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

November 2020 / More


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=> [I don't use Outlook or Yahoo mail, but here's what I've read about whitelisting with them. Please let me know if any of these examples are incorrect or outdated – Ed.]

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TAT Foundation News

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

Downloadable/rental versions of the Mister Rose video and of April TAT talks Remembering Your True Desire:

"You don't know anything until you know Everything...."

Mister Rose is an intimate look at a West Virginia native many people called a Zen Master because of the depth of his wisdom and the spiritual system he conveyed to his students. Profound and profane, Richard Rose was not the kind of man most people picture when they think of mystics or spiritual teachers. Yet, he was the truest of teachers, one who had "been there," one who had the cataclysmic experience of spiritual enlightenment.

Filmed in the spring of 1991, the extraordinary documentary follows Mr. Rose from a radio interview, to a university lecture and back to his farm, as he talks about his experience, his philosophy and the details of his life.

Whether you find him charming or offensive, fatherly or fearsome, you will not forget him, and never again will you think about yourself, reality, or life after death in quite the same way.

3+ hours total. Rent or buy at tatfoundation.vhx.tv/.


2012 April TAT Meeting – Remembering Your True Desire

Includes all the speakers from the April 2012 TAT meeting: Art Ticknor, Bob Fergeson, Shawn Nevins and Heather Saunders.

1) Remembering Your True Desire ... and Acting on It, by Art Ticknor
Spiritual action is like diving for the Pearl beyond Price. What do you do when you don't know what to do or how to do it? An informal discussion centered around the question: "What prevents effective spiritual action?"

2) Swimming in the Inner Ocean: Trips to the Beach, by Bob Fergeson
A discussion of the varied ways we can use in order to hear the voice of our inner ocean, the heart of our true desires.

3) A Wider and Wilder Vision, by Shawn Nevins
Notes on assumptions, beliefs, and perspectives that bind and free us.

4) Make Your Whole Life a Prayer, by Heather Saunders
An intriguing look into a feeling-oriented approach to life.

5+ hours total. Rent or buy at tatfoundation.vhx.tv/.

Return to the main page of the November 2020 TAT Forum.

 

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.



Notes from a Winter Intensive


[Richard Rose conducted two month-long winter intensive retreats, one in 1981 and one in 1982. I wasn't able to attend the first one, but I extracted these notes from material provided by a friend who did. - Ed.]

  1. An individual can become the Truth through his own striving and determination. A man can strike out on his own and use the dynamics of his mind, body, and spirit. By projecting determination, desire, and energy, he can reach the goal.
  2. Speak out for freedom [from conditioning]; fight against oppression; inspire those who yearn to be free of their chains; courageously free yourself from the yoke of your conditioning.
  3. We procrastinate [productive] thinking.
  4. Going within doesn't require tension; just let it happen. (It's something new.)
  5. The mind works too fast to be able to observe the mechanics.1
  6. Consciousness is electrical—the space between two nerve points.
  7. How can a person keep his [self-inquiry] thinking stimulated? Requires a ways-and-means "committee" to form in the mind.
  8. Personal intensive retreats: One confirms and creates conviction by action.
  9. You have to be willing to die for your top priority.
  10. Work for success and the work should be enjoyable.
  11. Design a master plan for achieving goals.
  12. Meditation/evaluation system: A master plan outlining areas to be evaluated.
  13. What are my three top objectives? How am I going to accomplish them?
  14. The Albigen System as a science [of self-definition].
  15. Systematized inspirational reading.
  16. Get contagious with success. (Allow this to happen.) Rejoice in successes.
  17. Illusion that there's virtue in our current (placid) state of mind.
  18. Mental and physical (i.e., mundane) levels have to progress.
  19. Have to find your fellow seekers.
  20. There has to be a group plan, based on harmony among objectives.
  21. Communicate what you're doing and what the system is … in other people's terms.
  22. Exert yourself to the point where you feel good, that you're truthfully applying and exerting energy.
  23. Look for commonalities. Cherish and nurture them. Don't harp on or criticize differences.
  24. Our minor objectives are definable, actionable. The major one isn't.
  25. Try to meet the mind of the other person. Be able to ring bells in people.
  26. Once you evolve a complete desire for the Truth, you'll realize that you have to put your energy into it 24 hours per day.2
  27. Mental torpor is caused by forces of adversity.
  28. Don't let yourself be enslaved. Know your body functions and regulate them.
  29. Watch ourselves to see the pattern imposed on us. Our personality is only what we're allowed to exude.
  30. Put yourself in the position of teaching.
  31. Success builds the vector.
  32. Become a sincere seeker, attempting to meet other seekers and communicate what you've learned along the way.
  33. Our realizations will die if they're not communicated.
  34. To find the answer, you must teach. To teach, you have to learn the human language. Disdain, deceit, envy, and other aspects of competition will prevent learning the human language. Realize we're all drops of water in the ocean.

Footnotes:

1. However, there have been several occurrences in my life where I was able to see the mind's operation as in slow motion: the first time observing the decision-making process in great detail; the second time observing the mechanics of thought itself … being able to follow thought streams from inception of a percept hitting the mind to the pinball-like path of that percept bouncing off memories until the next percept hit and the next thought stream followed; and observing the rapid computations of massive amounts of data from memory by the intuition process. - Ed.

2. I can't say that a 24x7 dedication ever developed for me. I think it's good to monitor how we're using our free time to see how we can devote it more productively to our highest objective. - Ed.

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