Richard: Pure intent is a palpable life-force; an actually occurring stream of benevolence and benignity that originates in the vast and utter stillness that is the essential character of the universe itself.
Andrew: (This doesn’t have its own glossary entry? This quote was copied from This Moment of Being Alive, from the link on the first page)
Hi Andrew,
The entries are under “Intent” in the Library topics and in Richard’s Abditorium (intent).
Andrew: The objection I had for years about this description was this; how can something “stream” from something that is “stillness”?
Something still, by definition, is not streaming.
It just occurred to me why this objection is wrong. Human Consciousness is finite. The infinitude is, infinite!
This “objection” you had “for years” only demonstrates that you remained all these years locked in the conceptual realm of reading the AFT.
The stillness is because time does not move – time is the area in which events happen. It is also because space does not move – again it is the arena in which objects move. Both Claudiu (link) and Shashank (link) have already explained to you – “the experience of the infinitude of space and time is of an utter stillness”.
It requires the experience of the infinitude of space and time to perceive its utter and vast stillness. This stillness will become instantly obvious when your chattering mind stops and your swirling passions halt and ‘you’ go temporarily in abeyance.
Richard: There is an utter purity in the perfection of this universe that one and all live in which wells up ever-fresh from an immense stillness which is the genesis of all that is apparent. This universe is infinite – it has no beginning and no end – it has always been and always will be here … now. Things may come and things may go but the universe itself is everlasting. As the universe’s space is infinite, it follows that it has no edges. As there are no edges to this universe it means there is no centre to it. And as the universe’s time is eternal, it follows that it has no beginning or ending … hence there is no middle. One is nowhere in particular … and I mean this literally, factually. One and all are floating in limitless space and time upon this planet earth, going nowhere and coming from nowhere. The goal in life is to actualise this infinitude and live it as an actuality each moment again. The living of it is to experience being anywhere all at once whilst being nowhere in particular, for this is the living experience of infinitude. For most people, infinitude just means endless … but this is a limited understanding based upon what the self-bound mind can grasp intellectually. [Emphasis added]. (Richard’s Journal, 2004, Page 270).
Andrew: And perception of the actual by a finite consciousness (the only type there is) will be experienced as streaming,
Now what is your definition of “a finite consciousness”? In actualism terminology, the word consciousness refers to a flesh-and-blood body being conscious (the suffix ‘-ness’ forms a noun expressing a state or condition), as in being sentient.
When a flesh-and-blood body being conscious becomes aware of being conscious apperception occurs. In other words, consciousness being conscious of being consciousness … as distinct from the normal ‘self’-conscious way of perception (‘I’ being aware of ‘me’ being conscious).
Richard: Apperception is the clear and direct experiencing of being just here at this place in infinite space right now at this moment in eternal time – sans identity and its feeling-fed realities – and it is a wordless appreciation of being alive and awake on this verdant and azure planet. Apperception is where one is living in the already always existing peace-on-earth and is where one is blithe and carefree, even if one is doing nothing: doing something – and that includes thinking – is a bonus on top of the never-ending perfection of the infinitude which this material universe is. Apperception is where one is the universe being stunningly aware of its own infinitude. (Richard, AF List, No. 19a, 1 Sep 2001 – the whole page is well-worth reading).
Infinitude is not compatible with logic, concepts or intellectualization – just look at how mathematicians frantically invent more and more theoretical universes either static or expanding – mathematics cannot deal with infinitude. You need to allow experiencing it. Actualism is not a concept, it is experiential.
Andrew: The other thought, which I never acted on, is; this stillness is the very stuff I am made of. It’s not some distant star streaming pure intent, or a tree, or something outside of this body per se, the proximate location of pure intent as described IS the actual body ‘I’ inhabit. (…)
So, back to the topic; pure intent is experienced as a “stream” originating in the “vast and utter stillness” because consciousness is finite. (link)
You would have been correct in your last sentence if you had not added the “because”. Consciousness being finite only applies to the normal ‘self’-conscious way of perception (‘I’ being aware of ‘me’ being conscious). A consciousness free from ‘I’/ ‘me’ is capable of apperception which can experience infinitude.
Pure intent – the palpable life-force, the stream of benevolence and benignity – is experienced because it exists in actuality.
Pure intent is an actual existing stream (not merely experienced as such – apperception only experiences what is actual), the benevolence and benignity being the values of infinitude. (see Richard, AF List, Rick, 30 Sep 2005). Pure intent can be experienced when you become conscious of being conscious (apperception), when you leave the shallow realm of intellectualization and dive deeper, and read Richard’s words with all your being (both eyes open), wanting to understand his words experientially.
Richard: Being ‘alive’ is to be paying attention – exclusive attention – to this moment in time and this place in space. This attention becomes fascination … and fascination leads to reflective contemplation. Then – and only then – apperception can occur. An apperceptive awareness can be evoked by paying exclusive attention to being fully alive right now. This moment is your only moment of being alive … one is never alive at any other time than now. And, wherever you are, one is always here … even if you start walking over to ‘there’, along the way to ‘there’ you are always here … and when you arrive ‘there’, it too is here. Thus attention becomes a fascination with the fact that one is always here … and it is already now. Fascination leads to reflective contemplation. As one is already here, and it is always now … then one has arrived before one starts.
The potent combination of attention, fascination, reflection and contemplation produces apperception, which happens when the mind becomes aware of itself. Apperception is an awareness of consciousness. It is not ‘I’ being aware of ‘me’ being conscious; it is the mind’s awareness of itself. Apperception – a way of seeing that can be arrived at by reflective and fascinating contemplative thought – is when ‘I’ cease thinking and thinking takes place of its own accord … and ‘me’ disappears along with all the feelings. Such a mind, being free of the thinker and the feeler – ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul – is capable of immense clarity and purity … as a sensate body only, one is automatically benevolent and benign. (Richard, Articles, this Moment of Being Alive).
Cheers Vineeto