Haha I just remembered a scene from my childhood. Must have been 1st or 2nd grade. I was staring at my report card which had an S for satisfactory (3rd from the top of E for Excellent and G for Good) or something, and wondering what my parents would think of this disappointing turnout, and I suddenly realized that it was just totally arbitrary! Just numbers and letters!
A kid next to me saw it and said something like “what are you going to do?” given this bad news, and I replied “It’s just a grade.” as in it didn’t matter. And his eyes widened and his mouth hung open in shock! He had clearly never even contemplate such a possibility.
However I now recall that my new discovery seemed too dangerous or out of the ordinary to continue with — indeed it would be leaving the herd of those who submit to authority — so I promptly resubmitted to said authority and forgot all about it.
My life may have indeed turned out differently if I had made a different decision then! It’s all working out well so far though.
Yeah this is the crux of it for me too but I’ll speak for myself here a bit …My split is something like this :
45% is try to get back to feeling good
45% is a sort of confused way…oh this issue cropped up in my daily life…how do I tackle it?..shall I tackle it via some real world paradigm like raising my voice or wait I’m an actualist so leme try some third alternative
10% is trying to self immolate…do some deep contemplation about PI, the universe
It was a really good jolt to read Srinaths message today morning !
Haha yes a good jolt indeed! Definitely lots to explore here for me and I am already seeing things clearer, will write more as soon as I am done with this hen do!
@claudiu I think my terms might be a little unclear so it might be a case of tidying things up first.
But regarding the commitment to feeling good each moment again for the rest of one’s life. If this is to be the deciding factor for whether someone is indeed practicing the actualism method or not.
I can see that when I came back to actualism and decided to commit properly I made some kind of commitment, it was not the above commitment though. It was a commitment to become an actualist, to the best extent I could as an identity. It was a commitment on the level of social identity. To go and do this thing called actualism, at that time it was the most sincere commitment I could muster. It was not a commitment where the entirety of my being committed to feeling good each moment again for the rest of my life - this is the commitment that I still have not made.
Now if one genuinely commits all of oneself to feeling good each moment again for the rest of one’s life, then by virtue of said genuine commitment one would indeed be feeling good each moment again with any momentary diversion from this being rectified by the mere noticing that one is no longer feeling good, in short one would be living in virtual freedom.
Now if one was to say - I am genuinely committed to feeling good each moment again for the rest of my life and then spend any considerable length of time doing anything but that, then the commitment is not genuine. It’s like saying I am genuinely committed to never drinking again and then having a sip here and there every day.
So in a very long winded way, I just don’t see how establishing a genuine commitment to feeling good each moment again for the rest of one’s life is the minimum bar for practicing the actualism method.
Now with the ‘shallow commitment’ that I have made, I still find myself going for extended periods of time feeling good each moment again, so what am I doing if not practicing the method during those times? There will be times where I fall off the horse for a considerable amount of time, probably because I have not made a genuine commitment. Yet who on here could say that they have? That is a high standard indeed!
The other bit I was thinking, regarding the split. So I noticed that on top of this ‘shallow commitment’ that I made. What I have been doing is essentially using actualism to feed back into my social identity. And actually now that I think of it, without generalising too much, this is probably something most of us are doing.
Essentially I want to be feeling good each moment again for the rest of my life as long as X.
Therefore the method is being bottlenecked and forced to work in a framework where it can’t!
So indeed there is something to this commitment, to putting feeling good each moment again for the rest of my life in front of everything else.
So it would indicate it only works if you make the commitment — it would explain why the feeling good isn’t 100% or even 99% but more like 45% for example.
As has been said before, there’s no such thing as a part-time actualist!
Right
I guess no one — which would mean Richard’s assessment is accurate
Yes and faced with this high standard there’s two choices:
1- give up cause it’s too high and settle for second or third best etc , ie fail without trying
2- take up the challenge to live up to it and have a possibility to reap the rewards!
As an analogous example. A PCE has high standards as well. To qualify for a PCE it has to be total identity abeyance. Someone who hasn’t had a PCE and has failed for years to have one might be tempted to just give up and stop trying or intending to have one. But then one gives up the possibility of having it and everything that entails!
More sensible to figure out where and why one is falling short and rectify it, non?
It’s not to say everything everyone does here is wasted effort or totally useless or doesn’t benefit our lives etc. Just that it isn’t the actualism method
It might explain why no actually free people since @Srinath and @geoffrey , non?
So why no commitment yet? Maybe it’s a hesitance to “do it exactly like Richard and Vineeto and Peter did it”, ie fear of being a clone or in a cult or a Richardist (that old objection)? This seems to be part of it for me. Wanting to maintain some supposed “individuality” lol. But it’s silly to think one would lose one’s individuality just for doing something someone else has proven works, isn’t it …
Indeed, this is the other thing I was thinking about, it’s a high standard and that is not a bad thing at all, now I have something to aim for! I am genuinely glad of all this unfolding in the way it has because it seems I have been hovering on the edge of this commitment for a long time, somewhat content to remain in this in between.
Might you be able to recall what he and @Felix spoke about regarding this topic? What advice did he give to @Felix in order to become the only one practicing the method? Perhaps @Felix has some recollection.
Now for anyone feeling forlorn about this recent assessment of the forum, I’d just like to point out it has not all been in vain, we have collectively done some incredible work - I asked ChatGPT about actual freedom - #33 by rick
I remember when I first became actually free was when the actualism method really made sense. It was like doing it on easy mode. Whereas doing it as a feeling being was like trying to bail out a leaky boat with a hole in it.
So you guys know what you did it seems
I think the key to enjoying and appreciating as a feeling being is to really really like it - as opposed to seeing it as a commitment, a dedication, a burdensome vow and so on.
I think I know where a bit of lack of motivation to feel good occured
When Dona n Alan met Richard n Vineeto, Richard stressed a lot on the importance of committing to feel good but he also said something like " There are no conditions for self immolation"…Now since the final prize of Actualism is self immolation and there are no conditions for self immolation, so even feeling good isn’t a condition for self immolation so why bother with feeling good…just aim for self immolation
Ofcourse Richard isn’t at fault here in any measure…he did say that Actualism method via feeling good is something to do in the meantime and helps rewire one’s brain…
Personally I find that reduction n elimination in intensity n frequency of SI triggers has been invaluable so far…such that I can’t imagine going straight for self immolation…too much too soon
Right yeah that’s a good point, I always thought that aiming for virtual freedom on route to actual freedom made practical sense. Even if actual freedom is the end goal let’s see if I can at least commit to feeling good each moment again first. Because otherwise how do I know I am not just kidding myself with daily self immolation attempts whilst feeling miserable in general.
I always liked the practicality of this too, it’s something I can get stuck in and improve my life daily from the get go as opposed to waiting around and essentially hoping that one day somehow it will happen.
It also seems to put my money where my mouth is, for if I say I want to be free from malice and sorrow, well can I at least demonstrate this commitment by feeling good each moment again?
As per my last messages I have not even made that commitment fully yet, to put aside the various identity concerns and simply feel good. So how do I expect to allow all of me to be extinguished?
Ya on the other hand it can get to beating oneself up for not being good enough or adding requirements that aren’t there for self immolation. It’s all just silly isn’t it, let’s just enjoy!
Yeah, I guess once we are doing the Actualism Method 99% of the time instead of the half-hearted 45% attempts as a sort of part-time confused Actualist mixed with real world schemes n dreams, then the time will come when we’ll automatically know the time is right for self-immolation…but even then self-immolation may not occur hehe but my guess is that with that 99% feeling good lifestyle, it may be a much better place for attempting self-immolation…worst case even without self-immolation, that 99% feeling good lifestyle will be its own reward !
I added the emphasis here to show that this is making it a prerequisite that I need to be enjoying 99% of time to be able to self immolate. From what actually free people say, this isn’t the case, and nor does one lead to the other. It’s just an in the meantime thing. And a lot of the objections to self immolation overlap with the objections to feeling good. So it’s efficient too.
So for me this is the new thing that’s really an old thing seen again — do both simultaneously lol. Literally at the same time, go for self immolation ‘directly’ and also continuously enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive.
Well Richard publicly clarified so we don’t have to wonder :
Update: In regards to the “Magical Mystery Tour” thread, Richard did *not * say “no one on the forum seemed to be practicing the actualism method” (or anything of the ilk) – obviously they are and this alone is immensely pleasing – as what he *did * say was ‘Nobody has taken-up the challenge to enjoy and appreciate being alive, each moment again come-what-may, for the remainder of their life’. Global Warming
Aah so the difference is that people on the forum here are practicing the Actualism Method now n then as opposed to taking that as a challenge to do it each moment ?
The cool thing is that we actually arrived at the same conclusion over the weekend anyways haha! That it is the commitment to enjoy and appreciate each moment again for the rest of ones life that has not been made.
…My split is something like this :
I guess it is!