# Actual Freedom – Selected Correspondence by Topic

Richard’s Selected Correspondence ## On Here and Now Here RESPONDENT: (For the ‘I’ everything stops, but for the native intelligence, doesn’t everything come together in a manner of speaking?). RICHARD: In a manner of speaking ...yes (except that it has been together all along but could hardly get a word in edgeways, so to speak, and in those moments has no hindrance). RESPONDENT: I experience that as something seemingly supremely-fine, and massively so (beyond massively), over and over and over and over ... as I’ve been reading. So, for what it’s worth, it’s clear to me what you are intending to do with your writing (as far as I’ve been able to see into it so far), and that it is having exactly the intended effect here. RICHARD: The way I have put it previously is this: • [Richard]: ‘... as what I write about life here in this actual world is a report coming immediately from the direct experience of this beginningless and endless moment – there is this which is actually happening and the words form themselves in accord to the very thing being referred to as it is occurring – it makes no difference in regards freshness on what occasion they are written. In other words: being already always fresh the words are an active catalyst which will catapult the reader, who reads with all their being, into the magical wonder-land this verdant and azure planet actually is. Then actuality speaks for itself’. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 44g, 6 May 2004). RESPONDENT: Are you conscious now? RICHARD: Yes. RESPONDENT: Conscious of what? RICHARD: Primarily, of the infinitude this physical universe actually is ... as this flesh and blood body only (sans identity in toto) I am proprioceptively conscious of being just here, right now and, as such, the other somatic perceptions currently in operation – tactile, olfactive, visual, audile – are direct: this skin is savouring the touch, the caress, of the mid-winter ambience; these nostrils are rejoicing in the abundance of aromas and scents drifting fragrantly all about; these retinas are delighting in the profusion of colour and texture and form; these eardrums are revelling in the cadence of tones as their resonance and timbre fills the air. Further to that this mind, other than the sheer enjoyment and appreciation of being alive as this flesh and blood body, is ambling along in neutral as all the while there is the apperceptive wonder that this marvellous paradise actually exists in all its vast array. RESPONDENT: It appears that Actual Freedom is akin to the effects of psychotropic drugs when not overdosed ... RICHARD: That is how my condition appeared to the psychiatrist mentioned above ... when he was not likening it to Mr. Gotama the Sakyan’s experience that is. Viz.: • [Richard]: ‘... I am yet to meet an atheist who does not ponder, when questioned deeply, whether there may be something substantive post-mortem after all. For example, many years ago I went to see an accredited psychiatrist and established right from the beginning that he be an atheistic materialist – he said emphatically upon being questioned rather rigorously in this regard that everything was material and modifications of same including consciousness itself – because another psychiatrist I had previously seen was exigently talking about guardian angels looking after me within the first five minutes of our discussion ... yet when regaling this second psychiatrist of my on-going experiencing of life in this actual world his eyes opened in awe as the full import (of what he heard) struck home and he said ‘you may very well be the next Buddha we have all been waiting for’. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 27e, 24 January 2003). RESPONDENT: ... and when one does not loose oneself in the imagination, but stays in the here & now ... RICHARD: As the term [quote] ‘here & now’ [endquote] is extensively used in religio-spiritual/ mystic-metaphysical texts to refer to a metaphysical dimension (a spaceless and timeless realm) the utilisation of that spatial and temporal terminology is disingenuous to say the least. For example: • [Co-Respondent]: ‘When I was in ASC under the influence of Ecstasy, I was confused trying to sort out what had been going on. Then my friend said ‘BE HERE’ and hit the floor just in front of me. • [Richard]: ‘Then your friend has hopelessly misunderstood what the sages having been saying for millennia ... the ‘be here’ of the god-men and gurus (and their ‘now’) is a metaphysical ‘here and now’ (a timeless and spaceless void) that has nothing to do with literally being here – now – in actual space and time. Indeed, Mr. Mohan ‘Rajneesh’ Jain oft-times used the metaphysical word ‘herenow’ to distinguish it from the (physical) spatial and temporal location ... and it is anywhere but here at this place in infinite space and anywhen but now at this moment in eternal time. When the mystics say: ‘I am Timeless and Spaceless; Unborn and Undying; Birthless and Deathless’ and so on, what do you take it that they mean? Because, as this physical body has a limited life-span, they can only be referring to themselves as being a psychic entity receiving its post-mortem reward of immortality. Thus the reality of their psychic ‘being here’ is vastly different to the actuality of sensately being here’. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 14, 19 April 1999). RESPONDENT: ... and without addicting qualities ... RICHARD: As I understand it lysergic acid diethylamide is not addictive. RESPONDENT: Hi, this is all very interesting and delightful! I have been wondering if anyone else was having an experience similar to mine ... for the last year I have felt the barrier between the here and now and the illusory self-created now slowly but surely becoming transparent. RICHARD: Welcome to The Actual Freedom Mailing List, ... I usually wait for a week or two before replying, so that others can respond first, as I do not wish to dominate the mailing list anymore than I already do by being what I am (nor can I respond to each and every e-mail anyway) but as three-plus weeks have gone by it looks as if nobody else is going to pick-up on your query. As I would have to recall events of over two decades ago, in order to relate to your experience of this past year, your query may be better served if I were to give a more general response: I can appreciate that, upon directly experiencing being just here, at this place in infinite space, right now, at this moment in eternal time, the normal here and now (what you describe as ‘the illusory self-created here’ and now) as experienced by maybe 6.0 billion peoples is seen as having been but an illusion. I can also appreciate that, whilst once more living in ‘the illusory self-created here’ and now, there seems to be a barrier betwixt the two worlds ... and that, further, the barrier can become ‘slowly but surely’ transparent. What I would like to point out, though, is that any barrier is as illusory as ‘the illusory self-created here’ and now ... and, furthermore, so too is any transparency. In other words: there is either the direct experience ... or there is not. RESPONDENT: If you have arrived at your ‘destiny’ you should know that you have arrived at the height of your self-invented illusion. RICHARD: May I ask? Are you of that school of thought that says that the journey is the thing ... that one never arrives? RESPONDENT: Destiny? What is that? RICHARD: Destination, of course. Which is here ... now. Where one is living at this moment in eternal time and this place in infinite space one is experiencing the purity and perfection of the infinitude of this very actual universe. One is this universe’s experience of itself as a sensate and reflective human being. This is one’s destiny. RESPONDENT: Somebody in charge has created a state of being especially for you? RICHARD: Contrary to popular belief, there is no one in charge of the universe. It is perfectly capable of looking after itself. There is no disembodied ‘intelligence’ that is creating anything. This universe is already here ... and it is always now. RESPONDENT: I am familiar with the term ‘already always here’. Da Free John, the ‘enlightened one’ from California used it often. It was probably his destiny too. RICHARD: He is a prime example of someone deluded enough to not only believe that there is god but to fondly imagine that he is it. He thus denies any ultimate reality to this material universe. Consequently his ‘here’ or his ‘now’ is a spiritual or mystical ‘here and now’ ... a dimension that is beyond time and space. Mr Mohan ‘Rajneesh’ Jain used the term ‘herenow’ ... which is also a metaphysical dimension that has nothing to do with the actuality of this moment in eternal time and this place in infinite space. RESPONDENT: What is self-centred is the idea that I am the centre of the universe. RICHARD: Aye ... that is indeed self-centred. However, there is no centre to the universe. As I have written before: •‘What one is as this body is this material universe experiencing itself as a sensate, reflective human being. The physical space of this universe is infinite and its time is eternal ... thus the infinitude of this very material universe has no beginning and no ending ... and therefore no middle. There are no edges to this universe, which means that there is no centre, either. We are all coming from nowhere and are not going anywhere for there is nowhere to come from nor anywhere to go too. We are nowhere in particular ... which means we are anywhere at all. In the infinitude of the universe one finds oneself to be already here, and as it is always now, one can not get away from this place in space and this moment in time. By being here as-this-body one finds that this moment in time has no duration as in now and then – because the immediate is the ultimate – and that this place in space has no distance as in here and there – for the relative is the absolute’. (Richard, List B, No. 12, 12 March 1998). In other words: I am always here and it is already now. RESPONDENT: I disagree because ‘Timeless, Spaceless and Formless’ has nothing to do with an other worldly experience. Rather, it is the here and now experience of the ‘actual world’ when one is free of excess emotional and intellectual baggage and able to be simply aware. RICHARD: Yet the ‘here and now’ of the God-Men and Gurus is a metaphysical ‘here and now’ that has nothing to do with literally being here now in actual space and actual time. Indeed, there is oft-times the use the metaphysical word ‘herenow’ to distinguish it from the spatial and temporal location ... and it is anywhere but here as this place in infinite space and anywhere but now as this moment in eternal time. When the mystics say: ‘I am Timeless and Spaceless; Unborn and Undying; Birthless and Deathless’ and so on, what do you take it that they mean? Because, as this physical body has a limited life-span, they can only be referring to themselves as being a non-physical ‘whatever’ receiving its post-mortem reward of immortality. Thus the reality of their immaterial ‘here and now’ is vastly different to the physical actuality of sensately being here now. RESPONDENT: Creation ... which has never been before and will never be again. RICHARD: The only thing that has never been before and never will be again is this moment in time and this place in space. By being here – as this body – at this moment in time and at this place in space, one experiences the infinity of space now and the eternity of time here. This is actual. You see, what one is as this body is this material universe experiencing itself as a sensate, reflective human being. The physical space of this universe is infinite and its time is eternal ... thus the infinitude of this very material universe has no beginning and no ending ... and therefore no middle. There are no edges to this universe, which means that there is no centre, either. We are all coming from nowhere and are not going anywhere for there is nowhere to come from nor anywhere to go too. We are nowhere in particular ... which means we are anywhere at all. In the infinitude of the universe one finds oneself to be already here, and as it is always now, one can not get away from this place in space and this moment in time. By being here as-this-body one finds that this moment in time has no duration as in now and then – because the immediate is the ultimate – and that this place in space has no distance as in here and there – for the relative is the absolute. As I am always here and it is already now, the spurious immortality of some specious after-life fades into the oblivion it deserves. RICHARD: Because there is no good or evil in the actual world of sensual delight – where I live as this flesh and blood body – one then lives freely in the magical paradise that this verdant earth floating in the infinitude of the universe actually is. Being here at this moment in time and this place in space is to be living in a fairy-tale-like ambience that is never-ending. RESPONDENT: Does this fairy-tale-like ambience of yours have any borders? RICHARD: None whatsoever ... the physical space of this universe is infinite and its time is eternal ... thus the infinitude of this very material universe has no beginning and no ending ... and therefore no middle. There are no edges to this universe, which means that there is no centre, either. You see, what one is as this body is this material universe experiencing itself as a sensate, reflective human being. We are all coming from nowhere and are not going anywhere for there is nowhere to come from nor anywhere to go to. We are nowhere in particular ... which means we are anywhere at all. In the infinitude of the universe one finds oneself to be already here, and as it is always now, one can not get away from this place in space and this moment in time. By being here as-this-body one finds that this moment in time has no duration as in now and then – because the immediate is the ultimate – and that this place in space has no distance as in here and there – for the relative is the absolute. In other words: I am always here and it is already now. Now RICHARD: Meanwhile, here on earth in this never-changing moment, this ever-changing materiality keeps right on keeping on – ever-dynamic/ never static, ever-fresh/ never-stale, ever-new/ never-old, ever-novel/ never-hackneyed – being the veritable perpetuus mobilis it is. Have you really never noticed that this moment is eternal (aka beyond change)? RICHARD: One is always here and it is already now ... there can be nothing more permanent, more perpetual a continuity, than this very place here in infinite space now at this very moment in eternal time. What ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul was searching for in the ‘timeless and spaceless and formless’ dimension was already always here in time and space as form ... for there is nothing else than this actual world. And this actual world is an ambrosial paradise. RESPONDENT: Are you saying that form is realized as formless, or that there is no formlessness to be realized? RICHARD: There is no ‘formless’ outside of a person’s intuitive/ imaginative faculty. RESPONDENT: You said above that what I was searching for in the formless was always here in time and space as form. That seems to be saying form is emptiness. But then you clarify that you mean there is no actual formlessness. RICHARD: Yes, ‘formlessness’ resides only in the intuitive/ imaginative faculty ... for where else could it reside? As the physical infinitude that this very material universe actually is, is comprised of an unlimited amount of matter perpetually arranging and rearranging itself in endless varieties of form all over the unbounded reaches of infinite space throughout the immeasurable extent of eternal time, then one must posit another realm other than actuality. Therefore it can only be fantasy and not fact ... and from whence comes fantasy? The intuitive/ imaginative faculty. RESPONDENT: Isn’t an interpretation of what is constantly changing as consisting of solid, static, and unchanging forms an image-based fantasy? RICHARD: Yes ... because everything is actually in a constant state of flux. Nothing stays the same, each moment again everything is novel, fresh, vital, dynamic. One can never, ever be bored. RESPONDENT: We know that in fact there is no ‘thing’ that exists separately in time, yet that is the way that reality is ordinarily perceived. RICHARD: Yes ... the form, time and space of this very material universe is seamless. RESPONDENT: The tree is never twice the same, each moment the tree is unique just as it is. RICHARD: The tree has never been here before ... right now. We are all being in this particular moment at this particular place for the very first time ... this particular moment and this particular place has never been before and therefore exists at the ‘cutting-edge’ of certainty each moment again. This is thrilling, to say the least. RESPONDENT: So is the form of tree perceived as on-going real or is it but a projection of thought and memory? RICHARD: All form (an unlimited amount of matter perpetually arranging and rearranging itself in endless varieties) is as actual as the immeasurable extent of eternal time is actual and is as actual as the unbounded reaches of infinite space is actual. And this actuality is enormous ... staggeringly stupendous. So staggering that it makes the humility (pride standing on its head) so praised by mystics seem trite in comparison. There is no comparison, actually. * RESPONDENT: If it is the experiencer that makes efforts to be aware and stay aware, the centre is strengthened, not dissolved, right? RICHARD: Since when has naiveté been sudorific? RESPONDENT: A PCE means that the centre is momentarily dissolved. RICHARD: No, a pure consciousness experience (PCE) is when the identity in toto, and not just its centre, is temporarily in abeyance ... so that one is nothing other than a flesh and blood body living life intimately on this verdant and azure paradise. As one has been all along. RESPONDENT: In order for that to occur, the illusion of being in time has to stop. RICHARD: No, in order for a PCE to occur the identity in toto goes into abeyance ... then one is where one has always been: just here right now at this moment in eternal time. Have you not ever noticed that it is never not this moment? RESPONDENT: That is why awareness of death or impermanence can be a trigger. Whatever is being experienced now is not ‘going’ anywhere. It is just a mind thing, a movement of thought. RICHARD: What one is as this flesh and blood body only is this material universe experiencing itself as an apperceptive human being and, as its physical space is infinite, and as its time is eternal, and as its matter is perpetual, then the infinitude which this universe actually is has no beginning and no ending and therefore no middle. As there are no edges to this universe, which means that there is no centre either, one is neither coming from anywhere nor going anywhere for there is nowhere to come from nor anywhere to go to. By being here as-this-body now one is nowhere in particular – which means one is anywhere at all – and in the infinitude of the universe one finds oneself to be already here and, as it is always now, one cannot ever get away from this place in space and this moment in time anyway. Furthermore, one finds that this moment in time has no duration as in now and then – because the immediate is the ultimate – and that this place in space has no distance as in here and there – for the relative is the absolute. In other words: one is always here as it is already now. RESPONDENT: Psychologically there is no tomorrow. Tomorrow is just a projection and yesterday is just memory. RICHARD: Aye, the past, although it was actual whilst it was happening, is not actual now; the future, although it will be actual when it happens, is not actual now. Only this moment is ever actual. * RICHARD: I have never made a secret of what my agenda is in writing to this mailing list (peace-on-earth, in this lifetime, as this flesh and blood body) and I have no reservations whatsoever about endeavouring to persuade another to read with both eyes ... but to describe this pastime as ‘pushing a particular set of conclusions’ is to miss the point entirely. RESPONDENT: I agree that if there is a PCE, for some people the memory itself can be a trigger for the actuality. But that doesn’t seem to be the case for most people. RICHARD: One of the many things I did, in the years before I went public, was to ascertain whether people from all walks of life could recall having had a pure consciousness experience (PCE) – as distinct from an altered state of consciousness (ASC) – for obvious reasons. Sometimes it took a quite a while for them to remember – once it took over three hours of intensive description/ discussion – as being sans any affective content whatsoever the PCE cannot be stored in the affective memory banks (which is where the ASC is primarily located) ... plus they are much more common in childhood and require further reach. Everybody I spoke to at length – everybody – could recall at least one PCE ... and usually more RESPONDENT: Some of us find keen awareness of death or the truth of impermanence tends to trigger PCE but again, that does not seem to be so for most others I have talked with, unfortunately. RICHARD: Mostly PCE’s happen for no demonstrable reason at all – as in being a serendipitous event – and quite often occur in everyday surroundings doing everyday things ... I can recall being on a farmhouse verandah at age eight, looking into the glistening white of a full glass of milk in the early morning sunshine, when it happened for the entity within. As for ‘impermanence’ ... as the PCE evidences that it is never not this moment then permanence is already always here. RESPONDENT: When I was in ASC under the influence of Ecstasy, I was confused trying to sort out what had been going on. Then my friend said ‘BE HERE’ and hit the floor just in front of me. RICHARD: Then your friend has hopelessly misunderstood what the sages having been saying for millennia ... the ‘be here’ of the god-men and gurus (and their ‘now’) is a metaphysical ‘here and now’ (a timeless and spaceless void) that has nothing to do with literally being here – now – in actual space and time. Indeed, Mr. Mohan ‘Rajneesh’ Jain oft-times used the metaphysical word ‘herenow’ to distinguish it from the (physical) spatial and temporal location ... and it is anywhere but here as this place in infinite space and anywhere but now as this moment in eternal time. When the mystics say: ‘I am Timeless and Spaceless; Unborn and Undying; Birthless and Deathless’ and so on, what do you take it that they mean? Because, as this physical body has a limited life-span, they can only be referring to themselves as being a psychic entity receiving its post-mortem reward of immortality. Thus the reality of their psychic ‘being here’ is vastly different to the actuality of sensately being here. RESPONDENT: And I got it with a belly laughter that the very searching itself is the hindrance of finding. RICHARD: Yet if one does not seek one will never find; if one does not explore one will never uncover; if one does not investigate one will never discover that this moment is hanging in eternal time like this planet is hanging in infinite space. There is no beginning or end to the infinitude of this universe’s space and time, therefore there is no middle, no centre. Thus, here is nowhere in particular and now is nowhen specifically ... one is easily always here as it is already now. In apperceptive awareness – which is this flesh and blood body being conscious sans ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul – there is the direct experience of the immediate being the ultimate and the relative being the absolute. * RESPONDENT: [Rajneesh quote]: ‘Religion is not any ideology. Religion does not believe in any ideals. Religion is to become aware of the impossibility of idealism – of all idealism. Religion is to live here and now, and idealism goes on conditioning your mind to live somewhere else’. RICHARD: By clearly defining religion as ‘to live here and now’ then his ‘here and now’ is a metaphysical ‘here and now’ (a timeless and spaceless void) and has nothing to do with the secular ‘here’ – as in walking and talking, eating and drinking; urinating and defecating – and the secular ‘now’ as in the clock marking the passage of the sun through the sky ... would you not agree? Secondly, as a secular consciousness is happening at this place in material space and in this moment in phenomenal time as a tangible flesh and blood body only, then where do you consider a religious person’s consciousness resides? Remember, Mr. Mohan ‘Rajneesh’ Jain repeatedly said: ‘I am not the body’ ... and the body is most definitely here in physical space and now in observable time. Could you throw some light upon this matter for me? Interestingly enough, Mr. Gotama the Sakyan said: ‘The Tathagata (...) is the essence which is the reality of matter, but he is not matter (...) he is neither here, nor there, nor anywhere else’. Is it not strange that he would clearly say that he is ‘not here’? How about this one: ‘The Tathagata has neither whence nor whither, and therefore He is called ‘Tathagata’. Is it not curious that he is ‘not whence or wither’ because a flesh and blood body has certainly come and gone? And last, but not least, Mr. Gotama the Sakyan said: ‘Since I became Buddha, there have passed infinite, boundless, hundreds, thousands, millions, trillions, myriads of eons’. As the Buddhists text place him circa 500 BCE (2,500 years ago) would you say that he comprehends time, as measured by the physical phenomenon of day and night, as we mere mortals do ... or is he highly confused? RESPONDENT: If you can, try asking that question without moving your tongue. Not moving your tongue is very effective in meditation. When we cease moving our tongue, our thinking quiets. As our thinking quiets, we merge more and more with the Now in the present. RICHARD: I have never meditated (either with or without moving the tongue) so I cannot comment on your advice. However, if you are advocating this technique as being an effective method to ‘merge more and more with the Now’ it does expose the lie of your protestations about how you ‘do not ‘become love’; you are already Love’. In other words: • You do not merge more and more with the Now; you are already Now. But never mind ... you would make a good engineer. RESPONDENT: Richard, according to his own articulated dialogue, has not, in this lifetime, ever been in the Now. RICHARD: Except that I repeatedly say that the ‘Me’ that was did live ‘in the Now’ for eleven years ... thus I have intimate knowledge of what you speak of. The exchange you are referring to went like this: • [No. 7]: ‘Awareness is in the Now’. • [Richard]: ‘Everything is happening only at this moment in eternal time ... there is nowhere or nowhen else than just here right now’. • [No. 7]: ‘Try thinking you are in the Now. You can not do it’. • [Richard]: ‘But I am not ‘in the Now’ ... this flesh and blood body is already always just here at this place in infinite space right now at this moment in eternal time’. (Richard, List C, No. 7, 3 July 2000). This is because there are three I’s altogether ... but only one is actual. RICHARD: (...) The past, although it did happen, is not actual now. The future, though it will happen, is not actual now. Only now is actual. Yesterday’s happiness and harmlessness does not mean a thing if one is miserable and malicious now and a hoped-for happiness and harmlessness tomorrow is to but waste this moment of being alive in waiting. All one gets by waiting is more waiting. Thus any ‘change’ can only happen now. The jumping in point is always here; it is at this moment in time and this place in space. Thus, if one misses it this time around, hey presto, one has another chance immediately. Life is excellent at providing opportunities like this. What ‘I’ did, all those years ago, was to devise a remarkably effective way to be able to enjoy and appreciate this moment of being alive each moment again (I know that methods are to be actively discouraged, in some people’s eyes, but this one worked). It does take some doing to start off with but, as success after success starts to multiply exponentially, it becomes progressively easier to enjoy and appreciate being here each moment again. One begins by asking, each moment again, ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive’? Note: asking how one is experiencing this moment of being alive is not the actualism method; consistently enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive is what the actualism method is. And this is because the actualism method is all about consciously and knowingly imitating life in the actual world. Also, by virtue of proceeding in this manner the means to the end – an ongoing enjoyment and appreciation – are no different to the end itself. * The more one enjoys and appreciates being just here right now – to the point of excellence being the norm – the greater the likelihood of a PCE happening ... a grim and/or glum person has no chance whatsoever of allowing the magical event, which indubitably shows where everyone has being going awry, to occur. Plus any analysing and/or psychologising and/or philosophising whilst one is in the grip of debilitating feelings usually does not achieve much (other than spiralling around and around in varying degrees of despair and despondency or whatever) anyway. The wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition is marked by enjoyment and appreciation – the sheer delight of being as happy and harmless as is humanly possible whilst remaining a ‘self’ – and the slightest diminishment of such felicity/ innocuity is a warning signal (a flashing red light as it were) that one has inadvertently wandered off the way. One is thus soon back on track ... and all because of everyday events. * (...) 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. An apperceptive awareness can be evoked by paying exclusive attention to being fully alive right now. This moment is your only moment of being alive ... one is never alive at any other time than now. And, wherever you are, one is always here ... even if you start walking over to ‘there’, along the way to ‘there’ you are always here ... and when you arrive ‘there’, it too is here. Thus attention becomes a fascination with the fact that one is always here ... and it is already now. Fascination leads to reflective contemplation. As one is already here, and it is always now ... then one has arrived before one starts. The potent combination of attention, fascination, reflection and contemplation produces apperception, which happens when the mind becomes aware of itself. Apperception is an awareness of consciousness. It is not ‘I’ being aware of ‘me’ being conscious; it is the mind’s awareness of itself. Apperception – a way of seeing that can be arrived at by reflective and fascinating contemplative thought – is when ‘I’ cease thinking and thinking takes place of its own accord ... and ‘me’ disappears along with all the feelings. Such a mind, being free of the thinker and the feeler – ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul – is capable of immense clarity and purity ... as a sensate body only, one is automatically benevolent and benign. RESPONDENT: What one does in the present moment, obviously effects what one ‘incarnates’ as in the next moment. RICHARD: Why do you put the word < incarnates > in quotes for? If it was the appropriate word to use it would stand on its own merits. The fact that you have to do so indicates that you are making a mystical word do something it is not intended to do. RESPONDENT: One ends conflict now, or suffering has continuation through time. RICHARD: It is possible to be free of the Human Condition in this life you are living now. In fact, if you do not become free of the Human Condition in this life you never will. Physical death is the end. Finish. Not that it matters at all then as physical death is oblivion. RESPONDENT: Now is key. Death cuts the chain. RICHARD: The ending of identity – ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul – can only happen now at this moment in eternal time and here at this place in infinite space ... yes. This death, however, does not ‘cut the ch ain’ ... it means the end of the chain. RESPONDENT: Future lives in a physical sense is only a way of (falsely) procrastinating one’s responsibility. RICHARD: If future lives are a false procrastination ... then what is a true procrastination? RESPONDENT No. 33: I don’t understand this. Krishnamurti repeatedly said that if someone found the root cause of sorrow, sorrow ends, completely, once and for all. He also said that irritation (anger) is violence and if you see the danger of it, it ends, completely, and for all time. Do you think he was talking about a theoretical ending of sorrow and violence? RICHARD: It is useful to bear in mind that primarily what he was talking about was stepping out of the stream so that it does not go on after physical death (just as all the saints, sages and seers have said in their own way throughout recorded history). (Richard, List B, No. 33d, 26 January 2001). RESPONDENT No. 20: Stepping out of the stream is not ‘so that it does not go on after physical death’. But so it does not continue in the here and now. RESPONDENT: That is correct, for this is the only time there ever is to be timeless. RICHARD: Where one lets the moment live one – rather than what is called ‘living in the present’ – it will be seen with startling clarity that this moment is eternal ... and not ‘timeless’. Anyone who succeeds in ‘living in the present’, which is experienced as being that fleeting moment sandwiched between the past and the future, is present as a self (albeit an impersonal self) in/as an oceanic feeling of oneness ... which gives the impression of being ‘timeless’. This moment is not ‘timeless’ ... for, although the fact is that it has no duration, as ‘then’ and ‘now’ and ‘then’ (was here then, is here now, will be here then), it does not negate the fact that this moment is already always here now (eternally here). It is never not this moment ... ‘tis not fleeting at all. RESPONDENT: This is quite a shot in the arm. I realised with this exchange more clearly than ever before the difference between enjoying the moment and conditional pleasure seeking. I was riding my bike today thinking about how someone had said something to make me sad, because it reminded me of [whatever]. I tried to cheer myself up by thinking contrary thoughts. Then I yanked my head away and looked at the trees waving about in the warm summer air. They seemed gay to a point of being ridiculous. The whole world looked ridiculously gay and merry in a baffling way. The world seemed to be turning in on itself. It was stupendous! (Jan 4, 12:35 AM; #161xx) RICHARD: G’day Srinath, Before commenting on your above [quote] ‘enjoying the moment’ [endquote] post, I will first draw your attention to two specific portions of your 5th email to this forum (16 days after you subscribed). Viz.: #151xx Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 02:34:44 -0000 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Disassociation? • [Srinath]: [...]. In my life I experience dissociation as a ‘fog’ or sleepiness in my head when I try to resist something that is happening in the moment eg: forced to sit and listen to a boring / disagreeable person at a party for instance. [...]. I can see that in the effort to become happy and harmless in the moment the subtle and unconscious tendency to shove my problems out of sight until I’ve managed to repress a lot of stuff. [...]. Upon a closer inspection it will be seen how you have twice used the expression [quote] ‘in the moment’ [endquote]. There is another instance in your 11th email, coupled with the words [quote] ‘enjoy the moment’ [endquote], just as in your further above [quote] ‘enjoying the moment’ [endquote] current post. Viz.: #151xx Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 07:38:46 -0000 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Dealing with negative emotions. • [Srinath]: [...]. Here is my understanding of the actualist method, please correct me if I’m wrong: Make a sincere attempt to enjoy the moment by cultivating an interest in the sensuousness of the world around you at all times. Take time to ‘smell the flowers’ in the most profound way possible. Find the perfection in the moment and realise the inherent perfection in the world. Delight and revel in it. [...]. Given you say [quote] ‘please correct me if I’m wrong’ [endquote] then I shall proceed to do just that because the expression [quote] ‘in the moment’ [endquote] also features in your later emails, as well as your earlier ones, such as the following post last month. Viz.: #16027 Date: 10 Dec 2013 01:53:23 –0800 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: 2 week AF challenge • [Srinath]: [...]. I am beginning to gradually peel back the layers of the self that get in the way of my enjoyment. I was discussing this with my analyst today. We explored specifically what was getting in the way of my ability to enjoy and be in the moment. [...]. In that instance both ‘enjoy the moment’ and ‘be in the moment’ are combined, as in [quote] ‘to enjoy and be in the moment’ [endquote], thus demonstrating their congruence for you. Indeed, in your 4th email to this forum you not only spoke of [quote] ‘present moment enjoyment’ [endquote] but referred to your sister’s children and small-town people in India throwing themselves [quote] ‘into the flow’ [endquote] of real-world time. (It is only real-world time which moves – aka ‘flows’ from the past, into the present, and off to the future – as is demonstrated in a PCE whereby it is experientially evidenced that time does not move in actuality). Viz.: #151xx Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 02:19:24 -0000 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: Being an everyday bloke first... • [Srinath]: [...]. I’ve also noticed I need to organise my life around sensuous noticing. I do this by minimising the time I spend watching TV, worrying about my thoughts or mindlessly surfing the Internet. Trying to get away from the habits that take away from present moment enjoyment. I just got back from home – India – and spent time with my sisters kids. Kids in particular but also with small- town people in India you see a lot of non-neurotic folk just doing life without agonising about it too much. Not that they are all deliriously happy of course, far from it but the throwing of them- selves into the flow without over intellectualising everything was beautiful. [...]. Please note I am *not* suggesting moment-to-moment real-world enjoyment (and appreciation) is to be abjured but, rather, drawing attention to the conflation of that real-world enjoyment (and appreciation) with being ‘in the moment’ and/or ‘in the flow’ (and/or ‘in the present’ and/or ‘in the now’ and so on and so forth). Having established this critical point: a fortnight or so before your further above 10th of December email (#160xx) was posted the expression [quote] ‘in the moment’ [endquote] again appears. Viz.: #159xx Date: 23 Nov 2013 23:42:58 –0800 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: ‘Srinath’s’ Actual Freedom Practise Log • [Srinath]: [...]. The cool thing about going through something horrible is that the gradient between the bad and the felicitous is much steeper – it does afford one some ‘high-contrast’ perspectives and make the lessons of feeling good, being in the moment etc. all the more poignant. [...]. As well as 3 days prior to that instance. Viz.: #158xx Date: 20 Nov 2013 00:18:10 –0800 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: ‘Srinath’s’ Actual Freedom Practise Log • [Srinath]: [...]. In some ways it is kind of useful seeing how this weight can be suddenly dropped from time to time, just by side-stepping the whole paradigm I’m embedded in. Useful as an analogy for ridding myself of ‘me’ that is. It only happens for moments at a time or perhaps for a few hours. I can’t make it happen. Sometimes it happens only in my dreams. But when it does it feels like I am living in the moment. [...]. And, again, 10 days before that. Viz.: #157xx Date: 10 Nov 2013 04:00:28 –0800 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: ‘Srinath’s’ Actual Freedom Practise Log • [Srinath]: [...]. yeah there definitely is an element of trying to possess and own actualism as an identity and its hard to say how much of that is involved here, a fair bit I suspect. I remember encountering this in meditation. How early progress of being in the moment would be derailed by lust for spiritual accomplishment and being too preoccupied by results. [...]. Plus 2 weeks prior to that one. Viz.: #156xx Date: 27 Oct 2013 16:17:26 –0700 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: Knack at seeing silliness • [Srinath]: [...]. I suspect that building the muscles to sweep this stuff away and just be in the moment is an integral part of actualism practise though. [...]. A month earlier as well. Viz.: #154xx Date: 29 Sep 2013 03:01:01 –0700 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: Time, Space and Pure Intent • [Srinath]: [...]. Someone to try and explain to me how time could could be infinite (some would say infinite time would incorporate all events past, present and future in it) yet static, yet only real in ‘the moment’ and still contain the movement of things within it. As well as 2 weeks before that. Viz.: #154xx Date: 14 Sep 2013 22:41:44 –0700 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: ‘Srinath’s’ Actual Freedom Practise Log • [Srinath]: Much unhappiness I cause myself comes from resistance. Either .... - A resistance to unpleasant tasks that need to be done - Resistance to certain emotions that I am feeling - Resistance to being happy in the moment (usually because I’ve emotional open loops needing closure) [...]. And the day before also. Viz.: #154xx Date: 13 Sep 2013 21:49:49 –0700 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: ‘Srinath’s’ Actual Freedom Practise Log • [Srinath]: [...]. Its only when I’m done talking and doing stuff that I realise I’ve been tense and wired and deliberately make attempts to relax and get back in the moment. I suppose the habit needs to be more ingrained and reflexive. [...]. A fortnight before that one brings this account of those instances back to August (the month you subscribed to this forum). Viz.: #152xx Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:18:38 –0000 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: A bunch of questions re: AF • [Claudiu]: HAIETMOBA – what is the best way to use this? It’s an easy way to get me back to being aware of how ‘I’ am currently feeling. • [Srinath]: What I’m hearing here is that this is a tool in AF. No more and no less. But it seems to be not a screw-driver so much as a swiss-army knife. Its a tool to spur attention and direct it to feeling. The ‘how’ and the ‘alive’ bits also seem to make attentiveness more about our lived experience and send us colliding into the moment rather than having it devolve into a dry insight type exercise. Right? As well as 2 days prior to that occasion. Viz.: #152xx Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 22:01:20 –0000 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Still not very much to hold onto. • [Srinath]: At the moment I’m still chugging on with my AF practise based on faith and appeal. I have no PCE’s except in the distant past (excluding my psychedelic PCE’s which to me seem unreal and relatively inaccessible now) Maybe the problem is that the happiness in the moment when it is good is good. But the problems and vast ice- bergs of fear, dread, shame, guilt etc. seem to dwarf it at present. [...]. Plus there were 2 instances in the email 4 days before that one. Viz.: #152xx Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 07:14:14 –0000 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: Three types of mindfulness • [Srinath]: [...]. Yes, tacking on an effortful focus on sensation when one is not feeling good is not the actualist method. First feel happy and harmless in the moment. One cannot but be an identity = ‘I’ = feeling – as long as the identity is present so any attempt to suppress feeling would be ridiculous. [...]. There are frequent moments of happiness and neutrality in the middle (although these moments I predict would be more frequent were I not in the soup I am in now) I can use the actual freedom method of being affectively as happy as possible in the moment to increase the number of these happy moments. [...]. The reason why I am drawing these instances of the expression [quote] ‘in the moment’ [endquote] to your attention is because I make it quite clear, on my portion of The Actual Freedom Trust website, that it is not applicable to actualism. (An online search using the search-term <‘in the moment’ site:actualfreedom.com.au> (sans the < and > symbols of course) will readily return all instances; similarly ‘in the present’ and ‘in the now’, and so on and so forth, can be substituted for that ‘in the moment’ search-term). For example (from 2002): • [Richard]: (...). I have oft-times said that if one allows this moment to live one (rather than trying to live in the moment) one’s journey will be over sooner rather than later. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 32, 27 April 2002). The following instance (written in 2000) is more explicit as to why trying to live [quote] ‘in the present’ [endquote] is not applicable to actualism. Viz.: • [Richard]: (...) the essential character of the perfection of the infinitude of this universe which born me, is living me and will die me in due course, is enabled by ‘my’ concurrence. ‘I’ give ‘myself’ permission to allow this moment to live me (rather than ‘me’ trying to live in the present) ... and let go the controls. (Richard, List B, No. 25f, 22 June 2000). The parenthesised [quote] ‘rather than ‘me’ trying to live in the present’ [endquote] will be self-explanatory, non? In the following example, a co-respondent endeavoured to make out that my report of something radical – so radical as to be entirely new to human knowledge/ human history – was not exclusive to actualism (from the year 2004). Viz.: • [Co-Respondent]: (...) being in the moment with one’s senses/ emotions/ thought – which is a part of actualism but not exclusive to actualism (...). • [Richard]: First of all, ‘being in the moment’ with one’s senses/ emotions/ thoughts is not part of actualism ... thus any question about exclusivity is without substance. (...). (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 68, 13 July 2004a). It was obviously an insufficiently-researched anagraph – a trait all such criticasters display – because as early as 1997 (the year I first went public, online, with my discovery) I was making it quite clear I was not talking about [quote] ‘living in the moment’ [endquote]. Viz.: • [Respondent No. 12]: (...). Your words about ‘living in the moment’ don’t do much for me, as every mindless person I meet is actively promoting the lifestyle of ‘living in the moment’. It is the fashion of the age. • [Richard]: (...). I typed the words ‘living in the moment’ into the search function of this computer and sent it back through my posts and it could not find the phrase anywhere. Perhaps you could send me your copy where it does say that? (Richard, List A, No. 12, No.01). Needless is it to add that Respondent No. 12 never did produce any such reference (there being no such thing, of course, for him to produce)? Regardless, his running-mate tried the same line on me many weeks later. Viz.: • [Richard]: I have no ego or soul; no self or Self; no God or Truth ... simply the moment-to-moment apperception of myself as being this physical universe’s experience of itself as a sensate, reflective human being. • [Co-Respondent]: This is commonly called ‘living in the moment’. Women and children are particularly good at this, while cows and dogs are even better. • [Richard]: I beg to differ. This is not called ‘living in the moment’. No. 12 tried that accusation on me weeks and weeks ago. (Richard, List A, No. 4, No.08). I have, of course, made it equally clear that the variant expression [quote] ‘live in the present’ [endquote] similarly does not apply. Viz.: • [Richard]: My experience showed that by allowing the PCE to happen (on a daily basis, sometimes two-three times a day) a momentum built up of its own accord which could not be stopped ... an inevitability came into action. What ‘I’ did was to give ‘myself’ permission to let go of the controls and allow the moment to live me (rather than ‘me’ trying to live in the present). In short: if one ceases objecting to being here – without swinging to an opposite such as gratitude – then the rest is history. This is because this moment is where it is all at. This moment is where it is all happening – all of the universe is happening all-at-once – and it is all happening all-at-once just here and it is all happening all-at-once right now. And it is all already always happening anyway ... irregardless of ‘me’ and ‘my’ objections. (Richard, List B James2, 6 June 2001). The following example (from 2001) goes into more detail as to why [quote] ‘living in the present’ [endquote] does not apply to actualism/ actual freedom. Viz.: • [Richard]: Where one lets the moment live one – rather than what is called ‘living in the present’ – it will be seen with startling clarity that this moment is eternal ... and not ‘timeless’. Anyone who succeeds in ‘living in the present’, which is experienced as being that fleeting moment sandwiched between the past and the future, is present as a self (albeit an impersonal self) in/ as an oceanic feeling of oneness ... which gives the impression of being ‘timeless’. This moment is not ‘timeless’ ... for, although the fact is that it has no duration, as ‘then’ and ‘now’ and ‘then’ (was here then, is here now, will be here then), it does not negate the fact that this moment is already always here now (eternally here). It is never not this moment ... ‘tis not fleeting at all. (Richard, List B, No. 19f, 30 January 2001g). I also point out (in 2003 for instance) how I have experiential knowledge of being/ living in the now, in the present, in the moment – night and day for eleven years in fact – and found it wanting. Viz.: • [Co-Respondent]: Do I need any method to be in the now, the present, the moment? This is a child’s play! If you want to be in the present, your mind has to be totally silent, completely quite? Why can’t you get this? (replies to these questions are optional here because they will be considered futile anyways). • [Richard]: As I have no interest whatsoever of being ‘in the present’ again (having done just that, night and day, for eleven years and found it wanting) I shall not be replying to those questions anyway (...). (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 51a, 10 October, 2003). And that 2003 response of mine renders this an apt place to draw the following to your attention. Viz.: #152xx Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 09:51:44 –0000 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Re: A bunch of questions re: AF • Srinath: [...]. I still don’t get ‘the moment’ thing. As in I can get that whole thing of ‘the moment is all we have, the past is history and the future is fantasy’ thing that I’ve heard spoken of forever in advaita with its most recent iteration in Tolle’s Power of Now. Is this the same thing in AF? What’s so special about the moment that I should surrender to it or savour it? Is it because it’s the only true way of being happy ( as Tolle implies )? First of all, there is a ‘Selected Correspondence’ page – all the selected correspondence was personally chosen for their real-world relevance by feeling-being ‘Vineeto’ over a decade or so – where I have answered queries about Mr. Eckhart Tolle (aka Mr. Ulrich Tolle for 30+ years). Viz.: www.actualfreedom.com.au/richard/selectedcorrespondence/sc-eckharttolle.htm (There really is no substitute for taking notice of what is freely available on The Actual Freedom Trust website). Second, as Mr. Eckhart Tolle is an unapologetic spiritualist it simply does not make sense to even think for a moment – let alone type it out and click ‘send’ – that anything he has to say would be applicable to something entirely new to human history/ human knowledge. Yet a month later you do so again (and not only expanding on that spiritualistic theme from Ms. Oprah Winfrey’s protégé, plus providing a video link to his syrupy recitation of Chapter 4 in his 2003 best-seller as well, but chose to drag in that mathematically-modelled relativistic (i.e., subjectivistic) ignis fatuus so beloved of theoretical physicists as well). Viz.: #154xx Date: 27 Sep 2013 15:00:22 –0700 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: RE: Re: Time, Space and Pure Intent • Srinath: [...]. Ok so the moment is beginning-less and endless or is that just time? Or is time = the moment? Also are time and space interlinked in AF cosmology? Is it time-space as per the theory of relativity? Where I’m at currently is visualising things moving in 3 dimensional space-time where the forward movement of time (as well space) is an illusion created by the movement of objects. All is a vast stillness that never changes. Any- thing that happens in the stillness cause time and space to come into being, partly because of physical laws and partly because of our own human need for apprehending the movement of objects. I seem to be experiencing time as a gigantic void now. So if the movement of time is an illusion, then does time have any properties at all? One could just call it the great nothing and leave it at that. But clearly to me at least notionally even the idea of an unmoving, eternal time has properties. Namely that stuff seems to happen within it rather than the other way around. And that it is ever present and never past or future. If all this is true then I can see why Richard invites us to enjoy and appreciate the moment. Because past and future are fictions. Those two vectors don’t exist in actual time. Actual time is not a vector. It is a point. It is an eternal void. Real time/ human times are conventions only. The product of human memory and society. The way in which we process ‘nowness’. Even this has changed over time and is acculturated. There are primitive tribes that have very few words to describe the past and future. In Asia and parts of the West time was circular or a spiral. In the modern West time is linear. A vast straight line that recedes infinitely on either end. All these are useful fictions. Is it something like what Tolle says? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkgNIJLpBEI [...]. As already mentioned, the video link you provided is an oral rendition selected from Chapter 4: The Now (pages 37-47) of the book ‘Stillness Speaks’ ©2003Eckhart Tolle; Namaste Publishing, Vancouver, Canada. (http://books.google.com.au/books?id=qcfueLfqxR8C). In that chapter there are more than a few instances of him using the expression [quote] ‘in the Now’ [endquote]. Viz.: • ‘When you don’t feel at home in the Now ...’. [p. 40]. • ‘To have your attention in the Now ...’. [p. 41]. • ‘That anchors you in the Now’. [p. 42]. • ‘When your attention moves into the Now ...’. [p. 44]. • ‘The moment you enter the Now ...’. [p. 44]. • ‘The more you live in the Now ...’. [p. 44]. • ‘When you step into the Now ...’. [p. 45]. Also needless is it to add I have already answered queries about [quote] ‘in the Now’ [endquote] in regards to actualism/ actual freedom? Viz.: • [Co-Respondent]: Awareness is in the Now. • [Richard]: Everything is happening only at this moment in eternal time ... there is nowhere or nowhen else than just here right now. • [Co-Respondent]: Try thinking you are in the Now. You can not do it. • [Richard]: But I am not ‘in the Now’ ... this flesh and blood body is already always just here at this place in infinite space right now at this moment in eternal time. (Richard, List C, No. 7, 3 July 2000). And again (also in the year 2000). Viz.: • [Co-Respondent]: Richard, according to his own articulated dialogue, has not, in this lifetime, ever been in the Now. • [Richard]: Except that I repeatedly say that the ‘Me’ that was did live ‘in the Now’ for eleven years ... thus I have intimate knowledge of what you speak of. The exchange you are referring to went like this: • [Co-Respondent]: ‘Awareness is in the Now’. • [Richard]: ‘Everything is happening only at this moment in eternal time ... there is nowhere or nowhen else than just here right now’. • [Co-Respondent]: ‘Try thinking you are in the Now. You can not do it’. • [Richard]: ‘But I am not ‘in the Now’ ... this flesh and blood body is already always just here at this place in infinite space right now at this moment in eternal time’. [endquote]. (Richard, List C, No. 7, 3 July 2000). This is because there are three I’s altogether ... but only one is actual. (Richard, List C, No. 7, 1 August 2000). In 2004 I provided a much more detailed response to a co-respondent’s [quote] ‘in the now’ [endquote] phantasies. Viz.: • [Co-Respondent]: The example you gave about moving from here to there, etc., is exactly what dawned to me 10 years ago, and I used it to prove there is no time. Every moment I am in the now ... • [Richard]: If I may interject? More than a few peoples have experienced being ‘in the now’ (aka being in the moment and/or being in the present and/or being in the here and now and so on) and have reported the feeling/ intuition of being timeless – and that it proves there is no time (the word timeless means ‘no time’ just as deathless means ‘no death’) – yet that is not what I am reporting/ describing/ explaining at all ... let alone ‘exactly’. • [Co-Respondent]: [Every moment I am in the now] ... and only memory says that I am passing from intermediate position in space. You are using exactly my words as in tape recorder. • [Richard]: No, not at all. If you were to re-read what I wrote (further above), plus what I have written elsewhere on this topic on many an occasion, you would see I am saying that one is just here, at this location, right now, at this moment – and not ‘in the now’ (or ‘in’ the here and now, or ‘in’ the moment, or ‘in’ the present, and so on) – and that it is never not this moment (which by no stretch of the language can be construed as ‘there is no time’ or that it is timeless). I even state categorically (further below in this post you are responding to) that time is actual. Viz.: • [Co-Respondent]: ‘... my original impression of this thread was that the time itself doesn’t exist in actuality’. • [Richard]: ‘Time itself (as in durationless time/ eternal time/ beginningless and endless time) does indeed exist in actuality: time as a measure of the sequence of events (as in past/ present/ future) is but a convention. Presumably some pre-historical person/ persons noticed what the shadow of a stick standing perpendicular in the ground did such as to eventually lead to the sundial – a circular measure of the movement of a cast shadow arbitrarily divided into twelve sections because of a prevailing duo-decimal counting system – and then to water-clocks/ sand-clocks and thence to pendulum-clocks/ spring-clocks and thus to electrical-clocks/ electronic-clocks and, currently, energy-clocks (aka ‘atomic-clocks’) ... with all such measurement of movement being a measure of the earth’s rotation whilst in orbit around its radiant star. Put succinctly: it is not time itself (eternity) which moves but objects in (infinite) space’. [endquote]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 4a, 6 July 2004). In short: the identity within is forever locked-out of time (time as an actuality, that is, and not time as a convention). • [Co-Respondent]: Why though this did not change me? • [Richard]: Going by your description – ‘what dawned to me 10 years ago’ – it was a realisation and, unless a realisation is acted upon, it remains just that ... a realisation. ‘Tis just as well though (otherwise you would have been yet another ‘Timeless One’), eh? (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 44h, 15 August 2004). All of the above leads this account back to your ‘please correct me if I’m wrong’ email – your 11th post (already quoted towards the beginning of this email) – wherein you go on to detail just whom it was that implanted this ‘in the moment’ meme which features throughout your 230+ emails to this forum. (There is no prize for guessing who those closet-spiritualists are). Viz.: #151xx Date: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 07:38:46 -0000 To: actualfreedom@yahoogroups.com From: Srinath Subject: Dealing with negative emotions. • Srinath: [...]. Here is my understanding of the actualist method, please correct me if I’m wrong: Make a sincere attempt to *enjoy the moment* by cultivating an interest in the sensuousness of the world around you at all times. Take time to ‘smell the flowers’ in the most profound way possible. Find the perfection *in the moment* and realise the inherent perfection in the world. Delight and revel in it. [emphases added]. [...]. Tarin’s algorithm had this one option where if you feel bad you find the reason why you can’t experience perfection *in the moment* and ask yourself ‘is this worth missing out on perfection *in this moment*?’ then go back to being feeling But sure I could just say ‘no its not worth missing out on perfection, life is beautiful wheeeeee!’ and how would I know that I’m not subtly deluding myself and doing a bit of positive thinking?. Further down the algorithm he says if you can’t *enjoy the moment* to find out the reason and then ask oneself again ‘is this worth missing out on perfection?’ I guess the other way is to acknowledge the feelings are ‘mine’ and ‘own’ them but see the perfection and wholeness in this as well. I could then delve into bad feelings and see how they arise due to my attachment to identities x, y, z etc. but this seems to take away *from the moment* and become just another analytical exercise. Daniel Ingram seemed to suggest that the latter did not work for him in achieving a PCE as much as being *in the moment* was. [emphases added]. First, I know I have said it before (in message No. 11915) but it is worth saying again: ‘tis for reasons such as the above that I advised a self-acknowledged [quote] ‘sincere practitioner’ [endquote], upon being asked for clarification, to ‘stop listening to the affers, period’ (and to ‘cease aiming to be aff, forthwith’). Viz.: http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/actualfreedom/conversations/messages/10915 (Richard, List D, Claudiu, 7 February 2012). (I am presuming, of course, that those purveyors of affism pronounce those [quote] ‘AF’ and/or ‘AFer’ [endquote] designators they use, for their mongrel state of ‘being’, in the way that the first syllable of, say, the word affectation is pronounced). And I am again pleased to report how that ‘sincere practitioner’ not only turned their life around but has gone on and prospered, mightily, as a direct result of taking that advice. * Second, it should be obvious by now that the email exchange you addressed this current post of yours to was not [quote] ‘quite a shot in the arm’ [endquote] after all, inasmuch as your follow-up words – in your [quote] ‘I realised with this exchange more clearly than ever before the difference between enjoying the moment and conditional pleasure seeking’ [endquote] sentence – clearly refer to that hoary spiritual gnome of being/ living ‘in the moment’ and/or ‘in the flow’ (and/or ‘in the present’ and/or ‘in the now’ and so on and so forth). * Lastly, and coming back to the remainder of your current email (your ‘quite a shot in the arm’ response in #161xx), here it is in an edited-for-brevity context. Viz.: • [Respondent No. 44]: (...). I had a lot of fun tonight with friends. All we did was sit, talk, and joke around. It was fun. But once I got back home or started driving the less festive atmosphere started to set in. (...). This particular sequence of events has happened to me before, but I usually find that the crash back into my less festive world is hard and heavy. I get lost in my cynical or glum thoughts that life isn’t always fun. But not so this time as when I realize this is happening I remember and pay attention to how I am experiencing this moment of being alive. And just the fact that this is the only moment of being alive is enough to dispel all of those thoughts as I realized at one point that to go anywhere else is to go into the world of imagination. (...). When I get lost in thoughts or feeling reality then I immediately pay attention to how I am experiencing this moment of being alive. I do find that the initial layer is the layer of ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’. I eventually get to a point where everything seems empty. I stick with it and try not to ‘move’ anywhere and eventually the fascination that it is this moment sets in and I am once more enjoying life. (...). (Dec 30, 2013; #161xx) • [Richard]: (...). Your initial email – reproduced here as #161xx further above – almost prompted me to write a comment, when you posted it, as it clearly pinpoints the difference between a caused/ conditional enjoyment (‘I had a lot of fun tonight with friends’/ ‘all we did was sit, talk, and joke around’) and an uncaused/ unconditional enjoyment (‘the fascination that it is this moment sets in’/ ‘I am once more enjoying life’). A caused, or conditional, enjoyment and appreciation has a beginning and an end – it is dependent upon situations and circumstances – whereas an uncaused, or unconditional, enjoyment and appreciation is perpetual, aeonian (beginningless and endless) and occurs solely by virtue of being vitally alive – being dynamically here at this particular place in infinite space at this very moment in eternal time as a sensuous, reflective flesh-and-blood body only – and thus dependent upon no one, no thing, and no event. (...). (Richard, List D, No. 44, 2 January 2014; #16153) • Srinath: This is quite a shot in the arm. I realised with this exchange more clearly than ever before the difference between enjoying the moment and conditional pleasure seeking. I was riding my bike today thinking about how someone had said something to make me sad, because it reminded me of [whatever]. I tried to cheer myself up by thinking contrary thoughts. Then I yanked my head away and looked at the trees waving about in the warm summer air. They seemed gay to a point of being ridiculous. The whole world looked ridiculously gay and merry in a baffling way. The world seemed to be turning in on itself. It was stupendous! (12:35 AM; #161xx) Do you not see, upon a closer read-through, that although I definitively say ‘dependent upon no one, no thing, and no event’ you report how you looked at [quote] ‘the trees waving about in the warm summer air’ [endquote] which are clearly both things (‘trees’ and ‘air’) and events (‘looked at’ and ‘waving about’) by any definition of those two words? More to the point, I also definitively say ‘perpetual, aeonian (beginningless and endless)’ solely by virtue of being alive/ being here – as in, regardless of doing anything at all/ of anything at all happening – as an engaged response to my co-respondent reporting just that ... to wit: ‘eventually the fascination *that it is this moment* sets in and I am once more enjoying life’ [emphasis added]. (Doing something pleasant/ beneficial – or something pleasurable/ beneficent happening – is a bonus on top of the sheer delight of being alive/ being here). This is why I oft-times say ‘it is all so simple here’ (here in actuality/ this actual world/ the sensate world). Nothing, but nothing (no matter how unpleasant/ detrimental), can ever take away this sheer delight of being alive/ being here at this very moment; one could be in solitary confinement, on that infamous bread and water diet, in some insalubrious penitentiary somewhere otherwise utterly displeasureable without this peerless perfection – this ‘perpetual, aeonian (beginningless and endless)’ purity of life itself/ existence per se – wavering one jot. Verily, this verdant and azure planet is a pristine paradise. Regards, Richard. RETURN TO RICHARD’S SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE INDEX RICHARD’S HOME PAGE The Third Alternative (Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body) Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one. Richard’s Text ©The Actual Freedom Trust: 1997- . All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer and Use Restrictions and Guarantee of Authenticity