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Richard’s Correspondence On The Actual Freedom Mailing List With Correspondent No. 18
RESPONDENT: Richard, could it be that at least one person has accepted the challenge of this great, great man J. Krishnamurti (or as he preferred to call himself K). Could it be that the impossible has become possible? Are you the perfect response to that question? RICHARD: I presume you are referring to this ‘impossible question’ ?
If so then it is a pointless question to ask – to live in perfect peace on earth is eternally possible – and to enable this already always existing pristine perfection to be apparent the vital question to ask oneself, each moment again, is: ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’
RESPONDENT: Richard, could it be that at least one person has accepted the challenge of this great, great man J. Krishnamurti (or as he preferred to call himself K). Could it be that the impossible has become possible? Are you the perfect response to that question? RICHARD: I presume you are referring to this ‘impossible question’ ? [quote]: ‘If you put an impossible question, your mind then has to find the answer in terms of the impossible – not what is possible’. (‘The Impossible Question’ ; J. Krishnamurti; Published by Penguin Arkana; ISBN or Code: 0-14-019242-5). If so then it is a pointless question to ask – to live in perfect peace on earth is eternally possible – and to enable this already always existing pristine perfection to be apparent the vital question to ask oneself, each moment again, is: ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ RESPONDENT: Thanks for your reply (I accidentally deleted it from my Hotmail but fortunately it was still there at your site). By the way I like your website really very playful – respondent No. 18 as I recall. The response you gave to the ‘impossible question’ was: if it’s impossible to answer it’s ‘pointless’ to ask. RICHARD: Oh, I did not say that it is pointless to ask an impossible question because ‘it’s impossible to answer’ ... I said that it is pointless because it is eternally possible to live in perfect peace on earth (the actual is far, far superior to a fantasy any day of the week). RESPONDENT: So hence you ask a ‘vital’ question: How am I living my life this moment? RICHARD: Only if one wishes to enable the already always existing pristine perfection into being apparent is it that the vital question to ask oneself, each moment again, is ‘how am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’. If one wishes to transcend the ‘real world’ reality and experience life from the timeless and spaceless and formless void then one is well-advised to ask an impossible question. RESPONDENT: Yet I keep wondering what would be an impossible question just because I find this question fascinating not ‘pointless’ (sorry for maybe misspelling, I’m Dutch). RICHARD: Indeed it is fascinating ... it has successfully fascinated maybe 0.0000001 of the population for 3,000 to 5,000 years of recorded history. But it has no relationship with enabling peace-on-earth as all the wars and murders and rapes and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse and suicides will go on forever and a day whilst one is swanning along in a dissociated and solipsistic state of consciousness. All the misery and mayhem is seen as being a ‘Divine Dance’. RESPONDENT: Because I think nobody has ever yet formulated that question and, as I once heard J. Krishnamurti say, the answer lies perhaps in the question itself, maybe then the impossible answer is the response to the impossible question. RICHARD: The question has been formulated many, many times – the mystical literature is full of it – as it is a
spiritual paradox to be meditated upon rather than thought-through sequentially. It is like the Koans An ‘Impossible Question’ is this: Who am ‘I’? The reason that it is called an impossible question is that one will never get a satisfying ‘thought-through’ answer ... ‘I’, who wishes to know who ‘I’ am, can never know who ‘I’ is. This is because the would-be knower is the very subject who is desirous of being known. Hence the appellation: ‘The Impossible Question’. So why does one ask it? Simply stated, if it is asked in such a way as to not get a ‘thought-through’ answer – a way called ‘dhyana’ in India and mistranslated as ‘meditation’ in the West – something mystical happens. Thought blows its fuses and ‘I’ cease to exist as an ego, for ‘I’ as ego am nothing much more than a psychological entity. Then one is living the answer in an apotheosised field of consciousness and has the power of attaining to direct metaphysical knowledge without evident rational thought and inference. In other words, one now intuitively knows who ‘We’ all are. ‘We’ are the ‘Self’ (by Whatever Name) ... the second ‘I’ of Mr. Venkataraman Aiyer (aka Ramana) fame.
RESPONDENT: Richard sorry to do it this way again but the original message has been deleted so this a box have been emptied and now is being filled up. There is an understanding of a claim being of you being ‘actual free’ however the I in this is confusing. RICHARD: There are three I’s altogether but only one is actual ... I am this flesh and blood body only. The first two ‘I’s are ‘I’ as ego and ‘I’ as soul (‘self’ and ‘Self’) ... thus the first ‘I’ (‘I’ as ego/‘I’ the ‘self’) can dissolve/expand so as to reveal/create the second ‘I’ of Mr. Venkataraman Aiyer fame (‘I’ as soul/‘I’ as ‘Self’). Usually I write it as ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul so as to emphasise that the second ‘I’ of Mr. Venkataraman Aiyer fame (‘I’ as soul/‘I’ as ‘Self’) is ‘me’ at the core of ‘my’ being ... which is ‘being’ itself. Put simply: I use the first person pronoun, without smart quotes, to refer to this flesh and blood body sans ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul. RESPONDENT: Also there are some others who are being acknowledged to be virtual free. RICHARD: Yes ... that acknowledgement is entirely up to that person (I decline to be a probity policeman) as I would have to be a fly on the wall for x-number of months to give any meaningful tick of approval. RESPONDENT: There’ll be no nitpicking into definitions but as is being understood here: there is made a distinction between individuals being actual free of the human condition, those who are virtually (in process towards actual freedom) or neither. RICHARD: Yes ... a virtual freedom is characterised by being as happy and harmless as is humanly possible for 99% of the time (relatively free of malice and sorrow). The remaining 1% (an arbitrary figure) causes very little trouble as one quickly gets back onto the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom by virtue of the debilitating feelings ringing the alarm bell. The way to effect this felicitous/ innocuous state is by asking oneself, each moment again: How am I experiencing this moment of being alive? RESPONDENT: So wouldn’t it be more correct to state that the brain that has been labelled for purpose of communications as ‘Richard’ is functioning from an actual free state? RICHARD: Except that it is the entire body which is actually free from the human condition ... I would only say ‘yes’ to your sentence provided that it is understood that there is no distinction whatsoever betwixt body and brain (as in that body/mind dichotomy so beloved of Mr. René Descartes, for example). RESPONDENT: And so far this has not yet happened to any individual (human) in history. RICHARD: Not as far as I have been able to ascertain over twenty years of avid interest in finding such a person or persons (I would very much like to compare notes, as it were). RESPONDENT: This brain that has been freed of the limitations of the so called human brain/mind/soul condition, is a brain that is function with a totally different energy then the brain that has this (human brain condition). RICHARD: It is the same-same energy as any other flesh and blood body operates with – a calorific energy – except that it is a freed calorific energy ... characterised as crystal clarity, perfect purity and pristine perfection. RESPONDENT: Also that this brain is available to support other ‘brains’ to, their ... here ... is some hesitation ... call it support in this process of achieving actual freedom. RICHARD: I can only suggest ... I can offer tips, hints, clues, anecdotes, insider information and so on. Essentially my words can act as an affirmation for another in that their own experience is common to humankind ... and act as confirmation in that a fellow human being has safely walked the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition. I cannot save anyone. RESPONDENT: Note brain of respondent is not actual free but claims to be virtual free and would like to be acknowledged as such if this is perceived as an actual fact ... if not. (Please kindly apply corrections to incorrect use of words or incorrect phrasing sentences, as brain of respondent has been conditioned primarily to make use of the Dutch language to communicate). RICHARD: As I have already said, any acknowledgement is entirely up to that person (I decline to be a probity policeman) and, if it be an inaccurate assessment – or a false claim – publicly made then such a fooling of others only makes a fool out of oneself (one’s suffering still goes on privately). Only a fool would fool oneself by trying to fool others ... ‘tis a fail-safe system.
RESPONDENT: As mentioned in previous posts I’m not into or for nitpicking in general, however when highly pretentious study material is being offered (even with no charge), one is entitled to expect that at least the phrasing* of a sentence is done correctly (* making use of the tool (use of language in this case) to one’s best abilities and with utmost care). RICHARD: It may be useful for me to explain that what I write is expressive prose – it is not a thesis – as I am conveying the lavish exhilaration of life itself. My writing is not intended to stand literary scrutiny for scholarly style and form and content and so on – the academics would have a field-day with it – for it is an active catalyst which will catapult the reader, who reads with all their being, into this magical wonder-land that this verdant planet is. RESPONDENT: In trying to convey a vital aspect of a message in which one makes an effort to attract and/or increase the attention of the reader to a certain product (in this case actual freedom being presented as a worldview that is offering a better, if not the only alternative to historical human endeavour (i.e. religious, scientific, artistic or philosophical or any other way to improve the human condition <human life on Planet earth>) it is imperative, in my opinion, that this message is clear and leaves no room for upfront misinterpretation* (being or becoming in a state of *disagreement with the one who makes an effort to convey his message clearly). RICHARD: Those people who wish to study the relationship between these words and the people who read them may come to notice that there is at least three possible outcomes in the dynamics of the connection: a reactive effect, a responsive effect ... and action. I choose my words carefully and they are consciously designed for a specific effect: nothing I say is intended to produce a reactive effect ... all my words are sufficiently challenging to stimulate, motivate and initiate active investigation (and perhaps a responsive discussion). RESPONDENT: Hence it might be wise if at least in an Header of a message there are no traces of any presumptuousness or maybe even arrogance (in case of severe misinterpretation from the readers side, be this interpreting either purposely or not purposely). RICHARD: When I checked the Home Page of the Web Site, so as to refresh my memory as to what you are reading, I see the following words (in regards your concerns about ‘presumptuousness’ ):
As it is ‘tried and tested’ there cannot be, therefore, any presumption (assumption, conjecture, supposition, presupposition, belief, guess, deduction, opinion and so on) about an actual freedom from the human condition whatsoever (it is an on-going lived experiencing). And I see the following words (in regards your concerns about ‘arrogance’ ):
I would challenge anyone the walk a path that is ‘wondrous’ (amazing, astounding, astonishing, spectacular, stunning,
splendid, fabulous, incredible, unbelievable and so on) and still remain arrogant ... hence there being no need to practice humility. What ensues
when one walks through the world in a state of wide-eyed wonder and amazement (naiveté) This is because an actual freedom from the human condition is an on-going lived experiencing ... not a ‘worldview’. RESPONDENT: Having considered that my approach of this worldview possibly may have had a hidden (unconscious) resistance (unwillingness to receive and copy a message as presented and next to evaluate and digest and next reinterpret and test if the message was being received as to the intent of the sender) I have followed the suggestion of one of the member (Peter) to restudy the first page of the material and this is what I came with: ‘Thus far one has had only two choices: being normal or being spiritual’. I wonder if that is a correct statement. I find it difficult to take and agree with that. RICHARD: Simple. Try to find some ‘choices’ that are neither being normal (secular) nor being spiritual (sacred). An active investigation is the key to success. RESPONDENT: Is the meaning of this statement*? (‘Thus far there have been only* two ways of living available’). These being one way the ‘normal’ traditionally accepting religious and moral values without any questioning or testing the validity, vitality or benefits of these values and therefore obeying blindly any either outward or inward authority without challenging or questioning this authority being relatively satisfied with the way of life that is provided by following this path. RICHARD: In this context ‘normal’ means being ‘human’, being ‘natural’, being a ‘humanist’, being a ‘materialist’ and so on. RESPONDENT: The second way being the assumption of a higher force power that can be asked for assistance to improve the quality of experience of a human being or even through a personal effort like for instance in Zen meditation. RICHARD: In this context ‘spiritual’ means being ‘divine’, being ‘supernatural’, being a ‘theist’, being a ‘mystic’ and so on. RESPONDENT: Historically it can be verified that here have been people who followed that second path and some of them claim that the achieved result in doing so (the following of that path) has been highly beneficial to themself if not generically speaking a goal to realise for everybody’s benefit (in other words something goooooood). RICHARD: Yet, despite their claim, it has not been ‘highly beneficial to themself’ (they are still subject to anger and anguish, for example, from time-to-time) ... nor has it been to ‘everybody’s benefit’ . All the religious wars, murders, tortures, rapes and destruction that have eventually followed the emergence of any specially hallowed religiosity or spirituality attests to this. Also, all the sadness, loneliness, grief, depression and suicide that has ensued as a result of following any specifically revered religious or spiritual teaching renders its mute testimony to anyone with the eyes to see. Culpability for the continuation of animosity and anguish lies squarely at the feet of the Masters and the Messiahs; the Avatars and the Saviours; the Gurus and the God-Men; the Saints and the Sages and the Seers. And their feet – upon close inspection – are feet of clay Then there is peace-on-earth. RESPONDENT: Now if so I find the following quite a challenging statement (copied from the front page): ‘Now there is a third* alternative ... and it supersedes* <and> Mystical Altered State’. (What does <and > mean in this context perhaps any?). RICHARD: Yes ... the word <and> was a typo. I have corrected it (changed from <and> to <any>) and it now reads: ‘Thus far one has had only two choices: being normal or being spiritual. Now there is a third alternative ... and it supersedes any mystical Altered State Of Consciousness)’. RESPONDENT: And also, would you agree Richard that the front page in the first place appeals to the general quite human tendency to have expectations (whatever the reason for these expectations may be) and I admit that what is to be expected is being advertised as something GOOOOD? RICHARD: Yes ... I am right up-front and out-in-the-open about my agenda: peace-on-earth, in this lifetime, as this flesh and blood body. RESPONDENT: If that is so your statement of there being a third alternative needs to be absolutely true doesn’t it? RICHARD: Yes ... only given the slipperiness around the word ‘true’ I prefer the word ‘fact’: it is a fact that there is a third alternative to being ‘human’ (as in ‘we are only human’) and to being ‘divine’ (as in ‘we are all gods or goddesses’). RESPONDENT: Hence I wonder how can you say that there is a third alternative that neither fits into the first (traditional following) nor into the second: a projection of an expectation into the future? RICHARD: Yet I am not saying that at all ... that is what you have made of it. The question to ask oneself is this: how am I experiencing this moment of being alive? This is because, as neither the past nor the future is actual and only now is actual, then if one is not living in the already existing peace-on-earth then one is missing out on the always available perfection which is right under one’s nose. Basically, the ‘how am I experiencing this moment of being alive’ question means: if not me, then whom? ... and if not now, then when? So, why is one not living it now (all one gets by waiting is more waiting)? RESPONDENT: So my findings so far are that I value the actual freedom trust and the work of the people for or with that organization (that includes you Richard) as a possible valuable device (from the second category) to invite people to embark on the journey of self-discovery and maybe make it a little easier then it used to be traditionally. RICHARD: Hmm ... The Actual Freedom Trust is simply a statuary legal body, with four nominal directors, set-up to promulgate and promote the writings explicating an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice. When I write it is me writing and nothing else. That I assign copyright for all my writing to a statuary legal body does not make my writing into anything other than my writing ... and I am a flesh and blood fellow human being. I did not make the legal laws of this country ... if there were some way of having the legal body exist without directors there would be no directors (which is what the word ‘nominal’ refers to). As for the writings, being promulgated and promoted under the aegis of The Actual Freedom Trust, being but a variation on the ‘Tried and True’ metaphysical path of denial and dissociation all I can say is ... keep on reading! RESPONDENT: I do however not accept you as the only role-model for perfection (if perfection is defined here as someone who is free of the human condition). RICHARD: Okay ... let me know when you find some body else that is actually free from the human condition (I would like to compare notes, as it were). RESPONDENT: There have been people like Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh or Jiddu Krishnamurti or Da Free John who have made similar statements ... RICHARD: The three people you refer to made or make statements that are either religious, spiritual, mystical or metaphysical ... which is the only alternative to being ‘normal’ (‘human’) thus far in human history. RESPONDENT: ... and to tell you the truth I’m not sure if you are entitled to compare yourself and find yourself on a higher plane with regard to the quality of intelligence that these people were speaking from. RICHARD: I am not on a ‘higher plane’ whatsoever ... I am a fellow human being, sans ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul, situated irrevocably here on this verdant earth as this flesh and blood body. As for ‘the quality of intelligence’ that they were ‘speaking from’ :
RESPONDENT: However I do recognize you as a fellow human being (that at least gives it a shot to improve the quality of living) along this wonderful journey and I sincerely regret that when I was in Byron that we have not met personally. RICHARD: Why? It is pointless coming to see me in person. I am a fellow human being sans identity: the affective faculty – the entire psyche itself – is eradicated. There is no ‘charisma’ nor any ‘energy-field’ here as I have no ‘energies’ ... no power or powers whatsoever. Therefore it is the words that convey ... words are words, whether they be spoken, printed or appear as pixels on a screen. Ultimately it is what is being said or written, by the writer or the speaker that lives what is being expressed, that is important ... and facts and actuality then speak for themselves. It is to no avail, of no use, of no benefit, of no value to come and meet me ... if a person reads my words there is no need to come and see me. It is all so very simple. RESPONDENT: Are you aware of the fact that in putting yourself in this extraordinary position (the presentation of yourself as not only the one currently alive human being that has achieved something extraordinary but also the one and only human being that has achieved this in human history) you are prey to the greatest illusion that one possibly can create with regard to the process of self-deception? RICHARD: Yes ... in 1992, when the break-through into this actual world occurred, the following thirty months or so were a time of intense brain agitation – neuronal excitation – which I have described before as being ‘mental anguish’ (not to be confused with emotional anguish) so as to convey the intensity of the cognisance that no body in human history had ever lived this up until now. That this disconcerting perplexity was only cerebral was evidenced by no sweaty palms, no increased heartbeat, no rapid breathing, no palpations in the solar plexus ... none of those things connected with ‘being’. If I were to look in a mirror during that period and ask ‘who am I’ there was no answer – not even ‘the silence that speaks louder than words’ that I had been experiencing for eleven years – yet the answer to ‘what am I’ was patently obvious and undeniable ... I am this body. The cognitive agitation was in determining the validity of uncharted territory – 5,000 years of recorded history and perhaps 50,000 years of oral tradition made no mention of this dimension of human experience – for I was irreversibly plunked fair-square in the midst of either ‘insanity’ (the psychiatric model) or ‘the unknowable’ (the metaphysical model). In the context of metaphysical human experience this condition is only achievable after physical death: the Buddhists call it ‘Parinirvana’ and the Hindus call it ‘Mahasamadhi’. This was no ‘dark night of the soul’ – which I knew from 1981 when enlightenment happened – this was something else
... beyond either psychiatric or mystic human experience. It was pretty freaky stuff for a mere boy from the farm – who was he to set himself up
to be the final arbiter of human experience – and what was I doing in this territory anyway? What had I become? No self or Self
(Depersonalisation)? No reality or Reality (Derealisation)? No feeling or Being (Alexithymia)? No beauty or Truth (Anhedonia I do consider it so cute that freedom from the human condition is considered a mental disorder. RESPONDENT: If you are aware of that Richard then Congratulations and Chapeau. RICHARD: Yes, very well aware indeed and, presuming that you are saying the equivalent of the English expression ‘a feather in your cap’, I must point out that I did not do anything – I have been here for 53 years having a ball – it was an illusory identity (‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul) who was parasitically inhabiting this flesh and blood body that did the ‘self’-immolating. RESPONDENT: But let there be no mistake about it there are people who doubt this. RICHARD: Of course. What I write about is inconceivable, unimaginable and unbelievable unless one remembers a pure consciousness experience (PCE) ... and then conceptualising, imagining and believing is totally irrelevant. RESPONDENT: I’m saying this with care because I think it’s a sad thing not to be recognised by your brothers but it’s even a sadder thing to not recognize your brothers. RICHARD: No ... the ‘sad thing’ is that one’s fellow human beings insist that the saints, sages and seers know it all and that I do not (sad for them, that is, for they go on suffering). RESPONDENT: Is it possible Richard that you have fallen into this trap? RICHARD: No. RESPONDENT: P.S.: It would be easy for you to ignore my message or tell me that you are indifferent to my personal opinion about you and/or the freedom trust, because you are free of any human need to feel accepted. RICHARD: Why would I be indifferent about my fellow human being’s plight? I am not detached, dissociated or aloof ... I am right here. RESPONDENT: You also have stated that somewhere along the line one may discover that we’re playing a total different ballgame here. Is it Ping-pong perhaps? Or maybe some sort of Pinball? Are you perhaps a pinball wizard on the dark side of the moon? (-; ). RICHARD: I am having the time of my life, here on paradise earth, as this flesh and blood body. RESPONDENT: Please don’t let me down OK? And also a happy coming year! RICHARD: Sure ... and a harmless year?
RESPONDENT: As has been mentioned that Actual freedom is neither a method nor a worldview but an experience that is ongoing I find this statement ‘Thus far one has had only two choices: being normal or being spiritual’ to be correct and true* <in the sense of being a fact*>. I can see now that both of the mentioned paths assume that there is something that might be achieved by an identity (be it a personal or be it spiritual) in the sense of having reached a certain state, whereas the Actual freedom method is offering something else, hence a third alternative that is absolutely new in human history. By bypassing the illusionary process of the recreation of an identity by not asking who am I but rather putting the question ‘what am I’ thus looking from a totally different perspective then I was used to, it came clear to me that <*I*> means I am this body flesh, blood and bones. My findings so far are as that I value the *Actual Freedom Trust <*a statuary legal body, with four nominal directors, set-up to promulgate and promote the writings explicating an actual freedom from the human condition and a virtual freedom in practice> and the work of the people associated with the <*Actual Freedom Trust>. Hence my respect acknowledgment and credits to all who contributed to this so far. Also my apologies for any arisen misunderstandings or confusion with regard to as that my intentions might have been other than willing to be supportive and/cooperative to this project. RICHARD: Finding out is such good fun, eh? * RICHARD: It may be useful for me to explain that what I write is expressive prose – it is not a thesis – as I am conveying the lavish exhilaration of life itself. RESPONDENT: Yeah that was a very helpful hint I suddenly could hear indeed a voice that is singing a happy and harmless (yes!) tune. I can hear an exhilarated variation on the song ‘don’t worry be happy’ and also meticulously interwoven into that melody there I hear the message that conveys that in case there might be any worrying (any mental activities that somehow are caused by lack of understanding that one is nothing more than this physical body)? RICHARD: Yes (emotionally-backed ‘mental activities’ ). Does the exhilarated variation on ‘don’t worry; be happy’ read ‘don’t worry; be happy and harmless’ then? Is it that the possibility of becoming harmless is what leads to exhilaration? RESPONDENT: That is being caused if one temporarily might become aware, of the misery and mayhem that somehow may cloud or overshadow even this happiness which is right here and to everybody available right now, even then there is no need to panic because now we have the Actual freedom experience for everybody with access to the internet to keep us alert that we not fall into the traditional trap of either become ordinary (normal) or spiritual deluded human beings right? RICHARD: Yes. I have only ever wanted the words and writings of an actual freedom and a virtual freedom to exist in the world ... what peoples do with them is their business. It pleases me immensely, that because of the internet, they can be available for free for anybody ... and with no trees being chopped down. I scoured the books, during my search for freedom, but to no avail ... now the writings exist and I am well-content. RESPONDENT: Hey I’m not being cynical or sarcastic or in any other way trying to devaluate or pollute the good and beneficial that you have shared with me OK, this is just my way of expressing, maybe it will push a button somewhere and maybe not ;-). RICHARD: What button did you have in mind? * RESPONDENT: I do accept you as an example for perfection (if perfection is defined here as someone who is absolutely (f)actual free of the human condition). Note* (<Richard?> has been substituted for <actual intelligence speaking> hope you don’t mind. RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: This physical universe is the source of human life (matter gives rise to consciousness). The spiritual Intelligence speaking: God (by whatever name) is the source of both the universe and human life (consciousness gives rise to matter). RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘This physical universe is the source of human life (matter gives rise to consciousness). I am this flesh and blood body only’. This I can agree with. RICHARD: Okay ... yet your agreement does not last very long (see immediately below). * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Physical death is the end, finish: mortality is forever. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: Physical death is not the end: immortality is forever. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Physical death is the end, finish’. This is a hard one for me here I feel that there is some sense of ‘not completely ruling out the possibility that this is not a fact’. Maybe a something like a soul only after death becomes revealed who can tell I don’t know. RICHARD: Only apperception ‘can tell’ ... all is revealed. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: The soul (by whatever name) is an illusion. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: The soul (by whatever name) is real. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘The soul (by whatever name) is an illusion’. Even if it might be a not me? RICHARD: Is there some other type of soul than a me-soul? * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Peace-on-earth is possible ... but only as this flesh and blood body. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: Peace-on-earth is not possible ... peace can only happen after the body physically dies. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Peace-on-earth is possible ... but only as this flesh and blood body’. That seems obvious dead bodies don’t fight nor need to be killed. RICHARD: No ... the word <only> in the phrase ‘only as this flesh and blood body’ means: ‘peace-on-earth is not possible for the entity inside the body’. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Suffering is eliminated (via immolation). The spiritual Intelligence speaking: Suffering is transcended (via sublimation). RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Suffering is eliminated (via immolation)’. Immolation?? RICHARD: Yes ... ‘self’-immolation (altruistic ‘self’-sacrifice for the benefit of this body and that body and every body). * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Both ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul are extinguished. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: ‘I’ as ego surrenders and/or dissolves and ‘me’ as soul expands to be God (by whatever name). RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Both ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul are extinguished’. Non-identity-bound consciousness remains? RICHARD: Yes ... this flesh and blood body being apperceptively aware remains. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Any ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ worlds are an illusion ... only this actual world exists. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: The ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ become one. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Any ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ worlds are an illusion ... only this actual world exists’. Exists in the sense of being a fact? RICHARD: Yes ... that which is actual, factual. A useful working definition for actual is: That which remains when one stops believing in it. RESPONDENT: Illusion in the sense of that in the space in which illusion happens this space is another form of illusion. Could that be something like that by neo-cortical activity a space is created (inside/outside) an then next also through it’s own activity something I created inside of that space (dreams, or visions, identity)? RICHARD: Yes ... that ‘space’ you speak of is the intuitive/imaginative facility born of the affective faculty. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Love and compassion can only exist as long as malice and sorrow exists (both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ become extinct). The spiritual Intelligence speaking: Love and compassion are the antidotes to malice and sorrow. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Love and compassion can only exist as long as malice and sorrow exists (both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ become extinct)’. Could you describe what you mean by compassion? RICHARD: Sure ... the word ‘compassion’ is derived from the Latin word ‘passio’, thence the Greek word ‘pathos’ (suffering, feeling) ... thus ‘together in pathos’. Similarly, ‘sympathy’ comes from the Greek ‘sym’ (together, alike) and ‘pathy’ (suffering, feeling). I am hard-pushed to see ‘suffering together’ or ‘feeling alike’ is salubrious ... it is akin to the blind leading the blind. Even though there is a widespread belief that suffering is good for you ... my experience showed that the only good thing about suffering is when it came to an end. Permanently. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: The facts are the key to success and are to be found in the physical world. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: The truth is the key to success and is to be found in the feeling of beauty. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘The facts are the key to success and are to be found in the physical world’. Key to success like acknowledging a certain factual situation, i.e., one’s financial resources? RICHARD: Yes ... though what you describe here is more akin to being practical. Perhaps a simple experiment will demonstrate how facts are to be found in the physical world (in a way that a thousand words would not):
When you rip the plaster from your mouth, and gulp in that oh-so-sweet and factual air, you intimately know what a fact is.
Just as ‘The Truth Will Set You Free’ (to live in a fantasy) ... the fact will set you free (to live in actuality). * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Belief, faith, trust and hope play no part whatsoever. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: Belief, faith, trust and hope are fundamental. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Belief, faith, trust and hope play no part whatsoever’. Here I cannot go with I think they play a tremendous part, is not for a great deal all of the misery and mayhem (on this planet) caused by mainly believe and hope. And is faith not at the core of believe can we look into this I think it’s actually rather important to understand how Belief, faith, trust and hope are interconnected interwoven and supporting each other. RICHARD: Uh huh ... as I said: that ‘space’ you speak of is the intuitive/ imaginative facility born of the affective faculty. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Intuition, imagination, visualisation, prescience, clairvoyance, telepathy and
divination RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Intuition, imagination, visualisation, prescience, clairvoyance, telepathy and divination can be dispensed with’. Hmm, visualisation (as in the ability to have a clear image of for instance a car you like to buy (I never was very good at that anyway). RICHARD: Yes ... forming an image (as in ‘I can see it in my mind’s eye’). An ‘inner’ reality, in other words. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: An actual freedom is consistent: it is neither contradictory nor hypocritical. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: Inconsistency, contradiction and hypocrisy are central to the spiritual life. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘An actual freedom is consistent: it is neither contradictory nor hypocritical’. What would or do you consider to be hypocritical? RICHARD: Just for starters: ‘I am Humble – I am God On Earth’. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Autonomy and independence (through altruistic ‘self’-sacrifice) are the hallmarks of the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: Submission and dependency (through self-seeking ‘self’-surrender) are the hallmarks of the spiritual path. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Autonomy and independence (through altruistic ‘self’-sacrifice) are the hallmarks of the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom’. Through altruistic ‘self’-sacrifice? How come altruistic? RICHARD: For the benefit of this body and that body and every body. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Gratitude is a hindrance on the path to an actual freedom. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: Gratitude is essential on the path to the spiritual goal. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Gratitude is a hindrance on the path to an actual freedom’. Well I thank you for sharing your experience on this list, is that gratitude? RICHARD: Only if you feel it. * RICHARD: An actual intelligence speaking: Dignity is both the means to the end and the end in actual freedom. The spiritual Intelligence speaking: Humility is essential if one is to be God On Earth. RESPONDENT: Richard?: ‘Dignity is both the means to the end and the end in actual freedom’. Explain, explain please. RICHARD: The word ‘humility’ comes from the same root as ‘humiliate’ ... such ‘self’-flagellation is to lower yourself only so as to be ‘The Most-High’. Such a hypocritical duplicity practiced as a means to the end makes the end-product identical to the means. Whereas dignity (the quality of being worthy) means that one can look oneself in the eye in the mirror each morning and not squirm. * RESPONDENT: As a fellow human being I regret a little bit , that when I was in Byron that we have not met personally. RICHARD: Why? It is pointless coming to see me in person. There is no ‘charisma’ nor any ‘energy-field’ here as I have no ‘energies’ ... no power or powers whatsoever. It is the words that convey ... words are words, whether they be spoken, printed or appear as pixels on a screen. <snip>. Why would I be indifferent about my fellow human being’s plight? I am not detached, dissociated or aloof ... I am right here. RESPONDENT: Can you understand that from my point of view your saying that it was pointless for us to meet has been interpreted as you being ‘indifferent detached, dissociated and aloof’ and hence has been a bit like a slap into the face? RICHARD: No. RESPONDENT: From your point of view you are right there however that was differently perceived by me (and also No. 12) and still I think writing on the screen can only be a substitute for meeting in the flesh, but that is where I am, no hard feelings. Anyway OK, how about a virtual cappuccino, It’s on me [{;-). RICHARD: There is more to becoming free than sitting in a café with one who is already free ... one needs to get off one’s backside and actually do something. * RESPONDENT: (stirring in the cup): Are you aware of the fact that in putting yourself in this extraordinary position (the presentation of yourself as not only the one currently alive human being that has achieved something extraordinary but also the one and only human being that has achieved this in human history) you are prey to the greatest illusion that one possibly can create with regard to the process of self-deception? RICHARD: Yes ... in 1992, when the break-through into this actual world occurred <snip> the Buddhists call it ‘Parinirvana’ and the Hindus call it ‘Mahasamadhi’. It was pretty freaky stuff for a mere boy from the farm – who was he to set himself up to be the final arbiter of human experience. RESPONDENT: Yeah must have been pretty freaky stuff .I have experienced something the like that also (however not to the degree that you describe.) For a long time I thought that I had become a special gifted human being I had discovered that there is some Super-consciousness that is trying to save humanity by creating a new way of communicating (access to the neocortex by using special energy keys) this way instantaneously energy levels could be affected and hence there was the creation of heightened awareness I could see it happen people were actually responding without knowing they did. I thought that it was my job to finetune certain large populations and make sure that the energy field was secure. It was quite a trip. I’m out of that now. RICHARD: I appreciate your honesty ... what you describe is such a common experience (which would become common knowledge if only peoples would share such experiences). * RESPONDENT: (finishing his cappuccino): You also have stated that somewhere along the line one may discover that we’re playing a total different ballgame here. Is it Ping-pong perhaps? Or maybe some sort of Pinball? Tennis, football, softball perhaps nah I give up. RICHARD: I am having the time of my life, here on paradise earth, as this flesh and blood body. RESPONDENT: (paying the waitress): Hey wait a minute. Mmm ... yeah that’s it ... a ballgame?! Ahh, now I see, you meant having a ball right? RICHARD: Also. However, the ‘different ball-game’ I was referring to, in the dialogue you initially read it, is peace-on-earth for this flesh and blood body ... rather than the after-death ‘Peace That Passeth All Understanding’ for their immortal soul that the saints, sages and seers have been touting (for at least 3,000 to 5,000 years of recorded history). Hence: I am having the time of my life, here on paradise earth, as this flesh and blood body only.
CORRESPONDENT No 18 (Part Two) RETURN TO THE ACTUAL FREEDOM MAILING LIST INDEX 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 Actual Freedom Trust: 1997-. All Rights Reserved.
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