TAT Forum
January 2018
Homing Ground Update... A spot on earth where people can do retreats and hold
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Convictions & Concerns
TAT members share their personal convictions and/or concerns
What Is Intuition?
Intuition is a sense. A sense is something that enters your awareness as a perception. You are aware of it just like when you open your eyes and there is light, you see light. You have to be open to it (open eyes) and there is the impression that seems to come from somewhere far inside or from outside. When the openness (which we can do something about) meets the impression (which we can't do anything about), we get intuition.
This differs from other senses. Intuition has very specific qualities that make it what it is. Those are:
Directness. It doesn't go from one step to another; it comes directly. ESP may be said to be a kind of outside directness whereas traditional intuition is a sense that comes from within directly. There is not a conscious progression seen from input to output. It comes complete as a fully formed answer (even if it is a partial, fully formed answer).
It carries conviction or correctness. You know it is right because it is. Or you know what the intuition is about because there is a certainty about it. The intuition isn't in question though the mind may doubt it after the fact. It is good to check it with logic as it is not infallible but can be honed like any other skill or tool or practice.
It proves itself to be correct in actual reality and not just some assumed hypothesis. In most cases it can be tested like a hypothesis to see if it is true.
It usually has some action attached to it that, if we follow, can lead towards the outcome of the intuition. Knowing what to do can be part of the intuition but not always. The intuition may be correct but it may not be a complete instruction manual. There may only be a page that is given to awareness and we have to work out the rest of the details with logic or trial and error to fill in the blanks.
~ Thanks to Ricky Cobb, a TAT member since 2007.
Please email comments to the
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TAT Foundation News
It's all about "ladder work" – helping and being helped
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* April 6-8, 2018 (Claymont Mansion) *
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Bernadette Roberts passed away on November 27, 2017 at her home in Southern California, in her sleep. She had been diagnosed with ALS a year ago and this eventually led to her death. Bernadette asked that we let her friends know when the time came. She is (as she always was) with God. We will miss her dearly and are grateful for all she gave us.
Thus the five-star list of spiritual teachers on Shawn Nevins's SpiritualTeachers.org website now contains only deceased teachers.
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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 meet at the Alachua County library on alternate Mondays and Sundays.
~ Email
or
for more information.
Update from the Galway, Ireland self-inquiry group:
In addition to meetings in Galway city, satellite groups are meeting in Cork and in Dublin.
Tess Hughes and Pat Crowley will be leading a self-inquiry retreat on January 26-28 in Castletown, County Laois, Ireland.
Email
for retreat details.
~ Contact
.
Update from the Lynchburg, VA self-inquiry group:
We meet on Thursday evenings and welcome inquiries. We will be having a weekend retreat with Art Ticknor on Jan. 26-28, the theme of which is "What's My Next Step?" Art also will participate in the regular Thursday 7-9 PM group meeting and at an afternoon session on Sunday for newcomers interested in the self-inquiry group.
Email
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 Philadelphia area:
Meeting weekly on Tuesdays.
~ Email
for more information.
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.
Previous topics:
Dec 6: "What does it mean to 'Be your own Authority' or 'Surrender to a Higher Authority'?" We also noted the passing last week of Bernadette Roberts, Mystic and author. Her teachings regarding Christian Mysticism might provide material for a future meeting.
Dec 20: "What is your meditation?" This topic was prompted by a short essay by Bob Cergol in the December TAT Forum. In meditating, are you looking with outward- or inward-directed attention? Why do you meditate and what exactly is your goal?
~ For further information, contact
or
.
Update from the Portland, OR self-inquiry group:
We meet most Sundays and have 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:
Email
for information about upcoming meetings and events.
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:
TAT's June 2017 gathering was dedicated to teacher, author, poet, and TAT founder Richard Rose. Audio recordings from the weekend include:
TAT's Fall Workshop 2017 was titled The Prism of Truth: where science, love, and reality merge and included three guest speakers who each led separate workshops. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:
TAT's November 2017 Gathering was titled The Treasure Within our Lives Unconnected to Experience. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area (there's also a text file describing the speakers and their sessions, not all of which were successfully recorded due to equipment malfunctioning):
Please us if you have questions. (Look here for info on 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. 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. There's more background information on the new home for TAT project in the TAT Homing Ground section below. |
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
Time & Flies
COMMITTEE – A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
EGOTIST – Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.
INFLATION – Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.
MOSQUITO – An insect that makes you like flies better.
SECRET – A story you tell to one person at a time.
TOMORROW – One of the greatest labor-saving devices of today.
YAWN – An honest opinion openly expressed.
~ Quips thanks to TAT member Phil C.
Image thanks to http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/File:Time-flies.jpg.
We're hoping to present more humor from 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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Einstein's Quirky Habits More than 10 hours of sleep and no socks – could this be the secret to thinking like a genius? Like it or not, our daily habits have a powerful impact on our brains, shaping their structure and changing the way we think. "Non-REM sleep has been a bit of a mystery, but we spend about 60% of our night in this type of sleep," says Stuart Fogel, a neuroscientist at the University of Ottawa. Non-REM sleep is characterised by bursts of fast brain activity, so called 'spindle events' because of the spindle-shaped zigzag the waves trace on an EEG. A normal night's sleep will involve thousands of these, each lasting no longer than a few seconds. "This is really the gateway to other stages of sleep – the more you sleep, the more of these events you'll have," he says. The jury is still out, but a recent study showed that night-time sleep in women – and napping in men – can improve reasoning and problem solving skills. Crucially, the boost to intelligence was linked to the presence of spindle events, which only occurred during night-time sleep in women and daytime slumbers in men. Einstein's daily walk was sacred to him…. There's mountains of evidence that walking can boost memory, creativity and problem-solving. For creativity at least, walking outside is even better. * ~ Excerpts from a BBC Future article. Thanks to TAT member Paul C. |
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~ Thanks to TAT friend Mario P., who added the comment: "Daniel Mackler is a very interesting psychologist, who talks about spiritual issues as well, and whose other videos might be of interest, too." |
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Is Doership a Myth?
"Who is the role player? The sense of doership has been that. Doership is a myth. The vital force inherent in consciousness is spontaneously going on and there is the witnessing of this. But you are not the witnesser. Witnessing is spontaneously there. What are you? Get used to yourself as emptiness – empty beyond the concept of empty."
* Excerpt from the website's biography page: Anthony Paul Moo-Young, known as Mooji, was born on 29 January 1954 in Port Antonio, Jamaica. In 1969, he moved to the UK and lived in Brixton, London. Anthony worked in London's 'West End' as a street portrait artist for many years, then as a painter and a stained glass artist, and later as a teacher at Brixton College. For a long time, he was well known as Tony Moo, but is now affectionately known as Mooji by the many seekers and friends who visited him. |
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Willful or Will-less?
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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? |
The compound question we asked readers for this month's Reader Commentary was:
How is it known that someone is awake? Is it possible to sustain this awake state or is it only possible to have a series of glimpses?
How is it known that waking up isn't an ego manifestation, dissociative experience due to trauma, psychological problem or brain dysfunction?
And, does it make any difference?
Responses follow.
From Just Bill:
The first thing that comes to mind is, "What is awake?" Is it like an all or nothing, or are there gradations? Can it even be described in this world – call this world the dual world if it helps. Some say we are all awake, and what does that mean?
Knowing, being aware, awareness, and consciousness may be synonyms for some – Spira, for example. Whatever name we attach, we may think of it in many ways. We assign characteristics – infinite space of zero volume, time non-existent no agenda, perfection. And it creates beings and all other objects, or so we think. It sounds like Alice in Wonderland. So we believe that it is real – we have faith (hmm, not too far from Christian thinking, but much simpler and easier than Zeus and family).
It might help to think like Freke. This is an amazing paradox. Or like Parsons. None of this is real. Or like Cairns. There is only now. Or like Spira and others who make very sensible "structure" for what "this" is. And there are other viewpoints of "this".
There are some who seem to be awake. From what I understand from them, everything is perfect, there is no good or bad, there is no birth or death, and there is more that we all have heard. To me, these folks are inspirations for the rest of us. Maybe they can tell us what "awake" is. For sure, they can tell us what it is like, but is there more?
Well, I don't think that I am awake. But I have learned that there is no bad or good – that makes life a lot simpler. The world is what it is, and if you don't like the world, just change your mind. That attitude helps. Some say that a seeker will never find enlightenment – so stop the seeking. There are many who seem to expound this. I cannot say myself. I am still in the rabbit hole.
As to the original question, "How is it known that someone is awake?", it helps to listen to others' comments or opinions, but you must make that decision yourself. Bart Marshall said that to me about someone I was curious about.
From Maggan H:
It is not known that someone is awake 'cause no one awakes.....this is not a personal thing.....and it's not a state...it is just the natural way it is....and everything happens by itself .....the person is just the appearance of an illusion dream.
From Tess Hughes:
I'll start with the last question: does it make a difference? Yes! Yes! The difference between before and after is profound. It's the difference between misery, confusion, and anxiety AND contentment, peace, and a lack of neediness.
Is it possible to know that someone is awake – it is to oneself but not about anyone else. One can have a feeling or intuition that another is also awake but no hard evidence, I think. The only one I am 100% sure about is myself.
It does not come and go, it is the solid ground of being. There is no sustaining it. It just is.
How do you know that you have awakened in the morning from sleep? Could that be due to ego manifestation, trauma or brain dysfunction? Seemingly we are made so that we recognise different dimensions.
Self recognises itself and doesn't forget it, and in that recognition awakening has occurred. Self-realisation is the understanding of that recognition. Once we realise what our true nature is, we cannot unrealise it. In other words, we have awakened to our true nature. The mis-identification that is the hallmark of the human condition is corrected.
From Shawn Nevins:
This is like asking "how do you know a concrete block fell on your foot?" You just know. Or an old friend, a spouse, a brother or sister dies. "How do you know they are dead?" Because everywhere you look their absence is undeniable.
Find out. At the core of this "compound question" is a desire to speculate, to procrastinate. It's reasonable to say, "I don't want to go after enlightenment unless I get some guarantees." If that's the case for you, then don't go after enlightenment. Find the desire that demands unreasonableness from you. When you find your question, you'll keep looking because you have to find an answer. It's like opening a door because you desire to know outweighs the fear.
As for the last part of the question, some of you might have seen a recent comment on spiritualteachers.org that Suzanne Segal wrote a second, unpublished book which recanted her tale of awakening told in Collision with the Infinite: A Life Beyond the Personal Self
"Strive on!" said Huang Po, "strive on!"
'nough said.
From Paul Constant:
How is it known that someone is awake?
If a sure-fire litmus test for awakening truly existed, we'd end the careers of innumerable spiritual charlatans, narcissists, and half-baked teachers. :-) We can intently listen to the words of an awakened person, and those words can deeply inspire us. Yet, a feeling sense is often a better gauge. But neither words nor "vibes" are foolproof indicators of whether someone is awake. If you're looking for some indicators—for most, awakening naturally moves a person towards honesty, selflessness, compassion, and a desire for true spiritual friendship.
Is it possible to sustain this awake state or is it only possible to have a series of glimpses? This question brings us to the age-old debate of gradual vs. sudden awakening. And I feel there is no black-and-white answer. A strategy of watching our mind may slowly lead us away from untruth until Truth is evident. This watching process often leads to personal insights, small "t" transcendence, and transformation. For some, the falling away of untruth is sudden, shattering, and fully Transcendent. For others, the falling away occurs over decades. However, in both cases, the search ends with an ongoing experiential recognition of what we truly are and what we truly aren't—Truth remains aware of Itself in all things.
A sustained awakening isn't so much a state but rather an ongoing recognition of the simplicity of what we've been overlooking all our life. As awakening sustains itself and we become more deeply rooted in Essence (Love), post-awakening transformation continues to unfold throughout body and mind. Aversions to our own human flaws move toward peaceful coexistence with our self. Our fears of death, love, and life continue to fall away. And our discoveries about our self, others, life, and Truth become more intertwined and ever-unfolding….
How is it known that waking up isn't an ego manifestation, dissociative experience due to trauma, psychological problem or brain dysfunction? And, does it make any difference? I don't know the answer to these questions. I feel that if we hold the highest standards of self-honesty, sincerity, and perseverance in our life, these above all else will serve to dispel self-delusion and selfish ego manifestations. It only makes a difference if your heart aches with a deep desire and curiosity to know Truth. For most seekers, waking up finally mends our broken heart.
From Bob Cergol:
How is it known that someone is awake?
Unless you yourself are awake, you are in a very poor position to know. Worse yet, you are deluded by all your preconceptions of what you think an awakened person must act like and manifest like. The bottom line is you have to rely on your own imperfect intuition to judge whether someone can be of help to you or not. That is what matters. If they cannot be of help to you, then like the proverbial enlightened fish—you can just toss it back in the ocean, or eat it. While I have my own criteria for such evaluations, I too rely on my intuition about another—it is impossible to evaluate solely on the word that other person is capable of articulating. Awakening doesn't make one a writer or a speech-maker! Nor does it automatically make one a teacher. Nor does one need to be awakened to be of help to another on the path. Indeed, unless you are of a mind to help another, you will not receive that help without which you can never awaken.
Is it possible to sustain this awake state or is it only possible to have a series of glimpses? The premise of the question is false. It equates the "awake state" with experience. Experiences come and go—and as they come and go they can be glimpsed. And yes, there are experiences that echo a higher truth, a deeper reality. But the awakened state is permanent and there are no degrees! Partial awakening is a concept. You're either dreaming or you're awake. The idea that the awake state goes away unless some experience is occurring in self-consciousness is just wrong. Such a state would not be permanent, or transcendent of that self. Consider the experience of your own self. Do you disappear every night during sleep? You seem to—because experience is what generates the ego-consciousness. Yet awareness never ceases. Awareness is not interrupted by sleep. What are you? If you attempt to answer that question, what is it that you look at to see yourself? What everyone sees—and accepts as their being—is nothing more than an experience….
How is it known that waking up isn't an ego manifestation, dissociative experience due to trauma, psychological problem or brain dysfunction? Reread the answer to the first question. For yourself, you will know. And if you are deluding yourself—well then let's see how well that delusion holds up when you are face-to-face with your own death.
And, does it make any difference? It makes no difference to me. It makes no difference to God. Does it make any difference to you? Does it make any difference to the rose bush that one bud blooms and another fails to open and shrivels on the branch?
You should worry less about defining the "awakened state" and worry more about defining yourself!
From Bob Fergeson:
The first question is the important one; the others will flow from its answer. That answer is basically intuition. It can't come from experience, it has to be based in something that can discern the higher from the lower. Experience is limited by life, and cannot see beyond it. If one's intuition is online and working, one will be able to know what is higher and lower in oneself. Then, this attention can be placed on others.
The way to know intuition from experience is to be able to know the difference between discernment and judgment. One can define discernment as operating from innocence, while judgment moves from guilt and resentment. If one can discern the differences in one's self, such as character, morals, and wisdom as opposed to the animal traits of desire and fear, one can see these differences in others as well, including knowing those who are 'awake' from those who only project.
If it was not possible to 'sustain' the awake state, it wouldn't be worth having. Any experience could remove it. It has to be a permanent part of our potential, let's say, something we have, have always had, but don't remember. Otherwise it wouldn't be an indication of something eternal, a higher part of our being, before and beyond the body.
The pure consciousness we had as a child, and then lost, is the home of discernment. Experience is what keeps it unconscious. Find your discerning innocence, your intuition, and you'll be able to know who's awake, it's potential in yourself, and whether or not it's stable enough to fight for.
From Bill R:
In considering the question, "How is it known that someone is awake?" the question immediately comes to me, what does one mean by this word, "awake"?
I will describe awake as I experience and understand it to be: I am aware that I am a character in a drama, who appears to be a separate entity within a realm of form and structures and entities. It appears that the grand theater of this drama is a construct of solidity and certainty through which I and others pass, in a quest to attain a permanent state of wellbeing, struggling and doing battle with the uncountable manifestations of the forces of adversity and pain, each doing our best to gather and hold the artifacts and relationships of benevolence and prosperity. It seems that each of us lives an isolated life within the confines of our psychophysiological constructs, seeking to form connections of security and pleasure with our world and with others of our kind. But being awake, I know that, in fact, there is no unique entity separate from the construct of this drama, for I witness the awareness that informs the self of existence, and I see that awareness is existence, and existence is the manifest field of awareness projected upon, and diffracted through, the shadow screen of mind. And if one were to ask an awake entity, "how do you know you are wake?" the answer would be, "I witness the reality of being awake."
How is it known that someone is awake? The answer is, quite simply, dependent upon the capacity of the perceiver to discern. Can the mystic ever communicate the awareness-of-being to the hard boiled skeptic? Well, one doesn't walk down this path if there appears to be no path to walk.
Is it possible to sustain this awake state or is it only possible to have a series of glimpses? To participate in the drama is to be subject to the glamours of the drama. To know the truth of the drama is to know, but one is invested in the drama, and plays the role with the conviction of manifest being. If a blow to the head comes from one's blind side, being awake may take a back seat to the urgency of the situation, just as the joy of love may supersede the detachment of the observer.
How is it known that waking up isn't an ego manifestation, dissociative experience due to trauma, psychological problem or brain dysfunction? What is ego? One may argue that all manifestation is the expression of Ego, Awareness made material in order to engage in drama and adventure. As for dissociation, trauma, or dysfunction, it is these cognitive conflicts, and others like them, that lead one to the path of seeker, and it is ego that seeks empowerment and liberation from suffering. Again, what shall the mystic say to the somnambulist?
And, does it make any difference? The one who knows, knows. It seems that, once truly awake, knowing is never lost.
And now, dear friend, I leave you with a question: is "awake" the same as "enlightened"?
From Anonymous:
Sustenance and glimpses are from a relative perspective that I would not expect to apply to awakening—it would be unequivocal, certain and not limited or identified with any mental or physical condition or assumptions of any kind nor have regard for the well-being of the resulting mental or physical state.
Rationally speaking, one could not know if another were awakened if one had no experience with which to compare or even know what to look for. That having been said, if I was totally honest in searching for the truth about my source, (I would hope) something in me should be able to recognize something "special" about one who was Awakened, who (I assume) did know the Truth about his source. Unfortunately, I am not that honest or focused; however, I do know that there is something special about those who make this claim in that they write or speak in a way that resonates or inspires some part of me that experiences a longing or calling to find its source.
Being aware that most of those that I have met who claim to be Awake have been either students or acquaintances of Richard Rose, as was I, there is a sense of belonging or subscription to group think, but I also sense a thread much deeper, subtle and more real than group mind with which we are in some way knit together, and through which those who do not Know might recognize some special significance in those who claim to Know.
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A question for next month is: What are your expectations of yourself in this lifetime? Submitted by TAT member Brett S. Please your responses for next month's Reader Commentary by the 25th and indicate your preferred identification (the default is your first name and the initial letter of your last name). |
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?
Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), "Irises and a Locust." Thanks to Wikimedia Commons.
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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.
Nostalgia and Dreams
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Part 1 of a talk given at Case Western Reserve University in 1978: |
This talk may be a new approach to you in the field of psychology. And it is mostly psychological—it has to do with self-understanding. Of course, psychology does too, if you apply it rather than taking an objective form, following some psychological system, Freudian or more modern. Then you might not be interested in what I call intuitional psychology—or the business of looking inside the head directly as opposed to reading books or studying curves or norms.
This is a kind of a takeoff from the fifth chapter of the book I've written, The Albigen Papers, which has to do with the obstacles you run into when you start trying to do something with your Self—your capital-S Self. And I noticed that the key things, which are pretty much ignored, were some very everyday, patent happenings. And they have to do with states of mind.
Now psychologists will play up cause and effect. For instance you'll have a stimulus and a reaction to the stimulus, and from this behavior they try to set up laws: the way you react to a stimulus. But I became interested when I was quite young in gestalt psychology; it was coming out when I was in college. The word "gestalt" came out—no one knew too much what was behind it, but it was quite different from Fritz Perls' gestalt psychology of today.
This applied to thinking about patterns of the mind and watching them, rather than particular responses to stimuli. And I noticed that in the business of self observation—if you're observing yourself in meditation, or in self-analysis, or if you're analyzing someone else—we pay very little attention to what's really going on inside the person's head, and watch instead for physical reactions.
For instance, in this group we try to practice a method of going directly to a person's mind….
The complete Part 1 of the 1978 "Nostalgia and Dreams" talk
Did you enjoy the Forum? Then buy the book!
Beyond Mind, Beyond Death is available at Amazon.com.
