May 2023 / More
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Convictions & Concerns
TAT members share their personal convictions and/or concerns
Looking Back
Reflecting on what has stuck with me from the Richard Rose farm, thoughts, memories, etc., several things came to mind, not least of which is friendships formed. I don't want to be dismissive of this fact, but I guess it goes without saying that without these bonds this medium and message wouldn't exist. Though we often did our own things, even spending time in solitude, without the help of friends and the contact and communication of friendship, and the social aspect of community that keeps people motivated, grounded and in touch with one another, I don't think most of our spiritual efforts would thrive.
To that effect, when I think about farm life and reflect about what has stuck with me, I would use my memory of the farm and my efforts there as an opportunity to pass along anything of value to other interested seekers. Consequently, I would stress that there are three practices or disciplines that farm life allowed me to exert which I consider a kind of Holy Trinity of spiritual pursuit. At the risk of biasing any young seeker's search for truth, I urge anyone with an interest or calling to this life to adopt them while they are able. They have stuck with me in different respects throughout my life, though not always as I wish, and often now in memory only. They are Meditation (or Prayer, or perhaps better yet, "Mindfulness"), Abstinence, and Fasting (i.e., temperance by fire). In my opinion, anyone with the will and discipline to succeed in these pursuits in tandem at a critical time in their young adulthood will reap a lifetime of rewards, come what may.
Meditation as a daily practice grants concentration, focus and attention. While in some respects it is the fair-weather friend of the three, and is only as good as "what have you done for me lately," sustained effort, in my experience, can lend the practitioner a temporary safety net. Like fatigue in a fight, the practice can deflect harmful or wayward thoughts that would otherwise land as body blows doing lasting harm to your state of mind, possibly even derailing you altogether. Like the armor of any "virtue," it may protect you (for a time) from any corruptive environment, snapping you back into awareness, and alerting you like an inner voice to a danger or a difference or a sense that something is off. Like a scrape on the nose in the sandy surf, a solid practice of mindfulness can trigger a LAST GASP reflex to a "drowning" victim to ACT NOW or be lost. I noticed this mostly of course after leaving the farm, when it is far more difficult to maintain a meditative life in the work-a-day world. Also, be advised, the protective quality is short-lived if the practice is not maintained, and worldly life has a corrosive effect on its benefit.
Abstinence, be it from sex, substances, habits or pastimes, allows a recollection of resources. In modern parlance, if you were a start-up company or a bad business, it would be like controlling a cash burn. Abstinence will allow you to take stock of your time and energies, bring awareness to your self and activities, and like a budget let you see what you have actually been doing by the hard numbers not what you think you have. To the degree you are successful, you can redistribute or reallocate your life more willfully. Also, by way of encouragement, do not let failures or setbacks convince you to discontinue your efforts. Sustained effort will encourage long lasting results in this long-distance game. This practice has stuck with me least. Also, at the risk of being esoteric, there are more scientific benefits that will make other practices easier, and set you up for success overall. By way of food for thought, consider for example what percentage of your metabolism is devoted to digestion and reproduction. These energies may even translate into more subtle forms of power or psychic sensibilities. An individual's own personal experience will confirm any success or value in unlocking or redirecting these energies temporarily, and this leads me to the last practice.
Fasting is not for the faint of heart, but if you've had any success with meditation or abstinence, I encourage its practice. If not, go back to square one. There is a reason the discipline is on the calendar of every major religion. Ironically, the benefits of fasting, in my opinion, have stuck with me more than anything else, though as I mentioned it's important to remember that meditation and abstinence set the tone and it is also why I think these three reinforce one another. The reason I think fasting has "stuck" with me the most is not because I practice it now, but that I am convinced that like a sharpened blade heated and thrust into a cold bath, fasting at the height of my youth and health set my bones in steel suddenly what old age would have done slowly. Call it an eccentricity, but I stand by the statement, not that health benefits alone are the motive but rather an aftersight. In addition, I suspect they eliminate toxins that would otherwise come home to roost sooner. There is more to be said here, and much that is unknown too. Also, be aware there are risks. I urge caution, research, and determination here.
Lastly, I would say there is one other aspect of farm life that I didn't anticipate when looking back. Unspoken thank you's, unreturned favors, and deeds undone, these also have stuck with me a bit looking back. I can't go back in time to correct them.
Well, that's about all I have to say, and likely the only help I will ever be when thinking back on the farm or having any helpful advice for seekers. I do emphasize "young seekers" not to discriminate, but to exhort. Fact is, the young still can employ that most powerful asset they have—time. Knowledge is power only because there is time yet to work or turn it.
~ Thanks to Danny S. His reflection on times past was triggered by copies of a note from Danny during an early-1990s solitary retreat to Art Ticknor, the acting farm manager, who made some teasing notes on it, and Art's reply to Danny ... sent to Danny and Art by Shawn Nevins all these years later along with the above photo of the trailer that Art stayed in when not staying in the farmhouse. Richard Rose is the leftmost person in the photo. (Neither Danny nor Art is in the photo.) Comments or questions? Please email reader commentary to the .
Return to the main page of the May 2023 TAT Forum.
TAT Foundation News
It's all about "ladder work" – helping and being helped
(This is a complete listing of local groups. See the main page section for just the groups with recently updated information.)
Update for the Amsterdam, NL Self-Inquiry Group:
The group is not holding meetings currently, but email
for information.
Update from the Central New Jersey Self Inquiry:
The Central Jersey Self Inquiry Group welcomes serious participants. We are a small group and meet every other Sunday from 6pm to 7pm eastern time on zoom.
One weakness of our group is that it has happened that we don’t have enough rsvp’s in order to meet. Strengths of our group are that inquiry topics are native to our own interests and that we rotate leadership of each meeting. Another strength is that we invite guests occasionally to keep our meetings fresh and productive. Here are some recent topics:
- What is your response to uncertainty?
- After reading a short piece on Between-ness: Does Between-ness speak to your intuition? Have you applied it/can you apply it?
~ For meeting info: facebook.com/groups/429437321740752.
Questions?
for more details.
Update from the Central Ohio Non-Duality Group:
The Central Ohio Non-Duality Group has continued to meet virtually during the pandemic with a group of core members. As a result, the participants now dial in beyond Central Ohio from CA, TX, MD, NC and OH. We will continue to meet virtually on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 to 8:30 PM and welcome new participants. The meetings feature confrontation sessions that are a serious effort to engage in self-inquiry with the help of friends on the path. New participants can begin by first observing the process, if they wish, to understand the purpose and nature of such efforts by like-minded seekers. The Central Ohio Non-Duality Group recently posted the meeting link to its local Meet-Up site inviting new participants. If interest is shown for in-person meetings by participants in the Central Ohio area, in-person meetings will be re-started on a second evening.
~ For further information, contact
,
, or
.
We're also on Facebook.
Update from the
Dublin, Ireland self-inquiry group:
We meet every second Wednesday on Zoom. We are working using two different approaches. The first is the standard confrontation approach of people giving an update on what was coming for them in the previous period, in terms of their path. The second is the distribution of a piece in advance for reflection. We will continue in this vein for the time being, using either a general update or a piece for reflection shared in advance.
~ Contact
for more information.
We also meet online using Google Meet at least every second Sunday. The format so far is participants will talk solo for about 5 to 10 minutes on their reactions to the meeting's given topic and then respond to questions from the others present.
Information is given in the "What we are about" section of the Sunday group's Meetup main page about becoming a member, etc.
The online format is good to accommodate seekers who live far apart, but the hope would be every once in a while to have in-person events. Live meetings can provide new insights that may not occur in virtual meetings and could be either via a TAT retreat or an organised event within the group.
~ Contact
for more information.
Our group has started to do in-person meetings. As the first meeting has gone well, the consensus is to hold them monthly or bimonthly. Currently, the venue is “The Cahir House Hotel” in Cahir, Tipperary, from 8 am to 4 or 5 pm on a chosen Saturday, and folks can hang out longer if they wish. Meetings have scheduled topics provided by the participants in advance of the meeting. There is a group rapport session during the day for an hour, which got good feedback last time. And finally, we try to stick to a theme for the day in the same style as the TAT retreats. For more information, contact Patrick or Colm.
Update from the email self-inquiry groups:
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.
We continue to have two men's email groups active. Since the beginning of the year, four participants have left and one other participant has returned.
The weekly reports function like slow-motion self-inquiry confrontation meetings, which has its pros and cons. We alternate by asking each other questions one week then answering them the following week. Participants provide brief updates of highlights from the previous week and optional updates on progress toward objectives that they use the reports for accountability on.
Both the women's and the men's email groups welcome serious participants.
~ Contact
or
for more information.
TAT Press publishes Anima's and Art's book: Always Right Behind You: Parables & Poems of Love & Completion.
Update from the Gainesville, FL self-inquiry group:
We continue to meet at the Alachua County main library on Saturdays from 2 to 4 PM. We typically schedule meetings for alternate Saturdays with an occasional extra week between meetings due to holidays or the TAT meeting schedule and our group's associated retreats.
We talk with newcomers about the objective of the group as a forum to stimulate the progress of self-inquirers and we ask them what their most heartfelt life-objective is, and then we usually listenen to each volunteer who want to talk and then be questioned about what they've said.
~ Email
or
for more information.
*
|
The theme is "Sitting Down Near" (from the translation of the Sanskrit term Upaniṣad: upa "by" and ni-ṣad "sit down").
|
Update from the GMT Support Group for Seekers:
We meet every Sunday gmt 18.30, live on Google Meet. Rapport and confrontation, talk and exchange.
Someone mostly brings a theme, like a text, poem or whatever to set the mood. Then 10 minutes of silent rapport after which everyone gets their turn on the "hot seat" for 10-15 minutes—the group listens to what the person has to say about the theme then asks friendly questions—depending on how many participants we are. The questioning is aimed at providing material for self-inquiry. There have been sessions in which we just chatted, but that is more the exception.
~ Contact
Update from the Greensburg, PA self-inquiry group:
My Greensburg SIG group is currently in hiatus. I would like to have meetings in person again sometime in the future. But in the meantime, if you have any inquiries, or have an interest in helping me set up local meetings to meet again in person, you can email me at
.
An update from the self-inquiry group in Houston, TX:
We have merged our Zoom meetings with the Monday Night Confrontation group, which meets at 7:30 pm EST / 6:30 pm CST.
~ Contact
for more information.
"Ignoramuses Anonymous" blog
Ignoramuses Anonymous is for seekers to explore questions together…a fellowship of seekers for whom ignorance of the absolute truth had become a major problem. It started as a blog for Pittsburgh PSI meeting members back in 2009. Welcoming discussion on the path.
Ig Anon looks inactive again. The idea is to have a kind of seeker’s blog to process our thinking out loud and hopefully also help seekers new to group work see what we’re thinking about and if it resonates. My feeling is shorter posts in a range of 100-300 words are easier to put together and probably to read than recent 1000-word posts; however, there are no rules about it.
See this post from a
Four-day isolation retreat at TAT Center, with photos and YouTube clips.
Update from the Lynchburg, VA self-inquiry group:
We have been meeting on Thursday evenings from 7pm—8:30pm, online, via zoom. Norio Kushi, Paul Rezendes, and Bob Harwood are consistent guests. We've also had some other interesting characters show up from time to time. Topics come from readings or questions brought up by our members. These are sent out, along with the zoom invitation each week. Recently we posted some "considerations" for joining our group:
** Try to frame your comments as questions to Norio, Paul, or Bob. Draw these questions from you own experience rather than generalities. Maintain attention and discussion on the question rather than philosophical musings.
** Question other participants, in the spirit of group-assisted self inquiry, but without attempting to lead them to any particular conclusion or bring attention to yourself.
**Allow for and attend to the silence and the space that is always present. When you aren't speaking, see that as your role—to hold that space.
**Question, in yourself, the use of personal story-telling and quoting others—though sometimes both are helpful and appropriate.
**Consider the way in which you are listening. Does it have a quality of acquisitiveness or openness?
**Continue to question your own intention for coming to this meeting and let that guide any comments/questions/discussion.
~ Please contact
or
if you're interested in being on the email list.
Update from the Monday Night Confrontation Group:
The Monday Night Confrontation (MNC) online meeting is going strong with a core group of participants and room for a few more. Meetings are at 7:30 pm EST / 6:30 pm CST and use the Zoom video conference platform. The group practices confrontation/self-inquiry in a spirit of helpfulness with the goal of finding answers from within. If you are interested in joining or would like more information, email
.
Update from the New York City self-inquiry group:
The New York City Self-Inquiry group meets by Zoom every Monday from 6-8 PM EST.
You can use this link.
Our format is inspired by Art Ticknor's self-inquiry retreats, giving equal time for each person to answer a spiritual, philosophical, or personal "question of the week." By asking questions, we practice being sincere and reminding one another about the great mysteries of life.
More details, as well as our weekly discussion topics, are available on our MeetUp page (first link above) and via email at
.
Brett added this note about the January 15th retreat with the CNJ group:
Participants had an opportunity to flip to any page in Mike Gegenheimer and Shawn Nevins’s Passages and draw a representation of what inspired them.
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- Foreword-Introduction for April 23 |
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- Wed, May 3: "Are you in touch with an inner guidance?" |
Update for the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area self-inquiry:
The first meeting at the Chapel Hill Public Library will take place on Saturday, January 21st, from 1 to 2:30, in meeting room D. Meetings will be biweekly / every two weeks.
~ Email
with any questions.
Update from the Raleigh, NC Triangle Inquiry Group:
We're a small group that these days meets every first and third Tuesday of the month via Zoom. We usually have four to eight participants and new members are welcome. Except for a brief hiatus, we've been meeting regularly since the late 1990's. Our main focus is on looking at beliefs that can get us stuck in habitual ways of thinking which can limit the possibility of seeing the true nature of things. Although I act as a sort of MC in our meetings, there's no teacher or group leader and we all try to help each other in the search for the Real.
~ Email
for more details.
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.
TAT Press publishes Shawn's Images of Essence: The Standing Now, which features his poems with photos by Bob Fergeson, The Celibate Seeker: An Exploration of Celibacy as a Modern Spiritual Practice, Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment, and Hydroglyphics: Reflections on the Sacred, which features his poems with photos by Phaedra Greenwood.
Update from the Washington DC Area Self-Inquiry Discussion Group:
We're thinking abou restarting meetings at the Rockville, MD Memorial Library. While the library was closed for public health reasons, we began participating more in the weekly online book club. Forum readers are welcome to participate.
~ For more information, please email
or see the website http://firstknowthyself.org/virtual/.
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 May 2023 TAT Forum.
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Beyond Mind, Beyond Death
