December 15 2024

VINEETO: It’s strange, I only wrote the sequence of the actualism method the way I did in order to give you confirmation that you are definitely on the spot by choosing sensuousness to concentrate on, whereas for you it “puts a dent in me thinking I am somehow ‘good’ at this.”

A well, never mind.

CLAUDIU: Well there is more to it.

I eventually just saw that it was just a choice of if I want to continue being that way or not! And I decided that no, I don’t want to be. And that appears to have been the end of it haha. It really felt a lot more dramatic at the time but writing it now it sounds so simple. […]

VINEETO: Hi Claudiu,

Thank you for explaining the “dent” in detail, and I am pleased you found those features of your psyche to explore satisfactorily and also recognized how they were stacked on top of each other so that you had to discover/ resolve them in sequence.

First, a dent in your intellectual pride … wondering why it took you so long to discover the significance of sensuosity.

Richard: ‘I remember the first time I experienced being the senses only during a peak experience. There was no identity as ‘I’ thinking or ‘me’ feeling ... simply this body ambling across a grassy field in the early-morning light. A million dew-drenched spider-webs danced a sparkling delight over the verdant vista and a question that had been running for some weeks became experientially answered: without the senses I would not know that I exist. And further to this: I was the senses and the senses were me. With this comes an awareness of being conscious ... apperception’. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, Alan, #pce).

Maybe you noticed when clicking on the link that Richard’s being-the-senses-only-PCE happened during his enlightenment period and was introduced with “If I had not been taken in by delusions of grandeur I would have paid particular notice of experiences like this one”. Hence his comment that “a question that had been running for some weeks became experientially answered: without the senses I would not know that I exist.” [emphasis added].

From this you can see the enlightened ‘Richard’ was similarly hamstrung by dominant passions to give sufficient attention to sensuousness at the time. Maybe this goes some way to at least restore your confidence, rather than pride, in your capacity for sagacity.

CLAUDIU: But I was continuing to get frustrated and spinning out, and suddenly I realize that… I was resenting being alive! I dug into it more and I labelled what I was experiencing as that “basic resentment” that Richard talked about identifying way early on, on his path. I was able to compare that feeling of resentment with the superlatively mirificent recent PCE, and … was able to basically just totally reject and get rid of that resentment! […]

And suddenly it clicked, I would not have admitted that so readily and smoothly if that intellectual pride was still in place! I would be trying to defend my pride instead. So perhaps this explains why I was never really able to get rid of that basic resentment before – because I’d have to admit I didn’t, and I would feel foolish (lol). […] There is a simplicity and peace that is the default now. In the past I always felt like I had to ‘work’ to some degree to stave off spiralling towards feeling bad. But that seems to have ended now. It’s really a lot simpler! […]

VINEETO: Underneath this intellectual pride you found a feeling of so far undetected basic resentment, which could not have been discovered without getting rid of this intellectual pride first. And both of them were instrumental for not having discovered the significance of sensuosity earlier. Ha, someone recently compared the actualism method to peeling an onion.

This in turn will increase your ability to being naïve because there is no more reputation to lose, or is there?

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Claudiu 3, 15 December 2024)

December 16, 2024

VINEETO:

Richard: … one of the most persistent forms of anger is indignation (or righteous anger/ justifiable anger): it can be eradicated rather simply by the realisation that its raison d’être – a guardian against injustice, unjustness, unfairness, inequality (partiality, discrimination, and so on) – is as much a human invention as those concepts it defends … justice, justness, fairness, equality (impartiality, indiscrimination, and so on). (Richard, Selected Correspondence, Aggression).

JESUSCARLOS: It has been wonderful to come home, after a weekend trip, and read this link you shared, Vineeto

On the way back, I was talking to my partner about exactly this. After having read your feedback yesterday (and Kuba’s), and having dismantled the shame I felt (not only seeing it as silly, but also recognizing the enormous opportunity to learn), due to the wounded pride of being exposed, I was able to recognize the underlying problem: the indignation I feel at the injustices that have been committed in the public service arena where I work. But, as Richard noted, this indignation is nothing more than an other human construct, a belief, a guardian, that I have made part of my personality.

VINEETO: Isn’t that wonderful. Yesterday Claudiu reported that he was dismantling his intellectual pride, and today you report the same about “wounded pride”! What synchronicity. And you could dismantle “the shame” as a similarly useless installation of your social identity. It’s like the onion (the identity) is peeling itself.

It is correct what you say about indignation and it’s easy to understand intellectually. Feeling being ‘Vineeto’ found it rather a sticky feeling with all its ‘noble’ connotations attached, and first ‘she’ had to acknowledge that there was nothing noble about being indignant and neither did anybody benefit from ‘her’ feeling indignant.

JESUSCARLOS: What is truly useful to do is not to feel offended by those threats around me, but to prevent these intellectually unacceptable injustices from affecting me emotionally. And act objectively. Otherwise what is articulated in me is the feeling and desire to take revenge, or to defend myself, or to attack before being attacked. And those are the triggers of continuous stress in the work environment.

VINEETO: Yes this is “truly useful” “not to feel offended”, and each time you do feel offended, there is another opportunity to discover something new about yourself. For instance why did what someone said offend you. What ideal is questioned by the other, what belief, even what ‘truth’, what ‘noble’ sentiment to defend? It is fascinating to detect, and then be able to decline, these newly discovered stumbling blocks … and you will see how quickly they diminish to a fraction of what there was at the start of your investigations. After each time discovery you can act more objectively and interrupt the otherwise endless cycle of ‘tit-for-tat’.

JESUSCARLOS: How fun it would be not to be affected, and just act from consideration for any human being, looking for the best solution, from the operation of free intelligence. But without becoming emotionally depressed if it is still not possible to achieve the best solution, because we are dealing with human beings with instincts and passions operating. To see the problem objectively, factually and not personally.

How fun and beneficial and naive it would be to start dismantling the way of doing politics, where every means justifies the end. Instead of this ancient wisdom, appreciate and enjoy this only moment of being alive, as we work to solve the problems of urban management (or anything else).

VINEETO: Mmh, yes that is fun and beneficial and naïve, and it is eminently possible to be that … Presently it is wishful thinking but it gives you a wonderful motivation to be attentive to how you feel and what diminishes your feeling good each moment again.

JESUSCARLOS: We’ll see how it goes tomorrow! Thank you!

VINEETO: It’s a pleasure to talk about my favourite topic.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, JesusCarlos, 16 December 2024)

June 12 2025

VINEETO: Mmh, Richard talks about a “redemptive straw” or “one of several doomsday straws” in combination of a deep foreboding…

…I don’t know if this applies.

KUBA: Yes it is interesting that resistance, anxiety, stress, fear, dread etc. all these play little to no role lately, and I got a rather big mouthful of those at one point.

VINEETO: Hi Kuba,

You reported lots of explorations into strong fear, it is excellent that “all these play little to no role lately”.

KUBA: So driving home just now I realise that this whole problem only exists because ‘I’ still take ‘myself’ to be the epicentre of existence. That ‘I’ am that important for the whole world to notice that ‘I’ disappeared – here comes the messiah again lol.

Looks like there is more to that pride, ‘I’ want to be seen, to be important, and so ‘I’ cement ‘my’ existence.

I can see that it is possible to be anonymous, in fact the world wouldn’t even notice. It is more that ‘I’ have a stake in being “someone in particular”.

‘I’ do not wander off into exile because ‘I’ want to remain a ‘someone’ in relation to ‘others’. Going into the wonderland there is only anonymity.

VINEETO: More than anonymity, you will no longer exist which includes all ‘your’ emotional and imagination-fuelled memories. The anonymity is an aspect of living in the actual world. ‘You’ will not only cease to exist but when I became actually free I knew I had always been here as me, this flesh-and-blood body – it’s a seamless transition.

KUBA: It looks like this is it – ‘I’ am not ready yet to no longer be a ‘someone’.

VINEETO: Ha, I can hear you saying that, over and over. But ‘your’ days are numbered nevertheless.

KUBA: Of course this makes so much sense, ‘I’ need ‘humanity’ to affirm the ‘who’ that ‘I’ am. In that wonderland there is no one to do that anymore.

This is rather silly and yet it seems to be the reason – pride and humility – ‘I’ don’t proceed into exile because ‘I’ want to be a ‘someone’.

VINEETO: Pride and humility are a rich field for investigation, aren’t they.

KUBA: But it seems this is not just about vanity, it is more that ‘my’ very existence requires such a mirror. It is like Richard wrote that – Pride and humility stands in the way of ceasing all self-centred activity. But this self-centred activity of maintaining ‘myself’ is a burden for ‘me’. I am happy that I have managed to get this bugger by the throat now. I noticed that even resolving this whole business around being out from control removed some of this burden, with no label to live up to ‘I’ was freed to be more sincere and more naive.

VINEETO: This is excellently put “with no label to live up” – and you said it well the other day –

Kuba: … it’s more like ‘I’ am speedily loosing all ‘my’ feathers and ‘my’ cap

KUBA: Now I see that it is possible to be anonymous – that choice is freely available.

VINEETO: Maybe it’s just the way you phrased it – ‘your’ future is not to be living in anonymity – upon becoming free ‘you’ will disappear like Santa Claus in ‘your’ world vanished into thin air many years ago. Santa Claus is not “living in anonymity”.

KUBA: Yesterday I had these very fascinating glimpses of what it means to be anonymous, it clarified what the goal is, what actual freedom is like. It is not like what ‘I’ have been imagining at all. It is the end of all self-centred activity, a blessed release into anonymity.

VINEETO: Ha, that’s great – it put an end to ‘your’ future imaginings. Just don’t add any new ones such as “the anonymous messiah”.

KUBA: Whereas as the messiah, actual freedom would be like ‘my’ final form of recognition – of ‘being’ – of course this is the completely wrong direction.

VINEETO: Yes, it would be, the ultimate feather in ‘your’ cap.

• [Richard]: I found out where I had been going wrong for eleven years ... self-aggrandisement is so seductive’. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 16, 8 January 2001).

• [Richard]: ‘I set my sights further than being a mere saviour of humankind, all those years ago when I was determined to be free of the human condition, and I am not likely to fall back into that position now that I have succeeded’. (Richard, List B, No. 34a, 8 June 1999).

• [Richard]: ‘I also say (repeatedly) that I set my sights further than merely being (yet again) another of the long list of failed Messiahs and Masters, Gurus and God-Men, Saints and Sages, Avatars and Saviours and that I am not likely to fall back into that position now that I am free from the human condition’. (Richard, List B, No. 25e, 13 October 1999).

• [Richard]: ‘I set my sights further than being yet another embodiment of that ‘supreme intelligence’ all those years ago, when I first began my journey into ‘my’ psyche (which is the ‘human’ psyche), so I am not likely to fall back into that position now’. (Richard, List B, No. 40, 3 October 1999).

Isn’t it wonderful and confidence-inspiring that actuality is so pure that nothing dirty can get in?

Richard: It is life in the real-world (being normal) which has the dark underbelly – and thus, albeit sublimated and transcended, so too has life in the unreal-world (being abnormal) – not life here in this actual world ... the pristine perfection of the peerless purity the infinitude this universe actually is ensures nothing dirty (‘being’ or ‘presence’) can get in. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 27f, 24 October 2003).

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Kuba 7, 12 June 2025a)

July 25, 2025

VINEETO: You probably noticed that the way to become more immune to “emotional ups and downs” – both yours and hers – is to be paying particular attention to the seductive lure of affectuous intimacy –

JESUSCARLOS: Yes! And I’m having a little trouble here, understanding more clearly the distinction between that sweetness and the “direction of love and its affectuous intimacy (due to a self-centric attractiveness towards feeling affectionate)”. Maybe a good parameter is to detect that sweetness doesn’t require a retribution, it’s all in itself, and love always require payment in back. Am I correct?

VINEETO: You probably meant reciprocity because “retribution” means punishment, justice, revenge and tit-for-tat. I agree that love, unless it’s the delusional state of Love Agape, requires mutualness and possessiveness to maintain itself because being a feeling it requires affirmation and confirmation. Whereas when you experience the felicitous advent of naïve intimacy and delight in the pervasive proximity, or immanence, of the other, this very experience is fulfilling in itself and this intimacy is autonomous and unilateral.

Richard: Just so that there is no misunderstanding: what really worked, when the identity was that ‘Altered State Of Being’, was

(4) an utter lack of dignity in being so far up oneself (narcissistic) as to render the term ‘egotistical’ a mere bagatelle in comparison … and (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 60f, 29 Sep 2005).

JESUSCARLOS: Lol! Don’t know if I get this one right (sometimes I have difficulties in the translation to Spanish, my mother tongue), but it means something like losing all fear or shame of being as one is and letting others see that, despite the risk of being classified as what in modern psychiatric terms means total narcissism? Of course I understand it doesn’t mean let passionate impulses run free across the meadow. It refers rather to allowing oneself to think about one’s own well-being in absolute terms, regardless of the desires or whims of others.

VINEETO: You have to remember that Richard in the above quote was referring to a fully deluded enlightened ‘being’. Hence what he described was that ‘he’ then gradually recognized the utter ridiculousness of upholding ‘his’ dignity in the light of the narcissistic nature of his passionate feelings of grandeur – being the Absolute and thus the latest saviour of humankind.

It does not mean “losing all fear or shame of being as one is and letting others see that, despite the risk of being classified as what in modern psychiatric terms means total narcissism”. A sincere actualist will not be a narcissist.

What it can mean for you, practically, is to recognize that whatever your egocentric good and bad feelings – such as feelings of pride/ humility, self-importance, feeling hurt/ insulted – want you to believe, acknowledge that they are just feelings and not facts – and when you are back to feeling good you can verify this fact for yourself and move in the direction of being less ‘self’-centric. For instance –

egocentricity: ‘Holding the view that the ego is the norm of all experience; viewed or perceived from one’s own mind as a centre; assessing people via the filter of one’s own ego (also ‘ethnocentric’: judging people through a belief in the superiority and rightness of one’s own ethnic group; racism; nationalism). ~ Oxford Dictionary

I am using the word egocentric – ‘viewed or perceived from one’s own mind as a centre’ ~ (The American Heritage® Dictionary) – in the same way as ‘ethnocentric’ is used:

• ethnocentric: centred on one’s own race or ethnic group; based on or characterised by a tendency to evaluate other races or groups by criteria specific to one’s own; having assumptions or preconceptions originating in the standards, customs, etc., of one’s own race or group. ~ (Oxford Dictionary).

(Richard, Abditorium, e, #Egocentricity)

It is rather the last two point (5) and (6) which are applicable for everyone – a sense of humour and “a delightful resurgence of the earlier felicity/ innocuity which again brought about, in combination with sensuousness, an outstandingly ingenuous sense of amazement, marvel and wonder”.

JESUSCARLOS: Thank you so much for the full quote. I didn’t know it before. It’s wonderful, especially considering how difficult it was for Richard to emerge from enlightenment.

And as always, thank you so much for your retro and support V. It is invaluable.

VINEETO: You are very welcome. I posted the quote more for fun and historic reference. It was indeed extremely difficult to emerge from enlightenment but now a precedent has been set so that nobody needs to follow in Richard’s footsteps, and the danger of becoming fully deluded could well have disappeared from the horizon.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, JesusCarlos, 25 July 2025)

November 17 2025

ANDREW: Thanks Vineeto,

Firstly, I am starting to look at the “why” would be so invested in rejecting effort over time when mastering anything? Is it simply a two year old tantrum? Without actually being originally a tantrum? I think it’s in the class of all those primordial type feelings and morals which form into religion, as you were writing about. This is such a powerful paradigm to see all of the elaborate stories I tell myself about who I am!

VINEETO: Hi Andrew,

Ok, you found “all those primordial type feelings and morals which form into religion” – firm beliefs that look like the unviable truth. Yet when you say “I think”, which is not the same as saying ‘I know’, you show that your contemplative exploration can go further until you reach the point when you can say “it clicked” – possibly even when such a “clicked” realisation can lead to the disappearance of the hold that these firm beliefs have on your life.

ANDREW: It seems to me that it’s in the class of feelings which are very egalitarian, giving rise to the injunctions of humility etc.

It sounds ridiculous, because it is ridiculous!

VINEETO: Perhaps you are not sure (“it seems”). Keep exploring until you get to the bottom of it.

Regarding those so-called “egalitarian” feelings such as “humility” – these words describe virtuous feelings, part of the ‘good’ desirable feelings, those that are loving and trusting and virtue-signalling. As you have probably been finding out during your life so far, those are just as detrimental to your (and others’) wellbeing as those more easily detectable hostile and fearful feelings.

Here is Richard’s comment on humility, which is merely pride standing on its head –

RESPONDENT: ‘I’ took all my glasses off years ago. Concern and hope may push or pull ‘me’ towards an AF ‘belief system’ and it binds while ‘I’, (and others), persist in being superior, inferior, unequal instinct-ridden or problem-ridden.

RICHARD: What ‘glasses’ did you ‘take off years ago’? I only ask because what part does ‘hope’ have to play in one who has no glasses? Also, what is an ‘AF ‘belief system’’ when it is at home? Is it that bogus ‘belief system’ which ‘binds’ or is it the ‘hope’ that ties? Lastly, as an actual freedom from the human condition is so superior to anything any other human being has ever lived, it leaves any ‘being superior, inferior, unequal’ posturing in the litigious ‘Land Of Lament’ for dead. It has always amused me, whenever some spiritual aspirant takes me to task for being superior, that they praise the humility of their current hero ... all the whilst apparently not noticing that their ‘humble saviour’ is swanning about busily being ‘God On Earth’ or a ‘Supreme Being’ by any other name! (Richard, Aactual Freedom List, No. 2, #superior).

ANDREW: However, there is the aspect that excellence of skill for the purpose of feeling better than others, or seeking love, fame, recognition, also goes against some primordial “levelling” morality. An ancient “tall poppy syndrome”. Perhaps it’s just the modern version. I am Australian after all.

VINEETO: Ah, I understand now the uncommon directive that “putting in effort seems to be cheating” and that only natural excellence is permitted. It is there to prevent pride – of course, if you never achieve anything by not putting in effect, you have never anything to be proud of!

What you can do instead of repressing your pride by being ineffective in your actions is to gain some dignity and autonomy by choosing a different path to the Tried and Failed altogether with the intention to become happy and harmless. Then remember to pat yourself on the back whenever you succeed in finding and dismantling an obstacle to feeling good and discovering how you tick –

JONATHAN: ... but it his [Richard’s] point about patting yourself on the back which is most pertinent here.

RICHARD: The following is a quote which will serve to illustrate just what it is you are referring to.

Viz.:

• [Co-Respondent]: I can’t thank you enough for reiterating how to use HAIETMOBA?. I have read it fifty times, but this time it clicked. There is something to watch out for, which is the feeling of upset. I am just used to living with my upsetting feelings by ignoring them or repressing them, because I shouldn’t get upset ... you know? ... it’s not right to be upset, etc. So to go looking for the incident like you suggest wasn’t working because ... I’m always upset! due to repressing or analysing why I shouldn’t have the bad feeling. I mean, where would I start? When I saw this about myself I was happy and from there I was able to locate an upsetting incident that day.

• [Richard]: Good ... and once one gets the knack of it (it does take diligence and application and patience and perseverance in the beginning) it all becomes such fun to find out, each moment again, how one ticks.

One thing I did, way back when I started doing that method, was to make sure I would never, ever, tell myself off for slipping back into the old ways – after all ‘I am only human’ and it is bound to happen from time-to-time – and instead I would pat myself on the back for being astute enough to notice that I had slipped back and thus get on with the business of being happy and harmless again ... and feeling good about myself for being able to do so.

It is important to be friends with oneself – only I get to live with myself twenty four hours of the day (other people can and do move away) – and if I am at war with myself, disciplining myself, telling myself off, I am alienating the only person who can truly help me in all this.

In short: be nice to yourself, not nasty ... there are already enough people doing that anyway. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 50, 11 October 2003).

(…)

JONATHAN: So it is a very good idea to pat yourself on the back whenever it will promote felicity or get you feeling excellent so you can move on to wide eyed wonder.

RICHARD: No, what is a very good idea (to use your phrasing) is to pat yourself on the back whenever you succeed in finding out just what it is which is preventing this moment of being alive – the only moment you are ever actually alive – from being lived at its optimum.

In doing so you get to find out how you operate and function (just what it is that makes you ‘tick’ as it were) each moment again.

JONATHAN: So if you are a salesman and just made a big sale, pat yourself on the back with the aim of increasing your current happiness so you can on move to feeling excellent and then to wide eyed wonder.

RICHARD: No, I neither said that nor anything of that nature (I am clearly talking of success, no matter how slight it may be, regarding consciousness and not in regards to materialistic success). [Emphases added]. (Richard, List D, Jonathan, 4 August 2013).

The beginning of this correspondence also clarifies the issue of pride and humility.

By the way, there is no such thing as a “primordial “levelling” morality” – the “primordial morality” is the law of the jungle. Morals and ethics were put in place to curb the worst excesses of the instinctual passions.

I highly recommend reading both “the Formation and Persistence of the Social Identity” and Richard’s selected correspondence on “Peasant Mentality” and follow-up, because this might help you understand how this peasant mentality operates in feeling beings, what you erroneously label the “primordial “levelling” morality”. It might be a similar eye-opening understanding as the previous one regarding guilt

It can help you to take another look at your “class of feelings which are very egalitarian” including their impractical “injunctions” and possibly replace them with more sensible options. While equity and parity prevail in Terra Actualis, these clearly don’t happen via repressing pride or stifling sensible action, but by enjoying and appreciating being alive and being naiveté (liking yourself and liking one’s fellow human beings).

Please remember, only when pure intent is dedicatorily in place – as an overriding/ overarching life-devotional goal which takes absolute precedence over all else – can you begin whittling away of the otherwise essential general societal/ cultural conditioning. Else it would be both harmful to you and others to haphazardly switch around your morals/ethics from one “ridiculous” lot, as you called them, to another.

Richard: It is an utterly fundamental proviso that pure intent be dedicatorily in place – as an overriding/ overarching life-devotional goal which takes absolute precedence over all else – before any such whittling away of the otherwise essential societal/ cultural conditioning be undertaken. (Richard in Library, Social Identity, #warning).

ANDREW: Thanks for the encouragement. It is really giving me the space to look at this from a new perspective.

VINEETO: You are welcome, Andrew. There is so much more to discover about the wide and wondrous path, and you seem now to be ready to clear the workbench and start afresh … and already have some success.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Andrew 2, 17 November 2025)

March 4 2026

JON: Back to the better part of our conversation. I feel a renewal lately. At 48, I am experiencing a mid-life crisis. It is too late for me to be a family man and a successful professional or businessman. It seems taking pride in always being mirthful and never feeling pressured takes the sting away from missing out on having kids and not having a big network of friends or enough luxury money to travel on the drop of a dime or just completely retire right now if I wanted. Without that sting, which can cause some gloominess, it is easier to feel blithesome.

VINEETO: Well, if pride is the source of your ‘blithesomeness’ then with this motivation only actualism is not for you – the actualism method is designed to diminish all ‘good’ and bad feelings in order to experience the felicitous and innocuous feelings. Pride is a ‘good’ feeling, whilst hurt pride or unfulfilled pride leads to feeling bad.

I recommend Richard’s article “Peace on Earth in this Life-Time” as an introduction for what actualism is about, and perhaps other of Richard’s articles, or even read Richard’s journal, before you make such a life-changing decision.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Jonathan, 4 March 2026)

March 7 2026

VINEETO: I recommend Richard’s article “Peace on Earth in this Life-Time”

(snipped by Jon: “as an introduction for what actualism is about, and perhaps other of Richard’s articles, or even read Richard’s journal, before you make such a life-changing decision.”.)

JON: Will do.

VINEETO: Hi Jon,

A waited a couple of days before my reply to give you time to read, digest and perhaps comment on Richard’s articles I had recommended.

*

VINEETO: Well, if pride is the source of your ‘blithesomeness’ then with this motivation only

JON: Emphasis added. How blithe could the feeling be if pride was any part of its source? Maybe none. Idk. Maybe a tad. Not sure. But if pride was a motivating factor into resetting so as to allow happiness and harmless then is that not a different story?

Here is the full text of what I said –

Vineeto: Well, if pride is the source of your ‘blithesomeness’ then with this motivation only actualism is not for you – the actualism method is designed to diminish all ‘good’ and bad feelings in order to experience the felicitous and innocuous feelings. Pride is a ‘good’ feeling, whilst hurt pride or unfulfilled pride leads to feeling bad.

You clearly said that you want to “cultivate a sense of being behooved to be happy and harmless” and “valuing happy and harmlessness as a virtue to be proud of might help”.

Perhaps a re-read of the correspondence Richard had with you about pride 13 years ago might assist in understanding. Richard explains in intricate detail the difference in progress regarding consciousness versus progress in materialistic success. (Heavily edited for brevity) –

JONATHAN: ... but it his [Richard’s] point about patting yourself on the back which is most pertinent here.

RICHARD: The following is a quote which will serve to illustrate just what it is you are referring to.

Viz.: (…)

JONATHAN: He [Richard] said that feeling beings inner dialogue is quite self-critical.

RICHARD: The following is a quote which will serve to illustrate just what it is you are referring to.

Viz.: (…)

The following (quite lengthy) quote is particularly informative vis-a-vis both this and related issues.

Viz.: (...) (Audiotaped Dialogues, Silly or Sensible)

JONATHAN: So it is a very good idea to pat yourself on the back whenever it will promote felicity or get you feeling excellent so you can move on to wide eyed wonder.

RICHARD: No, what is a very good idea (to use your phrasing) is to pat yourself on the back whenever you succeed in finding out just what it is which is preventing this moment of being alive – the only moment you are ever actually alive – from being lived at its optimum.

In doing so you get to find out how you operate and function (just what it is that makes you ‘tick’ as it were) each moment again.

JONATHAN: So if you are a salesman and just made a big sale, pat yourself on the back with the aim of increasing your current happiness so you can on move to feeling excellent and then to wide eyed wonder.

RICHARD: No, I neither said that nor anything of that nature (I am clearly talking of success, no matter how slight it may be, regarding consciousness and not in regards to materialistic success).

JONATHAN: That is what I took from his comments though I have a history of not understanding his words all that well.

RICHARD: This is as good an opportunity as any to drive home the point I made to [No. 25], on May 25th (in #13582 Richard, List D, No. 25a, 25 May 2013), inasmuch the words I spoke to you were, essentially, a verbal reiteration of what is already freely available on The Actual Freedom Trust website.

(…)

JONATHAN: In trying to research the site, I find that Peter has a chapter on pride in which he admonishes the feeling.

RICHARD: Maybe, just maybe, feeling-being ‘Peter’ took note of what Richard had to say about pride and examined it for ‘himself’ so as to ascertain whether it be true or not, eh?

JONATHAN: Yet Richard highly recommends ‘patting yourself on the back.’

RICHARD: What Richard highly recommends is being pleased (aka ‘patting oneself on the back’) whenever you succeed in finding out just what it is which is preventing this moment of being alive – the only moment you are ever actually alive – from being lived at its optimum.

JONATHAN: This isn’t a contradiction.

RICHARD: Oh, yes it is.

JONATHAN: They both agree.

RICHARD: They both agree about being pleased (aka ‘patting oneself on the back’) – not about feeling proud – at success, no matter how slight it may be, regarding consciousness.

JONATHAN: In fact, Peter’s last words to me were ‘pat yourself on the back once in a while.’

RICHARD: Aye, but those last words of his were not in regards to feeling proud.

JONATHAN: So ferreting out how the two ideas do not contradict each other is an excellent spot to learn more about the site.

RICHARD: In which case I will leave you with the following quote to mull over as it is but one example of what I have to say about pride (and its companion-in-arms humility).

Viz.:

• [Richard]: (...). Personally I have no humility whatsoever and, of course, neither am I proud. In order to be free of the Human Condition one needs to see the place pride and humility plays in one’s life. ‘I’ am proud of ‘my’ major achievement – which is maintaining ‘myself’ as an identity – and ‘I’ will do anything but relinquish ‘my’ grip on this flesh-and-blood body ... including humbling ‘myself’ before some God in order to ameliorate the pernicious effects of pride. However, humility is merely the antidote to pride ... and they feed off each other, continuously.

For example, one cannot but feel proud of one’s accomplishment of self-abasing humility ... it is in the nature of the entity to do so. A humbled self is still a self, nonetheless, leaving one proud of one’s performance. When one realises how silly all this is; when one sees that pride and humility are standing in the way of freedom from all self-centred activity, something astounding occurs. The opposites vanish. I am simply here where I have always been ... and pride, with its companion in arms, humility, has disappeared along with all the other feelings.

I am free to be here now in the world as-it-is. Unadorned and unencumbered, I can stand on my own two feet, owing allegiance to no-one. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 4, 9 January 1999).

[Emphases added]. (Richard, List D, Jonathan, 4 August 2013)

I added the emphases because I noticed your tendency to summarize what you read only at a glance, which more often than not leads to you not comprehending of what is being conveyed. When wanting to understand about a brand-new paradigm in human consciousness, an actual freedom from the human condition, quick summaries are useless because you merely paste the template of materialism/ spiritualism over what you read. Such incorrect summaries rather signify a lack of vital interest.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Jonathan, 7 March 2026)