Oh I see. My response is that perhaps its a happy medium. I could say that religion accomplished its goal as of 5000 years ago – the Sumerian civilization I understand was wildly successful around ~4000-2000 BCE. And religion maybe started being developed around as far back as 10,000 BCE and maybe more (according to Timeline of religion on wikipedia)
So I could say around 3000 BCE, religion accomplished its goal to form a civilization, and has been past its use-by date since then. Which is about 5000 years ago
Whether it was needed from prehistory up to 3000 BCE we can debate this too haha. But in any case my argument does not hold water for 3000 BCE and on, which seems to be the timeline you’re looking at too
Right, I wonder if it would clarify things further if I switched it from spirituality/religion to enlightenment specifically. It seems people all the way back to the mists of time had some kind of spiritually based belief systems but it is those who went into the delusion of enlightenment and brought back insanity as the basis of ‘normality’ that I am referring to, the Bhudda, Jesus etc.
Many of those men were uneducated and steeped in religious beliefs during a time-period lacking the scientific discoveries we enjoy. It’s possible they had strong religious beliefs in place before their enlightenments, and would have little to no reason to question it if they did not have a memory of the pce.
Richard on the other hand was barely catholic, had access to information, enjoyed more independence, and was reasonably wealthy. He likely had little preconceived ideas to shape his journey - he never even thought to get enlightened or read about it like many of us. It doesn’t seem like he ever considered the idea of escaping or ending the human condition until his 4-hour long PCE experience that kicked everything off. So he just went for that, with little to-no religious baggage or spiritual guidance.
These other men, lived in a time where people could be brutally killed for going against convention. They were likely inundated in religion from a very young age. And it’s possible their enlightenment validates their previous beliefs, even though it may not have turned out to be what they originally expected.
Religions would have existed with or without enlightenment as a means to explain the world. And feeling beings would have fought to protect those beliefs. It’s hard to separate the enlightened men from it as they were influenced by religion and they influenced religion.
I think it’s really a matter of conditions being right at the right time in the right place - and thus it couldn’t have happened any sooner. We’re lucky to be alive right now even with the problems we face.
Richard had such a refreshing attitude towards thought, appreciating it as the useful evolutionary development that it is. Thinking has never been the issue, it’s the beliefs that are a problem and they are made possible by the passions.
I think so too – and wonderful to take advantage of this opportunity!
I remember sitting one day with Richard and Vineeto and Richard was exploring the topic of, why was he the first one? Someone has to be the first, but why him? He had thought of various things that had to be in place for him to be able to be the first one. One of them was Darwin’s theory of evolution, the common knowledge that man evolved from animal, and thus that the instinctual passions we experience are the very same ones that mammals do as well. He indicated he had to have this understanding to be able to succeed in how he did.
There’s probably lots of other stuff like this that we just take for granted as it ‘making sense’, but which would’ve been completely unknown and unknowable to people thousands of years ago.
It is all sort of a moot point as to where we are at now but it is fun to think about!
This is a most extraordinary description of experiences. I can’t make out if you temporarily entered the actual world or are perhaps stuck in the door which should disappear as soon as you fully enter or … or is this possibly a mirage created by a still hesitating but nevertheless cunning identity?
…
Perhaps another question can clarify something – has this “utter fullness” the same flavour as pure intent, “a palpable life-force; an actually occurring stream of benevolence and benignity that originates in the vast and utter stillness that is the essential character of the universe itself”?
I will explain how the experience came about in some more detail. Me and Sonya were watching a zombie movie and I became fascinated by the fact that the world portrayed could never happen in actuality, this was seen with absolute certainty. It could never happen because evil does not exist in actuality, it could never happen because we exist in a beneficent universe. I was reminded of something Geoffrey mentioned in a zoom chat - that if there was a button to end the world and us feeling beings knew this to be so, that not a single one of us would press it. This is because what we are underneath it all is that very benevolence and benignity. So this was the kind of contemplation that set the scene. It was marvelling at the fact that we exist in a beneficent universe which invited this “utter fullness”. There was a sense that actual freedom is not just an alternative but rather it is a guarantee, that since this utter fullness of infinitude is all that actually exist, the “call” will continue to ring and there is only 1 direction ultimately to travel, as Srinath wrote it is impossible to miss as one is aiming for the universe.
So to summarise it was contemplating on the inevitability of this utter fullness sooner or later coming to fruition, because it is all that actually exists.
So it seems to me that pure intent was indeed active in these contemplations. To answer the first question though - “or is this possibly a mirage created by a still hesitating but nevertheless cunning identity?”
I am not sure if I would use the word mirage (as it implies being tricked / doing the tricking) whereas ‘I’ was well aware that ‘I’ was not going to be taken away by this experience. ‘I’ was content to somewhat scout out the territory, the question is why?
A few weeks ago I wrote that it seemed that ‘I’ was indeed about to self-immolate, and it seemed that as it was about to happen ‘I’ jumped with the “too good to be true” and the thing halted right there and then. Something similar would happen over and over before I was able to allow my first PCE as a practicing actualist. I wanted it so bad that ‘I’ built up all these feeling reactions around it, so just as the actual world began to show itself ‘I’ would become so ecstatic that the experience would halt. It makes me think back to being young and eyeing up that pretty girl that I thought I could never approach. I wanted her so bad and yet I knew that the second she speaks to me I would crumble with emotion and get rejected anyways! So in the end I would settle for fantasy and looking from a distance.
This kind of framework set up the parameters of ‘me’ as an identity, that I would want these things so bad and I was indeed willing to do what is required to have those things and yet the second they became an actuality I would be sure to prevent them from happening. It was not for me to live those things after-all, I was to always look from a distance at those other people that were able to somehow not get their own knickers in a twist over everything. Oh the jealousy and self-loathing I experienced at this over the years .
So I was the super high achiever that would nevertheless achieve nothing in the end, it was not for me to live it…
I remember that with the PCE it eventually happened when I stopped making it such a big deal, of course I wanted it but I had to somehow get out of my own way and allow it.
And so this is what I was trying to do with those experiences. There was the memory that the last time I became ecstatic the potential for self-immolation halted, so this time I was trying to “just chill out”, to not move in either direction and instead simply allow this experience for what it is, without jumping in either direction.
It seems I am the most cowardly pioneer of them all, or rather a self-sabotaging pioneer. This is what I always found so outstanding reading Richard’s words, how he was able to proceed on his own into the unknown, I am the complete opposite of that. And yet I want to find a way to do it, it seems ‘I’ need to work with what ‘I’ have at hand. ‘I’ need to find a way to stop self-sabotaging.
And so I have been trying to shift things towards being an “of course”, that it is no “big deal” (in that emotional self sabotaging way) that it is for me to live it after-all.
I think maybe I will end it here for now before commenting on your other questions so it doesn’t get too messy.
oh I will just add :
Yes so this seeing of the utter fullness happened twice that day, 1 shortly following after the other.
Reading my reply above I see why I have been so busy with writing, why I could gladly talk with a sincere actualist until the cows come home. Why I wanted to offer up any morsel of insight for others too. Because I know what it is like to want something so bad and yet to be trapped in a self created prison. Maybe I can altruistically do it for myself, I think I do need a break
Richard: I was therefore commenting that (in this specific instance) India’s paramount contribution to the retardation of evolution over the last 3,000 to 5,000 years (in that after maybe the millions of years of evolution necessary to evolve thought, thoughts and thinking (intelligence) in one animal species alone, the Masters and the Gurus and the Avatars and all the God-Men would have us value being thoughtless and mindless as if that is the highest virtue one can aspire to) is part of the mosaic of the evolutionary process and would soon become superseded when a mutation more fitted for survival takes precedence over such fantasy. [emphasis added] (Richard, List B, No. 33b, 29 Nov 1999).
Kuba: There is no reason why those holy men could not have gone all the way, instead they became enlightened and brought insanity back with them. (link)
Ed: Many of those men were uneducated and steeped in religious beliefs during a time-period lacking the scientific discoveries we enjoy. It’s possible they had strong religious beliefs in place before their enlightenments, and would have little to no reason to question it if they did not have a memory of the PCE.
Richard on the other hand was barely catholic, had access to information, enjoyed more independence, and was reasonably wealthy. He likely had little preconceived ideas to shape his journey – he never even thought to get enlightened or read about it like many of us. It doesn’t seem like he ever considered the idea of escaping or ending the human condition until his 4-hour long PCE experience that kicked everything off. So he just went for that, with little to-no religious baggage or spiritual guidance.
These other men, lived in a time where people could be brutally killed for going against convention. They were likely inundated in religion from a very young age. And it’s possible their enlightenment validates their previous beliefs, even though it may not have turned out to be what they originally expected.
Religions would have existed with or without enlightenment as a means to explain the world. And feeling beings would have fought to protect those beliefs. It’s hard to separate the enlightened men from it as they were influenced by religion and they influenced religion. (link)
Hi Ed,
You gave an exonerative speech why nobody before Richard could have discovered an actual freedom but your facts are incorrect.
For instance, Richard was not“reasonably wealthy” – he had to work hard for his living, including from early childhood.
Richard: Having been born and raised on a dairy farm in the south-west of this country I have an affinity for the remote lifestyle (my progenitors were pioneer settlers carving a farm by hand out of virgin forest and sowing grasslands for animal husbandry). In this context I had a normal birth and upbringing (a bucolic lifestyle); I was educated in a normal state-run rural school (where being dux of the class came easy); I took on a typical occupation at age fifteen (full-time farming) becoming a high-school dropout in the process; I volunteered for a six-year stint in the military at seventeen (in a water-transport unit); I served my time in an overseas war at nineteen (on an army landing ship); I entered into a commonplace marriage upon my return (a knobstick wedding); I had a regular family, just as most peoples do, and, although I had about forty-to-fifty different jobs during my post-military itinerant-lifestyle working life – such as First Mate on an Arnhem Land landing craft, for instance, and as barman-cum-deckhand on a Coral Coast tourist ship, for example – my main occupation, having obtained a tertiary education with certified accreditation in the fine arts in my late-twenties, was as a part-time art teacher and a practicing artist (mainly in ceramics).
As both a boy and as a youth I personally used hand-held cross-cut saws and axes to help cut down and/or ring-bark the trees to make pasture land; I was involved in the fencing and ploughing and sowing and harvesting; I hunted game in the forest and helped raise domesticated animals; I tended the gardens and orchards and crops; I assisted in building sheds (barns) and outhouses from forest timber and learned improvisation from the ingenuity required in ‘making do’ with minimal commercial supplies. There was no plumbing, sewage, telephone, or electricity umbilicals (in effect, living the ‘off-grid’ lifestyle some forty years before the term was coined) – I went to bed with a candle and to the outdoor latrine with a kerosene lantern – thus no freezer, no electric kitchen gadgets, no record players, no videos, no television, no computer, and etcetera. (Richard, Personal Web Page)
He also had to work up to 12-14 hrs a day 6-7 days a week to support a family of six –
Richard: I gradually transformed myself from an itinerant worker (I worked at maybe 40-50 different jobs during my peregrinations) into a full-blown artist by enrolling at an art-college, full-time for three years, and practising same 12-14 hours a day 6-7 days a week, in the years after graduating, so as to support and provide for five other peoples as well as myself. (Richard, AF List, No. 25j, 7 May 2006).
After he became enlightened, he was even less “reasonably wealthy” to the point where he had “whittled my worldly possessions down to three sarongs, three shirts, a cooking pot and bowl, a knife and a spoon, a bank book and a pair of nail scissors. I possessed nothing else anywhere in the world and cut all family ties. During that period I was homeless, itinerant, celibate, vegan, (no spices; not even salt and pepper), no drugs (no tobacco, no alcohol; not even tea or coffee), no hair cut, no shaving, no washing other than a dip in a river or the ocean … in short: whatever I could eliminate from my life that was an encumbrance and an attachment, I had let go of. ” (Richard, List B, No. 21b, 23 March 2000)
Richard always maintained the Saints and Seers and Holy Men had ‘Feet of Clay’ ([link](Abditorium F of Clay)) because just like Richard they would be well aware at some instances of their enlightened state that there was a flaw, in that they experienced occasional bouts of anger or sadness, and furthermore that enlightenment was only a ‘perfect’ solution after death and therefore useless to every single human being still living. As Richard reported that everyone he spoke to at length could remember a PCE, often from childhood, your absolvitory argument falls flat on its face on that account as well. And as for certain recent discoveries, at least the enlightened masters of the last century since Darwin could have made use of this knowledge.
In, short, it was not the extraneous circumstances, which enabled Richard to go all the way, no matter the difficulties involved, but ‘his’ personal mettle. Additionally ‘he’ had the plain common sense not to fall for the fallacy, which “would have us value being thoughtless and mindless as if that is the highest virtue one can aspire to”. After all, it was the mailing list established to discuss Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Teaching on which he wrote the above paragraph. This attitude of disparaging thought and thus human intelligence, and not religion in general, is what made India stand out in its “paramount contribution to the retardation of evolution”.
Why are you so eager to exonerate the enlightened masters and the ancient wisdom they peddled for 3000-5000 years of human history, and why you even try to argue that only Richard’s circumstances were propitious enough, of the 12-15 billion people who have lived until now and/or are alive now, that he was the only person to be not “influenced by religion”?
I just want to have it on record that it’s not extraneous circumstances, with all the modern technology thrown in for good measure, which allow a person today to become free from the human condition. Something else is required.
Vineeto: This is a most extraordinary description of experiences. I can’t make out if you temporarily entered the actual world or are perhaps stuck in the door which should disappear as soon as you fully enter or … or is this possibly a mirage created by a still hesitating but nevertheless cunning identity?
Vineeto: Perhaps another question can clarify something – has this “utter fullness” the same flavour as pure intent, “a palpable life-force; an actually occurring stream of benevolence and benignity that originates in the vast and utter stillness that is the essential character of the universe itself”?
Kuba: I will explain how the experience came about in some more detail. Me and Sonya were watching a zombie movie and I became fascinated by the fact that the world portrayed could never happen in actuality, this was seen with absolute certainty. It could never happen because evil does not exist in actuality, it could never happen because we exist in a beneficent universe. I was reminded of something Geoffrey mentioned in a zoom chat – that if there was a button to end the world and us feeling beings knew this to be so, that not a single one of us would press it. This is because what we are underneath it all is that very benevolence and benignity. So this was the kind of contemplation that set the scene. It was marvelling at the fact that we exist in a beneficent universe which invited this “utter fullness”. There was a sense that actual freedom is not just an alternative but rather it is a guarantee, that since this utter fullness of infinitude is all that actually exist, the “call” will continue to ring and there is only 1 direction ultimately to travel, as Srinath wrote it is impossible to miss as one is aiming for the universe.
So to summarise it was contemplating on the inevitability of this utter fullness sooner or later coming to fruition, because it is all that actually exists.
Hi Kuba,
Thank you for your exploration and confirming that pure intent was present. I see that my guesses were all off the mark.
Kuba: So it seems to me that pure intent was indeed active in these contemplations. To answer the first question though – “or is this possibly a mirage created by a still hesitating but nevertheless cunning identity?”
I am not sure if I would use the word mirage (as it implies being tricked / doing the tricking) whereas ‘I’ was well aware that ‘I’ was not going to be taken away by this experience. ‘I’ was content to somewhat scout out the territory, the question is why?
Ah, that explains why you didn’t walk “through that door” – hence it would better be called an ‘exploratory’ excellence experience?
Kuba: A few weeks ago I wrote that it seemed that ‘I’ was indeed about to self-immolate, and it seemed that as it was about to happen ‘I’ jumped with the “too good to be true” and the thing halted right there and then. Something similar would happen over and over before I was able to allow my first PCE as a practicing actualist. I wanted it so bad that ‘I’ built up all these feeling reactions around it, so just as the actual world began to show itself ‘I’ would become so ecstatic that the experience would halt. It makes me think back to being young and eyeing up that pretty girl that I thought I could never approach. I wanted her so bad and yet I knew that the second she speaks to me I would crumble with emotion and get rejected anyways! So in the end I would settle for fantasy and looking from a distance.
This kind of framework set up the parameters of ‘me’ as an identity, that I would want these things so bad and I was indeed willing to do what is required to have those things and yet the second they became an actuality I would be sure to prevent them from happening. It was not for me to live those things after-all, I was to always look from a distance at those other people that were able to somehow not get their own knickers in a twist over everything. Oh the jealousy and self-loathing I experienced at this over the years .
So I was the super high achiever that would nevertheless achieve nothing in the end, it was not for me to live it…
It reminds me of the story of Moses from the Old Testament, being shown the Promised Land of his god but not allowed to enter because of his sins. And there are some who still follow this ancient wisdom!
I understand the history of your (emotional) objection, neatly fitting not only into the ancient (atavistic) pattern of ‘not being good enough’ as well as ‘you should not desire’ of Buddhistic lore and legend. Perhaps, you can now see that your ‘reasoning’ is all upside down – it is simply an ancient conditioning and therefore habitual expectation of failure being part and parcel of ‘your’ being.
The flaw in your (emotionally-guided) comparison is that an actual freedom is your birthright – your flesh-and-blood body is already in the actual world. How can you ever be rejected once having become free from the identity in toto? Gee, what a cunning trick to ‘blame the universe’ for possibly not ‘admitting’ when it’s the identity who throws the spanner in the works! It must be the identity doing such confusingly flawed sophistry.
Kuba: I remember that with the PCE it eventually happened when I stopped making it such a big deal, of course I wanted it but I had to somehow get out of my own way and allow it.
Ah, so you retained your expectation and found a way around it. Now that you understand you can drop this expectation of failure itself. It is ‘me’ who fails because ‘I’/‘me’ and the actual world are incompatible/ mutually exclusive.
Kuba: And so this is what I was trying to do with those experiences. There was the memory that the last time I became ecstatic the potential for self-immolation halted, so this time I was trying to “just chill out”, to not move in either direction and instead simply allow this experience for what it is, without jumping in either direction.
It seems I am the most cowardly pioneer of them all, or rather a self-sabotaging pioneer. This is what I always found so outstanding reading Richard’s words, how he was able to proceed on his own into the unknown, I am the complete opposite of that. And yet I want to find a way to do it, it seems ‘I’ need to work with what ‘I’ have at hand. ‘I’ need to find a way to stop self-sabotaging.
Self-sabotaging is part of ‘your’ survival repertoire, it is the very nature of ‘me’ to sabotage ‘my’ extinction. So rather than beating yourself up as in “I am the most cowardly pioneer of them all” you can pat yourself on the back for having discovered yet another ruse and found it redundant in the face of pure intent. The only way to “stop self-sabotaging” is to get the full agreement of ‘me’ for ‘my’ demise. Only (biological) altruism can overcome selfism.
Kuba: And so I have been trying to shift things towards being an “of course”, that it is no “big deal” (in that emotional self-sabotaging way) that it is for me to live it after-all.
It is a “big deal” and, once having gained permission from ‘your sabotaging self’, you can stand by it with confidence – it is your very destiny. Only 2 handful of people have done the “big deal” so far.
Kuba: I think maybe I will end it here for now before commenting on your other questions so it doesn’t get too messy, oh I will just add:
Vineeto: And you say “those experiences” (plural). I can’t make sense of it.
Kuba: Yes so this seeing of the utter fullness happened twice that day, 1 shortly following after the other. (link)
Ok, it took two instances of testing the ground – third time bull’s eye?
But remember ‘you’ cannot trick ‘yourself’ – it needs the full sincere agreement from ‘you’. As I am want to say “all of you have to be on board.”
I was wondering re-reading what Richard wrote if that was specifically targeted at Indian-rooted religions.
By comparison, Christianity, although it has its fair share of anti-thought history like the Church deeming heliocentrism to be heretical and banning all Copernican books when presented with clear evidence that geocentrism was false [L], did nevertheless later provide an environment wherein more intellectually-inclined believers could conceptualize the world as created by the rational mind of God, and therefore could see rationally understanding the world as being praising of God’s creation, which allowed them to experiment and eventually develop a system of finding things out about the world that later became formalized as the scientific method – the benefits of which have been innumerable, including of course leading to Darwin developing his theory of evolution, but more saliently so in enabling the vast increase in the health, wealth, and prosperity of humanity that has been seen due to the advent of the industrial revolution and capitalism (which contrary to some modern beliefs has the function of vastly reducing poverty, not of generating it).
Although all worldviews, belief systems, viewpoints, narratives, etc., are feeling-fueled and thus miss the point as they are all entirely redundant and inherently flawed, nevertheless some are more propitious than others.
(Lest this be taken as some defense of Christianity, it should be noted that, for example, America was founded by Christians who happened to believe in a slightly different flavor of Christianity than the ruling powers at the time, and were thus fleeing persecution and death, which directly led them to make the sensible decision to explicitly separate church from state, which separation has evidently been immensely beneficial for the well-being of the citizens therein.)
I see it like this:
when human ancestors hadn’t evolved sufficient intelligence yet, the instinctual passions were more propitious than not, as it enabled them to survive and reproduce. Some passions were more propitious than others, with the ones not conducive to survival at all having been evolved away (e.g. an excessive suicidal instinct with no herd-benefit would quite naturally fail to propagate)
after evolving the basic passions, further evolution bore out that for example tribalism in human ancestors was better than not being tribal, these organisms survived better. This is evident in wolves too so we are not yet even at the point of cognition
as cognition started to develop but was inchoate, and it was not possible yet to fully make sense of the world with sensible thinking, beliefs evolved, the tribes that had certain beliefs survived better than those that didn’t have beliefs at all (at that point).
there was a memetic selection of which beliefs were most effective, this where you end up having religions and such, again with some being more beneficial than others
all the above followed patterns of “mosaic evolution” with e.g. Indian religions retarding the process more than Western religions
nevertheless at some point in the past, perhaps centuries perhaps millennia, humans had evolved everything they would need to be able to become actually free – at which point it was definitively the case that all the above (ie instinctual passions, tribalism, beliefs) were not only redundant but actively harmful as compared to what was now possible
and from that point of it being possible, to the next few centuries or millennia, it took a very special (as in extraordinary) naive boy from the farm to be naive enough to see that it is possible and then go and actually have the mettle to go all the way and actually do it, for the benefit of every body
the good news for us is since he did it, a handful more have succeeded in only a few decades (compared to the centuries/millennia needed for the first to have done it), and the way is clearer and more well-laid out than ever… so really no excuse not to do it now I include myself in this lol
To have a home, the mortgages, the cars, the kids - all require a certain amount of wealth. Education, access to information, also require wealth. To be able to travel to other countries for extended periods of time, or to be able to forgo all worldly possessions and still land on one’s feet requires wealth.
By western standards Richard would be considered poor, but he had access to resources that people in the past and other parts of the world do not. I believe these resources were useful to his journey as well as spreading what he discovered to other people - - making now the perfect time for Actualism to succeed.
I think it’s an assumption to think I’m eager to exonerate the enlightened masters.
There are plenty of other people who enjoy Richard’s propitious circumstances - likely all of us on the forum do. We have even less excuses than the enlightened masters of history as circumstances are such that we now have a guide.
A man of ancient history has much less than we do but it doesn’t give their ‘wisdom’ a free pass from scrutiny. There’s no eagerness here to exonerate them. And the gurus of recent history certainly deserve even more criticism both due to scientific discoveries and due to the fact that there is more recorded history available to be examined.
I appreciate you going on record to clarify that it’s not extraneous circumstances which allowed Richard to become actually free in case someone else might be confused. I don’t want my comments on circumstances to appear reductionist.
Vineeto: I just want to have it on record that it’s not extraneous circumstances, with all the modern technology thrown in for good measure, which allow a person today to become free from the human condition. Something else is required. (link)
Ed: I appreciate you going on record to clarify that it’s not extraneous circumstances which allowed Richard to become actually free in case someone else might be confused. I don’t want my comments on circumstances to appear reductionist. (link)
Hi Ed,
Thank you Ed.
What I appreciate about Richard’s original quote (link) is that it emphasized the wide-spread presence of the teachings and ramifications of enlightenment having been the summum bonum for millennia. Out of this arose the morals and ethics, many of which still hold sway world-wide. Love/ Divine Love, and compassion/ Divine Compassions were not just mere ‘human’ values to choose or not to choose but inherent features of the human condition itself and as such almost universally valued. That means, if one goes far enough into the ‘good’ feelings then one automatically transfigures malice and sorrow into Love and Compassion, i.e. enlightenment. Hence it took Richard 11 years to investigate the powerful ‘holy cows’ of those highly passionate feelings of Divine Compassion, Love Agape, pacifism, Beauty and timelessness (link) until he finally arrived at the actuality which had been revealed in his pure consciousness experiences.
As Kuba said:
I remember when I first read Richard’s journal I wondered why he wrote so much about spirituality, of course it was a huge aspect of his dissolving of the enlightened state but initially I thought it does not apply to me. But it is clearer and clearer now just what role it played in the current state of affairs and just how deeply it runs. That the very parameters of reality were set up by those enlightened beings, the ‘wisdom’ they brought back was rooted in hallucination. Human kind has since been refining those truths into various belief systems, trying to refine that which has its roots in madness, so of course ‘humanity’ is well and truly lost, it cannot be fixed.
Wow it is really something, it must have been the most peculiar (this is way too lukewarm of a word actually) experience for Richard when he dissolved the entire psyche. He would have lived as the only person existing outside of the sanity/ insanity spectrum which itself is based in madness. He was a classified madman and yet what exactly was the rest of the population living? (link)
These divine feelings being inherent in the human condition is the reason why feeling beings ‘Vineeto’ and ‘Peter’ were well aware and weary of the ‘Rock of Enlightenment’ during their actualism period, before a direct route was established when they became actually free. It was indeed an “epoch-changing event”. (link)
I like what Claudiu wrote to Andrew –
Claudiu: You will really have to uncover the naiveté you have buried under all this cynicism and recognize just what a wonderous, unique, and fleeting opportunity we are all presented with. The universe in no way will guarantee that the world will become actually free – we are among the most well-positioned humans on the planet to be able to do everything we can to have it happen. (link)
Possibly fleeting, depending on how many daring pioneers take up the challenge and pass on reports of their success.
It is a weird one because experiencing that “utter fullness” of infinitude the other day it was like a 100% guarantee, there is actually no other way to travel other than into illusion/delusion. It is more a case of sooner rather than later - just like those enlightened masters ensured a continuation of suffering for 3000-5000 years because they did not dare proceed all the way - if no further pioneers take action now it could be another thousands of years before the human condition comes to an end.
So it’s like the universe ultimately does not care, that utter fullness of infinitude is already always here, it doesn’t have to do anything extra because it’s already complete. Indeed it has all the time in the universe, it is human beings that are only alive for a limited time, so indeed it is doing it for this body, that body and everybody, as in why allow suffering to continue for even another day.
Yesterday something changed in how ‘I’ see ‘myself’, because those experiences a while ago where ‘I’ was seen to be merely a feeling were useful and yet as Richard wrote one does not go about eliminating feelings in order to eliminate the ‘self’, this is the wrong order of operations. Yesterday I was contemplating all this business with enlightenment and I could see that what ‘I’ am as ‘self’ is like an ancient imprint, this sense of ‘self’ is merely a feeling and yet it takes something away to treat it as a feeling only. ‘I’ am this imprint that feelings swirl around to form, a ‘structure’ that has absolutely no substance, an intuited ‘presence’.
The thing is that no matter how much ‘I’ try to get rid of ‘my’ feelings this ‘intuited structure’ remains, this is ‘me’ as ‘self’.
It is the ‘self’ that has to disappear, then there will be no passions, it cannot work the other way around, so indeed it has to be self-immolation. I could see yesterday that this ‘intuited presence’ will forever get in the way between me and others, there is no other way to ensure peace on earth other than by eliminating ‘me’ as ‘self’.
Claudiu: You will really have to uncover the naiveté you have buried under all this cynicism and recognize just what a wonderous, unique, and fleeting opportunity we are all presented with. The universe in no way will guarantee that the world will become actually free – we are among the most well-positioned humans on the planet to be able to do everything we can to have it happen. (link)
Vineeto: Possibly fleeting, depending on how many daring pioneers take up the challenge and pass on reports of their success.
Kuba: It is a weird one because experiencing that “utter fullness” of infinitude the other day it was like a 100% guarantee, there is actually no other way to travel other than into illusion/ delusion. It is more a case of sooner rather than later – just like those enlightened masters ensured a continuation of suffering for 3000-5000 years because they did not dare proceed all the way – if no further pioneers take action now it could be another thousands of years before the human condition comes to an end.
Hi Kuba,
I just want to check that I don’t misunderstand – when you say “there is actually no other way to travel other than into illusion/ delusion” do you mean “no other way to travel”unless one wants to fall“into illusion/ delusion”?
I think your prediction of “another thousands of years” is rather glum to say the least – don’t you, for one, consider to “take action”?
Kuba: So it’s like the universe ultimately does not care, that utter fullness of infinitude is already always here, it doesn’t have to do anything extra because it’s already complete. Indeed it has all the time in the universe, it is human beings that are only alive for a limited time, so indeed it is doing it for this body, that body and everybody, as in why allow suffering to continue for even another day.
To propose that the universe cares or “does not care” is to make the error of anthropomorphism/ anthropocentrism. It is animal nature, the software of the instinctual passions, which does not care two hoots about which species thrives and which one perishes. The universe is beneficent, friendly (link), benevolent – it provides the conditions for human life to evolve and, being infinite and eternal and thus perfect, provides for humans to fulfil their destiny. Viz:
Respondent: … It’s just plain silly to tie Actualism up to a particular world view.
Richard: … And the same applies in regards to the ‘Big Bang’ theory – first proposed, in 1927, by the French Abbé Mr. Georges Lemaitre at the behest of the then pope Mr. Pius XI in a Conference on Cosmology, which was held in the Vatican, in the Pontificia Academia de Scienza di Roma – and the ‘expanding universe’ theory you also mention … if this other person informed me their direct experience was that the universe is indeed finite, temporary, and transitory (and not infinite, eternal, and perpetual) you do not actually care about that as it would not render actualism irrelevant, it would not make pure consciousness experiences (PCE’s) no longer valuable, it would not take away the possibility of freedom from the human condition, it would not prevent the possibility of delighting in being here (and doing nothing to prevent another’s delight in being here)? (Richard, AF List, No. 60a, 22 Jan 2004)
In short, in a finite ‘expanding universe’ an actual freedom would not be possible.
The conditions are given, and have always been existent – the action of freeing oneself from human nature is up to each human being, using their initiative and native intelligence to be perfection personified, which is both one’s birthright and one’s destiny.
Kuba: Yesterday something changed in how ‘I’ see ‘myself’, because those experiences a while ago where ‘I’ was seen to be merely a feeling were useful and yet as Richard wrote one does not go about eliminating feelings in order to eliminate the ‘self’, this is the wrong order of operations. Yesterday I was contemplating all this business with enlightenment and I could see that what ‘I’ am as ‘self’ is like an ancient imprint, this sense of ‘self’ is merely a feeling and yet it takes something away to treat it as a feeling only. ‘I’ am this imprint that feelings swirl around to form, a ‘structure’ that has absolutely no substance, an intuited ‘presence’.
This is an excellent description, that “what ‘I’ am as ‘self’ is like an ancient imprint”, “‘I’ am this imprint that feelings swirl around to form, a ‘structure’ that has absolutely no substance, an intuited ‘presence’”.
It reminds me of René Descartes, who started this philosophical theory with the axiom “I think therefore I am” but then went further stating “I know intuitively that I am”. (Richard, Selected Correspondence, René Descartes). You went one step further, you know experientially that ‘you’ exist as “an intuited ‘presence’”.
Kuba: The thing is that no matter how much ‘I’ try to get rid of ‘my’ feelings this ‘intuited structure’ remains, this is ‘me’ as ‘self’.
It is the ‘self’ that has to disappear, then there will be no passions, it cannot work the other way around, so indeed it has to be self-immolation. I could see yesterday that this ‘intuited presence’ will forever get in the way between me and others, there is no other way to ensure peace on earth other than by eliminating ‘me’ as ‘self’. (link)
You are spot on “it cannot work the other way around” and also that ‘me’ “will forever get in the way between me and others”.
Hence Richard’s repeated reminder that actualism is not to stop feeling, but to cease ‘being’. (See Richard’s Journal, Appendix Five, A Précis of Actual Freedom).
Yes I didn’t like that sentence when I read it back but I ended up leaving it as it is. What I meant was that there is the “utter fullness” and then there is illusion/delusion. The actual world is all that genuinely exists so the only other ‘direction’ is to remain in illusion/delusion. Ah I just had a good word come to me! It is the fact that actuality is pre-eminent. In the same way that one can pretend that a fact does not exist but this means nothing, ‘we’ can continue travelling down the path of illusion/delusion and yet this “utter fullness” is pre-eminent, the absoluteness of infinitude is already always here. This is why it was experienced to be a 100% guarantee.
I think your prediction of “another thousands of years” is rather glum to say the least – don’t you, for one, consider to “take action” ?
Yes I do and that sentence was in part my own call to action (perhaps a little dramatic ), realising that somebody has to go next, that this is literally the only way it can proceed, that the next person does it, and the next etc.
Yes again I didn’t like those words… How about to say that this “utter fullness” (being pre-eminent and absolute) continually hands out an “invitation to paradise” (this is the call that is being made), however this “utter fullness” does not have a time limit, it is not constrained by any time-span. It is then up to each person to accept this invitation. So the conditions are already always in place and yet the universe does not force one to “join the party”.
Although looking from that place of “utter fullness”, of that 100% guarantee it seemed that even if humans now chose to proceed as they are, that actual freedom would also inevitably happen, in the same way that evolution happened all-round. Except that this would take much longer and would entail much more suffering happening until then.
Vineeto: I just want to check that I don’t misunderstand – when you say “there is actually no other way to travel other than into illusion/ delusion” do you mean “no other way to travel”unless one wants to fall“into illusion/ delusion”?
Kuba: Yes I didn’t like that sentence when I read it back but I ended up leaving it as it is. What I meant was that there is the “utter fullness” and then there is illusion/ delusion. The actual world is all that genuinely exists so the only other ‘direction’ is to remain in illusion/ delusion. Ah I just had a good word come to me! It is the fact that actuality is pre-eminent. In the same way that one can pretend that a fact does not exist but this means nothing, ‘we’ can continue travelling down the path of illusion/delusion and yet this “utter fullness” is pre-eminent, the absoluteness of infinitude is already always here. This is why it was experienced to be a 100% guarantee.
Hi Kuba,
Thank you, I thought you meant that, I just wanted to make sure.
Kuba: It is a weird one because experiencing that “utter fullness” of infinitude the other day it was like a 100% guarantee, there is actually no other way to travel other than into illusion/ delusion. It is more a case of sooner rather than later – just like those enlightened masters ensured a continuation of suffering for 3000-5000 years because they did not dare proceed all the way – if no further pioneers take action now it could be another thousands of years before the human condition comes to an end. (link)
Vineeto: I think your prediction of “another thousands of years” is rather glum to say the least – don’t you, for one, consider to “take action” ?
Kuba: Yes I do and that sentence was in part my own call to action (perhaps a little dramatic ), realising that somebody has to go next, that this is literally the only way it can proceed, that the next person does it, and the next etc.
I appreciate the reasoning for your dramatization. However, are you sure that your perspective is not fed by this “I am not good enough” hangover of the old days, now projected onto all of humanity? Wouldn’t be the fact and experience that actuality is irresistible provide enough pull to proceed without having to ‘kick’ yourself into action with dire projections?
From an objective perspective it will become clear by the quotes further down, that “the continuation of suffering for 3000-5000 years” could only have persisted for so long because there was no alternative to the ‘best of human experience’ until the discovery of an actual freedom. As such all the morals and ethics of atavistic wisdom of dead Masters, Saints and Seers were perpetuated as being the Ultimate Authority. Now that an actual freedom has not only been discovered but has also been replicated via the Direct Route (bypassing enlightenment), these Ultimate Authorities are outdated, to say the least, and there need not “be another thousands of years before the human condition comes to an end”, simply because the alternative is already here as lived experience.
One example is Richard’s hypothesis that full-blown enlightenment is finished, dead, unachievable, illustrated in his question to correspondent No. 22 –
Richard: I might say this much, though: did Mr. Franklin Jones’ physical death in 2008 signify the last of fully enlightened/ fully awakened (as in fully deluded/ fully hallucinated) ‘Beings’ to bestride the real-world … to be meddling in human affairs, to incredible ill effect, for all these millennia now past?
Put differently, why are the subsequent crop of so-called enlightened/ awakened beings of the just-add-water-and-stir variety? (Richard, List D, No. 22a, 5 Jan 2010)
You could say that now there are holes in the ‘psychic web’ of yore, and fresh wind can blow through. I share Richard’s confidence in the effectiveness of facts and actuality – it is indeed the only viable alternative to the perpetuation of malice and sorrow.
“Being actual it is here to stay and, simply because it is fact and not fantasy.” (Richard, List D, No. 11, 2 Dec 2009). Richard: The words and writings of both an actual and a virtual freedom from the human condition – be they spoken, printed or in pixels are now stored away in brain cells, on bookshelves and hard drives/ tapes/ CD’s/ DVD’s all around the globe. (Richard, Abditorium, Actualism, Materialism, Spiritualism)
The question is how long will it take until there are enough people virtually free and actually free to influence and replace the ancient wisdom still being taught in homes, schools, universities and religious/ spiritual institutions with common sense, facts and actuality, as well as equity and parity amongst human beings.
Vineeto: To propose that the universe cares or “does not care” is to make the error of anthropomorphism/ anthropocentrism. It is animal nature, the software of the instinctual passions, which does not care two hoots about which species thrives and which one perishes. The universe is beneficent, friendly (link), benevolent – it provides the conditions for human life to evolve and, being infinite and eternal and thus perfect, provides for humans to fulfil their destiny. Viz: (link)
Kuba: Yes again I didn’t like those words… How about to say that this “utter fullness” (being pre-eminent and absolute) continually hands out an “invitation to paradise” (this is the call that is being made), however this “utter fullness” does not have a time limit, it is not constrained by any time-span. It is then up to each person to accept this invitation. So the conditions are already always in place and yet the universe does not force one to “join the party”.
Although looking from that place of “utter fullness”, of that 100% guarantee it seemed that even if humans now chose to proceed as they are, that actual freedom would also inevitably happen, in the same way that evolution happened all-round. Except that this would take much longer and would entail much more suffering happening until then. (link)
I’d like to comment a bit further on the part you snipped –
VINEETO: … The universe is beneficent, friendly (link), benevolent – it provides the conditions for human life to evolve and, being infinite and eternal and thus perfect, provides for humans to fulfil their destiny. Viz:
Respondent:… It’s just plain silly to tie Actualism up to a particular world view. Richard: … And the same applies in regards to the ‘Big Bang’ theory – first proposed, in 1927, by the French Abbé Mr. Georges Lemaitre at the behest of the then pope Mr. Pius XI in a Conference on Cosmology, which was held in the Vatican, in the Pontificia Academia de Scienza di Roma – and the ‘expanding universe’ theory you also mention … if this other person informed me their direct experience was that the universe is indeed finite, temporary, and transitory (and not infinite, eternal, and perpetual you do not actually care about that as it would not render actualism irrelevant, it would not make pure consciousness experiences (PCE’s) no longer valuable, it would not take away the possibility of freedom from the human condition, it would not prevent the possibility of delighting in being here (and doing nothing to prevent another’s delight in being here)? [Emphases added]. Richard, AF List, No. 60a, 22 Jan 2004)
In short, in a finite ‘expanding universe’ an actual freedom would not be possible.
The conditions are given, and have always been existent – the action of freeing oneself from human nature is up to each human being, using their initiative and native intelligence to be perfection personified, which is both one’s birthright and one’s destiny.
Just to highlight the ramifications of spiritual enlightenment having been the summum bonum of human experience for thousands of years, Richard elucidates it further in the follow-up discussion, thereby emphasizing the significance of the discovery of an actual freedom even more clearly –
RESPONDENT:If you are saying that your experience of actual freedom depends on there not having been a ‘Big Bang’, I am at a complete loss to understand why. RICHARD: No, what I am saying is that the ‘Big Bang’ (a theory first proposed, in 1927, by the French Abbé Mr. Georges Lemaitre at the behest of the then pope Mr. Pius XI in a Conference on Cosmology, which was held in the Vatican, in the Pontificia Academia de Scienza di Roma) depends upon the summum bonum of human experience being spiritual enlightenment (a permanent ASC). It is the ASC which informs that consciousness gives rise to matter.
Or, to put that differently, what I am saying is that the ‘Big Bang’ (…) depends upon there not being anybody actually free from the human condition (a permanent PCE). It is the PCE which informs that matter gives rise to consciousness. [Emphases added]. (Richard, AF List, No. 60a, 23 Jan 2004a)
In other words –
RESPONDENT:Richard, an uncluttered space in which to clarify some key issues: What is your basis for claiming that the universe is infinite and eternal? RICHARD: Apperception (unmediated perception) … as a flesh and blood body only one is this infinite, eternal and perpetual universe experiencing itself apperceptively: as such it is stunningly aware of its own infinitude.
And this is wonderful. RESPONDENT:With regard to attaining ‘actual freedom from the human condition’, does it matter whether the universe is infinite and eternal? RICHARD: It is infinitude which makes such a freedom possible … only that which has no opposite is peerless (hence perfect). RESPONDENT:If time, space and matter had begun with a ‘Big Bang’, would PCE’s still be possible? RICHARD: No … the peerless perfection of the pure consciousness experience (PCE) would not exist. RESPONDENT:Would ‘actual freedom’ from the human condition still be possible? RICHARD: No … the pristine purity of this actual world would not exist. (Richard, AF List, No. 60a, 24 Jan 2004)
You can see that your confidence in the “experiencing that “utter fullness” of infinitude the other day” is indeed “a 100% guarantee”, not only for you but for every pioneer who wants to escape their fate and pursue their destiny.
Yes it should shouldn’t it and yet there is clearly something which pulls ‘me’ back and that ‘I’ then seek to overcome with the dramatisations. It seems this “I am not good enough” needs to be rooted out fully. There is something atavistic to it, it reminds me of a post I wrote a few years ago when first getting some success with applying the actualism method.
I wrote to the effect that it seemed that all ‘my’ life ‘I’ was trapped in this dark cave with monsters all around. Now ‘I’ had found an exit and was looking at the light beaming trough, ‘out there’ was delight and freedom. And yet ‘my’ whole being would as if scream not to go out there, ‘I’ would recoil at this perfection and purity, ‘I’ would rather remain in the familiar cave.
I can see now that this is the atavistic basis of this “I am not good enough”, this is not just ‘my’ personal feeling but rather where ‘humanity’ has been stuck for thousands of years. It segues into what you wrote about actual freedom not being possible in a finite and expanding universe. It was enlightenment which set the parameters of what is possible for a human being, it provided the ‘wisdom’ that human kind has been living to. One of the primary tenets of this ‘wisdom’ is that perfection is never to be lived by any human being, that we are all sinners until we depart for an after life - only there perfection can be allowed. In a way I have been living to a commandment which was given by those god men - do not dare to live perfection in this life time as this flesh and blood body. Not only is it not possible (apparently) but it is taboo, it is not allowed.
It is such a perverse feeling/belief and yet it is active in ‘me’ because why wouldn’t ‘I’ just walk through that door and leave ‘myself’ behind. It seems as though it would be too easy?! Like ‘I’ am addicted to forever journeying as a sinner. Like ‘I’ am addicted to ‘my’ problems and ‘my’ solutions. But underneath all this is the commandment that I am never to live in perfection, that life is not meant to be easy.
Experiencing that “utter fullness” the other day it was clear that it is here for everybody and that it provides an utter safety, the magnitude of which has to be lived to be known. And yet it was experienced that it would be “too easy” if it was all over just like that. That for some obscure reason ‘I’ should suffer some more. The best I can describe this in ‘myself’ right now is the belief that life is not meant to be easy, that it is wrong to live without suffering, that life should be an ongoing struggle of the good over the bad. I am basically describing that ancient ‘wisdom’ handed out by the god men. But with the discovery of an actual freedom this wisdom was cut at the very root, it’s very founding principles were shown to be incorrect and so the rest of the worldview topples down.
So as you wrote :
The question is how long will it take until there are enough people virtually free and actually free to influence and replace the ancient wisdom still being taught in homes, schools, universities and religious/ spiritual institutions with common sense, facts and actuality, as well as equity and parity amongst human beings.
This same thing is happening inside of ‘me’ right now. The seeing which can undo ‘me’ (as well as that entire ancient worldview) is already in place. And it is in place in ‘me’ specifically and in the ‘psychic web’ in general. So indeed there is no need for dire projections, rather it is an incredible time to be alive.
As you wrote now it is the case of each human being - “using their initiative and native intelligence to be perfection personified, which is both one’s birthright and one’s destiny.”
Yesterday it clicked what you have been encouraging us to do, which is to find something that ‘I’ deeply and passionately care about. I can see that this is something that needs to feel true to the core of ‘my’ being, something that ‘I’ have wanted so much all of ‘my’ life. I understand this is meant as an open question and for the answer to come experientially but I just wanted to write about the general flavour of this so far.
What I could see yesterday is that all ‘my’ life ‘I’ was resentful and angry at the world. I was always very perceptive of others, my mum always mentions a situation when as a young child I called out my grandmother for only pretending to be happy with grandad and actually that she did not care for him at all, and what’s better is I delivered it in a poem form But I was always resentful at the hypocrisy, the lack of equity, the ignorant irresponsibility and the harm that was being done by all, and yet ultimately ‘I’ could do not better. ‘I’ wanted so bad to ‘be’ the answer to all that and yet ‘my’ very being has always prevented this. My whole life there was this sense that something was off and yet I couldn’t put my finger on it, until I had that PCE at 18.
In short what ‘I’ deeply and passionately care about is to be innocence personified. To live that which the PCE demonstrated and in doing so to offer (and demonstrate) a solid alternative to the
“hypocrisy, the lack of equity, the ignorant irresponsibility and the harm that was being done by all”. This innocence is what I (and I am sure others on this forum) detect from you and if I had not experienced it first hand I would probably have believed it to be impossible.
So this is the flavour of ‘my’ deepest desire - to be that. I thought before that it is pointless to proceed in this direction precisely because ‘I’ can never ‘be’ innocent. But this is exactly the point isn’t it? That ‘I’ must give up ‘myself’ in order to allow ‘my’ deepest desire to become an actuality.
Also ‘I’ deeply and passionately care about proving ‘humanity’ wrong, not because ‘I’ want to be on a pedestal but because ‘I’ want to conclusively show that all the madness can stop, that there is no longer any excuse for the “hypocrisy, the lack of equity, the ignorant irresponsibility and the harm that was being done by all”.
And I could see yesterday that being innocence personified is far far better than anything ‘I’ could do in terms of helping others. That simply being that is already more helpful. It’s odd but I know that I would help others more, even without doing anything specific. That just to live as innocence personified is tremendous help. 1 prime example is how the quality of discussion here has somehow magically transformed with your involvement Vineeto, it’s uncanny how it works but it most definitely does!
Vineeto: … Wouldn’t be the fact and experience that actuality is irresistible provide enough pull to proceed without having to ‘kick’ yourself into action with dire projections?
Kuba: Yes it should shouldn’t it and yet there is clearly something which pulls ‘me’ back and that ‘I’ then seek to overcome with the dramatisations. It seems this “I am not good enough” needs to be rooted out fully. There is something atavistic to it, it reminds me of a post I wrote a few years ago when first getting some success with applying the actualism method. (…)
I can see now that this is the atavistic basis of this “I am not good enough”, this is not just ‘my’ personal feeling but rather where ‘humanity’ has been stuck for thousands of years. It segues into what you wrote about actual freedom not being possible in a finite and expanding universe. It was enlightenment which set the parameters of what is possible for a human being, it provided the ‘wisdom’ that human kind has been living to. One of the primary tenets of this ‘wisdom’ is that perfection is never to be lived by any human being, that we are all sinners until we depart for an after life – only there perfection can be allowed. In a way I have been living to a commandment which was given by those god men – do not dare to live perfection in this life time as this flesh and blood body. Not only is it not possible (apparently) but it is taboo, it is not allowed.
Hi Kuba,
Yes, you found it – it is the atavistic taboo to leave humanity, its ‘wisdom’ and its Ultimate Authority, or else you’ll be punished if you don’t obey its (holy) tenets, you’ll be marked as a traitor.
You might like this quote – it dramatically describes Richard’s part of the journey that he had embarked upon at this point –
Richard: With pure intent one will not settle for second best, for it has been seen in the peak experiences that the very best is possible, here on earth. One sees that ‘I’ must disappear entirely. There will be no transcendence, no transmutation, no metamorphosis … not any of these. For one who goes all the way, no phoenix will exist to arise from the ashes – nothing Metaphysical will remain. There will be no ‘being’ at all. ‘I’ will become extinct.
I use the word extinct deliberately for it carries a definitive meaning. Physically, death is the end of an individual member of the species, whilst extinction is the ending of the species itself. The psychological annihilation of ‘I’ – in its entirety – is the psychological ending of the species known as ‘humanity’. It is the end of ‘being’ and the end of an illusion. It is also the end of ‘Being’ and the end of delusion. The Human Condition, with all its appalling sorrow and malice, can come to an end. All those would-be wise people who state: ‘You can’t change human nature’ are, fortunately, wrong. Because it is possible for ‘me’ to become extinct, thereby releasing the body from the ‘being’ within, I can walk freely in the world as-it-is … this actual world. I, as this body only, can live in that perfect purity twenty-four-hours-a-day. I can live in a state of benignity, which means a kindly and harmless disposition. Life is a sincere and yet playful game and one is then free to enjoy it all, every moment again.
‘Humanity’, which gave birth to ‘me’, is being sustained by ‘me’ remaining as a ‘being’. ‘I’ am forever fettered by the Human Condition. The species known as ‘humanity’ has searched for an Ultimate Fulfilment within the arena of the Human Condition for all of history. Such a search is endless and futile, for it is a search within an illusion. Only further illusions – further states of ‘being’ – can be found there … or delusions. Becoming Divine is a delusion – a state of ‘Being’ that is actually an insult to intelligence. ‘I’ will never find the ultimate fulfilment for ‘I’ am standing in the way of the ‘Mystery of Life’ being revealed. There is no way out, ‘I’ am doomed. ‘I’ must, inevitably, cease to ‘be’. Instead of bemoaning ‘my’ fate and vainly searching for an escape, ‘I’ can see ‘myself’ for what ‘I’ am. This seeing is the beginning of the ending of ‘me’. The extinction of ‘me’ is the ultimate sacrifice ‘I’ can make to ensure the possibility of peace-on-earth for not only me but for all humankind.
Ultimate fulfilment lies beyond extinction. (Richard, Articles, A Brief Personal History, #2)
Kuba: It is such a perverse feeling/belief and yet it is active in ‘me’ because why wouldn’t ‘I’ just walk through that door and leave ‘myself’ behind. It seems as though it would be too easy?! Like ‘I’ am addicted to forever journeying as a sinner. Like ‘I’ am addicted to ‘my’ problems and ‘my’ solutions. But underneath all this is the commandment that I am never to live in perfection, that life is not meant to be easy.
Experiencing that “utter fullness” the other day it was clear that it is here for everybody and that it provides an utter safety, the magnitude of which has to be lived to be known. And yet it was experienced that it would be “too easy” if it was all over just like that. That for some obscure reason ‘I’ should suffer some more. The best I can describe this in ‘myself’ right now is the belief that life is not meant to be easy, that it is wrong to live without suffering, that life should be an ongoing struggle of the good over the bad. I am basically describing that ancient ‘wisdom’ handed out by the god men. But with the discovery of an actual freedom this wisdom was cut at the very root, its very founding principles were shown to be incorrect and so the rest of the worldview topples down.
That is a great insight and, with sincerity, action will follow.
Yesterday you wrote about having discovered the “presence”, the “imprint” – “‘I’ am this imprint that feelings swirl around to form, a ‘structure’ that has absolutely no substance, an intuited ‘presence’”. (link) And now that you have peeled away all the layers of the onion and have discovered the very core – the ‘self’, which if allowed to expand would become the ‘Self’.
Richard: This second identity – the second ‘I’ of Mr. Ventkataraman Aiyer (aka Ramana) fame – is a difficult one to shake, maybe more difficult than the first; for who is brave enough to voluntarily give up fame and fortune, reverence and worship, status and security? One has to be scrupulously honest with oneself to go all the way and no longer be a someone, a somebody of importance. One faces extinction; ‘I’ will cease to be, there will be no ‘being’ whatsoever, no ‘presence’ at all. It is impossible to imagine, not only the complete and utter cessation of ‘me’ in ‘my’ entirety, but the end of any ‘Ultimate Being’ or ‘Absolute Presence’ in any way, shape or form. It means that no one or no thing is in charge of the universe … that there is no ‘Ultimate Authority’. It means that all values are but human values, with no absolute values at all to fall back upon. It is impossible for ‘me’ to conceive that without a wayward ‘me’ there is no need for any values whatsoever … or an ‘Ultimate Authority’.
Thus I find myself here, in the world as-it-is. A vast stillness lies all around, a perfection that is abounding with purity. Beneficence, an active kindness, overflows in all directions, imbuing everything with unimaginable fairytale-like quality. (Richard, Articles, A Brief Personal History, #3)
Vineeto: The question is how long will it take until there are enough people virtually free and actually free to influence and replace the ancient wisdom still being taught in homes, schools, universities and religious/ spiritual institutions with common sense, facts and actuality, as well as equity and parity amongst human beings.
Kuba: This same thing is happening inside of ‘me’ right now. The seeing which can undo ‘me’ (as well as that entire ancient worldview) is already in place. And it is in place in ‘me’ specifically and in the ‘psychic web’ in general. So indeed there is no need for dire projections, rather it is an incredible time to be alive.
As you wrote now it is the case of each human being – “using their initiative and native intelligence to be perfection personified, which is both one’s birthright and one’s destiny.”
Yesterday it clicked what you have been encouraging us to do, which is to find something that ‘I’ deeply and passionately care about. I can see that this is something that needs to feel true to the core of ‘my’ being, something that ‘I’ have wanted so much all of ‘my’ life. I understand this is meant as an open question and for the answer to come experientially but I just wanted to write about the general flavour of this so far. (…)
My whole life there was this sense that something was off and yet I couldn’t put my finger on it, until I had that PCE at 18.
In short what ‘I’ deeply and passionately care about is to be innocence personified. To live that which the PCE demonstrated and in doing so to offer (and demonstrate) a solid alternative to the “hypocrisy, the lack of equity, the ignorant irresponsibility and the harm that was being done by all”. This innocence is what I (and I am sure others on this forum) detect from you and if I had not experienced it first hand I would probably have believed it to be impossible.
Remember, on February 27 you wrote – “So the question is what will seduce ‘me’ to want to gift this gift, it will have to be big!” (link)
It is indeed “big” – “to offer (and demonstrate) a solid alternative to the “hypocrisy, the lack of equity, the ignorant irresponsibility and the harm that was being done by all”, “to be innocence personified”.
It is wonderful beyond words that this is what you passionately want to be … Richard called it service.
Richard: […] As for service: the reward for going to the very end of illusion and delusion is to emerge, unscathed, as the actual. The benefits of doing so are beyond price; to remove oneself from the invidious position of being betwixt sycophants and traducers, being one among many. The immediate bestowal of universal peace upon oneself is the benefit worthiest of acknowledgment. Yet, rewards and benefits notwithstanding, to have reached one’s destiny is to be of the ultimate service possible … the universe has been able to fulfil itself in a human being. Finally there is an intelligence operating unimpeded … blind nature has been superseded.
To live this is what service is. (Richard, List B, No. 25d, 29 Sept 1999).
Kuba: So this is the flavour of ‘my’ deepest desire – to be that. I thought before that it is pointless to proceed in this direction precisely because ‘I’ can never ‘be’ innocent. But this is exactly the point isn’t it?
Ah, this is wonderful. This is what your open question has revealed to you. For this ‘you’ are willing to give 100% of your ‘self’ in order to make this deepest wish an actuality, to be innocence personified, which is something entirely new to human history.
Kuba: That ‘I’ must give up ‘myself’ in order to allow ‘my’ deepest desire to become an actuality. (link)
Ha, once you are willing to say “‘I’ mustwill give up ‘myself’” then what you deeply wished for, all your life, will be granted – by ‘you’, the only ‘being’ which can grant this wish.
Thank you Vineeto, I deeply appreciate your service
All this that I have been doing (with your invaluable assistance) the past year reminds me of what Richard wrote :
To have the requisite determination to apply oneself, with the diligence and perseverance born out of pure intent, to the patient dismantling of one’s accrued social identity indicates a strength of purpose unequalled in the annals of history. It is no little thing that one does . and it has enormous consequences, not only for one’s own well-being, but for humankind as a whole.
I have come a long way though because now I know that what ‘I’ deeply desire is to be innocence personified, and furthermore I see that the ‘wisdom’ that ‘I’ have lived on all ‘my’ life is a damnation to never-ending suffering.
This “too good to be true / I am not good enough” seems to have gone now. I no longer feel like a heretic when I allow that to be innocence personified is my destiny. It no longer feels taboo to proceed towards perfection and purity.
Kuba: Thank you Vineeto, I deeply appreciate your service
Hi Kuba,
You are welcome. You do understand that Richard’s quote about ‘service’ had been referred to your choice and the ramifications of your deep “desire is to be innocence personified”?
Kuba: All this that I have been doing (with your invaluable assistance) the past year reminds me of what Richard wrote:
Richard: To have the requisite determination to apply oneself, with the diligence and perseverance born out of pure intent, to the patient dismantling of one’s accrued social identity indicates a strength of purpose unequalled in the annals of history. It is no little thing that one does and it has enormous consequences, not only for one’s own well-being, but for humankind as a whole. (Richard’s Resumé)
Kuba: I have come a long way though because now I know that what ‘I’ deeply desire is to be innocence personified, and furthermore I see that the ‘wisdom’ that ‘I’ have lived on all ‘my’ life is a damnation to never-ending suffering.
I fully agree that what you have done “indicates a strength of purpose unequalled in the annals of history” and you can wear this compliment without flinching.
From the perspective of innocence any suffering of a single human being is too much and any ‘wisdom’ promoting and perpetuation suffering is intolerable. Your native intelligence, determination and sincerity have successfully guided you through the weird and wacky maze of the human condition to bring you now to the brink of allowing to happen what ‘you’ wanted all your life for the benefit of your body, that body and everybody.
Kuba: This “too good to be true / I am not good enough” seems to have gone now. I no longer feel like a heretic when I allow that to be innocence personified is my destiny. It no longer feels taboo to proceed towards perfection and purity. (link)
Ah, I am pleased to hear – you have left ‘humanity’ behind. Besides, how can you be a heretic to something which only exists in the human psyche!
Richard: 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. (Richard, List B, James3, 7 Nov 2002)
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I include myself in this lol
