TAT Conference Notes 6/8/2007-6/10/2007
http://www.tatfoundation.org

TOPICS: Intuition, Sensitivity, Rapport, Transmission, Intentions, Inconsistencies, Procrastination, Seriousness, Longing, Ego, Awareness watching Awareness

Note: notes are not verbatim, some are conclusions drawn from the material presented, as always check out everything for yourself until you are sure beyond doubt.

Friday Evening 6/8 7:30pm-9pm

Intuition Insights. An opportunity to get acquainted or reacquainted and to explore our beliefs about intuition, our experiences with it, why we think we need it, and how it has helped us. Led by Heidi Munn.

Session on intuition, what is it? what does it feel like?, what are your experiences of it?

-Exercise on paper, write word 'intuition' then write next word that pops into your head, then write word intuition then next word that pops into your head, and continue

-It is like a refined perceptive ability, feels different to different people (like an image, like a gut feeling, like a cue or sign, like a feeling in the body, like a thought).

-We shared experiences of it. Talked about the need to balance intuition to know if it is really true with logic/reason or some check and balance system to improve results.

-Jim Burns talked about pain/mental disabilities and shared his experiences. He said he had things happening that he could not ignore like most people could and had to deal with them as they came up one at a time until he could be clear enough in his own mind. His instructions: Sit down!, shut up! and listen!

Sat Morning 6/9 8am-9:30am

Thoughts on Sensitivity, Rapport, and Transmission of Mind, by Mike Casari.

Richard Rose's teaching was based, in part, on the ideas of energy management, rapport, and transmission. Two of his books, The Transmission Paper and The Direct-Mind Experience, indicate the importance he placed on these topics.

Mike Casari presented a session on sensitivity. We need to become more sensitive for the path. He talked about energy management and how energy could be used for rapport and transmission.

-must quiet indulgences to be sensitive (similar to "To be free shun the experiences of the senses like poison" from the Ashtavakra Gita)

-Allow yourself to become more sensitive

-meditation may improve intuition

-suffering/adversity may also improve intuition

-fasting abstaining from certain foods may improve intuition

-body is the instrument of looking, need to clean the lens

-celibacy may improve intuition

-alteration from abstinence and indulgence may improve intuition, 'shocks'

-be careful you don't pay too high a price in indulgence

-by various mental exercises men may improve their intuition

(numbers game example, 345+234=?, with others all answering math problems in a small room, causes you to focus and then some people get so good they start answering correctly before their partner giving the problems can even say it)

-by concentration on one thing, then many things, then nothing may improve intuition

-meditation on nothing - dwell in space between two thoughts

-by remembering your self (a la Gurdjieff) in all situations - aware of you and the actor 'out there'

-by concentration on various nerve centers (chakras) may improve intuition

-how sensitive we are is how aware we are, it's in the subtleties

-watching thought is meditation

-Osho: "watching is meditation" quality of being aware and alert

-intuition has to be tempered by reason

-Jacob's ladder explanation, finding by triangulation

-rapport is the key to magic

-different types of rapport - internal with higher self, external with other people, and between teacher and student

-perfected intuition and perfected reason are needed, without which we are lost

-rapport is that which two things work together or are the same

-what does rapport feel like? become each other and things are revealed

-to get rapport, first examine your own mind and its reactions, you can then see where they're coming from and understand the other

-fear and desire are antithesis of rapport (opposite)

-salesman, "got the spell on them" rapport almost like hypnosis

-you can't get greedy, rapport is a selfless thing, getting greedy kills it

-have to have nothing except the desire to know the Truth

-must be selfless

-must be sensitive to our own condition as well as the condition of the other

-"walk a mile in the other guys moccasins/shoes" (Rose quote)

-rapport and its effects, sitting in rapport with yourself is possible, do no longer than 30 mins at a time

-example of 'sitting' with yourself in rapport is getting up slowly and going to sleep slowly

-negative attitudes (moods) get hit with this jolt of energy and will clear up after sitting

-benefit, will know and understand others instantly without words

-rapport's like a 'loss of boundaries' fading of sense of self or ego

-both people think the same thoughts

-story of two people in deep rapport, mother and daughter, they played a game where one would hear a song in her head and the other would sing it

-rapport is like knowing the 'one mind' even it if it only with one other person

-rapport is scary to ego, thinks it is its dissolution that you lose your self

-tension and betweenness (see books by Richard Rose for more info on betweenness), cover of transmutation of energy book shows a picture of man between two polar opposites and is lifted up into the light.

-moods, rapport is joining with someone's mood

-nostalgia mood is key "window to soul"

-nostalgia is a mood of eternality (picture perfect perfection)

-tension, study the opposites of the thinking mind (polarity)

-opposites produce tension (tension is what drives life between birth and death)

-rapport is tension of meditation and the natural habit of sharing energy

-use tension if we can for spiritual progress (don't just release it in vain pursuits)

-do for the sake of doing, become a vector (for the Truth)

-must will to find the Truth or die trying, then forget about it and let it be done ("become a will-less willful vector")

Sat Afternoon 6/9 1pm-3:30pm

Walking the Walk: Do our actions align with our intentions? lead by Dan Garmat

This was an interactive session where we partnered up and asked questions like:

What inconsistencies between your actions and your intentions do you see? Or have you seen? (Might help to pick 3)

What can you do about them?

What did you notice about your partner's inner struggle? Anything fishy? Anything relevant to you? Anything Stand out for any reason? What do you think of their answer to the questions? What else do you notice about their response?

Then we shared our responses as a group going around from person to person.

-Many people felt their actions we not aligned with their intentions and that they may not even be sure what their intentions are. Some knew what they wanted (self definition, group work, etc) but were unclear about how to go about it.

-have to allow yourself NOT to do otherwise (against your intentions)

Sat Afternoon 4:30pm-5:30pm

When I Finally Became Serious. A presentation and Q&A on the mood that ends procrastination in the search, by Art Ticknor.

Art told his story of how he finally became serious. He said it was like a mood that descended over him.

He 'became his own authority.' Couldn't take the word of others as truth anymore, had to find out for himself what is True. He said the longing is important and that it is the 'slow path' like steering an ocean liner and getting it to turn around.

Sat Evening 7pm-8:30pm

Awareness Watching Awareness. A method of going within recommended by Michael Langford and supported by the teachings of Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj and other direct-path teachers. Led by Steve Harnish, Augie Monge, et al.

-ego believes it will never die, ego thinks it is the real self

-ego is real but it is an illusion

-have to get away from the world view of ego to see Real Self

-two methods from Ramana Maharshi

-Self Inquiry "who am I", "I AM"

-Self Surrender - surrendering to God

-Three teachers that Micheal Langford learned from (books)

-Sri Muruganar wrote Garland of Guru's Sayings and was a poet and student of Ramana Maharshi

-Annamalai Swami

-Sri Sadhu Om Swamigal

-intuitive reading is reading word by word like an inchworm, reading each sentence by sentence very very slowly without thinking about it

-intuitive reading (reading less makes more sense)

-doubt what you think and test what you think ("you don't have to believe everything you think")

-ego's tricks are revealed in the book Most Rapid and Direct Means to Eternal Bliss (by Micheal Langford)

-key factor is this search is earnestness, the 'extremely intense desire for liberation' as Micheal Langford puts it

-be very conscious of choices and implications of your actions

-there is choice A which leads to awakening, peace, love, bliss, etc

-and there is choice B which leads away from awakening, peace, love, etc

-choose choice A

-Loving All method, love everyone and everything, if you hate someone or something, love the fact that you hate them/it

-chapter 7 and 8 of MRaDMtEB self attention instead of self inquiry (just observe awareness instead of asking "who am I")

-attention attending to attention

-until awareness is aware of itself it knows no peace

-if you can't awaken intense desire then read for inspiration

-practice awareness watching awareness is more valuable than group work

-practice instructions and encouragement - you have to make the path yourself

Sun Morning 10am-11:30am

The Three Steps in Using the Maximum Reversal Technique, by Shawn Nevins. A discussion of the final paper of Richard Rose's The Albigen Papers.

Shawn read The Mirror (by Richard Rose, in his book Carillon) and we sat quietly for a time. Then we each had a small section from chapter 8 of The Albigen Papers by Richard Rose. We were to choose the most important point that stood out and share why with the group.

-many different viewpoints were presented

-my most important point about chapter 8 in the section I was given was the part where Rose talked about 'sorrow permeated my whole being for myself and humanity' because sorrow is the only real thing I know (thought it may be equally false in the end as any other thing)

-a conclusion I draw from this is Truth may hurt, it may not be a feel good thing (though it might, either way we don't really know until we Know) and that one must want the truth at any cost.

The meeting was very inspiring and there were many people (about 20-30) from all different walks of life, young and old. It's amazing that so many people would get together for honest self-inquiry and spirituality!