Hi Kuba,
Whenever I read Geoffrey’s report, I understood “my precious” to be what Richard frequently describes as “what ‘I’ hold most dear”, ‘me’ the identity. However, ultimately it does not matter because Richard makes it clear in the quote I sent you 8 days ago –
Richard: As ‘I’ am suffering and suffering is ‘me’ then ‘my’ path is the path of suffering … which is humanity’s path is it not? And, as humanity is suffering and suffering is humanity, is it not equally true that humanity is also addicted to suffering? And further to that point … have you ever noticed that humanity reveres its addiction so much that escape is taboo?
James: Interesting. It does make sense that humanity is addicted to suffering but I am still not sure if it is addiction to suffering or if it is fear of not surviving. The fear of ‘me’ not surviving could be causing the addiction to ‘me’ suffering.
Richard: I should have put scare quotes around the word humanity as the word itself can refer to two different things: in its all-humankind meaning it is a more comprehensive word for what the word group refers to (which ranges through family, band, clan, tribe, race, nation and species) and, just as the group’s survival traditionally takes precedence over an individual’s survival, the group’s fears of not surviving have priority over an individual’s fears of not surviving. When fear comes into the picture, however, the word humanity no longer refers to all people collectively but takes on a life of its own, as it were, and becomes an entity in its own right in the same way ‘I’ am an entity inside the flesh and blood body.
And just as ‘I’ suffer because ‘I’ exist (suffering is ‘my’ very nature) ‘humanity’ suffers because it exists (suffering is very nature of ‘humanity’) and thus a virtue is made out of suffering because the survival of ‘humanity’ is at risk … hence the taboo on escape.
Yet ‘humanity’ has no existence outside of the human psyche. [Emphasis added this time]. (Richard, List B, James 3, 7 Nov 2002).
It is those who were here before you, who instruct and viscerally pass on to every ‘newcomer to this planet’ on what is to be held ‘precious’ but it has its foundation in your, and everyone’s, genetically encoded instinctual passions. Hence it is your very nature to be living, supporting and maintaining that ultimate value.
Kuba: Secondly even for an actualist it seems to be the last bastion where ‘I’ can hide too, well it seems that way for ‘me’ anyways. It’s like along the way I question many things and make many discoveries and then this last one is this question of – could it be that all along it was the ‘good’ which kept the ‘bad’ in place.
It is the last bastion. After you have been looking into – and understanding – all the various aspects of your own psyche which prevent you from actually being here, you finally see and viscerally understand that everyone is living by the same passionate template, that ‘your’ fear, ‘your’ desires, ‘your’ nurture and ‘your aggression is at core the same as everyone else’s. Ultimately, hiding in the “bastion” of ‘humanity’ you are still only holding onto your own precious ‘self’.
“Yet ‘humanity’ has no existence outside of the human psyche”.
Kuba: Then thirdly is the seeing that it is precisely when both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ are abandoned that perfection becomes apparent. Because it is precisely that battle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ which obscures the perfection and purity of this moment in time and this place in space. And then there is seeing the enormity of the ramifications of this, of what it means to abandon both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’, it’s stepping out of ‘humanity’ and proceeding where only pure intent beckons. (link)
Richard says it much better than I ever can – it is one seamless process as ‘you’ and ‘humanity’ are one and the same.
Alan: As you said in one of your posts (approximately), it is an irresistible pull, a momentum and impetus which is not of ‘my’ doing.
Richard: Yes, once altruistically set in motion, a momentum happens of its own accord. One knows, from the perfection of freedom from the human condition as evidenced in the PCE, that it is possible to live the actuality which is already always here.
What ‘I’ do is unreservedly allow ‘my’ eventual demise to occur … pure intent, born out of the connection between one’s inherent naiveté and the perfection of the infinitude of this physical universe, will provide one with the necessary intestinal fortitude.
And once embarked upon the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom, you are not on your own: this perfection is with you all the way … but if you waver, you are indeed doing it on your own …’. [Emphasis added]. (Richard, AF List, Alan-b, 13 Dec 1999).
Cheers Vineeto