Peter: The layer of programming beneath the social identity
is the instinctual self – who we ‘feel’ we are, consisting of a primitive self and the survival instincts of fear, aggression, nurture
and desire, instilled by blind nature to ensure the survival of the species. This instinctual programming has been held as inviolable and
unalterable, and, as such, has remained un-investigated up until now.
The only superficial ‘tinkering’ that has been undertaken to
date has been to emphasise the so-called ‘good’ instincts of nurture and desire and repress the ‘bad’ instincts of fear and aggression.
The social application of morals and ethics provides the ‘carrot and stick’, but police, laws and armies are ultimately required to keep
the instinctual passions in check. The whole of our supposedly civilised world is still, at the very core, based on the suppression and control
of these primitive instincts.
Desire is the drive to survive – it translates into sexual
conquest, power over others, and attaining the necessities of survival such as territory, food, offspring, and the protection of others.
Desire is the instinct that drives us to sexual avarice and a
blind urge to impregnate, procreate and reproduce ourselves – come what may. The relentless desire to accumulate, amass, covert, dominate,
control and obliterate is the direct cause of poverty, corruption, hunger and famine.
It is common wisdom that ‘you can’t change Human Nature’. ‘Of course you can
– why not?’ said Richard, and I liked that. Why not indeed? One can harness this powerful affective energy of desire so as to bring about
what one actually longs for: perfect peace and understanding. For me, once I found out about Actual Freedom, I dug into it and remembered a
peak experience which activated a sincere intent in me – a burning desire that we humans find a way to live together in peace and harmony on
the magical fairy tale like, paradisiacal planet.
RICHARD: You say that ‘two things stand out’ ... yet you slip in a third thing as if I had
said it (‘to not pursue it’) when it is really ‘ancient wisdom’ that promotes that view. Speaking personally, the
‘I’ that was pursued it like ‘he’ had never pursued anything before ... ‘he’ made it the number one priority in ‘his’
life. ‘He’ was a married man, with four children, running ‘his’ own business, with a house mortgage to pay off and a car
on hire purchase ... in other words: normal. And all the while that ‘he’ pursued it, ‘he’ was working twelve-fourteen hour
days, six-seven days a week ... yet ‘his’ pursuit of peace-on-earth took absolute precedence over all other matters and
dominated ‘his’ every moment (‘how am I experiencing this moment of being alive’). I do not see how someone can become
free of the human condition without becoming what one’s peers would call ‘obsessed’ (for that is how a 100% commitment is
actively discouraged by others) and adopting instead a duplicitous ‘I will not pursue that which I desire’ attitude. It is
unbelievably delicious to devote oneself wholeheartedly to such a valuable goal as peace-on-earth ... one starts to feel ‘alive’
for the very first time. Such dedication (‘he’ called it the ‘boots and all’ approach at the time) makes one’s petty
life worthwhile after all ... ‘he’ went out in a blaze of glory.
However, you are not the only
person adopting this stance of not pursuing it ... there are others on this Mailing List that like to think that by feigning a non-pursuit
that they will achieve something. Just how this sleight-of-hand (or should I say sleight-of-mind) is going to be efficacious in bringing
about the desired result remains to be seen. Nevertheless,
such dissimulation is not unknown ... some Buddhists too, indulge in a similar craftiness. They pretend that they do not desire
Nirvana ... in the hope that they will thus achieve it. Some Christians, maintaining that to be alive is to remain a sinner,
manifest a spurious humility in order to be worthy of God’s Grace and admission into Heaven whilst all the while saying that
they are not worthy. Some Hindus maintain that by not enjoying the fruits of their labour they will gain the ultimate fruit of
such labour ... called Moksha. The same sort of sanctimony holds true for many other religions and disciplines.
And so, all the wars and murders
and rapes and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse and sadness and
loneliness and grief and depression and suicides go on for ever and a day.
(Richard, List B, No. 39, 19 October 1999).
