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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. |
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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