The TAT Forum: a spiritual magazine of essays, poems and humor.

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May 2012

This Month's Contents: Make your life a prayer by Bart Marshall | I said Oh No! by Rumi | Prayer to me... by Tess Hughes | Love Dogs Rumi read by Coleman Barks | Father... by Bob Cergol | Thank you by Meister Eckhart | Eat me like candy by Rumi | These words are a prayer answered by Shawn Nevins | Our one father by Art Ticknor | True Prayer by Bart Marshall | Serenity Prayer by Paul Hedderman | Often I pray for answers by SS | Whose life...? by J. M. | Quotes | Humor | Reader Commentary & Question of the Month |

Editor's Note
by Heather Saunders

spiritual magazine

Prayer....a favourite topic of mine these days. Although I felt the desire to pray a number of years ago, it took a couple of years to actually get started. I always got stopped by questions like "to who?" "why?" and most importantly "how?". The beginning was awkward and uncomfortable, but once I got going, prayer took on a life of its own. And I've never looked back.

Answers to who, why and how can be found in this edition of The Forum. Read on.

This newly-released documentary, Meetings with Remarkable Women by Poetry in Motion Films, is one of the most inspiring, deeply touching films I have ever seen. Please, check it out.





Robert K.C. Forman, Ph.D., author of Enlightenment Ain’t What It’s Cracked Up To Be: A Journey of Discovery, Snow and Jazz in the Soul; founding executive Editor of Journal of Consciousness Studies and associate professor of religion at CUNY writes:

"Meetings with Remarkable Women is a dive into the lives of some delightful women, wonderfully reflective. They tell their stories well, and we are drawn into their lives and insights. For someone, especially a woman, who is curious about what else is there, what else can we find that offers meaning and value, this movie is a gem."

To order, go to poetryinmotionfilms

To make your life a prayer is to hold in your heart your greatest desire, your highest intention, and be prepared to do anything and everything you are asked as the granting of it unfolds. In practice, you will be asked to do far less than you might imagine, but just enough to give you opportunities to waver. Don't. Hold up your end of the bargain and your desire will be fulfilled. Often when Rose voiced this suggestion, he added a phrase on the end of it: "Make your whole life a prayer," he said, "and it will be granted instantly."

~ Bart Marshall

I said Oh no! Help me!
And the Oh no! became a rope let down in my well.
I've climbed out to stand here in the sun.
One moment I was at the bottom of a dark, fearful narrowness,
and the next,
I am not contained by the universe.
If every tip of every hair on me could speak,
I still couldn't say my gratitude.
In the middle of these streets and gardens,
I stand and say and say again,
And it's all I say,
I wish everyone could know what I know.


~ Rumi

Prayer to me is about trusting your Self
and communicating with your Self.
Nothing can be more enjoyable and fulfilling
than developing this relationship with your Self.

~ Tess Hughes


Love Dogs
A Rumi poem read by Coleman Barks




Father...
Guide me that I might see clearly.
Bless me that I might understand.
Strengthen me that I might live my understanding.

~ Bob Cergol

clouds above beach

If the only prayer you said
in your whole life was,
"thank you,"
that would suffice.

~ Meister Eckhart


Your prayer should be,
"Break the legs of what I want to happen.
Humiliate my desire.
Eat me like candy.
It's spring, and finally I have no will"

~ Rumi




These words are a prayer answered.

Take out pen and paper

and pray upon them.

Let God answer

through your heart and hand.

Those words are the source of creation

and are gold compared to these.

~ Shawn Nevins



Our one father,
Please remove the cloak of faulty beliefs
About what you and what we are,
Which prevents us from acknowledging
What you and we really are.

~ Art Ticknor

True prayer is to enter into an ongoing relationship
with the highest power you can imagine
and hold it accountable for anything and everything
in your life.
Thank it when you feel grateful,
curse it when you feel wronged,
but never doubt for an instant
that you are helpless without it.
Trust it, become its instrument,
but let it know in no uncertain terms
what you want.

~ Bart Marshall


Serenity Prayer
Paul Hedderman



If you don't see a video clip above, go directly to youtube.com

check out more from Paul on his website zenbitchslap.com


Often I pray for answers
Often I receive answers
Soft whispered callings
Often they are not the answers I want
Mostly I pass by
And keep praying
For different answers

~ SS
As I sat in my living room
comtemplating my probable death from cancer,
the brief dialog went like this
"I am going to lose my life?"
Reply
"Whose life did you think it was anyway?"

~ J. M.




Quotes....

"Then the question is who is praying to who?
And of course in the last absolute resort
it is who you really are
having a conversation with who you really are.
It's a kind of internal process
within your true identity,
and not only important, but indispensable."

~ Douglas Harding

Humor....


Reader Commentary & Question of the Month

[regarding the April 2012 issue:]
Very nice Forum. I liked Paul Hedderman's outlook. I liked Anima's "Thy Will" points. I liked David Scoma's comments. Wow. Nice stuff. Thanks for the reminder.
~D.W.

Thanks for the good work,
~Joel

"If the truth be known" (tee-hee) then it would be known that the "absolute" truth cannot be known... Perhaps it is possible to have significant confidence in what is possible to know, so what ever works is whatever works but, usually the "tools" we choose are not found to be the cause of anything but what ever the tools cause, not finding the Truth....
~B.W.

I love Tess Hughes' article on acceptance-surrender! It's so important to accept and release. When I release and accept, amazing things happen given enough time. Letting go and not having expectations is key for me.
~N.R.

*

... and now:

Does an opening of the heart have any relevance to finding Ultimate Truth?

Send your answers, thoughts, experiences, photos & poems to .

Editor's Note:

As you may know, our sometimes Forum editor, David Weimer, has a new book out, Portrait of a Seeker. This is what one reader had to say about it:

"I've read your book and I'm truly impressed, and also moved. You've shared so much, so intimately, that a certain essence comes through which is equally unmistakable and indefinable.

The piece I Remember Everything is especially poignant and evocative, and may come closest to distilling that essence in a single bit of open-hearted prose. And your On Becoming a Modern Mystic/ 21 Things piece is a truly great summary of what you've gleaned from your own life and search. Ultimately your book may be only for a kindred few with ears to hear, but that's exactly as it should be, as there seems to be a lawfully inverse relationship between depth and popularity.

I think some folks will find it tough going, because there's a lot of repetition and skipping around (you don't employ a strict chronology).

But those discerning readers who stick it out should emerge with a sense of the innate value of being a lifelong lover of truth -- which, etymologically, is what a genuine philosopher is. The subtitle -- Born To Wonder -- gives a good sense of this. The one who truly and deeply wonders is a lover of truth. You are born to it -- both in the sense of born to do it, and born into it."


Check Portrait out at Amazon.com

Did you enjoy the Forum? Then buy the book! Beyond Mind, Beyond Death is also available at Amazon.com.

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