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Please note that Peter’s text 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.
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Virtual Freedom
1. The Pragmatic, Methodological Virtual Freedom (Still-In-Control/ Same-Way-of-Being)
Peter: The aim of the path to Actual Freedom is
to have the actual world become apparent. The actual world is that which is evidenced and apparent in the PCE or peak experience.
The actual world is the world as-it-is, stripped of the veneer of reality or Reality that the ‘self’ or ‘Self’ layers over
it. If one makes one’s aim in life to be happy and harmless, one always has an immediate goal and aim every moment – to feel
as happy and harmless as one can possibly be right now.
‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ is the key to
firstly ascertaining how one is doing relative to one’s aim in life and, if necessary, finding out what is inhibiting my
happiness/ my harmlessness, in this moment. If I am currently not feeling happy and harmless, then that gives ‘me’ something
to do – ‘I’ clean myself up as much as possible by rigorously and remorselessly examining any belief that prevents me from
that immediate aim.
This process, if undertaken with a sincere intent, will inevitably
lead to a state of a pragmatic virtual freedom. One then goes to bed in the evening knowing that one has had a virtually perfect
day, and knowing that tomorrow, without doubt, will also be a virtually perfect day. Unless one is willing to contemplate being
happy and harmless, free of malice and sorrow, 99% of the time – then forget the whole business. One is then merely aiming for
some ‘pie in the sky’, some miracle event to ‘make it all better’.
Nobody believes that it is possible to be completely and irrevocably
happy and harmless in the world as-it-is, on earth, here, now, as a flesh and blood body. This belief is, after all, the core of
Ancient Wisdom – the sacred and inviolate centre-piece of the Human Condition – that life is a ‘growth’ experience based
on suffering.
A pragmatic virtual freedom is available for everyone and anyone who
has the sincere intent to be happy and harmless. If someone is not willing to make that level of ‘self’ sacrifice then any
interest in an Actual Freedom would remain a purely cerebral exercise – a useless ‘self’-deception. The path to an Actual
Freedom is not only non-spiritual but it is down-to-earth and practical – you sort out what it is to be a human being – delve
into the Human Condition and then you put what you discover into practice. If it is not put into practice demonstratively then one
is fooling oneself – as is common practice on the spiritual path. To ignore the obvious, simple, direct and immediate, in favour
of forever contemplating some rosy future, is to commit the mistakes of the past ‘tried and failed’ approaches. Not that there
isn’t a future goal – Actual Freedom – but the down-to-earth first essential step is the obtaining of and living in Virtual
Freedom for a substantial period. It is the proof of the pudding – to live beyond one’s wildest dreams – to be virtually
happy and virtually harmless.
Addendum from Peter after becoming actually free: It is
pertinent to point out that this 1998 definition of a virtual freedom is distinctly different to what Richard described as virtual
freedom, so much so that we can now describe two distinct aspects of a virtual freedom – the in-control pragmatic virtual
freedom as described in Peter’s Journal and pioneered and lived by both Vineeto and me for some 11 years and the
out-from-control virtual freedom that Richard talked about in his Journal and recently on mailing list D .

2. The Dynamic, Destinal Virtual Freedom (Out-From-Control/
Different-Way-of-Being)
Richard: Devika was not only the very
first practicing actualist but the term ‘virtual freedom’ was coined especially for her out-from-control different way of
being (from November 1995 to December 1996), during which period she wrote those (italicised) sections of hers which appear in
‘Richard’s Journal’, as a way of referring to the truly remarkable condition – short of an actual freedom itself – by
which she verified and affirmed my (as-then-unnamed) virtual freedom of 1981 as being not only replicable but, of course, equally
possible for a female as well as a male. (At the time there was no way in which I was going to go public until or unless there was
something demonstrably possible whilst still within the human condition to have on offer).
Thus the virtual freedom being referred to in ‘Richard’s
Journal’ is, of course, the full-blown experiencing of it: an out-from-being-control and, thus, different way of being nowadays
known as an ongoing excellence experience (EE). This ongoing excellence experience is what the methodological aspect of a virtual
freedom – a persistent and diligent application of the actualism method – can morph into whenever that current-time awareness
method has been applied to a sufficiency for that to occur/ have happen.
This penultimate out-from-control/ different-way-of-being is barely
distinguishable from a pure consciousness experience. It was from this ongoing excellence experiencing that pure consciousness
experiences occurred on a near-daily basis – sometimes two-three times a day – for the identity inhabiting this flesh and
blood body all those years ago.
Being out-from-control/in a different-way-of-being is quite daunting
to contemplate as an on-going EE marks the end of the beginning of the end of ‘me’ and the commencement of the actualism
process – as distinct from the actualism method – wherein a momentum not of ‘my’ doing takes over and an inevitability
sets in ; in an on-going EE the actual world has the effect of impelling one towards it – like a moth to a candle as the
overarching benignity and benevolence of the actual increasingly operates such as to render ‘my’ felicity/ innocuity
increasingly redundant; this is where being the nearest a ‘self’ can be to innocence – the naiveté located betwixt the core
of being and the sexual centre (where one is both likeable and liking) – is attached as if with a golden thread or clew
to the purity of actual innocence; an on-going EE is, thus, where one becomes acclimatised to benignity and benevolence and the
resultant blitheness because the purity of the actual is so powerful that it would ‘blow the fuses’ if one was to venture into
this territory ill-prepared.
Please note: As being out-from-control/ in a
different-way-of-being implicitly requires pure intent – which renders the necessity for morals/ ethics/ values/ principles
null and void – it is certainly not the territory a fledgling actualist has any business venturing into precipitously.
To summarize: The purpose of applying the actualism method, which the
identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago both devised and put into full effect, is two-fold – to be of
an immediate benefit (an ongoing affective felicity/ innocuity) and an ultimate benefaction (an enduring actual felicity/
innocuity) – and is thus a win-win situation inasmuch as in the meanwhile, if the ultimate be yet to come about, a virtual
freedom is way, way beyond normal human expectations.
I cannot stress enough how, with a virtual freedom being more or less the norm
worldwide, global amity and equity would be an on-going state of affairs .
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