Actual Freedom Library

Glossary T – Z

|  thought  |  time  |  trust  |  truth  |

thought — The action or process of thinking; mental activity; formation and arrangement of ideas in the mind. Also, the capacity for this. An act or product of thinking; something that one thinks or has thought; an idea, a notion; spec. one suggested or recalled to the mind, a reflection, a consideration. Oxford Dictionary

Peter: The human brain is the most sophisticated development of this extraordinary universe. Not only does it see, hear, smell, taste and touch with its nerve tentacles or sense stalks, but it can think, cognitize, reflect and communicate, and be aware of itself doing all these things. It also comes in a pretty neat body-packaging, able to move freely and easily and perform an amazing amount of dexterous activities. The prime activity of human animals that sets them apart from other animals is their ability to think and reflect. Unfortunately this same faculty is the source of so much suffering and angst because of the insidious influence of animal instinctual passions sourced in the primitive reptilian section of the human brain.

Given our genetically inherited instinctual ‘self ’ is overlaid with an instilled social identity, so much of our thinking is ‘self’-centred producing a relentless avalanche of neurosis. These thoughts are most often backed up by emotional memories of past hurts, fears, doubts, aggression, etc. which produce chemical responses in the body, giving rise to deep feelings and passions which only further add to our confusion. This ‘self’-centred neurosis is identified in the East as the problem with humans but they attempt to eradicate only half of the problem. Eastern religions aim to eradicate the ego (who we think we are), while ignoring the soul (who we feel we are). The resultant attack on, or repression of, all thoughts and thinking (not just the ‘self’-centred neurosis) results in the complete denial of intelligent thought such as can be readily seen by the East’s lack of technological progress, appalling poverty, repression of women, theocratic empires, etc.

This attack on sensible thought is a traditional, ancient, spirit-ridden approach to what is essentially a neuro-biological problem. The spiritual search is a search for one’s roots and one’s original self which involves identifying with one’s primitive ‘self’ sourced in the amygdala – one’s soul or essential on-going instinctual genetic heritage. This backward-looking primitive approach is to favour, enhance and indulge in the instinctual passions, giving full reign to nurture and desire and translating them into the imaginary passions of Divine Love, Divine Compassion and Immortality. One transcends fear and aggression by regarding them as Evil or a ‘necessary’ temporal period of earthly suffering from which one is only ultimately freed after physical death. Having found, and become identified with, this ‘source’, one has found and identified with the ‘source of all’ – or God, by any other name.

This flight into myth and fantasy is but a discovery and cultivating of an ‘inner’ imaginary hiding place as a desperate attempt to escape from being factually aware of earthly human malice and sorrow that arises from the instinctual passions. It equates well with the childhood trick of huddling under the blankets and creating one’s own imaginary world, the only difference being the adult spiritualist’s ‘safe world’ exists solely in their heads and hearts – it has no place in actuality.

We now know that the instinctual passions of fear, aggression, nurture and desire are sourced in the primitive brain and are but the component parts of the single-pointed genetic programming instilled by blind nature purely in order to ensure the survival of the species. To continue to seek solace and succour in the ‘good’ half of the feelings arising from these animal passions while denying and transcending the other ‘bad’ half is to both deny intelligent thinking and modern empirical scientific research.

Given that God is but the figment of passionate imagination (a radical thought) then human beings’ only possibility of living in peace and harmony is intelligent, sensible, non-spirit-ridden, down-to-earth apperceptive thought (another radical thought). To date most people have trouble even considering one radical non-populist thought, let alone two in a row – still it’s early days. 

Related Discussions Thought  | Memory 

time — A finite extent of continued existence; eg. the interval between two events, or the period during which an action or state continues; a period referred to in some way. Time when: a point in time; a space of time treated without ref. to duration. Oxford Dictionary

Peter: Time can be conveniently be regarded in the three tenses: past, future and present.

Past time is recalled by us as memories or thoughts and as such is both a cognitive re-call and an emotional re-call. Not only was our perception of the place, people or event coloured at the time but our recall is coloured and somewhat shaky. Current investigations suggest that in fact we only recall the last time we recalled something rather than re-calling the original memory. There is good scientific evidence that memories of traumatic or fearful events are not only stored as conscious memories in the neo-cortex, but are also stored in the amygdala as ‘unconscious’ or non-cognitive memories. These memories stored in the amygdala or primitive brain give substance to ‘me’ and give substance to ‘my’ life of suffering and ‘my’ pains and hurts from the past. To dip into this treasure trove of suffering can be a bittersweet occupation.

Future time is conceived by us as imagination and as such is emotionally coloured. Given our over-riding instinct of fear, most of the future we see in fear ridden terms. This fear of the future is given credence by the bountiful store of emotional memories of past hurts and fears located in the amygdala. Hence the general future scenarios of gloom and doom, apocalypse and annihilation. To balance this we invent a ‘good’ – and always in the future – scenario of salvation, redemption and a blissfully happy afterlife, which we pray, trust and hope will eventuate.

Present time is the closest to now, this very moment and is generally regarded as now. The problem for the human perception of now is that there are so many things going on in the brain and the body that the clear and direct sensate experience of experiencing this moment of being alive is impossible. The emotional affective faculties are on constant overload, with emotional memories of the past and imaginations of the future constantly crowding in. Added to that is the automatic neuro-biological operation of the instincts of fear, aggression, nurture and desire experienced as overwhelming passions due to the pumping of potent chemicals into the body and brain. One is usually ‘sensing’ or ‘feeling out’ this moment fearfully and aggressively such that the actual direct sensate experience of this moment of being alive is impossible.

But all is not lost. With sincere intent and diligent application one can eliminate this constant neurosis and associated feelings, passions and emotions such that one becomes both happy and harmless. Thus freed of malice and sorrow it is then possible to directly, intimately and fully experience this moment in time. And the trick to getting here, now at this moment in time and this place in space is enjoy and appreciate this moment of being alive. To facilitate this you ask yourself, as an ongoing non-verbal attitude, ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ This moment in time is, after all, the only moment one can experience anyway, and if you are not happy now you are missing yet another moment ... and another … and another …

Related Discussions 

trust — reliance on the integrity, justice, etc., of a person, or on some quality or attribute of a thing; confidence. Confident expectation of something; hope. One on whom or that on which one relies. The state of being relied on, or the state of one to whom something is entrusted. Oxford Dictionary

Peter: Trust is to rely on someone or something else and is taught to us from childhood as a valued principle, particularly by religious and secular leaders or authorities. Given the appalling track record of both those in power and the organizations or belief-systems they represent it is baffling that trust still has any credence whatsoever. From an infants first contact with people any sense of trust is shattered as promise after promise is broken or seen to be broken. Trust is eventually replaced by confusion, doubt and cynicism, except in religious matters, where to abandon trust, faith and hope is to live without hope of an afterlife. Often people, when they lose trust in one belief system, simply change horses or follow fashionably swings, as happened with the current obsession of the West with Eastern religion. Others aim at developing their trust into a ‘mature’ faith whereby their belief becomes a ‘truth ’ and any doubt is thereby erased by a higher ‘knowing’. Thus one leaves the doubts, uncertainties, injustices and unreliability of the physical world of people, things and events and puts one’s faith in the metaphysical world – one abandons earthly trust for faith in the Divine.

Rather than trust, a far more sensible approach is to rely on confidence and surety, firmly based on facts alone. This avoids having to believe in, trust, or rely on anybody else, and one is then able to re-activate naiveté, facilitate common sense and be guided by one’s own sincere intent such that a wonderful freedom from the need for any trust, faith, values, morals or ethics is actualized.

Related Discussions Trust | Gullible

truth — 1 = TROTH , 2 The character of being, or disposition to be, true or steadfast in allegiance; faithfulness, loyalty, constancy 3 Disposition to speak or act truly or sincerely; truthfulness, sincerity. Formerly also, honesty, honourableness, uprightness, virtue. 4 a Fact, facts; the matter or circumstance as it really is. b The real thing, as distinguished from a representation or imitation; an antitype. 5 True statement; report or account consistent with fact or reality. b Mental apprehension of truth; knowledge.. 6 a Conformity with fact; faithfulness to reality; genuineness; authenticity. b Accuracy of delineation or representation, esp. in art or literature; lifelike quality. 7 Conformity with a standard, pattern, or rule; accuracy, precision, correctness; esp. accuracy of position or alignment. … Oxford Dictionary

Peter: Seems a reasonably clear and concise definition until one includes parts 8, 9, 10, 11

8 Faith, trust, confidence. Also, belief; a formula of belief, a creed. 9 a Religious belief or doctrine held to be true or orthodox; orthodoxy. b Conduct in accordance with the divine standard; spirituality of life and behaviour. 10 What is true or real; reality; spec. spiritual reality as the subject of revelation or object of faith. 11 A true statement; something held or accepted as true; a fixed or established principle. … Oxford Dictionary

Peter: The inclusion of religious/spiritual belief and faith in the definition gives rise to the common spiritual use of the word truth as Truth – the capitalization denoting an untouchable and unquestionable Divinity. Thus it is that all religions have their own particular truth, either written in words in their holy texts, emanating as an ethereal energy from Holy persons, or as something which cannot be spoken – only experienced as sublime and righteous feelings.

The truth (as in definitions 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11) about the Truth (as in definition 3, 7, 8, 9) is that the Truth represents a belief in a God (or all-encompassing Energy, Intelligence, Source or whatever other name) and a life after death (Immortality, Heaven, Nirvana, Moksha, ‘Home’, Further Shore, or whatever other name). In all religions there are also those who have Realized the Truth while still alive (Saints, Enlightened Ones, Seers, Masters, God-men, Mothers, Gurus, or whatever other name) and as such spread the message of their particular version to the Truth to others who hanker for a similar experience of Realizing the Truth or for an assurance of the truth of life after death.

The truth about the Truth is that there are currently some 6,000 active religions of consequence on the planet, each espousing their own version of the Truth and horrendous wars and carnage has resulted from ‘disputes’ as to whose Truth is the only Truth. And anyone who doesn’t believe in your own version of the Truth is deemed to be ignorant and Evil – in need of conversion to your belief, or regarded as a threat to your belief. This eternal division into competing and warring camps is epitomized by words such as the Chosen Ones, God’s People, Disciples, Followers, Sannyasins, Those of Higher Consciousness, etc. for the Good Guys and Heathens, Non-believers, Barbarians, Un-Enlightened, Uncivilized, Infidels, Heretics, etc. for the Bad Guys.

Thus it is that the insistence of both the Pundits and their followers in calling their own particular metaphysical belief ‘The Truth’ directly results in an earthly carnage, the likes of which beggars description.

A spiritual or religious truth is a metaphysical truth, and as such cannot be verified as factually accurate or as existing in fact. The only verification of a religious truth is that one ‘feels’ it to be true or one imagines it to be true. After thousands of years of religious belief and faith no Saviour has returned, no one has risen from the dead, no one truth has brought anything even remotely resembling peace to earth, no higher consciousness has dawned, no redemption or salvation for a suffering Humanity has been realized. The Human Condition is still one of malice and sorrow and is still epitomized by a continuous state of warfare within the species.

This situation will continue until sufficient people are willing to acknowledge that ‘the Truth’ is nothing more than a passionately held belief in an afterlife. This Truth/belief is passionately upheld and defended for it offers the alien entity within the body its only imaginary chance to cheat death, to survive beyond the death of the physical body. Thus the only way to know the truth about the Truth is to personally experience the death of the entity within the physical body, to experience both a psychological and psychic death, the death of both ego and soul. It is only by investigating, discriminating, and distinguishing what is fact and what is fantasy that one can directly experience that which is actual and this requires a ‘self ’-immolation, in its entirety. Not a partial ‘death’ whereby the soul moves on to some imagined metaphysical realm, but a total extinction of the lost, lonely, frightened and very cunning entity within the flesh and blood body.

Nothing less than this will expose The Truth for the Grand Deception that it is … and bring peace to this fair planet.

Related Discussions: Truth | Path-to-Truth 

Library-Index

|  universe  |  virtual  |

universe –– 1 in universe, of universal application. The universe, all existing matter, space, and other phenomena regarded collectively and esp. as constituting a systematic or ordered whole; this regarded as created by a divine agency; the creation; the cosmos. Oxford Dictionary

Peter: The current NDA fashion is to regard the physical universe itself as God, as though this somehow satisfies those people who find the fairy stories of the formal religions a bit too much to stomach. So now we have a universe that is both physical and metaphysical and apparently bleeds and suffers at mankind’s hunting animals, digging holes, felling trees, clearing land, building dams, etc. We are to feel guilty (yet again) for our sins and atone by respecting and worshipping Mother Nature and the associated spirits of the land. In primitive tribes, the earthly and heavenly spirits were appeased by sacrifice and ritual. Nowadays the modern, usually affluent, environmentalists preach a return to primitive times and animal / land spirit worship, even to the point of actively campaigning against industrial and agricultural development in poorer countries, thereby denying those people a chance to develop out of their subsistent primitive lifestyle.

This physical universe is so perfect, so vast, so complex, so varied that to see and understand all of its facets is beyond the capacity of any human brain. Most people, when faced with trying to cognitively understand this boundless universe, end up with awe, beauty, terror, dread or whatever other feeling is evoked. This is due to the fact that we perceive the universe, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the land we walk upon, the sky we see, as alien and separate. We are made of the same stuff as the universe, we are not, in fact, more alien than the soil is, a tree is, or any other animal. But given the infliction of thinking and feeling ourselves to be an alien entity trapped inside the physical body, we think and feel ourselves to be separate.

Therein lies the problem. It is ‘who’ we think and feel ourselves to be that is alien, not the physical universe, and it is no wonder that our only way of feeling ‘connected’ is to regard the actual, physical, infinite and eternal universe as a metaphysical entity. ‘What’ one is, as a flesh and blood corporeal body free of this alien entity, is the physical universe experiencing itself as a human being. What else could one then be?

Related Discussions 

virtual — Possessed of certain physical virtues or powers; effective in respect of inherent qualities. Capable of producing a certain effect or result. That is so in essence or effect, although not recognized formally, actually, or by strict definition as such; almost absolute. Oxford Dictionary

1. The Pragmatic, Methodological Virtual Freedom (Still-In-Control/ Same-Way-of-Being)

Peter: The aim of the path to Actual Freedom is to have the actual world become apparent. The actual world is that which is evidenced and apparent in the PCE or peak experience. The actual world is the world as-it-is, stripped of the veneer of reality or Reality that the ‘self’ or ‘Self’ layers over it. If one makes one’s aim in life to be happy and harmless, one always has an immediate goal and aim every moment – to feel as happy and harmless as one can possibly be right now.

‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ is the key to firstly ascertaining how one is doing relative to one’s aim in life and, if necessary, finding out what is inhibiting my happiness/ my harmlessness, in this moment. If I am currently not feeling happy and harmless, then that gives ‘me’ something to do – ‘I’ clean myself up as much as possible by rigorously and remorselessly examining any belief that prevents me from that immediate aim.

This process, if undertaken with a sincere intent, will inevitably lead to a state of a pragmatic virtual freedom. One then goes to bed in the evening knowing that one has had a virtually perfect day, and knowing that tomorrow, without doubt, will also be a virtually perfect day. Unless one is willing to contemplate being happy and harmless, free of malice and sorrow, 99% of the time – then forget the whole business. One is then merely aiming for some ‘pie in the sky’, some miracle event to ‘make it all better’.

Nobody believes that it is possible to be completely and irrevocably happy and harmless in the world as-it-is, on earth, here, now, as a flesh and blood body. This belief is, after all, the core of Ancient Wisdom – the sacred and inviolate centre-piece of the Human Condition – that life is a ‘growth’ experience based on suffering.

A pragmatic virtual freedom is available for everyone and anyone who has the pure intent to be happy and harmless. If someone is not willing to make that level of ‘self’ sacrifice then any interest in an Actual Freedom would remain a purely cerebral exercise – a useless ‘self’-deception. The path to an Actual Freedom is not only non-spiritual but it is down-to-earth and practical – you sort out what it is to be a human being – delve into the Human Condition and then you put what you discover into practice. If it is not put into practice demonstratively then one is fooling oneself – as is common practice on the spiritual path. To ignore the obvious, simple, direct and immediate, in favour of forever contemplating some rosy future, is to commit the mistakes of the past ‘tried and failed’ approaches. Not that there isn’t a future goal – Actual Freedom – but the down-to-earth first essential step is the obtaining of and living in Virtual Freedom for a substantial period. It is the proof of the pudding – to live beyond one’s wildest dreams – to be virtually happy and virtually harmless.

Addendum from Peter after becoming actually free: It is pertinent to point out that this 1998 definition of a virtual freedom is distinctly different to what Richard described as virtual freedom, so much so that we can now describe two distinct aspects of a virtual freedom – the in-control pragmatic virtual freedom as described in Peter’s Journal and pioneered and lived by both Vineeto and me for some 11 years and the out-from-control virtual freedom that Richard talked about in his Journal and recently on mailing list D.

2. The Dynamic, Destinal Virtual Freedom (Out-From-Control/ Different-Way-of-Being)

Richard: Devika was not only the very first practicing actualist but the term ‘virtual freedom’ was coined especially for her out-from-control different way of being (from November 1995 to December 1996), during which period she wrote those (italicised) sections of hers which appear in ‘Richard’s Journal’, as a way of referring to the truly remarkable condition – short of an actual freedom itself – by which she verified and affirmed my (as-then-unnamed) virtual freedom of 1981 as being not only replicable but, of course, equally possible for a female as well as a male. (At the time there was no way in which I was going to go public until or unless there was something demonstrably possible whilst still within the human condition to have on offer).

Thus the virtual freedom being referred to in ‘Richard’s Journal’ is, of course, the full-blown experiencing of it: an out-from-being-control and, thus, different way of being nowadays known as an ongoing excellence experience (EE). This ongoing excellence experience is what the methodological aspect of a virtual freedom – a persistent and diligent application of the actualism method – can morph into whenever that current-time awareness method has been applied to a sufficiency for that to occur/ have happen.

This penultimate out-from-control/ different-way-of-being is barely distinguishable from a pure consciousness experience. It was from this ongoing excellence experiencing that pure consciousness experiences occurred on a near-daily basis – sometimes two-three times a day – for the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago.

Being out-from-control/in a different-way-of-being is quite daunting to contemplate as an on-going EE marks the end of the beginning of the end of ‘me’ and the commencement of the actualism process – as distinct from the actualism method – wherein a momentum not of ‘my’ doing takes over and an inevitability sets in; in an on-going EE the actual world has the effect of impelling one towards it – like a moth to a candle as the overarching benignity and benevolence of the actual increasingly operates such as to render ‘my’ felicity/ innocuity increasingly redundant; this is where being the nearest a ‘self’ can be to innocence – the naiveté located betwixt the core of being and the sexual centre (where one is both likeable and liking) – is attached as if with a golden thread or clew to the purity of actual innocence; an on-going EE is, thus, where one becomes acclimatised to benignity and benevolence and the resultant blitheness because the purity of the actual is so powerful that it would ‘blow the fuses’ if one was to venture into this territory ill-prepared.

Please note: As being out-from-control/ in a different-way-of-being 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 has any business venturing into precipitously.

To summarize: The purpose of applying the actualism method, which the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago both devised and put into full effect, is two-fold – to be of an immediate benefit (an ongoing affective felicity/ innocuity) and an ultimate benefaction (an enduring actual felicity/ innocuity) – and is thus a win-win situation inasmuch as in the meanwhile, if the ultimate be yet to come about, a virtual freedom is way, way beyond normal human expectations.

I cannot stress enough how, with a virtual freedom being more or less the norm worldwide, global amity and equity would be an on-going state of affairs.

Related Discussions Virtual Freedom  

Library-Index