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Richard’s Selected Writings on Our Animal Instincts in the Primitive Brain
All humans are endowed at birth by Blind Nature with the instinct for the survival of the species … an apparently necessary state of affairs. This instinct overrides all other considerations, which may be why one is prepared to die for an ideology, for a belief, for one’s country or to defend one’s young. This is Blind Nature’s way of ensuring continued life forms to proliferate upon this planet … and any life form will do. This blind pattern of behaviour can be superseded now, as the potential for crystal-clear thought has developed within the human species via apperception. For most of this century, pockets of individualism have been struggling to emerge, groping their way toward a clear understanding of why they are opposed to collectivism. Humankind is poised on the cusp of the dawning of a fresh era; an era wherein an evolution in the brain-stem is beginning to happen. The seat of the instincts, tentatively located in the popularly named ‘reptilian brain’, is capable of undergoing a mutation. No longer will Blind Nature have to operate; the perpetuation of the species will become a matter of lucid thought and personal choice. No longer will vicious wars of group survival be necessary. Already, with the advent of mutually assured destruction because of nuclear capability, people are questioning the advisability of war as a means of settling disputes. The apprehension of a cataclysmic end to human life has shaken the habitual and apathetic ‘human’ complacency to such an extent that the mind is now ready to be receptive to something entirely new in human history. Richard’s Journal, 1997, Article Twenty-Three
Something new is already here. I call it actual freedom, the third alternative. One can be actual; no longer ‘human’, no longer straining to become Divine in order to escape from being ‘human’. To become Divine is the result of a well-meant but fatally flawed desire to be humane. It is the instincts that mark out human beings as being ‘human’ and in the Divine Realm those instincts still hold sway; it has been merely a transmogrification of the gross into the refined ... nothing fundamental has happened. The gross, the ego, has sublimated itself as the soul into the refined, the Self or Spirit. The instincts remain intact, heightened now by the Authority conferred by the psychic Power that reigns in the Supernatural World. Any attempt to escape from the ‘Human Condition’ is doomed to failure … and the Divine Realm is an escape. It is incumbent upon one to stand fast, as a flesh and blood body only, without moving in any direction at all … and be what-one-is. Only in this manner will the instincts reveal themselves for what they are. ‘I’ will be laid open and the core of ‘me’ will be revealed for the blind and instinctual ‘being’ that ‘I’ am. When one exposes one’s instincts, all of one’s atavistic feelings of fear surge up. To repeat: ‘I’ am these instincts; these instincts are ‘my’ very ‘being’. Here is where ‘I’ experience ‘myself’ in the most direct form … all alone, forever separate from others. Here is where ‘me’ as ‘being’ is forever threatened, for ‘I’ should not ‘be’ at all. ‘I’ take up individual space and ‘I’ am ashamed of existing … ‘I’ am an apology just waiting to happen. Simultaneously, self-consciousness shows that this utterly personal feeling of ‘I’ being at stake is identical to the psychological ‘will to survive’ of ‘humanity’ at large. ‘I’ and ‘humanity’ are one and the same thing. ‘I’ am ‘humanity’ and ‘humanity’ is ‘me’. Both affective-based concepts are equally absurd and harmful, and – most important of all – contrary to the actual condition of the infinitude of this physical universe. Humans have created a separative identity and then frustratedly railed against this benevolent, benign universe. What humankind has done is to take the instinct-bred ‘I’ as being actual by calling it real. In doing so it creates ‘humanity’, which is as real as the numerous ‘I’s that constitute its ‘being’. Human beings set out to assuage the nasty and pitiful results that all this causes by instilling in each and every baby arriving on earth, in whatever culture, the ‘Human Constitution’. The ‘First Rule’ of this ‘Human Constitution’ states that ‘life on earth is a place of suffering ... and we all pledge to forever venerate that self-same suffering’. Strange goings-on, considering that the human being is well-endowed with a large brain! However, this brain is fully occupied with instinctually derived societal forces. The acculturated mind is a veritable minefield of cherished psittacisms ... the mechanical repetition of previously received ideas or images, reflecting neither apperception nor autonomous reasoning. In other words, there is little or no room for original thought. One needs pure intent, born out of a peak experience, to shatter the strangle-hold that the mythologically-based ‘wisdom’ has on the human mind. The universe’s inclination is to manifest itself as its best. It can make full use of the brain’s capacity to reach its prime potential; namely, to be able to free oneself from the tyranny of the belief in the ‘Human Constitution’ … which humans defend to the hilt. This ‘Human Constitution’ is the only purview on life so far – it is adhered to and repeated ad nauseam for ages unto ages – but is poised to become outmoded. If it can vanish in one human being it can likewise perish in another ... and another and another and so on. This is an exciting period to live in. For the first time in human history, it is possible for anyone who applies themselves with sufficient application and diligence – guided by pure intent – to become virtually free, virtually pure, virtually perfect. It is then highly possible that this person can actualise the ultimate as being the immediate. Richard’s Journal, 1997, Article Twenty-Three
All in all it is being a felicitous morning ... faultless in its simple pleasure. Every day is like this in this actual world, although I can occasionally meet unhelpful people, unhappy people, even rude
people ... the entire gamut of ‘human’ expression. I can easily make allowances for them for I know that they all live in reality
… and life can be a grim and glum business there. Here, all is benevolent, friendly ‘I’ live in constant apprehension that ‘my’ bad side will get the better of ‘me’, and ‘I’ must maintain eternal vigilance. Such effort is exhausting and unsustainable ... from time to time a crack appears in ‘my’ defences and something nasty can slip out. It can cause harsh words and offensive or anti-social behaviour in the heat of the moment … or it can take the form of a cold-blooded plan to exact revenge at a later date. These are actions which ‘I’ afterwards regret and ‘I’ will say something like: ‘I don’t know what came over me, this is not like me’. ‘I’ can then feel sorry, remorseful, and with sufficient repentance ‘I’ can regain ‘my’ virtue ... until next time, that is. It is the identity that generates all the ills of humankind, perpetuating misery and suffering. And it is to no avail to strain to attain to the Higher Self in order to cure or heal all the nastiness of humans; such action has been tried before with demonstrably disastrous results. Life can be a grim and glum business in reality. It is all so simple, here in this actual world; no effort is needed to meet the requisite morality of society. I have no ‘dark nature’, no unconscious impulses to curb, to control, to restrain. It is all so easy, here in this actual world; I can take no credit for my apparently virtuous behaviour because actual freedom automatically provides beneficial thoughts and deeds. It is all so spontaneous, here in this actual world; I do not do it … it does itself. Vanity, egoism, selfishness … all self-centred activity has ceased to operate when ‘I’ ceased to be. And it is all so peaceful, here in this actual world; it is only in living this actual world that human beings can have peace-on-earth without toiling fruitlessly to be ‘good’. The answer to everything that has puzzled humankind for all of human history is readily elucidated when one is actually free. The ‘Mystery of Life’ has been penetrated and laid open for all those with the eyes to see. Life was meant to be easy. Richard’s Journal, 1997, Article Fourteen
There is no fear here, in this actual world where I live. Not even disquietude, uneasiness, nervousness or apprehension … let alone anxiety, angst, fear, terror, horror or dread. And look, there is no fear in a flower, a tree, a rock, an armchair, an ashtray … only sentient beings experience fear. Fear is affective; it is an emotion, a passion, and as such is not actual. Fear is a feeling, not a fact. All sentient beings are born with certain distinguishing instincts, the main ones being fear and aggression and nurture and desire. They are Blind Nature’s – rather clumsy – software package designed to give one a start in life. Contrary to popular belief they are not hardware, but like all software, they can be deleted … instincts are not set in concrete. These instincts form a rudimentary self – a passionate entity – situated in the ‘reptilian brain’ at the top of the brain-stem, in all animals. The human animal, with the unique ability to know its impending demise – and the capacity to think and reflect – has taken this rudimentary self and blown it up all out of proportion into an identity ... no other animal has an ‘I’ as an ego in the head, or a ‘me’ as a soul in the heart. All discussion about fear eventually turns around death. This is a fact that needs be faced squarely. To not ‘be’ is inconceivable; it is impossible to imagine not ‘being’ because all one has ever known is ‘being’. There are no terms of reference to compare against – which is the normal way of thinking – and with no comparison there is no possibility of thought dealing with the fact of death. If pursued diligently, thought gives up the attempt and stops … it cannot proceed further. The affective rushes in to fill the gap left by the absence of thought and fear turns to dread … contemplation of extinction invariably turns fear to dread. The instinct to survive takes over and dread flips to its opposite: awe. As it says in some revered scriptures: ‘Fear of The Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. Most religious and spiritual tracts refer to awe and dread when contemplating the majesty and mystery of some Transcendental ‘Being’ lying beyond time and space. Temporal transience is replaced by a firm faith in a timeless and spaceless Divinity that antedates birth and postdates death. Driven by the instinct for survival at any cost – Blind Nature is rather clumsy – one attempts to transcend the duality of Life and Death and achieve Immortality. If successful, ‘I’ disappear and mysteriously reappear as ‘Me’, the Eternal Self or the Immortal Soul. One is then apparently without fear because one is Deathless … one is Unborn and Undying. One disseminates one’s findings to all and sundry, finding a multitude of gullible penitents willing to suspend sensible reason and sensitive rationality for a chance at avoiding extinction. Such strange goings-on are the way that the denizens of the real world deal with the existential dilemma of facing the facticity of death’s oblivion. It is called being in a state of denial … and results in avoidance and escapism. One’s native intelligence is nowhere to be found operating in all this. What I did was face the fact of my mortality. ‘Life’ and ‘Death’ are not an opposite … there is only birth and death. Life is what happens in between. Before I was born, I was not here. Now that I am alive, I am here. After death I will not be here … just like before birth. Where is the problem? The problem was in the brain-stem, of course. It is the instinct to survive at any cost that was the problem … backed up by the full gamut of the emotions born out of the four basic instinctual passions of fear and aggression and nurture and desire. The rudimentary self, transformed into an identity, must be extinguished in order for one to be here, in this actual world of the senses, bereft of this pernicious entity. ‘My’ extinction was the ending of not only fear, but of all of the affective faculties. Extinction releases one into actuality ... as this flesh and blood body only I am living in the paradisiacal garden that this verdant planet earth is. We are all simply floating in the infinitude of this perfect and pure universe ... coming from nowhere and having nowhere to go to we find ourselves here at this moment in time and this place in space. This actual world is an ambrosial paradise. Richard’s Journal, 1997, Article Thirty-Five
Your sense of being – the real ‘me’ – is what is evidenced when one says: ‘But what about me, nobody loves me for me’! For a woman it is: ‘You only want me for my body ... and not for me’. For a man it is: ‘You only want me for my money ... and not for me’. For a child it is: ‘You only want to be my friend because of my toys (or sweets or whatever)’. This sense of ‘me’ – this being – arises out of the basic instincts that blind nature endowed us all with as a rough and ready ‘soft-ware’ package to make a start in life. These instincts – mainly fear and aggression and nurture and desire – appear as a rudimentary self. This is why it is felt to be one’s ‘Original Face’ – to use the Zen terminology – if one is open to ‘what is’. You need to have a keen sense of humour. This business of becoming free is not – contrary to popular opinion – a serious business at all. Be totally sincere ... most definitely utterly sincere, as genuineness is essential. But serious ... no way. An actual freedom is all about having fun; about enjoying being here; about delighting in being alive. All that ‘being serious’ stuff actively works against peace-on-earth. One has to want to be here on this planet … most people resent being here and wish to escape. This method will bring one into being more fully here than anyone has ever been before. If you do not want to be here, then
forget it.
‘I’ become obsessed with changing ‘myself’ fundamentally, radically, completely and utterly. This entails finding the source of ‘myself’ … and ‘I’ discover that a ‘being’ arises out of the instincts that blind nature endows all sentient beings with at birth. This ‘being’ – the rudimentary self – is the root cause of all the malice and sorrow that besets humankind, and to eliminate malice and sorrow ‘I’ have to eliminate the fear and aggression and nurture and desire that this ‘being’ is made up of … the instincts. But as this ‘being’ is the instincts – there is no differentiation betwixt the two – then the elimination of one is the elimination of the other. In fact, with the elimination of the instincts, ‘I’ cease to exist as ‘me’ being, period. Psychological self-immolation is the only sensible sacrifice that ‘I’ as ‘me’ being can make in order to reveal that which is actual. And that which is actual is a clear and clean and pure perfection. Life is bursting with meaning when ‘I’ and ‘me’ are no longer present to mess things up. ‘I’ and ‘me’ stand in the way of the clarity and purity of the clean perfection of the actual being apparent. ‘My’ very presence prohibits this ever-present perfection being evident. ‘I’ as ‘me’ being prevents the very purity of life, that ‘I’ am searching for, from coming into plain view. With ‘my’ demise, this ever-fresh perfection is now manifest. Peace-on-earth was here in this actual world all the time. It is all so simple, in the actual world; no effort is needed to meet the requisite morality of society. I have no ‘dark
nature’, no unconscious impulses to curb, to control, to restrain. It is all so easy, in the actual world; I can take no credit for my apparently
virtuous behaviour because actual freedom automatically provides beneficial thoughts and deeds. It is all so spontaneous, in the actual world; I do
not do it – it does itself. Vanity, egoism, selfishness – all self-centred activity has ceased to operate when ‘I’ as ‘me’ being ceased
to be. And it is all so peaceful, in the actual world; it is only in actualism that human beings can have peace-on-earth without toiling
fruitlessly to be ‘good’. The answer to everything that has puzzled humankind for all of human history is readily elucidated when one is
actually free. The ‘Mystery of Life’ has been penetrated and laid open for all those with the eyes to see.
RETURN TO RICHARD’S SELECTED WRITING 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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