TAT Forum Reader Commentary
Archive
Enjoy the TAT Forum? You can now own an anthology of some of the best essays,
poems, and humor from 77 issues. Selected by readers like you, this collection
is enhanced with photography from Bob Fergeson, Shawn Nevins,
and others.
Order Beyond Mind, Beyond Death 
Reader Commentary:
Favorite Books |
Favorite Films |
Most-Impactful Life Events |
Most Moving Music |
Most Affecting Person or Lesson |
Favorite Aphorism |
Your Primary Question or Quest |
Your Question for Other Readers |
Your Haiku |
Your Ways & Means |
What You Are Looking For? |
What & How? |
What Does Love Mean to You? |
What is thought? |
When you meditate, what constitutes a "good" session? |
Well that's pretty nuts!…. |
Why do you meditate? |
What is your bottom line? |
What's the secret to keeping commitments? |
From new folks at the April 2017 TAT meeting |
Are you a feeler or a thinker or a doer?…. |
What do you expect to happen in your life? |
If you only had 5 minutes a day to devote to your spiritual practice, what would you do in that five minutes? |
What helps enhance your spiritual practice? |
Where do you feel like you have volition? What argument could you create to challenge that belief? |
Who/what makes your decisions? Who/what has veto power over them? |
What is your relationship to what you seek? |
How is it known that someone is awake?…. |
What are your expectations of yourself in this lifetime? |
Questions on praying |
What are the principles you live by or aspire to live by? |
What challenges are you facing? |
What question(s) would you like to ask readers? |
What is your goal? Need a teacher? |
Is there some guiding principle that determines your search? |
What is your Heart's deepest desire? |
Reviews of Subtraction by Shawn Nevins |
Feedback on the memorial in last month's Forum and on the new Double Take on Life blog |
What is the biggest problem, difficulty, or concern in your spiritual search? |
Impressions of TAT Press's Awake at the Wheel |
What are your doubts and questions? |
Responses to last month's I'm Not This Body? essay |
Who/what makes your decisions? Who/what has veto power over them? |
What book was the most inspiring read in your search? |
Responses to last month's E-Mails to a Friend essay |
How do you meditate? What constitutes a good session? |
Shiva Natargaja sculpture |
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."? |
Readers respond to an online survey asking about the strengths of their beliefs in 9 statements about ourselves |
Do you feel that there's something wrong with you? |
What do you do when you hit a barren patch in your search? |
Cat's Eye Nebula (Hubble photo) |
Subtraction: If you were going to simplify your life, what would you do first? |
Bumble Bee Bait (photo) |
(How) do you discuss your search with your loved ones? |
Ballycroy National Park boardwalk (photo) |
Do you consider yourself to have a spiritual teacher? |
Niagara River below the falls (photo) |
How do people balance a spiritual search with their career? |
Fluid Dynamics (artwork for NASA) |
Reviews of Falling for Truth by Howdie Mickoski |
Rishikesh, on the Ganges River (photo by Anima Pundeer) |
Is there something "way down deep that's eternal about every human being"? |
Message from Falling for Truth author Howdie Mickoski, and response to last month's "Realization" essay |
Duquesne Incline photo |
What differentiates a "serious seeker" from a "seeker"? Which one are you? |
Impressions of last month's Forum and references to last month's Reader Commentary and Keat's "Negative Capability" |
Sanur Beach, Bali photo |
Appetites |
response to the article by Tess Hughes, "The Greater or the Lesser Game of Life – Which Choose You?" in last month's Forum |
The Isle of Innisfree in Lough Gill, Ireland (photo) |
Effort & Detachment |
responses to articles in last month's Forum |
ESA/JAXA BepiColombo space mission (animated gif) |
Do you shape your own destiny? |
responses to articles in last month's Forum |
Amish Barn Moving (photo) |
How do you know which feelings, thoughts, intuitions to trust? |
Kremmling, CO ranch photo |
What is the most important thing you've done in your life? |
Bedford, VA photo taken after a recent small group retreat |
What role does religion ... play in seeking the truth? |
Juniper Level Botanic Garden (photo) |
How is your path going? |
A Narrow Path (photo) |
Taking yourself too seriously |
A Rocky Shore (photo) |
Self-honesty |
Galveston, TX visitors (photo) |
Approval |
Orchid (photo) |
The Tragedy of Life |
Trust (watercolor) |
Questioning and prayer |
1792 painting of a Hindu temple and choultry in Tamil Nadu |
Purpose |
2006 photo of Kiffy Purvis (1982-2020) with Bernadette Roberts (1931-2017) |
Grace |
neurological artwork by Greg Dunn |
April TAT gathering takeaway |
Bimaran Casket historic gold Buddhist reliquary |
Doubting Intuition |
Poisson Saturne Strange Attractor |
"Desert island" books |
Connemara orchid |
Is your mind a friend or a foe in your search for self-definition? |
Bob F. in Utah canyon (photo by Tim H.) |
Follow your bliss? |
Ikeh in white oak tree at Yale U. |
Quotes that stop your mind in its tracks |
Correspondence with "I Am Grey Eyes" author |
Bleeding Poppies, painted by Mary H. |
Review of your life as an Amazon purchase |
Partial lunar eclipse |
What would it mean to get into rapport with yourself? |
Gateway watercolor by Tess Hughes |
What is my deepest intention? |
Path leading to St. Patrick's College Cemetery, Maynooth, Co. Kildare. Photo by Colm H. |
What does love mean to you? |
Richard Rose farm—winter 1994—photo by Shawn Nevins |
Douglas Harding's “Simplify!” |
Park bench photo by Zane Lee |
Spending life vs. investing it |
Jesus sand sculpture at Ocean Beach, MD |
What do you really want out of life? |
"The words on the steps stopped me in my tracks" photo |
Doing all things for the sake of a higher power |
Le Passe-muraille (passer-through-walls) photo |
Earworms |
On Doing Everthing for a Higher Power, by Shawn Nevins |
Summer Sunset from Roof Top Patio photo by Bob Cergol |
Where Are You? |
Autumn Quakies photo by Bob Fergeson |
What about you needs to be fixed? |
Hibiscus photo by Art Ticknor |
What is it you are dedicated to? |
Holy Helpers bas-relief photo |
Challenges? Doubts? |
"Remembrance" photo by Bob Cergol |
Meaning of Enlightenment? |
"Connemara Mountain" painting by Tess Hughes |
Self-assessment anonymous survey |
"Memento Mori" painting by C. Allan Gilbert |
Watching the mind's activity |
"Lighted Trees" photo by Bob Cergol |
What will make you happy? |
"Paintbrush" photo by Bob Fergeson |
What about the idea of 'retreating from untruth' makes sense to you? |
Watercolor and pencil painting by Dena Ackroyd |
Which of "Hermann Hesse's Quotes You Should Know Before You Get Old" do you like best? |
"I AM..." image by John Hain |
The Search for Self-Definition: What’s Taking So Long? |
Summer View by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova |
Convictions about finding Truth / becoming Real (Self-Realization)? |
Jomblang Cave, Indonesia by Thomas Fuhrmann |
Spiritual Genius? |
Identity Spiral by John Hain |
How do you perceive your path is going? |
Fountain in Grindelwald, Switzerland |
Thinking and/or Feeling? |
Rishikesh, India photo by Anima Pundeer |
Agree with ChatGPT’s response to the question “What is the shortcut to spiritual awakening?” |
Mist Over Water photo from Michael R. |
What Have You Come to Terms With? |
Galway Bay painting by Tess Hughes |
Self-definition Practices |
Contemplative – by Rippl Merengő c. 1892 |
Ego |
Regarding Donald Hoffman on Consciousness |
Regarding William Samuel on Experience and Identity |
Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National photo by Bob Fergeson |
What are you emotional attitudes towards suffering as it arises in your life? |
Response to “Donald Hoffman’s Theory of Consciousness” (March 2024 Forum |
1859 painting of Humboldt River, NV encampment |
Clarity on what you really want |
Steps in Moundsville, WV. 2010 photo by Art Ticknor |
What are your questions? |
Feedback on Sheldrake video (April 2024 Forum |
Zen Garden photo |
Here for a purpose? |
Soleil Couchant (setting sun), an 1875 watercolor by Félix Bracquemond |
What do you feel interferes with your seeking? |
Sunset photo by Michael R. |
Which one of these Einstein’s quotes do you like best (or worse), and why? |
Marcus Tullius Cicero: "We are not born for ourselves alone" (misty shore image) |
Does your life have a definite direction? If so, what is it? |
Crown Heights, Brooklyn mural of working together |
What are your thoughts/feelings about the difference between commitment and intention? |
Rishikesh on the Ganges photo by Anima Pundeer |
How do you or could you practically accumulate energy for the search? |
Feedback from Tara S. on November 2024 TAT gathering: "Certainty" |
Benches photo by Michael R.
