Felix's Diary

As a matter of fact, it is a problem of the so called flat thread vs. hierarchical thread forums.
You can read the reasons why Discourse adopted the former in Understanding and Using Discourse's Flat Threading - Meta - Rubin Observatory LSST Community forum.

So yes: I suppose at least one line quote would make those kind of replies easier to read.

Hey Felix, thanks again for sharing your ongoing experiences with Actualism Application.
I can relate so well with so many of your statements, and this gives me a very reassuring
feeling about the process itself, and more importantly, it shows me the way forward and is
highly highly motivational for me. And, Felix, by writing so well and in such detail and honest way,
you are being the student and the coach at the same time not only for yourself but for the
others as well. Your efforts are much appreciated :appreciation:

So to recap on what your wrote:
1.) You acknowledge how you feel at the moment ( from moment to moment )
and this thins out the feeling state ( i.e. ā€œmeā€ )
which then leads to a felicitous 3rd kind of way feeling good
which can be enjoyed and appreciated on an ongoing basis !
Maybe you found the Wide and Wonderous Road :smile:

p.s. Can geoffrey or Srinath comment on this approach please!

I donā€™t know whether the process can be defined that sequentially - also I didnā€™t have a PCE thatā€™s just what I experienced on that day and I wrote about. Itā€™s just a diary after all :slight_smile:

For example today, I felt good all day, and it was relatively easy and not esoteric at all. So maybe yesterday it was more naĆÆvetĆ© I was expressing.

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Chatting to Geoffrey last night chilled me out a lot and so I didnā€™t spend any of the day thinking or worrying about actualism, the process etc. Life has been more fun and less serious today, without that monkey on my back today.

That shows me that a lot of my feelings and worries are about actualism itself, ā€œmy progressā€, constantly questioning the technique etc. Iā€™m starting to see how serious Iā€™ve been about it at all - I feel like its safe to start letting go of that now :monkey:

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Iā€™ve just deleted a whole section of my reply to @pelagash that went on and on about my life story and childhood. I think in a way itā€™s a good sign that Iā€™m willing to be frank and open on here about that stuff (not afraid to be considered an unsuccessful actualist, less neurotic about the idea of sharing personal details). It mirrors whatā€™s happening internally where Iā€™m willing to acknowledge my feelings in a totally open way. But still, itā€™s like another way to maintain myself - now Iā€™m clinging to my autobiography :sweat_smile:.

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The nice thing abt doing stuff like that is you get to find out that it doesnā€™t matter too much one way or the other :slightly_smiling_face:

Hey @henryyyyyyyyyy - are you referring to being with a guy vs a girl?

Oh no, Iā€™m referring to posting your autobiographyā€¦ I suppose it would apply to that too though!

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This afternoon I went for a walk with my Mum and we ended up at a spot where I had a PCE a few months ago. It was an amazing day in my city - exhibiting the warm sun, cool breeze and blue skies typical of a beautiful winterā€™s day in Australia. We walked to this this is grassy knoll nestled in a suburban landscape - itā€™s a kind of picnic spot. This was a day visit but it was nighttime here when I had the PCE, and I was walking whereas today we sat on a park bench.

I was feeling a sincere and easy appreciation at this favourite spot of mine, and there was no sense of having to do anything - the sensuous enjoyment of this moment was so purely validating of existence. Once again I started to let this moment live me and I felt much more ā€˜beerā€™ than doer. The interaction with Mum was easy and delightful; like what one would expect if we were both in heaven together. If there was a trace of malice and sorrow on her part, that was not transmitting to me - in fact she had such a girly, cheerful quality. She looked young and fresh and so ā€œthereā€ in front of me, on the edge of being actual. The trees have been blooming with the most vibrant pink colour, like cherry blossom. It was delightful to behold them, and witness their flowers fall and be playfully carried hither and thither by the wind. The sun was seeping into my skin all the while, and I was barely in the way of this naive enjoyment all. Who could not endorse being alive when it is of such a pristine and excellent quality?

Iā€™m fairly certain I was experiencing pure intent. Not only did the suburban semi-natural environment radiate perfection and purity, I was similarly immaculate and unselfconsciously worthy of my place in the scene. Experiencing that delicious enjoyment and utter peace, I could intuit the actual potentiality of my own self-immolation: that it is safe, that it is possible, that it is desirable and that itā€™s inevitable. At the time it seemed almost imminent, in fact.

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Canā€™t believe how much fun Iā€™ve started to have lately. Meeting Geoffrey has really showed me how many rules and impositions Iā€™ve had on myself about this process. Basically a lot of seriousness (even though I had indeed read that itā€™s ā€œnot about seriousnessā€). Itā€™s something Craig had mentioned as well - and said I should start listening to some funky music to get an idea :slight_smile: Itā€™s all something Richard had mentioned had well. I guess Iā€™m a slow learner :slight_smile:

Fun and delight etc have just been words Iā€™ve skipped over. Was so much more focused on the serious ones that made it seem like what I was attempting to do was ā€œlife or deathā€.

I reckon this aspect, at least for my personality and habits, has made the biggest impact to date!

Iā€™m actually enjoying my life - all these hobbies and interests have come back as well. Iā€™m back into music and singing, back into listening to long vids of UG krishnamurti and other peeps, back into exploring esoteric topics.

Itā€™s almost like I have been in a depressive state - locking myself into an ā€œabsolutistā€/extremist/dogmatic interpretation of actualism - trying to fit the form of what I thought actualism should be and forcing myself to fit that mould. Itā€™s almost been like a spiritual approach to actualism.

Iā€™m out of the funk and listening to funk :joy:

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Today I am one whole guy that feels good.

Not one guy forcing the actualism method on another guy, and having to analyse like crazy to figure out why this pesky ā€œother guyā€ wonā€™t play along.

I think this is a big difference!

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My intention to have a PCE has gone way up

Not sure how Iā€™m going to do it exactly in terms of technique or whatever

But Iā€™m 100% committed to finding it.

In fact, Iā€™m not going to post on this forum again until I do. Nothing like a dramatic ultimatum :slight_smile:

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Ok I know I wrote an ultimatum but I need to get this out. I have been walking around for hours - not even trying to have a PCE, but rather just to see whatā€™s there - see whatā€™s inside, and what I am. That ā€œfeeling oneself out intuitivelyā€ quote from Richard which someone mentioned has been going around in my head.

I asked myself today, what if my lack of progress meant that in a way Ive been letting myself be blind to stuff? There can be no doubt that at cognitive/ego level (me as thinker), I am pretty much 100% in board with actualism. I have demonstrated that with my level of commitment and obsession. But this just hasnā€™t been translating into consistent results emotionally. Is my intent to feel good being applied at a superficial level only? Like a kind of top-down directive, given by an egoic commander which none of the subordinates actually want to follow?

Today Iā€™ve been going deeper into my sense of being, with no overarching goal (such as to feel good). Iā€™ve just been looking exactly as things are, with no manipulation. What Iā€™ve discovered is that buried beneath a tightly controlled surface-level, there is an absolute mountain of feelings - which for some reason Iā€™ve been unable to acknowledge on a moment-to-moment basis. Itā€™s not that Iā€™ve been purposely ignoring them per se - but I had a goal, and nothing was going to get in the way of my goal! The failure of this to provide consistent wellbeing (psychologically and physically) has been too apparent to be able to keep this going.

These feelings are not concrete at all - and have no clear definition to them. But they can be partially described by words such as sorrow, anger and resentment. Even those words barely convey the depth of these undulating, creature-like feelings shifting tectonically under the surface. These are feelings which usually barely see the light of day, as I would usually not allow it. That would go against my identity as a successful actualist, who knows how to stay in a good mood. By heavy repression and distraction.

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I spent the longest time doing nothing today. I walked around and eventually fell asleep on a park bench. I came home and sat for an hour or two, with more intermittent sitting lying with my eyes closed. Iā€™ve literally done nothing else all day.

By finally acknowledging all these feelings, I think Iā€™ve finally being able to see the possibility of neither expressing nor repressing them. And so my body can finally rest and relax like it has not done in a long time.

If there is one thing thatā€™s been missing in my application itā€™s probably been thisā€¦at times it feels like Iā€™m attempting to stop a semi-trailer. My feelings want to have their way. In a way Iā€™m so used to repressing the primary emotions, yet all the while Iā€™m forever expression the secondary emotions (like boredom and restlessness). I can see now that itā€™s possible to put them into a bind, Iā€™ve just not seen it as possible before or something.

There is a real stillness arising.

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ā€œYou need to have a keen sense of humour. This business of becoming free is not ā€“ contrary to popular opinion ā€“ a serious business at all. Be totally sincere ā€¦ most definitely utterly sincere, as genuineness is essential. But serious ā€¦ no way. An actual freedom is all about having fun; about enjoying being here; about delighting in being alive.ā€

This quote has taken on a whole new meaning for me recently, especially after talking to @geoffrey and being reminded of the simplicity of all this. I now see that the above quote is actually extremely pertinent to the application of the method but at the same time I have always on some level dismissed this side of things.

Probably because it was too damn simple, I wanted the complicated way, the fancy way, I wanted the sophisticated way :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Simply having fun is too damn naive to work! I have done all these impressive things in my life so I will take the same approach with this new endeavour (with poor results of course).

I wanted to write because I think both you and I have a similar tendency to do this, we are very driven and obsessive but it can take the form of essentially all that you described, kinda surface level stuff, the forcing type of stuff, the difficult stuff.

I have observed in myself many times now, this habit of almost creating this big-scary-difficult story of what I need to do in order to feel good, to become free etc.
It is like I want it to be this insanely difficult task because I cannot accept that it is truly about having fun, about actually wanting to be here. In this obsessive (but not sincere) approach, there is a tone of seriousness, this tone ruins the whole endeavour, it is also what makes this thing seem so hard, I am making it hard for myself because I want to remain sophisticated, I just cannot admit that none of the crazy knots ā€˜Iā€™ tangled ā€˜myselfā€™ in were ever required. I am noticing now this seriousness has to be eliminated for the simplicity of all this to become apparent.

Lately when I find myself going down that hole of getting stuck in feeling bad or in general not being able to tap into any of the ā€˜actualist thingsā€™ I bring my focus back to these simple questions, Do I actually want to be here right now? Am I having fun right now? Why not? Am I being serious? Why am I taking life seriously right now? What for?

This is really so simple that defining it any further would take away from the simplicity of it all!
I have gone down so many crazy rabit holes with Actualism, spent sometimes weeks feeling these ongoing waves of fear or sorrow all in the name of this mad crusade I was on.
All because I was not willing to accept that it is all about having fun. None of those things were necessary, this is in hindsight of course so perhaps I had to go through all that to see things clearer in the end. But I see it now.

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Whatā€™s funny with this mountain of feelings that is indeed felt to be there, is that they completely disappear in a PCE!! They go from completely insurmountable and substantial, to never-having-existed. It is quite a thing. But I think there is a natural tendency (that I have too) that, since I saw them disappear it means I can just ā€˜ignoreā€™ them and pretend they arenā€™t thereā€¦ ā€¦ ā€¦ which doesnā€™t work obviously!! Itā€™s a bizarre thing this human condition.

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Hey :slight_smile: thanks for your input @Kub933; and yours @claudiu.

I do get what you are saying about the seriousness thing Kuba, and the simplicity thing. I think those aspects (fun, ease etc) are characteristics of how it feels once the ball is rolling, feeling good wise. However - this is certainly not the default human state and so Iā€™ve personally found it extremely important lately to dig deeper into the nature of me, including looking at instinctual passions and various belief structures that are getting in the way.

To say something akin to ā€œitā€™s all so simple, the problem is just my insincerityā€ seems to me to underestimate the task, and could become an easy way to whip oneself when itā€™s not working. IMO, itā€™s not possible to tell yourself to feel good and then just execute that effortlessly on the basis of the simplicity of it all - in fact I personally would say that the difficulty of the actualism method is well understated. Obviously it depends where one is at - I think there are probably various stages in this process where things seem easy vs hard, simple vs complicated etc.

For where Iā€™m at now, acknowledging my feeling experience (all the way down through the levels of being) is key to allowing myself to feel good. I need to understand exactly what Iā€™m feeling, and what beliefs may be protecting those feelings from further illumination, in order to move past them into a decision to feel good instead.

I have no idea how my diary ā€œreadsā€ (tbh I never expect anyone to read it so Iā€™m chuffed to have a couple of respondents :rofl:) but Iā€™m finding myself more able to feel good than ever now that Iā€™m going deeper into the hairy stuff, with less opprobrium than before. Then it becomes - ā€œwell given my understanding of how I operate by default, feeling good is the only sensible optionā€.

Iā€™ve tried to just feel good, railroading a system that doesnā€™t want to, and it only caused stress and exhaustion. But! Iā€™m not saying what you are saying isnā€™t right. Again itā€™s a question or whatever one is facing at the time.

Also just for the record I am more obsessive about this than ever atm :joy:. My interest an all external activities is rapidly dwindling compared to the opportunity to look internal and make changes to my experience that way.

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I usually try to read all the posts so there you have a trusted fan :smiley:

Usually when I write something its more for the purpose of ā€˜throwing it out there and seeing what sticksā€™ if I can borrow Geoffreyā€™s phrase. As in these are my current experiences, some of them might be useful or not at all, thatā€™s not really so important though. I think it is the act of sharing and comparing notes that ultimately benefits everyone. Unless of course we are all reinforcing each others BS.
But yeah anyways there is no intent here for any sort of prescriptive advice or trying to find ā€˜the right wayā€™ :+1:

Yes exactly ā€” but this is a simple thing isnā€™t it??

Not saying it doesnā€™t take time to see that it is what needs doing ā€¦ but once you see it you see that itā€™s a simple thing.

Also not saying that it doesnā€™t take time to see it al and work through etc. But the salient point is that itā€™s ultimately a simple thing. That it can be difficult to see that doesnā€™t change that itā€™s a simple thing.

Possibly in the past you read that itā€™s simple and misinterpreted it as railroading yourself into feeling good? That doesnā€™t change the fact that the advice was accurate though , and obviously not what we are saying here.

Yeah I totally get that! Iā€™m equally interested in comparing notes. Iā€™d be interested to hear how you go in the next couple of weeks, with your new way of looking at it. ie: Has it been your supposed seriousness about actualism getting in the way, or are there still other things getting in the way (like triggers, subconscious feelings, sticky mood states etc). We can chat about it soon.