Actualism isn't 'acceptance'

I think this isn’t actualism.You should get back to feeling good, not just feeling what ever you are feeling right now, which can go on forever.
@Kub933 Is that right?

Why do you think it’s difficult for people to do this?

You must be very advanced.

If being advanced is what I am, it sucks, because what I’ve more and more come to realize is:

Either you’re free or you’re not.

Which has any of my so called ‘advancements’ mean little, if anything at all.

And if what you said is true, then 90% of the thoughts must have ceased.

And I don’t know about having little thoughts… How many is one suppose to have? :slight_smile: It’s all new to me and it’s a process… There’s still a ‘me’ whom emerges upon the top of that huge iceberg - and whom want’s to be in command of the process and of all that I am. That tendecy of my old ways, is ended as soon as it’s noted (just fades away) but I’m still run by ‘myself’ a great deal of the day (not very advanced, duh :wink:).

In fact, don’t think of me as advanced, think of me as a failure… someone whom has completely failed at this business of actualism and thus decided it better to have the universe (?) run his life instead. Run for your lives folks because I am a bad bad bad actualist! :joy:

I think this isn’t actualism. You should get back to feeling good…[]

It may sound/be to you however you want it to sound/be. I’m at the mercy of my intent of becoming 'happy and harmless and thus I’ll never try to get back to anything - no matter how good it would feel.

I think it’s perhaps next to impossible to let go of the ‘controls’ if one doesn’t have intent. That’s why I was so worked up the other day about having just this and now knowing what it means. It’s like, even if I’d plunge down into hell tomorrow… it wouldn’t matter… because nothing can go wrong. My intent is set on this one thing only:

TO BECOME HAPPY AND HARMLESS - COME WHAT MAY!

Thanks for this @Miguel that’s a great find. I never saw Richard’s advice to embrace death. I have faced the fact that one day I will die but there is a hint of that acceptance (as in tolerance) there. There is still an element of that tragedy there, the what if I am not free before I die, what is gonna happen to my loved ones when I die, what if someone close to me dies and I never see them again etc I can see how this is preventing me from living life to the fullest whilst I am alive!

What I noticed the other day is that my fundamental drama arises as a response to the fear of death. All my worries eventually circle back to this and it is a huge spoiler of actually enjoying being here.

So a nice target to aim for now, to embrace death and in doing so fully endorse being alive right now! :smiley:

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There are a few different definitions of acceptance, some more spiritual in nature than others. This is the closest definition of accept that I could find:

Accept:

to endure without protest or reaction

“accept poor living conditions”

Saying ‘without reaction’ is a little funny though. Smacks of dissociation perhaps. My reaction is to enjoy & appreciate…

Perhaps ‘recognize’ is a good word to use

Recognize:

acknowledge the existence, validity, or legality of.

“the defense is recognized in Mexican law”

I think this is primarily an issue of sincerity

With sincerity there is a recognition of whatever emotion is happening in whatever moment

While still having the intent to be happy & harmless

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Here is a quote where Richard talks about emotionally accepting something:

RESPONDENT No. 19: What do you mean by ‘emotionally accept?’

RICHARD: To cease emotionally objecting, resisting, rejecting (or denying) and to be emotionally welcoming, consenting, receiving (or acknowledging) … without being emotionally aloof, indifferent, apathetic (or vacillating).

RESPONDENT: Yes, to be open.

RICHARD: I would suggest that to be emotionally ‘open’ is to be embracing each situation that life provides by emotionally welcoming, readily consenting to, receiving fully and unabashedly acknowledging every circumstance so as to find out, once and for all, just what is going on … and to discover what intelligence actually is.

This is because one needs to somehow enable an intellectual openness … so as to circumvent/break through what is known as ‘cognitive dissonance’[](javascript:void(0)).

One more Richard quote:

… I was talking of emotionally accepting that which is intellectually unacceptable (so as to have one’s native intelligence become apparent)
[the intelligence which becomes apparent when one emotionally accepts that which is intellectually unacceptable]

I think @Kiman is basically saying the above. Written in 2001, it’s possible Richard eventually steered away from using words like accept in favor of others that better captured what Richard wanted to express. It could be a case of Richard attempting to meet a person where they’re at, and using language they’re more familiar with.

The question of “emotionally accepting that which is intellectually unacceptable” has helped me move away from apathy/avoidance to accepting that certain things are facts and it would be sensible to respond accordingly. I think it could be a powerful question for people who deal with anxiety.

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I think Srinath had a bit of advice I read a bit back that was basically he was enjoying & appreciating everything come-what-may, and sometimes in that he was having emotions about this or that, and basically being like “well ok then!” That’s what’s happening right then.

From my own experience getting wound up about ‘failing’ at actualism because of feeling something only sets me back. I will be emotional over and over, about things big and small, until I become free. It’s just what happens.

That doesn’t mean getting complacent. But trying to push anything away has only set me back. I just get back to putting things together, at whatever pace I’m capable of.

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I think the key is to distinguish between a moral judgement, and sensible discernment.

Idea of allowing yourself to feel how you feel, or accepting how you feel, or emotionally accepting but not intellectually accepting, is simply that, to not let there be any impediment in you feeling how you actually are feeling! Because it’s silly. You can’t pretend like you aren’t feeling something that you are. You have to “accept”, acknowledge, recognize, be cognizant of, be ok with, feeling that feeling.

The only reason one wouldn’t do this is because of a moral feeling or judgement that it’s “bad” to feel that way. Because what, you will be a ‘bad’ actualist? :grin:

From skimming the thread I sense that some may have a general fear of anxiety about doing this, as if that somehow also implies an endorsement of said feelings, as in that it’s “good” to feel that way.

But the point is that it’s not ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to feel that way. It just is, the way you are feeling. Feel the feelings as they are, without imposing an additional ‘good’ or ‘bad’ onto them.

Once you do this… you will not lose the ability to sensibly discern what they are! (Which I think is what part of the fear may be.) You can still identify them as, this is a quote-on-quote “bad” feeling (i.e. a feeling usually judged as ‘bad’) like anger, resentment, anxiety, etc., or this is a quote-on-quote “good” feeling (i.e. a feeling usually judges as ‘good’) like love, desire, nurture, etc. And still identify that it isn’t felicity, still have a preference of one or the other. But this then is happening without any moral judgment.

And it’s ok to do it :smiley: don’t even worry about it. chillax. is all goud mon.

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