|
Richard’s Correspondence On The Actual Freedom Mailing List with Correspondent No. 79
RESPONDENT: What are the best investigation questions for each of the below categories that will see me through to the end of most problems? 1) Fear. 2) Aggression. 3) Desire. 4) Nurture. RICHARD: The best investigation question is to ask yourself, each moment again, how you are experiencing this moment of being alive – the only moment you are ever alive – until it becomes a non-verbal attitude/a wordless approach to life, as it is the only question thus far to deliver the goods (as in seeing one through to the end of *all* problems).
RESPONDENT: What are the best investigation questions for each of the below categories that will see me through to the end of most problems? 1) Fear. 2) Aggression. 3) Desire. 4) Nurture. RICHARD: The best investigation question is to ask yourself, each moment again, how you are experiencing this moment of being alive – the only moment you are ever alive – until it becomes a non-verbal attitude/a wordless approach to life, as it is the only question thus far to deliver the goods (as in seeing one through to the end of *all* problems). RESPONDENT: What shall I do when I am experiencing an irrational fear such as fearing a spider? (I definitely wouldn’t be classed as having arachnophobia). Should I try to squelch the feeling, or let it be there? What shall I do when I am experiencing an irrational fear such as fearing a spider? (I definitely wouldn’t be classed as having arachnophobia) Should I try to squelch the feeling, or let it be there? RICHARD: Here is the essence of the way I have previously explained how asking oneself, each moment again, how one is experiencing this moment of being alive (the only moment one is ever alive), until it becomes a non-verbal attitude/a wordless approach to life, works in practice:
RESPONDENT: When I: a) Ask myself HAIETMOBA. RICHARD: No.
RESPONDENT: When I feel righteously angry I consciously want to go back to ‘feeling good’, but since I feel justified in my anger, it feels good to be angry, making it difficult to get back to ‘feeling good’. RICHARD: One of the major issues the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago attended to very early in the piece was the indignation – ‘anger excited by a sense of wrong, or by injustice, wickedness, or misconduct; righteous anger’ (Oxford Dictionary) – which had dogged him from almost as early as ‘he’ could remember (‘he’ was often moved to indignancy because of injustice/ unfairness whilst still in grade school for instance) as righteousness, being oh-so-readily justifiable, is such an insidious feeling. RESPONDENT: To me, corrupt has always meant, by definition, being evil. But how do I see this anger as corrupt when I accept that there is no good and evil? RICHARD: Just for starters: try seeing how the (readily justifiable) righteous anger, with all its
feel-good virtuosity, precludes one from enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive – the only moment one is ever
alive – through being as happy and as harmless as is humanly possible via felicitously/ innocuously feeling good (rather than
virtuously feeling good) ... instead of seeing righteousness as corrupt (and therefore, by a definition, evil) which depravity RESPONDENT: Most things that are corrupt can be seen as survival strategies, which means they could be seen as neither good or evil. RICHARD: Indeed they could ... yet it is undeniable that maybe 6.0 billion peoples nurse malice and sorrow – and thus the antidotal pacifiers love and compassion – in their bosom. RESPONDENT: How can I make myself see corruption when I don’t see things as good or evil? RICHARD: Perhaps if I were to put it this way? Now that you have neatly solved the existential dilemma which has bothered theologians/metaphysicians for centuries (simply by redefining good and evil out of existence) ... where are you at? Here is a clue:
RESPONDENT: What I don’t understand is how to commence another period of enjoying this moment when I am, say, feeling panicky in the presence of a spider. RICHARD: I will draw your attention to the following excerpt:
What part of that extract is it you do not understand? RESPONDENT: I don’t think I learned to be afraid of spiders. RICHARD: Do you think you were born with a (purportedly non-phobic) fear of spiders, then? RESPONDENT: [I don’t think I learned to be afraid of spiders]. I just am. RICHARD: There are at least 531 named phobias Quite frankly I just cannot see how someone – anyone – could possibly have genetically inherited cyberphobia (for an obvious instance). Incidentally, here is perhaps the ‘fear of/aversion to’ which would be most applicable to a would-be actualist:
RESPONDENT: What do I need in order to commence another period of enjoying this moment? RICHARD: As something learnt can be readily unlearnt
RICHARD: (...) If ‘I’ am not feeling good [at the very least] then ‘I’ have something to look
at to find out why. What has happened, between the last time ‘I’ felt good and now? When did ‘I’ feel good last? Five
minutes ago? Five hours ago? What happened to end those felicitous feelings? (...) Once the specific moment of ceasing to feel
good is pin-pointed, and the silliness of having such an incident as that (no matter what it is) take away one’s enjoyment and
appreciation of this only moment of being alive is seen for what it is – usually some habitual reactive response – one is once
more feeling good ... but with a pin-pointed cue to watch out for next time so as to not have that trigger off yet another bout of
the same-old same-old. This is called nipping it in the bud before it gets out of hand ... with application and diligence and
patience and perseverance one soon gets the knack of this and more and more time is spent enjoying and appreciating this moment of
being alive. (...)’. RESPONDENT: From reading others’ descriptions on what to do I get the impression that I have to find out the core beliefs, the foundations, of whatever emotion I’m looking into, and then as soon as I’ve done that, poof, the emotion is magically gone and I can get back to feeling good. RICHARD: Whereas what I am saying in the above excerpt is that once the specific moment of ceasing to feel good is pin-pointed, and the silliness of having such an incident as that (no matter what it is) take away one’s enjoyment and appreciation of this only moment of being alive is seen for what it is – usually some habitual reactive response – one is once more feeling good. RESPONDENT: I don’t seem to be able to do this [what others describe] with my fear of spiders, or anything else that is difficult. RICHARD: Then why not try what the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago did (what I describe further above)? RESPONDENT: You seem to be emphasising to me that all I have to do is recall what triggered off my emotion, e.g. the presence of a spider. Then realise that the fear is ruining the experience of this moment. RICHARD: Whereas what I actually emphasise is the seeing of the silliness of having such an incident as that take away one’s enjoyment and appreciation of the only moment one is ever alive alive. RESPONDENT: However, the fear doesn’t go away as long as long as the spider is present ... RICHARD: What the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago did was to unlearn the ‘fear of/aversion to’ snakes which ‘he’ had learnt from ‘his’ city-born and city-raised mother – whilst growing up on a farm being carved by hand out of virgin forest – simply by (finally) addressing the issue once and for all ... and, as ‘he’ knew he had been surreptitiously avoiding that potentially life-changing paying-of-attention-to-the-issue addressing, it had the added advantage of enabling ‘him’ to be much more confident about taking control of ‘his’ own life on a whole range of other issues. To use a cliché ... nothing succeeds like success. RESPONDENT: ... [the fear doesn’t go away as long as long as the spider is present] unless I force myself through a de-sensitisation process ... RICHARD: There are those who report success through a phobia-desensitisation process ... of course, just like an alcoholic having to acknowledge their alcoholism (for example), they do have to acknowledge they have a phobic problem in the first place in order to achieve that favourable outcome. RESPONDENT: ... [the fear doesn’t go away as long as long as the spider is present] so No 25 says to remove the presence of the spider, and then get back to feeling good. RICHARD: Ha ... one would have to remove all manner of people, things and events – and for the remainder of one’s life – in order to (felicitously) feel good by that means. RESPONDENT: Is this the correct procedure? RICHARD: Did you know that the word ‘gullible’ is not to be found in any dictionary at all (in no dictionary past or present)? Just curious.
RICHARD: (...) what I actually emphasise is the seeing of the silliness of having such an incident as that [no matter what it is] take away one’s enjoyment and appreciation of the only moment one is ever alive. RESPONDENT: However, the fear doesn’t go away as long as long as the spider is present ... RICHARD: What the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago did was to unlearn the ‘fear of/aversion to’ snakes which ‘he’ had learnt from ‘his’ city-born and city-raised mother – whilst growing up on a farm being carved by hand out of virgin forest – simply by (finally) addressing the issue once and for all ... and, as ‘he’ knew he had been surreptitiously avoiding that potentially life-changing paying-of-attention-to-the-issue addressing, it had the added advantage of enabling ‘him’ to be much more confident about taking control of ‘his’ own life on a whole range of other issues. To use a cliché ... nothing succeeds like success. RESPONDENT: Is it possible to do the actual freedom method and gradually get to the point where the spider fear seems completely silly, or is it always now or never? RICHARD: I will draw your attention to the following (an extract from the essence of the way I have previously explained how asking oneself, each moment again, how one is experiencing this moment of being alive – the only moment one is ever alive – until it becomes a non-verbal attitude/a wordless approach to life, works in practice):
Any getting to the point (aka the moment) where whatever incident it is – such as ‘the spider fear’ – which takes away one’s enjoyment and appreciation of the only moment one is ever alive is seen to be completely silly can be as protracted, or as swift, as one chooses it to be ... yet, as when it does (finally) happen it will be happening now anyway, one may as well make it this moment currently occurring and thus get it over and done with, once and for all, as any and all change only ever happens at this moment of being alive. Or, to put those last eleven words differently for emphasis, this moment (the only moment one is ever alive)
is the one which is dynamic
RESPONDENT: Is Actual Freedom a scientific method? RICHARD: No, an actual freedom is a condition and not a knowledge producing procedure The way in which that condition came about for this flesh and blood body – a way that has become known as
‘the actualism method’ RESPONDENT: Can someone please list the laws contained within the method that enable one to minimise the social identity and the instinctual passions? RICHARD: Nope ... however, the experiential processes contained within the actualism method can be:
RESPONDENT: When I feel fear, fear seems to reinforce itself and stays put. RICHARD: It is not all that uncommon to feel fear feeding off itself, as it were, and mounting in intensity almost exponentially – as in a panic attack for instance – yet closer inspection reveals that it is none other than ‘me’, a fearful ‘me’, who is fuelling/refuelling the fear (‘I’ am fear and fear is ‘me’) with ‘my’ own affective energy. RESPONDENT: When I think of any belief about the fear trigger, the fear seems to reinforce the belief. RICHARD: Oh, indeed so ... that is a phenomenon well-known by many a draconian. RESPONDENT: Each fear is a self perpetuating. RICHARD: The key to success lies in realising that fear does not go anywhere (meaning that nothing ever happens except more fear). * RESPONDENT: When a feeling changes within a person, something supplants the feeling/belief. Feelings and beliefs don’t just disappear. What is the thought, memory, or whatever that is able to permanently eliminate a feeling/belief? RICHARD: Seeing the fact will set you free of the belief. * RESPONDENT: I don’t understand the AF method instructions. RICHARD: The actualism method is remarkably simple in practice:
RESPONDENT: I can’t remember a PCE either ... RICHARD: As your [quote] ‘either’ [endquote] links the lack of remembrance of a pure consciousness experience (PCE) with not understanding the essence of the way I have previously described the workings of the actualism method it is pertinent to point out that such is not initially necessary in order to feel as felicitous/innocuous as is possible whilst one goes about one’s everyday life. RESPONDENT: ... [I can’t remember a PCE either], and I don’t think a fear of having ‘me’ eliminated is valid because I have no idea what that would be like. RICHARD: Well then ... that is two possible reasons (for not understanding something so simple that anyone old enough to read these words can comprehend) out of the way. * RESPONDENT: I’m not crazy. RICHARD: As it was not my words that could be taken as implying you were RESPONDENT: I’m pretty sure my mind works basically the same as everyone else’s. RICHARD: As all sentient creatures are born with the same genetically-inherited instinctual passions – such as fear and aggression and nurture and desire – your surety is not misplaced. RESPONDENT: It just has software that’s unique, just as everyone else’s is unique. RICHARD: As there is nothing unique about being genetically-endowed at conception by blind nature with the same-same basic instinctual passions, as a rough and ready survival package, as any other human being you may be inclined, upon sober reflection, to reconsider your follow-up sentence? * RESPONDENT: I should be able to get the method to work once I understand it. RICHARD: Do you comprehend that, although the past was actual when it was happening, it is not actual now and that, although the future will be actual when it does happen, it is not actual now ... that only this moment is actual? If so, do you further comprehend that anytime you felt good/will feel good does not mean a thing if you are not currently feeling good (a general sense of well-being) ... that a remembered occasion/an anticipated occasion pales into insignificance if you are presently feeling bad (a general sense of ill-being)? Furthermore, do you understand that to be living this moment – the only moment you are ever alive – by feeling bad is to be frittering away a vital opportunity to be fully alive ... to totally enjoy and appreciate being what you indubitably are (a sensate creature) whilst you are here on this planet? If so, is it not silly to waste this only moment you are ever alive by feeling bad ... when you could be feeling good?
RESPONDENT: (...) When a feeling changes within a person, something supplants the feeling/belief. Feelings and beliefs don’t just disappear. What is the thought, memory, or whatever that is able to permanently eliminate a feeling/belief? RICHARD: Seeing the fact will set you free of the belief. RESPONDENT: Can someone please give me an example of this? RICHARD: Here is the way the actualism method works in practice:
Or:
Provided your answer to No. 5, in either instance, is in the affirmative you will now be back to enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive (the only moment you are ever alive) and thus the prospect of seeing the fact which will set you free of the belief will be facilitated by being able to come upon it experientially ... and you will no longer be reduced to penning truisms (such as feelings not being able to tell you anything actual) instead. RESPONDENT: I know that feelings feel like the truth, but they cannot tell me anything actual. RICHARD: As a suggestion only: as the hypothetical events you post to this mailing list ‘Tis only a suggestion, mind you.
RESPONDENT: The idea goes that a belief is created in my brain when I accept an idea by feeling that it is true with the limbic part of my brain. Is the AF method implying that to undo a belief I have to create this limbic feeling when I discover a fact? What if I can’t get this limbic feeling when I discover the fact that should refute a current, and false, belief? Facts should change people’s minds, but many, many times it just doesn’t. RICHARD: As you got that idea from Mr. Jim Walker then you are better-off directing any queries about that [quote] ‘limbic feeling’ [endquote] to him ... any responses from this mailing list can only add to your confusion. Vis.:
Whilst you are at it you might be inclined to ask him what factual evidence he has to support his avowal
RESPONDENT: What are the facts about truth-value feelings that make them not worth referring to at all, even in the most challenging situations (let’s assume situations where there’s no physical danger) and where I don’t have all the facts? I ask this because sometimes when I investigate something as much as I possibly can, there is still a something that I can’t pinpoint. If only I could just drop any truth-value feeling as they arise simply because I know for a fact that they don’t have anything to do with actual reality. RICHARD: As you got the term [quote] ‘truth-value feelings’ [endquote] from Mr. Jim Walker then you are better-off directing any queries about same to him ... any responses from this mailing list can only add to your confusion. Vis.:
Whilst you are at it you might be inclined to ask him why he would [quote] ‘feel a complete loss to suggest
*any* remedy’ [emphasis added] for the current hostilities popularly known as ‘the war against terrorism’ other than
making an appeal to humanitarian goals
RESPONDENT: Say I have big lips relative to other people. I agree that I have abnormally big lips, other people laugh at me. I look funny to them, and my limbic system produces embarrassment. I then adopt the belief that I look funny as confirmed by everyone who laughed, and I now feel pre-emptive embarrassment when I anticipate being seen. If I want to perceive actual reality only, what do you think are the facts that could invalidate the impact of the judgement so that I no longer feel embarrassed? Are there limbic reactions to certain situations that just won’t be eliminated by discovering the facts? In the above situation, the social rejection maybe too much for some people to have much of any change at all. It seems as though they may have to go through desensitisation instead. RICHARD: As the term [quote] ‘actual reality’ [endquote] has no currency on this mailing list your queries about your limbic system/limbic reactions would be better-off addressed to Mr. Jim Walker ... any responses from this mailing list can only add to your confusion. Vis.:
Whilst you are at it you might be inclined to ask him why he would assert
RESPONDENT: When a feeling changes within a person, something supplants the feeling/belief. Feelings and beliefs don’t just disappear. What is the thought, memory, or whatever that is able to permanently eliminate a feeling/belief? RICHARD: Seeing the fact will set you free of the belief. RESPONDENT: What is the fact? RICHARD: What is the belief?
RESPONDENT: When a feeling changes within a person, something supplants the feeling/belief. Feelings and beliefs don’t just disappear. What is the thought, memory, or whatever that is able to permanently eliminate a feeling/belief? RICHARD: Seeing the fact will set you free of the belief. RESPONDENT: What is the fact? RICHARD: What is the belief? RESPONDENT: Let’s use the example ‘No one really likes me’. RICHARD: Okay ... here is the way the actualism method works in practice:
Or:
Provided your answer to No. 5, in either instance, is in the affirmative you will now be back to enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive (the only moment you are ever alive) and thus the prospect of seeing the fact which will set you free of the belief will be facilitated by being able to come upon it experientially ... it is your active participation/presence which vitalises/invigorates the investigation/exploration. In short: armchair philosophising/psychologising will get you nowhere ... and fast.
RESPONDENT: When a feeling changes within a person, something supplants the feeling/belief. Feelings and beliefs don’t just disappear. What is the thought, memory, or whatever that is able to permanently eliminate a feeling/belief? RICHARD: Seeing the fact will set you free of the belief. RESPONDENT: What is the fact? RICHARD: What is the belief? RESPONDENT: Let’s use the example ‘No one really likes me’. RICHARD: Okay ... here is the way the actualism method works in practice: 1. Was that – your ‘no one really likes me’ example – the feeling which changed within you? 2. If so, what was it that triggered off that feeling (the feeling which changed within you)? 3. What did that feeling which changed within you change into? 4. What was it that triggered off that change? 5. Was it silly to have both event No. 2 and event No. 4 take away your enjoyment and appreciation of being alive at this particular moment (the only moment you are ever alive)? Or: 1. Was that – your ‘no one really likes me’ example – the feeling/belief which supplanted another feeling/belief? 2. If so, what was it that triggered off that feeling/belief (the feeling/belief which supplanted another feeling/belief)? 3. What did that feeling/belief supplant? 4. What was it that triggered off the feeling/belief which was supplanted? 5. Was it silly to have both event No. 2 and event No. 4 take away your enjoyment and appreciation of being alive at this particular moment (the only moment you are ever alive)? Provided your answer to No. 5, in either instance, is in the affirmative you will now be back to enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive (the only moment you are ever alive) and thus the prospect of seeing the fact which will set you free of the belief will be facilitated by being able to come upon it experientially ... it is your active participation/presence which vitalises/invigorates the investigation/exploration. In short: armchair philosophising/psychologising will get you nowhere ... and fast. RESPONDENT: I think I get it now. I will have to see if I can get it to work, and I’m not sure if I will be able to a lot of the time. RICHARD: The degree to which one applies oneself to enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive (the only moment one is ever alive), each moment again, is the degree to which one achieves success ... your freedom, or lack thereof, is in your hands and your hands alone. RESPONDENT: It seems as though one has to be very hard headed and ignore the meanings of events, and instead simply focus on feeling good and the precise moment feeling good disappears. RICHARD: I have located the following text:
And this:
RESPONDENT: As far as I can tell, Peter and Vineeto are/were more into investigating i.e. armchair philosophising/ psychologising. I haven’t found much in your writing to suggest that you did much active investigating, but other actualists seem very much into it. This has been a source of my confusion. RICHARD: Hmm ... I would suggest copy-pasting the following into the search-engine box at a search engine of your choice:
There are at least 75 hits to peruse ... then you might be inclined to copy-paste the following:
There are at least 189 hits to peruse ... then you might be inclined to copy-paste the following:
There are at least 617 hits to peruse.
RESPONDENT: I can’t seem to remember a PCE very well. If I do in fact have a memory of one, it isn’t strong enough to have an impact on me. RICHARD: The memory of a pure consciousness experience (PCE) is tucked away in an area of the brain not normally accessed. Because it has no emotional/ passional qualities whatsoever – nor is there any affective being present to record the memory in its affective memory banks – a PCE cannot be remembered in the normal way (reverie, reminiscence, nostalgia, and so on). Also, ‘I’ can have a vested interest in disremembering a PCE as it could very well be the beginning of the end of ‘me’. RESPONDENT: How do I get started if I don’t have any definite memory of a PCE? RICHARD: In a word: sincerity. Sincerity is the key to success inasmuch it can unlock naiveté – the nearest an identity can get to being innocent – which is that intimate aspect of oneself that is usually kept hidden away for fear of seeming foolish (a simpleton) ... it is like being a child again but with adult sensibilities (wherein one can separate out the distinction between being naïve and being gullible/ trusting). RESPONDENT: When I think of things real far back in my childhood, everything is like a dream. Did this and that really happen? I can’t be sure. I don’t trust my memories. RICHARD: Mostly PCE’s happen for no demonstrable reason at all – as in being a serendipitous event – and quite often occur in everyday surroundings doing everyday things such as washing the dishes (for instance) and can be quite brief insofar it can be but a moment of perfection easily overlooked in the everyday press of events ... a momentary stillness (time has no duration in actuality) wherein everything is already perfect/ always has been perfect/ always will be perfect.
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.
Disclaimer |
