January 2025 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

Just Some Guy

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~ Thanks to Brett S. The source of the humor is unknown; it appears on many websites.
Image from Willem on X. Source unknown; widely spread on social media sites.

Resistance is Futile

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~ Thanks to Dan G. Photo by Joyceville Public School Council on Facebook.

No-Self Application

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Thanks to Isaac H. Source unknown; also widely spread on the web.

Inspiration & Irritation

Irritation moves us; inspiration provides a direction

A 5-Year-Old Dream of Rose, and a Poem

I was clearing out old pending emails in my inbox and came across a very old exchange with Tess Hughes. On January 12, 2020, I wrote her:

I almost never dream of Rose. Last night I had one. There was a crowd of people gathered in what seemed to be a very large, and extremely busy, noisy hotel complex. I’m not positive, but it seemed like, at least a subset of that crowd was there for a TAT meeting. It seemed we were waiting for service or tables. A lot of folks were waiting at a typical restaurant bar, that was full. I was with Paul Constant and we decided to go sit at a table and ordered a couple drinks. Rose and another person were also seated at that table. After a short while Rose leaned over to me and said: “Come with me to the shore.” – and I felt conflicted because I didn’t want to say no to him, and I answered: “But I would miss the TAT meeting.” Then I woke up. I thought about it as I was trying to get back to sleep – mainly because it is so rare to have a dream with Rose in it – and I thought, hmmmm…. I hope I don’t die before the next TAT meeting. I felt sad today every time I remembered this dream. I miss him, and wish I could speak to him, just as I often think of my own father who died at age 57 when I was in my twenty’s and wish I could speak with him about many things.

Come with Me to the shore, where sky meets earth,

     And watch as light descends in rolling waves,

Reflecting scenes of life’s kaleidoscope,

    And breathe that mist that brings tears to your eye.

Come with Me to the shore, and remember

    When in youth thou charged forth in innocence

Before that time when seduction took you

    Away from that sacred place that was home.

There with Me let’s witness time and gaze beyond

    That story, neither chosen nor embraced,

Though alluring, a prison does it make,

    Leave it now and come with me to the shore.

~ Thanks to Bob Cergol, who has a book, titled Hope! Life’s Calling, soon to be published by TAT Press. Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash.

Faith as Yearning

I liked an article on faith by David Brooks that I came across recently from The New York Times. [Unfortunately we can’t access it without a NYT membership. – Ed.] Here’s what I texted someone about it:

There’s a quote in Brooks’ article, that Christians should live in a way that doesn’t make sense unless God exists. That’s kind of why I find it hard to talk about it sometimes with people who aren’t on a “spiritual path” – because if God doesn’t exist there’s no starting point for the conversation, and also because I don’t believe in God haha – at least not a theological one. But I do believe in God as Brooks described it earlier in the article: a solid ground of being permeated by Joy, in the presence of something vast and overwhelming that is within everything. I don’t have personal conclusive proof of this, but like Brooks I’ve sensed enough of it in small moments to believe that it’s real. Perhaps unlike Brooks, I’ve met people who I believe have found the source of that feeling or presence. 

Brooks says towards the end that he never met anyone who experienced the presence of God and was satisfied. That hasn’t been my experience. The people I’ve met who’ve “made the trip” all the way come back and report complete satisfaction – an end to the longing that was driving them like it’s driving Brooks, up and until that moment.

Maybe like Brooks, I let conflicting desires and self-image get in the way of my full commitment and complete surrendering to a spiritual path. Unlike Brooks, I’m not as eloquent in describing what the spiritual search is and feels like. But I really appreciate the way he’s put it into words and all of the self-reflection it must involve to look into one’s beliefs, especially strongly-held ones and those connected to family and community. 

~ Thanks to Brett S. The photo of David Brooks is from Wikimedia Commons. If you’d like to read a little more about this, check out ‘The Shock of Faith’ — and a striking echo of Thomas Merton.

~ Jim Doty is a Stanford neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, compassion researcher, inventor, entrepreneur, NY Times bestselling author and philanthropist. If you want to see more after this 2-minute clip, take a look at a video elaborating his study and experience of manifesting intention.

His book Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything is available on Amazon.

I watched the first 35 minutes … there’s no woo-woo 🙂 … what he’s focused on is mindfulness, finding that service to others brings happiness, and that we can encourage our intention to manifest by embedding it in our unconscious operation. Shortly after that, the interviewer started trying to get Doty to provide specific paint-by-number techniques, which he handled adroitly, but I lost interest in watching the rest.

Whether our intentions can affect the future in any way is an open question. But if we feel that they may be able to improve the future, then we might want to experiment with embedding out intentions in our mental machinery’s operation.

See Richard Rose’s comments on the creation formula in the Founder’s Wisdom section below. [-Ed.]

Conclusions vs. Convictions

A conclusion is a stage in an argument, while a conviction is a state of mind:
Conclusion
A final decision or judgment, or an opinion formed after research or thought. In academic writing, a conclusion summarizes the paper’s main points, connects them to a larger context, and suggests implications. In science, a conclusion summarizes the results of an experiment. In law, a conclusion of law is a judge’s decision about how laws apply to a case.
Conviction
A judgment that one holds as true, especially a firmly and seriously held belief. In the legal system, a conviction is when a judge or jury finds someone guilty of a crime. ~ Google AI Overview

You may also be interested in Gladwell’s TED talk “The unheard story of David and Goliath” (16 minutes).

100-Day Challenge

Interested in taking up a challenge for developing any muscle you’d like to strengthen? Could be anything—food, exercise, meditation, journaling. I am working on my writing muscle these days. And not bragging but super proud that I have done it for 43 days now. For best results, it needs to be super simple without any complicated terminology or processes.

If someone wants to stay accountable, we could have a WhatsApp group where people can send updates. My number is 832-758-5709.

~ Challenge thanks to Anima Pundeer.

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 January TAT Forum—the first of two questions from a “Certainties Discussion” on Friday evening of the November 2024 in-person TAT gathering, for which participants broke into threesomes to compare notes on their beliefs:

What is something you feel quite certain about regarding life (experience, “other”)?
What evidence to you feel supports supports it? Challenges it?

Responses follow:

From Bela Geczy:

What is something you feel quite certain about regarding life (experience, “other”)?
I am quite certain that that there exists a changeless background that illuminates all experience. I call it Knowing Presence. It can also be called awareness, consciousness, being, nowness, now-here/no-where.

What evidence do you feel supports it?
Direct experience of something changeless that has always been with me. I always seem to be I for example (no thought is required for that sense to be).

Challenges it?
Knowing that all humans are deluded, I fall into that category so I am certainly aware that I can be deceiving myself.

From Lena S:

We are nothing like what we think we are.

In fact, I witness my tendency to deny, to fend-off anything I see, hear or experience that is not that which I think I am, the identity that I have evolved over a lifetime. The simple fact that I need to defend what or who I think I am, tells me that it is not true, final or something that I know beyond any doubt whatsoever. Furthermore, I have repeatedly re-defined myself, re-made intellectually what I think I am, which again tells me it is not a final discovery but rather, a mental image that could only serve the purposes of mental imaging. One experience that is pronounced, though somewhat more recent is a fear that ‘everything just falls apart’, a frightening occurrence that my world as I know it collapses, which really implies that I fall apart, logically the only connection to the world out there. Maybe this only occurs in my dreams, but I feel dreams tend to more often point out the things that are wrong about the daytime experience, not what is right.

The act of wanting to know, in asking, seeking and knocking is in itself, an identity. Nothing more than a determination in a direction as an identity sits much better than personality because it comes closer to describing what I really want, perhaps what I really love. And if I have no choice in what I really want or love, then maybe these better define me than any intellectual or personal identity.

From Brett S:

A friend shared their beliefs about the world recently. Here’s what I heard them say:
• The world is chaos. Both horrible and beautiful things are completely, utterly random.
• We are not separate from that chaos. It is part of us and we are indistinguishably a part of it.
• Who we believe we are and how we respond to chaos is constantly changing, and always will be.
• We don’t understand reality, but it is likely that all of it is within what we consider the “material world.”
• All so-called spiritual experiences are parts of yet-to-be-discovered scientific breakthroughs beyond our current understanding.
• People hold others to unfair and inconsistent standards, and will go to any length to twist the facts to fit their beliefs about how the world is.
• I understand accept that all of the above could be completely wrong, and likely is.
I think that, right or wrong, this person has a very developed and comprehensive world view. I am working on developing my own. Here’s where I am:

There are healthy and unhealthy ways to live. Some people go through life doing harm to themselves and others, while other people seem to live in more or less relative harmony with the world and themselves. At some point in life, we probably play all the roles – healthy, unhealthy, harmful, harmonious. It may be from being “unhealthy” that we learn how to be “healthy.” The ultimate health would be to be completely connected to our highest aspirations, the things inside that are our deepest callings in life and feeling like we have answered or are in the process of answering that call. I expect that being connected in that way is unfamiliar, unexpected, at times frightening, and in many cases the opposite of what we had previously believed is good and right for us. I think that’s been my experience 🙂

From Clio:

I struggled to find a place to start with this question. Every time I thought I had landed on something I felt certain about, uncertainty arose. I thought of my life history, my relationships, my work, my mind, my body, my possessions, my feelings, my experiences – I wandered up and down each of these avenues to find something definitive. Eventually I found that all I could say with any certainty is that I am certain of sensory perception, thought and bodily sensations. I am sure that these are being experienced. The sureness lies only with the experience (not the content) and only as it occurs. Once the perception, thought or feeling has passed, it becomes a memory and then uncertainty arises – was it really that way? It seems that the actual experience of sensory perception, thought or feeling is very short lived. The memory of it can persist way longer than the actual experience especially if I turn it into a thought stream or storyline.

The evidence that supports this sureness is what is experienced in the body – my senses and bodily sensations. But then the question arises, what is registering the sensory experience? I am not sure about that. I also am not sure of the content of what is being experienced. For example, I sense a feeling in my body that is registered as hunger. That seems straightforward but then I hear someone talking to me. I know they are making sounds in their vocal chords and because it is a language with which I am familiar, I attach a meaning to what they are saying. However all that has been directly experienced is a noise coming from someone’s mouth. I seem to be adding something to this. I also add a whole range of thoughts regarding what they are saying, what they mean by it, what is being asked of me etc… So my sureness regarding my experience seems to be limited entirely to the fact that I hear sounds coming from someone’s mouth. The interplay between the sensory perception and the content of what is being perceived seems difficult to distinguish.

Then there is the experience of vibrating energy when the body ceases to be experienced as solid. There seems no apparatus then to record sense perceptions. And yet while the experience of vibrating energy without a solid body persists, sense perceptions – hearing, sight, etc., continue. Where are the ears? The eyes? thoughts, feelings if the body is a field of vibrating energy?

This question has opened up more questions….

From Eric C:

Everything coming in through the sensory gates, including thought, changes. I have not noticed anything which is unchanging. There is something which observes, or there is presumed to be something observing: that which notices changes in objects out there, and changes in here.

There is a pointer: “look for that which doesn’t change.” My sense of that is at most palpable a slight feeling in the belly, with the thought “this might be true/the case.”  Not sensed or known as a solid ground.

That there could be something alive within which might be unchanging (The Child Within Us Lives! by William Samuel) and discoverable – inspires.

From JP:

This is the main thing I’m looking at the last months:  I am a person who is a localized viewer in this head. During meditation this becomes more apparent, but when turning inward even a bit during daily life, the same thing comes up less vividly. The view’s “furniture” (thoughts, feelings, etc.) may be seen more clearly and distinctly when there’s an energetic clarity, openness, and stillness. The view extends then through this body to a larger surround. If the stillness is deeper, there’s no thought furniture for a time.

So if I can assume that what predominates in the view is that which I most identify with, then it’s a belief that I am a person who is identified with a head that feels it’s viewing, if that makes sense. Gazing/relaxing into that feeling, “I” notice limit, of lack, that I am lacking. That this is comes up is what “supports” this view. I could be talking with a sack over my head and just be as certain that the world is burlap and black. And there’s a kind of fatalistic conviction that this is so.

Then comes up almost like a curiosity, a question, is that so? I’m holding this; I’m proud of it, like I Know it. It’s So.

Lately, anytime during the day, when noticing this feeling of lack, of confinement, the question comes up, what would fulfill this lack completely and unconditionally? I’ve experienced a couple of times in the past a shining lamp in my heart touching all in the world about, an unconditional connection. And there’s a belief that that is so as well.

From Mike Gegenheimer:

Nothing the human mind experiences in life is permanent. The nature of the world the human mind experiences is ever-changing. Time and space arise in the mind as do the things of experience. And all things that arise are seen to be subject to forces that tear them down. All creatures that are born will, in turn, age and die. What evidence challenges the certainty that nothing the human mind experiences in life is permanent?

The direct experience of Self, the permanence of our True Nature, which is Life, the Source of all things which appear to arise and be experienced and pass away.

From Patrick K:

The most valuable thing that I feel certain about is that the spiritual path is in fact the “Master Game” as Robert S. de Ropp alludes to: The Master Game. All other games in life have a natural end. As far as I know, for me, my spiritual path may merely have a natural end, I may be deluding myself that I “Patrick” will uncover capital R Reality. I feel very strongly that Richard Rose, Art Ticknor and others found something of ultimate importance. So as they said in the X-files, “The Truth is out there”. De Ropp points out all the other possible life games on the forth page of the linked-to pdf document. The reason why I love the awakening game so much is that it is the only game that works to transcend “ego”, “the robot self”, “ignorance” etc. All the other games in life are deeply mired in ego, becoming a blind utility at best for a world I know not why exists, the part I am supposed to play, etc.

I just end up applying meaning to different ways of life, which is just my own projection of importance, which is largely conditioned by society, self determined by my own body/mind/egoic desires, somatic survival instincts, etc. Either way I look at it, I am lost and just biding my time until all my time is used up, when I hear the buzzer sound at the end of the forth quarter of my life. I challenge you to try and see if this is not true by meditating on de Ropp’s different games. Viktor Frankl did a lot of work and wrote some books, really compelling books, about “meaning”. Richard Rose summed up his work in a nutshell for me when he wrote in The Albigen Papers, to paraphrase: Victor Frankl proposes that we choose a meaning for life and then milk it for all its worth. If that was a boxing match, Rose just hit Frankl with a knock-out blow, probably early in the first round, a heavy weight versus a feather weight in philosophical/spiritual terms. That’s the beauty of The Albigen Papers, Rose tears strips out of the conditioned way we habitually go about orienting our lives. Rose could just sum up a well renowned psychologist/philosopher in one clear statement like that and for me that just emphasises the power he had.

From Sharad B:

What is something you feel quite certain about regarding life (experience, “other”)?
The more I think, the more I get a sense that I am not certain of anything. Further, since pondering over it gets disconcerting, I tend to distract myself from thinking about it. Though evidence all around suggests that death (a total annihilation) is a certainty, but this “certainty” is not sinking in.

What evidence do you feel supports it? Challenges it?
The evidence (that death is a certainty) primarily comes from empirically seeing it all around and all the realized people talking about it.
Nothing really challenges it for me, just that it is not a pleasant feeling pondering over it, so I keep tending to ignore it and get busy with day-to-day life.

From Art Ticknor:

That the lifeforce animating acorns “tells” acorns to be all that they can be. If the conditions they experience are sufficient, then they can become an oak tree. Similarly, that the lifeforce that animates humans tells humans to be all that they can be. And if conditions are sufficient, they can become their True Identity, their Real Self. (The capitalized terms imply a convention indicating an absolute condition, an absolute state of being.)

Evidence that supports the conviction: What I’ve read about acorns producing oak trees, my Self-Realization experience, and inductive reasoning about what animates life forms.

Evidence that challenges it: the possibility that we experience life in the reverse direction from which it actually happened; e.g., an oak tree transformed into an acorn, which produced a seed that produced pollen, that produced a male oak flower, which produced an oak tree and fertilized a female oak flower on the same or different tree, and so on back to the first oak tree.

Other Reader Feedback

From Don A. concerning the TAT Forum article “Trading Beliefs” in the November and December 2024 issues:
I suggest that no serious self-inquiry seeker should miss Colm’s two part article “Trading Beliefs” in the Nov-Dec Forums. The excerpts regarding beliefs are taken from a different working perspective, that of trading on the stock market, but are keenly aware of the fallibility and unsuspecting reliance on beliefs. This seems like a simple statement to agree with and then move on, but in part one (Nov Forum) Colm summarizes three whole chapters that the author commits to recognizing how we can fool ourselves unwittingly, almost surgically listing arguments against “I know better.” They demonstrate an acute insight into the psychology of the free will of choice based upon personal biases.

Read More

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From Bill K. regarding the excerpt from “Unraveling the Illusion of Existence” by Matt Cardin in the December Forum:
As to how he was addressing what he termed Resistance, my only reaction was to question if he was truly beckoned by love of whatever work he was doing. Could he identify that part of himself that was blocking whatever was calling him to his desk, his typewriter or to simply, create? And which force was stronger?

Next Month

The Reader Commentary question for the February TAT Forum—the second of two questions from a “Certainties Discussion” on Friday evening of the November 2024 in-person TAT gathering, for which participants broke into threesomes to compare notes on their beliefs:

What is something you feel quite certain about regarding self (identity)?
What evidence to you feel supports supports it? Challenges it?

Please your response by the 25th of January, 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?

Photos © Bob Cergol, taken at Brookgreen Gardens near Myrtle Beach, SC. That’s where Richard Rose saw the statue of Man Carving his own Destiny by Albin Polásek, which is featured on the cover of Psychology of the Observer. 

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 Miracles

The secret of miracles is based on the different energy transmutations that are diagrammed in the figure below:

There are three different classes or types of magicians. One uses illusion. A second dispels delusion, i.e., takes the path of wisdom. A third, whom most of the books call a Magus, is the magician who creates. These forms start with the physical and go upward to the mental forms of magic….

When you’re approaching a problem there is a formula which can be used, which has to do with the exercise of a magical between-ness to produce, or rather to witness, a total reality….

In the old Kabbalistic writings the formula was, “The imagination plus the will plus the fiat. And then forget.” In the beginning the creation was dreamed up, this was the imagination. Then the will was spoken in the fiat, “Let there be.” And then drop the whole matter. This is the formula for the creation of the world, or anything you wish to create….

I point out that here again we have the factor between-ness, which I earlier associated with the term non-ego, and the effortless method of healing.

Besides using this to alter physical circumstances, this method is also used very effectively in the mental and personal realms. It is spoken of very plainly in the prayer of Alcoholics Anonymous: Give us the serenity to tolerate the things we can tolerate, the strength to change the things we should change, and the wisdom to know the difference. There is a magical formula in that prayer. People change as a result of it.

Why? Because a person surrenders his ego to a higher will. We don’t have to name it, — we’re not smart enough necessarily to be able to identify that which is superior to us. It’s like saying, “Yes, I believe this, — I would like for it to happen. But I’m not going to try to make it happen, unless it’s supposed to happen, — then I will it to happen. Otherwise I’ll forget about it.” And the result is creation, — if it’s supposed to happen. You don’t create anything that isn’t supposed to be created….

~ From The Direct-Mind Experience, “Psychology of Miracles” chapter, a talk given in Akron, Ohio on February 15, 1981. Richard Rose said that another version of the creation formula was written of by Éliphas Lévi: “to know, to dare, to will, to keep silent.”

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 2025:

As we look to 2025 for a new year of TAT Retreats and Friendship on the spiritual path, there are a few important updates to share. 

Since 2019 when we first moved into the current TAT Center, this home away from home has been developed and supported by many. Through donations, workdays, and the ongoing efforts of our caretaker, the property has served as a retreat center, a spiritual library, and a gathering place for friends. It would be difficult to sufficiently put into words how grateful we are for these efforts, contributions, and time together at the Hurdle Mills TAT Center, and for all who continue to support and have played a part in making the TAT Center a reality. 

To enhance the ability for TAT to provide a center for meetings and retreats, after much careful consideration, discussion, and engagement with TAT members for input, we have strategically decided that, while the current TAT Center is very good, it is not as well-suited for the future as we would like.  In the spring of 2025, the TAT Center will be for sale, and we will transition the 2025 quarterly TAT Meetings and Retreats to Claymont (Charles Town, WV) and other retreat facilities. A committee is actively looking at properties to find a future home for TAT. 

A unique piece of land with a purposefully built retreat center building, acreage for solitary cabins, and a modest caretaker home is the view we have in mind. A place that feels more like a quiet retreat center than a large suburban home, and one that requires less ongoing live-in maintenance than our current home are additional items that have been discussed. The net is cast widely, but we are focusing on the Appalachian Mountain range for property searches, seeking the right balance of solitude and accessibility. 

The right property will come when it is meant to, and we look forward to that next chapter for TAT. In the meantime, many have expressed a fondness for the Claymont center, and we intend to hold retreats there until a new property for TAT is found. Over the next few weeks, we will finalize dates for TAT’s 2025 Meetings and Retreats and announce them through January’s Forum and share them on the TAT website. 
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A very special thank you to all who have been involved in creating and supporting the Hurdle Mills TAT Center during the last five years, and likewise to those planning TAT’s future home. We look forward to the coming year of TAT Meetings and Retreats and very much hope to see you there. 

In Friendship, 
Michael, Shawn, and Mike
[our current trustees]

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.