Hi Adam,
Actualism is not an exercise or exam using the correct words but gaining an experiential/ existential understanding that the PCE is an experience outside of one’s ‘self’, and allowing the actual world to become apparent via going into abeyance.
The reason I emphasize this fact is because I noticed over the years that quite a few people are/ were under the illusionary impression that if/when perfecting their ‘self’ they could then ‘slide’ into the actual world, which is impossible.
Richard: None of what I am living is applied theory, concepts or beliefs … there is this which is actually happening and what I write is an account, a report, a narrative, written as a direct experience as it is happening. In other words, it is located in or based upon or drawn from actuality – factual experience – as peace-on-earth is eternally here, as it already has been, and always will be. No one needs to invent it: it is all a matter of entering into its magic; enabling its pristine purity to become apparent; allowing its consummate perfection to emerge; watching its wondrous virtuosity unfold, or permitting its marvellous benediction to happen. (Richard, AF List, No. 12g, 17 Dec 2000a)
Here is a description how to bring this about –
Richard: One needs to contact, or have a connection with, apperceptive awareness so as to no longer be alone in the monumental endeavour to end all the misery and mayhem which epitomises the human condition. Hence the activation of one’s innate naiveté – the closest approximation to innocence one can have whilst being a ‘self’ – ensures that such a connection is sustained.
Respondent: Richard, I have read this definition of naiveté earlier on AF site, but could never really understand it. You define it as ‘the closest approximation to innocence one can have whilst being a ‘self’’. But what is this ‘innocence’ one can have whilst being a ‘self’.
Richard: It is the nearest a ‘self’ can have to innocence … innocence is when the ‘self’ is no longer in existence.
Respondent: Can you please describe it the way you describe your AF experience.
Richard: In a nutshell it is where one is walking through the world in a state of wide-eyed wonder … simply marvelling at it all. Naiveté is that intimate aspect of oneself that one usually keeps hidden away for fear of seeming foolish … it is like being a child again, but with adult sensibilities, which means that one can separate out the distinction between being naïve and being gullible.
Some synonyms of naiveté are: guileless, artless, simple, ingenuous, innocuous, unsophisticated, artless, frank, open.
What ensues when one walks through the world in a state of wide-eyed wonder and amazement – simply marvelling at the magnificence that this physical universe actually is – is a blitheness (being carefree, happy, merry, amiable and so on) and a gaiety (jollity, joviality, cheeriness, delight, fun, and so on) as the inevitable result … cynicism can no longer get a look-in.
One can easily enter into the magical fairy-tale-like paradise that this verdant and azure earth actually is.
Respondent: You say that ‘self’ is present in such a state. Does it mean that apperception and ‘self’ can co-exist – for a short time at least?
Richard: No, not even for a short time.
Respondent: If yes, does it mean that I can experience apperception while also experiencing (feeling) self at the same moment of time?
Richard: No, apperception is where the self is not.
Respondent: How is it different in a peak experience?
Richard: In a peak experience, of such purity and perfection as a pure consciousness experience (PCE), the self is absent and all is transparently clear of its own accord – such peerless clarity is called an apperceptive awareness – and when one falls back out of such an experience into being a self again one needs to enable a connection to be made with that apperceptive awareness so as not to be alone in the endeavour to end all the misery and mayhem which epitomises the human condition.
Naiveté is the way of enabling such a connection with the PCE … the connection I call pure intent. (Richard, AF List, No. 115, 10 May 2006).
Adam-Cl: The allowing and going into abeyance is definitely the trickier part for me to experientially understand and pinpoint what that looks like, if that makes sense. Not helped by how few PCE’s I have had and how long since happening. Is the act of being sincere, naïve and happy and harmless the very same allowance or does this indicate something else I might have misunderstood about the method?
If by “act” you mean “a specific instance, deed, or single occurrence” – no. It is when “being sincere, naïve and happy and harmless” becomes a way of experiencing life, day after day, then magic can and will happen. Hence the actualism method is to be enjoying and appreciating being alive as much as possible.
James: I see how the ‘good side’ combats the ‘dark side’ in my relationship with my mother. Does the good side hold the dark side in place? In other words, if I eliminate the good side (love) will the hate for her also disappear or must the dark side be eliminated first and then the good side goes with it?
Richard: As both the ‘good side’ and the ‘dark side’ are the same (affective) energy, at root, it is not possible to eliminate the one without the other … the entire package goes in one fell swoop. What can be done in the meanwhile, however, is to direct all of that energy into being the felicitous/ innocuous feelings.
James: Ok, then the way I am understanding it is to investigate either the good or bad feelings, whichever might be present, in order to eliminate those and get back to being ‘felicitous/ innocuous’.
Richard: What I mean by [quote] ‘in the meanwhile’ [endquote] refers to the opportunity, each moment again, for the already always existing actual world to become apparent for the very asking, as it were, not being taken full advantage of.
In other words, directing all of that affective energy (that is, ‘me’ at the core of ‘my’ being, which is ‘being’ itself) into being the felicitous/ innocuous feelings is what can be done so as to effect what the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years lived circa March-September 1981, as a deliberate imitation of the actual experienced in a pure consciousness experience (PCE), and which has become known as a virtual freedom … to wit: being as happy and as harmless (free of malice and sorrow) as is humanly possible whilst remaining a ‘self’.
Such imitative felicity/ innocuity, in conjunction with sensuosity, readily evokes amazement, marvel, and delight … a state of wide-eyed wonder best expressed by the word naiveté.
Naiveté, being the nearest a ‘self’ can come to innocence, allows the overarching benignity and benevolence inherent to the infinitude this infinite and eternal and perpetual universe actually is to operate more and more freely. This intrinsic benignity and benevolence, which has nothing to do with the imitative affective happiness and harmlessness, will do the rest.
All that was required was ‘my’ cheerful concurrence. [Emphasis added]. (Richard, AF List, James, 11 Sep 2005a).
Here is a further quote to explain how “‘I’ can never, ever become perfect” and how “the already always existing perfection can become apparent” –
Respondent: So, I’m just letting you know that I’m with you, and reading you all the time and finding Actual Freedom the solution in which my past pursuits are dissolving.
Richard: Okay … instead of having Love/ God/ Truth/ IT give you some ‘shattering kicks in the butt’ may I suggest adopting the benevolent, and thus beneficial, approach? Viz.:
• [Richard]: ‘It is important not to view ‘I’ and/or ‘me’ as an enemy – blind nature is the culprit – and to be friends with yourself … only you live with yourself twenty four hours a day. Coopt any aspect of yourself as an ally in this investigation into the human psyche … eventually ‘I’ come to realise that the very best thing that ‘I’ can do is altruistically ‘self’-immolate for the benefit of this body and all bodies. (Richard, AF List, No. 7, 18 Feb 1999).
• [Richard]: ‘It is important not to turn the thinker into the villain, an enemy: the thinker is thus one’s greatest ally (…) whilst peoples beat themselves up for not being good enough or for being ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ (or whatever description) they have no chance of ever enabling [peace-on-earth]. None of this mess is ‘my’ fault … ‘I’ was born like this. Now that ‘I’ realise this ‘I’ can willingly, cheerfully be in concordance. (…) ‘I’ can never, ever become perfect or be perfection. The only thing ‘I’ can do – the only thing ‘I’ need to do – is to say !YES! so that the already always existing perfection can become apparent. (Richard, List B, No. 25f, 22 Jun 2000).
• [Richard]: ‘Nothing of substance will happen less ‘I’ be the willing participant … the 100% committed participant. I always maintain that each and every person holds their freedom in their own hands … no one else can either grant it or prevent it. I see that I have written of it many times thus: ‘I’ deliberately and consciously – and with knowledge aforethought [from the PCE] – set in motion a ‘process’ that will ensure ‘my’ demise. What ‘I’ do, voluntarily and intentionally, is to press the button which precipitates a momentum – oft-times alarming but always thrilling – that will result in ‘my’ inevitable self-immolation. What one does is that one dedicates oneself to the challenge of being here as the universe’s experience of itself. When ‘I’ freely and cheerfully sacrifice ‘myself’ – the psychological and psychic entities residing inside this body – ‘I’ am gladly making ‘my’ most supreme donation, for ‘I’ am what ‘I’ hold most dear. It is the greatest gift one can bestow upon this body and that body and every body. (Richard, AF List, Alan-b, 12 Jun 2001).
Put succinctly: be kind to yourself … you are the only friend you have, so to speak. (Richard, AF List, No. 41, 4 Feb 2003).
As you can see, being kind to yourself is tantamount.
Cheers Vineeto