June 2023 / More
Free Subscription NoticesKEEP THEM COMING If you're not seeing your TAT Forum new-issue email notices in your in-box, check your spam folder and other folders that your email client may be putting mail into. Gmail, for instance, now automatically places emails from Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn into the Social tab, while most email marketing campaigns find their way into the Promotions category. When you whitelist an email address in Gmail, this ensures the email shows up in your Primary Inbox rather than other tabs. You'll also get a notification on your device or desktop when you receive an email in your Primary Inbox, unlike emails that go into the Promotions category.
Whitelist an email sender in Gmail
Primary inbox vs. Social, Promotions, etc. => [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 Please let me know if any of these examples are incorrect or outdated—Ed.]
Whitelist an email sender in Outlook:
Whitelist an email sender in Yahoo mail: |
Convictions & Concerns
TAT members share their personal convictions and/or concerns
Spiritual First Aid
When you are depressed and despairing, do not give
up and swim back to shore. Learn to tread water till
inspiration arrives, which it surely will. Treading water
also means not sabotaging your store of energy. Think of
someone who trains for weeks for a big event, but then
doubts descend and they run from the stress by staying up
all night partying. Their momentum is damaged and their
goal is out of focus.
Never make a decision when in a mood. By “mood,” I mean the common term as in “I’m in a mood,” or “he’s feeling moody.” A person in a mood has a negative view on practically everything. Richard Rose described it as a clouded glass. Such clouded states of perception may linger for hours or days.
“Never make a decision in a mood” is a guideline that served me well. It kept me from abandoning commit- ments and taking actions that led to a change in priorities.
You need a certain level of awareness about your self in order to recognize a mood, to remember your mental state before the mood, and recognize your current state. Also, you need the faith that your mood will return to its typical state. Do not take my word, observe your self in action.
What do you do while waiting for the mood to change? Keep your present commitments as best as you can. Procrastinate important decisions until the mood lifts. Tread water rather than start swimming in the direction a mood sends you.
Not all moods are negative. Sometimes we feel full of power and potential and our excitement in beginning a new undertaking is barely contained. The only potential downside is if you find yourself committing to projects in moods of inspiration, then dropping them. A little honesty will reveal whether or not you are a victim of certain positive moods.
The worst feedback loop I encountered was that of fatigue and depression. Nothing brought my spiritual search to a standstill faster. When depression hit, I got tired. If I got tired, I got depressed because I had little physical energy. One fed upon the other until I was reduced to a soggy heap which barely got out of bed. I felt like I was drowning in negativity. Besides treading water, I developed a couple of tactics to deal with this sort of depression.
Take a break. By that, I mean simply put down the book, get out of bed, stand up from meditation, or relax. Take a walk, go to a movie, go out to dinner, or simply go someplace else. They key is to not take a break for too long. A day of relaxation may become a week and then a month.
Being around friends is another helpful tactic. I wanted no one around when depressed—an unfortunate reaction to depression and the opposite of what is needed. This is when it is helpful to have a spiritual group of friends who, while they may go out for a beer with you, will not offer the temptation of getting drunk every night.
There is a second type of depression, which descends on some people like a shadow with no cause. When asked why they are depressed or what triggered it, they find no answer. I used to think they simply were not aware of the cause, but now I suspect a medical reason. There is a chemical imbalance whose trigger is not a psychological event. A switch flips and they plunge into depression. These people should seek out a good doctor—someone who will find the right amount of medicine to control their depression, yet not take the fire out of their desire. The patient, too, must help determine what level of medicine works for them. I know one person who took slivers of a single pill because, through experimentation, that worked for them.
~ Thanks to Shawn Nevins for this excerpt from the "Spiritual First Aid" chapter in Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment. Other books by Shawn are the recently published Passages: An Introduction and Commentary on Richard Rose’s Albigen System co-authored with Mike Gegenheimer, Hydroglyphics: Reflections on the Sacred featuring photograpy by Phaedra Greenwood, The Celibate Seeker: An Exploration of Celibacy as a Modern Spiritual Practice, and Images of Essence: The Standing Now with photography by Bob Fergeson.
Shawn also produces the SpiritualTeachers.org website featuring his podcasts of interviews with spiritual teachers. Image thanks to pixabayy.com. Comments or questions? Please email reader commentary to the .
Return to the main page of the June 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.
|
|
Recently two members of the New Jersey Self Inquiry Group traveled to Manhattan to meet with two members of the
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.
|
We are also planning a five-night intensive retreat at the Domincan Retreat Center in Dublin, IE on Friday-Wednesday, September 15–20, 2023. 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
.
|
|
|
- Conservation and Transmutation of Energy for June 4 |
|
- Sun, Jun 4: "Conservation and Transmutation of Energy." Dan G. hosts the Online Self-Inquiry Book Club alternate Sundays at 2:00 pm ET discussion of Passages: An Introduction and Commentary on Richard Rose’s Albigen System by Mike Gegenheimer and Shawn Nevins. Here is the link to join the meeting. |
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 June 2023 TAT Forum.
Did you enjoy the Forum? Then buy the book of favorite selections from the first 7 years of publication!
Beyond Mind, Beyond Death
