June spiritual gathering details

Contents

Convictions & Concerns TAT Foundation News Humor Inspiration & Irritation Reader Commentary Founder's Wisdom TAT Homing Ground

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Purpose and Benefit

M: Do you think your “purpose” in life was to wake up? Do you think Life had any other purpose for you? Do you think everyone’s purpose is to wake up?

AP: Yes, and I wasn’t going to leave any stone unturned ... though I knew that it wasn’t any system or organization that would resolve my problem. I guess I was looking for ways to at least reduce my angst/pain. I don’t think I have ever taken a single wasteful breath. Whatever I did was what I needed to do in that moment.

M: Were you ever a curious person?

AP: Curiosity is an integral part of human programming ... yes, I was … I still am.

Anima: You’ll be surprised, Mary, but most people do not want to talk about spiritual stuff.

M: I found that out a long time ago. Sigh. Do you think there is any benefit to awakening? Is it something you would want for your children?

AP: Are you kidding me ... why would I want even a single sentient being to be living in a dark cell, in bondage? Each being also has its own blueprint to live by. Living only happens after Awakening.

M: I still don’t understand why realizing you are the Only One would be a good thing. Maybe it’s a trick!

AP: Wow… this is an interesting perspective … do you think this is why One splits itself into many?

M: If this is what you want for your children, is it something you would encourage them to consider? Or are you hoping that eventually, they will ask about it?

AP: Can you ever rest in peace without knowing who you are, knowing your real identity? The very nature of life, with death dangling in front, is a great encouragement for all.

~ Dialogue with Anima Pundeer excerpted from Always Right Behind You: Parables & Poems of Love & Completion. Please email Reader Commentary to the .

Call To Action For TAT Forum Readers With the intention of increasing awareness of TAT's meetings, books, and Forum among younger serious seekers, the TAT Foundation is now on Instagram. You can help! A volunteer is producing shareable text-quote and video content of Richard Rose and TAT-adjacent teachers. We need your suggestions for short, provocative 1-3 sentence quotes or 1 minute or less video clips of people like Rose, Art Ticknor, Bob Fergeson, Tess Hughes, Bob Cergol, Bart Marshall, Shawn Nevins, Anima Pundeer, Norio Kushi, Paul Rezendes, Paul Constant, & other favorites. (An example here is selected by the TAT member who volunteers to oversee the Instagram account.) Please send favorite inspiring/irritating quotes—from books you have by those authors, from the TAT Forum, or any other place—to . If you have favorite parts of longer videos (ex: from a talk at a past TAT meeting), please email a link to the video and a timestamp. Thank you!

Project: Beyond Mind, Beyond Death II TAT Press's Beyond Mind, Beyond Death (BMBD), published in 2008, covers selections from the first seven years of the TAT Forum, from November 2000 to December 2007. We've had 14 additional years of monthly TAT Forum issues since then. And we're getting ready to launch a project to solicit recommendations from all readers for a 2nd volume of BMBD from the seven years of monthly issues spanning January 2008 to December 2014. Our approach will be to have a brief, interactive survey each week for participants to rate the items in one issue of the Forum for inclusion in volume II. That will take about 20 months, during which time volunteer co-editors Abhay D. and Michael R. will arrange the selections into chapters and organize the book's contents. Within 2 years BMBD II should be available in paperback and e-book formats. Your participation to any extent practical for you will help the best formulation of Beyond Mind, Beyond Death II. If you haven't opted-in for participation notices, you can sign up at BMBD_II.htm, where you also can find links to all active surveys.

Hydroglyphics Award A 2022 Eric Hoffer Award (book awards for small, academic, and independent presses) finalist: "After our rigorous first round of judging, less than 10% of the nominees become category finalists. We consider this a distinction of its own merit.... Finalists are selected by category scoring and considered for honors. There are typically 1-6 books per category remaining as finalists that nearly rose to category honors."

Random rotation of TAT Foundation Books & Videos

2022 TAT Meeting Calendar February Virtual Gathering: Saturday, February 5, 2022 April Gathering: Saturday and Sunday, April 8-10, 2022 * June Gathering: Saturday and Sunday, June 10-12, 2022 * August Gathering: Saturday and Sunday, August 20-21, 2022 November Gathering: Saturday and Sunday, November 12-13, 2022 See the June spiritual gathering details page for details and registration. Comments or questions? Please email .

See TAT's Facebook page. Photo of TAT's open door by Phil Franta.

TAT's YouTube Channel Have you seen the TAT Foundation's YouTube channel? Subscribe now for spiritual inspiration (and irritation)! Volunteers have been updating the channel with hours of new content! They've also curated some great playlists of talks by Richard Rose, teacher talks from recent & not so recent TAT meetings, episodes of the Journals of Spiritual Discovery podcast, and other great TAT related videos from around the internet. Featuring: Richard Rose, Bob Cergol, Shawn Nevins, Bob Fergeson, Mike Conners, Anima Pundeer, Norio Kushi, Bart Marshall, Paul Rezendes, Tess Hughes, Art Ticknor, Howdie Mickoski, Shawn Pethel and other speakers. This month's video is from a talk at the June 2020 TAT spiritual retreat, one of four weekend gatherings each year. "Egoless Vector" was the theme of that gathering. "Most seekers of enlightenment think of themselves as being on a journey, as having a direction and some degree of earnestness. Direction and magnitude combined form a vector. Egolessness, however, runs counter to the idea of an individual on a journey of self-discovery. Thus an egoless vector is an oxymoron, and the seeker attempting to become an egoless vector is faced with a paradox. This session examines the root problem and the impossibility of solving it, and then explains how you are going to solve it anyway."

The Gainesville self-inquiry group is planning a five-day intensive retreat for those who can arrive by Sunday evening—a four-day or three-day intensive retreat for those who can't make it until Monday or Tuesday—at the TAT Center in NC on Sunday-Friday, June 5–10, 2022, segueing into the TAT weekend gathering on the evening of June 10th. The theme is "The Real Problem": > The real problem: what am I?     “I am a man is not natural. You are neither this nor that.” Ramana Maharshi.     ~ From The Little Book Of Life And Death by Douglas Harding. > In Two Plus Two Equals Reality, William Samuel challenges the reader with fundamental questions:     • Who am I; who are you?     • Why are we here?     • What is the purpose of life?     • Who or what is God?     • What is absolute reality? > Self-Realization answers the classical troika of:     • Who (or what am I)?     • Whence (did I come from before birth)? and     • Whither (am I going after death)? ~ E-mail for more information.

Update for the Online Self-Inquiry Book Club: The book club is meeting weekly on Sundays to discuss previous TAT Forums as they are the focus for the Beyond Mind Beyond Death II project. It’s also meeting monthly on Richard Rose'sPsychology of the Observer: The Path to Reality Through the Self by John Kent and will sync up with the new ProBoard book club discussion board on the Kent publication. Upcoming meeting schedule: > June 5: John Kent Thesis Chapter 10: The Observer > June 12: June TAT gathering > June 19: December 2010 TAT Forum > June 26: January 2011 TAT Forum > July 3: John Kent Thesis Chapter 11: Sexuality and the Transmutation of Energy > July 10: February 2011 TAT Forum ~ For more information on book club participation, see the meeting website (link above). TAT Forum readers are welcome to drop in any time (invitation to Sunday meetings—this is a new link we're trying this month).

Update from the Pittsburgh, PA self-inquiry group: => Online group confrontation and individual contributions every Wednesday, 8:00 pm via Zoom: - Wed, June 1: Topic "Stagnation: lack of focus, message from God, or entities?" - Sun, June 5: John Kent's Dissertation, Ch 10: "The Observer" (can be downloaded here: https://www.searchwithin.org/johnkent/Chapter_10.html); Dan Garmat Host, every Sunday 3:15pm ET @ this new address - Wed, June 8: Liora will monitor the meeting topic "Longing" - Wed, June 15: Lenny will host "Thoughts About States Of Mind, Attitudes & Beliefs" - Wed, June 22: "Do free-will or our values determine our decisions?" - Wed, June 29: Guest Host to be announced => All Forum subscribers are welcome to join us. Email to receive weekly topics with preparatory notes and Zoom invitations. Current events are listed on Meetup as Pittsburgh Self-inquiry Group (link above) and on www.pghsig.org.

Members-Only Area

A password-protected section of the website is available for TAT members. (Note that there's an occasional glitch that, when you try to link to the members-only area or a sections within it, you'll get a page-not-found error. If you try the link a second time, it should work.) Contents include:

• How you can help TAT and fellow seekers,
• Audio recordings of selected sessions from 2008–2019 in-person meetings and from February and November 2021 Zoom meetings,
• Resources and ideas for those planning a group spiritual retreat,
• Photographs of TAT meeting facilities, the Richard Rose gravesite, a rare 1979 photo, and aerial photos of the Rose farm,
• Presenters' talk notes from April TAT meetings in 2005–2007, and
• TAT News Letters from 1996–2013 and Annual Retrospectives from 1973 thru 2011. The Retrospectives from 1973–1985 were written by Richard Rose and are replete with ideas on the workings of a spiritual group—rich historical content.
• TAT policies, TAT business meeting notes, and other information.

Latest recordings:

TAT's Novemeber 2021 online gathering, titled What Do You Really, Really Want From Life?: 3.5 hours of selected sessions.

TAT's February 2021 online gathering, titled In Thought, Word and Deed : 2.5 hours of selected sessions.

TAT's August 2019 Workshop was titled Beyond Mindfulness: Meditation and the Path Within and included three guest speakers who each led separate workshops. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

• "Mindfulness. Is it just another spiritual buzzword?" with Bob Cergol,
• "The Path of Direct Sensory Perception" with Bob Harwood, and
• "The Art of Mindfulness is the Passion for Truth" with Paul Rezendes.

TAT's June 2019 Spiritual Retreat Weekend was titled Between You and the Infinite. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

• "Coming Home (aka The End of Seeking)" by Don Oakley, and
• "What's in the Way?" by Eshwar Segobind.

TAT's April 2019 Spiritual Retreat Weekend was titled Once in a Lifetime is Now. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

• "Recognizing the Human Dilemma" by Norio Kushi,
• "Strategies for Self-Realization" by Bart Marshall,
• Untitled session by Paul Hedderman, and
• "A Session in the Now" by Paul Rezendes.

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

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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 {(h)yo͞omər}

"One thing you must be able to do in the midst
of any experience is laugh. And experience
should show you that it isn't real, that it's a
movie. Life doesn't take you seriously, so why
take it seriously." ~ Richard Rose, Carillon

We enjoy presenting humor here from TAT members and friends. 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

Please your thoughts on the above items.

 

Reader Commentary

Encouraging interactive readership among TAT members and friends

The Reader Commentary pair of questions for the June TAT Forum, thanks to Dan G., is:

What’s your take on what you really want out of life?
Has what you want out of life changed as you’ve gotten older?

Responses follow.

From Miriam K:
What’s your take on what you really want out of life?

The content of my life or the things that I give my attention to are a good clue as to what I want out of this life. My interest in spiritual matters or a quest has waned in recent years...or maybe it would be more accurate to say that the way I view or approach 'this work' has changed. For a few years it felt like I was playing the role of the 'spiritual seeker', like a formula I surmised which was required to be committed and serious on the path to fulfillment. For a few years I felt a bit off with that trajectory - like I was being a fraud (which I know is a loaded word in spiritual matters). I kept rubbing up against this but kept finding myself in this loop of participating in workshops or groups yet some part of me knowing 'that my heart wasn't in it' and that I wasn't truly connecting to the 'heart of the matter' in doing what I was doing. Eventually I stopped participating in groups or workshops, etc., and haven't endured that uncomfortable feeling since then. I've no idea as to what's 'right' in the sense of how I should be spending my time or living my life...but I'm now not beholden to some adapted life that I was living which didn't feel like it was truly coming from myself. I was too influenced by the words of others - 'spiritual teachers and seekers' and what I really yearned for was my own true voice, not anyone else's path that I would try to make my own of.

Back to the question...what do I really want out of life? I want to be myself (whatever that means)...maybe the words 'my true self' which are common words used in these fora really are an apt description of what I really want out of life. I probably go no deeper with this than doing things and living in a way that feels I am being true to myself and noticing when I'm off and hopefully having the courage to bend away from a familiar way of being when it seems to be staring me in the face that it's time to make a change. I spent years looking at the concept of my true self and developed lots of notions about what that was - all nonsense no doubt. To be 'authentically myself' is another nice phrase that describes what I want out of life. Again, I can only approach this in a very practical sense of how I'm living my life, not abstract musings or contemplations or staring at nothing...my connection with this is very practical and concrete and energetic - it may have nothing to do with the essence of what TAT teachers may be pointing to in terms of 'the goal'....but this is my goal - coming from me. Not a goal in the future, but a 'right now' alignment.

Has what you want out of life changed as you’ve gotten older?

No doubt it has - it's always been a question I've struggled with 'what do I truly want'. I never felt like I truly hit the nail on the head over the years in TAT with this question. I can rhyme off the typical answers but to truly feel and connect and express my true yearning has always felt a bit vacuous. It's been a shot in the dark - in a given moment I can feel very strong about my answer and in the next breath it can feel like utter nonsense what I'm saying. Already, whatever I wrote above to the first question can feel a bit like an empty and untrue statement. The proof is in how I'm living....have I changed much over the years? Possibly not! I've been driven to achieve certain things at various stages in life - clearing my mortgage was a huge focus for me for years. I wanted the payoff that could come from that. Ultimately I suppose I placed a high value on freedom and being debt free was a big focus. The things I've given my attention to throughout my life to date have changed at various stages. From fun as a teenager, independence as a young adult and now seeking satisfaction and contentment in this period of my life.

From Doug W:
I'm not sure if my answer would be of much help. I'm no longer a seeker, and my questions have been answered through being completely obliterated by what is utterly, utterly beyond the human mind and thought. I can no longer drink the kool aid that thought is the final authority! Although it can be a useful tool in managing the practical details of life. It is so obvious that I'm not running the show and what I want just doesn't matter.

As far as being older, the thinking that arises focuses much more on taking care of the practical details instead of running in circles about "existential" questions.

From Tim H:
[This pair of questions] reminds me I'm getting older. This is in keeping with my personal feelings. I'm a handful of years to retirement. This last year it's become a reality, and my attention is starting to move away from work and career. What's changed for me on the search is a greater desire to become what I am. I don't forsee retiring from this until a final answer is achieved

From Patrick K:
My take on what I really want:

I really want to know what it means when it is said by people who have made the trip, “Beyond the mind, there lies a golden find”. By “trip” I mean the fruition of a spiritual path, aka enlightenment. From hanging around TAT teachers and seekers and reading the TAT books, my intuition is going off like a siren: “This is very important, you've got to work on this!”

How my intuition came to this work and evolved to develop a level of knowing what I want:

Growing up, I was always trying to “belong” to something. And no matter what I did, whether join a sports team, hang out with friends, become the best scholar I could be, immerse myself into what I thought was an ideal career, become a family man, become a DIY man, everything just falls short. There is a term that is used here regularly: “longing”. For me there is a longing that is never sated by anything worldly. The longing is bigger than me. Eventually the longing outruns everything else. When all the small things in life are seen for the worldly, mundane, everyday run of the mill stuff that they are, longing is still there saying: “hey there, look at me”. It is a deep hunger to find Truth, clarity, the completely satisfying answer to that longing.

But this world doesn't bend down to a guy like me and tell me where to go, how to navigate my life, so for me I got highly anxious and depressed. It seemed to culminate around the age of thirty. Then by some stroke of luck I happened upon Iain McNay's conscious.tv. I watched an interview or more every night even though I didn't know why. But that feeling of “belonging” was drawing me to those spiritual interviews. Those interviews brought a level of peace to me and a feeling of “home”. Then I happened upon the interviews Iain had with the TAT teachers, and one thing leads to another. Knowing what I want is the most difficult thing to discern, yet also the most important to try to see and feel. I really get what Rose said about himself just being a guy holding a door open for seekers. Without people holding a door open like Rose and the TAT teachers that followed after, it would be really difficult to decipher my feelings to know what I really want. Without them, my intuition would never have picked up the signal of the possibility of bringing my seeking to fruition, the end goal for the longing.

Reading Rumi's poem “The Tavern” lately, the following verse just kind of sums it up for me:

“If I could taste one sip of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks. I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here will have to take me home”.

From Bob W:
My “take” on what I want out of life now centers around “contentment."" Being at peace or at rest with what is the case, what is unfolding in each moment. As I am getting older, it is more clear that identification with the body is a source of suffering, and that thirsting for worldly experiences is a problem.

My wife of 38 years recently decided to file for a divorce that had nothing to do with any infidelity on my part. It was and remains an amicable separation, with all financial issues resolved without litigation. A friend of mine suggested that my wife is very this-wordly, and I am more otherworldly.

From Gus R:
I want what God wants. Which is highly presumptive. How could I know what God wants? How would one even ask? This here egocentric person, Gus, would never ever know, but a final recognition of God, and a way home, may already be baked into the mix, into the being; it may already be here.

I am not a seeker as much as a searcher for the Way Home that perhaps has been always denied, always avoided and seemed to have been abandoned. That search and possibility of finding a route has become tantalizing, in that something seems to have changed with age as I may claim to be the one who is asking, seeking and knocking at the door, but something also seems to have persisted, and there is recognition that it is really knocking at my door. And how does one respond to someone knocking at his door? "What do you want?"

From Theresa M:
What’s your take on what you really want out of life?

I want to live up to my full potential.

Has what you want out of life changed as you’ve gotten older?

Yes. When I was younger I wanted to be rich, successful, and loved. I dropped those goals when I realized that they didn't create happiness. I then made happiness my primary goal, which I achieved by letting go of expectations. Now I just want to be the best possible version of me.

From David Weimer:
In the following, I use quotes at times because I know that each term I use I assume I know the meaning of—and I never question my understanding or assumptions about these and other concepts.

What about the “want” to comprehend existence itself? Existential angst is the temporary calling card of a younger version of me, heading out into the world, yearning for a purpose worth having. Concern and anxiety over my purpose or my reason for being…. A desire to Know could be the same thing as my being (overly) paranoid, or (overly) afraid of the dark or going outside of my apartment, or (overly) focused on my own physical problems and illnesses; all of these could be manifestations that exist in greatly diminished forms at other times of life. My obsessive qualities are survivor examples that correspond to those who first exhibited them. “Evolutionarily advantageous.” Paranoia. Aggression. Curiosity. Charitability. Not involving any “planning” whatsoever—just lucky, and somehow things worked out.

Is there a “spiritual” component to my existence, or what I see as “reality?” Is there an afterlife? An Absolute? Is an Answer to my personal existence possible? Is Enlightenment real? These things are each defined from a particular point of view. Hunger and being satiated are defined using their counterparts. Spiritual yearning exists—therefore?

I have the potential/personal obligation to reach a conciliatory position regarding my life and death. To me, the Absolute, God, Truth, Oblivion, Death, and Non-existence are all somewhat synonymous; they’re on the same page. In my life, I have to be able to put up with living, and come up with, or “find,” somehow, an explanation I can live with. This takes as many forms as there are individual people....

See David's complete response.

From Anima Pundeer:
What’s your take on what you really want out of life?

We want things that we feel we don’t have. That will, in some way, enhance our life experience, and bring us satisfaction. As I got older, I realized that you can’t find satisfaction that is permanent from impermanent things. Life, as we know it, is ever-changing. So what is the point of hankering over things that cannot bring you long-lasting satisfaction. As Art T. says “be greedy and selfish … do not settle for anything less than Absolute.”

I wanted a Permanent end to my suffering.

Has what you want out of life changed as you’ve gotten older?

Yes, with each phase of life we want different things. As a little girl, I wanted a bicycle. When I got to high school I wanted a small scooter and then it progressed to wanting a car which progressed to wanting a certain type of car. Similarly, other wants in life also changed as I got older. Desires and fears give direction to our life. Though I don’t think we get to choose what we want, we can smarten up about ‘why’ we want XYZ. Just becoming aware of our underlying motives clears off most of the items from our wishlist.

*

TAT Press publishes Anima's and Art's book: Always Right Behind You: Parables & Poems of Love & Completion.

From Brett S:
I’m currently going through an identity crisis. Despite making “spiritual seeking” a major part of my life—and identity—for the last five-plus years, my thoughts and feelings tell a conflicted story about what I want out of life. Intellectually, the idea of honesty and introspection as a path to Self-Knowing appeals to me; who is living this life?! But emotionally, I feel a strong pull towards grabbing whatever outside things will give me the most immediate satisfaction, with little regard for anything or anyone but myself. I see that many of my original reasons for being a "seeker" were motivated by fear and a desire for self-protection. I mentally doubt that I’m seeing things clearly, but emotionally don’t know what to do about it. Anyway...I used to want to help others and be an unshakeable force for good. First by being a social justice lawyer, then by wanting to become like the Richard Rose I had read about. Today I feel more aware of those desires and also more skeptical of them. Beneath all that, there's a desire to free myself in some way. What I really want out of life is to not feel trapped by the experience of being myself!

From Michael R:
On first glance what I want out of life is love, success, adventure, meaningful connections and endeavors, enjoyment of the finer things and appreciation for the simple moments. These are the things that make me feel alive—like I’m involved in a life well-lived….

Recently while walking by the water I realized how many of the things I do are related to this desire for a life well-lived. I wondered what was underneath that, having often heard others talk of a fear of death but generally being too young to connect that to my own life—but that’s exactly what it was. Underlying the pursuit of a life well-lived was a sadness in knowing it would all go away one day, and a want to somehow balance that fact by filling this life with as much as I could—to make it matter, to make it mean something, to not add regret to loss in the last moments for having wasted what feels like the most heartbreaking thing to lose. 

No matter how many times I’ve witnessed death through my line of work, it alway seems abstract. I’ve never experienced death, I don’t actually know death. What I can connect more viscerally with is the experience of loss, and I think that’s what I fear most about death—loss. Loss of the experience of living, loving, feeling, being. And so far as I know I’ll lose everything—loved ones, family, childhood memories, my young functioning body, the warmth of the sun, of her body next to mine—my very breath will leave me. And in that moment will a life well-lived during this tiny fragment of cosmic eternity—will it help me bear that loss? Maybe. Probably. But is that what I really want? 

I was reading something recently which spoke to how we throw away our deepest wishes when we grow up and “learn” they can’t possibly come true, we leave that child behind for more grown up ways of dealing with the problems of life, death, and taxes. What that child wants, what I really want, if I dare admit it in the face of seeming impossibility—is to see no death, no loss. To look out and see love and life and fullness, everlasting. It’s what I always envisioned heaven to be: You’re Home.

[See the accompanying photo taken by Michael. - Ed.]

From Jeroen:
I find it hard to say in words what I want out of life, but something draws me to questioning and inner exploration. From a young age something felt not right, and I'm still working on figuring out what it is. I also want an end to suffering. That has been a powerful motivator, too, so I guess there are two main life-goals.

I think the same motivation applies, but in the past I would have multiple additional goals like improving at work or finding a mate. Now I'm not so much in goal-setting, and I can better see through the many inner voices pulling me in many directions. The underlying sense of something not right is still with me, though, and I'm grateful this deep current keeps calling my name.

From Dan G:
If a genie said I had one wish and one minute to decide ... To become real.

To become real is like Pinocchio wanting to become a real boy: it’s some fundamental change I’m striving for. Identity-affirming experiences, selfing, soothe this and I feel real for a while. I want to transcend the game, a rat race of mind.

I think that want has been there since childhood but wasn’t the top want I had faith in. I’ve wanted out of life a changing mix of dreams. I wanted infinite love, I wanted fun, I wanted just one day nothing went wrong, I wanted money, I wanted to be the first philosopher to figure something out. For a few years recently, I would have said I wanted sanity in the world around me more than my other hopes. Now I might say to stop running in my circles and face what I’m running from.

That brings up a diagram from Bob Cergol's article Going Within: The Object of Attention, and so perhaps I’m saying I want to drop the false identities and selfing and face the anti-self, imagined source of afflictions. Become real by becoming less imaginary. Stop running from afflictions to self, let them land, see what’s left, and get something real out of life.

Other Reader Feedback

From Don A., referencing the Founder's Wisdom letter in the 2022 May TAT Forum:

I've learned that when written articles, on a first pass, leave me with a nagging feeling that something more important yet subtle in them has eluded me, it's good to investigate them.

For me this was clear in the letter to Lee W, where Rose talked about stasis in the seeker's business or work being the red light for trauma. In pondering this, I'm recognizing the possibility that something painful and just below the surface may be the root of more recent lassitude or laziness on my part. Something either resists or holds me back from what I am drawn to or desire to do, on both the mundane and spiritual levels, and not being able to accomplish is obvious. But what I hadn't recognized was an underlying trauma that blocks momentum, preventing me from accomplishing what is important to me by simply not addressing what needs to be done. And in a circular manner, that trauma was fed in turn by simply not focusing on what needs to be done! My mind seems to further block itself by planning and thinking as if in an optimistic perspective: “Yes, but look at what I could do, and here's how I'll do it!” So the “could do's” and "will do's" pile up while the “have done's” or “now doing's” wither and all but halt. All the while anguish and resentment build as both trauma and my faithful conscience are ignored, blocking both seeing a way forward clearly and the initiative to act. My obvious conclusion was my lack of discipline to focus had interrupted progress, but Rose suggested that there also could be some Higher Intervention, maybe to indicate that one was not pursuing the best possible spiritual path or was being distracted from a path all together. I had never thought of such “grace” or guidance leading to trauma, or that trauma was a sign of guidance ignored. And a third, I think he suggested as the most likely cause, were the needs of entities and egos being prioritized especially over my own longing in a spiritual direction.

I am reminded of what someone said at a meeting recently, that her longing felt like a beautiful ache. I can relate to that, too, but now recognize my ache is the possible trauma of ineptitude, not a gift of grace but perhaps a lack of focus, of prioritizing. I can only hope that Higher Presence used all of the above to get my attention, too!

One lesson I always forget is that rather than to seek a "beautiful" path, I need to be on the lookout for those uncomfortable aches, pains and sufferings, and those inconsistencies, as indicators of something afoul, conflicting with what I really really want. That's where self-inquiry gets its traction.

Also from Don A:

Michael R., in his article "Write Something True," settled on the phrase: “There is experience and there is awareness of experience.” It was refreshing to see he did not jump to the conclusion that he was awareness as a result. He states in his short preface some identifying remarks: ". . . a longing to know what’s True, to feel Whole, to find Love. All of this is Bhakti—and a strained attempt to give words to paradox in experience, all with the hope of directing attention to THIS. What is THIS? The felt, almost pulsing SOMETHING that’s right HERE but undefined? Where are you, God?"

I thought that, when one was truly dedicated to finding an answer to a specific question, that was what is considered becoming a seeker and literally defines one by the direction and intensity of the question. It was refreshing to hear a seeker define himself as to what "I long for" versus what "I am."

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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?

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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.

Where Did We Come From? Where did we come from? Who are we? What is life? Where are we going? What is yesterday and what is prehistoric? Is there any difference? Is retrograded time estimable in consciousness itself? Meaning, is the Void just one timeless experience? In view of the possibility that it will always be then as it is with no change. That which cannot be changed is without variation or motion. Is not the experiencing of the past a varied viewing of the same immobile picture by all who view? Who are we? Are we that which we see—just a bag of protoplasm? Are we more than that, being a bundle of conditioned reflexes? Or are we still more—being a sentient, self-directing entity that moves freely, willfully, and purposefully in this dimension while preparing artfully for another more eternal dimension? What do we identify as now? Is the present second only now? If so, then we have only a microscopic now and are a creature hanging by a thin thread, on this ephemeral second between the frozen past of each second that has gone and the inexorable next second, minute, and hour. Are we a creature as we would like to define ourself? Are we really this warm body that is a pure child of God, waiting with kindness and noble compassion to extend our love and warm body to other less fortunate lovers with the eternal hope or conviction that we are bearing superior children from this noble passion? Is this world one that [is] ruled by love, to be followed by another world of love—created by a deity who had nothing better to do than create an eternal playhouse for what may really be an unloving, snarling pack of animals? What is love? Is it compassion for lessers? Or is it the rapport of equals? Can you love the unknown or superior creature? Can you love God when you find it impossible to love anything out of your range of rapport? Do people have rapport with or love only equals, or are they just harmonizing with physical similarities, or experiencing chemical familiarity? Can you love a dog? What type of person is it that would claim to love a dog more than his neighbors (sometimes move than his or her mate)? How would such a person ever find love for a superior—much less a God possessing all the superlatives that God is endowed with by man? Is not our feeling for lesser beings one of pretended compassion for those inferior that we can use or wish to use? Is not our pretended love for our superiors one of inhibited envy—loving really that which they have—which we do not [have] and want—perhaps trying all the time to pull the envied one down—to dispossess—to rape, seduce, use, and even dominate in turn. To get but not to give. * ~ Thanks to Shawn Nevins, who commented: "These were handwritten. I'm guessing it's part of a lecture but could have been a group meeting, intensive, who knows?"

Jacob's Ladder © 2001 Richard Rose. See this transcript of a talk on the topic by Rose.

Homing Ground Update … A spot on earth where people can do retreats and hold meetings; where the emphasis is on friendship and the search. June 2022: The small but steady donations keep arriving each month, which brings us to 29.8% of the fundraising goal for 2022! Meetings, group retreats, and solitary retreats are all happening at the TAT Center this year. Hopefully, you'll get a chance this year to see and experience the TAT Center first-hand. And please consider joining the effort to sustain our Homing Ground for years to come. Shawn Nevins PS: Monthly contributions are a great way to support the TAT Center if making a larger one-time donation seems too much. If you're so inspired, click the Donate button below, then check the box for "Make this a monthly donation" as in the example below: Let's bring this to life! "The job is upon us," Richard Rose said, "and it is worthwhile." To contribute to the TAT Center, mail a check made out to the TAT Foundation to: TAT Foundation PO Box 3402 Roxboro, NC 27573 Big checks, little checks, all are welcome. Or use the PayPal link above (though we lose 2.2% of your donation to PayPal fees). * See photos and more on the Homing Ground page. * In friendship, Shawn Nevins on behalf of the TAT Trustees

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Readers' favorite selections from seven years of issues.
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