Please note that Peter’s correspondence below was written by the feeling-being ‘Peter’ while ‘he’ lived in a pragmatic (methodological), still-in-control/same-way-of-being Virtual Freedom before becoming actually free.
Selected Correspondence Peter Barry Long RESPONDENT: Peter, I just read a large portion of BL’s site and it reminded my of the ‘Western teacher’ in either your journal or other writings. Is this the man you studied with? I found some of what he wrote insightful (of course I think he is at some level deluded with all his god talk delusions). He is clearly on record in his article ‘Love is not an Emotion’, saying that one must end ALL one’s emotions – the good and the bad. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone besides Richard say something like this. He also is against ALL religions and spiritualities (well he is clearly spiritual himself, but he is against ALL TRADITIONS of spirituality-yeah that’s more like it) ‘just like’ Richard. It was funny ‘watching’ the WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT editor fumble over himself in trying to comprehend how someone could live w/o emotions in an interview with BL (Barry Long). PETER: I am somewhat bemused that you should write to me asking questions and making comment about a man who declared himself to be God-realized and yet write to someone else on the list stating – [Respondent]: I am enjoying my emancipation of what I consider a enormous delusion (God, angels, demons, afterlife) very much. There is no need/desire/want to go back to creating a fake mental reality. To me a Higher Power of any kind is like Santa for adults. Life is very simple and fun without all the spiritual stuff ‘junking’ it up. I’m so glad that the disappointments in my life have opened me up to leaving a superstitious way of living behind. AT beatup 30/12/2004 In the light of this, why you would still be interested in the preachings of a self-declared God-realized ‘Western Master’ has got me well and truly stumped. RESPONDENT: Well, Peter, I am an atheist, and secular. However, I like to read still so sometimes I do find what a spiritually deluded person has to say of interest. BL is one of those, yet I found it interesting that even he says ‘emotion has to go’ basically. PETER: Don’t you also find it interesting that Barry Long claims that love is not an emotion? If you see this claim as being the sleight of hand it is, then you would also understand what he is saying is that you should keep the good emotions (love included because according to his definition, love it is not an emotion) but all the rest have to go. In other words, he is simply trotting out the same-same old ‘take the moral high ground’ in the Good vs. Bad, Love vs. Evil game that has enthralled humanity for eons. * PETER: As to your statement that he is ‘he is against ALL TRADITIONS of religion and spiritualities’ – [Barry Long]: ‘What it finally comes down to is that in reality there is only spirit. Spirit embraces eternity and all the other superlatives relating to the unending wonder of God. Every object and thing in existence, from the starry heavens down to the smallest microbe, is spirit. We can’t register this because the human brain is a vibratory sensory mechanism which can only reproduce an infinitely degenerated version of the unmoving power of the surrounding spirit. The brain – itself a creation of the spirit – repeats the infinity of spirit by producing infinite varieties of creatures, things and conditions in a ceaseless stream of perceptible forms. http://www.barrylong.org/what_it_is_to_die.htm … this sounds mightily like very TRADITIONAL spiritual-speak to me. RESPONDENT: Yes this is same old same old spiritual bullshitery. Basically he is against all traditions accept HIS (and yet the core of HIS is really no different as THEIRS as you pointed out). PETER: Does this mean that you now find what he is teaching less insightful because of what I said … or have you done some thinking for yourself about the matter since you last wrote? * PETER: I have no interest in writing yet more about my experiences of the hypocrisy of the spiritual teachings and the duplicity of spiritual teachers. If you are interested you will find that I have already written a good deal on both subjects, much of which is catalogued for easy reference on the website. RESPONDENT: all I was looking for Peter, was a simple yes or no as too if you had studied under this fellow. Or is he the teacher from Richard’s ‘a talk with a master’ article or not. I was inquisitive. PETER: If that was all you were looking for then why did you go on to tell me that you found some of what he said to be insightful and went on to give examples where you found it to be ‘‘just like’ Richard’? * PETER: I have no interest in writing yet more about my experiences of the hypocrisy of the spiritual teachings and the duplicity of spiritual teachers. If you are interested you will find that I have already written a good deal on both subjects, much of which is catalogued for easy reference on the website. The following comment I recently made to a spiritualist is relevant to your current interest in spiritual matters – [Peter]: ‘I am not ‘throwing stones at’ either U.G. Krishnamurti or any other spiritual teacher, be they dead or alive – I am simply pointing out the inherent flaws of the spiritual teachings and of the very state of enlightenment itself, no matter who presents it and no matter whatever form it takes. I’ve done my ‘road trip’ to the East and discovered first-hand the failings of spiritual teachings and the experienced first-hand the duplicity of spiritual teachers. I’ve sat at the feet of more than a few God-men and delved into several teachings sufficient enough to know that the whole pursuit of spiritualism is passé. There is nothing to be found in searching through the dustbin of history, finding a discarded belief or philosophy, dusting it off and re-running with it. It will become, and indeed is already becoming, increasingly obvious to the astute seeker that only a radical new approach will actually bring an end to human malevolence and sorrow … and that is the total elimination of human malevolence and sorrow.’ Peter, The Actual Freedom Trust Mailing List, No 58, 9.4.2004 PETER: Just thought I’d comment on something you said to Vineeto. [Vineeto quoted Richard]: ‘With pure intent operating more or less continuously, ‘I’ find it harder and harder to maintain credibility. ‘I’ am increasingly seen as the usurper, an alien entity inhabiting this body and taking on an identity of its own. Mercilessly exposed in the bright light of awareness – apperception casts no shadows – ‘I’ can no longer find ‘my’ position tenable. ‘I’ can only live in obscuration, where ‘I’ lurk about, creating all sorts of mischief. ‘My’ time is speedily coming to an end; ‘I’ can barely maintain ‘myself’ any longer...’ Richard’s Journal, Article 18 RESPONDENT: precisely how Barry Long is stating this PETER: I know a reasonable amount about Barry Long as I followed him for a while. Mr. Long puts his position quite clearly – he is not into eliminating ‘I’, the self but into transforming it into Self. He teachers the traditional technique of transcending the bad feelings and emotions and giving full reign to the good ones, finally achieving an illusionary ego death whereby one’s identity shifts to becoming the Good, Immortal and Divine. A few quotes to illustrate – [Barry Long]: ‘The individual is never really destroyed. All that is destroyed are his opinions and his judgements. Once you eliminate those you look out into the world as an individual, with individual responses and feelings, but at the back of you there is a join with totality. So in a sense you are one with everything and in another sense you are an extremely aware individual: it is the elimination of his clinging.’ ‘Wisdom and where to find it’, Pg 97 [Barry Long]: ‘Mind consists of memory plus desire which is an endless activity. The inward turning gradually eliminates useless thought and finally purifies the mind into a state of stilled alertness. It is then illuminated from behind by the blazing energy of its own fully developed consciousness, and it realizes it itself is nothing and never was. That God, beauty and everything else worthwhile was always within itself; that they are itself; that it is immortal and that to the degree it does not exist as trying and wanting, it is God the Creator and sustainer of the whole the whole creation, and that there is nothing outside of it, never will be and never was’. ‘Wisdom and where to find it’, Pg 79 ... thus the alien entity, the ‘self’, merely took on a new identity to become yet another God-man – Guru of the West. The old, ‘little self to Big-Self’ shuffle, that has ensnared genuine seekers of freedom for millennia. The spiritual path is plainly talking about men becoming Gods, the ancient ‘escape’ from misery and sorrow – from ‘bad and Evil’ to ‘good and God’. In the beginning it appears both the spiritual path and the path to an actual freedom are talking about the same thing until one digs a bit deeper and becomes aware of the desire to become Divine and Immortal which lies at the core of the spiritual search. Once this is clearly seen and acknowledged, then it is only pride that prevents one from seeking a genuine actual freedom. It’s so good to be free of both the ‘real’ world and the ‘spiritual’ world – an actual freedom from all of the Human Condition. BARRY LONG: Peter, Many people have sent me their books or manuscripts, and I never read them. So I am returning your nice looking book unopened. Your persistence gives me the impression your are trying to teach me something or give me something that I have not asked for – a sure sign of guru-itis. Freedom, of course, is always actual (as well as within) and if you have discovered it, I suggest you just enjoy it and stop trying to impress me. Incidentally, as I mentioned before, the love you say you’ve discovered is an emotion, is not the love I know. Be well. PETER: I am a bit baffled by your response to me as I offered you a chance to comment on my discoveries about freedom and you refuse to even read them. I first sent you Richard’s manuscript and then a copy of my book and have had a summary dismissal both times. Why is it that all of the spiritual teachers seem unwilling or unable to discuss or talk about their Truth. And why is it that when someone even presumes to question their teachings they are treated with disdain, scorn or accused of being a Guru. You are the one who declares himself ‘Guru’ and a ‘God-man’, and yet you accuse me of showing signs of Guru-it is. If you had taken the trouble to read even a bit of my book you would have realized that the last thing I am is a Guru. Far, far from it – 180 degrees in the opposite direction in fact. I was always curious at your treatment of a former disciple and now a Spiritual Teacher, who freely acknowledges his debt to you as his teacher and yet you offer no comment, support, endorsement or anything. Has he discovered the same Truth as you? Is he a competitor, has he not got it ‘right’, is he somehow lesser? If anyone finds the Truth or God by being with you then what is their position? No doubt you will take offence by what I am questioning but this does not mean the questions are not valid. I always thought the Truth and its purveyors could stand a little questioning and I rather naively thought you might be of a different ilk, but it appears not. Your comment on your brand of freedom being actual is non-sensical in that your definition is ‘Actuality is the apparent world outside the head’. So you adopt the traditional Eastern position that the physical stuff of the universe is apparent only, i.e. an illusion. Rocks, sky, computer keyboards, food, air, human beings, etc. are, for you, all an illusion – for me they are actual as clearly evidenced by the senses. The freedom that you talk about is to realise a state of consciousness where this perception of the physical world is experienced as an illusion, leading to a temporary, false sense of well-being and bliss. Unfortunately, this misconception, when fully realized leads to a state of delusion where one becomes timeless, spaceless and immortal. And yet another Saviour of mankind is born, resulting in yet another Religion, depending on the numbers of disciples he can gather. Immortality is, of course, a grand play in the imagination, as in the actual world bodies die and rot and become compost. It is only in the psychic world that heaven and afterlife exist. Up until now there has only been one door to ‘escape’ from the bondage of having a psychological and psychic entity that fearfully perceived the actual world as an illusionary hell inhabited by evil spirits. The door was marked ‘Truth’, ‘God’, ‘Enlightenment’ or such. This involved transcending the ‘earthly’ realm for some mythical ‘inner’ world or higher plane. To fully step through this door was to become the Self, Divine Love, God or the like. Now for the first time there is another door that leads to an actual freedom where neither a self nor a Self exist. In actual freedom I am able to be what I am not who I am – this body, not this alien self inside. There is evidence that even the Enlightened Ones know this but they claim it is only possible to reach upon death, in some imaginary afterlife. That door, marked ‘annihilation’, is what I am now willingly rushing towards, now that I have sufficient actual evidence of the purity, perfection and fairy-tale like quality of the physical universe. And then fear – the very substance of self – will totally disappear and I can be me – this flesh and blood body only. This discovery of a new down-to-earth, non-spiritual freedom will now relegate concepts such as spirituality and Enlightenment to history – into the curio section. Then the planet will eventually be free of Religion, Spirituality, Gurus, religious persecution and religious wars. In short, there will be heaven on earth, here, now – not in some mythical realm after death. My persistence was to try and tell you of this new discovery. You are indeed ‘fiddling while Rome burns’ and as a fellow human being I thought it only fair to warn you, but twice you have imperiously swept my offer aside, refusing even to peek inside the cover of my book or Richard’s. So I’ll stop flogging a dead horse, as the expression goes. Actualism Homepage
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