July 2024 TAT Forum

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

COMMITTEE: A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

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RAISIN: A grape with a sunburn.

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SECRET: A story you tell to one person at a time.

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TOMORROW: One of the greatest labor-saving devices of today.

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~ Collected by Paul Constant. Photo by saeed karimi on Unsplash.

Called Home?

~ Image found on Bobbie Dodds (@bobbie_dodds) on Instagram.

Proverbial Largesse

Three things it is best to avoid:
a strange dog, a flood,
and a man who thinks he is wise.
~ Welsh Proverb

One never needs their humor
as much as when they argue with a fool.
~ Chinese Proverb

Give me, Lord, my daily bread,
I will get my own brandy.
~ Yiddish Proverb

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~ Thanks to World of Proverbs humor.

Inspiration & Irritation

Irritation moves us; inspiration provides a direction

What I Found
Questions and Answers From a Finder Questionnaire

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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~ Thanks to Tyler Matthew. See a short bio at Finder Questionnaire Responses. Photo of Tiepolo’s Miracle of the Holy House via Wikimedia Commons.

Spiritual Success Stories 1-4

Excerpts from TAT Talks virtual gatherings:
• Art Ticknor (May 2023)*
• Shawn Nevins (July 2023)
• Anima Pundeer (October 2023)
• Mike Gegenheimer (December 2023)

* Full audio (2+ hours) is now available in the members-only, password-protected section of the TAT site; others will be added about 12 months after the event.

~ Thanks for this 40-minute audio file from Mike Whitely, who selected and commentated on the selections.

Rapport of Questions

What are you looking for?

If you’ll find it, how will you have recognized it?

From what point of view will you have been looking from when you saw it?

What will have to have been different for you, to be standing in that vantage point?

What is it, that was standing there?

Which eyes will it have used? Which senses has it used to perceive it’s goal?

Now that you have attained it, what is different?

Do you now have something new to possess? Something old?

Something that you can call yours, to hold in your hand and admire?

What would you have had to become, to possess such a thing?

How will you know that you won’t lose it now? Tomorrow?

If you didn’t have it already, what will you have to have become, to know, to have it?

If you didn’t know it already, how will you have become able to recognize it? What will you have become to recognize it?

How does something unknown become known?

What is grace? How will you have recognized it? As what? In which form?

Which part of your experience does grace descend upon?

Who will have noticed? What will you have kept after this noticing?

What is it that will have changed?

What do you think you know have?

Group Poems on Longing

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~ “Rapport of Questions” was written by Topi P. for a September 2023 retreat held in Dublin, IE. The poems were written by Topi and other participants in a session he led at the retreat. The image above is Soleil Couchant, an 1875 watercolor by Félix Bracquemond from New York Public Library public domain images. A larger version of it appears below.

Nowhere & Everywhere

“I mean, I still think of Noah every day, every minute. This whole house we lived in together all those years, right? That bed that I sleep in every night is the bed in which he died,” Sachs says.

“I wake up sometimes and I see he’s not in bed with me, and my first instinct is to call to him, assuming he’s in the other room. And then I realize, more or less quickly, that, no, he’s not there. And that hits you sometimes like a ton of bricks. He’s not in the other room or in another city. He’s not anywhere. And then, almost immediately, a more calming realization sinks in: he’s everywhere.”

Background:

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~ Thanks to Shawn Nevins; from the NPR webpage on Sachs, which has a link to the 8-minute podcast in the special series “The Unmarked Graveyard” as well as three audio links to Creshevsky’s music. Photo by Zach Miller on Unsplash.

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 question for the July TAT Forum is:

Do you feel that you are here for a purpose?

Responses follow:

From Patrick K:

I am a struggling seeker but I do feel that I am trying to be as honest as I can with how I feel about the spiritual path. I am trying to develop and increase upon my “fealty” to truth, no matter the shape or way that that truth may come. I am here to glean from other seekers and teachers the nuggets, the bread crumbs, that God is giving, to lead me and all of us home, if we wish to be open to that. I get the feeling that God is a willing God and in an earnest group like TAT, he would be more beneficent here with bread crumbs than other less truth oriented groups.

Just last week someone mentioned about entities in this monthly reader commentary. Now I would see that the existence of entities is a serious breadcrumb that is left by God. Richard Gallagher, (Exorcisms: The World’s Leading Psychiatric Authority Speaks Out – YouTube) an experienced psychiatrist who has worked with exorcists, and being present in many exorcisms for over a large number of years classifies entities as “fallen angels”, aka demons. This is in accordance with scripture. St Paul, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”.

We were talking about Rupert Sheldrake last week and how he is making petty unsubstantiated claims against science. Why isn’t science looking at demonic possession? When you drop all the fear and negativity attached to this phenomenon, you may realise that the brightest light does actually shine in the darkest corners (a line Jordan Peterson likes to say on occasion). What has been revealed to Fr Chad Ripperger, an exorcist priest, has and is nothing but breathtaking. It reveals the hierarchy of heaven and hell and goes a great length to furnishing pretty strong evidence for the Catholic faith. Here is a very interesting quote from Fr Chad, “one of the reasons God allows demons into the lives of people is precisely to afflict them so that in the process, they actually have to build the virtue to climb their way out. This is something we see with possessed people all the time. Some of the most holy people I have ever met are people who are possessed”. Taken from this clip: Combating Evil as an Integral Part of Becoming Holy ~ Fr. Ripperger (youtube.com).

From Filo S. King:

For me there are two responses to this question:

1. As inseparable aspects of the One Being, each of us as individual ‘beings’ have the purpose of having, expressing, and living from our particular point of view, in this dream of phenomenal existence.

2. As the unspeakable, there can be no such thing as purpose, individual beings, or phenomenal existence.
Go figure!

A question that I find to be quite helpful for seekers is,
It is often pointed out that awareness is aware of itself…
>Which begs the question: what is aware of the awareness of awareness?

From Anonymous:

It’s gotten really simple. And necessary. My only purpose (and I can only ever speak for myself) is to listen to my own heart. It is always speaking to me. It’s all I will do for the rest of my days. I’m not sure if it’s a lofty idea (the idea itself of purpose) or out of desperation that I know this to be true for myself. But, so be–it.

From Joe Blazenski:

Interesting way to state the question. If I am here “FOR” a purpose, that would imply agency, an assignment to accomplish some measurable outcome. If I am here “WITH” a purpose, it opens wider doors that may have no specific measurable goal other than to get through the day fulfilling rather than accomplishing.

I am 77 years old in this current earth situation/arena. I remember some past incarnations, so that puts a wider perspective to the question of purpose. The memory of being a tall young black woman in the African Savanna 40,000 years ago bears little relationship to the memory of being a senior systems analyst for a state income tax system 20 years ago. Not much there for the mind to make up a purpose linking the two.

My non-corporeal friends told me long ago that earth life is an experiment. The purpose of the experience is to experience “twoness,” choice.

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From Art Ticknor:

Sometime shortly after meeting Richard Rose, I saw clearly what I wanted most from my life—and the words that best described it were borrowed from Rose’s writing: to become the Truth at any cost. I considered that to be why I was here, the discovered purpose of my existence.

A year or so after meeting Rose and spending time around him, I moved from Ohio to California, and I visited Rose to say goodbye for the time-being. I told him I wished there was some way to thank him for everything, and he said (verbatim, I think): “That’s not the way it works; pass it on.”

That became a main component of my spiritual vector (directed energy) for the following quarter century of seeking and the main factor of my continued vector afterward, which I still consider as the esoteric purpose of my life.

I can’t discount helping to bring three children into existence as the exoteric purpose of my life. Rose referred to children philosophically as new units of suffering. They also provided the experience of falling in love with someone other than myself—valuable data for the retreat from untruth.

From  G. Bianchi:

I’m wondering, in the context of the obvious randomness of a particular “thing’s” coming into existence in the first place as well as the apparent randomness of a creature becoming consciously self-aware enough to ask such a question: what would a personal feeling of “being here for a purpose” look like?
Asked another way, without a clear and correct understanding of the origins of the physical universe how could a conscious being form a rational idea of having a purpose.
It would seem such a feeling would be on the same level as believing in a god figure without having experienced this god for one’s self.
Seems to be the result of irrational or imaginative wish fulfillment rather than based in any true understanding.
This is obviously from the point of ignorance of the big picture but feel it would be a reasonable starting point for discussion.

From BB:

It feels like there is something at the center of, or underneath, here, that is fundamentally unresolved. I’m inclined, at times, to believe my purpose is to resolve that thing. At other times, I forget about that purpose or ignore it and put my energy elsewhere, dealing with whatever else is gathering the attention (more surface-y purposes). I seem to always be drawn back to that more fundamental lack of resolution, though, and always come back to the feeling that until that is settled, something important is missing…

From Eric C:

Yes. I feel that I am here to overcome myself, or liberate myself from myself.

From Mark W:

It seems rather arbitrary to think I am here for a purpose; nevertheless, I do think that. Perhaps more to the point, I do feel I’m here for a purpose as a result of various insights and intuition that seem to pull me towards some purpose which may be to realize my purpose. Yes, that’s conceptual and a belief, but it’s also what I really want more than anything else.

From Paul Constant:

It sure feels as though my life’s purpose has revolved around the search for Truth. And to get there, I feel that my relations with family, friends, teachers, and probably everyone I crossed paths with helped nudge me towards Truth—whether those relations were good, bad, or something in between. Life can be pretty rocky at times, but it’s precious.

From Simone B:

i don’t know—part of me feels that i am here for a purpose. Sometimes, when things are going well, i feel like i am able to transmit energy and inspire or help motivate others, to catalyze some kind of action. My birthday was about a month ago, and a new music friend wrote me “happy birthday, Idk your beliefs but I believe God put people like you in the world to make it better!” which made me feel really good, and still does, that something i’ve done has impacted someone else enough to make them feel that i make the world a better place somehow. Its hard because i have a lot of ups and downs and i can’t always see the big picture, and i feel super grateful to have friends who love me and tell me i’m fundamentally a good person. i don’t know if that’s the same thing as having a purpose. When i’m playing a good concert or teaching a workshop that people are really connecting to, I can feel that kind of energy. I guess it keeps me going.

A person i love deeply but have a complicated relationship with asked me last week as we were hanging out tentatively for the first time in months, about my human design. Of course i looked it up as soon as i got home, eager to collect a clue as to who i was. According to a cursory google search, apparently i’m a projector, which has something to do with thriving on guiding others, waiting for recognition and invitation. Apparently projectors don’t always have access to consistent energy, are prone to burnout (something i’ve been experiencing the last few years and recovering from the last few months) and need to feel invited or recognized in order to bring out the best in them (and maybe live out their purpose?). The metaphor of a lighthouse is used—to stand rooted, tall and quietly in your own integrity with your guiding light shining out and have things/people/opportunities come to you rather than initiating (which has been my strategy for a long time).

Then there are other times when it feels like the world is ending and we’re all pretty powerless to help. Sometimes I feel that in my body, that hopelessness, and it kind of just overtakes me, for months at a time, sometimes. But I guess we can affect change in small ways around us, and maybe other people can affect change around them, and if a lot of people or even a few people or even one person are doing little things because you did a little thing, or if a lot of people or even a few people or even one person have unconsciously taken on something of yours sort of that resonated with them, then maybe that’s enough. And maybe the purpose is a tiny little fraction of a thing that you do that’s good that you don’t even register in your life.

i guess it’s more fun and more engaging and fulfilling to believe i’m here for a purpose than not, and if it’s all the same then I choose to believe it….

From Lena S:

I believe Richard Rose’s unique gift to seekers is that through intensity and commitment, we can find and become a separate and artificial purpose to exist, and that is to find a final perspective from which all questions are answered. To have found a strong desire for this work—and to have found TAT with so many awakened people who are here to help—I must believe there is both a purpose to my life and hence, an obligation for me. On the other hand, I believe everything is inter-related and every separate thing is hopelessly affected by every other thing in some way. However, that “becoming a separate purpose” suggests that there is a way to rise above inter-relatedness.

From Anima Pundeer:

Yes. To find a permanent solution to all my suffering. Once I realized this was my purpose in my bones, so to say, the whole universe aligned itself to help me fulfill it. Life without a purpose is simply stumbling along and not really living.

Next Month

The Reader Commentary question for the August TAT Forum is:

What do you feel interferes with your seeking?:
What you love or what you hate?
What you desire or what you fear?
Pride or shame?
Other?

Please your response by the 25th of July, 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?

The image is Soleil Couchant (setting sun), an 1875 watercolor by Félix Bracquemond from New York Public Library public domain images.

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.

Self-Definition

It was Richard Rose who said that the only real problem was that of self-definition. He said so during a discussion in which I was a participant, after reading his poem “The Three Books of the Absolute.” During that discussion many years ago Rose stated: “We bounce from one illusion to another—one obsession to another.” This is the story of humanity—a never ending bouncing about from illusion and obsession to more illusions and obsessions. To realize we bounce from illusion and obsession, and then to feel with our whole being that our only problem, and solution, lies in our need for self-definition, is what I believe to be the key to making genuine spiritual effort. The seeker as a young man did not grasp the fact that he was not a failure, not inferior, and not deprived. Those issues were the “problems” he was dealing with; they were not the problem of self-definition. His feelings of failure, inferiority, and deprivation propelled him into an endless round of illusion and obsession. Indeed, you could say this seeker was addicted or “hooked” on his illusions and obsessions. If he attempted to reverse his vector and develop intuition early on, perhaps he could have seen that even if he was not deprived of what he wanted or aspired to, he was traveling on a dead-end road. All of his wants and aspirations were of a transient nature. Instead, he could have spent considerable time and refection asking himself the questions: “What is the real problem in life?” and “What is the only real problem?” ~ from “Self-Definition: The Only Real Problem” by Richard Rose student Vince Lepidi

=> Another term for self-inquiry is self-definition. To define is to “state or describe exactly the nature, scope, or meaning of,” to “mark out the boundary or limits of.” It comes from the Latin verb definire, “set bounds to” or “bring to an end.”

We go on to the highest form of Spiritual Work, the Realization of the Essence of Man. The final definition of man. And with this definition, – the realization of ultimate and absolute definitions of the nature of everything visible. This last sentence is included in this level of work because of the testimony of those who claim to have reached self-definition. The claim is that self-definition brings with it the definition of all things, and a realization of the Nature, or Absolute, or God, behind all things. ~ from “The Grand Work of the TAT Society” by Richard Rose

Definition requires comparison…. We back our way through the maze of the mind, the labyrinth of relativity, by having our self-beliefs challenged. For those challenges to occur, we have to encounter contrasting views that are equally convincing. ~ from a public talk by Richard Rose, “The Psychology of Zen: Science of Knowing,” at Ohio State University in October 1977. A transcript from the talk will begin in next month’s Founder’s Wisdom section.

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. *

Did you enjoy the Forum? Then buy the book!
Readers’ favorite selections from seven years of issues.
Beyond Mind, Beyond Death is available at Amazon.com.