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Peter’s Correspondence on Mailing List B Correspondent No 6
PETER: ‘I have a vital interest to end the ‘passion for a liberation of the human spirit ’ – manifest as the search for enlightenment – for it stands in the way of peace on earth’. RESPONDENT: It’s a good thing that you finally said what your intent is. I guess my assumptions were correct from the first time. PETER: Well, it seems you are implying that I was not being upfront in what I am saying. From my very first post to the list –
Is this not unambiguously upfront and honest? RESPONDENT: What you just don’t realize is that the vast majority of the people in this world COULD NOT CARE LESS about the search for liberation of the human spirit. Very, very few people are into this search. PETER: I assume you don’t mean to, but your statement could be seen to denigrate the efforts of billions of people who are alive on the planet right now and the billions who have been here before us. Depending upon where we are born, into what culture, and in what moment of time every human being has been aware of the search for the ‘liberation of the human spirit’ in its multitudinous variations, and it is a search that millions upon millions have passionately devoted their lives to. The search for liberation of the human spirit is probably as old as the human species. Ancient, ignorant and fearful understandings of earth and the cosmos led to the universal human belief in ‘other worlds’, both above and below, that were populated by mythical ‘spirits’ or Gods. Further, ‘spirits’ or nature ‘forces’ were deemed to live on, or be a part of, earth itself leading to a spirit-ual view of nature – a metaphysical-only understanding of physical life upon this material earth. A fervent and desperate belief that there was a future life-after-death for the human ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’ in these imaginary ‘spirit worlds’ was common to all ancient tribal groups Traditional Western religious beliefs, being generally monotheistic, propose a single creationist God with worship, reverence, penance, loyalty and obedience guaranteeing one a liberation or release from earthly suffering after physical death into an ‘other-worldly’ paradise. Great importance is placed on leading a moral and good life in accord with the codes and laws laid down by ancient texts and testaments. Consequently, each tribal group believes and asserts their particular God to be the ‘One and Only’ God and this belief-system has subsequently led to a plethora of Gods and religions on the planet. Further, multitudinous interpretations and re-interpretations of sacred texts, ancient scrolls and stone tablets have led to the formation of numerous competing sub-cults and conflicting groups, even within a single religion. The resultant disputes and arguments as to whose God is the only true and right God, and whose religious beliefs, moral values and ethical codes represent the only true and right belief-system, has caused countless recriminations, persecutions, vitriolic conflicts and religious wars that are ever ongoing ... At the core of the Eastern religious view of the world is the concept that all humans are born ‘innocent’ and have only been corrupted by ‘evil thoughts’ since birth. It is further believed that it is possible for a chosen few to regain this mythical ‘natural’ innocence, in this lifetime on earth, hence the search to find one’s ‘original face’ or Divine Self. Meditation, turning ‘inwards’, or ‘right thinking’ in accord with the Ancient Texts, is rigorously practiced in order to transcend the ‘illusory’ physical world and enter more fully into a meta-physical, spiritual ‘inner’ world. In this ‘other world’, one connects with, and identifies with, the ‘good’ and holy feelings of bliss, oneness, unity and wholeness. The other fundamental concept underpinning Eastern religion is that life on earth is ultimately ‘unsatisfactory’ and that the true meaning and fulfillment of human existence lies ‘elsewhere’ – after physical death. Journeying ‘in’ to find one’s true spiritual self or soul is deemed to be the answer in an attempt to facilitate an altered state of consciousness known as Enlightenment. Enlightenment is seen as a highly-prized earthly experience of Godliness and bliss, prior to a final release from the endless miserable cycle of re-birth upon dissolving into an ‘other-worldly’ spirit-ual realm. Billions of humans have done, and still do, search for the ‘liberation of the human spirit’ in whatever way this search is historically or culturally manifest. There are by some accounts 1600 still-active religions in the world today and from what I see millions of people are giving their all for their particular version of the search for liberation of the human spirit. Not only that, all of those passionately searching are absolutely convinced that their way is the only way, and that the members of their group are the chosen ones. Doesn’t this make you just a little suss? Surely it’s time to abandon the search for a ‘liberation of the human spirit’ and seek a liberation from the human spirit. To become this flesh and body only, free from any alien entity, self, or spirit whatsoever, magically frees one to directly and sensately experience the ever-present sensuous delight of the actual world. It beats enlightenment by a country mile. Paradise is on this very physical earth, here and now. RESPONDENT: You are just upset and angry because you haven’t found the peace you’ve been looking for. You don’t want to believe in spirituality anymore for personal reasons and so you are trying hard to make others feel just like you do. It’s very simple. You don’t need to complicate it. Stay in peace. PETER: Well, your very first assumption about what I was writing was correct but this assumption about my motives is not. 50-50 is about right for intuition. I was aiming to post a short post for those who dislike words and reading but you have made an assumption about me that is wrong in fact so I will respond. As I have already said, I came to the spiritual path after becoming disillusioned with the ‘real’ world, i.e. I stopped believing in the ‘real’ world any more. One dark night of the soul, I saw that the ‘real world’ was but a nightmare and, as I had been reading my first-ever spiritual book at the time, the idea of a greater Reality seized me in its grip. This process of real world disillusionment and attraction to a greater Reality seems a very common transition from real world to spiritual world – a common story to many seekers. What really got me moving on the search for freedom, peace and happiness was the death of my son, some 10 years later. It was indeed a shocking experience to stand beside my 13-year-old son’s coffin and be confronted by the sight of the dead body of someone so young and so close. Shocking to my very core. It was then that I really determined to find out how to remove the ‘shackles’ that I felt had always bound me, and to experience life free of them before I died. What my son’s death at such a young age did for me was to intensify the sense of urgency to find the meaning of it all – after all, I saw how short life can actually be. Here I was, my father dead, my son dead; I was still alive, in my early forties, and I was obviously living on borrowed time – as I saw it. And I knew that I was not even really living yet – there was fear, hesitancy, and that feeling of invisible shackles from which I yearned to break free. This experience was to prove for me a seminal point – the beginning of my search really. The other relevant point was that I realized that I had discovered nothing that I could reliably and honestly pass on to my children, there was nothing I knew that worked that would definitely make their lives happier or richer. This personal experience gave me the driving force to dare to stop at nothing even, as it subsequently proved necessary, daring to question spirituality, both the teachers and the teachings. As part of this questioning I did pass through a phase of being angry at the teachers for I saw that they were wielding their psychic power to ensnare gullible disciples. This quickly dissipated when I realized that they only had power over me because I had let them have power over me and that the real issue was my susceptibility, gullibility and laziness in wanting to be a follower and a believer and not an explorer and a discoverer. I had a wonderful time in the spiritual world. It was an amazing opportunity to immerse myself totally in the following of a living master and to experience the overwhelming experience of group highs, fervent belief and burning idealism in full flight. It was only by fully immersing myself in and experiencing both the ‘real’ world and ‘spiritual’ world without resorting to resentment, blame, bitterness or cynicism that I was able to remain naïve enough to even consider that there was a third alternative. As for ‘you are trying hard to make others feel (upset and angry) just like you do’ I will have to drop your rating down to one correct out of three assumptions. It is my experience that whenever I point out the fact that the ages-old spiritual search has lamentably failed to bring peace on earth, and point out why, many people feel upset and angry. They take any questioning of spiritual belief very personally and I see a direct connection between these reactions and all the upset and anger, conflict and war that exists between the many spiritual groups on the planet. For me, this was bought home most tellingly when I became aware that I was willing to fight others in order to defend my beloved teacher. In fact, I was willing to kill for, or die for, my beliefs and the depth of my feelings and the sheer insanity of my passion shocked me profoundly. This depth of passion is instinctually sourced – all humans are instinctually programmed to be willing and eager to kill and die for anything we passionately hold in our hearts and thus believe to be our own. Any belief is non-sensical but when combined with spiritual passion and fervour it becomes distinctly dangerous, as the raw instinctual passions can be unleashed – particularly in the collective hysteria of a group when any individual commonsense is overwhelmed. The other curious observation is that whenever these outbreaks of passion occur – as in the countless religious wars, persecutions, recriminations, repressions, ostracizations, retributions, perversions and conflicts – it is always the followers who are blamed and made to feel guilty whereas the dead God-men get off scot-free. It is never the fault of Jesus, Buddha, Rama, Moses, etc. – it is always the fault of the follower who has got the messages wrong or who is not following the true teachings. The sacred golden rule, instilled in all religious/spiritual belief, is that it is always the fault of the follower and never the teachings nor the teacher. This rule is crucial to uphold and maintain at all costs, for the whole house of cards is built upon it. Thus protected by the golden rule the God-men can get away with literally anything – even murder, according to Mr. Balsekar. What I did was turn my innate passion for freedom, peace and happiness and use it to search in a different direction to the ancient ones. I began looking in a fresh modern scientific way at what was the root cause of my sorrow, what was the root cause of my anger and what was standing in the way of my free enjoyment of the prolific sensual delights of this paradisiacal planet. I would not have dared question the sacred spiritual beliefs nor say what I am saying publicly had I been born in any other period for I would have risked physical injury or death at the hands of the mob. No wonder very, very few ever dared to question the teachings, let alone the teacher. Thanks to the marvel of the Internet my risk is reduced to cyber-execution induced by mass appeal to the moderator. To be able to have an open discussion about spirituality and peace on earth is no little event and is bound to cause upset and anger. Are you suggesting I should stop questioning and if so, why?
PETER: The practice of detachment from the physical, material world and renunciation of sensate, sensual experience is fundamental to entering fully into the more refined, ethereal, inner spirit-ual world. RESPONDENT to No 14: I agree with Peter here. But I can see very clearly the following too ... if we just replace a couple of words: The practice of detachment from the spiritual world, the feelings, emotions and passions in general is fundamental to entering fully into the more material, rational, ‘intelligent and logical’ world (as one sees it). PETER: You use inverted commas as though you are directly quoting my words, which is not the case. I have never used the words rational or logical to describe the actual world. Rational thinking and logic are no substitute for a clarity of thinking that is unimpeded by ‘self’-centred – or ‘Self’-centred – emotions and feelings arising from the instinctual passions. Rational and logical type thinking and philosophies were invented largely by impractical men ‘holed up’ in ivory towers, who were neither in touch with their emotions and feelings nor their physical senses. It is vital to explore and investigate the affective feelings and emotions that arise from the instinctual animal passions – both the tender or so-called ‘good’ and the savage or so-called ‘bad’ – for the secret to being actually free of malice and sorrow lies in this very exploration. It is essential to understand and fully comprehend that one’s feelings and emotions are part and parcel of the Human Condition and not a personal fault, failure, stigma or ‘evil’. Fear, aggression, nurture and desire are innate passions that every human being is programmed with by blind nature. Active observing and investigating – neither suppressing or expressing – has the added advantage of both getting men fully into their feelings for the first time in their life and getting women to examine their feelings, one by one, instead of being run by a basketful of them all at once. Few spiritual believers are prepared to make this investigation of feelings, emotions and instinctual passions for they believe that if they dare to question the spiritual ‘good’ feelings they will simply end up back in the ‘real’ world that they have been desperately trying to escape from. Some fear that to question their spiritual beliefs is to go towards the devil or evil while others see it as ending up in a sort of robotic catatonic state of non-feeling. What belies these fears is the PCE where the purity, perfection and benevolence of the actual world becomes magically apparent as having been here all the time ... if only ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul wasn’t in the way. RESPONDENT: You see, the ‘practice of detachment’ can work both ways! The overall rule seems to be that we can live our lives as we please ... as long as we invest our energy in detachment. PETER: I don’t practice detachment in any way at all. What I did was undertake a thorough investigation into all that prevented me from being fully and intimately involved in the world as-it-is, with people as-they-are. This includes working in the market place, running a business, living with a companion with all the delights of intimacy, equity and sensuous sexual play, being free to enjoy all of the sensual delights such as eating meat, drinking coffee and smoking tobacco and being able to directly relate to all of my fellow human beings without imposing ‘my’ instinctive feelings or ‘my’ ethical or moral judgements upon them. * PETER: Freedom and perfection is only possible with the extinction of the animal instinctual passions in human beings... RESPONDENT: As for your confusion about Peter’s words, No 14, I guess what we are supposed to believe is that a ‘24-hour relationship’ ... ‘in this paradisiacal planet’, as well as those ‘intense romantic encounters’ suggested by Peter’s partner months ago has absolutely nothing to do with ‘passion’, it’s totally free from it!! PETER: Again you use inverted commas as though you are directly quoting words that were written.
One often hears in the spiritual world the admission that human love does not work and the only solution is to feel Divine Love for all, but this experiment has been found wanting for feelings of Divine Love, no matter how grandiose, are but feelings based upon the same instinctual passions. Divine Love includes right and wrong, good and bad, jealousy, anger, blame, retribution, disappointment, demand, loyalty, power, surrender, etc. Actual intimacy is not possible between humans who are programmed by blind nature to feel they are separate beings, and merely adopting a new identity who then feels non-separate and all-loving does nothing to tackle and eliminate the instinctual passions at their very source. RESPONDENT: I just wonder where one can learn such technique! I am sure many of us would be interested in the subject, especially the ones who practice celibacy. PETER: Indeed. None of what I am talking about can be learned by spiritual techniques for one-to-one peacefulness, an extinction of instinctual passions and the delights of free sexual play are not even on the discussion agenda, let alone part of any religious teachings I always found it curious that those who were serious about attaining Enlightenment for themselves had to turn away from the ‘temptations of the flesh’ to achieve it. There is a long and on-going tradition in both Eastern and Western religion for men and women to become celibate monks and nuns. In the East there is also a tradition of Tantric ritual copulation that is for both partners, a form of sacralization, the act being a participation in cosmic and divine processes. However, Tantric practices often involved much abuse of women and acts of bizarre rituals as a method of ‘purification’ particularly for the man. The compulsive nature of the sexual drive has always both terrified and confused the spiritual seeker and the easiest way out has always been the practice of avoidance leading to the denial of celibacy. I always wanted to get to the roots of sexual evil and mystique and the method of investigating and eliminating the instinctual sexual drive has freed me from the brutish and senseless sexual imperative and allowed me to discover the sensuous delights of intimate sexual playfulness. RESPONDENT: Peter, with all respect, I would like to understand how one can possibly recognize a ‘paradisiacal planet’ without passion? Would you like to explain your experience in quick and easy English? Sorry about my language barrier, but it’s a fact. Sometimes I have the feeling that our cultural differences could also be contributing to my lack of understanding of your messages. PETER: Have you never looked at a sunset and noticed the sheer physicality and immediacy of what you are seeing without feeling awed or saddened by its beauty or feeling that it is the creation of some Higher Power? Have you never looked at the sheer brilliance of sunlight shining on the early morning dew on leaves or on a spider’s web and contemplated that similar wonders are happening all over this planet at exactly this same moment, unobserved by any humans whatsoever? Have you never wondered that all this brilliance would go on happening even if no human beings existed on the planet and further that it all went on before you were here, and will be going on long after you are dead? Have you ever considered that all this is actually happening, this very moment, despite the fact that ‘you’ are feeling sad, grateful, resentful, isolated from it or in love with it? Have you never watched the stars at night and considered that this paradisiacal blue-and-white luxuriant planet hurtles on through space with 6 billion human beings blindly battling it out in a grim and instinctual battle for survival or humbly demeaning themselves by prostrating themselves in gratitude before a mythical creator God, or some human being who claims to be God? It is exactly in one these moments of carefree observation and unplanned contemplation that one can have a ‘self’-less recognition and direct experience of the purity and perfection of the actual, infinite and eternal, universe. These experiences are called pure consciousness experiences, as opposed to affective experiences where the passions of fear, aggression, nurture and desire cause ‘me’ to feel gratitude, compassion, love for all, or in an altered state of consciousness experience, ‘self’-aggrandized to the point where ‘I’ feel eternal and infinite and the physical universe is but a dream of ‘my’ creation.’ An experiential understanding of what I am talking about can only be had in a pure consciousness experience, but you can establish a prima face case based on the sense of what I am saying and then make a decision for yourself, either way. You simply decide if you want to become free of continually having to make the effort to feel as though you are alive ... and discover what it is like to be actually alive and actually free. It is an enormous jump to consider ridding yourself of your instinctual passions, for affective feelings have been traditionally upheld and venerated as the very essence of being human. All spiritual practice lays the blame for ‘evil’ at the door of thinking and lets impassioned feeling off scot-free, which is why the human condition is epitomized by malice and sorrow. It is a very brave person indeed who dares to question everything, but the reward is peace on earth, in this lifetime, as this flesh and blood body ... and it don’t get better than that.
RESPONDENT: About 17 years ago I had some Statistics classes. At that time I could not understand why Psychology students would really need Statistics. I simply could not stand the subject! Anyway, we can never under-estimate the value of anything. In that one class I learned something extremely important in my life. I learned what ‘normality’ is all about. Normality is about statistics. The concept of ‘normality’ in statistics represents ‘average’. So, whatever is it that you are trying to measure, if it is found within the average field, it’s normal. Therefore, what or who is within the average field ‘wins the title of normal’ (and the love and respect that comes with it, of course!). On the other hand, whatever or whoever is out of this range, is considered ‘out of the norm’ or abnormal. In the dictionary, norm means ‘rule’. Another amazing definition. What they don’t say in the dictionary though is ‘who’ defined the rule, how ‘awake’ that person is. Anyway, if you observe some words or terms that have been mentioned here such as ‘madness’, ‘fixing’, ‘drugs and enlightenment’, it is clear that the focus and concern is on ‘perfect-normal behaviour’ as opposed to the ‘universal perfection’ that you so well expressed. It is evident that we, people, are conditioned to what is ‘average’. Our reference is ‘normality’, the way we understand it to be. As ‘normal-average behaviour’ is all we seem to be prepared for, that’s all we expect. What is most contradictory in my personal opinion, is that we people are seeking enlightenment based on the ‘normal-average’ parameters. Obviously, we all know that the average people are not awake. Awake seems to be those individuals who look somehow abnormal to the normal eyes. But now, my question to the forum is, how can we possibly expect to succeed in this search for enlightenment while we take ‘average behaviour’ as a reference? Please, don’t think that I am ‘mad’ here. I just find this ‘normally intriguing.’ PETER: You are right. It is impossible to succeed in the search for enlightenment while taking average behaviour as a reference. The whole point of becoming enlightened is to ignore and transcend average and normal behaviour in oneself such that one eventually gets to feel perfect and pure. It is also very clear from the behaviour of those who have attained enlightenment that the state does not go hand in glove with perfect behaviour. As you yourself said earlier in the post –
There is so much duplicity, duck shoving around the behaviour of the awakened and enlightened ones and their so-called embodiment of perfection. It is little wonder both their credence and honesty is coming under increasing scrutiny. What I find most intriguing however, is the common belief in the spiritual world that seekers are somehow exempt from the normal instinctual behaviour exhibited by average or normal human beings. This blatant denial in Eastern religion is exemplified in such beliefs as the notion of karma whereby one believes one has already somehow done sufficient work or good, most often in a previous existence, such that one is no longer normal but is ready to Transcend. Some believe they are therefore born into the right circumstances, as in being born a Brahmin, while others who have bad karma, are born lesser as in average, or even born an Untouchable. This supercilious belief, when formalized, results in the horrendous religious caste systems so prevalent in the East. The Tibetan Buddhists have a cute system whereby the good lamas are reincarnated and ‘found’ by others, such that they escape ever having to be normal or average. The other fashionable expressions of exemption from normal and average is to be found in the concept of being chosen, of being special, being more awake, having a higher consciousness, doing God’s work, etc. Wondrous are the ways that spiritual followers invent to prevent acknowledging they may be normal or average as in bad or evil, let alone lost, lonely, sad, angry, frightened, etc. All of this denial in the spiritual world can be sheeted home to the beguiling and irresistible lure of feeling God-like and Timeless, thereby assuaging the fear of death. All of the ills and woes of Humanity can be sheeted home to the genetically-encoded instinct to survive at all costs, which human beings have turned into a psychological and psychic will to survive ... at all costs.
Peter’s Text ©The Actual Freedom Trust: 1997-. All Rights Reserved.
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