Actual Freedom – The Actual Freedom Mailing List Correspondence

Richard’s Correspondence

On The Actual Freedom Mailing List

With Correspondent No. 12


December 18 2000

RESPONDENT: ... the ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ that was set up to ... ... to accept donations. Have donations been made by the way?

RICHARD: The Actual Freedom Trust was not set-up ‘to accept donations’ at all. I have said before that The Actual Freedom Trust is simply a statutory legal body set-up to promulgate and promote the actualism words and writings by fully explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice. It has no need of ‘donations’ whatsoever ... it only costs a few hundred dollars per annum to keep the millions of words available for any one at all to access totally free of charge. I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: Richard, I assume that the Actual Freedom Trust will retain copyright of your life work after your demise. Will the Actual Freedom Trust at that time begin to accept donations to support their work in presenting Richard as the Only Person to have Transcended Enlightenment and Entered Actual Freedom?

RICHARD: I have not ‘Transcended’ anything ... let alone ‘Enlightenment’. There is one way, and only one way, to enable an actual freedom from the human condition: the total extirpation of ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul (the ‘self’ and the ‘Self’).

In a word: extinction.

RESPONDENT: Will the position you take that you are not a guru be upheld by the Actual Freedom Trust after you are no longer around to contradict that?

RICHARD: It is not a ‘position’ that I take ... it is an actuality that I am no latter-day atheistic ‘guru’ in any way, shape or form.

RESPONDENT: Will the Trust be a vehicle for establishing a new Non-Spiritual Organisation that sells Richard’s words to the masses by a carefully orchestrated P.R. campaign?

RICHARD: I have said before that The Actual Freedom Trust is simply a statutory legal body set-up to promulgate and promote the actualism words and writings, by fully explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice, for any one at all to access on-line totally free of charge.

I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: Will The ‘Actual Freedom Company’, ABN: 54 476 226 796, be selling Richard (tm) merchandise after your death?

RICHARD: The Actual Freedom Trust is already offering two items for sale: ‘Richard’s Journal’ (© 1997) in paper-back form, the essence of which is available for free on-line; and ‘Peter’s Journal’ (© 1997) in paperback form, which is currently available for free on-line in its totality. There are some rather vague notions to eventually offer an interactive CD for an, as yet undetermined, price ... and there may very well be other similar non-essential items as time goes by. These items have a price as they require assets to produce ... and any profits from the sale of these items goes toward meeting the cost of ensuring that the actualism words and writings, fully explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice, remain on-line for any one at all to access totally free of charge.

I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: By the way; what was your intention in registering the trading name ‘Actual Freedom Company’ operational since 1 June 2000? ABN: 54 476 226 796 ... and ... how come the existence of the ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ has been clearly announced on this list; as it should be; but as far as I am aware no mention has been made of the Trading Arm of the organisation?

RICHARD: First, neither myself nor any of the current directors devised the legal laws of this country; second, the law states that that a legal entity called a ‘Trust’ must have a legal entity called a ‘Trustee’ (in this case The Actual Freedom Company Pty. Ltd.); third, The Actual Freedom Trust is the ‘trading arm’ of The Actual Freedom Company Pty. Ltd. and not the other way around.

I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: Do you expect that the current or future directors of the trust that you helped establish will continue to understand that you are a normal man and not a Great Enlightened Master to be marketed like that?

RICHARD: I am not a ‘normal man’ ... I am a fellow human being sans ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul (the ‘self’ and the ‘Self’).

RESPONDENT: Do you have any knowledge at all about how the Actual Freedom Trust will develop in the propagation of your work in the future?

RICHARD: I see that I have already provided you with the following information:

• [Richard]: ‘I did not individually set up The Actual Freedom Trust. The Actual Freedom Trust is a statutory legal body that five nominal directors established in order to operate under for sensible commercial reasons. The words and writings promulgated and promoted by The Actual Freedom Trust explicate the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice in the market place. There is no meditating in silence or living in a monastery shut away from the world. There are no celibacy or obedience requirements. There are no dietary demands or daily regimes of exercise. No one is excluded by age or racial or gender origins. There are no courses to follow or therapies to undergo or workshops to endure. Furthermore, not only are there no prescribed books to study, the latest count shows that more than 3.1 million words are available for free on The Actual Freedom Web Page. There are no fees to pay or any clique to join ... there are no rules at all. I have no plan whatsoever ... there is no authority here in charge of a hierarchical organisation’.

It pleases me immensely that the way to access an actual freedom from the human condition is available for free.

RESPONDENT: Richard ... a few days ago I put forward my point of view that ‘Richard is an Artist and the material he works with is fools’. I have changed my viewpoint Richard. My current viewpoint is that ‘The Actual Freedom Trust’ is a vehicle and the driver they are using is a fool. My current viewpoint is that Richard you are being, or will be, used.

RICHARD: Hmm ... I recall that on 14/06/2000 you were proposing to the contributors to The Actual Freedom Mailing List that they consider participating in ‘... an actual freedom workshop, a weekend of exploring together what it means to be actually free on this planet in the year 2000 ... Byron Bay in the Spring’. This proposal of yours came just after your circular on 6/06/2000 advertising and promoting a spiritually-based tantric-sex workshop that you were collecting the $375.00 participation fee for.

You are not the only person to try to turn an actual freedom into a pay-as-you-participate religion ... and you will not be the last.

December 18 2000

RESPONDENT: Richard ... a few days ago I put forward my point of view that ‘Richard is an Artist and the material he works with is fools’. I have changed my viewpoint Richard. My current viewpoint is that ‘The Actual Freedom Trust’ is a vehicle and the driver they are using is a fool. My current viewpoint is that Richard you are being, or will be, used.

RICHARD: Hmm ... I recall that on 14/06/2000 you were proposing to the contributors to The Actual Freedom Mailing List that they consider participating in ‘... an actual freedom workshop, a weekend of exploring together what it means to be actually free on this planet in the year 2000 ... Byron Bay in the Spring’. This proposal of yours came just after your circular on 6/06/2000 advertising and promoting a spiritually-based tantric-sex workshop that you were collecting the $375.00 participation fee for. You are not the only person to try to turn an actual freedom into a pay-as-you-participate religion ... and you will not be the last.

RESPONDENT: Exactly; my point exactly.

RICHARD: Good. Have you ever noticed how honesty and facts sit so well together?

RESPONDENT: The Actual Freedom Trust will turn ‘your’ Actual freedom into a ‘pay-as-you-participate religion’, whilst all I and you do is write words.

RICHARD: If I may point out? Whatever it is that The Actual Freedom Trust may or may not do in some indeterminate future is purely speculative ... whereas, far from what you do is to merely ‘write words’, you have been and are currently attempting to turn an actual freedom into a pay-as-you-participate religion.

RESPONDENT: By the way; from various responses you give and have given and from discussions I have had back-channel there is a perception in me and certainly at least one other list member that you seem to lack the ability to discern irony when it is served up to you. Could that be part of your condition Richard?

RICHARD: No, I easily detect ‘irony’ ... along with sarcasm, derision, scorn, cynicism, disdain, mockery, insincerity and all other pathetic forms of wit. I simply do not dignify it into the status of being a valid comment by responding, by pandering to that thinly disguised malice that passes for humour in the real world. It is very obvious that sarcasm is a subtle form of abuse – verbal violence – and to be sarcastic is to obtain amusement at another’s expense ... it is a particularly cutting form of teasing, with vindictive undertones, and thus qualifies for the lowest rating on the humour scale. It is less obvious with irony yet, just as sarcasm is designed to make the recipient feel ridiculed, irony is designed to make the recipient feel rueful. They are thus both pathetic wit, even by definition, as the word ‘pathetic’ is derived from the root ‘pathos’, which indicates sorrow. Which all goes to show that the giver of either sarcasm or irony wishes the recipient to feel the incipient sorrow that is endemic among humans. Sorrow is a sickness that can lead, in extreme cases, to depression and suicide ... which I would not wish upon anyone. Thus sarcasm and irony are not what I, for one, consider fun.

Whereas to be facetious or droll, for example, is waggish ... a non-serious jesting.

RESPONDENT: By the way; do you pay for your lunch when you go to a restaurant? I am sure you do; it is curious to me why you continue to insist that the wisdom and experience of experts in delivering people further along the path to freedom SHOULD be given for FREE ...

RICHARD: Except that I never said that the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom ‘SHOULD be given for FREE’ at all. I said that it pleases me immensely that the way to access an actual freedom from the human condition is available on-line for free.

RESPONDENT: ... when you would hardly argue that the cook and the waiter and the corporation which built the restaurant deliver their services for free. I surmise from this fact that you Richard are not so free from Spirituality as you declare. Still you segmentalise understanding into 1. normal life which must be paid for 2. the religious, which must be free.

RICHARD: There does seem to be a rather pertinent fact you are overlooking in this theory of yours: this that pleases me immensely to be available on-line for free is the third alternative to either normal life or the spiritual life. As an actual freedom from the human condition is entirely new in human history the existing reasons and rationales do not apply ... there is no precedent for you to go by.

And why it pleases me immensely that the way to access an actual freedom from the human condition is available on-line is that is simply marvellous that I can sit here in my lounge-room in a seaside village and have my words be available, and potentially accessible by all 6.0 billion peoples on this planet (‘potentially’ meaning, of course, being given access to computers – such as in internet cafes – and the ability to read and comprehend English), totally free of charge ... and with nary a tree being chopped down in order to do so.

RESPONDENT: Richard you are not so free from ancient spiritual wisdom as you claim to be. I send you this email for free. I acknowledge value in the emails you send me and in the work you have done describing your state of mind. I ascribe value to your work; your play; your existence; to your being. It is a pity that you do not ascribe value to the work and play and being of others Richard.

RICHARD: If you had researched your subject, before mounting your case against me, by reading what I write you would have seen that I do indeed acknowledge those who have gone before. Viz.:

• [Richard]: ‘Words are vital as our means of communicating our understanding to one another. It is marvellous that we are able to be discussing these matters of great momentousness ... and momentous not only the individual, but for all of the humans that are living on this verdant planet. It is an amazing thing that not only are we humans able to be here experiencing this business of being alive ... on top of that we can think about and reflect upon what is entailed in words. In addition to this ability, we can communicate our discoveries to one another – comparing notes as it were – and further our understanding with this communal input. One does not have to rely only upon one’s own findings; it is possible, as one man famous in history put it, to reach beyond the current knowledge by standing upon the shoulders of those that went before. It is silly to disregard the results of other person’s enterprising essays into the ‘mystery of life’ – unless it is obviously bombast and blather – for one would have to invent the wheel all over again (however, it is only too possible to accept as set in concrete the accumulated ‘wisdom of the ages’ and remain stultified ... enfeebled by the insufferable psittacisms passed on from one generation to the next). Speaking personally, I am very appreciative of all those brave peoples who dared to enter into ‘The Unknown’ ... if it were not for them leaving their written words behind I could not be where I am today. Please, do not scorn words ... it is what sets us apart from the other sentient beings. It is only through words that peace-on-earth is possible’.

This particular example of me both acknowledging and expressing appreciation of ‘all those brave peoples’ is copy-pasted from the very second E-Mail exchange between you and me nearly two years ago ... you were obviously not reading, or only part reading, my responses to you ‘way back then. Another example available for free on The Actual Freedom Trust Web Site is this:

• [Richard]: ‘I first read Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1983 and, after reading hundreds of other authors on this subject since then, his articulate expression of the mystical solution to the human condition stands unsurpassed, as far as I am concerned (and no one can ever say that I have an uncritical acceptance). I would go so far as to say that no one else contributed so much, so clearly, and so consistently about the subject in the twentieth century. Even if such a contribution were only measured by the prodigious output and the vast collection of letters, diaries, other people’s recollections and so on ... but the eloquent language, yes, reflects his preparedness and his ability to subjectively explore with scant regard for traditional icons.’

And again, only last week, I was expressing appreciation. Viz.:

• [Richard]: ‘What I appreciated about Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti was his ‘doubt everything; question everything; even the speaker’ advice. Viz.:

• [quote]: ‘There are two things involved: the speaker is either talking out of the silence of truth, or he is talking out of the noise of an illusion, which he considers to be the truth (...) let us go slowly, for this is interesting. Who is going to judge, who is going to see the truth of the matter? The listener? The reader? You who are familiar with the Indian scriptures, Buddhism, the Upanishads, and know most of the contents of all that, are you capable of judging? (...) How will you find out? How will you approach the problem? (...) What is the criterion, the measure that you apply so that you can say ‘Yes that’s it’? (...) I’ll tell you what I would do. I would put aside his personality, his influence, all that, completely aside. Because I don’t want to be influenced; I am sceptical, doubtful, so I am very careful. I listen to him, and I don’t say ‘I know’ or ‘I don’t know’, but I am sceptical. I want to find out (...) I am sceptical in the sense that I don’t accept everything that is being said (...) I would rather use the word ‘doubt’, in the sense of ‘questioning’ ... I would put everything else aside, all the personal reputation, the charm, looks. I am not going to accept or reject, I am going to listen to find out. (‘The Wholeness Of Life’; March 22 1977; Ojai, California. © 1979 Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd.).

I could provide many, many more examples ... but I am not about to go searching throughout the web site any further for you just because you have no interest in doing so. Also, I have brought this lack of research to your attention several times before ... here is but one example:

• [Respondent]: ‘I find myself at a time in my life when I am much more interested in my own writing than anyone else’s’.
• [Richard]: ‘Okay ... this goes some way towards explaining why you have hobbled yourself before you even start’.
• [Respondent]: ‘That is why I just scanned your millions of words’.
• [Richard]: ‘Yet the computer counts 3,934 words on that page I provided a link to ... not millions’.
• [Respondent]: ‘I admit; I did not even read the bit where your correspondent refuted somewhat his previous claim’.
• [Richard]: ‘Okay ... I have taken note of just how well researched your entire case against me is’.
• [Respondent]: ‘The important thing is that it is a judgment of the correspondent at a certain time and a judgment of mine’.
• [Richard]: ‘Indeed it is. And the respondent gave a conditional retraction giving reasons why their judgement had been faulty (disbelief in freedom per se) ... and it also turns out that that respondent had not actually read any of my writings anyway before mounting their case against me. And this is an oversight that kind of crippled them from the start. Would you say that it pays to be well-informed before commencing a critique?
• [Respondent]: ‘I have read quite some of your words; but certainly not a majority. At the moment it does not interest me to read more’.
• [Richard]: ‘May I ask? Why do you handicap yourself this way whilst conducting your case against me? And might I add something rather pertinent before you proceed much further? I would sincerely suggest a pause at this juncture as you may want to take some time out, upon reflection, to reconsider your current course of action. I say this, not just because of the lack of research indicated above, but because the whole thrust of your case against me is based upon spurious reasoning drawn from a viewpoint which you hold to be ‘correct and true’.

And thus far, although you allow that your viewpoint may not be ‘correct and true’, there has been no indication of any willingness to actually allow that it may not be.

RESPONDENT: I am still curious how that tendency came to arise in you and ... I do not intend to take the classic Freudian approach ... I have little interest in your early life on the farm, or your relationship with your parents or siblings. What I would be interested in hearing about though Richard is your experience in Vietnam. I imagine it was quite traumatic was it? I have a hypothesis; which the more discerning readers may be picking up; and all I am capable of is drawing out Richard enough to elucidate my hypothesis. I leave it to more competent systematic researchers in the psychiatric field to determine whether my hypothesis is correct. I stated it yesterday; I restate it as a question Richard: is it possible that you are harbouring inside yourself – and protecting yourself from knowledge of – a deep agonising sense of ultimate and absolute betrayal as a consequence of an event that occurred in actuality in this life in the flesh and blood body in Vietnam. It is the best hypothesis I have; alternatives I see are that you are stupid; that you have an underlying intent to create provocative literature; that in fact you are an artist like me who deserves respect for his art; or that you are being used.

RICHARD: As all these hypotheses are based upon the false premise that I do not acknowledge and express appreciation to those who have gone before they are bound to be erroneous hypotheses ... which they indubitably are.

RESPONDENT: The hypothesis that you are benign and harmless and free of malice and sorrow I hold as proved incorrect. It is not the case. I have documented consistently my observation that by persistently categorising the contributions of humans into WRONG normal and spiritual possibilities, or RIGHT Richard possibilities; you are propagating, continuing, and enhancing malicious disrespectful and legally reprehensible and offensive behaviour.

RICHARD: Are you really suggesting that anyone – anyone at all – who makes a discovery about anything at all relating to human life on this planet, which discovery advances human knowledge and improves the quality of human life, should keep that discovery to themselves just because you are lurking in the wings waiting to pounce upon them for having the audacity to point out that there is a better way of doing something? How can anyone say that the current way is the wrong way without saying that it is the wrong way? Golly, just try driving your car north along a south-bound one-way street ... and as sure as eggs is eggs there is a large red sign saying:

‘Turn Around ... You Are Going The Wrong Way!’

RESPONDENT: In no way are you free of malice. In no way are you free of ego or self. You are no more free of ego and self than I am. The only difference is that I am free of denial and you are not.

RICHARD: If you say so then it is so ... for you, that is. Given your documented inaccuracies in other areas I will keep my own counsel on the matter.

RESPONDENT: And as such you are certainly not ‘enabling peace-on-earth, in this lifetime, as this flesh and blood body’. Far from it Mr. Richard.

RICHARD: Not so ... when I go to bed at night I have had a perfect day and I know that I will wake up to yet another day of perfection. This has been going on, day-after-day, for years now ever since the identity (‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul) who was inhabiting this body ontologically ‘self’-immolated and autologically ‘Self’-Immolated for the good of this body and every body ... thus enabling the already always existing peace-on-earth into being stunningly apparent each moment again.

It is so ‘normal’ that I take it for granted that there is only perfection.

December 19 2000

RESPONDENT: Richard you are not so free from ancient spiritual wisdom as you claim to be. I send you this email for free. I acknowledge value in the emails you send me and in the work you have done describing your state of mind. I ascribe value to your work; your play; your existence; to your being. It is a pity that you do not ascribe value to the work and play and being of others Richard.

RICHARD: If you had researched your subject, before mounting your case against me, by reading what I write you would have seen that I do indeed acknowledge those who have gone before. Viz.: [Richard]: ‘... speaking personally, I am very appreciative of all those brave peoples who dared to enter into ‘The Unknown’ ... if it were not for them leaving their written words behind I could not be where I am today ...’. This particular example of me both acknowledging and expressing appreciation of ‘all those brave peoples’ is copy-pasted from the very second E-Mail exchange between you and me nearly two years ago ... you were obviously not reading, or only part reading, my responses to you ‘way back then ... I could provide many, many more examples but I am not about to go searching throughout the web site any further for you just because you have no interest in doing so.

RESPONDENT: Your simplistic classification scheme documented profusely on various websites and mailing lists is that all the contributions of ‘those who have gone before’ have come to nought.

RICHARD: Indeed – there is as much misery and mayhem now as back then – but that is another issue. What I am pointing out here is that I both acknowledge and appreciate all that peoples have discovered thus far.

RESPONDENT: They have been superseded by the until now unavailable way of the actual freedom trust.

RICHARD: No ... their discoveries have been superseded by my discovery. The Actual Freedom Trust is simply a statutory legal body set-up to promulgate and promote the actualism words and writings, by fully explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice, for any one at all to access on-line totally free of charge.

I have noticed that a lot of your focus is being sidetracked onto attacking a statutory legal entity.

RESPONDENT: The way of normality and the way of the spiritual have been the ONLY options humans have had till now ...

RICHARD: Exactly ... either materialism or spiritualism.

RESPONDENT: ... and your way has now arrived and ... you clearly state that we must turn around 180 degrees and renounce our past, including the contributions that those who came before us have made to our freedom.

RICHARD: Hmm ... this is the way I have put it time and again:

• [Richard]: ‘Nothing that I am on about will you find in the scriptures. Nothing. Eventually one has no recourse but to face the facts and the actuality of the human situation squarely. Which is: if the ‘ancient wisdom’ is so good, why has it not worked? How long must we try something before abandoning it in favour of something more promising? There is as much animosity and anguish now as back then. The experiment has failed. Love and its Compassion; Beauty and its Truth have had thousands of years to demonstrate their efficacy ... where is the evidence that they should be persevered with? Where is the Peace On Earth that they supposedly promised? Clear the work-bench and start fresh. Learn from those that have gone before and move on’.

I do see the words ‘learn from those that have gone before and move on’ ... couple this with my ‘I am very appreciative of all those brave peoples who dared to enter into ‘The Unknown’; if it were not for them leaving their written words behind I could not be where I am today’ and you will see I do both acknowledge and appreciate ‘the contributions that those who came before’. What seems to be the nub of the issue is that I do not and will not ‘ascribe value to the work and play and being of others’ which is of importance to you ... it is a constantly recurring theme in your posts. Perhaps if I put it this way:

I acknowledge and appreciate the contributions of all the peoples who puzzled over and proposed and explored the ‘flat earth theory’ and the ‘geocentric cosmology’ for umpteen years but I ascribe no value whatsoever to their work ... I ascribe value to those who proposed a ‘spherical earth’ and the ‘heliocentric system’.

I have only ever been interested in facts and actuality.

RESPONDENT: You are incredibly ungrateful Richard.

RICHARD: You are tipping on only half of it ... there is nary a trace of either gratitude nor ingratitude in me.

RESPONDENT: You are rude and arrogant Richard. At least acknowledge it; and take your seat in the community of humans as you are entitled to.

RICHARD: I have had variations on this theme thrown at me for years and years ... ‘don’t be uppity’; ‘who do you think you are’; ‘you need to learn to know your place’ and so on. Peoples like to fondly quote that ‘the emperor has no clothes’ homily but ... but never, ever have the audacity to demonstrate that the emperor actually has no clothes or we will jump on you from a great height and say: No, no, no, just take your place amongst all us other humans, Richard ... 6.0 billion of us can’t possibly be wrong, you know.

And so all the wars and murders and rapes and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse and suicides go on forever and a day.

December 19 2000

RESPONDENT: Richard, I assume that the Actual Freedom Trust will retain copyright of your life work after your demise. Will the Actual Freedom Trust at that time begin to accept donations to support their work in presenting Richard as the Only Person to have Transcended Enlightenment and Entered Actual Freedom?

RICHARD: I have not ‘Transcended’ anything ... let alone ‘Enlightenment’. There is one way, and only one way, to enable an actual freedom from the human condition: the total extirpation of ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul (the ‘self’ and the ‘Self’). In a word: extinction.

RESPONDENT: Richard, are you intentionally misrepresenting and misunderstanding and refocusing the questions I am asking you; or does it happen without your intervention?

RICHARD: I am in no way ‘misrepresenting and misunderstanding’ the questions you ask me ... but I am indeed ‘refocussing’ your attempts to misrepresent and misunderstand what I have to say. And I have pointed out to you before this tendency of yours ... and advised you of the consequences of continuing to do so. Viz.:

• [Respondent]: ‘I am sure that the readers to come will be able to evaluate for themselves how much value or correspondence to reality our words jointly as a conversation; and individually as statements about the point of view we each maintain, have for them. And that is completely up to them’.
• [Richard]: ‘As I am cognisant of the fact that you ‘maintain’ a ‘point of view’ – one that you hold to be ‘correct and true’ – I am aware that from your ‘point of view’ you see that I have one too ... which is why you keep on slipping it in as if it were fact. But maybe you have not yet woken up to the obvious: that by continuing to do so you make it impossible for yourself to receive any kind of engaged response from me which relates meaningfully to your topic’.

It would appear that you do not want an engaged response from me as you continue to ask loaded questions ... which is what happened in this post. There is no way I can answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ or ‘I do not know’ to such a blatantly false question as ‘... in presenting Richard as the Only Person to have Transcended Enlightenment and Entered Actual Freedom’ when I have made it perfectly clear many, many times that I have not ‘Transcended’ anything ... let alone ‘Enlightenment’. Here is another from this particular E-Mail:

• [Respondent]: ‘Will the position you take that you are not a guru be upheld by the Actual Freedom Trust after you are no longer around to contradict that?’
• [Richard]: ‘It is not a ‘position’ that I take ... it is an actuality that I am no latter-day atheistic ‘guru’ in any way, shape or form’.

There is no way I can answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ or ‘I do not know’ to such a blatantly false question as ‘will the position you take that you are not a guru ...’ when I have made it perfectly clear many, many times that it is not a ‘position’ that I take but an actuality that I am no latter-day atheistic ‘guru’ in any way, shape or form. Here is another from this particular E-Mail:

• [Respondent]: ‘Do you expect that the current or future directors of the trust that you helped establish will continue to understand that you are a normal man and not a Great Enlightened Master to be marketed like that?’
• [Richard]: ‘I am not a ‘normal man’ ... I am a fellow human being sans ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul (the ‘self’ and the ‘Self’).

There is no way I can answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ or ‘I do not know’ to such a blatantly false question as ‘will continue to understand that you are a normal man and not a Great Enlightened Master...’ when I have made it perfectly clear many, many times that ‘I am not a ‘normal man’ ... I am a fellow human being sans ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul (the ‘self’ and the ‘Self’).

And last of all – albeit most importantly – was where you asked:

• [Respondent]: ‘Do you have any knowledge at all about how the Actual Freedom Trust will develop in the propagation of your work in the future?’

... and I provided yet again the following information:

• [Richard]: ‘I did not individually set up The Actual Freedom Trust. The Actual Freedom Trust is a statutory legal body that five nominal directors established in order to operate under for sensible commercial reasons. The words and writings promulgated and promoted by The Actual Freedom Trust explicate the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice in the market place. There is no meditating in silence or living in a monastery shut away from the world. There are no celibacy or obedience requirements. There are no dietary demands or daily regimes of exercise. No one is excluded by age or racial or gender origins. There are no courses to follow or therapies to undergo or workshops to endure. Furthermore, not only are there no prescribed books to study, the latest count shows that more than 3.1 million words are available for free on The Actual Freedom Web Page. There are no fees to pay or any clique to join ... there are no rules at all. I have no plan whatsoever ... there is no authority here in charge of a hierarchical organisation’.

... you do not seem to ‘get it’ that I mean it where I say:

• [Richard]: ‘I have no plan whatsoever ... there is no authority here in charge of a hierarchical organisation’.

I cannot do anything other than keep on repeating it until (a) it either finally sinks in that I both mean what I say and say what I mean ... or (b) you go away to more gullible pastures (there are those who do).

Nobody is twisting your arm to have these discussions but yourself.

December 19 2000

RESPONDENT: The ‘Actual Freedom Trust’ that was set up to ... to accept donations. Have donations been made by the way?

RICHARD: The Actual Freedom Trust was not set-up ‘to accept donations’ at all. I have said before that The Actual Freedom Trust is simply a statutory legal body set-up to promulgate and promote the actualism words and writings by fully explicating the workings of an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice. It has no need of ‘donations’ whatsoever ... it only costs a few hundred dollars per anum to keep the millions of words available for any one at all to access totally free of charge. I mean it when I say that there is no hidden agenda.

RESPONDENT: Have donations been made by the way?

RICHARD: Yes ... the various directors of The Actual Freedom Trust have, to differing degrees and according to their inclination and/or interest, either donated umpteen hours of time and expertise to researching, writing, composing, formatting, uploading, downloading and so on or have put-up differing amounts of cash out of their own pockets as required (legal expenses, book-printing outlays, bank charges, registration fees, equipment costs and so on).

The purchase, upgrades and maintenance of all the computers and software alone amounts to over AUS$35,000.00. It would be well nigh impossible to put an accurate monetary value upon the time and expertise: the accountant who attended to the legalities of establishing The Actual Freedom Trust has, as a going rate, AUS$120.00 per hour for their time and expertise ... therefore, over the last three or so years, a conservative estimate (5,000 hours at $100.00 per hour) would put the donated time and expertise in researching, writing, composing, formatting, uploading, downloading and so on somewhere in the vicinity of AUS$500,000.00.

‘Tis only an approximate guess, though.

December 20 2000

RESPONDENT: Normally I would not persist in persisting Mr. Richard. but you have claimed you are free and I am not. In fact; I am beginning to suspect it is the other way around ... but at least I accord you the right to claim freedom for yourself Mr Richard.

RICHARD: There is more to an actual freedom from the human condition than having ‘the right to claim freedom for yourself’ ... it means getting off one’s backside and actually doing something about one’s malice and sorrow and the antidotal pacifiers of love and compassion. It means enabling peace-on-earth, in this lifetime, as this flesh and blood body.

RESPONDENT: And ... you are the only person on the planet doing that?

RICHARD: For as far as I have been able to establish thus far ... I have travelled the country – and overseas – talking with many and varied peoples from all walks of life; I have been watching TV, videos, films, whatever media is available; I have been reading about other people’s experiences in books, journals, magazines, newspapers (and latterly on the internet) for twenty years now, for information on an actual freedom from the human condition, but to no avail.

I would be delighted to hear about such people ... so as to compare notes, as it were.

RESPONDENT: Are you aware that in Australia recent legislation will make such a spurious claim on your part not only fanciful and rude and arrogant; but blatantly illegal as well?

RICHARD: It is not a ‘spurious claim’ as it is simply a fact. If you know of such a person, or persons please let me know.

RESPONDENT: You have no right to announce that your Third way is the only way and that all other ways fit into your simplistic categorisation scheme as normal or spiritual and thus FALSE.

RICHARD: It is not a question of having ‘no right’ (or having the ‘right’) ... a fact just sits there making your ‘no right’ (or ‘right’) look silly. It is a fact that there has been only two ways thus far in human history – materialism and spiritualism – and it is a fact that there is now a third alternative. Facts can not be legislated out of existence.

RESPONDENT: You are publicly and permanently making claims that will under the present or future laws of Australia rend you and/or the Actual freedom Trust liable to prosecution. That is a statement of my considered opinion.

RICHARD: I have noticed that this whole area of litigation and lawsuit rather dominates your thinking ... nothing like getting the law on your side to prevent an outbreak of peace-on-earth, eh?

RESPONDENT: I spend a lot of each day reading the mainstream media. Australia is surely one of the most advanced countries in the world. I find it immensely interesting and satisfying that Australia – long declared a nation of multiple religions – has recently adopted the legal position – still to be thoroughly tested – that it is not legally permissible for one religion to claim that they have a monopoly on truth. Fortunately Actual Freedom is not a Religion ... ;) ? ... so you may have longer to go before your case ends up in court. It is not only wrong and indefensible of you Richard to claim that you are the only one to be enabling peace on earth in this very lifetime in this very flesh and blood body – soon it will be legally troublesome for you and the Trust that propagates your work. You will have to defend yourselves in an Actual Court, rather than this Virtual one that I give you the benefit of practising in.

RICHARD: As there is not the slightest trace of religiosity, spirituality, mysticality or metaphysicality in me whatsoever this is a complete waste of a paragraph ... an actual freedom from the human condition is not a religion, is not a spiritual liberation, is not a mystical inner reality ... nor any metaphysical retreat from the physical. I acknowledge no god or gods or goddesses whatsoever ... other than again revealing the litigious nature of your mind, when it comes to an actual discussion about enabling peace-on-earth, this paragraph of yours contributes zilch to an honest discussion.

RESPONDENT: My perspective is valuable to you Richard; please do not continue to deride it.

RICHARD: I have explained to you before that I am not doing anything so petty as using schoolyard tactics to ‘deride’ this perspective which you say is valuable to you ... I chucked everything religious, spiritual, mystical and metaphysical into the waste-bin of history where it belongs years before I ever had contact with you. You can, of course, continue to take it personally if that suits you ... but you are endlessly moving ordure in the ascending plane when it comes to pinning the cause of you activating your feeling of being derided, when coming upon my words years later, to me personally deriding you.

RESPONDENT: OSHO’s perspective is valuable to me; as is Veeresh’s and Krishnamurti’s (sic) and Raman Maharshi’s, and Hellmut wolf’s and yours Richard. Please hear that.

RICHARD: I have been hearing you all along.

RESPONDENT: I attack you because you deride and negate and slander against the names of people ...

RICHARD: Where is the ‘slander’? The saints and sages and seers are hanging themselves by their own words as I always provide annotated quotes from accredited sources. For example, perfection is not possible here on earth, according to one self-acknowledged enlightened master:

• [Mr. Mohan ‘Rajneesh’ Jain]: ‘Unless humanity gets rid of the idea of perfection it is never going to be sane. The very idea of perfection has driven the whole of mankind to a state of madness (...) you are trying to do the impossible, which you know perfectly well is not going to happen – it cannot happen in the very nature of things (...) Perfection means a full stop, perfection means ultimate death; then there is no way to go beyond it. I would like you to remember again and again, I am imperfect, the whole universe is imperfect, and to love this imperfection, to rejoice in this imperfection is my whole message (...) I don’t want you to be perfect. I want you to be just as perfectly imperfect as possible. Rejoice in your imperfections! (‘The Goose is Out’ Chapter 5. Author: Osho. Publisher: Rebel Publishing House. ISBN: 81 7261 014 9. Copyright © Osho International Foundation).

And thus all over the world sannyasins, ex-sannyasins, non-sannyasins, friends of osho, or whatever name they go by these days, are dutifully loving their imperfections, rejoicing in their imperfections ... and sitting in cafes, for example, telling their fellow human beings to ‘fuck off’. Viz.:

• [Respondent]: ‘... recently in a cafe in Byron Bay when Vineeto came to me and I invited her to sit down and I was half way thru a sentence when she interrupted I immediately spontaneously told her to fuck-Off. And she did. She activated her Free Actuality and fucked off to the next table. I told her to fuck off because I am a human being with self with a history with value ...’.

This reality is in marked contrast to your recently stated idealism. Vis:

• [Respondent]: ‘There is only one position to take in order to bring an end to suffering and malice and sorrow and ignorance. When you meet another person enjoy their company. When another person offers you their company freely, enjoy the opportunity. Richard missed an opportunity. ‘I enjoy your company; you enjoy mine’. Simple ... the way to Actual Freedom is simple: step one, is to welcome people as they are and enjoy their company ...’.

As these are your very own words that are hanging you I again ask: where is the ‘slander’?

RESPONDENT: ... who have made it possible for you to reach the understanding of how to communicate the Actuality of Freedom to your readers. You owe many people an intellectual debt and you refuse to acknowledge it.

RICHARD: If you had researched your subject, before mounting your case against me, by reading what I write you would have seen that I do indeed acknowledge those who have gone before. Viz.: [Richard]: ‘... speaking personally, I am very appreciative of all those brave peoples who dared to enter into ‘The Unknown’ ... if it were not for them leaving their written words behind I could not be where I am today ...’. This particular example of me both acknowledging and expressing appreciation of ‘all those brave peoples’ is copy-pasted from the very second E-Mail exchange between you and me nearly two years ago ... you were obviously not reading, or only part reading, my responses to you ‘way back then ... I could provide many, many more examples but I am not about to go searching throughout the web site any further for you just because you have no interest in doing so.

RESPONDENT: The time will come when software will be able to analyse your 50 million words and apportion the amount you owe those who came before you to each of those people. It is the 25 year project of the Xanadu organisation to be able to prevent writers from claiming intellectual origination for themself when in fact their cogitation is dependant on those who have written before them.

RICHARD: But other people’s intellectual cogitations (conceptualisations) mean nothing to me ... I live the actuality and, as the actual cannot be copyrighted or trademarked, it is freely available each moment again.

RESPONDENT: We are all interdependent Richard; that is a fact of this actual world.

RICHARD: What you have told me about this actual world so far could be written on the point of a pin in capital letters ... and there would still be room left for the period.

RESPONDENT: To claim for yourself such a special status – the only man with no ‘self’ – is going to create trouble for you and the actual freedom trust in the time ahead.

RICHARD: How? I have been examined by two accredited psychiatrists – one of whom examined me over a three-year period – and by a psychologist qualified in the field who came weekly to my home during the same three-year period.

My condition is all officially diagnosed, recognised and recorded.

RESPONDENT: As your friend; and a traveller on the journey with you for the last 25 years or so; as a fellow human being doing what I must do, and what I alone can do to play my unique part in ‘enabling peace-on-earth, in this lifetime, as this flesh and blood body’; and as a professional Computer Scientist and writer I implore you to consider more deeply the path you are taking.

RICHARD: Yet nothing you have written so far indicates that you have any inkling of what the journey I took entails ... let alone begun to travel on it.

RESPONDENT: Your claims offend me; they offend others, and eventually that offence on your part will have to be confronted by you or your legacy trust.

RICHARD: Surely you are not suggesting that the acknowledgement of facts should depend upon whether they offend you or not?

RESPONDENT: I do not have the malicious intent to carry though with this; I offer this virtual examination of you and your claims because I enjoyed your company immensely each time we met in Byron Bay; and I love the way you challenge the spirituality that so many people on this planet hide behind.

RICHARD: Yet it would appear that you do not ‘love the way’ that the facts I proffer challenge whatever it is that you hide behind, eh?

RESPONDENT: You might be surprised to learn that I agree with most of what you present ...

RICHARD: You might be surprised to learn how little you agree with what I present if you ever get around to reading it.

RESPONDENT: I know actual freedom directly ...

RICHARD: You have yet to demonstrate that in the words you offer.

RESPONDENT: I do not need your words to facilitate that in me; I know the Actuality Behind the Self ...

RICHARD: There is no actuality to the ‘Actuality Behind the Self’ ... only a massive delusion lies there. That what you call ‘Actual Truth’ is ‘God’ by Whatever Name.

RESPONDENT: And ... still I wish to repeat again in the hope that you hear it ... you offend and transcend maliciously when you insist on deriding the work of the human beings who accompany you in your state of Actual Freedom.

RICHARD: I do ‘hear it’ ... and I have been hearing it all along. It is you who have not been hearing me ... you and these other human beings, whom you say are accompanying me in an actual freedom from the human condition, are doing no such thing as accompanying me. Viz.:

• [Respondent]: ‘I prefer gifted people like you who have found a way to express the perennial philosophy uniquely and freshly’.

As an actual freedom from the human condition is entirely new then this ‘perennial philosophy’ that you are resurrecting is but the ‘Tried and True’ in a different disguise.


CORRESPONDENT No 12 (Part Ten)

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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.

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