TAT Forum
March 2017
Convictions & Concerns
TAT members share their personal convictions and/or concerns
Freedom?
Tim H. sent the following question to "TAT's senior Graduates" [your guess is as good as mine as to the facial expression that accompanied Tim's choice of those words - Ed.]: This comes from Krishnamurti, whose abstractions and psychological approach I believe few followed or understood fully. From where he stood, I'm sure it was all clear. So the question I pose, for no other reason than to get the ball rolling: "You don't choose if you are free." What is he pointing at; what does he finally mean?
Tess Hughes found an example where J. Krishnamurti spoke clearly about his view of choice vs. freedom in an early talk (8th public talk, 1954-03-03:
"We think we are free when we choose; but we are not, are we? Where there is choice, there is no freedom because that very choice springs from our conditioned state. We think we have a will of our own, and we exercise that will through choice. But, if you observe, you will see that will is the outcome of innumerable desires, of many forms of frustration, fears; and these frustrations, fears, desires are the outcome of our conditioning, of our background; so when we choose, we are never free. Choice in itself indicates the lack of freedom. A man who is really free has no choice; he is free, not to do this or that, but to be. As long as we have choice, we are really not free and we are not really individuals.
"It is very important to understand this, because most of us live with choice—choosing a virtue, a person, an action—and choice invariably leads to misery; there is no good choice and bad choice. Only the mind that is free from choice, is capable of perceiving what is true. Truth does not come through choice. Truth does not come with analysis, with the capacity to choose between this and that, right and wrong; on the contrary, all choice is the outcome of our conditioning which is based on fear and acquisitiveness. We, you and I, call ourselves individuals but we are really not individuals at all. It is only when we are free from the background, from our conditioning, that there is real individuality; and that requires a great deal of thought, enquiry."
Responses from some of the "seniors" follow:
Dear Tim,
You want to talk about great teachers and how few appreciate their abstractions and the psychological approach behind them, then let's talk about Groucho Marx. Too few have followed or understood fully that, which I am sure from where he stood, was all clear. For no particular reason, let's start with this one: "I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal."
To penetrate what this is pointing at, and its meaning, will require, for many, some serious introspection. For those who can more easily set their imaginations in motion than can set their body in motion to push against gravity, I heartily recommend a fast trot around the block as many times as it takes to spend the energy that was being wasted in imaginary movement.
Some teachers say that we make our own reality. Many people make their own food. If the food is decent then I guess they have made a decent reality for themselves. Why would they choose otherwise? What if they can't cook and they've made some very bad food. If they thought themselves brilliant cooks, would the bad food taste good to them? Or what if they really are a brilliant cook but suffer from lack of self-esteem, will the food taste bad to them?
Any student of spiritual teachings knows that good and bad are mental concepts. So the cook might conceive the food they made as very bad, yet upon sharing it with a visitor, is surprised to learn their visitor thinks the food is very good. We seem to have two realities then, one for each person. If the cook and his visitor could swap their realities who can say who actually made the food? And who can say whether either actually got a good meal? One thing is for sure: Money will not make you happy. And happy will not make you money.
In closing, let's not forget this one of Groucho's famous opening statements: "Before I speak, I have something important to say."
Bob Cergol
Krishnamurti is asking us to look, not imagine, but look at what is happening moment by moment in the mind. What does observation tell us about the mechanism of choice? Watch the thought processes that occur around a decision, and especially watch for the moment a decision is made. What does your observation tell you about the "decider"?
~ Shawn Nevins
No matter how this question is phrased, it cannot lead to resolution. Any answer that does not lead back in the direction of silent awareness but serves only to engage the intellect, keeps us spinning in identity. Sooner than later, the need for yet another question will be necessary.
When questions like this arise, simply look at who/what is asking. For a brief moment, there can be a still open space before thought snaps back in to catch us. That openness is "not-mind" and lies in another direction, that of within. It temporarily halts our habit of spinning around in thought.
Resolution lies in questioning the questioner: who is the "you" who is either free or not? A dualistic entity that believes it has to choose between thoughts in order to define itself is certainly not "free." What is free, is an impartial awareness that does not think or judge, free from the need of self-concern, free from mind itself.
To illustrate the value of this inner openness, this direction within, let me provide a couple of examples. A mountain biker once gave me a valuable hint for surviving rocky downhill trails: "You hit what you aim at." If your attention is fixed on obstacles, that's what your eye will automatically steer you towards. To have a clear crash-free descent, you must look for the open spaces, not the objects.
If we look at our mind with our mind, we will only see the obstacles, whether rocks or concepts, and miss the clear spaces in between, winding up on our face, again and again. In that open space between thought, there is no decision or even a question. All flows without hesitation or interference. We maintain balance: no opinions or bruised heads.
Another way of looking at it is in the simple phrase "awareness has no hands." There is no judging or decision-making involved in open observation, just pure looking. How can something that cannot "do" make decisions? Again, there is only openness, a true freedom, rather than a black and white judging mechanism that grows ever more complex the more we come to depend on it.
Steer the attention within, away from the errors of dualistic thought, and reside in the freedom of the silent witness.
~ Bob Fergeson
Hi Tim,
Let's say that Krishnamurti was right (even if he wasn't :-). The problem is we can't agree our way to Freedom.
We "become" free by finding our true identity. That finding or realization or recognition results from shocks and erosion that loosen our faulty beliefs about what we are, which have resulted from a confused identification with what we experience.
What belief about your identity are you holding onto? (It won't save you.)
~ Art Ticknor
TAT Foundation News
It's all about "ladder work" – helping and being helped
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* March 31-April 2, 2017 (Claymont Mansion) *
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Downloadable/rental versions of the Mister Rose video and of April TAT talks Remembering Your True Desire (details).
Local Group News
Update from the Central Ohio Nonduality group:
We continue to meet on Monday evenings at Panera across from The Ohio State University.
~ For further information, contact
or
.
We're also on Facebook.
Update from the weekly email self-inquiry groups:
Both the women's and the men's email groups are active, and we welcome serious participants.
~ Contact
or
.
Update from the Gainesville, FL self-inquiry group:
We didn't find enough interest to schedule a winter weekend retreat here this year. We continue to meet at the Alachua County library on alternate Mondays and Sundays. We've recently started scheduling some of the meetings at branch libraries, to see how that works out.
~ Email
or
for more information.
Update from the Galway, Ireland self-inquiry group:
In addition to meetings in Galway city, satellite groups are now meeting in Cork and in Dublin. Tess Hughes, along with guest Art Ticknor, will be leading a retreat in Tallaght, Co. Dublin, on May 26-29. And in October (27th-29th), Tess and Bob Fergeson will be leading Awakening Together's fall retreat in Colorado Springs, CO. ~ See the Events page on Tess's website for details.
Update from the Greensburg, PA self-inquiry group:
We continue to meet every other week at our usual location with our several regulars.
~ Contact
.
Update from the Lynchburg, VA self-inquiry group:
We meet on Wednesday evenings and welcome inquiries.
E-mail
or
for information on the meetings.
Update from the New York City area:
We've recently started a group in NYC and are looking for consistent, serious but lighthearted ;) members. So far, we have started each group meeting with a short meditation followed by a self-inquiry session with questions and responses. We plan to vary the format and also go on local retreats and spiritually-minded events, as time allows. We are meeting in downtown Manhattan (the financial district) in a really great public space that we are fortunate to have. Please contact me with any interest or questions. Tell a friend :)
~ Email
.
Update from the Pittsburgh, PA self-inquiry group:
We hold public meetings at 7:00 PM on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month at the Pittsburgh Friends Meeting House in Oakland.
- On Feb. 1, the meeting topic was "Paradox and the Riddle of Happiness."
- On Feb. 15, question was "What are interpersonal relationships?"
- The Mar. 1 topic will be "The Riddle of the Fear of Rejection."
We also have private (i.e., by invitation only) confrontation meetings on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays.
~ For further information, contact
or
.
Update from the Portland, OR self-inquiry group:
After a break for the holidays, we're back to meeting most Sundays. We've been meeting at different local libraries around town due to limited room availability at any one library, but this has made it easier for people in those neighborhoods to attend the meetings.
~ Email
or
for more information.
Update from the Raleigh, NC Triangle Inquiry Group:
The Triangle Inquiry Group (TIG) meets on Wednesday evenings near NCSU.
~ Email
or
for information on local meetings.
Update from the San Francisco Bay area self-inquiry group:
The Hollow Reed group is planning a weekend retreat in Middletown, CA on March 3-5 with special guests Paul Hedderman and Michael Taft.
~ Email
for details.
Update from the Tallahassee, FL self-inquiry group:
We continue to meet every other Tuesday at the downtown public library.
~ Contact
,
or find the group on Meetup.com.
Members-Only Area
A password-protected section of the website is available for TAT members. The area contains information on product discounts for members as well as a substantial amount of helpful and historical information, including audio recordings, Newsletter archives, Retrospect archives, policies, conference proceedings, business meeting notes, photographs, and suggestions for ways to help.
The following audio recordings from 2016 TAT meetings are now available in the members-only website area:
Please us if you have questions. (Look into TAT membership.)
Amazon and eBay
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As an Amazon Associate TAT earns from qualifying purchases made through links on our website. Beyond Mind, Beyond Death is the latest of TAT's books to be converted to the Kindle ebook format. All of the TAT Press books are now available on Amazon in a digital format.
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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
"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
"Knock, and the door shall be open(ed)."
©
. Nick will take requests for comics.
We're hoping to present more humor created by TAT members and friends here. Please
your written or graphic creations. Exact sources are necessary for other submissions, since we need to make sure they're either in the public domain or that we have permission to use them.
Inspiration & Irritation
Irritation moves us; inspiration provides a direction
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Secret Ingredient for Success
David Chang's experience is instructive. Mr. Chang is an internationally renowned, award-winning Korean-American chef, restaurateur and owner of the Momofuku restaurant group with eight restaurants from Toronto to Sydney, and other thriving enterprises, including bakeries and bars, a PBS TV show, guest spots on HBO's "Treme" and a foodie magazine, Lucky Peach. He says he worked himself to the bone to realize his dream—to own a humble noodle bar. He spent years cooking in some of New York City's best restaurants, apprenticed in different noodle shops in Japan and then, finally, worked 18-hour days in his tiny restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar. Mr. Chang could barely pay himself a salary. He had trouble keeping staff. And he was miserably stressed. He recalls a low moment when he went with his staff on a night off to eat burgers at a restaurant that was everything his wasn't—packed, critically acclaimed and financially successful. He could cook better than they did, he thought, so why was his restaurant failing? "I couldn't figure out what the hell we were doing wrong," he told us. Mr. Chang could have blamed someone else for his troubles, or worked harder (though available evidence suggests that might not have been possible) or he could have made minor tweaks to the menu. Instead he looked inward and subjected himself to brutal self-assessment. Was the humble noodle bar of his dreams economically viable? Sure, a traditional noodle dish had its charm but wouldn't work as the mainstay of a restaurant if he hoped to pay his bills. Mr. Chang changed course. Rather than worry about what a noodle bar should serve, he and his cooks stalked the produce at the greenmarket for inspiration. Then they went back to the kitchen and cooked as if it was their last meal, crowding the menu with wild combinations of dishes they'd want to eat—tripe and sweetbreads, headcheese and flavor-packed culinary mashups like a Korean-style burrito. What happened next Mr. Chang still considers "kind of ridiculous"—the crowds came, rave reviews piled up, awards followed and unimaginable opportunities presented themselves. During the 1970s, Chris Argyris, a business theorist at Harvard Business School (and now, at 89, a professor emeritus) began to research what happens to organizations and people, like Mr. Chang, when they find obstacles in their paths....
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Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
I long for scenes where man hath never trod
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Between-ness: A Guide to Creating Magic in Life
Many years ago, the American Zen master Richard Rose coined the term between-ness [Energy Transmutation, Between-ness and Transmission] to explain a state of the mind which was conducive to creating magic. I do not mean the stage type of magic but the more esoteric and mystical kind. The kind we usually associate with psychic phenomena or miracles or creating rain when there should be no rain. The phenomena produced from betweenness can truly be miraculous in nature. I am enamored with the term betweenness because it really does capture the essence of manifestation and magic. As we shall soon see, betweenness is a state of mind which can be learned. Though it should be said, it requires a great deal of skill and even more persistence to learn. My interest in the topic stems from a resonance with Richard Rose—some of his life experiences reminded me of my own journey to a degree. From this resonance, an interest developed in some of the concepts he proposed. Among these was the concept of betweenness. * Thanks to Eddie Traversa, a long-time friend of TAT who lives in Australia. See the entire article on edwardtraversa.com. |
Please
your thoughts on the above items.
Reader Commentary
Encouraging interactive readership among TAT members and friends
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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? |
Last month we asked readers what constitutes a "good" meditation for them. The follow-up question this month is:
Why do you meditate?
Responses follow:
From Matt R:
I do not recall the original reason for starting. I think the hope now is to eliminate suffering. It seems there must be a better way to live.
From Debi P:
I meditate/practice Self Inquiry for the purpose of ending my identification with the ego—I, me, my, mine; it's exhausting and it seems more often than not suffering (even if it's subtle) is the experience rather than that fresh, stable, relaxed way of Being no matter what is being witnessed. This mind, or something within me prefers peace … equanimity over the roller coaster of emotions. "I" can say that I prefer that because I've experienced moments of profound peace and stability while witnessing of suffering was occurring—no one witnessing, just witnessing occurring. Such a relief! Nothing to fix or heal or do. And, I don't want it just for myself, I wish it for all the little "separate i's out there." I want all the pain in all the worlds to end.
And, if I could take some space here to express my gratitude to everyone who makes this forum possible and to all who contribute: Thank each one of You for looking deeply into your Self and sharing.
From Hillary K:
I meditate to feel better. That may sound trite until feeling is examined: how might a person feel better and better? I feel better through love, love's joyful warmth of kindness within. I meditate to directly experience that warmth daily. Call it soulfulness mediation if you like. In it, I watch feelings and thoughts. Any thoughts out of kilter with love, disagreeing with love's beaconing can go. I ask them to go by accepting them fully. I ask any and all thoughts distracting me from feelings of love's joy to depart. I do this in feeling, not thought. I feel a feeling: I don't need that thought, it is not me, it is only a thought and it is false anyway. These are feelings, not thoughts. Then, along with those feelings there can be a thought: I will let this go, I don't need it … it sounds important yet there are other solutions to life's problems, like whatever arises from love. Love is exactly why I meditate. I do not meditate to clear my mind. I do not meditate to find emptiness. Love is a fullness. Yes, there exists an emptiness of human truth, a surrender of all notions and concepts of "I know." In that stillness, love is found. I meditate to live within that. Thank you so much for your efforts.
From Leesa W:
Right now I meditate for the very reason that most anti-meditators cite—I'm doing basic concentration techniques to increase feelings of equanimity, peace and ease … to counter the intense suffering that has resulted from seeing deeply (but not deeply enough) into the conundrum of this existence. A little blissful escape from the "self surgery" that Tess talks about that has resulted from intense self inquiry and insight meditation practice. The very thing that can be seen as a crutch, a salve, or a symptom reliever can also be the very thing that has brought the misery to begin with, in my experience.
From Beau B:
I meditate because I'm drawn to do so.
What draws me? I imagine home, or the source, or what I really am, or god, or unconditional love…. It does almost feel like I hear the me that's not a me calling me home. There's no place like home. I have no choice but to let go and listen when I hear that melody….
From Charles S:
Thanks for asking…. But the question is too big for me to answer in a brief response; in fact, I'd have to dig deeply into my spiritual autobiography to trace the matter back to my earliest experiences with by-the-numbers forced-marched "meditation" as a Catholic approach to finding Merton's more expansive and open approach, to…. well, see what I mean?
From Nick G:
I meditate because it seems just about the only thing "I" can really "do" to work towards Awakening. In that way, it's a technique that is among a few other "techniques" that I use to work towards my goal. I'm certainly in a position where I don't know what will and won't work, so it all feels like I'm just throwing things at a wall to see what sticks.
It has become a nice place for me to let my guard down, or work out problems mentally, or pray. Aside from that, the entire exercise is win/win because "Awakening" goals aside, there are health benefits associated with meditation that I enjoy.
From Wendell:
Very good question to ponder. Here's the best I can come up with.
I meditate to foster a greater level of awareness of myself in an attempt to alleviate the suffering that grows from the unaware mind, and because to not meditate is to watch myself spiral off into a numb void of chaos.
From Penny W:
Why I meditate is indeed a deeper question for me than how I define a "good" session. My motivations have certainly shifted over the 40 years that I have practiced. Actually as I think about this question, I think my motivations may shift quite regularly—even perhaps during a session. But, there are underlying beliefs that support my commitment to the practice. I believe the practice of meditation strengthens the faculty within me that is capable of not identifying with my thoughts. Being able to not identify with my thoughts is, I believe, a path toward realizing who I really am. I believe the practice of meditation has opened up a space between my thoughts and my reacting to those thoughts—it has allowed me in some small ways to "respond" to a situation rather than just react mechanically. I believe Christ's proclamation that "the kingdom of God/Heaven" is within—meditation takes me within toward knowing/experiencing this kingdom. I read somewhere that God's first language is silence—meditation moves me toward silence where I believe something in me can commune with that which created me and in that communing can know through experience Truth and Mercy … and the Truth will set me free.
From Richard G:
The rationalization I use for meditation is two-fold: a) relaxation and b) self-inquiry. The relaxation component is self-explanatory. I will utilize diaphragmatic breathing, chanting a mantra, or focusing attention on sounds or sights (in the mind's eye) before retiring at night. As far as I'm concerned this method works; I haven't lost a night's sleep in a long time.
The self-inquiry part to meditation is more complicated. For example, the etymological derivative of the word meditation comes from Latin, meaning to "think about" or "think over." I'm not sure what pondering or thinking over does with the exception of feeding the "machine" or cogitating process. Exchanging or collecting words has its usefulness but generates problems as well, along with more verbal constructs.
Richard's complete response.
From Sheri R:
I meditate to sharpen and increase the power of concentration and to heighten awareness. In essence, it's practice and preparation to hold the head at the right angle (as Mr. Rose might say).
From Mark S:
I meditate to try to go within, to find what I am at [my] core. Related reasons are to see better how my mind works and to take action that reflects my desire to know what I am.
From Bill K:
I don't think I meditate the way I did at one time. Rather than trying to "get centered" and focused from my own private space, now I just watch. It's more a fascination, seemingly inexhaustible and maybe becoming more a preoccupation. Curiously, I hardly get tired or restless over extended periods, as I did in TM meditating or other focusing exercises. (The caveat being, is this really what old age is all about?)
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"If our flight is late, we will miss our connection. That's the bottom line." "He's always got his eye on the bottom line." Bottom-line definitions: the essential or salient point, the crux; the primary or most important consideration; the underlying or ultimate outcome or criterion. The question for next month: What is your bottom line? Please your responses for next month's Reader Commentary (and indicate your preferred identification; the default is your first name and the initial letter of your last name). |
Other Reader Feedback
From Debi P:
I noticed that one of your readers was interested in hearing from people with questions. Being very new to this practice of Self Inquiry (not even 2 months), I do have some questions and would love to hear other people's advice and experiences, including their struggles. I am especially interested in talking about the experiences in the process of Self Inquiry; I think that would be helpful to me.
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?
"River with the Bridge of the Three Sources" by Paul Cézanne (Wikimedia Commons).
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your comments, suggestions, inquiries, and submissions.
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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.
Early Impressions of Richard Rose in Retrospect
The material here is from interviews conducted between 1994-1995 with students who knew Richard Rose as early as 1973, by Paul Schmidt—an early and still-active TAT member. The Mr. Rose that we knew as students was fading into Alzheimer's by that time. The TAT Forum published a memorial issue to Richard Rose (March 14, 1917–July 6, 2005) in August of 2005.
Bob F: Meeting Mr. Rose in his house in Benwood was anticlimactic. The room was cluttered, rundown, and the man himself was old, humbly dressed, with the stocky appearance of a retired wrestler. It wasn't until a few minutes later, when we were leaving from the school parking lot across the street, that I caught a glimpse of the man within. As I walked away from him to get into another car, I had an eerie feeling. I turned and observed Rose staring intently in my direction. I felt he saw more of me in that look than most people see of themselves in a lifetime. I also knew at that moment that I was a stranger unto myself, but no longer to Mr. Rose. Those feelings have only intensified these past two years. They have served to strengthen my search for self-definition and have given me hope that there is something to find.
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Shawn N. relates attending a lecture in Raleigh titled "What is Enlightenment?" Rose was talking, and Shawn felt an energy, a heightening of awareness, about a third of way through. He started thinking: "If this was so important that Mr. Rose spent his life doing this work—giving this lecture, trying to reach out to people—and we aren't taking advantage of it … and I remember feeling sad, which was strange because I'd felt in some sense he hadn't done what he'd hoped to do and was feeling disappointed—then I had to try. This was important to me, to try to achieve this enlightenment. And I remember … he was talking about the time his daughter Ruth was looking at a draft of The Albigen Papers, something about the phrase (she had said to him) 'I know that you are God,' and then she started to cry, which was incredibly emotional. And then Rose said, 'But I am also weak.' And I remember he threw something down like an eraser. I was in tears at that point. The statement 'I am also weak' was not in the story about his daughter, but was made apart from the story while lecturing." Shawn said a full-fledged rapport did not break out, but throughout the whole lecture, energy was building.
"I asked him outright, what am I supposed to do now with you, what are you here for? He said, 'I'm basically here to be a friend. If you have something you're stuck on, give you some advice, a question that I can give an answer to.' A teacher is a person who's been there before, he can offer you some advice."
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Michael C: I don't think a person has an experience of Rose, per se. You have a realization, and you know Rose more. Metaphorically speaking, if Rose is a thousand-watt bulb, and you're a ten-watt one, when you have a realization you become a fifty-watt bulb. Then you know more of Rose.
*
Augie T. hearkens back: "And I think back to what attracted me to this group. Most importantly, in these dark and troubled times, when people are wishy-washy, when you're pro-social and non-violent, when you don't push baby ducks backwards in the water, I think there was something in me going all the way back to 1973 that said: 'What a man—pure, unabashed. What a man!'"
*
Doron F. remembers Rose looking at a sugar bowl and wondering at all the grains, and comparing it to the universe. With the earth as a grain, and how could we think we were so significant? "And then he got a serious look on his face and said, 'Somewhere on that grain of sugar is an enlightened bastard.' That was the first thing I remember that was interesting about Rose, how he was able to take something and turn it around and just make a really meaningful point and get into your head."
The complete Part 1 of the interviews
A New Home for TAT
... A spot on earth where people can do retreats and hold
meetings; where the emphasis is on friendship and the search.
Recent News
We hope to close on the Roxboro property in the next couple of weeks, at which point we will be custodians of 11 acres. It's up to us to bring it to its full potential. A wooded retreat that will hum with activity during meetings, then return to a silence that people can experience during solitary retreats. A meetinghouse of spiritual travelers. It's going to be awesome.
But we're still short of our goal. Please contribute to something grand; something worthwhile.
Here's How to Help:
- Make a one-time investment: $100, $500, $1000, $5000 or more. Got no money? Get creative. Many people could walk into their basement, garage or attic and find $500 of stuff they don't use and could sell.
- See if your workplace makes matching donations to charities.
- Volunteer your labor! Bob H. says we can save money with members and friends donating work time. Please email if interested and indicate your level of skill. The more skills you can contribute, the more money we will save on construction. Got no skills? No problem, your help will still be appreciated.
To invest in the Homing Ground project, mail a check made out to the TAT Foundation (for instructions on mailing a check, please the TAT treasurer).
Or you can use PayPal (though we lose 2.2% of your donation to PayPal fees) by choosing the "Make a Donation" button below or the Make a Donation button on our Homing Ground page. TAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization and qualifies to receive tax-deductible contributions.
I thank each of you who have donated and pledged and look forward to the day we set foot in our new home.
Remember -
The Purpose:
- Provide a place for TAT's four yearly meetings.
- Provide a space for members and friends to spend time in isolation retreats.
- Provide a place for TAT members and friends to hold group retreats.
- Eventually, to create an ashram – a center where people could live for an extended period, and have a teacher and fellow seekers onsite or nearby.
Shawn Nevins
on behalf of the TAT Trustees
Did you enjoy the Forum? Then buy the book!
Beyond Mind, Beyond Death is available at Amazon.com.
