Richard’s Correspondence on Mailing List ‘B’ with Respondent No. 8
RESPONDENT No. 21: There is a place in the bible where the world is described as a globe. If I find it, I will post it. Maybe someone knows it. I believe it is in Isaiah if I remember correctly. It is definitely in there (...) Here it is, written between 745 and 680 B. C. Isaiah 40:22: ‘It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in’. RICHARD: Hmm ... a circle is hardly a globe, now is it? ...<SNIP> ... Do you really want to get into a discussion about the veracity of ‘God’s Word’? (Richard, List B, No. 21, 22 July 1998) RESPONDENT: Now Richard, why do you have to confuse No. 21 with the facts? He’s fixin’ to sit on the right hand of God and you’re going to mess him up big time! RICHARD: I think not. For most, seeing a fact means betraying one’s belief ... thus one is rendered incapable of seeing it. Then the biggest problem – even after overcoming such loyalty – is one’s intellectual pride ... one has to come to terms with having been silly for all of one’s life. Usually, believers have become so accustomed to being spiritually humble that they are not at all prepared for the genuine humility engendered ... it is too humiliating. Besides which, discerning the difference between the truth and the fact eludes most people anyway. RICHARD: It has been – and still is – a great trip. RESPONDENT No. 4: Yes. A great trip, but a ‘trip’ nevertheless. RICHARD: Yea verily ... it is somewhat like having a twenty four hour a day drug trip – if that is what you are implying – except that there are no side-effects and it is not illegal. Owing nothing to no one I am free from corruption ... perversity has vanished forever. Unpolluted as I am by any alien entity, my thoughts and my deeds are automatically graceful. Goodwill, freed of social morality, comes effortlessly to me for all internal conflict is over. I am gentle and peaceful in character. Freeing myself of the altered state of consciousness called spiritual enlightenment was the last step into actuality. ‘My’ extinction was the ending of not only fear, but of all of the affective faculties. As this flesh and blood body only, I am living in the paradisiacal garden that this 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 eternal time and this place in infinite space. Extinction releases one into actuality ... and this actual world is ambrosial, to say the least. (Richard, List B, No.4a, 9 December 1998) RESPONDENT: Richard who do you think your kidding? RICHARD: Obviously not you, eh? But – most importantly of all – not myself ... which is what your query implies. When I wake up of a morning I expect – and get – yet another perfect day. This has been going on for so many years now that I can take it for granted ... the perfection of this moment in eternal time and this place in infinite space is already always here ... now. I never miss out on the enjoyment and delightful appreciation of being here as this flesh and blood body ... what more proof could I wish for than an on-going purity that is ever-fresh and never-failing? RESPONDENT: Many on this list do not appreciate your lack of concern for others with your long posts that often are only a lesson in ego mania. RICHARD: And why are they ‘often are only a lesson in ego mania’? Is it because anyone talking of achieving peace-on-earth on earth is to be arbitrarily dismissed as being run by an ego ... which means that you do not even have to bother trying? RESPONDENT: We’ve told you before that your long posts cost us money. RICHARD: I pay for bandwidth too ... I am subscribed to a few Mailing Lists and I budget for the monthly bill. I am retired and live on a pension and yet I do not complain about Internet costs ... reading other people’s posts and responding in kind is a joy and a delight that I am willing to pay for. RESPONDENT: Your words are not the holy Grail so use fewer and give us a break. RICHARD: As I am a thorough-going atheist through and through – and I state unequivocally that there is not the slightest trace of religiosity, spirituality, mysticism or metaphysicality in me whatsoever – I find these kind of comments juvenile. It also shows that you do not actually read what I write with both eyes. RESPONDENT: If you were truly enlightened and beyond you would consider others and not try to impress them. RICHARD: Now, how on earth could you possibly know what a person who has gone beyond enlightenment will act like? Have you personal experience of this condition? Yes? No? If no ... then this comment is not worth anything. You are but trumpeting an ideal ... and it is an ideal that is but more of the ‘Tried and True’ anyway. RESPONDENT: You really have been insulting others intelligence on this list. RICHARD: Oh? Do you mean the ‘intelligence’ that persuades people to nurse malice and sorrow to their bosom and refuse to examine their feelings? You mean the ‘intelligence’ that attacks thought as being the spanner in the works? That is, the ‘intelligence’ that discounts the only tool that will bring about peace-on-earth? RESPONDENT: Not necessarily mine because you can readily see, I am very uncouth and not in line for enlightenment. I really haven’t earned my halo or wings yet. RICHARD: I see that you do not fail to insert the mandatory humbleness. RESPONDENT: I hope this doesn’t offend you but your mental gymnastics do not lead me to explore myself or life ... RICHARD: I am not offended at all ... because it has nothing to do with ‘mental gymnastics’ whatsoever. My success is all about examining those beloved feelings and revealing them in the bright light of awareness for once and for all. Of course, you are free to do whatever you please with your life. RESPONDENT: ... only to feel sad that you are so in love with yourself that you cannot allow others to explore without superimposing your egotistical opinions and conclusions on them. RICHARD: There is no need to feel sad, because I have no love whatsoever. And as this is the second time that you have used the word ‘explore’ I must ask: How far have you proceeded? Have you succeeded yet? Because – a word of warning here – if you do, then be well aware that some sourpuss somewhere will pop up and tell you that you are ... [insert whatever gripe here] ... in order to make themselves feel better. It is called ‘The Tall Poppy Syndrome’. RESPONDENT: I have not met anyone on this list naďve enough to accept your facade. RICHARD: Hmm ... this is unfortunate – not the ‘facade’ bit – but because naiveté is so vital to freedom. This is because even the strictest application of moralistic and ethicalistic injunctions will never lead to the clean clarity of the purity of living the perfection of the infinitude of this material universe. Purity is an actual condition – intrinsic to this universe – that a human being can tap into by pure intent. Pure intent can be activated with sincere attention paid to the state of naiveté. To be naďve is to be virginal, unaffected, unselfconsciously artless ... in short: ingenuous. naiveté is a much-maligned word, having the common assumption that it implies gullibility. Nevertheless, to be naďve means to be simple and unsophisticated. Pride is derived from an intellect inured to naďve innocence; to such an intellect, to be guileless appears to be gullible, stupid. In actuality, one has to be gullible to be sophisticated, to be wise in the ways of the real world. The ‘worldly-wise’ realists are not in touch with the purity of innocence; they readily obey the peremptory decrees of the cultured sophisticates. A sample of such decrees are: ‘I didn’t come down in the last shower’, or ‘I wasn’t born yesterday’, or ‘You’ve got to be tough to survive in the real world’, or ‘It’s dog eat dog out there’ ... and so on. Such people are said to have ‘lost their innocence’. Human beings have not ‘lost their innocence’ ... they never had it in the first place. Innocence is something entirely new; it has never existed in human beings before. It is an evolutionary break-through to come upon innocence. It is a mutation of the human brain. Naiveté is a necessary precursor to invoke the condition of innocence. One surely has to be naďve to contemplate the profound notion that this universe is benign, friendly. One needs to be naďve to consider that this universe has an inherent imperative for well-being to flourish; that it has a built-in benevolence available to one who is artless, without guile. To the realist – the ‘worldly-wise’ – this appears like utter foolishness. After all, life is a ‘vale of tears’ and one must ‘make the best of a bad situation’ because one ‘can’t change human nature’; and therefore ‘you have to fight for your rights’. This derogatory advice is endlessly forthcoming; the put-down of the universe goes on ad nauseam, wherever one travels throughout the world. This universe is so enormous in size – infinity being as enormous as it can get – and so magnificent in its scope – eternity being as magnificent as it can get – how on earth could anyone believe for a minute that it is all here for humans to be forever miserable and malicious in? It is foolishness of the highest order to believe it to be impossible to be free. RESPONDENT: Many are silent. They like myself are smiling at your silliness and the stroking of your ego. RICHARD: So, you too are of the opinion that peace-on-earth is silly, eh? No. 21 was of the same opinion ... he even told me that some wars were sensible! RESPONDENT: Stop trying to gather disciples around you ... there are not enough on this list to bathe your feet or give you a last supper. RICHARD: As I am a thorough-going atheist through and through – and I state unequivocally that there is not the slightest trace of religiosity, spirituality, mysticality or metaphysicality in me whatsoever – I find these kind of comments irrational. It also shows that you do not actually read what I write with both eyes. However, I understand that it is a stock-standard ploy used among Krishnamurtiites to cut each other down to size. It is wasted on me, though, so you might as well save your time and your finger-tips and stop using it. RESPONDENT: Go get a hot dog and meditate on the McDonald Clown ... Please! RICHARD: Thus spake No. 8. So this is your contribution to meaningful discussion? You criticise what I write – without reading with both eyes – but you offer nothing in its place but puerile snippiness. Yet all the while peace-on-earth is already always here ... now. RETURN TO CORRESPONDENCE LIST ‘B’ INDEX RETURN TO RICHARD’S CORRESPONDENCE 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.
Disclaimer and Use Restrictions and Guarantee of Authenticity |