The TAT Forum: a spiritual magazine of essays, poems and humor.


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May 2019


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Convictions & Concerns

TAT members share their personal convictions and/or concerns


Life Is like a Flame


Life is like a flame. It's going to go out, isn't it … possibly unexpectedly, as happened with the actress Natasha Richardson. She was taking ski lessons on the bunny slope at Mt. Tremblant, in Quebec, and took a spill. Falling down on a bunny slope would be about like falling over when you're standing still. She got up, laughed, and refused medical attention. Back in the hotel a few hours later, she developed a splitting headache, was rushed to the hospital, and was dead within a couple days.

We find ourselves between two voids. Where were you before birth? Where will you be after death? And there's no guarantee that death either will bring oblivion (if that's your preference) or it won't (if that's what you'd prefer).

You may be thinking, "I'm not afraid of death … just the suffering that might precede it." If that's the case, is pride then what's keeping you from facing your mortality?

Before awakening we sleepwalk through life, dreaming life. What if the dream ends before we awake?

Where do you hear the voice that's speaking to you? You have to turn your attention around momentarily to see where you hear it, don't you … to the vast unknown within. That vast unknown within is the doorway to your essential being. And the path to it is one of increasing unknowing. The knowing mind is like a clenched fist. The unknowing mind is like an open hand … an open doorway.

Going through most doorways, the knower remains much as it was. Going through the doorway to your essential nature, the known and the knower remain behind.


See the complete essay.

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~ From a 2009 presentation by TAT member and Richard Rose student Art Ticknor. Would you like to share your impressions with other TAT Forum readers? Please email your comments to the .


 

TAT Foundation News

It's all about "ladder work" – helping and being helped


cover of Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment, by Shawn Nevins TAT Press's release of Shawn Nevins's new book, Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment, is available in Kindle e-book format as well as paperback.

"I appreciate writers who get to the point right away, then tell me a story to illustrate the point, then remind me again what the point was." – Shawn's opening sentence.

TAT Forum readers shared their impressions of Subtraction with other readers in the October 2018 Forum.

Please add your review to the Amazon listing if you haven't done so already. It makes a difference!

TAT Press's latest publication…. cover of Awake at the Wheel: Norio Kushi's Highway Adventures and the Unmasking of the Phantom Self, by Stephen Earle

Awake at the Wheel: Norio Kushi's Highway Adventures and the Unmasking of the Phantom Self by Stephen Earle, with a Foreward by Norio Kushi, is available in paperback and in Kindle e-book format.

Check out Shawn Nevins's interview of Norio on SpiritualTeachers.org podcasts.

TAT Forum readers shared their impressions of Awake at the Wheel with other readers in the December 2018 Forum.

Please add your review to the Amazon listing if you haven't done so already. It makes a difference!

2019 TAT Meeting Calendar

April 5-7, 2019 (Claymont Great Barn)
* June 14-16, 2019 (Claymont Great Barn) *
August 16-18, 2019 (Claymont Mansion)
November 1-3, 2019 (Claymont Mansion)

Join us for TAT's April 5-7, 2019 spiritual retreat. Details & registration.


The following video recordings of presentations from the April 2017 TAT meeting are available on YouTube:

Richard Rose spent his life searching for the Truth, finding it, and teaching others to find their Way. Although not well known to the public, he touched the lives of thousands of spiritual seekers through his books and lectures and through personal contacts with local study groups that continue to work with his teachings today. Meet Richard Rose is a 34-minute audio recording of an audiovisual presentation by Michael Whitely at the August 2017 TAT meeting that explores the arc of Richard Rose's life as seeker, finder, family man, and teacher.


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 New Jersey Group:
The Central Jersey Self Inquiry Group had its first meeting on Jan. 4th, with the founding members plus one other person. On February 11th we opened up the meeting to others in our Eckhart Tolle Group community, and we had a good meeting with 6 attendees. The topic was: "What annoys you?" We plan to meet every 2 weeks. ~ Email for more details.

Update from the Central Ohio Non-Duality Group:
The Columbus group operated under the name OSU Self-Inquiry Group and met for many years in a church next to The Ohio State University. After attendance dropped off, the venue was changed to a local Panera restaurant, and the name changed to Central Ohio Non-Duality Group. The group has exposure to seekers through Meetup, but has only occasional visitors outside a core group of 4 people.
     Due to schedules, we have met infrequently the past semester, and in deference to an effort to try to do other things, like rapport sittings, in private meetings.
     Meeting format is a discussion format on topics of interest to seekers, and often bridges from the concerns, questions and interests of the core members in attendance into the topic which we intend to discuss. See the rest of the update.
     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.

"Double Take on Life" blog
Two friends—one a TAT member, one a TAT friend; one living in Canada, one across the border in the US; one male, one female—have partnered to create a blog site, which they hope other TAT members and friends will enjoy and respond to.
     "We are two friends who were encouraged to continue our spirited and free-wheeling conversation about life with a blog. This bipolar labor of love intends to roam between various forms of expression and perspective, both serious and amused. And traverse between the nitty-gritty of the everyday to the essence of being. As above, so below."

Update from the email self-inquiry groups:
An update on the women's self-inquiry group from Anima:
     The Women's Online Confrontation (WOC) group consists of weekly reports where participants can include:
     > What is on your mind?
     > Any projects that you want to be held accountable for?
     > Responses to a selected excerpt (in the previous report).
     > Comments/responses/questions for other participants.
     A philosophical/spiritual excerpt with two or three questions is included in each report. Based on what we share, participants ask questions to help get clarity about our thinking. The intention is to help each other see our underlying beliefs about who we are.
     One rule we try to adhere to is not to give advice or solve problems. The number of participants, to make it work efficiently, is between 4 and 7 including the leader.

Both the women's and the men's weekly email groups are active and welcome serious participants. ~ Contact or for more information.

Update from the Gainesville, FL self-inquiry group:

We're planning a four-day intensive retreat at the Claymont Society in Charles Town, WV on Monday-Friday, June 10-14, leading into the June 14-16 TAT gathering.
     The theme will be "Knowing What You're Not." Self-inquiry is integral to what Richard Rose termed as a path that is "subjective, subtractive, immanent, and designed for immediate changing and becoming."
     Nisargadatta described the approach in this way: "Discover all that you are not—body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that—nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search…."

We continue to meet at the Alachua County library on alternate Sundays. ~ Email or for more information.

Update from Galway, Ireland:
Tess Hughes is currently working with seekers one-to-one and holding occasional group self-inquiry retreats. Anyone who's interested in self-inquiry activity in Ireland is welcome to contact .

TAT Press publishes Tess's easy to read, profound This Above All, the story of her journey of Self-Discovery.

This is a new listing for the self-inquiry group in Goldsboro, NC:
The Goldsboro Inquiry Group (GIG) meets on the first and third Monday evenings of the month. We begin the meeting with a short reading, then sit in silence for 20 minutes before opening it up to what I like to call group assisted self inquiry. ~ For details on when and where, contact .

Update from the Google Hangouts self-inquiry group:
Thanks to the advent of technology, we have a group that meets electronically on Google Hangouts every Sunday at 6.30pm UK time.
Our goal is to investigate and confront our unexamined beliefs in a group dynamic, within a safe environment. And at the same time we aim to serve as mirrors for the other group members to see themselves more clearly.
We have one person elected to be the moderator of the group, who brings a question to the discussion, and then each participant answers with follow up questions from the others. Questions range from the psychological type, i.e., "What kind of people annoy you, and why?" to the more abstract "What is the nature of perception?"
The group has been running for well over a year now, and we have all become good friends. A number of us have met in person at various events. We welcome any new members who are committed to self-inquiry and look forward to meeting you. ~ Email .

Update from the Greensburg, PA self-inquiry group:
The Greensburg Self-Inquiry Group is still in hiatus. I do plan to start it up again at some point as I see it as a lifeline to my own spiritual path. Things got stale with my group's participants, but I will e-mail them at some point to schedule another SIG meeting. In the meantime, I participate in a local "Socrates Cafe" group at the coffeehouse/art gallery where I have had my meetings. This group is not into esoteric philosophy as such, but they're supposed to be into "Socratic Inquiry," and I figure it's better than not engaging in any discussions with people. At least we sometimes touch upon spiritual matters, and this makes attending their meetings worthwhile. ~ Contact if interested in local self-inquiry meetings.

A new self-inquiry group is forming in Hartland, VT:
Located in central Vermont, along I-91, the group will be using TAT videos from past conferences as a primer for discussion. ~ Contact for more information.

Update from the Lynchburg, VA self-inquiry group:
We're currently using Alfred Pulyan's correspondence with Richard Rose as inspiration for our weekly gathering. We're perusing the letters during the week and then coming together to see what got our attention. This activity was inspired by several online groups who have used them in past years with good results. The women's group, run by Anima Pundeer, also inspired us as we already have some questions posed by Anima to go with each letter. It's always good to share additional questions among groups!
     We continue to meet at The Drowsy Poet cafe at Little Dickens Bookstore, from 6:30-8:00 every Thursday evening. ~ Email or for information on the meetings.

Update from the New York City self-inquiry group:
We meet every Monday in New York City's Financial District, where all great spiritual realizations take place ;) Our goal is to investigate and examine our beliefs (definition of examine: from Old French examiner "interrogate, question, torture"). We aim to serve as mirrors for each other, to see ourselves more clearly, in a group dynamic, within a safe environment. Recent topics include critiques of pema chodron, what it would be like to be god, and the consciousness of trees. If you believe something and are interested in doubting it, we are here for you :)
~ We have open meetings for first-timers; so if interested please reach out to or find out more through our Meetup link above.

Update from the Pittsburgh, PA self-inquiry group:
We meet on the 1st & 3rd Wednesdays of each month, from 7-9 PM, at the Friends Meeting House in Oakland (4836 Ellsworth Ave, PGH 15213) and on the 2nd & 4th Wednesdays, also 7-9 PM, at Panera Bread in Shadyside (5430 Centre Ave, PGH 15232). Last month's topics were:
Mar 6: "Ego: the boundary-maker and gatekeeper, drawing lines and dividing me from you." Could ego be our best friend, worst enemy or a necessary challenge on our path?
Mar 13: "What are you searching for? What are your main underlying beliefs?" What personal beliefs define your path?
Mar 20: "Awareness Games: Playing with Your Mind to Create Joy," an evening of exercises by Brian Tom O'Connor, hosted by Mike W.
Mar 27: "What is the Question that Drives You?" Welcome to An Evening of Self-Inquiry hosted by Mike W.
~ For further information, contact or .

Update from the Portland, OR self-inquiry group:
We have two kinds of meetings in Portland. One is a small closed group that meets at a local coffee shop. The format for this meeting is to give each person 20 minutes or so to talk about whatever is coming up for them in their practice. The other is an open meeting, held at a local library, that is advertised through Meetup. These meetings usually have a topic with questions, and the format is to give each person approximately 10 minutes to comment on the topic and then to answer questions from others. We haven't been holding open meetings regularly but hope to get them back on track for the new year. ~ Email for more information.

Update from the Raleigh, NC Triangle Inquiry Group:
The Triangle Inquiry Group (TIG) meets on Wednesday evenings near NCSU. ~ See the website for more information.

Announcement of the newly formed Richmond Self Inquiry Group:
The Richmond Self Inquiry Group provides an opportunity to meet and work with others involved in the search for Truth and Self-Realization via meditation and self-inquiry. The underlying tenet of this path is that Truth is something to be found through one's own direct experience. Group Inquiry recognizes that working with others may expedite this process, and provides a platform for genuine friendship along the way. ~ Email for information about upcoming meetings and events.

Update from the San Francisco Bay area self-inquiry group:
See the Shawn Nevins interview by Iain McNay of Conscious.tv, kicking off the publication of Shawn's book Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment. ~ Email for information about upcoming meetings and events.

Update from the Sarasota, FL self-inquiry group:
Meetings are on alternate Wednesdays. ~ Email for more information.


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.

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):

TAT's April 2018 Gathering was titled Steps on the Path. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

TAT's June 2018 Gathering was titled In Search of Happiness. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

TAT's August 2018 Workshop was titled Beyond Imagination and included three guest speakers who each led separate workshops. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

Please us if you have questions. (Look here for info on TAT membership.)


Amazon and eBay

Let your Amazon purchases and eBay sales raise money for TAT!

As an Amazon Associate TAT earns from qualifying purchases made through links on our website.

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.


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






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~ Thanks to



~ Thanks to TAT member


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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~ Thanks to

enso


Q: How do those ideas strike you?



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*

~ Thanks to TAT friend




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 question we asked readers for this month's Reader Commentary: What do you think Mr. Rose meant in his poem "Tweeny Town" when he wrote, "In Tweeny Town, in Tweeny Town there lived a boy and maid. / And they went up and they went down, but all their children stayed."? What does between-ness mean to you? Responses follow.

TWEENY TOWN
Nov. 2001 TAT Forum article

In Tweeny Town, in Tweeny Town
there lived a boy and maid.
And they went up and they went down,
but all their children stayed.

In Tweeny Town, in Tweeny Town
the two were free of sorrow.
For they delayed the ups and downs,
and looked for them tomorrow.

In Tweeny Town, in Tweeny Town
there were no rich or tragic,
Nor age or youth nor chain nor crown,
For between-ness was their magic.

From :

From :

From :

From Brett S:
My guess is that a boy and maid going up and down—but their children staying—has to do with equanimity during life's ups and downs. Equanimity means being neutral towards my thoughts, which after all are just a "movie." My guess about the meaning of between-ness is that it is a state of mind that is not doing but intentionally being. Being focused on something other than thinking and other than the external world of sensations. It's to be "half inside and half outside," with regards to my attention. I also have ideas about it meaning "wanting something desperately and then letting it go," and also that it refers to when someone keeps their head "on dead center." These seem possible, and related.

From :

From :

From Anonymous:

From :


The questions for next month take a different approach: We've seeded the table below with some examples that have come from self-inquiry discussions. We're asking TAT Forum readers to rate how strongly they align with those beliefs on a scale of 0 (not a belief) to 10 (very strongly believed), and to add and rate other strong beliefs that they hold.

Please your response by the 25th of May.


Other Reader Feedback

From Diana B. [referencing the reader responses to last month's question]:

There is a right way to meditate and a wrong way. The right way is to challenge yourself, ask yourself the hard questions until you get answers, to imagine dying and becoming comfortable with it. It should bring you to an awakening in a reasonable amount of time (under six months). Sitting on your ass "observing your thoughts" accomplishes nothing.

Lester Levenson never sat and meditated: instead, he spent three months letting go of his ego, which he was good at because he had received four years of psychoanalysis with an associate of Sigmund Freud. That was four days a week for four years. Levenson then developed the Sedona Method, and in spite of the unavoidable mistakes that his followers have put into it, the method is still the most effective means of removing the psychological blocks that keep us from becoming awake to what D. T. Suzuki calls the Cosmic Unconscious. These blocks are repressed memories and desires that are accumulated in the unconscious.

Suzuki and Erich Fromm's little book, Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis has a wealth of wisdom on this subject, i.e., why the Sedona Method is so powerful. I am at a loss to understand why no one has researched the connection between Freudian psychoanalysis and enlightenment.

Incidentally, there is no need to take a course; it is sufficient to read the short biography about Lester written by Lawrence Crane (available for free at http://www.presentlove.com/lester-levenson/) and to download (again, free) the handbook written by Dr. Susan Kriegler.

The Lester Levenson love exercise replicates what he did, which was to go through every person he had ever known and change unloving feelings to a feeling of love. (Make a list of everyone you have ever had feelings about). Doing just this will change your life; refusing to do this means you're going to be reborn, blindfolded, and have to go through the pain of living all over again. One hour a day of doing the love exercise and releasing repressed memories is worth more than 20 years of sitting "observing your thoughts." I know this because I know people in Zen Centers who have sat for 30 years and gotten nowhere.

Regarding the bit about the evolutionary purpose of the self [in last month's Inspiration & Irritation section], no-one who is enlightened believes in evolution. No-one who understands quantum physics believes in evolution—Robert Lanza's Biocentrism explains this. The universe and sentient beings rose together, at the same time, because without the beings there is no universe. Neither the beings nor the universe is real: they are simply manifestations of God or the Absolute, which is the only reality. The first path of the Noble Eightfold Path is Right View, because nobody attains enlightenment without understanding the Dharma. Look at Genesis: Adam and Eve were separated from God because they became aware of themselves and aware of differences between things. They came out from the Absolute at the same time as the universe came into existence. (Actually they came out shortly after, but there are some problems with the Babylonian creation myth).



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?


ShivaNataraja.wiki.jpg


We like hearing from you! Please your comments, suggestions, inquiries, and submissions.

Sign up for notices of TAT's four annual events and free monthly Forums by email on our .

 

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.


"The Dawn Breaks"


The dawn breaks because another day and night have died.
But the sky was there through all.
The butterfly floats a moment and then
        his dalliance is only an eternal picture.
The breast flows with milk and is
        dry forever.
And the lullaby of life and the ear
        that hears it weaken and cease.

Nothing is happening. Nothing is done.
The sun rises in glory and the lover
        stretches his shoulders with ambition.
The sunset is forever, and the lover
        drinks of beauty,
And beauty drinks of the lover
        And life loses its pride in death.

But nothing is happening. Nothing is done.
        The eye and the urge are beauty and life,
        The owner is disenfranchised
The holder lets go of his grasp and everything becomes
        his domain.
        God is in his thought, and his thought lives only
in his God.
        Nothing is judged. Nothing is known.
Nothing is meaningful. Everything is perfect.

*

Carillon: Poems, Essays and Philosophy of Richard 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.

We are still very much in brainstorming mode for bridging the $100,000 gap between our original design and the funds we've raised. If you have ideas or suggestions, feel free to Shawn.


Driveway entrance from Thomas Green Road.

In the meantime,

Use the PayPal button above to donate now. TAT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization and qualifies to receive tax-deductible contributions.

Alternatively, you can mail a check made out to the TAT Foundation (for instructions on mailing a check, please the TAT treasurer).

For additional background, see the Homing Ground page.

In friendship,

Shawn Nevins
on behalf of the TAT Trustees


TAT gathering

 

Did you enjoy the Forum? Then buy the book!
Beyond Mind, Beyond Death is available at Amazon.com.

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