Dear forum-goers,
I just received the following e-mail from Vineeto, which she wrote to me for publication to the forum.
I will leave it at that so everybody can process the news for themselves.
Best regards,
Claudiu
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I canāt believe this !
this is a really shocking event for me !
i thought he is going to live a 100 years !
i thought when i become actually free , i go and visit him , giving him the good news . i thought i am going to celebrate with him .
i know it is silly to feel bad , but i am sad ā¦so many tears , so many heart beating for him . so many things i wanted to tell him , to share with him , but he left ā¦it was too soon !
"I am mortal. Mortality is a fact and if one is to be at all scientific, one must stick to the facts. To avoid a fact is to avoid involvement ā¦ and there is no greater involvement than being here now. Time and mortality are inextricably linked. Mortality is essential in order to be here now, in eternal time. I am glad that I am mortal; if it were not for death, I could not be free to be here now. Perennial happiness is only possible because of death as extinction. This universe is perfect to the nth degree and I would not presume to change one little bit of it. To live with the fact is to live completely. Nothing is missing; nothing has ever been missing, nor ever will be missing. Life is already complete.
By avoiding death ā which is avoiding the fact ā āIā am standing in the way of the exquisite purity of being alive. By searching for Eternal Life,āIā shut āmyselfā off from the perfection of being here now. āIā am wasting āmyā time in the most insidious way possible; but then again, āIā am by nature cunning and deceitful. āIā will do anything but face the fact of āmyā own demise. Ironically, with āmyā psychological ādeathā comes release from the fears of physical death. All of the unnamed terrors surrounding death arise from apprehension as to what will happen to āmeā as a ābeingā. I regard death with equanimity; when it happens I will welcome it as I do the oblivion of deep sleep each night. Like sleep, it is an agreeable actual occurrence.
I am completely happy to be here now, securely inside eternal time."
-Richard
Death has been on my mind considerably these last few weeks, Richardās death is another reminder that that is what is comingā¦ this being alive is a contingent circumstance which will end.
Richardās accomplishment of becoming free could perhaps be the most impactful single thing to ever happen for humanity. He was involved in encouraging the rest of us right up to the end, with his most recent writings as well as having Srid visit for several weeks.
When I visited it was apparent that this becoming free is not something that he or anyone else could āgiveā me - it was up to me. That is only more clear now.
Edit:
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Came as quite a sudden shockā¦but strangely enough, about 10 seconds earlier, I was thinking about the death of more than a dozen people in a petrol pump tragedy here recently and was thinking in terms of death as the greatest motivator towards freedomā¦
But damnā¦Richard will be missedā¦just out of curiosityā¦I think he was 1947 born so he was 77 when he died?
Death of an actually free personā¦this is something Iāve often thought about and this is the first such eventā¦I often see videos n reels about longevity and how to achieve that but it always seems strange to meā¦living a very long life as a āprone to the full assault of human conditionā each moment again doesnāt seem appealing and a shorter lifespan free from the human condition sounds way more appealingā¦Richardās life certainly proves that !
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This reminds me of what Richard said that five minutes of af is better than a lifetime of the human condition.
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Pioneer Settlers Carving A Farm By Hand
Out Of Virgin Forest
I Volunteered for a Six-Year Stint
in the Military at Seventeen
if he was 17 here in this picture , that means he was born on 1948 or 1947
http://an.actualfreedom.com.au/default.htm
A Knobstick Wedding
I Had A Regular Family, Just As Most Peoples Do
A Tertiary Education In The Fine Arts
In My Late-Twenties
where I spent the first sixteen-seventeen years of my life
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Aah I got the details of his time, date n place of birth from an old mailā¦a chat with Justine when checking some astrology stuff with himā¦I have the exact time n place but will just say he was born in late March, 1947 at a place in Western Australiaā¦So yes, he was 77 when he passed away yesterday
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Dear all,
Thank you all for your posts and reactions. I was particularly moved when I saw the hibiscus-flower 
emoji reactions accumulating on the post ā I found it to be an appropriate homage and I am moved almost to tears writing about it now.
Vineeto has read your replies and wrote the following response:
I can confirm that Vineeto is writing in a way that she wouldnāt have before. Iām reminded of what Richard wrote shortly before the first batch of pioneers became newly free, where he āimpressed upon Vineeto the necessity of being out-from-control/in a different-way-of beingā which he wrote was āmost unusual of me to do soā (!) [source] Those extra-ordinary (as in unusual) circumstances bore great fruit soon thereafter.
Actual freedom is truly precious and apparently very fragile so long as only a handful of people are living it, and only one (!) living it fully.
It is up to us to make best use of the situation, allow ourselves to be lifted forth by nurturing and expressing ādeep and abiding appreciation for the purity and perfection that exists everywhere around youā, take advantage of this opportunity to do so, and let this take us to the cusp of freedom and then across!
Best and sincere regards,
Claudiu
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Thanks for sharing these Claudiu !..In all my generally suppressed stereotypical āpsychological manā identity, I welled up around my eyes too upon hearing this news
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Usually when someone dies you say Rest in Peace. But there is no need to say that for Richard, he achieved something far better, he lived in peace.
I have so much appreciation for the man who brought this to the world. I had hoped to meet him one day, in a few years time when my life circumstances were different, but it wasnāt to be.
It also strikes me that Vineeto is the only fully free person on this planet now. Certainly some impetus for all of us to make progress.
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Thanks for sharing the news @claudiu and thanks to Vineeto for her openness and her message of motivation.
Slightly ironic that I was actually writing several draft messages with the hope of a Richard response, one was on the subject of death/mortality, another about health anxiety and another about grief.
For so many years I had a chance to ask questions, since the Topica forum days but never made the most of that opportunity.
My friend Nadeem who introduced me to AF, had first encountered Richard around 2001. He encountered him in certain forums and other discussions on philosophy, spirituality before becoming aware of the AF site etc. I recall him discussing about this person with interesting ideas on the self etc before fully finding out more about him. That is when I was 17 years old and I am 39 now.
My initial reaction to Richard was such disdain and almost hatred at first. I was so dedicated to prove him wrong. He really struck every nerve that I had. I donāt think I ever had such a strong U-turn in my reaction to somebody before. I have nothing but appreciation.
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A life well-lived and then some. Thank you @claudiu for keeping us posted. What Vineeto wrote was very validating to read, and since yesterday I have been noticing her words being naturally expressed in a few friends and myself. The stakes have gotten higher and itās up to us to keep this flame (an actual freedom from the human condition) alive. Instead of anxiety or trepidation, itās actually fun and exciting to contemplate.
If she has any further explanation or direction on how to make the most of this eventous moment, Iād be very keen to read it, so thank you for keeping us abreast.
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āI am the universeās experience of itself. The limpid and lucid perfection and purity of being here now, as-I-am, is akin to the crystalline perfection and purity seen in a dew-drop hanging from the tip of a leaf in the early-morning sunshine; the sunrise strikes the transparent dew-drop with its warming rays, highlighting the flawless correctness of the tear-drop shape with its bellied form. One is left almost breathless with wonder at the immaculate simplicity so exemplified ā¦ā
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Iām currently on an international trip with a lot of delays happening. When I read the thread title I was just completely saddened and shocked. It was all I could think about this whole trip. The first fully actually free person is gone. I never went to meet him due to wanting to become free without having met him but now I wish that I had went out to see him. I may not be actually free yet but Richard had a huge impact on the way I think and see the world. Like many others, I initially had an adversarial attitude to his writings but the facts that he so meticulously laid out spoke for themselves. Even just approaching the world through that way has lessened the conflict in my life. No one could write like he could. He will indeed be greatly missed.
Iāve also taken note of Vineetoās response and will not put this energy to waste.
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This is so very strange. The last two weeks have been quite rife with death but despite other sudden passings this was the most shocking to me. Richard was absolutely formative in how my worldview was shaped for the past 20 years and he often managed to put to words things that Iām still far too bad at expressing verbally myself (in fairness, Vineeto and Peter were also quite helpful in this regard).
While reading Vineetoās response, I remember starting out thinking āhowās this going to work out without Richardā and during reading my whole world seemed to shift to āof course itās like this, itās always been supposed to be like thisā. Itās very difficult to explain how my entire thought process changed, but it seemed fundamental at the time. Thereās been a remarkable stillness for the past few days. Perhaps itās because Iām on a short leave from work, perhaps itās something else.
Also, this stood out to me in what Vineeto wrote (and Iām not sure if itās self-evident to others, but to me it was both a discovery and a reflection of what I started doing the past week, for reasons I didnāt know at the time):
Thank you Richard for deciding to go public all those years ago, and thank you Vineeto for showing this woman that Richard wasnāt a freak of nature and that Actualism wasnāt a boyās club. I wouldnāt have accepted it anyway 
, but it gave me less excuses for not taking the plungeā¦ and the way things are currently headed, I think, in a weird roundabout way, the events that have transpired have blown the last few excuses to smithereens.
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Also, this almost brought tears to my eyes:
All this wanting to change the world and itās always right in front of me. Iām a right daft cunt sometimes 
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This news has been on my mind constantly since first reading about it. It is such a salient event because of the impact that Richard had on the world and because of the exceptional life he lived. There is just so much to process here, I am constantly finding myself drawn to swim in this deep (seemingly bottomless) and abiding appreciation for the kind of person that he was, in so many respects.
I want to be able to write something that would give homage to the kind of person that he was but I realise it would not even scratch the surface. So yes as per Vineetoās writing letās turn the energy of this seemingly bottomless appreciation for Richard in line with the 1 thing that would indeed pay homage to his life - an actual freedom from the human condition in another human being.
Something that is constantly popping up in my head - āWhat an incredible human being he was, and what an incredible life he livedā - this means I can be likewise incredible, why not?
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It is unequivocally clear that something of great import is currently happening.
Consider the following (emphases added):
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Vineeto also wrote to me the following on Jun 7th:
VINEETO: It seems as if since then [around June 1st, before Richard passed away] floodgates of immense appreciation both in Richard and me have opened up, such deep and moving appreciation for the perfection all around, for instance every tiny detail in nature, so perfect, so precise as well as the vastness of perfection when you contemplate the universe beyond our own planet. [ā¦]
And her experience now:
VINEETO: When I contemplate right now pure intent to determine the quality of my experience of it, it is a very powerful all-permeating, oft-times overwhelming (until I get used to it I guess) purity of everything I see and everything that is, accompanied by a deep appreciation of it being so.
And the following is also relevant:
VINEETO: What I mainly noticed [since becoming fully free] is the immense increase, and permanency, in appreciation of everything, and Richard, before his death, expressed this immense appreciation several times, to you, then to me as described above, then commenting on the perfection of it all from the tiniest detail to the vastness of the universe. Note that his last article is about āMarvelling At How Well-Equipped Human Beings Areā, i.e. about appreciation.
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I can also confirm my experience of being alive has transformed significantly. A deep and meaningfully appreciation as a way of being alive is readily available now. On a walk yesterday around the stunning sea-side cliffs near where I live, I had several moments where I experienced it as what it would be like to be actually free ā everything in its place, everything perfect, everything a joyful expression of and participation in this grand playtime of what it means to be alive, life itself being exactly like what it is to be a kid playing with their fellow mates.
Actively appreciating this transformation seems to be the key to dynamically enabling it to continue!
I am no longer content to sit back and cease progressing forwards. When I woke up today and detected that I might be reverting back to normal, I had a visceral reaction like !NO! I will not let that happen this time! Now is the time to actually resolve the last lingering objections and issues that are preventing me from going all the way.
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What a magical unfolding it is that is happening now, apparently global in scope (as in not limited to any physical area or by any distance).
Best regards,
Claudiu
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Letās see what happens. Wishing you all the safest of travels along the safest path in existence. 
PS. I did finally manage to put words on one thing I noticed happening after Richard had passed and Vineeto posted her response; a deep appreciation for her. Not reverence, not putting her on a pedestal (as I was sometimes prone to do with especially Richard, but also other actually free persons before), but something else. An appreciation of her having ātaken over the torchā, so to speak. Itās like a deep (base-of-being deep), solid call to action and compulsion at the same time, but without any instinctual or emotional tinge to it.
Normally I would not write this down (as it seems slightly insane) but itās been buzzing at the back of my mind for quite some time now and hasnāt simmered down one iota.
Constantly keeping tabs on myself to make sure I donāt get pulled into the same emotional dead ends that have happened with me before, but this genuinely seems like the real thing.
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