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TAT Forum

October 2021

Convictions & Concerns

TAT members share their personal convictions and/or concerns

A Seeker's Guide to Fasting

“There's hidden sweetness in the stomach's emptiness.” Rumi

Introduction

Fasting has long been part of spiritual practice and while the topic of fasting is occasionally mentioned, I feel it rarely gets much credit or the attention it properly deserves. Over the last ten years or so, I have gradually incorporated fasting into daily life, introducing longer fasts every few months, including during solitary retreats. I have found fasting to be a powerful tool, primarily for gaining mental clarity.

I have divided the article into three sections:

     1. Personal experiences
     2. Fasting Physiology
     3. Fasting Psychology

The essence of this article is really about my personal experiences and so you may find this enough reading to begin with. Afterwards I give a little more detail on fasting physiology and psychology, which you may wish to explore in more depth if and when you decide to explore fasting for yourself. I hope you will learn that with some persistence, fasting can be done without feeling hungry and without suffering.

I'll discuss some key-terms like ketosis and metabolic flexibility and show how metabolic health can improve the fasting experience. Finally I look at the psychology of fasting, the challenges and blockages to a successful fast and why we might break a fast earlier than we intended. I will comment on things like mental health and the gut-brain axis. Items in Italics are explained in the latter sections....

See the complete article.

~ Thanks to Ben B. ( ) for this article. Ben is also involved in organizing a TAT-inspired weekend intensive retreat in West Sussex, UK on Friday-Sunday, November 12–13. Please email your impressions/questions—and suggestions for additions to the TAT YouTube channel—to the .

 

TAT Foundation News

It's all about "ladder work" – helping and being helped

Downloadable/rental versions of the Mister Rose video and of April TAT talks Remembering Your True Desire (details).

Local Group News

Update for the Amsterdam, NL Self-Inquiry Group:
The group is not holding meetings currently, but email for information.

Update from the Central New Jersey Group:
In a change from our regular meeting format, our group invited a guest to work with us on the topic of “poems which inspire us.” Our guest, Abhay D, had each member read their poem, and helped the member inquire more deeply into themselves, through follow-up questions. A productive meeting!
      Some of the poems shared: “Friendship” by Richard Rose; “If,” Rudyard Kipling; “Nirvana Shatakam,” Shankara; “O me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman; “A Psalm of Life,” Longfellow.
      Abhay shared poems “How I became a Warrior” by Jeff Foster and also some amazing poems written by his own hand. Thank you Abhay!
      We hold regular Zoom meetings on Friday evenings. ~ Contact: www.facebook.com/groups/429437321740752.

Update from the Central Ohio Non-Duality Group:
The Columbus, Ohio self-inquiry group, now known as the Central Ohio Non-Duality Group, has continued to meet virtually on Tuesday evenings at 6:30PM during the Coronavirus pandemic. Please email one of the people's names below if you wish to get a link to the meeting. Meeting format involves discussion of topics of interest to seekers and often bridges from the concerns, questions and interests of the core members in attendance into the topic which we intend to discuss. We look forward to the easing of restrictions to the point where we feel comfortable meeting again in person. ~ For further information, contact , , or . We're also on Facebook.

Update from the Dublin, Ireland self-inquiry group: Throughout September we did some work with a piece from Douglas Harding, and we are now working with the Gospel of Thomas. We started with the first two pages of sayings and will continue to the next two in the next meeting. We also had another open discussion meeting in September, with no set material or agenda. Again, everyone thought it was useful to do, so we will continue to add that in every so often.       Finally, we had another transatlantic meeting with the Pittsburgh group on Sunday September 26th. The piece for the meeting was the poem The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson. It turned out to present some challenges for some to work with due to the old English language it is written in. It was still an interesting and productive session working with it though. ~ Contact for more information.

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 had two new folks join in February, resulting in two men's groups with 8 participants in each. They (the weekly exchanges, not the participants :-) 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. We're currently trying to keep it to each of us asking just one question to each participant--switching from a shotgun to a rifle approach. 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.

Update from the Gainesville, FL self-inquiry group:
The Alachua County library reopened its meeting rooms on July 5th, and we were the first group to meet after the reopening. We decided to change our meeting day from Sunday to Saturday, at the same time as previously (2 to 4 PM). Our first meeting was on July 10th, and subsequent meetings are scheduled for alternate Saturdays with an occasional extra week between meetings due to holidays or the TAT meeting schedule and our group's associated retreats. ~ Email or for more information.

   TAT Press publishes three of Art's books: Solid Ground of Being: A Personal Story of the Impersonal, Beyond Relativity: Transcending the Split Between Knower & Known and Sense of Self: The Source of All Existential Suffering?

The Gainesville self-inquiry group is planning a five-day intensive retreat at the new TAT center in Hurdle Mills, NC on Sunday-Friday, Oct. 31–Nov. 5, followed by an informal TAT gathering on Saturday Nov. 6. The theme will be "What Do You Really, Really Want from Life?:       "When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream." ~ Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist ~ E-mail for more information.

Update from Galway, Ireland: Tess Hughes is starting a women's group on Wednesday evenings, 7pm Dublin time, using Zoom. It will begin mid September. Sessions last 90-120 minutes usually. Anyone who's interested in joining can contact .    TAT Press publishes Tess's easy to read, profound This Above All, the story of her journey of Self-Discovery.

Update from the newly listed GMT Support Group for Seekers:
We meet every Sunday gmt 17.30, 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:
I am meeting every Saturday morning with three of my former Greensburg SIG group participants who are into non-dualist paths, such as Adyashanti and Mooji. There is also another participant, a professional psychologist who is interested in eastern philosphy and who wasn't in my SIG group but makes a great addition to our proceedings. These fellows are sincere seekers. We spend our time discussing our respective paths and comparing notes. Our new venue is a place called the White Rabbit Cafe in Greensburg. I'm hoping that the lull here has ended and that we're ready to be more dynamic again.
~ Contact if interested in local self-inquiry meetings.

An update from the self-inquiry group in Houston, TX:
The backyard patio meetings are now moved to Zoom meetings, which take place at 4 pm on Saturdays. There are 3 active and inspired participants right now. Topics vary from Mr. Rose's writings to "What is on your mind?" ~ 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.
To get notices of new posts, you can subscribe by RSS feed or by email.

   See the 2020/11/28 post: 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 New York City self-inquiry group:
The New York City Self-Inquiry group meets by Zoom every Monday from 6-8 PM EST. The link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3098361863?pwd=anY5OFlMT0pNMld6VXJDb0Z2SjY0UT09. For those joining by phone, the number is +1 929 205 6099 US (New York), with Meeting ID: 309 836 1863, and Passcode: 895478. More details, as well as our weekly discussion topics, are available on our MeetUp page (link above) and via email at .

Update from the recently listed Online Video Confrontation Group:
The Monday Night Online Confrontation Group is going strong with a core group of participants and room for a few more. Now meeting at 7:30 pm EST (previously at 7 pm), using the online video conference platform from Zoom. The goal of the group is to practice confrontation/group self-inquiry. ~ If you're interested, email or .

   Isaac and AJ interviewed Art Ticknor on their Plant Cunning Podcast series, where they "invite herbalists, ethnobotanists, farmers, mages, fungi experts, community organizers and all kinds of other interesting people to the microphone to share their wisdom and experiences with us": Self Realization with Art Ticknor.

Update from the Portland, OR self-inquiry group:
A small group of us meet most Sundays at a coffee shop. The format for our meetings is to give each person 20 minutes or so to talk about whatever is coming up for them in their practice and to answer questions from the others. ~ Email for more information.

Update from the Raleigh, NC Triangle Inquiry Group:
The group is starting up again after a hiatus, now with Zoom online meetings. ~ Email for details.

Update for the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area TAT Center:
Bob Fergeson spent a year as resident teacher before returning to Colorado in March. Mark Wintgens continues as our chief-seeker in residence and invaluable caretaker. He is looking forward to hosting retreats and meetings for local group members as well as all TAT seekers. And TAT is looking forward to the possibility of hosting the August 2021 TAT meeting at the Center. ~ Email for information about the TAT Center.

Update from the Richmond Self Inquiry Group:
There isn't a Richmond self inquiry group at the moment…it never really got off the ground. I'm considering a few different approaches for round three, but it'll be at least a few months away before that takes form. ~ Email for information about future meetings and events.

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:
[This group was previously listed as the Rockville, MD self-inquiry group.] We've been meeting monthly at Rockville, MD Memorial Library. While the library is closed for public health reasons, we're participating more in a weekly online book club. Forum readers are welcome to participate. ~ For more information, please email or see the website http://firstknowthyself.org/virtual/.

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.

TAT's August 2019 Workshop was titled Beyond Mindfulness: Meditation and the Path Within and included three guest speakers who each led separate workshops. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

• "Mindfulness. Is it just another spiritual buzzword?" with Bob Cergol,
• "The Path of Direct Sensory Perception" with Bob Harwood, and
• "The Art of Mindfulness is the Passion for Truth" with Paul Rezendes.

TAT's June 2019 Spiritual Retreat Weekend was titled Between You and the Infinite. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

• "Coming Home (aka The End of Seeking)" by Don Oakley, and
• "What's in the Way?" by Eshwar Segobind.

TAT's April 2019 Spiritual Retreat Weekend was titled Once in a Lifetime is Now. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

• "Recognizing the Human Dilemma" by Norio Kushi,
• "Strategies for Self-Realization" by Bart Marshall,
• Untitled session by Paul Hedderman, and
• "A Session in the Now" by Paul Rezendes.

TAT's August 2018 Workshop was titled Beyond Imagination and included three guest speakers who each led separate workshops. The following audio recordings are now available in the members-only website area:

• "Nurturing What We Are" with Jenny Clarke,
• "The Art of Seeing" with Norio Kushi, and
• "Seeing Through Imaginary Traps" with Shawn Pethel.

Please us if you have questions. (Look here for info on TAT membership.)

Amazon and eBay

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

We enjoy presenting humor here from TAT members and friends. 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

Please your thoughts on the above items.

 

Reader Commentary

Encouraging interactive readership among TAT members and friends

The Reader Commentary question for the October TAT Forum refers to the Joseph Campbell excerpt on Follow Your Bliss in last month's Inspiration & Irritation section and is:

Is “follow your bliss” good advice for a seeker of Truth/Self-realization?

Responses follow:

From Brett S:
Following my bliss sounds great! Now...how do I do that? It’s not always easy to tell the difference between bliss and ego. Two ways come to mind: 1) self-inquiry: looking at where desires and motivations come from, and 2) intuition: creating time to listen to any messages coming through feelings, thoughts, or appearing in the life-story. So, “following my bliss” is really “figuring out how to follow my bliss.” I’m always following my bliss as best as I can. Either I’m doing what I think will make me happy, or not doing it out of fear of losing something I feel I want or need to be happy. Self-inquiry then comes into play again by asking questions like, “have my ideas about what will make me happy been accurate?” Looking out for any potentially helpful answers involves intuition. “Following my bliss” or “exerting willpower” (which sounds to me like the opposite) are after-the-fact judgments/labels being put on experience. I believe that both of these paths—bliss and willpower—can lead to the discovery of the source of desires, thoughts, feelings, and Truth.

From Brian M:
Years ago on the way to college I remember hearing a person on the radio speaking about "following your bliss". Later that day I was explaining to someone that life is simple, all they needed to do is follow their bliss, that's all, QED. I loved giving out this type advice to people so that I sounded smart and knew what I was talking about. Did I go and follow my bliss? Absolutely not. I was more drawn to follow my own misery and suffering. As the years went by I started to clearly see how little I knew, about myself, others, purpose and bliss. At some stage when I reached the end of my tether with suffering I asked to know what I am and that I would spend the rest of my days trying to find the answer to this. I began to follow a yearning or a longing.

From Ramana Maharshi:
Q: Is “follow your bliss” good advice for a seeker of Truth/Self-realization?
A; What is the nature of Awareness? The nature of Awareness is Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.

My old ideas of bliss, like being on a sandy tropical beach in Tahiti or taking ecstasy to stay up dancing all night or being completely hammered from a night drinking, etc are long dead. I can follow my bliss more easily these days with simply activities like barefoot walking, forest bathing, ocean swimming, playing with nieces/nephews, being creative. I think following my bliss is helpful to living a happy life but am hoping to discover the nature of Awareness someday and my deepest longing ends.

From Bob W:
Unless you are an advanced seeker who knows what "follow your bliss means,” which I wasn’t when I heard it 30 or so years ago, there was very little help in hearing the phrase itself. Campbell himself imo was authentically expressing his profound realization, as he was lit up when he spoke those words in Bill Moyers's interview. And his deep knowledge of all the diverse mythologies and what they pointed to and signified was inspiring.

If anyone were to ask me today for words of wisdom, I certainly would not answer "follow your bliss.”

From David W:
Each person seems to have a “purpose” they gravitate towards—some specific interest or fascination with some subject or area of expertise. The more they are able to integrate this fascination or interest into their life, the more meaningful life feels.

In the PBS series The Power of Myth, Episode 4, Joseph Campbell told Bill Moyers that during his decades of teaching at a college he would hold regular half-hour conferences with each of his students and that in the midst of talking about something they ought to be reading, “Suddenly you hit on something that the student really responds to. You can see the eyes open. The complexion changes. A life possibility has opened there. And all you can say to yourself is ‘I hope this child hangs onto that.’”

Campbell advised us to “stay with that.”

I think Campbell said that when you’re “following your bliss,” you’re on a track that has been within you all the while. You are enjoying the life within that you ought to be living.

I think we’re only fully alive when we’re following our bliss. “Deep joy” and “bliss” are better than silent desperation.

In this same The Power of Myth episode, Campbell said that a poet has made a “profession and a lifestyle” of being in touch with “that,” and that many other people find themselves occupied with “occasional concerns,” such as economic ambitions, family formation, and social obligations.

Implied in Campbell’s remarks is the understanding that many people allow their bliss to fade beneath the pressure of exigencies. Keeping one's fascination alive is the exception to the rule; following one’s bliss is the “road less traveled.”

From Shawn Nevins:
There is the response, completely anecdotal, that when some students thought Campbell was encouraging hedonism by advising people to "follow their bliss," Campbell reportedly quipped, "I should have said, 'Follow your blisters.'" Not surprising from a fellow who spent five years reading and studying like a madman while living in a shack in Woodstock, New York during the Great Depression. Campbell said he "would divide the day into four three-hour periods, of which I would be reading in three of the three-hour periods, and free one of them ... I would get nine hours of sheer reading done a day. And this went on for five years straight."

So in that example, by all means follow your rapture, follow your bliss.

*

Editor's comment: TAT Foundation Press publishes Shawn's Hydroglyphics: Reflections on the Sacred with photos by Phaedra Greenwood, Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment, and The Celibate Seeker. He also authors the SpiritualTeachers.org website featuring recommendations of teachers, movies and books along with The Journals of Spiritual Discovery podcasts.

From Richard W:
Bliss, despite its promising Eastern provenance, is just as relative as everything else; as relative as a headache, or a sunset, or a metaphysical idea, falling in love, or a car tyre. How then can following it ever lead to a the Absolute, or to Certainty? Better perhaps then to follow the principle of relativity itself, hoping that it will reveal its own ultimate unsatisfactoriness. By this I mean to nurture discontent, which is, after all, 'the natural state' of the relative, being its continual flavour whether appearing as either pleasure or pain. Look to see if there is actually any real lasting bliss, or peace in it anywhere. Is it possible to keep looking until the fascination with the relative grinds itself out? To look and look until there is only One?

Tess Hughes:
I think that any question, quotation, or whatever that causes a person to stop and think is useful for the truth seeker. It means that you haven’t considered this before, or you have and had settled on an understanding that didn’t take some aspect of the issue into account. Something new has been presented. The value for the seeker is in the opportunity to reconsider something that is of relevance to them.

Surely, the question of how you live your life must be of relevance to everyone but especially the seeker of Self-realisation because our whole thrust is to come to be our True Selves. Our effort is to live consciously, or to at least influence the direction in which we go. Do we remain static or are we facilitating the possibility of transformation in ourselves.

So, what we follow is what takes us to where we end up, consciously or not. But bliss, what is bliss? The question arises of what you interpret as bliss and what might Joseph Campbell have meant by it.

It is not a commonly used word in modern Western speaking societies, which I suspect is why he chose it. He is pointing to some aspect of life that is not common, but something that is specific and personal to each of us. The antonym of bliss in the Oxford dictionary is misery. It makes sense to avoid what makes us miserable and that might be the first step in guiding us towards bliss.

The very fact of considering what leads us into bliss or misery leads us into a state of discernment. We have to consider mundane issues in this new light. We have to consider the question of where this action or decision is likely take us.

The word as used in Asia, usually in a religious context, tends to refer to a spiritual condition, such as; blessedness, saintliness, wholesomeness and so on. So, to learn to live in a way that facilitates one's “spiritual state” is following ones bliss.

Like all spiritual teachings, the value in them is in how a seeker learns to interpret and apply them in their specific lives. The application of the general in the specific is where transformation happens.

So yes, if you find a way to understand what bliss means for you in relation to your goal of Self-realisation then “Follow your Bliss” is a very useful shorthand reminder and guidance for daily life.

*

Editor's comment: TAT Foundation Press publishes Tess's This Above All: A Journey of Self-Discovery.

From BH:
My first reaction is that I have not found the concept or feeling of bliss to be a motivator for me as a seeker of Truth/Realization. I guess I don’t have a belief that anything will permanently leave me in a state of bliss and I wouldn’t say that I experience “bliss” all that much in the first place in a spiritual context or any context. I have experienced some form of what you might call blissfully losing myself in performance and in dancing to music while drinking alcohol for example, but I found that the bliss state is not permanent and is dependent on a context (or substance). I don’t trust activities that leave me in a blissful or even no-thought state as productive seeking activities mostly because those are tied to passive entertainment for me and by nature temporary states. Looking back, the constant in any of the states of “bliss” I’ve experienced is that “I” wasn’t front and center.

Not wanting to feel bad anymore / wanting to feel good instead has motivated me in the past, but I don’t know if I would call that following bliss. I have sought out activities that distract from feeling bad or uncertain thoughts and feelings but I don’t think seeking that out is useful if you’re trying to find the Truth / Self-realization. To me the best advice is to find out what you are by seeing what you’re not.

From Tyler T:
If you care to look you will see that you are going to follow your bliss anyway. Weighing all of the infinite variables and factors coming together throughout all of time and space, you always do what you want. You may have doubts, you may even be weighed down by guilt from your eventual choice, but you always go the route you want most. (Of course, this involves our desires on both a conscious and subconscious level that, taken together, inspire us to turn left inside of right). Someday you will see you weren't the one making the decisions at all. The body and personality were just being moved. But until you see that, it is possible to take that monkey off your back and "consciously" follow your bliss.

To do that you simply make the choice to do what you love and enjoy as much as possible. You might be afraid if you follow that love you will miss out on Self-Realization. I was for a long time. (e.g. Such and such said I need to—fill in the blank—so I better do that). But as your nature could be described as Love, following that love, that joy, that bliss leads right back to where you are right now—with the difference you are consciously conscious of your True Self. In fact, I wouldn't argue with those that say it is the quickest route. But setting Self-Realization aside, trusting and following your own joy is perhaps the most beautiful thing in all of the human experience. Worth checking out if you ask me.

From Patrick K:
My gut reaction is that it is terrible advice. Something new agey you would hear being said to impress the impressionable seekers. Follow your gut feelings, they are generally not blissful. Follow guidance or inspiration from a mentor you trust. But how do you even know who to trust? For me people earn my respect. They don't feed you niceties. Maybe they will confront you, reject you, just do the opposite of what you expect. But there will be felt a lesson that you learned in the exchange and that will garner respect. It is a harder more difficult route but it is the real one.

From Art Ticknor:
I feel that dissatisfaction is what drives our quest for Perfect Satisfaction. If we equate Bliss with Perfect Satisfaction, I think that misery might be more likely than bliss to lead to Bliss. It doesn’t seem like cultivating misery would be a good strategy, but consciously feeling our existential misery or dissatisfaction could be productive.

From Anita A:
No, not in my experience. Bliss, joy, and satisfaction are what the imaginary character yearns for. Following your bliss may be an ego trap and distraction from the deeper inquiry into "what am I?" When I was a seeker I gladly explored all the advice I could find about awakening. Looking back, all the searching and seeking and frustration of self-inquiry brought the Anita character to the shaky ground of surrender. The mental stories about Anita were all beliefs. I knew the "back of the book answers" about enlightenment and awakening yet had no ability to make the vaporous Anita character WAKE UP. In frustration and exhaustion, the final belief of existing as Anita through space and time was seen to be the glue holding the mirage in place. Once self-inquiry showed there is only now, the imaginary game of Anita was over.

From John A:
The idea of "follow your bliss" as a path to enlightenment is a novel one for me. Previously I would have considered bliss as a side effect of realisation rather than a route to self-realisation.

However on investigation, I can find echoes of this elsewhere. Yoga Vasistha says "the contented heart is ready for enlightenment". Rose enjoins seekers to "get your house in order".

Following your bliss would I believe lead to both "getting your house in order" and to greater contentment—it would be reasonable thus to consider it an aid to enlightenment.

Following your bliss should lead to greater health, and happiness—thus providing more time and energy for spiritual work. Conversely, I have noticed that some spiritual work reliably leads to greater happiness. This seems to suggest that there may be a virtuous circle here.

So from this analysis, I have come to consider that following your bliss is an important part of the enlightenment toolkit—with the caveat that it is only one part and that on its own without self-enquiry it would probably be ineffectual.

From Gus R:
So should bliss be my new spiritual direction?

If bliss is "perfect happiness" (dictionary definition), then why not obsess with a perfect fear, sadness, curiosity, desire or passion? J.C. didn't reveal how he got into his bliss that he knew. Did it occur while walking in the woods, during sex, or meditation or chanting, or writing anthropomorphized animal tales? If there is perfect happiness, then is there also perfect fear, and which would lead me more directly to my goal?

I think I know what he meant, at least what I related to when reading this excerpt. I can work really really hard at something, or really want or really try, and there is some point where I get lost in the task and something just moves in. Someone once described that as "Providence." Maybe at the furthest extremes of wanting, trying, of fear, or pursuit of any desire there can be an incongruity, what he called a transition, like a surrendering of "mine for Thine." It's totally different from releasing tension or energy from some unsettling or emotional knot bound up in our personality. It's about transcending all that for another plane of existence, perhaps a direct knowing, instead of experiencing. Maybe involving a surrendering to just seeing rather than identifying with the seen, or any sensation. Maybe he was alluding to being as bliss. Is it something for me to shoot for? No, I think I can only take aim at inconsistencies, unsettling feelings, whatever I find myself attaching to or identifying with, whatever might be creating boundaries between mine and Thine.

Perhaps perfect happiness occurs when everything is questioned, with a question big enough such as "Who Am I?"

From Dan G:
I actually think he’s talking about finding higher intuition.

Q: What are your thoughts on this month's reader commentary? Please your feedback.

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?

We like hearing from you! Please your comments, suggestions, inquiries, and submissions.

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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.

Core Albigen System Principles (in no particular order) Part 2 of 3 (continued from the September 2021 TAT Forum): 6. Transmutation of energy to sharpen intuition and to protect ourselves from entities, outside influences, and nature’s distractions. “Mystics must have found that celibacy was amenable to the search, or they would have given up after a hundred years or more of the experiment.” ~ Richard Rose, The Albigen Papers “Since the sex-act has a definite impact upon the mind, inasmuch as it is able to alter states of mind, or to bring about deceptive states of mind, it is worthwhile to assume that the inhibition or control of the sex-act will somehow inhibit or control a state of mind that is not conducive to our search.” ~ Richard Rose, The Albigen Papers “If exorcism is a workable function, that demonstrates that there are entities who are able to seriously affect our lives and behavior, then it is the responsibility of the psychiatric scientist to broaden their scope, not to pretend that the whole concept of entities will go away if we ignore it.” ~ Richard Rose, Energy Transmutation Between-ness and Transmission “If the purpose of mankind is to produce energy for other beings, which may not be visible to us, then that energy would need to be subtle because we are not visibly attacked and eaten. This theory of the existence of entity-parasites, does not automatically bring with it the need to accept these entities as being of superior essence. They would no doubt be strategically superior, but then so would a mosquito, or flea, if either were able to tap our veins, drink, and get away without our knowing it.” ~ Richard Rose, Energy Transmutation Between-ness and Transmission “In regards to kundalini, sex was designed for propagation, but applying the principle, ‘Milk from thorns,’ it becomes quantum energy—for transmission or projection.” ~ Richard Rose, personal correspondence with John Kent (contained in Kent’s Richard Rose’s Psychology of the Observer: The Path to Reality Through the Self) “These findings add more meaning to my advice on the needs of celibacy, and the different approaches to celibacy by the different sexes—which advice came about as a result of intuition. Consequently I take a step further and by giving my life’s experiment as a witness, assert that intuition itself is directly related to celibacy and the management of prostaglandins.” ~ Richard Rose, from a 1981 lecture in Akron, Ohio titled "The Psychology of Miracles," as transcribed in The Direct-Mind Experience See the complete part 2 (5 principles)

Jacob's Ladder © 2001 Richard Rose. See this transcript of a talk on the topic by Rose.

Homing Ground Update … A spot on earth where people can do retreats and hold meetings; where the emphasis is on friendship and the search. October 2021: We're looking forward to another informal gathering, this time in November in advance of our regular November TAT meeting, which will be virtual this year. The informal gathering in August was a success, so we thought we'd do it again! We're almost at 4% of our fundraising goal for the year. Special thanks go to three TAT members making automatic, monthly contributions using PayPal. Almost all of our progress from September to October was due to them! Such monthly contributions are a great way to support the TAT Center if making a larger one-time donation seems too much. If you're so inspired, click the Donate button below, then check the box for "Make this a monthly donation" as in the example below:   Let's bring this to life! "The job is upon us," Richard Rose said, "and it is worthwhile." To contribute to the TAT Center, mail a check made out to the TAT Foundation to: TAT Foundation PO Box 3402 Roxboro, NC 27573 Big checks, little checks, all are welcome. Or use the PayPal link above (though we lose 2.2% of your donation to PayPal fees). * See photos and more on the Homing Ground page. * In friendship, Shawn Nevins on behalf of the TAT Trustees

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