Actual Freedom – Mailing List ‘D’ Correspondence

Richard’s Correspondence On Mailing List ‘D’

with Claudiu / Beoman Claudiu Dragon Emu Fire Golem

(please make sure “java-scripting” is enabled in order for the tool-tips to function properly; mouse-hover on the yellow rectangular image to open; left-click on the image to hold).

• [Richard]: Fourth, as any being out-from-control/ in a different-way-of-being (and there are varying degrees *of such intimacy experiences*) implicitly requires pure intent – which renders the necessity for morals/ ethics/ values/ principles null and void – it is certainly not the territory a fledgling actualist (to use your phraseology) has any business venturing into precipitously. [emphasis added]. (Richard, List D, No. 12, 9 December 2009a).

To compare, Google provides 13 (non-unique) results for both <site:actualfreedom.com.au ‘intimacy experience’> and <site:actualfreedom.com.au ‘intimacy experiences’>, while providing 90 (non-unique) results for the same with ‘intimacy’ replaced with ‘excellence’.

*

• [Richard]: In other words, someone genuinely out-from-control is constantly (i.e., consistently) ‘feeling excellent’, come-what-may, by the very nature of what that term refers to. [...] Moreover, as ‘not being out-from-control’ also implies ‘not having a near-actual caring’ either [...]. (Richard, List D, Claudiu4, 24 January 2016).

Incidentally, this may be a good a time as any to publicly state that, based on re-evaluation derived from recent correspondences, as during the time I previously considered I may have been out-from-control, I was not consistently feeling excellent, come-what-may, I can now say I have never genuinely experienced being out-from-control... and, as such, nor can I say I have ever experienced a near-actual caring.

Cheers,
Claudiu

RICHARD: G’day Claudiu,

In the same way that excellence experiences (EE’s) were a notable feature of feeling-being ‘Richard’s virtual freedom experiencing circa March-September 1981, although of course not named as such back then, so too did intimacy experiences (IE’s) play a similarly significant role even though increasingly overshadowed by the insistent emergence of love – and, especially, Love Agapé – in the later months due to a marked lack of precedence and, thus, of any praxeological publications (nowadays made freely available on The Actual Freedom Trust web site) on the distinction betwixt the near-innocent intimacy of naïveté and the affectional intimacy of romance lore and legend.

Just as the term ‘excellence experience’ came from feeling-being ‘Grace’ – who was exacting in evaluating ‘her’ differing ways of being a ‘self’ so as to not illude herself that ‘she’ was more progressive than was really the case – so too did the expression ‘different-way-of-being’. What gradually became more and more apparent was that a prevailing feature of ‘her’ differing ways of being was the degree of intimacy involved.

The gradations of ‘her’ scale were, basically, good, very good, great, excellent, and magical perfect – whereby, in regards to intimacy, ‘good’ related to togetherness (which pertains to being and acting in concert with another); ‘very good’ related to closeness (where personal boundaries expand to include the other); ‘great’ related to sweetness (delighting in the pervasive proximity, or immanence, of the other); ‘excellent’ related to richness (a near-absence of agency; with the doer abeyant, and the beer ascendant, being the experiencing is inherently cornucopian); and ‘magical’ ‘perfect’ related to actuality magicality (neither beer nor doer extant; pristine purity abounds and immaculate perfection prevails) – all of which correlate to the range of naïveness from being sincere to becoming naïve and all the way through being naïveté itself to an actual innocence.

The term ‘intimacy experience’ became part of the actualism lingo after a particularly instructive event in late spring, 2007, when at anchor upriver whilst exhorting feeling-being ‘Grace’ to no longer reserve that specific ‘way-of-being’ for those memorable occasions when ‘she’ was alone with me and to extend such intimacy to also include ‘her’ potential shipmates in order to dynamically enable the then-tentative plans for a floating convivium – which were on an indefinite hold at that time – to move ahead expeditiously (this was in the heady context of feeling-being ‘Pamela’ having already entered into an on-going PCE a scant five days beforehand due to ‘her’ specifically expressed concerns to me over the lack of intimacy between actualists). At some stage during this intensive interaction feeling-being ‘Vineeto’, who had been intently following every nuance, every twist and turn of the interplay, had what ‘she’ described as a ‘shift’ taking place in ‘her’ whereupon the very intimacy being thus exigently importuned came about for ‘her’ instead.

To say ‘she’ was astounded with the degree of intimacy having ensued is to put it mildly as ‘her’ first descriptive words were about how ‘she’ would never have considered it possible to be as intimate as this particular way of being – an intimacy of such near-innocence as to have previously only ever been possible privately with ‘her’ sexual partner in very special moments – when in a social setting as one of a number of persons partaking of coffee and snacks in a sitting room situation. Intuitively seizing the vital opportunity such intimate experiencing offered ‘she’ took over from me and commenced interacting intensively in my stead – notably now a one-on-one feeling-being interchange – and within a relatively short while feeling-being ‘Grace’ was experiencing life in the same, or very similar, manner as feeling-being ‘Vineeto’ (hence that 4th of December 2009 report of mine about how these intimacy experiences are potentially contagious, so to speak, for other sincere actualists as the atmosphere generated affectively-psychically can propagate a flow-on effect).

As for your query regarding how the intimacy experience (IE) differs from an excellence experience (EE): qualitively they are much the same, or similar, insofar as with both experiences there is a near-absence of agency – the beer rather than the doer is the operant – whereupon naïveté has come to the fore, such as to effect the marked diminishment of separation, and the main distinction is that the IE is more people-oriented, while the EE tends to be environmental in its scope.

In other words, with an EE the ‘aesthetic experience’ feature, for instance, or its ‘nature experience’ aspect, for example, tends to be more prominent, whilst with an IE the ‘fellowship experience’ characteristic, for instance, or its ‘convivial experience’ quality, for example, comes to the fore. In either type of near-PCE – wherein the experiencing is of ‘my’ life living itself, with a surprising sumptuosity, rather than ‘me’ living ‘my’ life, quite frugally by comparison, and where this moment is living ‘me’ (instead of ‘me’ trying to live ‘in the moment’) – the diminishment of separation is so astonishing as to be as-if incomprehensible/ unbelievable yet it is the imminence of a fellow human’s immanence which, in and of itself, emphasises the distinction the most.

For instance, the degree of intimacy experienced with minera, flora and fauna upon strolling through some botanical gardens with either near-PCE occurring – as in, with rocks, trees and birds, for example – is to the same gradation as when in a social setting such as a typical sitting room situation (as in, with ashtrays, flowers and humans, for instance) yet it is the ‘fellow human being’ element which exemplifies the already astounding diminishment of separation which ensues upon the blessed onset of this near-innocent intimacy of naïveté.

And that latter point – the felicitous advent of naïve intimacy – is another way the IE differs from the EE inasmuch if a near-PCE is initiated via intensive interaction with a fellow human being/ with fellow human beings it takes on the properties of an intimacy experience (IE) whereas if the near-PCE is triggered via interacting intensively with the world at large (as in, an aesthetic experience, a nature experience, a contemplative experience, for example) it takes on the properties of an excellence experience (EE).

The role they play in an out-from-control/ different-way-of-being virtual freedom (entitled ‘The Dynamic, Destinal Virtual Freedom’ on that web page to distinguish it from the still-in-control/ same-way-of-being virtual freedom entitled ‘The Pragmatic, Methodological Virtual Freedom’) is, essentially, in enabling the actualism process to take over.

In effect, the actualism process is what ensues when one gets out from being under control, via having given oneself prior permission to have one’s life live itself (i.e., sans the controlling doer), and a different way of being comes about (i.e., where the beer is the operant) – whereupon a thrilling out-from-control momentum takes over and an inevitability sets in – whereafter there is no pulling back (hence the reluctance in having it set in motion) as once begun it is nigh-on unstoppable.

Then one is in for the ride of a lifetime!

Regards,
Richard.

February 3 2016

Re: It is Fun to be Attentive to Feelings!

CLAUDIU: Hello folks,

Cheers,
Claudiu

RICHARD: Claudiu, as I was about to post this email I noticed that your most recent email (Message № 21920) renders it redundant. However, as I had already composed it I am posting it, anyway, as a verification your latest understanding regarding attentiveness is correct.

*

G’day Claudiu,

Whilst reading your above email online it occurred to me to post a brief note, there and then, and simply reiterate how ‘being attentive to my feelings’ only takes place, of course, on those occasions when/ where an otherwise ongoing enjoyment and appreciation diminishes.

Plus, how the very act of thus ‘being attentive to my feelings’ is initiated by that diminishment of enjoyment and appreciation.

In other words, being (cognitively) attentive to one’s (affective) feelings – instigated by the diminution in the quality of affectively enjoying and appreciating being alive/ being here, each moment again, come-what-may – happens less and less once one gets the knack of thus affectively monitoring one’s moment-to-moment (affective) mood and/or temperament via the increasingly subtle variations in one’s (affective) enjoyment and appreciation.

Essentially, ‘feeling good’ as a bottom-line each moment again for the remainder of one’s life means rarely, if ever, needing to (cognitively) be ‘attentive to my feelings’ due to that habituation of the actualism method (such as to result in a still-in-control/ same-way-of-being virtual freedom).

*

Howsoever, upon re-reading your email with the notion of just a brief note in mind, the very detail and thus expansive length of it persuaded me to expand somewhat upon the subject myself and especially so in view of your observations regarding a particular hangover from your earlier buddhistic practice.

Viz.:

• [Claudiu]: ‘Something about the matter-of-factness of it [i.e., Richard’s email] dispelled a long-held belief... And the belief – left-over from my meditative days – was that being attentive to my feelings was inherently painful! That feelings were somehow bad, and being attentive to them only made it worse, so the best approach was to try to ignore them and feel good despite not looking at anything ....’. [endquote].

As you referred to ‘being attentive to my feelings’ half-a-dozen times, all told, it further occurred to me to anecdotally illustrate what is conveyed by the [quote] ‘current-time awareness’ [endquote] term, in that email of mine, so as to spell out in some detail how that awareness comes about such that it soon becomes possible, at any given moment, to ‘instantly answer the question’ you articulated as follows.

Viz.:

• [Claudiu]: ‘To have a current-time awareness of how I am experiencing this moment of being alive means being able to instantly answer the question, if anybody asks or if I ask myself, of ‘How am I feeling?’ ... or, in full, ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ Or to put it in other way... if I ask myself, ‘how am I feeling?’, and I don’t immediately know the answer, but have to do some digging... that means I am lacking that current-time awareness!’ [endquote].

As what is conveyed by that term is already provided in the ‘This Moment of Being Alive’ article – and specifically referred to elsewhere via words such as ‘diminishment’ or ‘diminution’ and ‘flashing red light’ or ‘a warning buzzer’ on more than fifty occasions on my portion of the website – then this expanded post is more about drawing attention to it, even to the extent of belabouring the point, than anything else.

So, first the anecdote. Early on in my six-month visit to India in 2010 the person anonymised as Respondent № 04 on The Actual Freedom Trust list – whose first post is date-stamped 09 Jan 1999 on my portion of the web site (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 4, 9 January 1999). – arranged to meet with me. Arriving after an early-hour inter-city train trip he spent around four or five hours with me and about an hour or so into the conversation he happened to mention, en passant, how he was not able to put the actualism method into practice at work as he could not be attentive to how he was experiencing this moment of being alive, each moment again, during his workaday hours as the job-description required that a large percentage of his time be spent at a computer station being attentive to the myriad manoeuvres on the computer screen virtually every moment of the day.

Although somewhat taken aback by the implications and ramifications of such obvious ignorement/ ignoration of my specific responses and explanations, online, it was a simple matter to point out how the moment-to-moment monitoring of the affections is, of course, an affective monitoring – along with reminding him how the identity inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago was a family man working 12-14 hours a day for 6-7 days a week in order to feed, clothe and house everyone (mortgage commitments, hire-purchase payments, and etcetera) – and to thereafter verbalise what is freely available for perusal and edification on The Actual Freedom Trust web site.

The following excerpt – from an online exchange five years previously – should demonstrate why that en passant comment of his has remained with me to the present day.

Viz.:

• [Respondent № 04]: [Okay, then why is it important to ascertain causation and the succession?] Does it help to see the silliness?

• [Richard]: What is being pointed out, in the above exchange, is seeing the silliness of having such an event – whatever that event may be – take away one’s enjoyment and appreciation of being alive at this particular moment (the only moment one is ever alive) by having such an incident as that trigger off the feeling.

The name of the game is to habituate an affective imitation of the actual each moment/ each place again – to consistently feel as happy and harmless (free of both malice and sorrow and, thus, their antidotal pacifiers love and compassion) as is humanly possible whilst remaining a ‘self’ – so as to enable the already always existing peace-on-earth to be apparent sooner rather than later ... therefore *whenever/ wherever there is the slightest diminution of that felicity/ innocuity it speaks for itself* that some event, which has been constantly granted the power such as to customarily render that peace and harmony short-lived, has been permitted, via a lifetime of continuous/ routine ignoration, to wreak its havoc once again. [emphasis added]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 4a, 31 July 2005).

The above words ‘it speaks for itself’ quite obviously refer to how it is via (affectively) feeling the ‘felicity/ innocuity’ to be diminishing that something is amiss becomes noticeable – in regards to the quality of one’s enjoyment and appreciation – and not by being (cognitively) attentive, each moment again, to each and every aspect of such affective experiencing.

Put succinctly: as moment-to-moment monitoring of (affective) mood is, of course, an affective monitoring there is no reason why the oh-so-common requirement to be (cognitively) attentive, to whatever a job-description requires, would mean the actualism method cannot be practiced during workaday hours.

The same moment-to-moment affective monitoring of mood applies, of course, in any situation (reading, writing, chatting, listening to or watching media, driving, cycling, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and so on and so forth).

Variations on the theme highlighted above appear in more than fifty places on my portion of the website – all of which convey the same or similar observation regarding moment-to-moment affective monitoring of how one is experiencing this moment of being alive – and the following is one of 40 hits which the search-string <flashing red light> returned.

Viz.:

• [Respondent № 93]: Richard, would you say that it takes quite a bit of effort and determination to follow through in asking the question to it’s conclusion?

• [Richard]: I do say it takes some doing to start off with[1] yet, with application and diligence and patience and perseverance, one soon gets the knack of it and more and more time is spent enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive – the sheer delight of being as happy and harmless as is humanly possible whilst remaining a ‘self’ – and, as *the slightest diminishment of such felicity and innocuity is a warning signal (a flashing red light as it were)* that one has inadvertently wandered off the way, it is remarkably simple in practice[2] ... and thus easy. Furthermore, it is fun to find out what makes one ‘tick’. [emphasis added]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 93, 21 June 2005).

Again, the above highlighted words expressly refer to how it is via (affectively) feeling that ‘felicity and innocuity’ to be diminishing – and not by being (cognitively) attentive, each moment again, to each and every aspect of such felicitous and innocuous experiencing – that it becomes noticeable how one has inadvertently wandered off the way.

Furthermore, the footnotes – those two after the words ‘to start off with’ and ‘simple in practice’, above, plus one supplementary to the first – expand upon both the non-cognitive nature of this ongoing affective awareness (i.e., ‘a non-verbal attitude’ and ‘a wordless approach’) and the simplicity/ easiness (a.k.a. effortlessness) of this non-cognitive monitoring whereby, via affectively feeling any diminution of one’s ongoing affective enjoyment and appreciation, cognitive attention is automatically engendered. Viz.:

[1]to start off with:
• [Richard]: ‘It takes some doing to start off with, but as success after success starts to multiply exponentially, it becomes automatic to have this question running[†] as an on-going thing (as a non-verbal attitude towards life; a wordless approach each moment again) because it delivers the goods right here and now ... not off into some indeterminate future’. (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive).

[†]automatic to have this question running:
• [Richard]: ‘It is a question, not a phrase to be memorised and repeated slogan-like (or as if chanting a mantra for instance), and it soon becomes a non-verbal attitude to life; a wordless approach each moment again whereupon one cannot be anything else but [affectively] aware of one’s every instinctual impulse/ affective feeling, and thus self-centred thought, as it is happening’. [square-bracketed insertion added for emphasis]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 68, 26 April 2004).

[2]simple in practice:
• [Richard]: ‘It is really very, very simple (which is possibly why it has never been discovered before this): one felt good previously; one is not feeling good now; something happened to one to end that felicitous/ innocuous feeling; one finds out what happened; one sees how silly that is (no matter what it was); one is once more feeling good’. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 71, 9 July 2004b).

I added the word ‘affectively’ in squared brackets, in the middle footnote, so as to emphasise how the words ‘non-verbal attitude’, and ‘wordless approach’, are indicative of that awareness of those instinctual impulses/ affective feelings – and thus self-centred thought – being an affective awareness.

*

As to how simple, easy and thus effortless this way of living/ this course of action is, when sincerely put into practice, it may be handy to also anecdotally reference how the identity inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago took the first step, on what has become known as the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition, as the new year dawned in 1981 and as the grandmother of ‘his’ four children was driving them all down the driveway of ‘his’ ex-farmhouse after having heroically elected to have all of her grandchildren stay with her in the city for a three week holiday (which had left ‘him’ and ‘his’ wife on their own together for the first time since the birth of the first child around fourteen years previously) so as to give her daughter and son-in-law a break from parentage and, hopefully in her mind, to be of assistance in the resurrection of their failing marriage.

It was an opportunity ‘he’ grasped with both hands to not only regain the honeymoon intimacy, of 1966, as ‘his’ wife was spontaneously proposing while they waved them goodbye as they drove away down the driveway – specifically, a twenty-hour mutual peak experience, which both of them remembered well, wherein naïveté featured prominently – but also by so doing to thereby enable the actual intimacy each had experienced, some months prior, during their respective perfection experiences which had indubitably evidenced to both of them that peace-on-earth was already always here (a much-discussed issue over those preceding months). What they both set about doing thereafter, consciously and with knowledge aforethought, was to deliberately imitate the actual each moment again – as magically manifested in their respective perfection experiences – simply because the imitative course of action had been demonstrably successful in the area of the fine arts (as per my oft-mentioned ‘enabling the painting to paint itself’ theme).

When their children were duly returned by an exhausted grandmother, after their three-week exposure to the big-city lifestyle had run its course, ‘he’ was particularly determined not to lose what ‘he’ dubbed the ‘honeymoon atmosphere’ by reverting to type – although ‘his’ wife fared badly in this respect (as per Message № 12901 (Richard, List D, No. 33, 13 January 2013) for instance) – and four weeks later as the official school year was due to commence ‘he’ was similarly set on not losing, as the minimal or bottom line of moment-to-moment experiencing, what ‘he’ dubbed the ‘holiday atmosphere’ (engendered via interacting with ‘his’ children as if a child again, albeit with adult sensibilities, due to an irrepressible re-emergence of ‘his’ hidden-away-during-puberty childhood naïveté).

For what ‘he’ had twigged to, in the beginning stages of their joint venture (and particularly exemplified by ‘his’ wife’s predilection for venting over voicing), was how it was far, far easier and simpler to stay in a good mood come-what-may – preferably a happy mood of course – than claw ‘his’ way back up to feeling good, again and again, after having habitually reverted to type.

Hence being (affectively) aware, each moment again, of more and more subtle variations in the quality of one’s moment-to-moment enjoyment and appreciation of being alive/ of being here so as to earlier and earlier pre-empt any potential reversion to type.

Also, repeated experience had shown ‘him’ that minor dips in that quality presaged each major diminution – indeed miniscule blips soon became evident even earlier than those minor dips as ‘his’ ability to (affectively) detect subtle variations in the affective tone of mood and temperament became evermore fine-tuned – and the earlier such habituated silliness could be (affectively) discerned the sooner ‘he’ could thus nip these instinctual potentialities in the bud.

And all this while ‘he’ worked 12-14 hours a day for 6-7 days a week, as already mentioned, and yet all this while such work increasingly resembled the play it is in actuality.

*

What follows is one of the 46 hits for the <diminishment> search-term (as compared to the further above <diminution> search-term which returned 11 hits).

Viz.:

• [Richard]: All it takes is the habitual attentiveness engendered by being aware of how this moment of being alive is experienced – and that awareness is the very enjoyment and appreciation of being alive at this moment (the only moment of ever being alive) – inasmuch *any diminishment of the quality of that experiencing is patently obvious (simply by virtue of a lessening of that enjoyment and appreciation)*.

• [Respondent № 74]: Would you say such alertness is effortless?

• [Richard]: No, the alertness of being on guard implies effort ... whereas enjoyment and appreciation is a breeze. [emphasis added]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 74e, 29 December 2005).

Once again, the above highlighted words explicitly refer to how it is via being (affectively) aware of the quality of one’s enjoyment and appreciation diminishing that it becomes ‘patently obvious’ – simply by virtue of this lessening in quality – such as to bring about being (cognitively) attentive to such attenuation of one’s enjoyment and appreciation.

The search-string <warning signal> returned 36 hits and a search for <warning buzzer> resulted in the following exchange.

Viz.:

• [Respondent № 27]: Richard, could you tell me in your own words just exactly what you mean by not ‘expressing emotion’?

• [Richard]: Sure ... an emotion arises because of a situation or circumstance (which can include merely thinking about something whilst on one’s own) and it wants to express, communicate or convey itself either verbally (which may be merely tone of voice), physically (which may be merely facial expression or bodily stance) or as a ‘vibe’ – to use a ‘60’s term – which can be picked-up psychically (and is arguably the most pernicious of all expression).
[...].
[Respondent № 27]: Also specifically which emotions are advantageous to ‘not express’?

• [Richard]: All and any emotion ... what I would oft-times say to people twenty one years ago, when I first put this into practice, was that *emotions are life’s way of reminding oneself that one has gone astray* (that one has wandered off the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition).

An emotion is like a warning buzzer ... or a flashing red light. [emphasis added]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 27a, 24 January 2002).

This particular quote is included because it depicts the identity inhabiting this flesh-and-blood body all those years ago uncritically declaring how it was via the emotions (i.e., per favour the affections generally) – and not cognition (i.e., not per favour being cognitively attentive) – that it became noticeable ‘he’ had gone astray.

*

As an aside, it is worth mentioning that ‘feeling good’ each moment again over extended periods is thus not an emotion per se but, rather, an affective mood – as in, ‘I’m in a good mood today’ (and, conversely, ‘I’m in a bad mood today’) – just as ‘feeling happy’ moment-to-moment, for the remainder of one’s life, is also an affective mood (e.g., ‘I’m in a happy mood today’) as it would be simply impossible to sustain an emotional happiness day-after-day week-after-week, let alone being passionately happy, due to such being both emotionally draining and, usually, a conditional happiness anyway.

It is correspondingly worth noting that mood is to temperament as weather is to climate inasmuch a person who is predominantly in a good mood is generally described as having an agreeable temperament (a.k.a. as being of a generally cheerful disposition) – as contrasted to those usually depicted as bad-tempered by nature (a.k.a. as being a generally unpleasant character) – such that a prolonged ‘feeling good’ mood becomes a matter of temperament and disposition and, thereby, ultimately of character.

*

All of which brings me to the ‘This Moment of Being Alive’ article.

Viz.:

• [9th Paragraph]: The wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition is marked by enjoyment and appreciation – the sheer delight of being as happy and harmless as is humanly possible whilst remaining a ‘self’ – and *the slightest diminishment of such felicity/ innocuity is a warning signal (a flashing red light as it were) that one has inadvertently wandered off the way*.

One is thus soon back on track ... and all because of everyday events. [emphasis added]. (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive).

This paragraph has been sitting there in plain view for 18+ years, now, as well as having been copy-pasted into many, many emails through my detailing of how the actualism method works in practice to all those different persons asking me to explain the method to them via email forums (in lieu of reading it for themselves on the website).

Some time after returning from my six-month visit to India I tweaked the first half-a-dozen or so paragraphs of the ‘This Moment of Being Alive’ article in an endeavour to pre-empt ever more peoples becoming affers – as was exemplified at the time by the title [quote] ‘a nice way of framing haietmoba’ [endquote] to Message № 11700 (Richard, List D, No. 29, 19 June 2012) which contained a link to web page where a pre-eminent pretermitter had hijacked that string of letters (by which means quite a few persons refer to the actualism method) via insisting it points to a watered-down and westernised ‘nibbāna’ (i.e., phenomenologically-derived) – and added-in the following paragraphs.

Viz.:

• [4th Paragraph]: ‘... enjoyment and appreciation is facilitated by feeling as happy and as harmless as is humanly possible. And this (affective) felicity/ innocuity is potently enabled via minimisation of both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ feelings. An *affective awareness* is the key to maximising felicity and innocuity over all those alternate feelings inasmuch the slightest diminishment of enjoyment and appreciation *automatically activates attentiveness*. [emphases added]. (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive).

This paragraph is specifically worded to make it clear how it is an affective awareness (i.e., that moment-to-moment affective monitoring of mood already referred to much further above) which both maximises felicity/ innocuity and automatically activates conscious attention (as in, engendering cognitive attentiveness) whenever something is amiss in regards to enjoyment and appreciation.

• [12th Paragraph]: It is important to comprehend [...] how that (affective) enjoyment and appreciation *is* the very actualist awareness in action (as distinct from the buddhistic mindfulness, for instance, which requires cognitive engagement). What this means in effect is that, because one cannot help but be aware, each moment again, of even the slightest diminution of that experiential awareness (of that very enjoyment and appreciation of *feeling* as felicitous/ innocuous as is humanly possible) via *feeling* it diminish, cognitive attentiveness can be freely applied to whatever one is engaged in doing, in one’s moment-to-moment daily life, be it earning a living, reading/ watching various media, studying for examinations, and so on, and so forth.

Put simply: for a feeling being, actualism’s awareness (in regards to how one is experiencing this moment of being alive) is an affective awareness. [emphases in original]. (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive).

The first sentence of this 12th paragraph includes, parenthetically, a specific reference to buddhistic practice because more than a few peoples – and not only those of a buddhistic inclination but those practising a secularised version thereof as well – perversely insist on making out that the actualism method entails the same or similar practice as that (misnamed) ‘mindfulness’ regimen, which has gained traction in large swathes of many and various societies and cultures around the world, despite my words unambiguously stating on several occasions how buddhistic ‘mindfulness’ is [quote] ‘another ball-game entirely’ [endquote].

Viz.:

• [Richard]: (...) the words ‘how am I experiencing this moment of being alive’ simply refer to the make-up of the attentiveness being applied ... as distinct from, say, *the buddhistic ‘mindfulness’ (which is another ball-game entirely)*. [emphasis added]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 68c, 31 May 2005).

And I say ‘perversely insist’ deliberatively because it is simply impossible for those [quote] ‘another ball-game entirely’ [endquote] words to be misread/ misheard, mistaken, misapprehended, misunderstood, misconstrued, miscomprehended, misinterpreted, misjudged – as in, get the wrong idea about and/or get an incorrect impression of, that is – or, to use a colloquialism, to get the wrong end of the stick regarding what those words mean.

*

‘Tis amazing the number of peoples who deceive themselves into believing they know better than me what my reports/ descriptions/ explanations refer to – via illuding themselves their book-learnt understanding over x-number of years trumps my experiential understanding over the last 35+ years – as if the words issuing forth from this keyboard come from somebody too dumb to know just what his moment-to-moment experiencing actually is (despite their tacit acknowledgement thereby of him having nevertheless been somehow smart enough to accomplish what they are yet to do).

Were it not for the predictably dire consequences – the relentless continuance of all the misery and mayhem which epitomises the human condition – such self-serving antics would be highly risible.

*

The second sentence of this 12th paragraph has the word *feeling* made bold twice so as to emphasise how the ongoing awareness of all affective feelings, moods and states of being is, of course, affective in nature and thus leaving cognitive awareness free to be applied to whatever one is engaged in doing, in one’s moment-to-moment daily life, be it earning a living, reading/ watching various media, studying for examinations, and so on, and so forth.

And the follow-up sentence to this 12th paragraph simply summarises the above observation – how the awareness (in regards to how one is experiencing this moment of being alive) is an affective awareness – so that no-one can ever again say to me, even in passing, that they cannot practise the actualism method because they are fully occupied with being attentive to the myriad manoeuvres on a computer screen virtually every moment of the day!

Regards,
Richard.

August 15 2016

Re: Near Actual Caring

CLAUDIU: Hi Richard,

This answer leaves me uncertain as to what an excellence experience is as compared to an out-from-control virtual freedom. (Message 23301)

RICHARD: G’day Claudiu,

Yes, although the words [quote] “being... in full allowance of the benignity and benevolence inherent to pure intent to be dynamically operative” [endquote] are what distinguishes the ongoing excellence experience (EE) known as an out-from-control virtual freedom, from an EE itself, the way it is worded – and certainly when read as a standalone Q&A isolated from all the explanations to that effect which precede it – the words “...and thus...” do indeed make for uncertainty.

Thank you for pointing this out ... I will amend the paragraph accordingly.

But first, just to make it all clear upfront, an excellence experience (EE) – which, just like an intimacy experience (IE), is so close to a pure consciousness experience (PCE) as to be known as a near-PCE – can happen regardless of one’s modus vivendi.

In other words, just as it is possible for someone whose manner of living/ way of life is yet to have feeling good (i.e., a general feeling of well-being) established as a bottom-line of on-going experiencing, come-what-may, to have either an EE or IE (wherein the doer is abeyant and the beer ascendant), be they spontaneous or induced, from time-to-time – just as they can have a PCE itself (where identity in toto/the entire affective faculty is abeyant) – so too can a person yet to be able to describe their modus vivendi as either “feeling as happy and harmless (as free of sorrow and malice) as is humanly possible” or “feeling excellent/ perfect for 99% of the time” such as to be designated “a pragmatic, methodological virtual freedom” (a.k.a. “a still-in-control/ same-way-of-being virtual freedom”).

Indeed, anyone at all can have an IE or an EE – or even a PCE – at any time in their life (albeit totally ignorant of any such nomenclature and what they actually signify).

What sets the ongoing near-PCE known as “a dynamic, destinal virtual freedom” apart from ever other way of life/ manner of living is, as is expressed in that paragraph, by being in full allowance of the benignity and benevolence inherent to pure intent being dynamically operative – whereby the actualism method segues into the actualism process – such as to be pulling one evermore unto one’s destiny.

And here is why the actualism process is imperative:

• [Richard]: “(...) the out-from-control/ different-way-of-being term, in actualism lingo, specifically refers to the actualism process superseding the actualism method – meaning the controlling doer is abeyant (hence: ‘out-from-control’) and a naïve beer is ascendant (hence: ‘different-way-of-being’) – whereby the benignity and benevolence of pure intent increasingly renders the otherwise essential societal moeurs (a.k.a. ‘mores’) redundant, whilst simultaneously precluding anomie [a.k.a. ‘lawlessness’] ...”. (Richard, List D, Andrew, 28 February 2016).

CLAUDIU: Elsewhere you’ve written that an out-from-control virtual freedom is known as an ongoing EE:

As the critical criterion of whether a feeling-being can experience near-actual caring is “being out-from-control”, being out-from-control is described as a state “with the ‘doer’ abeyant and the ‘beer’ ascendant” and also as “an ongoing excellence experience”, and an excellence experience is described as there being “a near-absence of agency – the beer rather than the doer is the operant” (and earlier ‘excellent’ on ‘Grace’s scale being described as relating to “a near-absence of agency; with the doer abeyant, and the beer ascendant"), would it not therefore be the case that a feeling-being having an excellence experience *is* automatically experiencing near-actual caring?

RICHARD: Again, although the above words [quote] “...the primary impetus of agency is the benevolence and benignity of pure intent being dynamically operative *via the full concurrence of the ‘beer’*...” [emphasis added] do indicate what distinguishes the ongoing EE known as an out-from-control virtual freedom, from an EE itself, the manner in which that Q&A is worded – and certainly when read as a standalone paragraph isolated from all the explanations to that effect which precede it – it does indeed make for uncertainty.

CLAUDIU: If not – and this would be the most interesting part – then what is the vital distinction between an EE and an out-from-control virtual freedom such that a near-actual caring features in the latter but not the former?

RICHARD: The vital distinction is the overarching benignity and benevolence inherent to infinitude – which has nothing to do with any affective felicity and innocuity – being dynamically operative due to the cheerful and thus willing concurrence of the beer.

For instance (from 2005):

• [Richard]: “The actualism method is not about undermining the passions ... on the contrary, it is about directing all of that affective energy into being the felicitous/ innocuous feelings (that is, ‘me’ at the core of ‘my’ being, which is ‘being’ itself) in order to effect a deliberate imitation of the actual, as evidenced in a PCE, so as to feel as happy and as harmless (as free of malice and sorrow) as is humanly possible whilst remaining a ‘self’.
Such imitative felicity/ innocuity, in conjunction with sensuosity, readily evokes amazement, marvel, and delight – a state of wide-eyed wonder best expressed by the word naiveté (the nearest a ‘self’ can come to innocence whilst being a ‘self’) – and which allows the overarching benignity and benevolence inherent to the infinitude, which this infinite and eternal and perpetual universe actually is, to operate more and more freely. This intrinsic benignity and benevolence, which has nothing to do with the imitative affective happiness and harmlessness, will do the rest.
All that was required *was ‘my’ cheerful, and thus willing, concurrence*. [emphasis added]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 60f, 29 September 2005).

CLAUDIU: If yes, then was it simply Srinath’s phrasing of someone “who is in an EE and not out-from-control” that led to the “No ...” reply? (i.e. in that case it is not the case that someone in an EE is “not out-from-control” as to be in an EE is to be out-from-control, albeit fleetingly?)

RICHARD: Given that it was a case of not being able to answer the question as-asked – to be having an EE (or an IE) is indeed to be out-from-control – then the word “No...” negates the entire query.

A minimally-tweaked version would look something like this:

• [Question]: “Is it possible for someone who is in an EE and not out-from-control to experience near actual caring during the duration of the EE?”
• [Answer]: “No ... being out-from-control (sans the self-centred/ self-centric controller, a.k.a. doer) – plus being in full allowance of the benignity and benevolence inherent to pure intent to be dynamically operative – is the critical criterion you have evidentially been looking for throughout this email exchange”.

It is more informative, though, to first set the query straight:

• [Respondent]: “Is it possible for someone who is in an EE and not out-from-control to experience near actual caring during the duration of the EE?”
• [Richard]: “As to be having an EE (or an IE) is to be out-from-control then the critical criterion, which you have evidentially been looking for throughout this email exchange, is the ascendant beer being in full allowance of the benignity and benevolence inherent to pure intent being dynamically operative (whereby the actualism method segues into the actualism process) and pulling one evermore unto one’s destiny”.

Again, I appreciate your feedback.

CLAUDIU: What a great time to be alive!

RICHARD: Ahh ... ’tis good to know that.

Regards,
Richard.

RETURN TO MAILING LIST ‘D’ INDEX

CLAUDIU’S REPORT OF VISITING RICHARD AND VINEETO

RICHARD’S HOME PAGE

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 and Use Restrictions and Guarantee of Authenticity