Actual Freedom – Mailing List ‘A’ Correspondence

RICHARD: It is surprisingly easy and simple to live and function without any ‘I’ (identity, persona, personality, ego, id, self, soul, spirit) whatsoever ... in fact it is such a vast improvement upon ‘I’ doing all the daily tasks that it is a delight to just contemplate the difference. ‘I’ unnecessarily complicate this otherwise simple living with ‘my’ needs, demands, wants, shoulds, musts, beliefs, morals, values, principles, ideals, and so on. Not to mention ‘my’ sadness and empathy, ‘my’ likes and dislikes, ‘my’ loves and hates, ‘my’ fears and trusts, ‘my’ revenges and pardons, ‘my’ jealousies and faithfulnesses, ‘my’ blamings and forgiveness, ‘my’ lonelinesses and ‘my’ loves ... the list goes on and on.

This body is eminently capable of functioning of its own accord: the stomach tells the brain (the nerve-organising organ of the body with its data-correlating ability) when it is empty, the bladder tells the brain when it is full, and so on. ‘I’, thinking and feeling that ‘I’ am an important part of the process, step in and say, incorrectly: ‘‘I’ am hungry’, or ‘‘I’ want to got to the toilet’, etc. ‘I’ am not hungry – the stomach is simply signalling its emptiness; ‘I’ am not busting for a pee – the bladder is merely indicating its fullness. And it is not at all like having ‘a frontal lobotomy’ because thinking happens of its own accord ... it is the function of the brain to do so. The empty stomach instructs the legs, via the brain, to walk it to the cupboard for food. The eyes, seeing an empty cupboard, will advise the legs, via the brain, to walk the body to a shop. An empty wallet will tell the legs to take the body to a bank ... and an empty bank account will demonstrate that it is time to get a job (or a pension). I am not being pedantic here – it is actually this simple. Without an ‘I’ one is this body living in the actual world of people, things and events – not an ‘I’ living in the real world, forever cut off from the magnificence of the actual.

‘I’ can never be here in this actual world for ‘I’ am an interloper, an alien in psychic possession of the body. ‘I’ do not belong here. All this is impossible to imagine which is why it is essential to be confident that the actual world does exist. In order to mutate from the self-centred licentiousness to a self-less sensualism, one must have confidence in the ultimate beneficence of the universe. This confidence is born out of knowing, which is derived from the peak experience, and is an essential ingredient to ensure success. In a peak experience everything is seen, with unparalleled clarity, to be already perfect ... that humans are all living in perfection ... if only one would act upon one’s seeing. In these moments, Good and Bad, Love and Hate, Generosity and Parsimony, Fear and Trust ... all these and more, are simply irrelevant. Gods and Goddesses, Devils and Demons, all the battles that have raged throughout the ages are but a nightmare of passionate human fantasy. There is a marked absence of hierarchy; no Religious or Spiritual Figure can match the matter-of-fact equality that pervades everything. A quality of kindly understanding prevails, dispensing forever with the need for Authority and Love and Truth. And ... of course man and woman live together in perennial peace and harmony.

One does not have to generate confidence oneself – as the religious/spiritual/mystical/metaphysical people require of one with regard to their blind faith – the purity of the actual world, seen and lived in the peak experience, bestows this confidence upon one. The experience of purity is a benefaction. Out of this blessing comes a pure intent, which will consistently guide one through the travails of daily life, gently ushering in an increasing ease and generosity of character. With this growing magnanimity, one becomes more and more anonymous, more and more self-less. With this expanding altruism one becomes less and less self-centred, less and less egocentric. Eventually the moment comes wherein something definitive happens, physically, inside the brain and ‘I’ am nevermore. ‘Being’ ceases – it was only a psychic apparition anyway – and war is over, forever, in one human being.

Then there is something precious in living itself ... something ultimately precious. Something beyond compare. It is the essential character of the universe – which is the life-giving foundation of all that is apparent. That something precious is me as-I-am ... me as I actually am as distinct from ‘me’ as ‘I’ really am. I am the universe experiencing itself. The perfection and purity of being here, as-I-am, is akin to the perfection and purity seen in a dew-drop hanging from the tip of a leaf in the early-morning sunshine; the sunrise strikes the dew-drop with its warming rays, highlighting the flawless correctness of the tear-drop shape with its bellied form. One is left almost breathless with wonder at the immaculate simplicity so exemplified ... and everyone I have spoken with has experienced this purity and perfection in some way or another at varying stages in their life. It is not difficult to conceive – just impossible to imagine – that this is one’s essential character. One has to dare to live it – for it is both one’s birth-right and destiny.

When one lives the magical perfection of this purity twenty-four-hours-a-day; when one has ceased being ‘I’ and is being genuine, one can see clearly that there is no separation between me as this body and that something which is precious. The perfection of life emerges from the purity that wells up constantly due to the immense stillness of the infinity of the universe which is limitless in its scope and magnitude. This stillness is that something which is precious. It is the life-giving foundation of all that is apparent. This stillness happens as me as this body. This stillness is my essential disposition, for it is the principle character, the intrinsic basis of everything. It is this universe at its source. It is not, as it might commonly be supposed, at the centre of everything ... there is no centre here. This stillness, which is everywhere all at once, is the be all and end all of life itself. I am the universe experiencing itself as a human being.

RESPONDENT: Richard, thank you for your comments. I realise that that must have taken some time to compose. I have printed them out and shall contemplate them for a while. May I please come back to you if I have any queries?

RICHARD: Certainly.