Hunterad's journal

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181

My focus lately has been on sincerity, naivete, and investigating/approaching the feeling of worry without getting to caught up in what the worry/stress is about.

Something I’ve been considering is that if I am sincerely well-intentioned, most of the worry is gone because it relates to me calculating around interactions in the corporate environment.

Is this what sincerity and naivete is about? In some ways it seems to fit with what I’ve read, but I don’t know if I can 100% distinguish it from pacifism, except that the intention behind it is genuinely not about being holier than thou and grabbing onto a principle, more just about choosing to live in an easier and simpler way for the inherent value of that.

The fear that prevents me from committing to it more is that I will be left defenseless, which is nothing new. I think what’s strange to me is that I’m waiting for some ‘final’ insight that shows me very clearly how this naivete does not actually leave me defenseless before I commit. Perhaps that insight is something that is only gained from practical experience with being that way and is not something I can really prove to myself ahead of time? Is it just a confidence that builds with experience as opposed to an understanding that I finally ‘work out’?

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Adam-H: My focus lately has been on sincerity, naiveté, and investigating/ approaching the feeling of worry without getting to caught up in what the worry/ stress is about.
Something I’ve been considering is that if I am sincerely well-intentioned, most of the worry is gone because it relates to me calculating around interactions in the corporate environment.

Hi Adam,

A sensible approach. When you say “considering” do you mean mentally considering or does this extend to applying this in practice – being “sincerely well-intentioned” and see what happens?

Adam-H: Is this what sincerity and naiveté is about?

Synonyms to being “well-intentioned” are “well-meaning, benevolent [wishing well], kindly, and sincere” (Cambridge Dictionary) so it does fit with what you have read about benevolence … and sincerity is the key to naiveté – “that intimate aspect of oneself that is usually kept hidden away for fear of seeming foolish (a simpleton) … it is like being a child again but with adult sensibilities (wherein one can separate out the distinction between being naïve and being gullible/ trusting).” (link)

Adam-H: In some ways it seems to fit with what I’ve read, but I don’t know if I can 100% distinguish it from pacifism, except that the intention behind it is genuinely not about being holier than thou and grabbing onto a principle, more just about choosing to live in an easier and simpler way for the inherent value of that.

Ah, feeling good come what may, to have fun, to enjoy life and being benevolent and considerate is not pacifism – the doctrine of non-violence. With your adult sensibilities you can easily distinguish between the two very distinct categories. Here are just three examples of Richard’s catalogued quotes re pacifism and you will see that pacifism has nothing at all to do with being benevolent, sincere and naïve. On the contrary, pacifism is to suppress one’s aggression and turn them into pacifistic submission –

Richard: 5. Whenever someone attacks me I always have the option to defend myself if the situation warrants such a course of action … there is no ‘turning the other cheek’ pacifism, defeatism, fatalism or martyrdom operating in this flesh and blood body (…) Have you ever noticed that it is bodiless entities that propagate the ‘do not defend yourself’ dictum? (Richard, AF List, No. 15, #pacifism)

13. If one were to be devious enough to be a pacifist, then all of the pre-conceived truths – the beliefs which come with being a pacifist – dictate one’s course of action and not the facts of the situation themselves. Thus one never meets each situation fresh … which is pretty silly seeing that each situation is novel. (Richard, List C, No. 4b, #pacifist)

27. Put simply: it is not violence per se (as in physical force/restraint) or the potential for violence which is the problem: it is ‘me’, as the emotions and passions, fuelling the violence, or fuelling the potential for violence, who begets all the misery and mayhem. (Richard, AF List, No. 98, #pacifism)

Adam-H: The fear that prevents me from committing to it more is that I will be left defenseless, which is nothing new. I think what’s strange to me is that I’m waiting for some ‘final’ insight that shows me very clearly how this naiveté does not actually leave me defenseless before I commit. Perhaps that insight is something that is only gained from practical experience with being that way and is not something I can really prove to myself ahead of time? Is it just a confidence that builds with experience as opposed to an understanding that I finally ‘work out’? (link)

Yes, confidence comes with practical experience. Waiting for the “final insight” is exactly the opposite of naiveté – to work it all out in your mind beforehand is the very thing preventing it from happening. It is actually fun to dare allowing this “intimate aspect of oneself that is usually kept hidden away for fear of seeming foolish” to come to the fore, this naiveté which allows you to enjoy and appreciate being alive to the extent of living in wide-eyed wonder and amazement, day after day. Then what others think of you is no longer of importance – you no longer have the goal of being an important person who has a certain ‘status’. You are playing a different game altogether – that of having fun and cherishing each moment of being alive whilst being benevolent and considerate towards everyone including yourself.

As for being “defenseless” against physical attacks – once you abandon any notion of having to practice pacifism you can respond as each situation requires, with adult sensibilities. However, if you are concerned about being “defenseless” in the face of taunts, ridicule, injuries to your pride, honour and status, or for sometimes feeling foolish, then Claudiu’s report from January 2025 might give you some clue and encouragement –

Claudiu: The other wondrous recent insight was in seeing how I am actually not ‘special’ in that I am essentially the same as any other feeling-being out there. In terms of what I am at my core. In other words I don’t have to maintain or hold onto or try to prop up any aspect of myself that would set me apart or above anyone else – because I am the same at core! This is something I can’t change – I can only self-immolate to remedy this situation.
This was seen as an immense relief of a huge burden that I no longer have to maintain myself in all these various small ways. In other words I am free to do anything, and anyone is free to say or think or do whatever in response, and none of it matters in terms of me having to prop myself up or defend myself or do anything. Cause I already know I’m not special, there is nothing I can actually defend to change this fact! (link)

As a reminder I leave you with a summary of the process from sincerity to naiveté –

Richard: ‘Perhaps the following summary of the way the actualism method works in practice may be of assistance:

  1. Activate sincerity so as to make possible a pure intent to bring about peace and harmony sooner rather than later.
  2. Set the standard of experiencing, each moment again, as feeling felicitous/ innocuous to whatever degree humanly possible come-what-may.
  3. Where felicity/ innocuity is not occurring find out why not.
  4. Seeing the silliness at having those felicitous/ innocuous feelings be usurped, by either the negative or positive feelings, for whatever reason that might be automatically restores felicity/ innocuity.
  5. Repeated occurrences of the same reason for felicity/ innocuity loss alerts pre-recognition of impending dissipation which enables pre-emption and ensures a more persistent felicity/ innocuity through habituation.
  6. Habitual felicity/ innocuity, and its concomitant enjoyment and appreciation, facilitates naïve sensuosity … a consistent state of wide-eyed wonder, amazement, marvel, and delight.
  7. That naiveté, in conjunction with felicitous/ innocuous sensuosity, 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.
  8. With this intrinsic benignity and benevolence, which has nothing to do with ‘me’ and ‘my’ doings, freely operating one is the experiencing of what is happening … and the magical fairy-tale-like paradise, which this verdant and azure earth actually is, is sweetly apparent in all its scintillating brilliance.
  9. But refrain from possessing it and making it your own … or else ‘twill vanish as softly as it appeared’. [emphasis added]. (Richard, AF List, No. 118, 16 June 2006).

Cheers Vineeto

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A bit of both, and it does seem to work when I actually do it.

In hindsight I think I didn’t describe my quandary very well here. I suppose I can tell that it is not actually pacifism because it’s plainly not a doctrine or moral I’m following. It would be closer to say that my worry was that naivete will have the same effect as pacifism, where I am not able to defend myself. It’s useful to recognize that a sincerely well intentioned and naive person will be motivated to take action appropriate to the circumstances, even if that means defending themself.

This is very helpful, I can see that part of me has been waiting for that final insight for a long time. The other part of me cares enough to just risk it and go in without fully knowing what the outcome will be.

Thanks, this is indeed an interesting point! It helps to remember that the self I’m defending is essentially the same as any other ‘self’.

Anyways, I think the way forward seems pretty clear! Continue to cultivate sincerity and naivete, and the confidence that I can function, defend myself, and do everything I need to do will keep growing. It seems like if I my aim is sufficiently pure then it doesn’t really conflict with anything of genuine value.

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Hi Adam,

Your “quandary” does not make sense to me in light of what you said above, that being “sincerely well-intentioned” “does seem to work when I actually do it”. It more looks like a worry which does have no leg to stand on. Is there perhaps still a smidgen of some pacifistic moral or principle prescribing you should not defend yourself when you are naïve?

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Vineeto: Yes, confidence comes with practical experience. Waiting for the “final insight” is exactly the opposite of naiveté – to work it all out in your mind beforehand is the very thing preventing it from happening.

Adam-H: This is very helpful, I can see that part of me has been waiting for that final insight for a long time. The other part of me cares enough to just risk it and go in without fully knowing what the outcome will be.

Excellent. As you previously said –

Adam: *It’s also clear to me how being my own best friend was missing.
It’s interesting that being your own best friend sort of has two meanings:

  1. don’t be hard on yourself for your mistakes
  2. actually want what’s best for yourself, meaning you won’t let yourself ruin your own day (8 Jan 2026)*

Which means when you “actually want what’s best for yourself”, you care “enough to just risk it”. Change can only happen when you allow it to occur.

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Vineeto: As for being “defenseless” against physical attacks – once you abandon any notion of having to practice pacifism you can respond as each situation requires, with adult sensibilities. However, if you are concerned about being “defenseless” in the face of taunts, ridicule, injuries to your pride, honour and status, or for sometimes feeling foolish, then Claudiu’s report from January 2025 might give you some clue and encouragement –

Claudiu: The other wondrous recent insight was in seeing how I am actually not ‘special’ in that I am essentially the same as any other feeling-being out there. In terms of what I am at my core. In other words I don’t have to maintain or hold onto or try to prop up any aspect of myself that would set me apart or above anyone else – because I am the same at core! This is something I can’t change – I can only self-immolate to remedy this situation.
This was seen as an immense relief of a huge burden that I no longer have to maintain myself in all these various small ways. In other words I am free to do anything, and anyone is free to say or think or do whatever in response, and none of it matters in terms of me having to prop myself up or defend myself or do anything. Cause I already know I’m not special, there is nothing I can actually defend to change this fact! (link)

Adam-H: Thanks, this is indeed an interesting point! It helps to remember that the self I’m defending is essentially the same as any other ‘self’.

Indeed – it also means the very same emotions and passions which motivate the other to behave in a way that you feel threatened (defenseless) are the same emotions and passions which you are defending. So when you feel defenseless, first get back to feeling good. Then there may well be nothing to defend and nothing to hide. As such every situation where you feel threatened (emotionally/ psychically) is an opportunity to explore ‘me’, or which aspect of ‘you’ you are defending/ hiding.

It’s a sometimes challenging but altogether fascinating and fun process.

Adam-H: Anyways, I think the way forward seems pretty clear! Continue to cultivate sincerity and naiveté, and the confidence that I can function, defend myself, and do everything I need to do will keep growing. It seems like if I my aim is sufficiently pure then it doesn’t really conflict with anything of genuine value. (link)

When you feel like a benevolent big kid having fun you are on the right track –

Richard to Syd: … this naïve boy from the farm writing all these millions of words, this big kid with adult sensibilities tapping with two fingers at this keyboard, is perpetually aged circa 14 years (à la the ‘Peter Pan’ chronicles for example) until physical death. (Richard, List D, Syd, 31 Dec 2009)
Respondent: It’s as if you are reading my mind … I was going to type something very similar, you beat me to it!
Richard: G’day No. 7, Aha … somebody finally understands!
You know, I have been telling this to people for years but to no avail … for a recent instance:
• [Richard]: ‘ ( … ) around the time of puberty onwards, adolescents become increasingly serious and childhood fun gives way to societally-inculcated obligations and responsibility.
As these are embedded into an instinctually affective programme (I have seen many a frisky lamb turn into a sedate sheep, and frolicsome calves into sombre cattle, as maturity takes its toll) they turn into having the appearance of being innate … when they are not.
Life here in this actual world – the world of sensuous delight – is akin to being a child again but with the undeniable advantage of adult sensibilities; when the occasion calls for it I can adopt a suitably solemn expression, nod sagely as appropriate, and get away with being just a big kid having a ball in the otherwise grim and glum land of the grown-ups; indeed, I can even tell them how much fun I am having – that I am just a big kid – and yet they are so serious they assume me to be making some kind of obscure or idiosyncratic joke’. (Richard, List D, No. 6, 14 Dec 2009)
(Richard, List D, No. 7, 5 Jan 2010)

Cheers Vineeto

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It doesnt make sense to me either anymore, I was trying to ‘resurrect’ that worry to see if there was anything left, but it seems very insubstantial now. It’s becoming clearer that when my intentions are genuinely good, i take actions appropriate to the circumstances, and at least for now it all seems very simple.

Very much appreciating these two quotes right now:

and this one:

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It’s never felt more possible than it does right now. Sincerity is the key to naivete - when I am sincerely benign, the need to control myself fades away. Without the pressure to control myself, life is an easy and fun affair.

When I lose it, all I need is to reestablish the intent to be happy and harmless in the world as it is with people as they are. Establishing that intent at the most heartfelt sincere level leads directly back to being carefree. No matter what challenges I’m facing, I know that I will do my best if my intent and sincerity is at its best, so once I’m at that point there’s no need to worry.

I think what would have gotten me here sooner was to focus more on harmlessness and sincerity as their own reward. Happiness can be seen as something that happens to me. Harmless intentions are more clearly coming from me, how I am disposed towards the universe.

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Adam-H: It’s never felt more possible than it does right now. Sincerity is the key to naiveté – when I am sincerely benign, the need to control myself fades away. Without the pressure to control myself, life is an easy and fun affair.
When I lose it, all I need is to reestablish the intent to be happy and harmless in the world as it is with people as they are. Establishing that intent at the most heartfelt sincere level leads directly back to being carefree. No matter what challenges I’m facing, I know that I will do my best if my intent and sincerity is at its best, so once I’m at that point there’s no need to worry.

Hi Adam,

It seems you have lost/ overcome your various worries about being naïve and are discovering how easy it is to live naïvely (being “sincerely benign’). In hindsight, it’s such an easy thing to do and yet all the dire warnings of the serious sophisticates make it out to be something dangerous, ridiculous or even contemptible. They say: “Don’t have too much fun, it’s bad for you”.

Adam-H: I think what would have gotten me here sooner was to focus more on harmlessness and sincerity as their own reward.

In actualism, being happy and harmless are two aspects of the same condition – you cannot be happy unless you are also harmless and you cannot be genuinely harmless unless you are also happy.

Richard: “(…) it may be worthwhile bearing in mind that it is impossible to be happy (be happy as in being carefree), as distinct from feeling happy, without being harmless (being harmless as in being innocuous), as distinct from feeling harmless, and to be happy *and* harmless is to be unable to induce suffering – etymologically the word ‘harmless’ (harm + less) comes from the Old Norse ‘harmr’ (meaning grief, sorrow) – either in oneself or another”. [emphasis in original]. (Richard, AF List, No. 62, 26 Mar 2004).

I can also recommend Claudiu’s excellent post on harmlessness (link)

Adam-H: Happiness can be seen as something that happens to me.

Happiness can only “be seen as something that happens to me” when you are solely focussing on a conditional happiness, which is dependent on certain events and circumstances, whereas you have the option of feeling good, each moment again, delighting in the awareness of being alive in this very moment, which is unconditional.

So when you aim to feel good and enjoy and appreciate this moment of being alive you don’t go around looking for ‘happy circumstances that might happen to you’, you aim to enjoy each moment of being alive, whilst looking at and removing the obstacles that prevent you from feeling good.

Richard: A caused, or conditional, enjoyment and appreciation has a beginning and an end – it is dependent upon situations and circumstances – whereas an uncaused, or unconditional, enjoyment and appreciation is perpetual, aeonian (beginningless and endless) and occurs solely by virtue of being vitally alive – being dynamically here at this particular place in infinite space at this very moment in eternal time as a sensuous, reflective flesh-and-blood body only – and thus dependent upon no one, no thing, and no event. (…). Doing something pleasant/ beneficial – or something pleasurable/ beneficent happening – is a bonus on top of the sheer delight of being alive/ being here. (Richard, List D, Srinath, 5 Jan 2014).

Adam-H: Harmless intentions are more clearly coming from me, how I am disposed towards the universe. (link)

I understand why you make this distinction but when you understand that being happy and being harmless is one and the same condition then many of your prior concerns regarding pacificism, putting the other before oneself or similar moral connotations fall by the wayside. When you are happy in an unconditional way – because you have dealt with the obstacles to being happy – you are automatically harmless, and should you feel not harmless you can equally explore why not and deal with the cause right then and there. In that way your “harmless intentions” can never develop into a moral/ moralistic principle.

Cheers Vineeto

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Yes, it’s fascinating to think about how myself and the other ‘serious sophisticates’ tick. Why would we choose to experience life in such a serious way? It feels like at least partly it is a way to ‘get back at’ life or people. Like I am unwilling to improve things if it has to be me changing, because why should I have to change when others are just as bad or worse? Or why should I enjoy things as they are when they could be better?

I think for me personally, I understood these things at an intellectual level all along, but I still mixed up what I was aiming at when it came to happiness a bit more than harmlessness. It wasn’t as blatant as looking for happy circumstances. More like ‘if I follow the actualism steps then I will be happy’. Something between enjoying and appreciating life here and now and chasing happy external circumstances.

I think this is a good point, and it could be easy to mistake what harmlessness is about in subtle ways similar to how I would sometimes misunderstand what happiness is about… so looking for that feeling/attitude which is both at once is key.

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Hi Adam,

Are your questions purely rhetorical, voicing the attitude of “serious sophisticates” or do you share that sentiment that “why should I have to change when others are just as bad or worse?”, for instance, or “I am unwilling to improve things if it has to be me changing”?

Just in case you have any remnants of resistance to unilaterally change, for your own benefit (and simultaneously others’ benefit), Andrew’s experiential insight can give you confirmation that it’s worthwhile doing so –

Andrew: … I have no one else to blame except my feeling reality … (link)

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Vineeto: In actualism, being happy and harmless are two aspects of the same condition – you cannot be happy unless you are also harmless and you cannot be genuinely harmless unless you are also happy.

Vineeto: Happiness can only “be seen as something that happens to me” when you are solely focussing on a conditional happiness, which is dependent on certain events and circumstances, whereas you have the option of feeling good, each moment again, delighting in the awareness of being alive in this very moment, which is unconditional.

Adam-H: I think for me personally, I understood these things at an intellectual level all along, but I still mixed up what I was aiming at when it came to happiness a bit more than harmlessness. It wasn’t as blatant as looking for happy circumstances. More like ‘if I follow the actualism steps then I will be happy’. Something between enjoying and appreciating life here and now and chasing happy external circumstances.

You seem now to have gained a more experiential understanding because yesterday you said –

Adam-H: It’s never felt more possible than it does right now. Sincerity is the key to naivete – when I am sincerely benign, the need to control myself fades away. Without the pressure to control myself, life is an easy and fun affair. (link)

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Vineeto: I understand why you make this distinction but when you understand that being happy and being harmless is one and the same condition then many of your prior concerns regarding pacificism, putting the other before oneself or similar moral connotations fall by the wayside. When you are happy in an unconditional way – because you have dealt with the obstacles to being happy – you are automatically harmless, and should you feel not harmless you can equally explore why not and deal with the cause right then and there. In that way your “harmless intentions” can never develop into a moral/ moralistic principle.

Adam-H: I think this is a good point, and it could be easy to mistake what harmlessness is about in subtle ways similar to how I would sometimes misunderstand what happiness is about… so looking for that feeling/ attitude which is both at once is key. (link)

Yes, whilst you aim to be feeling good, i.e. maximise the felicitous and innocuous feelings, the actualism tools to reach your aim are to facilitate removing the obstacles that are in the way of feeling good. Once the obstacle (either a ‘good’ or bad feeling or an insalubrious belief or habit) is removed you are automatically back to feeling good.

In other words, you don’t have to create feeling happy or feeling harmless – it happens when you remove what is preventing you from feeling happy and harmless.

Richard: Purity is an actual condition, intrinsic to the perfection of the infinitude of this universe … the only one we have. A human being can tap into this purity by pure intent. Pure intent can be activated with sincere attention paid to the state of naiveté. To be naive is to be virginal, unaffected, unselfconsciously artless – in short: ingenuous. Naiveté is a much-maligned word, having the common assumption that it implies gullibility. Nevertheless, to be naive means to be simple and unsophisticated. Pride is derived from an intellect inured to naive innocence; to such an intellect, to be guileless appears to be gullible, stupid. In actuality, one has to be gullible to be sophisticated, to be wise in the ways of the real world. The ‘worldly-wise’ realists are not in touch with the purity of innocence; they readily obey the peremptory decrees of the cultured sophisticates. A sample of such decrees are: ‘I didn’t come down in the last shower’, or ‘I wasn’t born yesterday’, or ‘You’ve got to be tough to survive in the real world’, or ‘It’s dog eat dog out there’ … and so on. Such people are said to have ‘lost their innocence’. Human beings have not ‘lost their innocence’ – they never had it in the first place. (Richard, List A, No. 26).

Cheers Vineeto

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