September 24 2025

KUBA: Hi Vineeto,

This is all I can find here.

VINEETO: Hi Kuba,

Thank you for informative reply.

It appears that despite your fascinated contemplation your thinking and probing remained in the confines (the paradigm) of ‘me’ – how far ‘I’ can go in ‘my’ most sincere exploration. You could indeed say that ‘being’ and the ‘drama’ requiring a ‘believer’ are one and the same.

This might give you a clue why –

RICHARD: I have generally found that, when the direct experience (actual intimacy) of being here now (pure consciousness experiencing) diminishes and one reverts to normal, the immediacy of being this flesh and blood body only in infinite space and eternal time as the universe’s experience of itself, vanishes completely ... and one (strangely) starts to settle for second-best. Why?

ALAN: Good question. You are correct in saying that ‘it’ vanishes completely. The only reason can be that ‘I’ resume the controls. At this moment I have only a recollection of what a PCE is. ‘I’ do not believe that it actually exists – because ‘I’ cannot experience it. So for ‘me’ it is not ‘second best’ – it is the best there is.

RICHARD: Yes, a virtual freedom is not to be sneezed at ... the wide and wondrous path to actual freedom is a win/win situation. Just like the spiritual path there is a glittering prize at the end ... yet here the similarity ends. With actualism one gains measurably along the way ... if actual freedom remains ever-elusive one winds up way ahead of normal human expectations.

ALAN: Just yesterday, I had the thought ‘Why do you want any more?’ – I no longer experience anger, frustration, jealousy or any of the other ‘bad’ emotions (and not many of the ‘good’ ones either).

RICHARD: If one were to proceed no further, one would have already achieved what a ‘normal’ person deems improbable. It cannot be stressed too much how highly desirable virtual freedom is. Any society based on pure intent, with its citizens living in virtual freedom, would be so superior to the current communities, that are based upon morality and control, that a virtual peace on earth would be most likely to be the over-all state of affairs. Although actual sagacity lies only in the ultimate condition, the wide and wondrous wisdom is sufficient to ensure that the optimum relative peace and prosperity prevails ... because virtual freedom, borne upon pure intent, does away with the need for control.

One is, in effect, free enough to live life in an abundantly successful way.

ALAN: Was this not enough? Was it not better to enjoy this life as ‘Alan’, the personality, than risk all on an unknown future?

RICHARD: I can recall the ‘Richard’ that was considering this very question ... yet ‘he’ just knew that ‘he’ would not be able to look in the mirror of a morning if ‘he’ did not proceed. Is it an admixture of pride and dignity, perhaps? (Richard, Actual Freedom List, Alan-a, 16 September 1999)

You can read more of this excerpt if you want to discover what comes next.

KUBA: Just to add to the above, it is that impression of being present and existing over time as an ‘entity’ which is the source of ‘my’ belief in immortality. Belief doesn’t seem quite right here as ‘I’ don’t actually believe that ‘I’ will persist after this body dies, it’s more like a fundamental impression.

VINEETO: There is of course another approach. So far you have been contemplating from the perspective of ‘me’ and concluded that “there is not even space for ‘my’ soul, that ‘my’ ‘being’ can only have an illusory/ delusory existence”.

Now combine sensible reason and naiveté with commonsense about what is actual and be fascinatingly curious about the nature of actual time.

Respondent: What is time?

Richard: Time cannot be described in isolation as time and space and form are seamless in that they do not and cannot operate as separate or disparate units. Time and space and form are material inasmuch that they are actually existing and form can be material in its specific meaning as actual things (solid stuff) or active force (energetic stuff). Therefore time can be portrayed as the measure of the movement of form in space and the periodicity of its rearrangement; space is an arena in which form can exist, move and rearrange itself endlessly; form is matter (either in its solid aspect or energetic phase) occupying space (which is infinite) and taking time (which is eternal) to reconfigure itself (which is perpetual). The properties of eternal time and infinite space designate a vast and utter stillness and the properties of perpetual form designate liveliness; a scintillating, sparkling vitality. In a word: infinitude. When one directly ascertains (apperceptive awareness) the properties of infinitude (infinite and eternal and perpetual) the qualities of the property of infinitude become apparent (infinitude has no opposite): pristine and consummate and impeccable.

These non-dual qualities are the source of the values of infinitude (benevolent and benign and blithe). (Richard, List B, No. 33c, 5 July 2000)

*

RICHARD: Have you never noticed that it is never not this moment?

RESPONDENT: Okay, I notice that ... and it’s fascinating.

RICHARD: If I might suggest (before you go on with your ‘but’ immediately below)? Stay with that fascination and allow the marvelling, that it is never not this moment, to unfold in all its wonderment.

RESPONDENT: But I’m wondering whether time can be experienced in a different manner by different people/animals. Bats, for example, see an action much slower then humans do. Also, in different emotional states time flows differently for me: when I’m annoyed waiting for someone time flows slower, when I’m excited/happy time goes faster then normal.

RICHARD: Time itself – this eternal moment – does not flow (move) ... there is a vast stillness here in this actual world.

RESPONDENT: We can talk about altered states of time then. What/who creates these altered states of time ...

RICHARD: The identity within, of course (who is always out of time).

RESPONDENT: ... and why are you so sure that ‘this moment’ is part and parcel of the physical universe properties?

RICHARD: Where there is no identity the physical properties of the universe are startlingly apparent.

And this is wonderful.

RESPONDENT: Why is it that it cannot be measured (as in duration) and only experientially (which can be another name for subjectivity) understood?

RICHARD: This (beginningless and endless) moment cannot be measured as measurement requires a reference point – a beginning and/or an ending – to measure against.

Incidentally, where there is no identity (no subject) experiencing can never be subjective (as opposed to objective). (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 25f, 12 June 2004)

There is heaps more to get lost in when reading one or both pages of the selected correspondence on time (+2).

Note that naïve fascination, amazement, marvel and wonderment are essential for the exploration to catapult you into an experiential understanding of what is being said.

Infinitude, [infinite extent, amount, duration, a boundless expanse; an unlimited time] cannot be understood rationally from within the boundaries of ‘me’. For ‘me’ it is incredible, incomprehensible, unbelievable and unimaginable. One must come to one’s senses ... both literally and metaphorically.

Once you do, you will instantly grasp that there is neither space nor time for an immortal, i.e. eternal ‘something’ – hence it can only be a product of an impassioned imagination – because in actuality there is only now, only this moment exists.

By the way, there is no fear, including no fear of physical death, once the identity self-immolated.

KUBA: Aaand to add some more, I remember when I first read Richard’s writings years ago I thought “why on earth would ‘he’ have given up immortality for actual freedom”, immortality seemed precious. Whereas now this is the other way around, in that ‘I’ am happily searching for a way to become extinct, ‘my’ immortality has been exposed for what it is – suffering, and it is the possibility of ‘my’ extinction which is now precious.

VINEETO: That is excellent. Yet, it is not so much that “the possibility of ‘my’ extinction which is now precious” but what will become apparent by ‘your’ extinction –

Richard: When one walks naked (sans ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul) in the infinitude of this actual universe there is the direct experiencing that there is something precious in living itself. Something beyond compare. Something more valuable than any ‘King’s Ransom’. It is not rare gemstones; it is not singular works of art; it is not the much-prized bags of money; it is not the treasured loving relationships; it is not the highly esteemed blissful and rapturous ‘States Of Being’ ... it is not any of these things usually considered precious. There is something ultimately precious that makes the ‘sacred’ a mere bauble.

It is the essential character of the infinitude of the universe – which is the life-giving foundation of all that is apparent – as a physical actuality. The limpid and lucid purity and perfection of actually being just here at this place in infinite space right now at this moment in eternal time 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 bead of moisture 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 ... and everyone I have spoken with at length has experienced this impeccable integrity and excellence in some way or another at varying stages in their life.

This preciosity is what one is as-one-is – me as I am in actuality as distinct from ‘me’ as ‘I’ am in reality – for one is the universe’s experience of itself. Is it not impossible to conceive – and just too difficult to imagine – that this is one’s essential character? One has to be daring enough to live it – for it is both one’s audacious birth-right and one’s adventurous destiny – thus the pure consciousness experience (PCE) is but the harbinger of the potential made actual.

As I said earlier: there is an unimaginable purity which is born out of the stillness of the infinitude as manifest at this moment in time and this place in space ... but one will not come upon it by thinking about or feeling out its character. It is most definitely not a matter to be pursued in the rarefied atmosphere of the most refined mind or the evocative milieu of the most impassioned heart.

One must come to one’s senses ... both literally and metaphorically. (Richard, List B, No. 21g, 26 October 2001a).

As Chrono pointed out in his most recent message to you – only altruism can do the trick because the instinct for individual survival is only exceeded by the instinct for group survival – the ‘group’ being “this body, that body and every body”. Once you are no longer concerned with ‘my’ survival, naiveté and an ever-diminishing ‘self’-centredness can flourish.

Cheers Vineeto