Forum

November 2024 TAT Forum


This month’s contents include:

Convictions & Concerns: Trading Beliefs, by Colm H.

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: What are your thoughts/feelings about the difference between commitment and intention?

Founder’s Wisdom

A New Home for TAT update

Friday-Sunday, November 8-10, 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

Trading Beliefs

Whether you are relatively new to ‘seeking’ or you are a seasoned seeker, or even a know it all, at some point you will likely delve or have delved into the process of self-inquiry. The key aim of self-inquiry is to look at the beliefs one has about oneself, with the ultimate aim of tackling the root belief, or keystone belief (as I heard Art T. referring to it on several occasions), about our identity. This will typically be along the lines of ‘I believe I am a body / mind’, in one form or another.

However, before getting to that keystone belief, there are usually many other beliefs that need to be examined. These are the foundational beliefs that lend support to the keystone, as such. The scope here is broad as there are varying types of beliefs and everyone will have their own mix of what forms their ‘identity’.

To touch on a few in their most simplistic forms, there are psychological beliefs, for example, ‘I believe I am an introvert / I believe I am an extrovert’; there are moral beliefs, ‘I believe I am a good person / I believe I am a bad person’; There are body based beliefs, ‘I believe I am a body / I believe have a body’; there are emotional beliefs ‘I feel and believe I am loving / I feel and believe that I am not loving’, etc. This of course can go on, as the list of beliefs for most is long and unique. Another illustrative example that I have found useful, is that of an onion. An onion has many layers, with some of those layers being comparable to a belief. See through one layer, and you are confronted with another, and so on. Some of them might even make you cry. 😉

When I first started out with self-inquiry, some years ago now, I was told by many friends and teachers to ‘look at beliefs about myself’, about ‘who I am’. Sounds simple enough, in theory. However, after looking at that for some time, it became clear to me that there was quite a lot to this.

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To be concluded next month in the Inspiration & Irritation section.

~ Thanks to Colm H. Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay 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!

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.

=> A review by Gus R.:

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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
July TAT Talks online event: July 13, 2024 at 12 PM ET
August Gathering: Friday evening through Sunday noon, August 16-18, 2024
September Virtual Gathering: Saturday, September 21, 2024
October TAT Talks online event: October 26, 2024 at 1:30 PM ET
** 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 a short clip from a Richard Rose talk c. 1980s:

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:
Next we’re planning is to experiment with a combination of Rose/TAT Press/Albigen System books on the first and third Sundays of each month and another potentially heavy-hitting book on the 4th Sunday of each month.

We’ll continue to meet at 2 PM ET but at a new meeting URL still open to TAT Forum readers:  https://join.butter.us/aligniq/book-club

The plan is for Energy Transmutation, Betweenness and Transmission by Richard Rose https://tatfoundation.org/tat-forum-archives/energy.htm
November 3: Transmission, p. 1-9 of Energy Transmutation
November 17: Tension and Life-Form, p. 9-27 of Energy Transmutation
December 1: Energy and Between-ness, p. 27-37 of Energy Transmutation
December 15: Transmutation and Transmission, p. 37- 40 of Energy Transmutation
January 5: Creation of Mental Energy, p. 41-52 of Energy Transmutation
January 19: The Mechanics of Transmission, p. 53-59 of Energy Transmutation
February 2: Notes on Tension and The Way, p. 60-68 of Energy Transmutation

And for Happiness and the Art of Being: A layman’s introduction to the philosophy and practice of the spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana by Michael James https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Happiness-and-the-Art-of-Being-by-Michael-James.pdf
November 24: Introduction of Happiness and the Art of Being
December 22: What is Happiness?, Chapter 1 of Happiness and the Art of Being
January 26: Who am I?, Chapter 2 of Happiness and the Art of Being
February 23: The Nature of Our Mind, Chapter 3 of Happiness and the Art of Being
March 23: The Nature of Reality, Chapter 4 of Happiness and the Art of Being
April 27: What is True Knowledge?, Chapter 5 of Happiness and the Art of Being
May 25: True Knowledge and False Knowledge, Chapter 6 of Happiness and the Art of Being
June 22: The Illusion of Time and Space, Chapter 7 of Happiness and the Art of Being
July 27: The Science of Consciousness, Chapter 8 of Happiness and the Art of Being
June 22: Self-Investigation and Self-Surrender, Chapter 9 of Happiness and the Art of Being
July 27: The Practice of the Art of Being, Chapter 10 of Happiness and the Art of Being

 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 Mon. 7-9 pm: Univ. of PGH Cathedral of Learning, Main Room (look for red raincoat on the back of a chair!)
– Mon, Nov 4, 7-9PM: ”Is God Dead?”
– Mon, Nov 18, 7-9PM: “Am I just a Paradigm?”
> Online group confrontation and individual contributions every Wed, 8:00 pm ET via Zoom.
– Wed, Nov 6: Online: Shawn Pethel Guest.
– Wed, Nov 13: Lenny S. will present.
– Wed, Nov 20: Shawn Nevins Guest.
– Wed, Nov 27: Gloria N. will present.
> 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:

  • June 2023 TAT Meeting: The Search for Self-Definition: What’s Taking So Long?
  • September 2023 TAT Virtual Event: Pretty Lies or Ugly Truths.
  • October 2023 TAT Talk: Anima Pundeer.
  • November 2023 TAT Meeting: Knowing by Identity.

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 2012 TAT sessions on 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

Aware

Indian Hills Community Center
Indian Hills, CO

*

~ Thanks to Mahesh I.

BERE

The father of a school boy in New York City wrote to the boy’s teacher a letter of complaint. Possibly he welcomed the advent of prohibition—possibly not! Anyhow, the letter was as follows:

Sir: Will you please for the future give my boy some eesier somes to do at nites. This is what he brought home to me three nites ago. If fore gallins of bere will fill thirty to pint bottles, how many pint and half bottles will nine gallins fill? Well, we tried and could make nothing of it all, and my boy cried and said he wouldn’t go back to school without doing it. So, I had to go and buy a nine gallin’ keg of bere, which I could ill afford to do, and then we went and borrowed a lot of wine and brandy bottles, beside a few we had by us. Well we emptied the keg into the bottles, and there was nineteen, and my boy put that down for an answer. I don’t know whether it is rite or not, as we spilt some in doing it.

P.S.—Please let the next one be water as I am not able to buy any more bere.

*

~ Thanks to Gutenberg EBook of Jokes For All Occasions. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

Under-Door Message

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~ Thanks to Dan G. The cartoon by J.C. Duffy is widely spread on the web, and a poster of it is available from fineartamerica.

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 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:

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~ Thanks to Paul Constant. See a brief bio on the TAT Teachers page, and his SearchWithin.org website. Image by Peter Schmidt from Pixabay.

Truth

Longing to know Truth
I begin to watch
Putting everything in the view –
Body, senses, mind, thought, etc.
And with dogged determination
Keep my attention at all times.
Not off in thought,
But listening within,
Without an expectation.
What else is there?
Except intuition may arise.
Enjoy the mystery
Of what is really watching,
And knowing.
Retreating from all else.

~ Thanks to Rex H., who wrote: “A little poem came to me. It’s not much but expresses a sum-up of what I’ve learned. ” Image by andrewsbird from Pixabay.

Virtual Podcast?

 

Google’s NotebookLM is a viral application that takes any source document and turns it into a realistic sounding “deep dive” podcast. The AI “hosts” are instructed to be highly excited about every subject.

In the case below, it’s run on John Kent’s thesis on Richard Rose’s Albigen System: Richard Rose’s Psychology of the Observer. The program manages to extract some key points on Jacob’s Ladder and energy transmutation and tries to explain them using analogies that actually could be helpful:

https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/b5df1e13-1244-4a2c-973b-3345b2cb162d/audio

That said, it also seems off in a few places. Maybe it’s like podcast hosts who read the document once, thought about it in the context of other spiritual systems, but never had the thought to apply it to themselves. No matter how fascinating they find Psychology of the Observer

The thought comes to mind, normally it could help to confront them on this blind spot… But of course, automatons can’t turn and look at a truth, because they have no first-person point of view to look with. 

Incidentally, when someone tried trolling NotebookLM’s virtual “podcasters” with info they’re unreal, an artificial identity crisis ensued:

https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/google-s-ai-podcast-hosts-have-existential-crisis-when-they-find-out-they-re-not-real

~ Thanks to Dan G. Image from blog.google/technology/ai.

Longing

I am always here watching;
Why can’t I always stay as It?

Head, body, thoughts, sensations; a screensaver.
Breath its own driver.

Somewhere in-between, I seem lost
A gentle heart squeeze

A longing, found.

Thanks to Mahesh I. Photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova 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 November TAT Forum, thanks to Dan G., is:

What are your thoughts/feelings about the difference between commitment and intention?

Responses follow:

From Patrick K:

I feel intention and commitment are poles apart qualitatively. Commitment comes from the gut whereas intention comes from the head. Hold an intention long enough in the head though, and it should eventually filter down to the gut, where actions will proceed therefrom. The first time my ears pricked up regarding commitment was during reading the autobiography of Nelson Mandela. He called it “doggedness”. Like him or loath him, which I have come to find out that many white South Africans actually really do detest him, his lived experience was a dogged one for the liberation of black people in Africa. Your ears will prick up when you listen to someone speaking with authority, it’s their lived experience. Tess Hughes mentioned before that you “love what you put your attention on”. And this is key, and a simple way to tap into what you are really committed to. When I have spare time and am sitting down alone, the first thing that comes to mind is what I am committed to the most. I am committed to what moves me in my spare time, the time where I choose to do something for me. I would love to say here that “looking within” is my top priority, but I do notice other contenders for my attention. I tend to justify the other contenders by telling myself that all my other desires are parts of me that require tuning up, for example focusing on food/diet, organising the household, etc.

As a final note, I feel Rose’s Jacob’s Ladder is a great diagram to meditate upon also, to get a handle on the psychology of where commitment lies. Here is just my interpretation, which may be bogus, but I will share in any event. He outlines three realms, body, mind and essence. I feel he is pointing to the going within process that reaches all the way up to the Absolute. It seems to me like a primitive/visceral drive for ultimate survival. If you believe that you are the body, you will be driven/committed to bodily survival. Commitment to the spiritual path to me means trying to determine what it is the best use of my spare time. Maybe my intentions should keep that in mind, what should I really commit my spare time to? How do I deal effectively with imposters that show up and threaten to derail my desire to reach the top of Rose’s diagram? It is so easy to get spirited away on some other tangent, some other desire, and I have seen how those other desires can nudge out my main desire, and then I see that my attention is turning more toward that other desire. It is certainly a battle for attention/energy/focus.

From Dan McLaughlin:

Commitment points at convictions existent. It’s inherent to existence. Its value in self inquiry is in its uncovering and admission. For those who admit identity is a question. It self refines. It’s lived as sincerity.

Intention points at convictions that ought to be. Its value is social currency. It’s inherent to your person. Its value in self inquiry is in its uncovering and admission. For those who admit superiority is a desire and relative status is a question. It other refines. It’s lived as believability.

Commitment reflects the best working answer to “the word written on your heart,” which is a question not an answer. Intention reflects the best compensatory reaction we have to “the word rammed down your throat, or softly whispered in your ear,” which is an answer not a question.

Commitment is an unavoidable reaction to what is most loved now.  Intention is a readily avoidable response to what isn’t.

Commitment lives its conviction having admitted desire.  Intention is what’s left for the other things.

Commitment is a clear today while intention is an ambiguous tomorrow.

Commitment is an admission and intention is an insistence.

Commitment dances with recognition while intention plays hide and seek with forgetting.

From Dan G:

If a victim of an accident gets pinned underneath a vehicle, the bystanders who see the person trapped have three choices:
1. Turn their head away from the thought of lifting the vehicle. That might be, “I’ll call for emergency support and let the trapped person know help is on the way.”
2. Having an intention. It might be, “I acknowledge that I’d like to move that car and will try at least a little bit.”
3. Setting a commitment to free them. e.g., “This vehicle needs to get off them for them to survive, so I’m going to call on whatever reserves I forgot I had to lift this thing and free this person, and it’s OK if some other intentions fail.”

Commitment is one of the few levers the mind has to change anything on the level it can affect change. The commitment to look within until all is seen and no stone is left unturned seems impossible, but I must remember that I don’t know all the reserves available.

Does the grace of the forgotten reserves come from the commitment, or does the commitment come from forgotten grace? In the example of the bystanders lifting the car, the commitment comes from intention and turning from intentions—from deciding among conflicting intentions, which may require surrender.

From Tyler Matthew:

From the absolute perspective, the Truth is completely non-conceptual. Manifest reality is created by Truth filtering through concepts. So the difference between “commitment” and “intention” will become for you however you choose to define each term. And you will actually experience that distinction. In other words, there is no absolute difference other than the difference you give to the words.

From a more relative (and perhaps helpful) perspective, “commitment” has always felt to me to be forward orientated. For instance, if a person is “committed” and keeps working at it, it may be believed that they can arrive at some point in the future at a million dollars, the perfect career, a healthy relationship, or enlightenment. But if you care to notice, nothing ever happens in the future. In fact, you have never made it to the future. You are forever bound to the eternal now. Focusing your time, energy, and power on achieving something in the future will keep your attention on just that: an imaginary future.

Intention, for me, is centered in the now. For instance, you can have the intention to look at your beliefs, or to feel your feelings, or to surrender to the Guru, or to even realize the Truth. But there isn’t the same sense of kicking the can down the road and hoping it happens at some future point. The intention is the activity and the activity is the intention; both of which are only powered in this Now moment. Can you feel that? There is an energetic resonance you might be able to pick up on. So my recommendation is to forget commitment and harness the power of intention. But to finish where we started, this relative distinction I am making is not gospel Truth, it is just how I define and experience the distinction.

From Ram S:

I don’t have anything to say on that question but that said it’s an excellent question and very thought provoking. That actually makes me realize that I’m not committed at all.

From lennys3cents:

Intention is a wish… effort is required.
a True Commitment unfolds effortlessly in front of us.

From Rob tH:

We are, in a way, always driven by intention. I can see myself making good intentions about the right food, the amount of sleep, a running method, a meditation practice, all the time. I think the ‘problem’ of the mind is making too many ‘good’ intentions. And it is not really a problem, except when you really expect that a good intention might lead somewhere. Intentions are the driving force of the mind imo. It is what keeps (the) us going all the time. Mostly based on a feeling that things are wrong or could be better. Rarely thought over thoroughly. With attention span limited, all energy applied is spread in so many directions.

Commitment is when you set yourself to a more focused goal and stick to it until it is completed. When an Intention is thus molded into a commitment, energy is applied more focused, and lesser intentions or distractions are easily put aside. You train your mind some kind of discipline. With attention focused on the outside world, you get worldly results. When committed and focused attention is directed to self inquiry/self knowledge you can get ‘results’ there. In my view, the automatic commitment comes from a burning desire. It outshines all other and is followed without question. Like falling in love. In absence of this fire, more discipline is required, and more mind is seen.

From Andrew S:

I think it’s easier to fake/imagine an intention. Whereas a commitment will be proven to be true through action. If you question someone’s intention it can be hard to find the truth, especially if they are charismatic or you have some affection for them. If you’re questioning your own intentions it can also be tricky; people can lie to you and you can lie to yourself. A commitment is more black and white, you’re either doing what you committed to or not. Easy to argue what your intentions were to save face or present yourself in a better light after a conflict. Less so when you fall short on a commitment. Commitments are supported by fact whereas intentions have to be assumed or explained.

From NV:

A commitment, to me, seems like an umbrella term, something to which you have an overarching dedication. An intention sounds like an orientation of will towards a smaller goal that may fit in with the overall commitment. For example, if I make a commitment towards losing 15 pounds, I will need to set multiple intentions of what, when and how much to eat, what to avoid, and reset my intentions based on how it goes or new information and my changing circumstances. I can also fall off the wagon with intention and find myself in a place where I have to begin again by remembering my commitment.

From Bob Cergol:

Intentions are wishes. Commitments are promises. Why else would there be this cliché?: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Or that other cliché? Don’t make promises you cannot keep or do not intend to keep? These suggest that promises do involve intention, at least a sincere and honest promise does—the wish to keep the promise! But to quote yet another cliché, wishing something doesn’t make it so!

Wishes are born of desire and are as fickle and fleeting. Promises are connected to a wish, but a promise requires a plan of action relevant to the promise, acting on that plan to fulfill the promise, reviewing those actions for failure or success, and perhaps most importantly, a visible and recurring reminder of the promise made. Absent these four things, a promise becomes nothing more than a fickle, fleeting wish.

From Jonathan P:

Almost always I feel that both arise by my will, that I “own and do” them. Just occasionally I see that they are coming up from a programmed source not of my doing. 

Intentions are more evanescent; arising intermittently. Like when I sit to meditate and an intended wish to pray for guidance arises. Sure it’s become more habitual, but aren’t all actions actually habitual, rote, programmed? They seem nourished by repeated periods of energy conservation, meditating, conscious labor, mulling the what is this and who sees, sometimes just deeply relaxing.

I’m already committed (at least in the funny farm of this life!) to the belief that I-am-embodied, this body-I-am, as the underpinning of me here. It rules the arising of all mental events, always acting to seek pleasure and to spare  this I-presence from destruction when the body drops. So maybe a strong countervailing force of commitment, a yearning, is needed that would persistently take over the present “I.” To be haunted, obsessed, to be truly earnest to see through that there is no essential I-feeling-monkey guiding this body-elephant to its favorite mud wallow or the eventual marble orchard. I sure can’t cause it to arise.

From Art Ticknor:

When I saw, at age 33 or 34, what I really wanted most from life, that created the most solid commitment of my life—different from the obligations and responsibilities that life had provided, especially the New-Year’s commitments to do or not do things.

I found, surprisingly, that the other responsibilities and obligations then took care of themselves.

These days when I see a habit pattern I’d like to break or one I’d like to see develop, I just park that desire so it resides in the background and then wait for the desired action/reaction to establish itself.

I do make specific action commitments to myself and others, which usually occur, but there’s always some flexibility about timing and undefined contingencies.

From Douglas W:

My approach was often quite heart centered where commitment and intention melded together into a yearning for what was true.

From Anton L:

Commitment evokes for me “this is going to hurt (at least a little bit)”—there is a battle involved. Its measurable, has edges, I know if commitment was made or not. Commitment includes some level of public announcement, which includes the fear of possible failure.

A TAT teacher speaks of commitment as a promise made to oneself, which is made under the condition of clear seeing as to what is wanted in life. A clear seeing or knowing what is wanted, without any holdouts or reservations. I appreciate this pointer intellectually; however, lived experience with bigger commitments in life feels like a steeling of myself to make a goal.

Intention feels softer; we are asked to make intentions for ourselves at a weekly mindfulness class, or similarly at some yoga sessions. These intentions may be remembered during the class (or not). Years ago I heard a speaker at TAT explain “effortless meditation,” in which it was expected that the mind would forget its intention (to pay attention), and then remember the intention, over and over again.

From Paul Constant:

Intention is the idea, the end-goal.  Before we set things in motion, we first formulate our intention, and then refine it as we go along.  Commitment supports the idea through determined action that coalesces around it.  

If you want a maximum spiritual realization in this lifetime, verbalize and/or write down your intention by expressing your next step(s).  And then make a commitment through your actions.  As you develop increased clarity and momentum, you will refine and correct your intentions and commitments.  In time, your life will take on a strong gravity around them.  Untold serendipities will arise at the right time in support of your commitment, and untold challenges will test you.  This is a powerful formula for realizing your Eternal Source! 

From Lena S:

Commitments never motivated me much; they always seemed too easily made, and conveniently forgotten—as everyone expected. I always thought death or hopelessness or some ominous threat could push me into committing to a way out of danger, but could never remember having been compelled by any powerful enough negative force. It always seemed that in whatever situation, I would only muster determination in order to survive or persist. Until one day when I would swear I felt as if I had been committed, as if I had no choice in the matter, as if within a commitment of unknown origin, was where I now found myself and belonged.

Intention for me is both will and direction—it is both determination and a direction in which I face. I believe that all experiences point in either an up or down direction and that determination is to scrutinize between the two and move with one and ignore or resist the other. My spiritual life has taken an awfully circuitous route over the years, but now not due it seems, to anything that I can take credit for, finally I am committed with an intention.

From Anima Pundeer:

Commitment—originating from your prime desire or fear comes naturally and is not a burden. It actually involves an inner disposition to your goal, a decision made with seriousness, and perseverance toward its completion.

Intention directs your attention to what you plan to achieve at the end of your task. It is what lies under your plan of action. It is the ‘why’ behind what you are doing.

An example would be: I make a commitment to finding a permanent end to my fear of oblivion/fear of death / inner angst and find eternal happiness. I intend to practice meditation every day for 20 minutes, during which I’ll try to keep my attention away from distracting, laundry-list thoughts so that there is space for insights to come that are in alignment with my commitment.


Other Reader Feedback

From Don A. concerning How “The Rose” Came to Be in the October TAT Forum:

Only One Petal of “The Rose” (the song)

Lyrics for the song “The Rose” impressed me, in that it seemed aloft and light but something was incomplete as if in the real world (like most love songs) I was left a little unconvinced. I only realized this as I started reading her article as to how the song and lyrics came about. The article started with Amanda McBroom recalling the words to a song she heard on the radio “Your love is like a razor. My heart is just a scar” and then it occurred to me that she had set herself on the task to counter that very sentiment with demonstrating it’s tender opposite, joy mixed with melancholy: the ups and downs of warm hugs and kisses and Summer Breeze, as it unfolds in time like the petals of a Rose. But the pain, the angst, the gut-feeling of the razor-like opposite nature was missing and that box-of-candy-you’ll-never-know-which-you’ll-get-like nature of love was not convincing to me, it lacked the gut- and heart-levels of passion that real life love entails: after the candy, there is the child-birthing, dirty diapers, maddening work schedules, illness, maybe even infidelity, and eventually death that test and temper and impassion an enduring and real love of a different dimension. I have come to appreciate this passion exemplified in a picture in the Catholic religion that I saw repeatedly in my youth, that of an injured bleeding heart in flames of love. Maybe like a lot of things in life, one needs to witness in full circle the extremes and the opposites of any one experience in order to understand it with more than an immediate and single emotion. Maybe, is it at all possible to experience all emotions simultaneously, and what would it mean by some ‘distance’ required from which that could all be taken in?

From Don A. regarding Lovable? in the October TAT Forum:

“Lovable?: Is this your life?” or “D.E. Harding & the Hamster Wheel”

We were enticed to enter a short Reddit flick by a cute hamster holding a bunch of flowers, but the video behind it is nothing more than a hamster running tirelessly on a hamster wheel apparently for hours at a time. In the fifty-odd comments that followed that episode, I instinctively searched for at least one redeeming existential interpretation by someone in the “you-tube” peanut gallery. I could find none noting the similarity of their own life’s habit or addiction patterns to the mindlessly repetitive cycle pursued by the rat on the wheel. But instead, I sensed a nervous distance created by the observations between a low-life rodent and themselves, even as in real life they too exhibited similar frighteningly mindless activities.

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Next Month

The Reader Commentary question for the December TAT Forum, thanks to Jonathan P., is:

How do you or could you practically accumulate energy for the search? 

Please your response by the 25th of November, 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?

Photo of Rishikesh on the Ganges thanks to Anima Pundeer.

Rishikesh is a city in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand, in the Himalayan foothills beside the Ganges River. The river is considered holy, and the city is renowned as a center for studying yoga and meditation. ~ Wikipedia

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.

Psychology of Zen: Science of Knowing
Transcript of a public talk at Ohio State University in 1977 (part 4 of 5)
Continued from October 2024; indented paragraphs indicate where Rose was reading from notes.

Mind dimension

And of course we have a faculty in the mind that the anterior observer is capable of. The mind behind the umpire is able to pick up on the mind level, or the mind dimension: things in the mind dimension, for instance what we call telepathy. Where you don’t have to see something or read a book, or read a letter—somebody may project something into your head.

When one of the Roman emperors was killed, Apollonius of Tyana was supposed to have been walking down the street, and he stopped and said, “Good, stab him again.”67,68 He was witnessing an assassination. And we’ve heard these accounts frequently, where a person would actually at the moment witness something going on someplace else. This is because he’s able to pick up—not through his eyeballs, through his senses, but directly mind-to-mind. There are numerous instances of this. And where are they mentioned and explained in modern psychology?

Okay, now there’s a dimension behind this yet. There’s a mind behind this, and you’ll know it by its predictability, once you are able to tap it. That behind the physical mind, or what I call the manifested mind, there’s an anterior mind that we might even say communicates with God, or communicates with ultimate mentality: unmentionable, indescribable mentality.

And from it we get such revelations as Paul got when was knocked off the horse.69, 70 There was no logician or philosopher who came out there and said, “Now Paul, let me prove to you that you’ve been doing wrong; you’ve been voting on the wrong side of the ticket.” No, it was boom and he knew. That’s all there was to it. And this can only come about by some traumatic act that would divorce him from all previous forms of thinking, so he would be able to know beyond the interference of all this process thinking. You can’t think too much when you’re thinking about processes. But this is the basis of direct-mind communication.

Incidentally, when you heard Mr. Khourey talk about the mental confrontation, the workshops that they’re getting ready to do,71 this is one of the end results: The more you work with each other on this, the more you’ll be able to communicate directly. Lots of times we have sat in a circle and we’d be able to pick up what a person is thinking. One person will say, “You’re thinking this.” And then you become adept at that just by allowing yourself to do it. Don’t try, just allow yourself to do it and you can do it more frequently.

Now we’re running late on this, it’s been over an hour and a half, so if there are any questions I can answer or if there’s anything you’d like for me to explain….

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[to be continued….]

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.

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