Kuba: Vineeto I read your reply to jamesjjoo whilst bearing in mind that what you are describing (the Actualism method) is something completely new, as in it is not some re-arrangement of the ‘tried and true’ ways, and it clicked.
It starts with the realisation that this moment which is happening now is my only moment of being alive, and it is never not this moment, furthermore it’s the realisation that this moment is actually happening, this business called being alive is actually taking place now.
So bearing the above in mind it is always silly to feel bad because of X, because I am wasting a precious opportunity to enjoy and appreciate life now, and as it is never any other time than now, I am wasting this precious opportunity for nothing. Torch bearer - #3 by Kub933
Hi Kuba,
The reason why the actualism method is so completely new is because Richard discovered the secret of actual time. Time does not move, it is always now. Time is the arena in which events happen. Events come and go and the arena itself is eternal. You can experience this in a PCE, and on becoming actually free this stillness is instantly apparent via the awareness that time does not move.
You have understood it well, and on deeper contemplating this wondrous fact that “now is my only moment of being alive” something magical can happen.
[Richard]: The purity of life emerges from the perfection that wells up constantly due to an immense stillness which is utterly immense in its scope and magnitude. This stillness of infinitude is that something which is precious. It is the life-giving foundation of all that is apparent. This stillness happens as me. This stillness is my essential disposition, for it is the principle character, the intrinsic basis of everything. It is the universe at its genesis. It is not, as it might commonly be supposed, at the centre of everything … there is no centre here. This stillness, which is everywhere all at once, is the be all and end all of life itself. I am the universe experiencing itself as a sensate, reflective human being.
(Richard's Selected Writing on The Universe) Richard’s Journal, 1997, Article Twenty-five
Clocks tick away – what they measure is the rotation of the earth, giving us day and night and everything in between. It’s an ongoing event, which we measure as time for the convenience of arranging events. Actual time is only now. This moment, which is the same anywhere and everywhere, is all there is. You cannot experience any other moment than this moment. Yes, you can remember past events, you can plan future events (you can imbue them with feelings like regret and worry to make them appear more real), but when an event is happening it happens now, in this moment. I can never run out of time – because it is always now.
Kuba: Actually considering this further there is also something to the fact that I am wasting this moment of being alive which is of a finite supply that highlights the silliness of feeling bad and also just how precious this moment of being alive is.
This is interesting to contemplate in light of mortality, I remember Richard writing that he would not change 1 little bit about this universe. Is it that mortality (a limited supply of time that one can experience being alive) is a key component to this precious aspect? Torch bearer - #4 by Kub933
The key component to this moment being “precious” is the fact that this moment is the only moment you can experience. Furthermore, by fully comprehending that this is the only moment you can actually experience you can tap into infinitude realizing experientially that it is never not this moment.
If you are feeling bad now, something precious has been wasted, which is this moment of being alive. The universe will go on forever but it is your conscious experience of being alive which is precious.
Mortality is inextricable intertwined with it because as humans we are aware that we will die one day. I can’t separate it out – being alive means that one day I won’t be alive. In other words, although it may sound strange – mortality is a precondition for something being alive (else it would be static). It is an intrinsic part and parcel of this universe being perfect, you cannot separate it out.
I guess it is somewhat funny that ‘I’ can feel resentful towards this universe for the fact of mortality, for not ‘getting enough time’ and yet ‘I’ am busy wasting each moment anyways.
Furthermore it is this fact of mortality which makes life precious anyways, so what is it that ‘I’ am asking for? An eternity to suffer?
I find this whole thing quite fascinating, what is kind of hanging in front of me now is - is it that mortality is actually a gift and not a curse?
Here is what Richard pointed out –
RICHARD: It is all part and parcel of the process whereby this universe can experience itself as a sensate and reflective human being: as such the universe can know itself apperceptively. What one does is acquiesce to life by embracing death … one wholeheartedly dedicates oneself to being here as the universe’s experience of itself right now: it is the unreserved !YES! to being alive as this flesh and blood body.
If it were not for physical death one could not be happy … let alone harmless.
RESPONDENT: I don’t disagree, but would like you to flesh that out a little.
RICHARD: The absolutely undeniable fact of physical death means that, in an ultimate sense, nothing really matters: as nothing lasts forever (matter arranges and rearranges itself endlessly totally wiping out whatever came before) there is nothing worth dying for. Hence playfulness … I could not be solemn if my life depended upon it.
Sincere … yes; serious … no way. (General Correspondence Number Nine)
As such, you could say that mortality is a gift (and certainly not a curse) – and the very awareness of it can have a beneficent and intensifying impact to lessen one’s inclination to waste this moment. To live it with all the enjoyment and appreciation possible and to dedicate one’s life whole-heartedly to a worthy cause.
The very possibility that ‘I’ can altruistically die (self-immolate) before physical death to set the actual body free for the benefit of this body, that body and every body is the greatest gift of all for every feeling being.
Is it that a benevolent universe is set up exactly in this way as to provide intrinsic meaning to being alive, including this crucial component of mortality? Torch bearer - #5 by Kub933
Mmh, the universe has not been set up – it has always been here. But I understand what you are asking. Without mortality, without constant change and rearrangement of matter, it would be a static universe, neither benevolent nor beneficent, let alone able to evolve life, and conscious life as we know it. Such a universe can only exist in the imagination science-fiction writers.
Thank you Kuba for your probing questions and contemplations into the secrets of an infinite and eternal universe – it was a special delight to answer.
Cheers Vineeto