Andrew

[Andrew]

Last night and today I was back to feeling good. Had a lovely time with my mother for her birthday, and interacted with new freshness with my colleagues.

There is a background feeling of rawness as I sort through all that was triggered at once.

It was the ‘mother load’, if you will; converging and well repressed resentment, rebellion, pride, sexism, financial irresponsibility, practical injustice, false loyalty, peasant mentality, entitlement. An exposé of petty demands, and a display that my “precious “ is SO much more “precious “ than anyone else’s.

I took my mother out to where my father used to, KFC by the river and watch the sunset. She was very happy to be there. I have noticed that she will light up when I am playful and spontaneous like my father was.

My co-workers were thoroughly listened to, with full attention and a well-timed joke. Again, a playful Andrew seems to be quite popular.

[claudiu]

@Andrew

I took my mother out to where my father used to, KFC by the river and watch the sunset. She was very happy to be there. I have noticed that she will light up when I am playful and spontaneous like my father was.

My co-workers were thoroughly listened to, with full attention and a well-timed joke. Again, a playful Andrew seems to be quite popular.

It’s amazing how instant the results and rewards are with the actualism method!

I’ve noticed this too of course, when I’m feeling good but especially when naive and even more so when I am naïveté itself (IE or EE), it is highly contagious and it’s very likely that everyone spontaneously has a good time (though a spoilsport can always come and dampen the mood regardless).

It’s experiences like this that show you experientially that indeed what you are doing is not selfish or self-centered, it is for the tangible actual observable benefit of everyone around you as well (in addition to yourself). Some moral systems would have it that any benefit to oneself makes it automatically immoral to do it, this is just silliness that must be discarded ASAP

[Andrew]

@claudiu

Some moral systems would have it that any benefit to oneself makes it automatically immoral to do it, this is just silliness that must be discarded ASAP

Yes, there was a layer of morality shed a few days back when reading Richard’s words about “why would you put the many above you, or put yourself above the many?” That I am a perfectly good candidate for all the benefits of the actual world and the already existing peace on earth becoming apparent, was an instant “light bulb” moment.

As you say, the obvious benefit to others around me makes it win -win.

[Andrew]

Actually, having you point that out, the background rawness reduced. I think that it was not just the overall taxing effect (of so much being simultaneously triggered), but rather the habitual aggression having no place to land. It like a part of ‘me’ is unhinged from it’s normal continual grinding away at the ‘usual’ targets.

[Kub933]

@claudiu

It’s experiences like this that show you experientially that indeed what you are doing is not selfish or self-centered, it is for the tangible actual observable benefit of everyone around you as well (in addition to yourself).

Indeed this is what happened to Sonya after I began playing the “how close can we get game”. She messaged me out of the blue and mentioned how she had been experiencing these “nice” moments with me and with her colleagues at work.
Of course I was fascinated by this as until then I had not disclosed the details of the “game” to her. She said she would experience this “niceness” that was not of ‘her’ doing, it would happen spontaneously, somehow ‘she’ could not grasp it and make it belong to ‘her’ and yet it was happening.
Some further probing revealed that this “niceness” was the tenderness and togetherness of the near-innocence of naiveté, ‘she’ had been affected this whole time! Of course I then had to tell her all about the game haha as well as make the recommendation to keep locating and allowing this flavour, as it could lead her towards the magical world of the PCE.

[Kub933]

@Andrew

Yes, there was a layer of morality shed a few days back when reading Richard’s words about “why would you put the many above you, or put yourself above the many?” That I am a perfectly good candidate for all the benefits of the actual world and the already existing peace on earth becoming apparent, was an instant “light bulb” moment.

That is amazing that this clicked for you, I too saw this a few days ago when watching the ‘white lotus’ TV series. It’s about various dramas happening at fancy hotel resorts, but the seeing was exactly what Srinath described below :

On the morning of the event I spent a delicious few hours in the balcony of our apartment, under the canopy of the fig tree outside. It was a spectacular, electrifying experience that I have no words for really. I realised that everyone could enjoy this actual world. Everyone on the planet should enjoy this. How could they not when this is all there is? This wasn’t about me winning a gold medal. It was gold medals for all!

It was the seeing that there is no hierarchy at all in the actual world, that all this which exists is here for each and every body. It blew my socks off to see just how much splendour is here for every body, not as a “right/entitlement” either but simply what is already here.

[Vineeto]

Vineeto to JesusCarlos: Longing “for recognition” is not something superficial, it is an inbuilt feature of the human condition. You not only “long for recognition”, ‘you’ need it for ‘your’ very existence. ‘You’, the identity’, being a contingent ‘being’, cannot exist on ‘your’ own – ‘you’ require constant confirmation to justify and confirm ‘your’ existence, else ‘your’ non-substantial nature will become apparent. With this comes a desire to hide and a fear of being exposed as a fraud, an impostor. I remember feeling being ‘Vineeto’s’ reaction to this alarming discovery quite well.

Andrew: This helps me understand how I am also doing this behaviour. It is as Richard put it

Richard: “One sets them free of ‘my’ graceless demands … ‘my’ endless neediness born out of being alone in the world.”

Andrew: I do in other ways. Obviously, I chose at some point to single out my mother’s style of demanding recognition as being particularly obnoxious, but I do this very thing in my own way.
The demand for recognition, especially when I am successful at something has always been strong. On the flip side, the demand to be acknowledged when I am doing badly, or failing. (…)
This has stopped the proliferation of my excuses and anger into multiple directions. Having this as the overarching premise, I can remember now that this trigger is essentially believing that I am better than others because I don’t do this demand for acknowledgement in one certain way (like my mother), but I am doing it all the same! (link)

Hi Andrew,

So you had some good pickings and insights – don’t forget them as the desire for recognition doesn’t disappear in a day. ‘I’/ ‘me’ being an ultimately fictitious entity, only kept in place by swirling passions, is by its very nature inexhaustibly voracious to be substantiated and confirmed over and over again by recognition from feeling beings including yourself.

Hence the “background feeling of rawness” you were experiencing.

Andrew: Last night and today I was back to feeling good. Had a lovely time with my mother for her birthday, and interacted with new freshness with my colleagues.
There is a background feeling of rawness as I sort through all that was triggered at once.
It was the ‘mother load’, if you will; converging and well repressed resentment, rebellion, pride, sexism, financial irresponsibility, practical injustice, false loyalty, peasant mentality, entitlement. An exposé of petty demands, and a display that my “precious” is SO much more “precious” than anyone else’s.

This is a great recognition and pinpointing of feelings associated with the need/ the desire for recognition. This acknowledgement and enumeration will serve you well to discern and dismantle instances of those feelings when they appear. Don’t give up until you have recognized and abandoned them all as ‘furphies’.

Andrew: I took my mother out to where my father used to, KFC by the river and watch the sunset. She was very happy to be there. I have noticed that she will light up when I am playful and spontaneous like my father was.
My co-workers were thoroughly listened to, with full attention and a well-timed joke. Again, a playful Andrew seems to be quite popular. (link)

An excellent outcome of your investigations – being “playful and spontaneous” can become your new default way of being when you pay diligent affective attention to any diminishment of this enjoyment, ease and appreciation.

Cheers Vineeto

[Andrew]

Thanks Vineeto.

@Vineeto

inexhaustibly voracious to be substantiated and confirmed over and over again by recognition from feeling beings including yourself.

Emphasis added.

This was also a reason that I “blew up” the other day; a pride in doing well, and being proven to not be doing so well, when something relatively minor happened.

I don’t like the reactive way I am going about this at the moment. I see my normal thinking habits are changing, but there is a fear now of “what’s next? What tiny annoyance is going to launch me now?”

The fear is losing. Losing what little success I have, in a moment.

I am going to ponder this point and see what happens. I don’t see an option to anticipate another trigger, a preemptive strike, as the future doesn’t give clues because it doesn’t exist, yet.

It really seems that it’s a matter of bravery. Walking happily into the unknown, not knowing what the next “stubbed toe in the dark” is going to be.

My thoughts have been coming back to what the ultimate aim is. As in, actual freedom. Thinking out loud, there are going to have to be mistakes. Experiments. Or I will be meandering around in feeling good, rather than mooching around feeling neutral, but no closer to activating greater naïveté.

Without PCE experience and the understanding that comes from that, a lot of what we talk about, or I read about, I have to take as a premise, rather than a personally verified fact.

[Andrew]

Thinking further, the experiment is exactly this; continuous feeling good.

It’s been 14 odd years since first being interested in Actualism. The number of consecutive hours I have spent feeling good in that time? I am probably setting that record now!

So, this fear of something tripping me up, which will invariably be ‘me’ being ‘me’, is the thing I have to tap into the thrill of it to drive me on.

Set a record, risk being proud, or something else, and just do it!

For way too long, this fear of losing what I work for, was reinforced by losing what I worked for, because it was often, something in the ‘real’ world. Love, especially. Having the “one” in my life.

Thinking clearly about it, pursuing this experiment, knowing I will trip up, is the only Pursuit that getting “back on the horse “ isn’t “starting again “.

Hmm, that pondering was quicker than usual.

[Vineeto]

Andrew: Thanks Vineeto.

Hi Andrew,
It’s a pleasure.

Vineeto: … inexhaustibly voracious to be substantiated and confirmed over and over again by recognition from feeling beings including yourself. [Emphasis added].

Andrew: This was also a reason that I “blew up” the other day; a pride in doing well, and being proven to not be doing so well, when something relatively minor happened.
I don’t like the reactive way I am going about this at the moment. I see my normal thinking habits are changing, but there is a fear now of “what’s next? What tiny annoyance is going to launch me now?”
The fear is losing. Losing what little success I have, in a moment.

There is a very simple solution. Make a pact with yourself not to beat yourself up when emotions come to the surface (optimally before expressing them) that are presently not on your list of wanted/ appreciated emotions. Rather pat yourself on the back for every new discovery and tackling the obstacle.

Also remember, to put everything in your life on a preference basis then you can be winner big time, I mean in the grand scheme of life and in every moment of your life. It can look like this –

Richard: I do have personal preferences … one of which is a marked disinclination to engage in any sport or sporting activity (including all aspects of spectatorism).
There is, for instance, a preference for omnivorism over vegetarianism; a preference for water-based activities (boating, swimming, and so on) over land-based activities (hiking, mountaineering, and so forth); a preference for comedic entertainment over the dramatic/ a documentary over a fantasy/ the voluptuous over the horrific … and, to detail a few general ones at random, a preference for creature comforts over frugal asceticism, a preference for the warmer climes over the colder, and a preference for civilisation over savagery.
Please bear in mind, however, that a preference for something is to merely prefer this over that … and if ‘this’ is not available/ does not happen then ‘that’ does not detract one iota from the utter enjoyment and sheer appreciation of being just here, at this place in infinite space, right now, at this moment in eternal time, as this particular form which perdurable matter (mass/ energy) has taken shape as. (Richard, AF List, No. 118, 23 June 2006)

Every surfacing emotion is part of the adventure to find out how you tick, to explore and discover, and the human condition naturally involves the full range of feeling, not just the socially accepted ones or the ones that you favour. Every one is a challenge, an opportunity and, when welcomed, a step to move forward.

Andrew: I am going to ponder this point and see what happens. I don’t see an option to anticipate another trigger, a pre-emptive strike, as the future doesn’t give clues because it doesn’t exist, yet.
It really seems that it’s a matter of bravery. Walking happily into the unknown, not knowing what the next “stubbed toe in the dark” is going to be.

If you welcome every emotion as being what you are and be friendly with yourself, then every event is a possibility for success.

Andrew: My thoughts have been coming back to what the ultimate aim is. As in, actual freedom. Thinking out loud, there are going to have to be mistakes. Experiments. Or I will be meandering around in feeling good, rather than mooching around feeling neutral, but no closer to activating greater naïveté.

Wouldn’t “be meandering around in feeling good” much better than your previous modus operandi?

Change your value-system – there are no mistakes, only opportunities to learn – and feeling foolish can be the door to naiveté (where you like yourself and others).

Andrew: Without PCE experience and the understanding that comes from that, a lot of what we talk about, or I read about, I have to take as a premise, rather than a personally verified fact.

With sincerity you have the key to naiveté and naiveté allows you to invite a PCE.

RICHARD: It takes the felicity and innocuity of naiveté to bring about a PCE: where one is happy and harmless a benevolence and benignity which is not of ‘my’ doing operates of its own accord … and it is this beneficence and magnanimity which occasions the PCE.
The largesse of the universe (as in the largesse of life itself), in other words. (Richard, AF List, Rick-a, 4 March 2006).

Check out this link, you might like it.

Cheers Vineeto

[Kub933]

Hi Andrew,

I remember Geoffrey mentioning in a zoom chat something along the lines of “Yes of course ‘you’ have feelings… ‘you’ are a feeling being”

Essentially the point being that ‘I’ will most certainly “trip up” many times over, and then some more. This only clicked for me this year, that it is senseless blaming ‘me’ (a feeling being) for having feelings (or more specifically for ‘being’ those feelings). Of course the method is to minimise the good/bad feelings and maximise the felicitous and innocuous feelings but as long as ‘I’ am around sorrow and malice is still extant (in whatever degree), this is the case in virtual freedom too.

The trick is first of all to accept the above and then to become fascinated by ‘my’ workings when ‘I’ do “trip up”. Then it can become something that is actually pretty fun, when ‘you’ no longer blame ‘yourself’ for ‘being’ those feelings but rather become fascinated with the potential to discover something more.

PS
I see @Vineeto was replying to you as I was composing this message so it’s kind of saying the same thing

[Andrew]

Contemplating the less than good, but better than neutral mood while falling asleep, it occurred to me the morality around when one is allowed to “feel good/happy”.

Certainly, this pervasive morality is a huge part of hitting a ceiling on how I feel.

Extreme hypotheticals put this morality in sharp relief.

Happy while wars rage on? Happy even if I were to witness the worst of human depravity, stay happy? This morality strictly forbids this!

Carrying a few extra kilos? No happy for ‘you’!
Not fit and healthy as possible? No happy for ‘you’!

The audacity to feel good all the time, come what may!!!

Nice. Very nice indeed .Now that’s something I can channel my subversive tendency towards!

[Andrew]

So I hereby give myself permission to feel good, happy & harmless, in all circumstances, come what may.

Over-riding all socially prescribed appropriate moods, reactions, and expectations.

An executive order, unilaterally executed, with no power of veto granted to any party, circumstance, or condition.

Rain, hail or shine, in sickness and in health, forsaking all other directives, missives, constitutions, allotments, franchises, contracts, agreements, treaties, implied or otherwise.

[Vineeto]

Andrew: The audacity to feel good all the time, come what may!!!
Nice. Very nice indeed. Now that’s something I can channel my subversive tendency towards! (link)

Andrew: So I hereby give myself permission to feel good, happy & harmless, in all circumstances, come what may.
Over-riding all socially prescribed appropriate moods, reactions, and expectations.
An executive order, unilaterally executed, with no power of veto granted to any party, circumstance, or condition.
Rain, hail or shine, in sickness and in health, forsaking all other directives, missives, constitutions, allotments, franchises, contracts, agreements, treaties, implied or otherwise. (link)

Hi Andrew,

You just took the wrong turn-off – here is the sign, just like at all wrong entries on Australian high-ways: “Wrong Way, TURN BACK”.

Without the pure intent to be happy and harmless there is no way you can give yourself a categorically overarching permission for “forsaking all other directives, missives, constitutions, allotments, franchises, contracts, agreements, treaties, implied or otherwise.” This is not “audacity”, this is plainly your “subversive tendency” taking back command.

Please, first find out experientially about pure intent before being guided by “audacity” and other fool-hardy actions.

Richard: Warning: It is an utterly fundamental proviso that pure intent be dedicatorily in place – as an overriding/ overarching life-devotional goal which takes absolute precedence over all else – before any such whittling away of the otherwise essential societal/ cultural conditioning be undertaken. [Emphases added] (Library, Topics, Social Identity)

Tool-tips from original:
• [Richard]: “(…) the social identity cannot safely be whittled away unless there be the pure intent to be happy and harmless, each moment again, born of the PCE, because this socialised conscience, the moral/ethical and principled entity with its inculcated societal knowledge of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ (cultural values), has been implanted for a very good reason.
It is there to control the wayward self which lurks within the human breast … which is why dedication to peace-on-earth is paramount.” (Richard, AF List, No. 25b, 24 Jun 2003).

Pure Intent:
• [Richard]: “(…) ‘I’ am not alone in this endeavour because ‘I’ can tap into the purity and perfection of the infinitude of this physical universe with a pure intent born out of the PCE that one has during a peak experience. 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. Once set in motion, it is no longer a matter of choice: it is an irresistible pull.” [emphasis added in original] (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive).

• [Richard]: “Just to set the record straight: altruism (in its biological sense) is only the key to the process of ‘self’-immolation – going into blessed oblivion – and has nothing to do with living everyday life happily and harmlessly … the appearance of benevolence ensures that all interactions (including with oneself) are benign and beneficial. (…) Life is truly this simple: the pure intent to have the already always existing peace-on-earth become apparent, as evidenced in the pure consciousness experience (PCE), is activated with the nourishment of one’s innate naiveté via ‘the wonder of it all’ … whereupon an intimate connection, a golden thread or clew as it were, is thus established whereby one is sensitive to and receptive of the over-arching benignity and benevolence of the ‘another world’ of the PCE – which is already always just here right now anyway – and one is not on one’s own, in this, the adventure of a lifetime.
And sincerity works to awaken one’s dormant naiveté.” (Richard, AF List, No. 27d, 6 Dec 2002).

• [Richard]: “Pure intent is derived from the purity of the PCE (which is when ‘I’ spontaneously cease to ‘be’) and everything is experienced to be perfect as-it-is at this moment and place … here and now. Diligent attention paid to the peak experience gives rise to pure intent and with pure intent running as a ‘golden thread’ through one’s life, reflective contemplation about being here doing this business called being alive rapidly becomes more and more fascinating. When one is totally fascinated, reflective contemplation becomes pure awareness … and then apperception happens of itself.
It is the quality of pure intent which pulls one forward with impunity … pure intent transforms into action one’s determination to live a life full of gladness, peace and harmony with oneself, with a person of the other gender, and with all peoples. Pure intent produces total dedication – it is experienced as an irresistible enticement – and it makes it impossible not to do what is required (or to sweep an issue under the carpet and to let sleeping dogs lie) and to continue to conform to the long-failed dictates of the status-quo. Pure intent is not to be confused with being a ‘do-gooder’, or being full of ‘righteousness’, or being ‘moralistic’ or being ‘principled’.
Pure intent is the quality that encompasses what morals and ethics aspire to but never reach. Pure intent is a manifest life-force; a genuinely occurring stream of benevolence and benignity that originates in the perfect and vast stillness that is the essential character of the infinitude of the universe. Freed by pure intent from the very necessary social constraints – designed to control a wayward ego and a compliant soul – one can have generosity of character without striving. Pure intent guides one in each and every situation and circumstance – it is an essential prerequisite to ensure a guaranteed passage through the psychic maze – until the primacy of ‘me’ as a psychological or psychic entity withers away.
With pure intent one will not rest until one has gone all the way.” (Richard, AF List, Alan-a, 16 Sep 1999).

Cheers Vineeto

[Josef]

@Vineeto

Hi Andrew,

You just took the wrong turn-off – here is the sign, just like at all wrong entries on Australian high-ways: “Wrong Way, TURN BACK”.

Without the pure intent to be happy and harmless there is no way you can give yourself a categorically overarching permission for “forsaking all other directives, missives, constitutions, allotments, franchises, contracts, agreements, treaties, implied or otherwise.” This is not “audacity”, this is plainly your “subversive tendency” taking back command.

Please, first find out experientially about pure intent before being guided by “audacity” and other fool-hardy actions.

Hi Vineeto,
I have to admit this reply surprised me quite a bit. It seems to me like you are trying to “gate keep” feeling good somehow. I thought Andrew was spot on here as it’s the approach I have also been following recently with decent success. Too often in the real world we are so prone to feeling bad for even the smallest reason. This audacity he mentions seems like exactly what is needed to feel good “come what may”.

I think (correct me if I’m wrong) you’re trying to highlight the harmless part of the equation. That being happy without being harmless can come with causing harm to others for the sake of your own happiness?

Even if pure intent was not present, the prescription of feeling good come what may could lift the majority of the population out of the seriousness and despair that plagues the real world.

[claudiu]

Hi Josef,

@Josef

I have to admit this reply surprised me quite a bit. It seems to me like you are trying to “gate keep” feeling good somehow. […] Even if pure intent was not present, the prescription of feeling good come what may could lift the majority of the population out of the seriousness and despair that plagues the real world.

Richard has warned about this as well, on the very homepage of the AFT site, with a bolded Warning sign and different text color to emphasize the importance:

The second tooltip (after “undertaken”) explains why:

If Andrew goes ahead with his unilateral command to effectively do whatever he (self-centrically) wants without regards to any consequences and without the capacity for anybody else to do anything whatsoever to change his mind about any of it, without pure intent in place… the effect will most likely be for that “wayward self” to… go wayward .

It is the self-less/self-sacrificial following of pure intent (which is outside of the human condition) which is what ensures the actualism method can safely be employed.

This is not a matter of gate-keeping but rather an advising of what works and what doesn’t. All one has to do is make that connection, allow pure intent into one’s life, and follow that, and then one can safely give oneself permission to feel happy & harmless come-what-may.

Pure intent will ensure that sensibility will prevail when faced with choices, decisions, consequences, etc. The way forward is not one of completely ignoring everybody other person on the planet. Anytime more than one person (ie you yourself) is involved, sensibility dictates that everyone be taken into account. And it does not come with a moralistic ‘having to’ cater to other people’s unreasonable whims, either… with that sensibility comes the sensibility of knowing when not to do that.

It would be impossible to write out rules or guidelines for every possible scenario. With pure intent it will all work out. Without it… it will not!

I don’t think this is really a very high bar, as in a difficult thing to do. One just has to know that one has to do it and then make the commitment to actually try. Why wait and delay by trying something else (something inferior) first?

Cheers,
Claudiu

[Josef]

@claudiu

If Andrew goes ahead with his unilateral command to effectively do whatever he (self-centrically) wants without regards to any consequences and without the capacity for anybody else to do anything whatsoever to change his mind about any of it, without pure intent in place… the effect will most likely be for that “wayward self” to… go wayward .

I don’t think that’s what he said at all. He said he would give himself permission to feel good, happy & harmless unilaterally. I don’t see any mention of doing whatever he wants (self-centrically) without consideration for anyone else.

And even in practice, I have found that the actualism feeling good (not good feelings), is so blithesome and benign in its nature that it is always accompanied by harmlessness. If its not, usually there is some good feeling (like greed, or power, or pride) that is tainting the feeling good.

@claudiu

Pure intent will ensure that sensibility will prevail when faced with choices, decisions, consequences, etc. The way forward is not one of completely ignoring everybody other person on the planet. Anytime more than one person (ie you yourself) is involved, sensibility dictates that everyone be taken into account. And it does not come with a moralistic ‘having to’ cater to other people’s unreasonable whims, either… with that sensibility comes the sensibility of knowing when not to do that.

Again, the feeling good come what may that I’ve been having success with recently has a lack of malice as a quality, so consideration for others is also a part of it.

@claudiu

I don’t think this is really a very high bar, as in a difficult thing to do. One just has to know that one has to do it and then make the commitment to actually try. Why wait and delay by trying something else (something inferior) first?

This is why I called it gatekeeping. I don’t have pure intent if the strict definition is that is has to be born of a PCE. I don’t have a good memory of a PCE. But I do have the intent that I don’t ever want to feel miserable again. That I want to be in a good mood each and every moment again. I’ve seen how beneficial it is for myself and others when I am feeling good. But should I not start on this path unless I meet the strict definition of having pure intent?

[claudiu]

Hi Josef,

@Josef

I don’t think that’s what he said at all. He said he would give himself permission to feel good, happy & harmless unilaterally. I don’t see any mention of doing whatever he wants (self-centrically) without consideration for anyone else.

It’s more that that’s what would end up happening if the impetus comes from ‘me’ rather than from pure intent.

@Josef

And even in practice, I have found that the actualism feeling good (not good feelings), is so blithesome and benign in its nature that it is always accompanied by harmlessness.

That is an excellent sign

@Josef

@claudiu

I don’t think this is really a very high bar, as in a difficult thing to do. One just has to know that one has to do it and then make the commitment to actually try. Why wait and delay by trying something else (something inferior) first?

This is why I called it gatekeeping. I don’t have pure intent if the strict definition is that is has to be born of a PCE. I don’t have a good memory of a PCE.

I was able to pinpoint pure intent without having a good memory of a PCE! This was news to Richard & Vineeto at the time (~2012). So, you don’t need one to “qualify”.

@Josef

But I do have the intent that I don’t ever want to feel miserable again. That I want to be in a good mood each and every moment again. I’ve seen how beneficial it is for myself and others when I am feeling good. But should I not start on this path unless I meet the strict definition of having pure intent?

I would put it that it’s more you don’t want to dismantle the entire edifice of socialization, morality, conditioning, etc., thoroughly and at the very root, up until you have pinpointed that which is outside yourself to ensure a safe sailing through it all. You would not be able to succeed anyway. But in the meantime I don’t see why you couldn’t use the actualism method. So I should walk back what I wrote here:

@claudiu

It is the self-less/self-sacrificial following of pure intent (which is outside of the human condition) which is what ensures the actualism method can safely be employed.

I don’t see why you couldn’t start to use the actualism method before having that clear connection. Feel good. When feeling good dips, use the tools, trace it back to when it happened, see why, etc. And this ensures more of a feeling good. And on it goes from there.

This will at some point result in having a PCE or finding pure intent/pure intent becoming apparent. And that’s when it can really take off from there.

I’m having difficulty putting it into words exactly what I mean. When you are guided by pure intent, you do end up unilaterally dismantling all the socializing and conditioning etc, via giving yourself permission to have it happen. And it is a happy and harmless dismantling (both together). I just don’t see how you can successfully do it without pure intent, though. Maybe I’d put it that you can start, and make good headway, but you will always be limited until you do find pure intent, get a flavor of it, learn how to allow it, etc. But the point isn’t that it’s a limitation per se, like you have to wait until it happens, but rather something you can actively gear yourself towards, find that connection sooner rather than later!

What you think @Vineeto ?

Cheers,
Claudiu

[claudiu]

Ah one mixup I made is that

Whittling away the societal conditioning et al, isn’t the actualism method.

The actualism method is: enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive.

The whittling away etc is in service of this

It is indeed not safe to whittle it away without pure intent in place as something to ‘replace it’

But you can maximize Felicity as much as you can until pure intent is in place

And indeed the advice would be to find that purity and make the connection!

Hope this clarifies…

[Andrew]

@Andrew

Contemplating the less than good, but better than neutral mood while falling asleep, it occurred to me the morality around when one is allowed to “feel good/happy”.

Certainly, this pervasive morality is a huge part of hitting a ceiling on how I feel.

Extreme hypotheticals put this morality in sharp relief.

@Josef is correct in that my unilateral declaration, was my answer to my own realisation…

I reacted strongly to Vineeto’s post, and decided that I would need to keep my hands in my pockets for a few days to work out how to proceed.

For the record, my unilateral declaration had little effect on my mood. I was in a good mood day on Friday, and had the day off work.

This morning, whilst obviously running mentally over this issue, I started to realise that I could start by looking at any beliefs, rules, conditioning etc specifically around why ‘I’ have not had a PCE, why pure intent (as in the actual thing, palpable life force etc) wasn’t being experienced.

@Josef

This audacity he mentions seems like exactly what is needed to feel good “come what may”.

This was the spirit in which I wrote my overly “wordy “ declaration. As I said, it really didn’t do much, except cause a sequence of events which had me reacting to the whole premise of Actualism. As in, if one can’t start without pure intent, and one’s own intent is “dangerous “ then one can’t start at all.

My mind was made up this morning, to basically go ahead anyway, warning or not, as I wasn’t talking about licentiousness or “doing whatever I want “, but specifically that all social rule etc, which dictate that I should feel bad now, or should feel “good feelings “ now, no longer are ones I will blindly follow. Following that decision, I realised that I could be very specific and look at the beliefs around “pure intent” as described on the AFT. There does seem to be a background of conditioning (perhaps) that specifically prevents me experiencing that.

It was surprised that I had decided that, minutes before I opened the Forum and saw the discussion here.