P – Correspondent No. 2

Please note that Peter’s correspondence below was written by the feeling-being ‘Peter’ while ‘he’ lived in a pragmatic (methodological), still-in-control/same-way-of-being Virtual Freedom before becoming actually free.

RESPONDENT: Me, for example, I like most of my beliefs and feelings and stick to them. ... What struck me most was that you do not admit the feeling of love or other positive emotions. The feelings are stronger or poorer, more or less helpful, but why to dismiss them altogether? Perhaps I had not so many ups and downs in my life so that I am sceptical towards a perpetual, not to say antiseptical happiness, like a boring paradise.

PETER: Firstly, hello. Good to talk to you. I do appreciate your comments on the book and can well understand that you found it a little difficult to understand and somewhat confronting. I will reply to some of the points you make.

I too found it more difficult to conceive of living without the Good emotions, but I could not deny that while they offered hope of bringing peace and harmony, in practice they failed again and again. They were for me a dream that remained unfulfilled. Love would always turn to hate or jealousy; enthusiasm and hope would lead to disappointment and despair, etc. It is my experience that the Good emotions and feelings always come in a package with the Bad ones, hence our need for morals, values and ethics to hopefully ‘keep the lid’ on things.

To advocate the deliberate understanding, exposing and elimination of emotions and feelings is of course quite radical, but I see nothing else that works.

What I have found on eliminating them is that they formed a program of neurosis in me which prevented the underlying benevolence, purity and stillness that is evident in the physical universe from having any chance to become apparent in me.

To experience delight 24 hrs. a day, every day, to experience the freedom and happiness as a constant, permanent, effortless, sensual experience, no matter where, no matter when. The easy movement, the wind, the smells, and the sights. To have that rather than sorrow, sadness, frustration, and the other human emotions. To find a way to actually increase delight and diminish malice and sorrow is to fly in the face of ancient wisdom, but what the hell!

For me concentrating on little things like not getting upset about the weather was a good start. It always seemed pointless to allow myself to get upset by the weather. It is a fact, cannot be changed, and yet my mood, my enjoyment of the day was dependant on it being sunny or raining. Once I had eliminated this, I tried something else – maybe trying to not be angry about something or someone in particular. I found that to see things as silly or sensible rather than right or wrong, good or bad, etc. was useful. I found each step worked – that I experienced more delight and less malice and sorrow – which is the aim of the exercise after all.

So, once again I do appreciate your comments and understandings. No one else has replied or commented on the book so fully – I think it is too confrontational for most, and many of my friends have spent years on the spiritual path and are not pleased or even willing to have their beliefs challenged.

It’s such a pleasure to talk of these things with you – I personally found the challenge to be happy and harmless very daunting at the start but I just nibbled away at it bit by bit. And as you can see from the book it took a while to get my head out of the clouds and come to my senses. I would welcome further discussion if you wish.