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September 2007

Essays, poems, opinions and humor on seeking
and finding answers to your deepest life-questions

This month's contents: Upper Falls, Old Man's Cave, Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio Richard Rose Quotes & Notes on Life & Death by Paul Constant | Poems by Ian Maybury | Disinformation by Art Ticknor | Truly Do We Live on Earth? by Nezahualcoyotl | Freeing the Inner by Larry Davis | Humor | Readers and Authors Forum > Sign up for e-mail alerts that will let you know when new issues are published. > Want to meet some of the Forum authors in person? Interested in meeting other Forum readers? Watch for more information on the meeting schedule and programs. The next TAT meeting will be held on the weekend of Nov. 9-11, 2007.

Editor's Note by Shawn Nevins We placed a form in one of last month's articles, so readers could send questions and comments to the author, and received a half dozen replies. While we solicit comments in every issue, it took a new "gadget" to stir the waters of our readership. So it is with everything. We don't see what is under our noses until it moves. Our notes to self, pledges, and promises become dusty still lifes. Our hope: that you don't read the Forum and feel satisfied; that you are disturbed, are moved, and act. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Books are the best of things, well used: abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire....Books are for the scholar's idle time. When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men's transcripts of their readings."

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Richard Rose Quotes & Notes
On Life & Death
by Paul Constant

From 1985 through the mid-1990's, Paul visited Richard Rose at his West Virginia home and farm. Many visits occurred during TAT Foundation events, or while attending invitation-only "Chautauquas." These events were largely attended by men with ages primarily in their early twenties to late thirties. Other visits occurred while assisting TAT members in maintaining the farm, or when obtaining personal advice.

Over an eight-year period, Paul recorded nearly 350 pages of personal notes in four notebook binders and subsequently extracted them to share with others. Text in quotes is direct verbiage—word for word in most instances—that Rose conveyed in a one-on-one setting or group environment. Unquoted text is paraphrased, usually because they weren't recorded until hours or days later.

This is the second collection of those notes.

"Humanity isn't worth it—this place is a Hellhole. Forget it and struggle for the Truth."

"Young people today [1987] don't have an interest in philosophy and mind science. If they have any higher interests at all, it usually involves psychic phenomena. They have to be led by the hand from ESP, stories about hauntings, telekinesis, and other phenomena to something more meaningful, like the study of the mind."

"Many attractions in life are simply bait dangled before the eyes."

"We change personalities like chameleons to fit different social situations, hoping that others will buy our goods. How much time and energy is spent thinking about projecting the right image?"

Bucke said in this book, Cosmic Consciousness, that mankind as a whole is slowly evolving mentally. However, mankind has also increased in complexity. He has developed the ability to outwit himself in increasingly complex ways. A creative genius is able to outwit himself in more creative ways. This is why a man leading a simple life may be able to center his attention more easily than an intellectual person.

"An individual who hates his parents is probably more likely to become like them as the years go by. This individual would be better off if he were to respect them as struggling human beings caught in the flow of life. In this way, he can study his own inherent weaknesses and try to escape."

"We are what we do, not what we think we do."

"We will stay young in life as long as we work toward something that we're supposed to do."

"Faith in the ordinary sense will not do us an ounce of good, but we must have faith in ourselves."

We all have common ground. No one individual is inferior to another. Why should anyone meekly accept another's beliefs or theories or propositions out of fear?

"You can tell a lot about somebody by looking at their face. One half of a man's face is not the same as the other half. It's good to get a frontal view and a side profile to see the full face and head characteristics."

"Can a man choose his future? If, instead of throwing fists in a struggle to obtain, a man just relaxes and lets things happen, he will acquire more things in life."

"When trying to understand someone, look past his personality and try to get the whole picture."

Someone who makes you angry may actually be consuming your released energy. It is best to ignore him, if possible, or kick the crap out of him if you cannot escape.

"You can't have too many people hating you."

"Don't build your happiness on someone else's unhappiness."

"The fact that you don't act means you don't have conviction. State of mind equals conviction. Mood equals inclination."

"Your work towards success should be joyful."

"Get a life plan."

"You must learn to speak another's language. Be agreeable to other people. Ask for help."

"Don't linger in the shadow of the past."

"You are dichotomizing when you criticize yourself, and then identify with the part you criticized."

"Battles in the head between two options can sometimes cause confusion, which keeps up until you submit."

"There is a certain amount of tremendous futility."

"There is no growth without crisis."

"A person doesn't go around saying they love themselves, except perhaps for a narcissist. Why go around giving out love to a bunch of people who don't even want it? A Pollyannic person needs to know himself before he goes around straightening up the world."

"An experience can't be happy, eternally. We are bipolar beings. When there's happiness, there's automatically sorrow. If we were purely happy all the time, it would get so damn monotonous we'd wish for some sorrow or problem to overcome, just for the sake of a challenge."

"Go ahead—try to love others by bringing them your philosophy, and you'll get burned. It's like reaching too low on the [spiritual] ladder. People will start raising eyebrows and start pointing the finger at you, and possibly question your mental health."

"The so-called golden rule of reciprocity, as taught by Christ was, 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.' I am inclined to go along with Buddhist teaching of 'Do not do onto others what you do not want them to do unto you.' That way, you don't have to demand love in return because you felt the need to give it out."

"Very few people stop to analyze love. They want to create a universal condition by preaching it. These people have an underlying motive, and they may not even know it. It's 'love me.' They want others to love them."

"The bums want love but have none to give."

"The flesh does not function without some ego."

"Even the desire for peace of mind or bliss is an ego. Life is a battle, and we don't want to face that."

"Spiritualism provides the knowledge for a man to become less of an animal."

"You're all caught in a squirrel cage hell, and four times a year you go down to the [Rose] farm and let yourselves out of the cage."

At a TAT meeting: "Some of you are sitting there thinking, 'What'll Rose come up with tonight to lift us out of the shithouse?'"

Referring to daily encounters with some people: "A smile means 'hold still while I bite you.'"

"You can't put 5 pounds of junk in a 2 pound bag. Some people aren't ready for certain acquisitions or experiences, but they might stumble on them by accident."

"We are fertilizer... but we have a chance to escape."

"Everyone loves a wimp. Everyone wants a 'yes man' who will not stir up trouble."

"How can science deny the existence of other dimensions when we have an imperfect view of this one?"

"How do you explain a situation where an unconscious person, by medical standards, travels out of the body and then later explains in detail all that happened in the operating room and other rooms in the hospital?"

"Where is thought located and how does it travel? Is it a mental protrusion, as demonstrated by telekinesis?"

"People define everything but themselves."

Moods are one aspect of a state of mind. Other aspects include national, ethnic, and family contributions to the state of mind. You cannot create a state of mind, you must rise above it. You can often get a glimpse of the state of mind when you are between them, or even when you run into other people with contrasting states of mind.

Young men will not organize in a common cause because they are in competition with each other. Each wants to be the top stud horse.

Everyone is putting up with the bullshit from others as a means to an end (i.e., they want something).

"Most people are not malicious, but are driven by the promptings of nature. For example, a woman unconsciously degrades the male, but most of their inconsistencies are related to hormones. Fourteen days later, she thinks he's not such a bad guy after all."

A person will allow others to tap his energy if that person is too sympathetic.

Almost all people have two sides to their face, with each side having a different appearance. A strong contrast between the two sides might signify detrimental influences, such as sexual molestation as a child by an adult.

"We are what we do, not what we know."

To announce your intentions invites opposition. If a person goes around telling everyone about his intentions, it's like blowing the horns. "To keep silence" is the key.

"It is possible that we may retract into the Absolute after death, but most people will reject it because of the way they spent their life on Earth. For example, if a womanizer does not find women in the Absolute, he wants no part of it."

The whole world is full of individuals who seek to cram their pipedreams down everyone's throats. These are the same individuals who disguise themselves as helping, who want to educate us, when in fact they are perpetuating their own personal ambitions.

"An honest man teaches only what he knows."

"When you pray and hear your Self, then you can acquire."

"Live daily with death."

The death gene concept is based on the lifecycle of corn, as an example. When the silk is fertilized, the stalk begins to dry. All energy is routed to the ear.

If a man allows himself to be intimidated in any way, he opens the door for intimidation on all levels, in all circumstances.

"People's faces and physical features don't always reveal everything about the individual. For instance, some philosophical people may have angry characteristics. Don't rely too heavily on appearances. Watch the person's actions."

Why is there a synapse? Why a gap? Psychology does not explain it. A continuous nerve fiber would more closely align with their theories.

"It is better to die than submit to intimidation."

"The most propitious use of will is to will for the maximum good for oneself without endangering others."

"A man should seek friends, philosophical or otherwise, with at least as much honor as himself."

Getting crystallized in a job means getting caught in the mood of those you work with.

"Although sometimes a traumatic event will help shake up the thinking processes, not all traumas are good. Some traumas may permanently impair the mental faculties, such as memory. Yet some of the best wisdom comes as a result of surprises."

"We are not completely helpless. An entity can plant a thought. However, we can decide to take action or not. As an example, in telekinesis, the entity may plant the idea, but we are the ones who move the salt shaker."

"Mass murderers may be responding to hopelessness. They see all the injustices within society and know there is nothing to lose."

"There is no love without hate. We cannot stop hate by passing laws."

~ Visit the SearchWithin Download Center for more "quotes and notes."

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Poems
by Ian Maybury

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Disinformation
by Art Ticknor

During times of war and times of peace, adversaries carry on campaigns to confuse their enemies. Much of this occurs sub rosa, but one of the best-known public cases is that of "Tokyo Rose." Tokyo Rose was a generic name given to English-speaking women who broadcast Japanese propaganda to the troops in the Pacific during WW II. "The women frequently broadcast demoralising messages to troops, luring them with familiar music before reporting grim but fictional tales of defeat in battle and the infidelity of their wives left back at home," according to the BBC in a September 2006 report on the death of one of the women.

Individuals who pursue an intentional path to knowing the self find themselves in a war zone. As they observe their thoughts and feelings, they see that there is an ongoing battle within. The combatants, like those in WW II or present-day Iraq, have various agendas, usually reducible to some form of control. In the case of the individual, the internal battle is a contest for how that individual's life will be spent or invested.

Those contestants are the desire and fear "voices" that we identify with, serially, as they get center stage. They are our ego-selves until the hypnosis is broken, and they form alliances, like the Allies and the Axis in WW II. Those ego-selves who are rooting for self-knowing wave placards and voice slogans like the following:

• fear of death
• desire for self-control
• the apparent purposelessness of life
• desire to align with the will of the Lord
• wanting certainty
• nothing else holds out the hope for a permanent solution
• desire for mental clarity, and so on

The internal combatants lined up against self-knowing voice arguments like these:

• fear of missing out on life's pleasures
• not wanting to twist myself into doing something I don't want to do
• knowing the self may be a pipe dream, anyway
• wanting to keep my options open
• now isn't a good time; later will be better
• I don't know what to do; nothing seems to work
• there's something wrong with me; I can't do it, and so on

Life's shocks and abrasions loosen our identification with the ego-selves, and introspection of the mind accelerates the process. In the early stages of the pursuit of self, we take credit for the dropping off of false identities (or blame ourselves for lack of progress). But what really happens is that the innermost desire, which is the longing to end the pain of separation, the apparent exile from home, has begun to win some victories.

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Truly Do We Live on Earth?
by Nezahualcoyotl

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Freeing the Inner
by Larry Davis

I was 21 when I had a life-changing experience. I did not know the meaning of what happened; I just know that I changed for the better. It took almost 34 years to understand the full extent of that short event.

In high school I had my friends—we played music together, did some marijuana, and were generally different than most. After high school, my friends went to college and I found that I had no direction, no purpose in life. I thought about joining either the military or the Hare Krishna's. I was lost. I could not focus or think clearly, and my inner life was a jumble of random thoughts and music. I read a book about an interesting psychotherapist in Los Angeles and decided to drive from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles and join his group class. I arrived, joined his class and got a factory job doing inventory control. I attended a few group sessions and seemed to be getting in touch with some deep seated anger. One day I left group after privately expressing some angry words to the therapist. I went to my job and walked out angrily and loudly, "I quit!".

I went to my apartment, still filled with anger, and decided I had enough of it. I did not want my life anymore, I did not want the inner turmoil, the lack of direction - all of it. I sat on the floor and decided that I am not moving until it is over, until I am free of it. I basically turned away from my inner world and focused my attention outward at some object in the room. I couldn't take any more of the inner so I was going to look away until the inner was no more.

My focus away from the inner was anything but peaceful. It was difficult to ignore the inner world with all its clatter and noise. My anger motivated and propelled me along. My outward focus did not waver. It became intense - there were feelings of anxiety and discomfort. I did not care. I just wanted to be free of the inner. The room started to fade away as I approached the peak. Then the room exploded into a white light. I could feel a release of the inner, an inner calmness. The intensity was still there but the inner turmoil was gone.

I went outside and sat on the apartment entrance steps. It was a nice, bright summer day and the flowers and landscaping seemed in abundance. As I looked at the flowers I felt a sense of immense joy and connectedness to everything—the colors, the sounds, the wind, the temperature—to everything within the reach of my senses. This sense of joy lasted for several days at least. I would also have intuitive insights into the nature of the universe. It was as if I suddenly was able to understand the truth in everything. Unfortunately, none of these intuitive understandings were clear enough to write down. The understanding of this event would take many years, but its aftereffects changed the course of my life.

The unusual thing about the above event was that I was not on a spiritual quest. I did not have an interest in spirituality and did not scrutinize the event any further for almost ten years. When I finally started reading on spiritual issues, I realized that what I went thru was considered by some to be a "spiritual awakening."

In the last 15 years, I wondered exactly what happened that day. By turning away from my inner turmoil, I found a sense of lasting peace and freedom. So, what really happened and can it happen to others the same way?

My explanation of what happened is as follows: We hold the world, our problems and their interaction within. It is not possible to sort out the bad stuff by adding a little good stuff. In other words, I don't think a spiritual practice or meditation would have helped me salvage my inner world. The only way out was to discard the entire mess and start fresh. Just wipe the slate clean. I think this is what happened. By clearing out the inner, I found a new sense of peace and freedom. And there was no turning back!

Out of desperation can come a new beginning. It took the motivation of desperation and the momentum of anger to propel it to the end. If you are at that place in your life, then just look away like I did and start fresh.

~ See Larry's web site Natural Life: Observations on the Spiritual Path.

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Readers and Authors Forum: I used to try to compare apples to oranges. After a while I gave up because nothing was computing.... That's why I gave up comparing, and decided I'd just turn my head a little and listen. And I would listen between the words and around the words and the words wouldn't exist at all. I was listening for home. Sometimes I hear it a little. Sometimes a lot. Each time, it's unmistakable.

What is it? The only thing that's real. What do other people listen for? What can they hear? What can't they hear?

When I'm reading something from a person, there's a bell or there's just swimming words. The bell rings a clear tone when the person is, resides, is writing from, THERE. When the person is faithful to there, which is their center and all that they are. Nothing else is; everything else isn't.
— Dave

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