Continued from General Correspondence, No 8

VINEETO: Welcome to the Actual Freedom mailing list.

RESPONDENT: On the subject of Love, I have found that if you substitute the word ‘NEED’ for love the whole subject is immensely simplified. Love as we us it is a particular human application of need. Need is what relates us to everything. Need takes the bullshit out of love.

VINEETO: I take it that you responded to a paragraph in my correspondence with No 38 –

[Vineeto]: By considering the feeling of love a no-no, you might ignore, deny or avoid the feeling of love whenever it occurs and thus you are hampered in investigating it further. For a successful investigation you need an honest and all-inclusive stocktaking.

[Respondent No 38]: In some ways, it’s harder to be aware of and dig into the ‘good’ feelings. The painful ones pop right into your face and make it obvious of the need to explore, but it’s easy to get swept along by love etc. and not notice that these need just as much attention. 24 hour determination, huh?

[Vineeto]: The more you discover and examine your ‘personal responsibility streak’, the more your attentiveness to your thoughts and feelings becomes an all-inclusive scientific adventure rather than a reaction arising from bad conscience. Given that the ‘painful [feelings] pop right into your face’, they are the ones that you investigate and learn to understand first. In my determination to become harmless, anger and resentment were the most obvious feelings to explore. In the course of examining anger I then came to encounter the so-called good feelings, because love, hope and desire were the breeding ground for demands and expectations, which inevitably lead to disappointments and resentments, which then inexorably bread sorrow and anger. Therefore whenever you investigate what ‘pop[s] right into your face’ you will over the passage of time encounter all of your feelings and all of your beliefs. Vineeto to No 38, 5.6.2002

I was indeed talking about the very human feeling of love, not the yearning for, and worship of, a God by whatever name, commonly known as Love with a capital ‘L’. I wonder if your use of the word Love with a capital ‘L’ refers to the so-called unconditional Love that forms the basis of many spiritual teachings.

I would be curious as to your practical experiences with love and need. Also, have you made any investigations into the nature of ‘NEED’, if you feel like sharing them on the list.

21.6.2002

RESPONDENT: On the subject of Love, I have found that if you substitute the word ‘NEED’ for love the whole subject is immensely simplified. Love as we us it is a particular human application of need. Need is what relates us to everything. Need takes the bullshit out of love.

VINEETO: I take it that you responded to a paragraph in my correspondence with No 38 –

[Vineeto]: By considering the feeling of love a no-no, you might ignore, deny or avoid the feeling of love whenever it occurs and thus you are hampered in investigating it further. For a successful investigation you need an honest and all-inclusive stocktaking.

[Respondent No 38]: In some ways, it’s harder to be aware of and dig into the ‘good’ feelings. The painful ones pop right into your face and make it obvious of the need to explore, but it’s easy to get swept along by love etc. and not notice that these need just as much attention. 24 hour determination, huh?

[Vineeto]: The more you discover and examine your ‘personal responsibility streak’, the more your attentiveness to your thoughts and feelings becomes an all-inclusive scientific adventure rather than a reaction arising from bad conscience. Given that the ‘painful [feelings] pop right into your face’, they are the ones that you investigate and learn to understand first. In my determination to become harmless, anger and resentment were the most obvious feelings to explore. In the course of examining anger I then came to encounter the so-called good feelings, because love, hope and desire were the breeding ground for demands and expectations, which inevitably lead to disappointments and resentments, which then inexorably bread sorrow and anger. Therefore whenever you investigate what ‘pop[s] right into your face’ you will over the passage of time encounter all of your feelings and all of your beliefs. Vineeto to No 38 5.6.2002

I was indeed talking about the very human feeling of love, not the yearning for, and worship of, a God by whatever name, commonly known as Love with a capital ‘L’. I wonder if your use of the word Love with a capital ‘L’ refers to the so-called unconditional Love that forms the basis of many spiritual teachings. I would be curious as to your practical experiences with love and need. Also, have you made any investigations into the nature of ‘NEED’, if you feel like sharing them on the list.

RESPONDENT: I experience ‘need’ every day. I need to take action to survive. Everything I do is directed to this end. Of course the aim is to avoid death, but in general I mean the survival of me as I am with all my beliefs and prejudices.

VINEETO: It is exactly this ‘survival of me as I am with all my beliefs and prejudices’ that I have successfully questioned and investigated in the process of actualism to the point that I am now virtually free from malice and sorrow.

RESPONDENT: I have no experience of mystical love. My love is a primitive need to fuck. The bitterness of love is exemplified by:

VINEETO: To stop at the insight of ‘the bitterness of love’ is but to stop halfway. There is now something far better available than merely accepting that this should be all there is to life.

You wrote in your second letter –

[Respondent]: Now Richard offers a ‘better life’? No 42, 16.6.2002

Richard is reporting the results of what he found when he questioned love, compassion, bliss and the ultimate prize of ancient wisdom – enlightenment. Richard discovered that the actual world fulfils what love and enlightenment eternally promise but never deliver. The actual world, magnificent and perfect, pure and sparkling, is always available, right under our noses – it is not a promise but an actuality.

But everyone has to do the job of becoming actually free of the human condition for himself or herself. This is because only ‘I’ can question and investigate my ‘self’ and only ‘I’ can eventually come to the striking conclusion that ‘I’ am utterly and totally redundant. Personally I can confirm that, with each piece of identity that has fallen off as redundant, my life has become better easier and more delicious and I know that I won’t stop this thrilling investigation until the last of ‘me’ has evaporated.

17.7.2002

VINEETO: You wrote to No 37 in answer to his letter to Richard –

RESPONDENT to No 37: Perhaps Richard is saying that so long as we have the illusion that our existence, our ‘I’ is separate from the whole we cannot be objective. For the mystic good or bad are not separate possibilities. While we make judgements we do not penetrate to any real meaning.

VINEETO: To consider Richard a mystic can only mean that you must have read the website meditatively, i.e. with both eyes closed.

For precise understanding the differences between mysticism and actualism I refer to the Actual Freedom Trust Library.

22.7.2002