What did Srinath mean in explicit detail by that ‘puzzle piece’ of ‘caring’, if I may ask?
I do remember Richard saying that ‘daring’ and ‘caring’ amounts to the same thing:
RESPONDENT: As you have probably gathered I am currently just fact finding and thoroughly enjoying the Actual Freedom web site without having the ‘pure intent’ or indeed the bravery to literally move down the path to actual freedom.
RICHARD: Ahh … courage (and pusillanimity) is another topic: suffice to say for now that daring comes from caring.
And to dare to care is to care to dare. Selected Correspondence: Altruism
I don’t believe he’s referring to affective caring, although it can be a genesis of it:
JAMES: I see that we’re all in the same boat in that we all share the same human condition at root. However, something is missing in that I don’t care about doing it for everybody. This altruistic instinct sounds a lot like ‘love’. The only time I recall feeling altruistic was when I felt ‘love’ and I know that is not what you are talking about. I have also called it oneness in the past when I experienced that I was one with everyone.
RICHARD: Start with where one is at now (where one is not yet at will emerge of its own accord as one proceeds): as you say ‘I don’t care about doing it for everybody’ – implying that ‘I’ only care about doing it for ‘me’ – then that is where ‘I’ am at now.
Do ‘I’ feel the feeling of caring about doing it for ‘me’ or not?
JAMES: So anyway, you are saying this is done by minimising both the good and bad feelings and maximising the felicitous (happiness, delight, etc.).
RICHARD: That is what one can do in the meanwhile for immediate benefit … it also has the added advantage of preparing the way.
JAMES: I do understand about minimising both the good and bad feelings as I have been down the road of trying to eliminate the bad while maximising the good. It is clear that I can’t have the good without the bad.
RICHARD: Exactly … and thus the way is cleared to be launched upon the adventure of a lifetime.
JAMES: Sorry for all the repetition. I was just trying to get at what’s missing. It is obvious now that what is missing is altruism. You said above that altruism is a group instinct and this instinct is just not activated. I can only see altruism in terms of love and compassion and that is not it.
RICHARD: Indeed not – in this context love and compassion lead to ‘self’-surrender not ‘self’-sacrifice – whereas benevolence is the key to altruistic ‘self’-immolation for the benefit of this body and that body and every body.
And the feeling of caring already mentioned (further above) is the genesis of being benevolent. Selected Correspondence: Altruism