How I Achieved Actual Freedom May 05, 2008 GARDOL: I wrote most of this before I posted ‘How I achieved Actual Freedom’. At this point in my email I intended to finish with sledgehammer and blowtorch, and completely repudiate the whole AF web site and enterprise. I intended to use the title as a meme, and to post it in different places on the internet, so that it would come up as people researched AF. Then I would move on with my life. I also intended it as a tease and a trick. I used paradoxical phrasing, so people ‘in the know’ would not take it too seriously. I doubt that someone who became actually free would say it that way, as in: ‘How I achieved success in Real Estate in two weeks’ or ‘How I achieved financial independence’. The ‘I’ of course does not achieve actual freedom, but disappears, leaving the talking meat robot. Oh, I mean the flesh and blood body. RICHARD: It is transparently obvious that if Gardol had really meant ‘the flesh and blood body’ (instead of ‘the talking meat robot’) he would have, as a matter of course, just back-spaced it out and then typed that instead. GARDOL: I felt a little guilty about my tease, so I included my letter to Vineeto to give this email a little more weight and meaning. We get teased and hooked so often by media, and then disappointed. RICHARD: And what a bizarre justification that is (for doing the very same thing himself). GARDOL: I felt motivated by fellowship regard, which I also call sympathy or compassion ... RICHARD: As that term is given a particular connotation in the actualism writings then all Gardol is doing here is conveniently blurring distinctions which, whilst giving an illusion of being on the same page, only serves to muddy the waters. GARDOL: ... to give something more than the quick conclusion and ‘ha ha, I tricked you, bye now’. RICHARD: Here is an example of what he is really saying:
And/or:
‘Tis fascinating to see how feeling guilty (about the cheap-trick tease) then transmogrifies (through a bizarre justification) into a feeling of sympathy/ compassion (for those he teased) which translates (via some evidently-felt need to compensate) into making public a private email (thus putting a few flaws on display) so as to give this ... um ... this ‘stunning conclusion’ email a little more weight and meaning. O what a tangled web they weave when first they practice to deceive. GARDOL: It gets a little knotty for me here because I can no longer no longer conclude, as I intended to, by completely repudiating the whole AF website and enterprise. By a strange twist of fate I find my path now, post enlightenment, and, ‘as far as I can ascertain’, parallels Richards’ path ... RICHARD: Going by the few snippets of information available (such as the deliberate ‘talking meat robot’ jibe and the ‘sympathy or compassion’ muddying of the waters, for instance) it may very well be the case that the parallel path is still proceeding in the opposite direction from the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition. GARDOL: ... more than any other teacher or purveyor of ‘facts’ I’ve found. RICHARD: Given that Gardol probably would not recognise a fact even if it suddenly sat up in front of him with a flashing neon sign gaudily displaying the words ‘This Is A Fact’ it is just as well he has put that word in scare-quotes. Viz.:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GARDOL: Instead of a ‘tree’ of self, I now have a stump. At the base of that stump, I tend a small fire. The fire hallows out the stump from the inside. RICHARD: Humph ... so much for the parallel path, eh? GARDOL: My own wordless inquiry, while different from Richards question ... RICHARD: Again ... so much for the parallel path. GARDOL: ... brings me into the present moment, and into my body. Time slows down for me. It only works, or I can only do it, when I muster ‘pure intent’. So that phrase has new meaning for me. RICHARD: To loosely use a common expression: gob knows what new meaning the term ‘pure intent’ now has. GARDOL: The markers Richard proposes: ‘Good ... Happy ... Perfect’ and the whole bootstrapping method have no relevance to me. RICHARD: And again ... so much for the parallel path. GARDOL: At any moment I practice, I could answer ‘yes’ to all three. So I don’t need to mentally backtrack into previous states and bootstrap myself back up to the most recent marker. RICHARD: And yet again ... so much for the parallel path. GARDOL: Nor does Unity, Bliss, or Oneness have relevance. I feel neither in Unity nor out of it. I do feel plugged into my purpose in life. And I have no more need than the meaning of this moment, as I practice. RICHARD: Uh-huh ... add a bit of meaningless new-age gobbledygook, stir well, and then slowly bake in a moderate oven (until the cows come home). GARDOL: So if you have to slog through those tar pits of the AF website ... RICHARD: Once again this is a good place to draw attention to the following:
In other words, what is essentially a very simple matter has had multitudinous layers of (unnecessary) complexification added, again and again, by many and various peoples of the same, or similar, ilk as Gardol. GARDOL: ... you will find inconsistencies and contradictions galore. RICHARD: Going by what has been clearly demonstrated all throughout this diatribe it is, of course, beyond doubt that nothing of the sort is to be found. GARDOL: However, you might also find some gold there. RICHARD: The only gold Gardol has found is some type of chalcopyrite or yellow pyrite (popularly known as fool’s gold). GARDOL: Excuse me for not replying to all your emails well worth replying to. RICHARD: And again the admonisher brings communication (be it either the one way or two way kind) to an end. GARDOL: In a way, posting here and thinking about my posts distracts me from pure intent ... RICHARD: Well then, one thing is for sure: it ain’t the pure intent, described in detail, on The Actual Freedom Trust website. GARDOL: ... and from my practice. I may reply more in the future, if I can balance the two. RICHARD: And thus does the denouement (aka ‘stunning conclusion’) of Gardol’s argument fade vacuously back into the nothingness it never quite made its way up out of anyway. Viz.:
Oh, well ... c’est la vie, I guess. Feb 25 2009 Update (eleven months later): What follows is the essential message of Gardol’s Jan ‘09 self-justifying comeback, re-presented in its online layout, with the 568 words which distract from that paranoiac-like essence (most of which have already been addressed, anyway, in the places they are contextually relevant) snipped out to simplify comprehension:
First, the most obvious point: if Gardol had really meant it, where he says [quote] ‘I’ll shut up and we’ll stay friends’ [endquote], he would never had written the 500+ depreciative words, which preceded it, in the first place. Second, if a person truly fears for their life, via a crazed zealot from some creepy cult in a murderous rage, they would never goad their cult-leader – [quote] ‘I could probably wind him up’ [endquote] – with 500+ depreciative words. Lastly, as far worse depreciative words have been sent over many years – as evidenced in the archived correspondence – with no heinous mass-murder ever occurring, as a consequence of such sustained vilification, it is a fantastical scenario. Thus the entire paranoiac-like essence of Gardol’s Jan ‘09 commentitious comeback is another craftily contrived hatchet work – and another incongruous grandstanding to boot – which drew forth a by-now-expectable reaction, from a notorious correspondent, just like a great steaming pile of faecal matter attracts blowflies intent on spawning maggots by the bucketful. Viz.:
All in all an amateurish state of affairs. Next, the most obvious issue: to write 500+ depreciative words, to somebody they deem in need of professional help, and then ask them [quote] ‘You still like me, don’t you?’ [endquote] bespeaks an insensitivity characteristic to ... um ... someone caught up in some ego and self importance. Second, the well-documented fact that Richard has never, ever espoused love – which can flip into its opposite, hate (hence murderous rage), in an instant – renders any such nefarious comparison null and void. Third, as Richard has no [quote] ‘buttons’ [endquote] whatsoever to push it is therefore impossible to ever [quote] ‘wind him up’ [endquote] no matter how much Gardol unwittingly lets slip he would like to. Fourth, as Gardol has [quote] ‘been in a cult and around cults’ [endquote], whereas Richard never has and never will, then getting [quote] ‘the cult vibe’ [endquote] from the website and a mailing list can only be yet another case of automorphism on his part. Fifth, his pompous parting line [quote] ‘Please get help’ [endquote] not only conveniently ignores the fact, re-presented for his convenience in this commentary/ confutation from the many places it appears on the website, that Richard has been closely examined, face-to-face over a three-year period, by both two accredited psychiatrists and a psychologist, but also self-importantly presupposes he can know better than those duly qualified professionals, with their extensive and first-hand scrutiny, merely via the written word. All in all a dilettantish state of affairs. Lastly, the selective nature of two quotes provided, abstracted from Richard’s archived correspondence, thus leave out vital information regarding friendship as it pertains to an actual freedom from the human condition. For instance:
This next quote spells out the absence of any need for friends, nor the capacity for friendship, in more detail:
This quote utilises a dictionary definition (less there be quibbling as to what relationship is comprised of):
Here it all is at its most simplest:
And, again, at its most simplified:
Thus Gardol’s [quote] ‘Keep that in mind, Richard’ [endquote] admonition – meaning for Richard to remember he likes his fellow human beings no matter what mischief they get up to – demonstrates how Gardol presumes that an actual intimacy (no separation whatsoever) is a principle, such as tolerance, for instance, or a philosophy, such as pacifism, for example, which like any such virtuous behaviour needs to be kept in mind (and the beast within kept in check) less all hell break loose. Yet this is what he wrote on Friday, the 29th of February, 2008:
The old saying/ ancient proverb ‘there are none so blind as those who will not see’ seems particularly apt here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RETURN TO RICHARD’S CORRESPONDENCE INDEX The Third Alternative (Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body) Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one. Richard's Text ©The
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