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(List D refers to Richard’s List D Vineeto’s Correspondence with Kuba on Discuss Actualism Forum
KUBA: Hi Vineeto, A question if I could please, because this is the exact place where I have hit a wall in the past without any clear way how to proceed: Basically looking at those ebbs and flows yesterday and today… it is a weird situation because I cannot find any particular beliefs, values, fantasies etc which are attached to the feelings, in fact I don’t think there are any. They seem to be purely habitual at this point. Perhaps there were some beliefs around these feelings in the past but it seems that they have kind of become automated at this point, in that even in the absence of the belief the habitual feeling persists. So looking at the gloomy feelings yesterday evening there was a few which were connected to each other but they were not related to any beliefs or values. It was varying feelings of despair, panic and insecurity. They would be triggered periodically like a case of chronic back pain and would bounce from one to the other. But they have no rhyme of reason to them, there is the habitual feeling triggered by association and that is it. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, I think you answered this in your next post – those feeling may well have to do with your new discovery that your “number 1 priority” is to have “a favourable place”, being “a someone in relation to others”. Therefore your “varying feelings of despair, panic and insecurity” are most likely be related to this newly revealed priority. KUBA: So how does one go about tackling these kinds of
habituated feeling patterns? They are quite sticky in that when they come they have this ability to compel and yet at
the same time I can see they are over nothing substantial. It’s like ‘I’ am not done with ‘being’ that
feeling yet although ‘I’ have no ‘good reason’ for it other than habit. I could trace them to an event or
thought, but other than that there was nothing more in terms of any social identity aspects which were behind it, just
habitual feelings. It’s like someone flinching at the sight of a stick if they have been hit with one enough times. VINEETO: What it seems like to me, is that the best way to approach these is to continue to experience them fully without moving in either direction, and when I do this usually within some short time the feeling is indeed exposed as just a habituated affective pattern. Then some time down the line it repeats again, just by sheer force of habit, but it does seem like that habit is being chipped away at each time I experience the feeling fully, see it for what it is and get back to feeling good. Before you proceed to “tackling these kinds of habituated feeling patterns” you may have to first find out which direction you want to proceed given that in your next post you said that “those 2 goals are mutually exclusive”. * KUBA: Aha well I can tell you what it is now Vineeto, with a high degree of confidence. It is that enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive is not my number 1 priority, but there is more… The reason it is not my number 1 priority is because I would rather pay into the piggy bank of being a group member, a someone in relation to others. The “in relation to others” being especially important as ‘I’ wish to claim a favourable place. And those 2 goals are mutually exclusive, enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive and ‘earning my place’ within the group. VINEETO: I appreciate your sincerity. This is a significant discovery. You presently give priority to your “wish to claim a favourable place” to be “a someone in relation to others” as “especially important”. This is indeed contra to wanting to diminish ‘me’ via becoming increasingly happy and harmless. It looks like you will have to find out if this priority is of lasting importance by proceeding in the direction of your desire (“wish”) for “a favourable place” (perhaps the top?) in a particular group. KUBA: As such I have never put everything on a “it doesn’t
ultimately matter” basis, one of the key things Richard did when first stepping onto the wide and wondrous path. VINEETO: Indeed it goes some way to explain the different results. Your discovery also explains your recent objections to leaving humanity, to exploring naiveté and exquisite intimacy, and to moving from conditionally feeling good to feeling good unconditionally. It could also explain those “habituated feeling patterns” or “any particular beliefs, values, fantasies” concerning this desire (“wish”) which you mentioned in the previous message. Your “high achiever”, as you called him, apparently wants to achieve something more in a previously unexplored arena.
KUBA: So seeing yesterday the outline of ‘me’ as a group member I was fascinated, what I could see is that ‘me’ as a group member is not a new invention at all, it is actually a very ancient part of ‘me’. It looked that it flows directly from the instinctual programming, as can be seen in some animals e.g. monkeys, but furthermore it was the predominant MO for the longest chunk of time that the human animal has been in existence, namely as hunter gatherer tribes. The story of ‘me’ as a group member is the story of ‘humanity’ itself. I could see that all of ‘my’ boundaries and frames of reference have been all part of that game, of who ‘I’ am in relation to others, that ‘I’ have never known ‘myself’ as anything but a group member, which means that ‘my’ dreams, fantasies, insecurities, anxieties etc they are all part of that. And it was specifically seeing the above that did something, it was like the horizon had opened up and I can see that there is in fact an alternative way of living now, outside of being a group member. This I am in particular happy about. But looking now at my various obstacles, dramas, involvements etc I see them now in a different light, this seeing that they are all merely part of the drama of ‘me’ as a group member, it took the legs out from underneath them, they do not compel like they did before. How I experience it since this morning is that the gateway to pure intent has been opened up, of
course as it is something entirely new to human experience and ‘the old’ has to get out of the way in order to
allow it. My experiencing is that of a pristine purity which is just at the fingertips, and something has changed in
‘me’ in that there is less in the way of it, there is like a tingling excitement at the experience of it and the
fact that ‘I’ can now allow it, what a blast! VINEETO: Hi Kuba, Well, it sounds like you have come to your senses, at least for now, but the ‘proof of the
pudding’ will be when those “gloomy feelings” and those “varying feelings of despair, panic
and insecurity” from yesterday And then you said this only the day before –
Is this objection still prevalent, causing you to go back and forth between having a blast from a short-lasting insight and then “gloomy feelings” again or has the objection of “not willing to change” yourself miraculously evaporated? It will have to be lived to find out. I do ask because having observed this see-saw between serious objections, shared “with a
high degree of confidence” I am pleased, however, you re-discovered pure intent. It makes such a difference in how you assess any upcoming objections, either passionately believing in them all or letting pure intent give you an actual perspective instead.
KUBA: Hi Vineeto, Yes I think your general assessment is correct, I will need to see what happens in the longer run. For now I know what I want to do with my life and it’s not in the direction it has been going in. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, It bears well that you now know which direction you want to go. My experience is that one has to dissolve any persistent obstacles and objections affectively not only cognitively, with the sincere intent to imitate the actual, in order for them to reliably dissolve. When you keep this in mind you can’t go wrong.
KUBA: Hi Vineeto, VINEETO: It bears well that you now know which direction you want to go. KUBA: Yes I do indeed and solidly from experience too, over the weekend and today I have been delighting in this mirificent flavour, I am glad that Claudiu got me onto this word but if not I would say it is a magical fairytale like flavour, this sense of endless wonder and amazement – “how can the universe exist, how can all this be so” etc. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, Ah, Richard was equally delighted when he found the word and created a long list of definitions
and samples of literary use for it KUBA: With the immediate reward being the wonder and amazement itself rather than any intellectual answer. I am amazed each time this flavour is tasted because it is just as wondrous every time. This flavour, what it is and where it leads is the direction I want to go in, and not as a means to an end but as an end in itself. It is what I want to do with my life. And there is a golden clew in place now back to this flavour, and it is so very worth it every time. Those obstacles are there – to be squarely addressed rather than gingerly walked around – but now there is such a
worthy goal, and such a pinpointed attention to it that I am confident it is possible to proceed. VINEETO: It’s wonderful you now have access to this flavour of “the wonder and amazement itself rather than any intellectual answer”. Intellectual answers are never successful in the long run standing against any onslaught of instinctual passions, whereas “wonder and amazement itself” are very potent and ultimately irresistible. You and Sonya seem to have infected each other with the joy and fun of considering obstacles “to be squarely addressed rather than gingerly walked around” – it needs a bit of daring at first but once your abandon your pride and acknowledge that ‘you’ are as bad and as mad as the person next door, then the fun of addressing any obstacle to feeling excellent begins, and as I said to Sonya, nothing succeeds like success, “and it is so very worth it every time”. By the way the terms ‘as bad and as mad’ comes from Peter –
KUBA: Oh and the other thing I can see now, the morning resentments and the evening gloom, these feelings were there as a result of me walking down the path which I know cannot deliver the goods. It’s because that flavour would be already gone, and then I would be going through the motions of the ‘real world’, knowing that it leads nowhere. There was always this sense to those feelings like ‘what is the point of all this’ and indeed what is the point of living anything but that which delivers the goods, especially when that thing has already been located. It’s like spending the day-time in paradise and then going to look for meaning in hell afterwards and wondering why something is off … It’s selling out that which is first place for something that doesn’t even compare. All of those feelings as well as the “high achiever” who would come in to assuage them, none of this is of any relevance when I am allowing that mirificent flavour. And at the same time nothing at all in the ‘real world’ can make up for what is missing when that flavour is lost. VINEETO: Ah you recognized what caused “the morning resentments and the evening gloom” – according to Geoffrey’s metaphor “being lost in the woods nearby”. Naturally that also means you were not “spending the day-time in paradise”, they were feelings of a conditional happiness or perhaps good feelings. This paradise was a real-world paradise, not actuality or near-actuality. I can say this with confidence because if you had spent the day in actual “paradise” you would not have experienced “the evening gloom” and “morning resentments” day after day. The meaning you were looking for was not in the day-time “paradise”, those feelings ended when the conditions/ activities causing your happiness ended. As you said yourself – “it’s selling out”. Now that you found the genuine flavour, the “mirificent flavour” of pure intent, you know what you had been missing. It is from the ongoing experience of the actual world that Richard says –
Some people objected to his standard of the actual world – perfection –
KUBA: It looks like (and I don’t know when exactly) but I already signed the contract, in that I have already seen what is possible, so how could anything but that ever compare. I see now how for ‘Vineeto’ virtual freedom was never an indefinite platform to remain but rather a dynamic stepping stone to the ultimate. VINEETO: Indeed, although ‘Vineeto’ had a long period when ‘she’ ran away from even contemplating going out from under control (the genuine virtual freedom). It was only ‘her’ determination not to “do a Devika”, and never to give up when the best was so obviously achievable (because of her own PCE and because Richard lived it day after day), that ‘she’ eventually dared, and cared, to stop running and leave ‘her’ fear behind in lieu of near-actual-caring. KUBA: Of course ‘I’ would look for steeples within the ‘real world’ when that flavour was lost and yet knowing deep down it is pointless. Having experienced pure intent ‘I’ can never fully forget the experience, the wheels are in motion and ‘I’ can either kid ‘myself’ or press on. So the warning, not to “do a Devika” this is relevant, it looks like at least I had my endless stubbornness
that would never allow it. VINEETO: Yes, “never fully forget the experience” of “wonder and amazement”, tie a golden clew to it each time you experience it. And don’t castigate yourself for your “endless stubbornness” – more than likely it’s not only the deep fear of venturing into the unknown but also the fear of leaving behind everything which is dear/ familiar to you and common to all. And the moment you dare to look the fear in the eye, acknowledge its existence and refuse to be beaten, fear will instantly lose a large portion of its power (because fearing fear is feeding it) and then you can look for the thrill of the adventure of a lifetime. It bears well indeed.
KUBA: Hi Vineeto, VINEETO: It’s wonderful you now have access to this flavour of “the wonder and amazement itself rather than any intellectual answer”. Intellectual answers are never successful in the long run standing against any onslaught of instinctual passions, whereas “wonder and amazement itself” are very potent and ultimately irresistible. KUBA: Yes and there is this other side to it in that I am quite an intense person in the sense that the “cogs are always turning”, and the problem when looking for intellectual answers within the real world is that I only end up chasing those various steeples which are never satisfying anyways, on top of the fact that they never lead anywhere. Whereas when allowing that mirificent flavour it is like my natural inclination to be fascinated finally finds home and here it can flower fully, because the possible wonder and amazement is endless in both scope and depth. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, Yes, a conscious change of habit might be useful – to remember and appreciate sensuousness and
value the very act of appreciating the wondrous and amazing world around you as a beneficial and worthwhile activity
– simply because this is what you want to do in your life, and not because anyone else praises you for it or gives
you a badge of honour for it. To allow yourself to follow your “natural inclination to be fascinated”,
don’t stop it in midstream, let it “flower fully, because the possible wonder and amazement is endless in
both scope and depth”. It is indeed endless in scope and depth. Richard’s last article, ‘Marvelling how
well-equipped human beings are’ KUBA: Then I don’t need to be looking for things to do, being here is that fascinating in itself, I remember this specifically when driving back from London the other day and looking at the vista all around, the trees have begun turning in colour and some had leaves that were almost red, other leaves were as if dancing in the wind in front of the car and we were comfortably making our way home with music playing. What Richard wrote then came to mind, that being here is an escapade in itself. Even writing this I am amazed that such wonder and amazement is possible, and there was more because it was precisely around that time that an option presented itself to me, which was to allow this moment to live me. It was this naive wonder and amazement that made the option available, because ‘I’ was not required for any of this wondrous happening in the first place. I can understand why it has been written that “the sky is not the limit”. VINEETO: Ha, you got the gist of it – will you dare to continue? Will you care to continue? * VINEETO: And don’t castigate yourself for your “endless stubbornness” – more than likely it’s not only the deep fear of venturing into the unknown but also the fear of leaving behind everything which is dear/ familiar to you and common to all. And the moment you dare to look the fear in the eye, acknowledge its existence and refuse to be beaten, fear will instantly lose a large portion of its power (because fearing fear is feeding it) and then you can look for the thrill of the adventure of a lifetime. [Emphasis by Kuba]. KUBA: Yes I think you hit the nail on the head here, this is why I have felt like I sold out too, because pure intent has been experienced and yet I could not bear to proceed through that potential fear of leaving all that is dear / familiar to me and common to all. In fact this summarises my objection altogether, this objection / fear is what stands between me and that which I want more than anything. VINEETO: Yes, once in a while marvelling is not sufficient, it requires daring and caring to dare to continue on the path which will eventually leave behind all that ‘you’ hold dear, including ‘you’. KUBA: So this fear of leaving the known behind it seems it can’t be gingerly walked around either, I mean that is what I have been doing for a long time with not much success. At the same time I understand from past experience that it is not to be pushed through in a sudorific manner. VINEETO: Ha, “gingerly” walking around fear has never worked, neither does endless rational thinking and/or conceptualising or other strategic detachment manoeuvres. KUBA: I actually have some good idea of what needs to happen this time around, it seems all those prior failed attempts did provide me with some valuable information as to what not to do. And you have also explained what can be done:
and
VINEETO: Excellent. And don’t merely focus on the fear either, stay with the amazing flavour of wonder. Only when fear interferes with enjoyment and appreciation, acknowledge fear’s existence and refuse to be beaten/ distracted. Here I found a reminder what you (briefly?) already knew in November last year –
As you know, the opposite to being sophisticated is being naïve. And naiveté is a quality which, once re-discovered, can be cherished, fostered and become a new way of life.
KUBA: Hi Vineeto, It appears that I am now in a similar if not the same place to where I was when you began writing on the forum. I think I did peek out the cage then or perhaps I left it briefly and then returned to ‘safety’. This is exactly what I was doing around that time – obsessively allowing the flavour which is not of ‘me’ / ‘reality’ and obsessively refusing to go back to ‘normal’. But as you said perhaps I was not ready to break out, well I had plenty of time to simmer around back in the ‘safety’ of ‘normal’. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, This is what you wrote at the time I “began writing on the forum” –
This exploration turned out to be a ‘rehearsal’ with you eventually going “back to my cage”. And yet you have learnt a lot on the way, mainly what to avoid but that is the way it often works. It’s worthwhile collecting the experiences you gained. Are you ready to go for a one-way trip this time? KUBA: I remember around the time of let’s say “peeking out the cage”, that I saw the majority if not all of what ‘I’ and ‘others’ were doing was essentially those delaying tactics, anything but action. And then I took action. When I went back to my cage I then tried to collect various ingredients of what would allow me to proceed and yet that is not what would do the trick. The action is more like a dance rather than looking at a map from the safety of ‘my’ office, it’s allowing that mirificent flavour here and then applying daring and caring here when fear comes in, but all the while there being action. But it is that mirificent flavour of pure intent which provides the “juice” to proceed, it can only be that, that which is outside of ‘me’ / ‘reality’. VINEETO: Resist the temptation to map it out, classify, imagine or even thinking in advance what will happen when you allow pure intent to live you. To naïvely explore and taste naïveté only needs your sincere intent of purpose to imitate the actual and, of course, the daring to not get scared when pride or other aspects of your self-image appear to stop you. Slowly and fascinatedly reconnoitre the world of this “mirificent flavour” with a child’s curiosity, albeit with adult sensibilities in place. KUBA: Oh I have to tell you about this dream I had just a few
hours ago, because it is so well timed and quite amusing actually haha. In the dream there was a newly discovered
island which was slowly being populated. I went to visit some friends on the island and I was jealous of their daring
to move there. In the dream I heard myself explaining to one of the inhabitants how after doing all my calculations
it seemed more sensible to remain in the safety of the mainland! VINEETO: Ha, your dream reveals how much of the old paradigm of ‘safety first’ (what safety?) is still operating dominant.
KUBA: Ok so I have been skilfully manoeuvring those obstacles (the morning resentments and the evening gloom) and I can see now what has been going on and what is needed to proceed. Effectively it is that the old has to go in order to make way for the new. There is a caveat when one wants to proceed down the wide and wondrous path, which is that ‘I’ will not remain as ‘I’ am. Those obstacles are the outlines of who ‘I’ am, with the various conditional enjoyments and feelings, hence the ebbs and flows. I can see now that putting the actualism method into practice is essentially what ‘I’ do in order to put ‘my’ money where ‘my’ mouth is with regards to ‘my’ eventual demise. In that how could ‘I’ possibly agree to ‘my’ extinction if ‘I’ am not even willing to abandon those various outlines of who ‘I’ am. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, Exactly.
KUBA: The reason ‘I’ did not break out in the past is that ‘I’ was not even willing to allow the above, so any interest in ‘my’ self-immolation can only be kidding ‘myself’. This is likely why there was such severe resistance from ‘my’ side and trying to push past it would only mount the resistance even higher leading to eventual burnout. Where pure intent beckons there is not even a shred of the old, and pure intent cannot be “worked into” those outlines of ‘me’, I mean that would be a bastardisation anyways so that’s a good thing. Those outlines of ‘me’ have to be left behind, that is the way to proceed. VINEETO: Given that pure intent is born out of the PCE it is always the ‘fulcrum’ outside of ‘me’. Viz.:
KUBA: Also what I noticed today is that the resistance ‘I’ put up is not to be pushed through, the resistance is when ‘I’ am not in agreement, it does have to be skilfully manoeuvred but I noticed that the wide and wondrous place is not so much past the resistance, it’s more adjacent to it lol. It’s when ‘I’ see the resistance for what it is ‘I’ am back on the wide and wondrous path. VINEETO: No. The resistance can neither to be “be pushed through” (i.e. ‘me’ forcing ‘me’) nor can it “be skilfully manoeuvred” (‘me’ trying to deceive ‘me’). The result of this skilful manoeuvring is what you described in the post before this –
If with the wide and wondrous place you mean the “mirificent flavour of pure intent” then is not “adjacent”, it is outside of the entire real-world paradigm, where your “resistance” originates from. (see ‘fulcrum’ above) Do you notice that the longer you ruminate, the more you water down the “mirificent flavour of pure intent”? Here is what I posted to Sonya two days ago about the wide and wondrous path to actual freedom –
KUBA: Essentially one does not go deeper into the woods when
lost. VINEETO: In other words, when in a hole, stop digging.
KUBA: Also what I noticed today is that the resistance ‘I’ put up is not to be pushed through, the resistance is when ‘I’ am not in agreement, it does have to be skilfully manoeuvred but I noticed that the wide and wondrous place is not so much past the resistance, it’s more adjacent to it lol. It’s when ‘I’ see the resistance for what it is ‘I’ am back on the wide and wondrous path. VINEETO: No. The resistance can neither to be “be pushed through” (i.e. ‘me’ forcing ‘me’) nor can it “be skilfully manoeuvred” (‘me’ trying to deceive ‘me’). The result of this skilful manoeuvring is what you described in the post before this –
If with the wide and wondrous place you mean the “mirificent flavour of pure intent” then is not “adjacent”, it is outside of the entire real-world paradigm, where your “resistance” originates from. (see ‘fulcrum’ above) KUBA: I was unclear here, yesterday when I went to teach BJJ I stumbled across that gloom and usually I would go into the gloom to try to resolve it or go through it, … VINEETO: Hi Kuba, Let me interject here in mid-sentence. “Go into gloom to try to resolve it or go through it” is not doing the actualism method. Noticing the trigger, getting back to feeling good and from there acknowledge, recognize, investigate if necessary, or nipping it in the bud (“consciously and deliberatively – with knowledge aforethought – declining oh-so-sensibly to futilely go down that well-trodden path to nowhere fruitful yet again”) are the tools of the actualism method, so that you can again enjoy and appreciate this moment – the only moment you are ever alive – instead of frittering it away by going through the gloom. When you are aware that you are your feelings then you choose which feelings you rather want to be – and why would you want to waste the only moment you are ever alive by being “gloom”? KUBA: … whereas this time around I saw that it was a dead end and I went adjacent, towards felicity and innocuity instead. So what I was describing here was not so much resistance towards ‘my’ demise / one way trip, but rather a diversion into feeling bad. VINEETO: Indeed, you already knew “it was a dead end” because you told me only three days ago –
Why are you then still even considering to walk down the same fruitless path of “go into the gloom to try to resolve it or go through it”? KUBA: But your main point I never saw before, that pure intent is outside of both ‘me’ as well as ‘my’ resistance, hence it is the fulcrum. VINEETO: I was contemplating if I had made too much of your word “adjacent” but it is obvious now that this clarification was entirely necessary. You are still attempting to imitate the actual by merely side-stepping a little bit in the direction of enjoyment, carefully avoiding to orient yourself “outside of both ‘me’ as well as ‘my’ resistance”. “Adjacent” means “adjoining, neighbouring (on), next door to, close to, close by,
bordering (on), beside and alongside”; Hence the persistence of “the morning resentments and the evening gloom” There is a vast difference between realisation and actualisation. * VINEETO: Are you ready to go for a one-way trip this time? KUBA: I don’t think I can answer this with a sincere yes unless I am already on the one-way trip, what I am ready for is to abandon the old and proceed towards the new. Currently attending to the ebbs and flows seems to be the practical demonstration of this commitment. And what my focus has been on recently is that in order for the ebbs and flows (the conditional enjoyments and feelings) to be left behind, those outlines of ‘me’ responsible for them need to be abandoned also. VINEETO: I appreciate your sincere reply. Rather than trying to leave behind “the conditional enjoyments and feelings” why not change your focus to do what Richard suggested –
I copied a longer section for you because each re-read of the actualism method reveals where one has inadvertently added or subtracted text to make one’s own interpretation and thus missed something essential. KUBA: So perhaps still proceeding towards advanced base camp
first haha. VINEETO: Why “perhaps”? Is this still your next aim? Feeling beings ‘Peter’ and ‘Vineeto’ have demonstrated that to live in a methodological, still-in-control virtual freedom is eminently doable and very enjoyable. Now that the Direct Route has been opened it is also an easy spring board to an out-from-control virtual freedom, if you wish. You have some experience now with trying to do ‘shortcuts’ which revealed to be rather diversions, avoidance and delays. These attempts are more likely indicators of a basic misunderstanding about ‘shortcuts’ –
KUBA: Hi Vineeto, My head is spinning a little this time, well there is 1 bit of your response which caught my attention though :
VINEETO: Hi Kuba, It can be fortuitous that your “head is spinning” – you might be seeing if a major readjustment is in order. Let me respond here before you go on devising a new strategy to stop your head from spinning. I am going by your phrasing of “skilfully manoeuvring” your “resistance” in combination with “adjacent” in your recent message as in –
I suspect (and I could be wrong) there is a stumbling block that you seem to have never taken squarely into account – that there is just no way that the actual world is “adjacent” [“adjoining, neighbouring (on), next door to, close to, close by, bordering (on), beside and alongside”] to ‘me’, the imaginary but very passionate alien entity inside your flesh-and-blood body. Therefore there is simply no way that ‘I’/ ‘me’ can devise a strategy (“skilfully manoeuvring”) to enter the actual world whilst remaining ‘me’.
When you understand this basic fact, at the deepest core of you ‘being’, that the actual
world, and therefore pure intent and all the wonderful experiences you had of the “mirificent flavour of pure
intent”, is outside of ‘your’ domain then you won’t continue to fool yourself and end up “in
a similar if not the same place to where I was when you began writing on the forum”. I am reminded of something Richard wrote to Alan in 2016 –
Could it be that you inadvertently were trying to fit actualism into the spiritualistic paradigm for instance that it is enough to have realisations without ever needing to actualise them in a practical down-to-earth way to reap their benefits? Or into the materialistic paradigm that these realisations are merely a screen to present (to yourself as well as others), to hide that the true primary purpose, your ‘self’-survival, remains in power? It would only be natural given that ‘you’ are the instinctual survival passions therefore there is no need to be ashamed or embarrassed. And if this indeed part of ‘your’ modus operandi it would be both beneficial and liberating to discover so as to avoid future traps. The reason I am saying that is because many times in the last months you have apparently gone to the brink of ‘self’-immolation, only to pull back with more doubts and more objections and then go again to the brink and backward again. For example –
And finally conclude –
To further explain what I mean by actualisation – in a PCE ‘I’ go into abeyance and when ‘I’ appear again, ‘I’ am the same as ‘I’ was before the PCE – so any insights or understandings gleamed from experiencing the actual world remain impotent until ‘I’ actualise them by imitating the actual as sincerely and progressively as possible. For example, you can follow Geoffrey’s suggestion –
Here Richard describes in detail how ‘he’ actualised the information (and intent) gleaned from the PCEs –
Allow yourself time to contemplate, which can increase your being ruthlessly honest and deeply sincere [true to the root] with yourself – which are the keys to naiveté. You know if you actualised some of your profound realisations when your daily life actually changes and the “outlines” that you mentioned two days ago noticeably and consistently change in one direction – more happy and harmless, gentle and kind.
KUBA: OK so I am not going through bits of ‘me’ and neither am I going adjacent to the bits of ‘me’. You are suggesting to have the intention to step outside the compounds of the territory of ‘me’. Well, the question that comes up is how? The mirificent flavour experienced over the weekend was indeed outside ‘my’ territory, it’s what makes the experience so utterly delightful and wondrous, it’s having the time of my life. The flavour was available because of something like a “holiday atmosphere”. So the question is how to consistently “step outside the compounds of the territory of ‘me’” or how to make the “holiday atmosphere” a way of life. It seems it is naiveté that makes this possible, because only as a child was the world wonderful and magical as an ongoing experience or a way of life. It’s interesting actually that as a child the world was magical and wonderful in itself, whereas later on as an adult one has to travel across to some holiday destination to maybe rekindle a tiny shred of that magical flavour and even then it is never quite the same. You know there is this thing I have seen in computer gaming, where people keep asking for old games to be re-made believing that the games themselves were better back then, but actually what they are looking for is that sense of wonder they experienced whilst playing those games as children, and that flavour is never quite found again. I actually have a lot of solid memories of the “wonderful world” of my childhood, and
yes if I could live like that all the time that would be utterly amazing. VINEETO: Kuba gave some good advice in January 2025 –
And being naïve is the way.
VINEETO: I suspect (and I could be wrong) there is a stumbling block that you seem to have never taken squarely into account – that there is just no way that the actual world is “adjacent” [“adjoining, neighbouring (on), next door to, close to, close by, bordering (on), beside and alongside”] to ‘me’, the imaginary but very passionate alien entity inside your flesh-and-blood body. Therefore there is simply no way that ‘I’/ ‘me’ can devise a strategy (“skilfully manoeuvring”) to enter the actual world whilst remaining ‘me’. VINEETO: When you understand this basic fact, at the deepest core of you ‘being’, that the actual world, and therefore pure intent and all the wonderful experiences you had of the “mirificent flavour of pure intent”, is outside of ‘your’ domain then you won’t continue to fool yourself and end up “in a similar if not the same place to where I was when you began writing on the forum”. KUBA: Hi Vineeto, Whilst I consider the rest of your reply I do have a question. If the “mirificent flavour of pure intent” is outside of ‘my’ domain altogether then how is it that ‘I’ can experience it whilst naively enjoying and appreciating, is it that when the actual flavour is tasted ‘I’ am temporarily in abeyance? Because that flavour is nothing like in the real world, it is actual. Is it that when ‘I’ am being naive the possibility of briefly going into abeyance is as if always imminent and it can appear as if ‘I’ am the one experiencing actuality? I experience being naive as a state of near-PCE, as if I am flickering between 2 worlds. But I guess what I am getting at, is it that when that flicker does happen and for that brief and delicious micro second there is the “mirificent (and actual) flavour of pure intent” am ‘I’ then also in abeyance? In a PCE it is clear that ‘I’ am in abeyance but when in the state of near-PCE it is this constant flickering that makes it difficult to pinpoint if it was ‘me’ that tasted the actual or if ‘I’ was in abeyance. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, Thank you for your considered reply. It helps to clarify the nub of the issue. When I look at the gist of those two paragraphs you explain why you have the impression that ‘I’ experience the actual world – which impression/ conclusion is what keeps ‘me’ firmly in existence. In other words, you interpret the experience from ‘your’ perspective. This view is what contaminates your intent because it appears to offer a comprise where ‘you’ can have it all, in other words you want to enjoy the experience of the “mirificent flavour of pure intent” but remain as ‘you’ are. KUBA: I think this might be the unexamined misunderstanding which you are pointing to, that ‘I’ believe it was ‘me’ who tasted the actual and that ‘I’ can then re-arrange ‘myself’ to taste it again – which does not work. VINEETO: Yes. When you have the experiences of “mirificent (and actual) flavour of pure intent” for “that brief and delicious micro second”, it is not enough to fully inform you of the nature of actuality and that the actual world is incompatible with ‘you’. Hence the intent to actualise, make permanent “that brief and delicious micro second” is not put into action. You have only asked me to categorize it, label it. In comparison –
I gain the impression, from how you write, that the moment ‘you’ enter the arena after these micro seconds ‘you’ are still very much in charge and willing to interpret the experience as ‘your’ achievement, hence no urgency to do whatever you can to imitate the actual as much as you can. For ‘you’ to take action, this clear understanding, this life-changing insight, that “‘I’ was standing in the way of the actual being apparent” needs to be experientially and unquestionably obvious. Realisations and “delicious micro second” experiences don’t seem to do the trick for you. KUBA: I think the crux of what I am getting at is – is apperception only possible when ‘I’ am in abeyance, no matter how briefly? And ‘I’ only have a memory of the flavour, yet ‘I’ never taste it ‘myself’? In fact ‘I’ have never tasted the “mirificent flavour of pure intent” at all. VINEETO: There are excellence experiences where ‘I’ am still present –
And to distinguish the difference of excellence experiences to a PCE –
Or this description from a correspondent, who had explicit PCEs, describing here what was happening for him at the time –
Maybe you described something similar here –
KUBA: This does appear to be so, that moment when apperceptiveness is taking place it is not ‘me’ tasting the actual, there is the experience of actuality itself, when ‘I’ shortly return ‘I’ have a recent memory that the actual world exists. In the near-PCE state of naiveté this happens at a frequent rate, the actual world seems to be not far at all and yet for ‘me’ it is actually inaccessible, as it always is. VINEETO: Of course, the actual world is not far away, it is right under your nose. It also could be that it is not quite apperceptiveness, or apperception, taking place but something similar in quality but missing the magical out-of-this-world element of the PCE. I am not suggesting you never experienced PCEs but perhaps not paying meticulous attention to the difference in quality between a PCE and experiences that were akin to a PCE but not quite. This lack of scrupulousness may have made it easier for ‘me’ to step in and claim them all as ‘my’ experiences, even as something ‘I’ created not something that ‘I’ have to step out of the way in order to experience it.
Only you can figure this out. As you said less than two weeks ago …
… perhaps this is something you might contemplate doing?
KUBA: However via ‘being’ naiveté ‘I’ am inviting apperceptiveness to happen over and over, and each time ‘I’ am bleeping out for the duration of the apperceptive seeing, even if it is just a flash, and another flash etc. This last paragraph explains quite well how it plays out experientially for me. VINEETO: Remember, you have some experience now with trying to do ‘shortcuts’ which revealed to be rather diversions, avoidance and delays –
Richard described the range of naïveness this way –
Why do you want “‘being’ naiveté” before comfortably and reliably “being sincere to becoming naïve”?
KUBA: So this morning I had an interesting experience, I will write it down here so that I don’t do with it what I usually do. I was having a cigarette in the garden and slowly waking up. There was the experience that I was here, solidly in the garden and no place else. This was contrasted with where ‘I’ usually am, which is in the cinema room of ‘my’ projections. It was this contrast that stood out, that ‘I’ am never ever here, ‘I’ am watching the movie of ‘my’ life somewhere inside the psyche. ‘I’ am watching those various images flash on the screen, this is ‘my’ life. And now those images where as if wiped off and there was the awareness of being here. This was fascinating in itself, that this is what ‘my’ life amounts to in the end, images flashing on the screen of ‘my’ psyche, no wonder ‘I’ suffer, ‘I’ can never ever be here where all is genuine. The flesh and blood body called Kuba has nothing to do with that ‘cinema room’, he is here where this moment is happening. This I could see clearly, that ‘my’ life in the ‘cinema room’ is essentially a different dimension to where this body exists. In light of this experience I can see what Richard wrote that it is relief unimaginable to be released from ‘me’, to finally be genuine – this was the flavour of the seeing. So now that the experience is over, ‘I’ am back to ‘my cinema room’ and yet ‘I’ remember that there is a genuine world where this flesh and blood body exists and that it would be relief unimaginable for this flesh and blood body to live where all is genuine and for ‘me’ to no longer live ‘my’ life. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, What an excellent insight. Here you say it very clearly “‘I’ can never ever be here where all is genuine”, and what’s more, that “it would be relief unimaginable for this flesh and blood body” called Kuba “to live where all is genuine”. In that moment you had no objections for ‘me’ to disappear. KUBA: So in terms of what use this experience has… ‘I’ cannot make it ‘mine’ as ‘I’ was seen to be living essentially a parallel life ‘some place else’. Perhaps there is the intent, seeing that “unimaginable relief” aspect, that ‘my’ self-immolation releases this body from ‘my’ bondage and ‘me’ from ‘my’ burden. But it is the “in the meantime aspect” where ‘I’ usually trip up, because that experience is over now, and it was only a temporary seeing. So how can ‘I’ imitate (to the extent that ‘I’ can as a feeling being) that which was seen. It seems what you have suggested Vineeto, to put everything on a “it doesn’t really matter” basis is the sensible next step, in fact it is probably a step which should have been taken a long time ago. I never considered properly the fact that Richard did this as one of the first things. But there is no way to be a part time actualist, certainly not if the goal is to go all the way. Actually there is something else here, about the imitation aspect. Because in the experience both ‘me’ and ‘my’ resistance are of no concern, because it is a different world altogether. Whereas when ‘I’ am back behind the throne all of a sudden ‘my’ resistance has ‘weight’ to it again. So it seems this is where I trip up with the in the meantime aspect, is it simply a question of putting some effort in? VINEETO: Where the objection lies, is what to do in the meantime because the actualism method imitating actuality means to genuinely diminish ‘me’, on a continuous basis, and with knowledge aforethought, with a ‘self’-less inclination to be increasingly happy and harmless. Richard says it exquisitely in his journal –
But apparently the alien entity inhabiting Kuba’s body got the upper hand yet again. KUBA: Hmm there is a 3rd option which I have not considered before, and this might be it. That the experience itself is a mirage, because it was not a PCE, there was not that magical aspect there. Could the thing itself be a diversion then. Perhaps the sensible way to proceed is that if pure intent is not squarely experienced then the experience itself should have a big question mark over it. This seems to be the case, because there was that morning resentment, a heaviness of the day
ahead, and so ‘I’ must have created a mirage to escape the feeling. Well at least it’s good I am beginning to
catch onto this. It’s a little like what Richard discussed with the lady in the PCE DVD, that there was pain and
‘she’ went into an ASC in order to escape the pain. VINEETO: Well, well, well, because putting in effort (i.e. action) to gradually diminish ‘me’ – the very thought of it is anathema to ‘me’ – you now question this excellent experience itself as a mirage (since it’s impossible to make it ‘your’ own the way you put it already into words), and state that it “should have a big question mark over it”. Then ‘you’ don’t have to do anything ‘in the meantime’. By the way, if you watch the video again you’ll see that Pamela in the PCE-video talked about a past experience yet whilst talking with Richard had the guts to now allow a PCE to happen and revel in the magnificence and ease of it. What a cunning manoeuvre – is that why you never went past first base? Now that the eye-opening experience itself (described at the beginning of your post) has been discredited as a mirage ‘you’ can justify remaining as ‘you’ are. Really? Is that how you want to while away your life? Steeple-chasing and then armchair-philosophising? I wonder when you are going to catch on to ‘your’ dirty tricks and actively fulfil your secret yearning to be genuine, innocent?
KUBA: Hi Vineeto, It is not a lack of willingness to put effort in, that I know, because I am willing to put endless effort into the “steeple-chasing and then armchair-philosophising”, so then it is a lack of willingness for action itself. Right now I am putting in a lot of effort and yet not taking action. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, Effort, as in sudorific, is what you know to do well, but that is not required, on the contrary, effort is ‘self’-enhancing and no fun.
I suggest before you ‘spring into action’ and habitually “put endless effort”
into it, as per your habitual modus operandi, let the head-spinning
KUBA: Action is what brings ‘me’ towards that which is glimpsed in those experiences – “it would be relief unimaginable for this flesh and blood body to live where all is genuine and for ‘me’ to no longer live ‘my’ life”. It’s the bridge between ‘me’ as ‘I’ am now and the possibility of ‘my’ extinction. VINEETO: For now ‘action’ is simply a word for you, without substance or lasting
commitment. If action was the result of, for instance, your excellent experience from yesterday KUBA: So the trick is that ‘I’ can prevent ‘my’ eventual extinction by never taking action, the action being what you described below :
VINEETO: Yes. Ha, not only preventing your “eventual extinction” but preventing any loss of ‘your’ territory whatsoever. Such is the cunning of the lost, lonely and frightened entity inside of you. KUBA: If ‘I’ am genuinely diminished on a continuous basis
whilst at the same time knowing full well what lies at the end then it becomes a slide towards ‘my’ demise, the
action in question would assure it happens. VINEETO: It can only be a voluntary decision born of the insight you had of the utter magnificence and unquestionable purity of the actual world, that is already always right here, right now.
Vineeto’s & Richard’s Text ©The Actual
Freedom Trust: 1997-. All Rights Reserved.
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