"See, the quality of the actual world is delight. The very actual-ness of everything is pure delight. Actualism is ‘the experiential understanding that nothing physical is merely passive; the personal experience of the universe experiencing itself as a sensate and reflective human being as opposed to a cerebral or affective perception.’
For instance, listening without the layer of emotions, morals, values, beliefs and instincts, to the hum of the fridge, the sound of cars passing by, the rumbling of the computer doing its thing, is delighting in being alive and this very hearing is one function of being alive. No love is needed to layer on top of the very happening of things, it only destroys the purity and perfection, it only binds it into a man-made system of conditions, belonging, control and fear. If you love one sound, you reject another. To love silence is to despise and be upset by noisy business. Love would utterly spoil the game of being happy, here, now, each moment again, for no other reason than being alive, fully and sensately experiencing the universe around me. Without the self being sorrowful and malicious, fearful and lonely, loving and belonging, compassionate and grateful – nothing else is needed to delight in each moment again."
VINEETO: Personally, I had to spend quite some time investigating and reflecting in order to fully understand the radicality of an actual freedom from the human condition as opposed to the imagined spiritual freedom I had pursued before. Once I did understand however, that an actual freedom is down-to-earth, factual and pertains to this actual tangible world and is indeed a freedom for this flesh-and-blood body while a spiritual freedom is achieved by and for the imaginary spirit ‘being’ occupying this flesh-and-blood body, it was blindingly obvious that nothing short of totally freeing this flesh-and-blood body from the imaginary spirit ‘being’ would do. I knew then once and for all that there is simply no point in fiddling with the imaginary spirit ‘being’ in order for the imaginary spirit ‘being’ to have a feeling of freedom whilst the actual flesh-and-blood body remains in the same clasp of the imaginary spirit ‘being’ as ever.
VINEETO: I do agree that ego, the male ego as much as the female ego, can be a great hindrance to sincere inquiry. However, I have found that it is possible to observe, examine and inquire into both my obstinate ego and my passionate soul so that they won’t interfere with my intelligence such that I can make sense of what it is to be a human being. The ‘self’ – both ego and soul – can be transformed in such a way that it agrees to and facilitates its own demise because ultimately that is the most satisfying thing to do in one’s life. It’s the only game to play in town, as we say around here.
The below is from Richard’s Article :
Attentiveness is sensuous attention and sensuousness enables the experiencing of things without distorting feelings …whilst seeing the world of people, things and events as-it-is is apperception
Can you please tell me what is the difference between: “sensuous attention” and “sensuousness”.
“…the actual changing of behaviour required my total self-obsession in order to be aware of what I was doing or feeling at every moment. What is it, in me, which is in the road between us? Why am I upset? Why am I annoyed or moody? What is now that is preventing my experiencing peace and harmony? I was totally interested in what it was in me.”
I think they’re the same thing, ‘sensuous attention’ is just ‘attention in a sensuous way’
Attention: “notice taken of someone or something”
So it’s taking notice of things in a sensuous way, that is, based on the senses rather than affect.
It’s interesting because in the article Richard also emphasizes the importance of not side-stepping the emotions when they are happening:
It is impossible for one to intelligently observe what is going on within if one does not at the same time acknowledge the occurrence of one’s various feeling-tones with attentiveness. This is especially true with the hostile and invidious emotions and passions (those that are hateful and fearful). In order to observe one’s own fear, for instance, one must admit to the fact that one is afraid. Nor can one examine one’s own depression, for another example, without acknowledging it fully. The same is true for irritation and agitation and frustration and all those other uncomfortable emotional and passionate moods. One cannot examine something fully if one is busy denying its existence.
So with that in mind, sensuous attention is something that happens specifically when emotion/affect is out of the way, so the attention is there to be given to whatever is sensuous-sensitively happening.
This has to do with the advice that @Srinath and @Felix have been emphasizing in the other thread, which is to ensure that felicity is happening before/while ‘looking’ for sensuousness.
And I’ve said it elsewhere but I am certainly one of those who has gotten stalled by emphasizing ‘sensuousness’ without ensuring that felicity is firmly in place.
Richard equates felicity with delight and happiness as well.
Thank you so much henryyyyyyy that is very helpful!
I also found this said by an actualist:
The seeing that it is this moment of being alive automatically makes ‘me’ feel felicitous feelings. It was also this approach that Richard responded to saying that it delineated the difference between caused and un-caused enjoyment. Further to that, it has been my experience that if you consistently stay with that seeing (which can also potentially devolve into “living in the present” if no attentiveness is applied) then a PCE will inevitably occur.
Attentiveness [ seeing ] ( cognitive of this moment ) is – the fascination – of – the reflective contemplation –
that this moment is one’s only moment of being alive – and one is never alive at any other time than now.
Attentiveness – leads to – > Sensuousnes
cognative >>>>> pre-emotional fidelity
Sensuousness ( nonaffective awareness of this place ) is – the wondrous awareness – of
– the marvel of being here – now at this moment in time and this place in space.
With Attentiveness one starts to feel ‘alive’. Being ‘alive’ is to be paying attention – exclusive attention – to this moment in time and this place in space. This attention becomes fascination … and fascination leads to reflective contemplation. Then – and only then – apperception can occur.
Attentiveness is seeing how any feeling makes ‘me’ tick – and how ‘I’ react to it – with the perspicacity of seeing how it affects others as well. In attentiveness, there is an unbiased observing of the constant showing-up of the ‘reality’ within, and is examining the feelings arising one after the other … and such attentiveness is the ending of its (feeling) grip. Please note that last point: in attentiveness, there is an observance of the ‘reality’ within, and such attention is the end of its embrace … finish.
Here lies apperception.
,
I, FrankN, am trying to feel good
mortality is not a curse, being here on this planet earth is not some punishment to endure.
Writing this is I am having the flavor of the perfection that lies just outside of being ‘human’.
Whenever I taste this perfection I am left with the acute reminder that I am missing out on living it fully. It’s a funny one because also ‘I’ cannot really speed the process up by wishful thinking or by getting emotionally involved. Genuine change does not go according to ‘my’ timeline.
“This fear I overcame by simply doing what I had decided to do despite my fears. This is not confronting the feeling of fear itself but simply setting oneself a goal in life and getting on with doing it. This way I did something useful with the fear by turning the feeling of fear into the thrill of discovery. I also did a similar thing with desire – I used it as the desire to succeed in my newfound life’s aim. Nurture was similarly utilized in wanting to be part of the ending to human suffering, and aggression was channelled into a quiet stubbornness and determination to succeed.”
Richard:
Pure contemplation is a state of unsullied wonderment: ‘how can this world happen?’, or ‘what is this universe doing here?’, or ‘where does this body come from?’. These questions are posed in such a way so as not to get a thought-out answer, but to simply wonder, in a pure contemplation of the actual. One stays with the notion: ‘I am this body’ and regards that magical world of the PCE. Opening up to that fairy tale-like world by seeing that it is indeed possible now makes it close … so close as to be already here. It is always already here. Regard the very best as possible for oneself … and for all human beings. There is a must in pure contemplation that something amazing can happen: all of a sudden ‘I’ am no more and the actual is already here. I am here where I always have been.
This is an interesting one, maybe someone could shed some light on it for me? Specifically the part - “one stays with the notion ‘I am this body’”
I have always avoided these notions as they seemed to me to be a sort of kidding myself, or splitting of myself. Because unless I am in a PCE I am not this body, I am ‘me’.
Perhaps it is a way to draw ‘myself’ closer to Actuality until ‘I’ go into abeyance, some version of fake it till you make it ?
Right so it’s sort of rooting ones contemplation in the fact that what one actually is, is this flesh and blood body. This is to ensure that the contemplation leads one towards a PCE as opposed to ASC.
Identity can very easily take up the whole of one’s attention, it’s like the Minotaur’s labyrinth. We here probably take it for granted somewhat but it’s radical to regard the ‘self’ as insubstantial
• [Richard]: ‘… the very stuff of this body (and all bodies) is the very same-same stuff as the stuff of the universe in that it comes out of the ground in the form of the carrots and lettuce and milk and cheese, and whatever else is consumed, in conjunction with the air breathed and the water drunk and the sunlight absorbed.
I am nothing other than that … that is what I am, literally’.
Were you to hold a hand up before the eyes, palm towards the face, and rotate it slowly to its obverse – all the while considering that the very stuff the hand is comprised of is as old as the universe – whilst looking from the front of the eyes, as it were (and not through the eyes), then what I am reporting/ describing/ explaining may very well become apparent as an experiential understanding.
RICHARD: Just so that there is no misunderstanding: what really worked, when the identity was that ‘Altered State Of Being’, was
(1) a continuation of the totally dedicated and/or devoted pure intent to evince what the PCE’s evidenced … and
(2) a furtherance of the irreversible momentum, or inevitability, already set in place on day one as the process is, essentially, that of escaping from one’s fate and attaining to one’s destiny … and
(3) a prolongation of the attentiveness as to how the only moment of being alive was experienced … and
(4) an utter lack of dignity in being so far up oneself (narcissistic) as to render the term ‘egotistical’ a mere bagatelle in comparison … and
(5) a sense of humour which, if nothing else, made possible (6) a delightful resurgence of the earlier felicity/innocuity which again brought about, in combination with sensuousness, an outstandingly ingenuous sense of amazement, marvel and wonder.
And it was that last-named – the wide-eyed wonder of naiveté – which resulted in apperceptiveness (unmediated perception).
hi henry, just before I read your above post, I ran across this one:
Peter: 1
The method of becoming free from the Human Condition is devastatingly simple but requires a few initial ingredients for success to be guaranteed.
A recognition that what you are currently doing is not working, an awareness of not being fully alive, an acknowledgement of living a second-rate life, the admission of failure in your relationships or on the spiritual path, an admission of not being free or maybe a haunting memory of a peak experience of perfection and purity.
A willingness or intent to make freedom from malice and sorrow one’s main ambition in life – to become happy and harmless.
An acknowledgement that the only moment one can experience life is this very moment.
What hit me hard, was the fact that I can only experience life at this very moment, I can not experience life in the past ( I can only “remember”/ imagine/ regret/ anger/ nostalgia etc. etc. ), same for the future ( I can only imagine it = hopes and fears / fantasies ) .
So I can choose to either “imagine” being alive – or – actually experience being alive at this very moment !
I think this will help me ( experientially ) much with applying the method
?