TAT Forum
October 2017
Homing Ground Update... A spot on earth where people can do retreats and hold
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Convictions & Concerns
TAT members share their personal convictions and/or concerns
Transcending the Mind
What is an acorn?
What is a person?
What is today?
Is an acorn an acorn? What is its true identity?
DNA from a male flower on an oak tree fertilizes an egg in a female flower on a different oak tree, and an acorn is born. Is there a life-force within the acorn that contains a blueprint of what it can become if the conditions are right?
Some acorns become food for squirrels. Some rot and return their elements to the earth. Some become oak trees. Is the purpose of acorns whatever they become?
Is a person a person? What is its true identity? Is there a life-force within the person that contains a blueprint of what it can become if the conditions are right? Is the purpose of people whatever they become?
Is a person's life-experience a search for true identity? Unwittingly when young? Possibly becoming a conscious search at some point?
Watershed moments in the search for identity are shifts in intuitive perspective, such as:
- "Seeing" that the answer must lie within.
- Realizing that one must "first know thyself" in order to know anything for sure.
- Becoming an "egoless vector" by continuing to work after it becomes obvious that there's nothing in it for the seeker-you.
The final jump is one to simplicity. It's beyond the mind, which loves complexity. Anyone who feels that they know themselves but need to experience a final adjustment or clarification is still identified with complexity and hasn't yet found their absolute identity. True identity is beyond experience.
What is today? Is it yesterday having become tomorrow?
What are you becoming?
~ From Art Ticknor, a student of Richard Rose and long-time TAT member. TAT Press has published his books Solid Ground of Being and Beyond Relativity, and he maintains a website, the Self-Discovery Portal.
TAT Foundation News
It's all about "ladder work" – helping and being helped
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March 31-April 2, 2017 (Claymont Mansion)
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Downloadable/rental versions of the Mister Rose video and of April TAT talks
Remembering Your True Desire (details).
Local Group News
Update from the Central Ohio Nonduality group:
We continue to meet on Monday evenings at Panera across from The Ohio State University.
~ For further information, contact
or
.
We're also on Facebook.
Update from the weekly email self-inquiry groups:
Both the women's and the men's email groups are active, and we welcome serious participants.
~ Contact
or
.
Update from the Gainesville, FL self-inquiry group:
We meet at the Alachua County library on alternate Mondays and Sundays.
We have a retreat scheduled for Nov. 12-17 at Grand Vue Park in Moundsville, WV.
~ Email
or
for more information.
Update from the Galway, Ireland self-inquiry group:
In addition to meetings in Galway city, satellite groups are meeting in Cork and in Dublin. Tess is leading a retreat in Wexford for the local ACIM group Sept 30th-Oct 1st. This is being held in the Ballyvaloo Retreat Centre. For details and to sign up, contact
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On October 27-29, TAT members Bob Fergeson and Tess Hughes will be leading Awakening Together's fall retreat in Colorado Springs, CO. Awakening Together is offering a special discount for TAT members. |
Update from the Greensburg, PA self-inquiry group:
We continue to meet every other week at our usual location, DV8 Espresso Bar and Gallery.
~ Contact
.
Update from the Lynchburg, VA self-inquiry group:
We meet on Wednesday evenings and welcome inquiries.
E-mail
or
for information on the meetings.
Update from the New York City area:
We've recently started a group in NYC and are looking for consistent, serious but lighthearted ;) members. So far, we have started each group meeting with a short meditation followed by a self-inquiry session with questions and responses. We plan to vary the format and also go on local retreats and spiritually-minded events, as time allows. We are meeting in downtown Manhattan (the financial district) in a really great public space that we are fortunate to have. Please contact me with any interest or questions. Tell a friend :)
~ Email
.
Update from the Philadelphia area:
Meeting weekly on Tuesdays.
~ Email
for more information.
Update from the Pittsburgh, PA self-inquiry group:
We hold public meetings at 7:00 PM on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month at the Pittsburgh Friends Meeting House in Oakland.
We also have private (i.e., by invitation only) confrontation meetings on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays.
~ For further information, contact
or
.
Update from the Portland, OR self-inquiry group:
We meet most Sundays and have been meeting at different local libraries around town due to limited room availability at any one library, but this has made it easier for people in those neighborhoods to attend the meetings.
~ Email
or
for more information.
Update from the Raleigh, NC Triangle Inquiry Group:
The Triangle Inquiry Group (TIG) meets on Wednesday evenings near NCSU.
~ Email
or
for information on local meetings.
Update from the San Francisco Bay area self-inquiry group:
Email
for information about upcoming meetings and events.
Update from the Tallahassee, FL self-inquiry group:
We continue to meet every other Tuesday at the downtown public library.
~ Contact
,
or find the group on Meetup.com.
Members-Only Area
A password-protected section of the website is available for TAT members. The area contains information on product discounts for members as well as a substantial amount of helpful and historical information, including audio recordings, Newsletter archives, Retrospect archives, policies, conference proceedings, business meeting notes, photographs, and suggestions for ways to help.
The following audio recordings from 2016 TAT meetings are now available in the members-only website area:
TAT's June 2017 gathering was dedicated to teacher, author, poet, and TAT founder Richard Rose. Audio recordings from the weekend include:
TAT's Fall Workshop 2017 was titled The Prism of Truth: where science, love, and reality merge and included three guest speakers who each led separate workshops. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:
Please us if you have questions. (Look here for info on TAT membership.)
Amazon and eBay
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As an Amazon Associate TAT earns from qualifying purchases made through links on our website. Beyond Mind, Beyond Death is the latest of TAT's books to be converted to the Kindle ebook format. All of the TAT Press books are now available on Amazon in a digital format. TAT has registered with the eBay Giving Works program. You can list an item there and select TAT to receive a portion of your sale. Or if you use the link and donate 100% of the proceeds to TAT, you won't pay any seller fees when an item sells and eBay will transfer all the funds to TAT for you. Check out our Giving Works page on eBay. Click on the "For sellers" link on the left side of that page for details. There's more background information on the new home for TAT project in the TAT Homing Ground section below. |
Your Contributions to TAT News
TAT founder Richard Rose believed that working with others accelerates our retreat from untruth. He also felt that such efforts were most effective when applied with discernment, meaning working with others on the rungs of the ladder closest to our own. The TAT News section is for TAT members to communicate about work they've been doing with or for other members and friends. Please your "ladder work" news.
Humor
"One thing you must be able to do in the midst
of any experience is laugh. And experience
should show you that it isn't real, that it's a
movie. Life doesn't take you seriously, so why
take it seriously." ~ Richard Rose, Carillon
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~ Quips and story from www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Spiritual_Humor.html. |
We're hoping to present more humor created by TAT members and friends here. Please
your written or graphic creations. Exact sources are necessary for other submissions, since we need to make sure they're either in the public domain or that we have permission to use them.
Inspiration & Irritation
Irritation moves us; inspiration provides a direction
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Guru's Satisfaction The instructor (I wish there were a better word than this one or than master, guru, etc! Maybe "friend" would do) does not get these satisfactions to his ego. His only satisfaction is when the student attains realization of the one Self and tries haltingly to express his infinite gratitude and then when such a student, in his turn, continues the "Work" with others. ~ From "Awakening Therapy" (found in a folder of Pulyan's work titled "Book Notes" by TAT member Nick G.) |
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Excerpt from a Letter to Peter Geshell
Thus, while general principles may be formulated objectively and illustrative procedure suggested, yet the individual must do the work himself with an alert mind and ready to modify method as may be suggested intuitively. First of all, the problem may be viewed as a search for the permanent, in the impermanent or for the invariant element in the midst of change. It is analogous to the basic problem of mathematical analysis wherein we first determine a fixed base of reference—such as the common system of Cartesian co-ordinates—with respect to which we analyze the movement of variables. Now, in the beginning, one might possibly seek for the permanent or invariant in the objectively given. It is, indeed, possible that success might be achieved by this line of approach. In a sense, it is the course followed by Gautama Buddha and, in the end, the ultimate Goal is the same as that achieved by the subjective route. However, it is not the method which I employed and it seems to me to be the more difficult way. In any case, one soon finds that no sensible content of consciousness is permanent. In the end, objective permanency will prove to be very subtle. But whether we go by the subjective road or by the objective road we may well begin with the objective. * ~ Thanks to TAT member Beau B. for recommending this letter from Merrell-Wolff. See www.franklinmerrell-wolff.com for a biographical sketch and information on his teaching. The letter comes from The Franklin Merrell-Wolff Fellowship. Except where otherwise noted, content on the Franklin Merrell-Wolff Fellowship website by the Editors and Authors is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial-Share-A-Like 4.0 International License.
Merrell-Wolff wrote the letter in 1944, eight years after his fundamental realization and the same year he published Pathways Through to Space: An Experiential Journal |
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Jim Carrey Philosophizing at Fashion Week We're a bunch of ideas cobbled together to look like a form. There's a body and there's a mind, but the body is part of the field of consciousness, just dancing for itself and it's no different than a plant or a chair or your phone—it's all one thing. Because we are sentient, there's a consciousness, and we have to deal with this thing we create, like a fortress of ideas around it. So we say, "This is my name and this is my heritage and this is my nationality and here's my hockey team and these are all of the things that I am." That's the mistake. The only way to it is to step into the river of tears and the sorrows of your life. The things that everyone is avoiding with everything from drugs to drink to sex and gadgets and whatever else you can distract yourself with, all of it is designed for you to never stop going and moving and, for god sakes, not feel the abyss. Don't allow yourself to feel the abandonment and pain that you've suffered. And I've done it; I'm through it. I'm sure there will be things that happen again, but I realized that by letting myself fall into it completely, that it's not to be feared. Death is not to be feared. * ~ https://www.wmagazine.com/story/jim-carrey-explains-existential-fashion-week-interview. Thanks to TAT member Benjy H. for pointing out this material. |
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Excerpt from Walking to Listen
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~ From Walking to Listen: 4,000 Miles Across America, One Story at a Time |
by Andrew Forsthoefel.
Please
your thoughts on the above items.
Reader Commentary
Encouraging interactive readership among TAT members and friends
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A reader wrote that what would make the Forum more interesting would be: Hearing from people who are searching – and have questions instead of those providing endless advice and "answers." What challenges they are facing. What their doubts and questions are. How they perceive their path is going. What they are doing in their lives. Where they think they will end up. Etc. etc. Can you help make the Forum more interesting? |
The composite question we asked readers for this month's Commentary was:
Where do you feel like you have volition? What argument could you create to challenge that belief?
Responses follow:
From Miriam K:
A few months ago I had an experience while sitting on my sofa where a decision was made and for the first time I noticed that I didn't make it. The experience was of thoughts passing by, and I was in one position, and then I found myself in a completely different position – and the conviction of this new position didn't seem to be anything that I could take responsibility for. In one position I was working in a job, and in the next position I would be leaving the job. This scenario was something that I'd thought about for many months, but when the decision was made it was sharp and clear and took me by surprise – and the most surprising thing was that it seemed like I had no part in it. Another way of describing the experience was that I seemed to be outside or other than this decision.
Who is this me that didn't make a decision?
Does who I truly am make decisions?
Is a decision just a catch-all phrase we use to give meaning to the ownership and resolution of competing desires and fears?
What is the relationship between who I truly am and decisions?
Every day hundreds of decisions are made. My general experience is that decisions are made with very little fuss and typically go unnoticed by me. This further translates to unconsciously claiming personal ownership of all thoughts and decisions which then create a limited world view.
An argument to challenge this belief is based on the experience on the sofa where it seemed I had no part in a decision and that I was other than the decision process. Writing this, I feel in awe of the mechanics of a decision: this building block of creation with so many inputs, variables and potential consequences that play out.
I take the experience of seeing that I was other than the decision or thought as the biggest internal cue to date I've received to look for what I truly am.
From Paul C:
Most discussions about volition vs. non-volition are prone to devolving into philosophical debate. In some spiritual circles, we hear the adage "There's nothing to do and nobody here to do it." But such advice does little to console ardent spiritual seekers. By contrast, prescribing specific spiritual practices toward Enlightenment might create misguided beliefs among practitioners, and such beliefs won't get us there.
A far more practical formula is available in twelve-step recovery programs:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference.
The beauty of the Serenity Prayer is that it places responsibility squarely on our shoulders, yet it accepts the limitations of our volition. When talking to seekers, Richard Rose said it more succinctly: Fight like hell but don't give a damn. True magic occurs somewhere "between" volition and non-volition—somewhere between grasping intensely for something more and lazily just allowing life to bounce us around without direction.
I like the idea of formulating a firm intention and then forgetting about it, with a deep sense of trust. Such an attitude often creates a center of gravity around that intention.
From Debi P:
The time I feel like I have the strongest sense of volition is when I'm afraid of something—usually when my ego is threatened and I'm trying to keep some image of myself intact. Or, when I'm striving to accomplish some goal/obtain the desired object, make a decision, or avoid some unpleasant experience.
I can challenge the belief that I have volition because there are enough instances where it seems as though there is only volition in the initial starting of something and then I just watch the rest of it unfold. I have also noticed, after looking back at an action this body performed, whether seconds, minutes, or hours of my apparent free will being exercised, it seems pretty evident that it happened all by itself. Or, often times I find myself going through the motions like a robot/just on auto pilot. Or, I have found myself doing things that, at least a part of me desperately did not want to do, or not doing things that a part of me really wanted to do. (This mind is full of contradictions…fragmented.) And, based on some personal experiences, and what Self-realized beings have reported, the strongest argument against the belief that Debi has any volition is the fact that Debi doesn't exist so, how could 'she' have any volition? Also, nothing outside of my Self exists so, how can there be anyone or anything to control?
From Michael R:
Volition seems to be felt in the movement of attention. If the attention is in the head thinking before a "decision" is reached and attention follows accordingly, then volition feels like it's in the head. Alternatively, if I'm trying to feel my way through a decision, then attention is placed more in the chest or throughout the whole body. In the case of feeling my way through a decision, volition is felt to come from my chest or whole body. The common denominator seems to be where the movement of attention occurs. We often say we're identified with our thoughts, but in my experience I seem to be most identified with my attention, even though it's just one more thing moving "in the view."
The primary argument I can see against any sort of individual volition or free will is in the statement "you can do what you want, but you can't choose what you want." We are conditioned – by the body, the mind, beliefs, fears, desires, etc. There is not a separate and free "me" in here that somehow stands apart from conditioning and "makes choices." There is a completely impersonal awareness, and then there are all the things that happen "in the view" and seemingly out of my control.
From Leesa W:
I FEEL like I have volition. Intellectually, I don't THINK I do. The underlying assumption of a "self or doer" who can have or not have volition, though, is a deeper problem. Where I place my attention has always felt like something "under my control"…but there, again, I can't help but to go to that deeper question of "whose control"? Knock that one out, and volition goes with it. What challenges the belief that attention is volitional is the question of consistency of application. Lately, looking around at my life, my state of mind, etc. results in the following question: "How's that volition working for you?"
From Anonymous:
I feel like I have volition in almost every area in which I operate. Whether the decision is to have another slice of pie, or not; to take the long scenic route to the store, or to take the shortest way; whether to take that job, get married, become a Christian, a Buddhist or whatever. I always felt I had complete volition regarding how I react to circumstances, and therefore the responsibility for making the "right" decisions. This belief has been drummed into most of us from early childhood onward, and I personally never questioned it until the past few years. The belief that I make decisions seems reasonable, logical and fair. If I'm not in the driver's seat, how can I take credit for actions which seem "good"? And how can society or "god" punish me for "wrong" actions? Viewed from another perspective, if none of us are in control of our actions, how can I be angry at that SOB who cut me off in traffic if HE is not in control of his actions? If I don't believe I'm in control of my actions and behave accordingly, the whole damn thing starts to unravel.
On the other hand….
This belief, like so many others, is getting worn pretty thin. I keep having experiences in which it's clear that I am not in control. Most of these experiences are related to small daily activities, but some are more dramatic. A couple of months ago I realized I had come to the point at which I had to "choose" between two distinctly different paths. Whichever course I took would have a serious impact on all aspects of my life. I'll call these paths "Plan A" and "Plan B." I had a bit of a breakdown one morning and firmly and decisively came to the conclusion that I'd take "Plan A." After making this decision I felt at peace, as if something had finally been resolved. I drove home and announced my decision, but what poured out of my mouth was not at all what I expected. Rather than "Plan A," "Plan B" was happening. In this particular arena, it's pretty obvious that I'm not in control. And if I'm not in control of this, can I be in control of anything?
To sum up, a part of me clings to the belief that I am in control. I think this clinging is an automatic thing done in part just because of long habit and in large part because of fear. But that belief is wearing very thin. Hell, I just realized I don't even have control of whether I believe I have volition…or not.
From Dean N:
I feel like I can direct my attention. When I am aware of my attention, to what it is directed, I feel as if I am able to redirect it.
A simple argument to challenge that would be to identify those times at which my attention was captured as the result of a reaction. A reaction, the workings of which I don't see. I remember walking along the edge of a lake in Wisconsin in early spring when a loud crack occurred (the ice was thawing and this happens a lot at that time of year). I immediately turned toward the noise and peripherally noticed that everyone else did the exact same thing. My organism may respond to occurrences in ways that bypass my volition. Of course, most often I am not aware of my attention, so it bypasses my volition most of time. I am less able to construct an argument that would bring into question my ability to direct attention when I am aware of it. I haven't seen that far (or that closely) yet.
From Jim P:
My default "feeling" is that I have volition in just about everything I do or say. I feel that I "decide" to do or to speak. For example, today a friend texted me to see if I would meet him for lunch. I had some other things to do, but I hadn't seen him in a while, so I "decided" to meet him. I even decided where we would meet. And he and I together decided to talk about food and diet. I was the "doer" of all of those activities.
I have an itch on my arm. I can scratch it or not, depending on what I decide to do. But certainly there are events that just happen, that have no dependency on my volition. For example, if I get cancer, that isn't something that I decided to contract, though I might be able to track a sequence of unhealthy decisions that contributed to it. If a tornado blows my house apart, obviously I have no control over such things. They just happen. So far, it seems that there are two realms: one sort of everyday local realm in which I appear to have at least some control; and one more expanded realm that includes naturally occurring phenomena such as illness and wind over which I have little or no control.
But as I keep observing and questioning, I see that my conclusions so far depend on my identification as an individual person or self. "I" decide to do something, or something happens to "me." Who or what is this "I"? The more I try to locate this "I" in myself, the more I begin to see that I can't find my self. My "self" seems to be a bunch of separate and often conflicting tendencies, urges, desires, etc. I can't seem to locate a cohesive "I." I see that my habit is to identify with my body and my thoughts and my feelings. Even in that last sentence, I claimed them as "mine." But as I investigate each one of those, I see that something in me is observing that habit of the mind to identify as my body and as "I." That habit of the mind, that self, can't be my true self because something in me is observing it. Anything observed, logically, is not me. And that which is aware of that observing can't be the self because it too is being witnessed from a deeper location. The deeper this process goes, the more cleansed of the identifying habit of mind the witness becomes, until the witness itself disappears because it too cannot be true self. Whatever can be seen can't be the self or the "I" because a "seer" is still there operating from a deeper level. I realize that the presence inside of me that is aware of all of these other aspects of what I call myself cannot itself be seen. It is, at the deepest level, always present, but also unknown in the sense of describable or definable. Then I realize that I can only "be" that, I can't know it or experience it. In fact, I cannot not be that. Even this language appears to create a separation, but that is the best the mind that uses language can do. So in truth there cannot be a defined or limited self that has volition. That small self is clearly a temporary illusion created by time and conditioning. If I can be "aware of" volition, then it is an illusory creation of the mind like all other mental and emotional phenomena. In the final analysis, I can do nothing because "I" does not exist, though "I" always wants to claim the doing. If I feel that I am the doer, I am only giving nourishment to a false self.
If there is no defined "I," no centralized person or self, then who is there to have volition? Only the One that is Awareness itself. That is all that remains. Awareness just is. Since this pure Awareness is our most essential "Self," the universe is unfolding, things are happening, but nothing is being willed or done by me or any other "self."
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The composite question for next month is: Who/what makes your decisions? Who/what has veto power over them? Please your responses for next month's Reader Commentary by the 25th and indicate your preferred identification (the default is your first name and the initial letter of your last name). |
Other Reader Feedback
From Shawn Nevins:
I keep thinking about the plant consciousness piece [in the September 2017 TAT Forum]. Interesting stuff. Whether the science is bad or not, I'm always struck by those who rush to defend human consciousness as somehow different from a dog, or spider, or now, a plant. We're apparently little more than a plant that moves, and likes to talk about itself.
Richard Rose described a spiritual path as living one's life
aimed at finding the meaning of that life.
Did you find anything relevant to your life or search in this month's TAT Forum?
Rishikesh, India. Renowned yoga and meditation center on the Ganges River. Photo by Anima P.
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Founder's Wisdom
Richard Rose (1917-2005) established the TAT Foundation
in 1973 to encourage people to work together on what
he considered to be the "grand project" of spiritual work.
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NOTICE
LUST Alias love, "my need," alias celebration of a successful period of celibacy, alias poor man's pleasure (sex), alias the other side of the coin. LAZINESS Alias "wise relinquishment of the ego of being a doer," alias "the process of crouching and waiting for the big kill," alias recuperation from pitiful excesses and the trauma therefrom. PRIDE Alias strength, alias wit, flexibility (wishy washy, pollyana, indecisive), alias manifest equanimity, alias power to squelch, alias art of compensation, alias virtue of relinquishment, alias discernment (of statured men like Watts and Castenada, who give us an easy way). PROCRASTINATION Alias logic, alias gradualism, alias "one thing at a time" (preferably something else), alias waiting for god's will or a sign from heaven, alias strengthening all my I's (by simultaneously doing kung fu, saying prayers and indulging in mental games of chess, or in taking Rose's advice but applying the advised course of action at a negative time), alias going to school, alias not going to school.
To the Above Characters
Let it be known that to overcome these criminals of our fifty states of mind that incessant action shall be used forthwith, but that he who acts shall not be an actor (robot) of action-processes (mechanicalness). Let it be known that our strategy will be to use the powers of these criminals against themselves: we shall procrastinate lust, and employ procrastination to the urges of the voices, and we shall use pride to temporarily fuel the fires of determination, by rejoicing in our successes against the wasters. ~ R. Rose, 3/31/75 |
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