurring donations. A big thank you goes to those core supporters who are there for TAT month in and month out, as well as all of you who choose monthly supporting memberships in TAT. These steady commitments are greatly appreciated and very helpful for TAT’s long-term planning.

An additional $152 came from Amazon purchases in 2024. This is a simple, no-cost way to support TAT but does require remembering to visit the TAT website first and use the Amazon link on this page before you put items in your cart: https://tatfoundation.org/support-tat/. Almost any product is eligible. For example, someone purchased toothpaste on Amazon, and TAT received $0.25 on that purchase.

In 2024, expect to see less frequent, but more effective, reminders of fundraising goals. I think these monthly reminders are a bit like that inspiring quote you put on the refrigerator—it works for a few days and then you don’t notice it anymore.

Thanks to all of you for making TAT the extraordinary organization it is, and best wishes for the new year.

Sincerely,
Shawn Nevins

PS: Monthly contributions are a great way to support the TAT Center if making a larger one-time donation seems too much. If you’re so inspired, click the Donate button below, then check the box for “Make this a monthly donation” as in the example below:




Let’s bring this to life! “The job is upon us,” Richard Rose said, “and it is worthwhile.” To contribute to the TAT Center, mail a check made out to the TAT Foundation to:

TAT Foundation
PO Box 3402
Roxboro, NC 27573

Big checks, little checks, all are welcome. Or use the PayPal link above (though we lose 2.2% of your donation to PayPal fees).

* See photos and more on the Homing Ground page. *

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