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Selected Correspondence Peter Freedom from the Human Condition
After our conversation the other day, I have been musing a bit about the word freedom and what it means to most people. Exemption or release from slavery or imprisonment; personal liberty. 2 The quality of being free from the control of fate or necessity; the power of self-determination attributed to the will. 3 The quality of being free or noble; nobility, generosity, liberality. 4 The state of being able to act without hindrance or restraint; liberty of action; the right of, to do.. 5 Exemption from a specific burden, charge, or service; an immunity. 6 Exemption from arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic control; independence; civil liberty. 7 Readiness or willingness to act. 8 The right of participating in the privileges attached to citizenship of a town or city (often given as an honour to distinguished people), or to membership of a company or trade. Also, the document or diploma conferring such freedom. b Foll. by of: unrestricted access to or use of. c The liberty or right to practise a trade; the fee paid for this. 9 Foll. by from. The state of not being affected by (a defect, disadvantage, etc.); exemption. 10 Orig., the overstepping of due customary bounds in speech or behaviour, undue familiarity. Now also, frankness, openness, familiarity; outspokenness. 11 Facility or ease in action or activity; absence of encumbrance. 12 Boldness or vigour of conception or execution. Oxford Dictionary The dictionary provides a reasonably straightforward definition and for an actualist the pertinent section is freedom ‘from’, as in:
Thus a freedom from the human condition is ‘The state of not being affected by (a defect, disavantage, etc.), exemption’, from the human condition. Given that the salient attributes of the human condition are malice and sorrow, a more pragmatic definition is an actual freedom from malice and sorrow. Much confusion arises for the seeker of freedom, peace and happiness for the word freedom traditionally means something quite different. In spiritual terms, freedom means an escape from, or release from, something undesirable – life as-it-is, in the world as-it-is, right here and right now – and the discovery of, or realization of, a more desirable somewhere else – being ‘present’ in the spiritual world, anyplace but here and anytime but now. I am having a correspondence with an awakened spiritual teacher at the moment that well illustrates this difference –
There seems to be a very deep-set misunderstanding that arises even from the running of the question ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ for the traditional approach would be – am ‘I’ feeling safe and comfortable ‘inside’ this body despite what is happening in the rock-solid world ‘out there’? This approach to the question merely perpetuates the self as an entity that is separate from the actual world, it does nothing to actively demolish and break down the barriers that prevents one as a mortal flesh and blood body being fully immersed in and engaged in the business of doing what is happening, right here and now in the physical, rock-solid actual world. This actual freedom is 180 degrees opposite to the spiritual freedom which is the escape from being here, right now in this the only moment one can experience being alive.
The human conditioning can be studied and understood, so that it does not affect us any more in living our natural potential. It is not something we can deny away or just hate and throw out. Once we have understood it empirically then we loose our emotional reaction to it and although the conditioning is still active in the world, it doesn't disturb us any more in a personal way. Then we are free from the conditioning. This leaves me a little lost for words if this is an example of your ‘new’ philosophy. Are you seriously proposing that all is okay with the human condition ‘as long as it doesn’t disturb us any more in a personal way’. That war, rape, torture, domestic violence, child abuse, etc. etc. which is the present human condition on the planet (easily witnessed through your TV) is okay as long as you can ‘lose your emotional attachment to it’. Are you talking about practicing a detachment from it or merely witnessing it because it is all an illusion any way. Either way it is a turning away that does nothing but perpetuate the misery and violence. But I guess at least you won’t be disturbed and can lead a pleasant life – albeit a selfish one. And I have heard you accuse Richard of being selfish!
Even when they do play an attacking or defending role with me, I find that I am not disturbed by this at all and therefore emotional reactions simply do not come up any more, so I there is nothing at all that I have to get rid of, exterminate or otherwise repress or suppress. These days I can virtually instantly discern the understandable reaction of the other as a natural human defence of themselves. Above you had said that you accepted emotions and feelings as good and now you say you don’t have any anyway. Exactly what is your teaching – you seem to have a bet in each way. Are you advocating a middle road – an actual freedom with a bit of belief and femaleness thrown in or is it just a freedom for women only? As you can see you get no support from me for the philosophy of retaining human conditioning or instincts. I remember being astounded when you said you would seek love again even though you acknowledged it could bring great suffering in the event of your partner dying or leaving. You said you would welcome the suffering. Well, not for me – my chest is still bruised from feeling and suffering the universal dread!
I have no wish to interfere with your happiness. I just want to make it clear why I am continuing with the findings of the ‘other 50% of the experimenters’ and that I have neither doubt nor fear of the consequences. At the risk of again being seen as vitriolic, I will give you a quote from my journal that I wrote after an incident I witnessed where a group of people confronted Richard and accused him of being cold, uncaring and deceitful.
I know it’s strong and leaves no room for compromises but that’s how I see the Human Condition. You may see it as vindictive but for some reason it seems appropriate again right now. I guess it is that I watched the black-humour film ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ on TV last night with its running score sheet of ‘losses’ in the ‘games’ that the generals played in the War to end all Wars. The losses after 2 years of playing one game at the Somme were 607,000 dead on the English side alone for a nil gain of ground. I guess it is that I yet again understood Richard’s desire to find a way to actually end wars and his radical understanding that, for this to be possible, both the good and bad feelings and emotions and instincts have to be eliminated. Those men, after all, died for love of god, country and family. Their pride eventually disintegrated to the point where they simply shivered in their mud filled trenches, ridden with lice and listening to the rats feeding on the dead and wounded, singing endless choruses of ‘we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here ... we’re here because we’re here...’ But then again you know all this and we have talked of this at length many times before so maybe just write me off as a hopeless case ...
Although aggression and fear are indeed instincts which do come to the fore in an extremely threatening situation on a physical life-death level, your aggression and fear are linked to your personal unresolved dilemmas and painful disappointments around women and love that you have learnt to condemn as not worth looking at because you believe that you can deal with them by ‘ eliminating ’ and ‘ getting rid ’ of ‘ all those feelings that have been a nuisance and a pain for all my life ’. You have learnt to concentrate on the delightful, tasty aspects of your daily life – which by the way is incredibly important on this wide and wondrous path! – and because everything feels and appears so perfect, you mistakenly believe that all your deep grudges have been eliminated. But because they haven’t seen the light of day for a while by you ignoring them, it doesn’t mean that they have left gracefully... It’s not your human condition that harbours your accumulated fear and aggression but your conditioning, by others and yourself. And indeed, as long as you keep looking away, this disease, this madness as you call it will prevent you from ever being able to rely on yourself, because now you can only act out of this suppression of old feelings and the mistaken interpretations you have made in order to keep your appearance, your act together. The argument that we are born innocent and pure and we are corrupted by some ‘evil’ force defies the countless well meaning efforts by millions of people to break the stranglehold that violence and suffering have over human beings. But for all our efforts to be good, and live a moral life relying on our own ‘inner’ senses, we still need to maintain ‘peace’ in the world at the point of a gun.
I’m just butting in on your conversation with Vineeto as I see you are having difficulty with watching your feelings, moods, emotions, sadness, etc. and on the other hand wanting to do something about them. This is how I see it and it may be of use to you. I see, you are a doctor, so imagine you are on safari and come across a tribe who have a disease that causes them to have fits of madness where for no apparent reason they fall in to rages of anger or fits of depression. They see it as normal as they have had this disease in the tribe for as long as they can remember. Everybody rallies around and looks after the tribe member until he recovers enough to resume his tribal role or in bad cases they have a special area for those who are too seriously afflicted. Strict control backed up by severe punishment is meted out to the others to keep them from at least not hurting other members of the tribe. The witchdoctor offered the advice that the disease was only ‘bad spirits’ that had overcome them and that they shouldn’t be too concerned about it, just keep an eye on it. Although the witchdoctor also had the disease he managed to cover it up by a trance like state he induced in himself with various methods. The healer offered some herbal or energy potions and they all prayed to their particular Gods in the hope the disease would just go away. Seeing all this, you got out your lap-top and scooted around the Net for information and only came up with some treatments that all offered temporary and spasmodic relief for the symptoms but none offered a cure for the disease itself. Then you found someone who was claiming success in completely curing the condition. Would you tell them to keep doing what they were doing, just watching or praying, or would you tell them about this new cure. It always would seem to me in that situation they would have nothing left to lose – as everything else merely was coping with the symptoms. As an architect I would often come across problems in old buildings like leaky roofs, structural cracks etc. I always knew the best job was not just patch it up but to get in and eliminate the cause of the problem. Otherwise the symptoms just keep coming back again. We Humans, it seems to me, all suffer from a disease called the Human Condition and a few of us claim a cure is now available. That people seem to want to stick with the tried and failed methods (accepting the disease and coping or watching the symptoms), without even considering this alternative, I find most curious. For me, I like the medicine – it sure works for me. That’s what I liked about Richard when I met him – ‘you mean I can actually do something myself to cure myself of malice and sorrow? Well it’s not what everyone else says but what everyone else says doesn’t work’. Well enough for now. Just thought I’d give you a practical example of the difference between watching a problem or doing something about it. I know I get confused when I get too much into the theory of it all – too many ‘I’s’ ‘me’s, souls, ego’s, consciousnesses, to make sense of some times.
As for writing on this list, it is always a delight to hear of someone’s investigations, fears, doubts, feelings, experiences, etc. We are all in this business of being a human being for the first – and only – time, and this list is for those intrepid few who have at least some doubts about the life within the Human Condition. This is an experiment, so it is good that we report to each other what is going on in order that we can each make intelligent and informed decisions about becoming free of the Human Condition. This is not only a personal thing and this is not a small thing we do, we are all in this business together, and your writing and contribution is valuable. To have one person actually free of malice and sorrow can be put down to a freak of nature, but to have a handful, all following a mapped-out, well defined and documented method and path, is irrefutable proof that peace on earth is possible. And then what about a dozen, two dozen, a hundred...
Yep. Tis writ large in the sacred texts of the ‘Human Condition’, sub-section ‘Human Attributes’ – ‘The faculty that distinguishes the human species from other animal species is our ability to feel. In short we are ‘feeling’ beings – take away our feelings and we are but animals or robots’. Of course, this sacred tenet was written in ancient times when the only chance of keeping fear and aggression in reasonable control was to emphasise nurture and desire. Thus it was that ‘good’ and ‘bad’, together with ‘right and wrong’, was chiselled in stone and written on rice paper as the morals and ethics of tribal groups. This was further reinforced by fairy-tales of Gods and Demons, good and bad spirits, and the power and influence of the shamans was set in concrete. To dare to question the Gods and the good was to tempt the Devil, invite the bad to run riot and invoke the wrath of the shamans. All of this is based on primitive ignorance of modern human biological knowledge only evident this century. Human and animal behavioural studies combined with stunning genetic and neuro-biological knowledge has made the futility of sticking with Ancient and spirit-ual solutions patently obvious. What we now know is that human beings have an instinctual program of fear, aggression, nurture and desire and that this is located in the hypothalamus primitive lizard brain. Its task is largely the regulation of stereotyped, or instinctive behaviour patterns and responses. In lower animals this response, sometimes known as ‘fight and flight’ is a simple response to sensorial input – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. In humans with our more complex brain, thought, memory, reflection and self-awareness this simple response becomes an emotional response – an emotion according to Mr. Oxford – Any of the natural instinctive affections of the mind. Our treasured and dearly-held feelings are most commonly expressed as emotion-backed thoughts, firmly rooted in the ‘fight and flight’ instinct of fear and aggression. Hence we are ‘feeling’ beings – we live constantly with the feelings of fear and aggression implanted in us by ‘blind’ nature. Fear hobbles us with a desperate need to belong to a group, to cling to the past, to hang on to whatever we hold dear to ourselves, to resist change and desperately seek immortality. Aggression causes us to fight for our territory, our possessions, our ‘rights’, our family and our treasured beliefs – seeking power over others. We seek solace in the so-called ‘good’ feelings, or ‘trip off’ into unbounded imagination and delusionary feelings of the spiritual. Nurture causes us to care, comfort and protect but also leads to dependency, clinging, empathy, sacrifice and needless heroism. Desire drives us to sexual reproduction, avarice, greed, corruption and power over others. If you think ‘a strong argument can be made for sacrificing the ones that are found to be somehow enjoyable’, do you realise that thinking like that, if actualized, could eventually lead to an end of religions and of religious wars – an end to malice and sorrow. It is amazing how this human trap can be desirable, even after great suffering. We do indeed love to suffer and to inflict suffering on others – our ‘entertainment’ is either sad ‘love’ stories and tales of suffering or ‘action’ and violence. We have turned suffering into a virtue and pleasure into a vice. All of the religious and spiritual texts point to the essential and unending human suffering on earth. It is understandable for they knew nought of instinctual programming, and life on earth was a ‘fight and flight’ business – a man eat man business – to put it in its brutal perspective. But it is 1999 after all, and the ‘sacred’ words of Jesus, Buddha and the likes can be seen for what they are – ancient spirit-ridden drivel of no relevance at all to the situation we – you and I, and the others on this list – now find ourselves in.
Thanks for your post. Just one point, I notice that there is a lot of repetition in your post. Is there a reason for that? No. I was responding to your post and in writing to you I was sorting it out for myself and most often that ‘sorting it out’ is a repetitive business. I know I have spent countless hours studying, considering and contemplating upon the Human Condition and it certainly seemed to me to be endlessly repetitive at times. What I see now is that the ‘real’ world view and ‘spiritual ‘world view are so invasive, so persuasive and so ingrained that they are almost indelibly wired into my brain and a constant repetition of fact rather than belief is a vital necessity for freedom. Again and again I seemed to go over the same point to get the new brain-pattern working so the realization was not merely intellectual but became a cellular change, a synapse re-routing, or whatever the physical process is. The habits and archaic thinking of a life-time have to be deleted from the brain’s programming, and this takes time and repetition, for me at least. The other point is that this whole question is a new realisation for me – that one needs to substantially dismantle the social identity in order to be able to get a clear-eyed, unemotional look at the instincts in operation in their rawest and crudest terms. I had never seen the point so clearly before. In writing to you I have had a few shocking glimpses of the insanity, horror and hopelessness of the Human Condition in operation. These glimpses would not have been possible for the old moralistic, ethical and ‘good’ Peter. It is only with the elimination of the social ‘me’ that I can abandon the concept that there is a solution within the Human Condition and gaily consider ‘my’ demise, for ‘I’ am Humanity and Humanity is ‘me’. The other issue is that only when ‘my’ personal feelings are sufficiently diminished can I ‘get at’ the almost palpable psychic net that binds me to the Human Condition. Freedom is then firmly in sight.
It’s good to hear from someone else out there. I did wonder the other day what was happening for the other people on the list – were they interested in what is written on the list, the writings on the web-site, and what were their experiences in life? It’s so good to be able to swap notes and experiences about the Human Condition in 1999. I am very aware that what is discussed on this list – freedom from the Human Condition – can be confrontational as most people are wont to take very, very personally any factual discussions of what it is to be a human being. It’s much more comfortable to go along or fit in with everybody else and accept the beliefs of whatever group one belongs to. It is understandable that few are willing to challenge and question beliefs and feelings, given that who we think and feel we are is nothing more than the sum total of our beliefs that form our social identity, and our instinctual passions that form our sense of being. Thus to replace our dearly held beliefs with facts and investigate and eliminate feelings and emotions is to actively contrive a ‘self’ demolition – not a very popular thing to do, particularly for those on the ‘self’-aggrandizing spiritual path. To turn 180 degrees in the opposite direction from Immortality to mortality, from Godliness to earthiness, from delusion to sensibility, from fantasy to factuality, from imagination to actuality has yet to become the ‘thing’ to do.
I like what you have written. You are obviously beginning to be concerned with ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ It is a question that will bring you to being concerned with, and interested in, all sorts of aspects of the Human Condition. It is useful to remind yourself continuously that who you think and feel you are is a social identity, that you had no part in the forming of, and that you are an instinctual being by birth. These facts can free you of the need for guilt, blame, resentment and the like. The Human Condition is common to all, whatever nationality, gender, intelligence, etc. The point is to look around at the Human Condition and see if you like it or if you want to get free of it. Then you look at how the Human Condition operates in you and you set about eliminating it – becoming free of it. It’s a fascinating exercise – one that is brand-new, never been done before and never been capable of being done before, for humans have had to operate on survival-mode up until now.
Good to see you hanging in there with Actual Freedom. These investigations and discussions into the myths of Religions and the theories of science can literally shake the very ground you – and Humanity – stand on. For aeons the Sacred has been held as inviolate and the ‘upper’ echelons of philosophical and scientific theory as meaningful explorations. When one begins to understand that it is all a search for a somewhere else, a someplace else or a something else apart from the physical universe, then one understands that the ‘scientific’ beliefs, concepts and theories are all nothing more or less than a search for God. ‘Anywhere but here and any place but now’ is how Richard puts it. Obviously you have read and thought over this subject lot more than I have. I have not finished reading the book. So I can’t say much about it. However, I did not say, suggest or imply that Roger Penrose was giving a prescription to eliminate Human Condition and/or obtain Freedom. I have really only done a ‘skim’ over science and philosophy in order to see where it is they are coming from. In terms of the Human Condition there is a set-in-concrete belief that ‘you can’t change Human Nature’, and that is understandable from their point of view. The Human Condition is, after all, ‘the way it is and the way it has always been’ for human beings and no-one up until now has found an actual freedom from its instinctual clutches. As such, any investigations to date have been a study of what exists, a re-vamp of old ancient ‘solutions’ that have failed or an ‘escape’ into denial or fantasy.
But this is not immortality of a person, an ego or a spirit. I have been born and will die. As you called it, we are the material universe experiencing itself as human beings. A minor correction here, if I can. So far as we know, Richard is the only human being living on the planet who does not have an instinctually programmed and psychologically reinforced self. Everybody else, you, me, and about 6 billion others, all think and feel themselves to be something other than a flesh and blood human being, and a few human beings believe themselves to be a God and therefore immortal, i.e. something other than a flesh and blood human being. Many people have had glimpses of being a flesh and blood human being only, sans self, in a PCE and a handful have taken Richard’s lead and are attempting to emulate his condition of living continuously and permanently in this state. In the meantime, 6 billion humans fight it out in a grim battle for survival in a grim world – this state of fear and aggression, manifest as malice and sorrow, is commonly known as the Human Condition. What we are as human beings is the most highly developed of the animals on the planet in that we are able to think and reflect. However this very capability is enmeshed with the primitive instinctual self to an extent that we think and feel ourselves to be separate and alien from the physical universe. Who we think and feel we are is a ‘someone’ who inside this body looking out through the eyes, hearing through the ears, smelling through the nose, etc. Thus we are isolated human beings who are indirectly experiencing the universe and that experience is of being lost, lonely, frightened and very, very cunning. This is 180 degrees different from being the universe experiencing itself as a human being. This state is evident only in a Pure Consciousness Experience. The only reason I can talk with any authority about being the universe experiencing itself as a human being is from the direct experience of the PCE and from living a life of Virtual Freedom whereby one is as close as possible to this state permanently, yet one remains ‘human’ – an emotional and cerebral entity. It is from this ‘base camp’ that the final step can be taken with confidence and surety.
The Human Condition – the program in the brain that says this is how it is to be a human being – does take a lot of stubborn questioning, and a lot of deleting, in order to get one’s common sense or innate intelligence operating for the first time. But once it is fired up and begins to function the fun begins – it proves unstoppable, and then the sparks start flying and the fun begins as one becomes incrementally free of belief, superstition, morals, ethics, values and psittacisms. This incremental freedom from sorrow and malice results in increasing experiences of delight and peace, and one soon finds oneself willing raising the bar ...again ... and again. There are no limits in Actual Freedom.
As for ‘one ‘I’ is not significantly different from another ‘I’’, you have hit the very problem on the head. All 6 billion humans are ensnared within the Human Condition – fated to be programmed to be animal, and fettered by Humanity to remain so, for the term of one’s mortal life. Richard is just saying – ‘pssst... don’t just believe what everyone else is saying or you will never be free... there is a way to become actually free.’ And I’m just saying – ‘the way out works.’ And it’s such fun... Once again, thanks for your post. I do understand how difficult it can be to unravel oneself from the beliefs and myths that one has been programmed to see as truths – and to stop running with the herd. The great thing is that each belief seen through is a freedom gained and a confidence gathered for the next one that pops up to look at. Keep it up and, one day, freedom from the very act of believing is assured. Well, I’m off to see what other pleasures are in-line. Couch, a coffee and a chat with Vineeto which could well lead on to ...
Maybe another way of looking at it is that all we humans are engaged in a big play called ‘being human beings on earth’. It’s our first time in the play, so we look to the others who are already playing to learn the rules and regulations. Now when we enter the game we find the whole scenario of the play is already written and the name of the game is ‘It’s a dog eat dog world, life’s a bitch and then you die’. Given that it is a tough and miserable game, our main interest and constant obsession is self-preservation, survival, come what may. As such our underlying traits are that we are fearful and suspicious of all the other characters in the play and that we will fight for our rights and our life, come what may. We also find that we have to be members of a tribe to survive and, as such, we are taught the remainder of our script – the particular character role that we play within our tribe. We are further told that it is impossible to leave the protection of the tribe or you will die, and unless you constantly keep fighting for your survival you will die – no letting up, or letting your guard down. In a game like this ... no wonder we feel lost, lonely frightened and very, very cunning. But what if you found some players who told you – you can play the game without having to be a tribe member, and without the constant fear of survival? What if you could re-write your particular script in the play? And it is not a dream, it is now possible for those who want to, to play the game of being a human being with a new script. All you have to do is to leave your old character behind. Or as Richard puts it ‘step out of the real world into the actual world and leave your ‘self’ behind’. It is a brand new script and most will object and still play the game of malice and sorrow, but soon the other game will become more and more played. Seeing it as an obviously more sensible game people will eventually join in with hardly a thought as to the old ‘survival’ script that they were wired to play. The game of survival is, at core, a grim game as we know it – 160,000,000 killed in wars this century alone, not to mention all the murders, rapes, ethnic cleansing, sectarian violence, tortures, domestic violence and suicides. The new play eventually would see humans playing in a world without wars, without domestic violence, rape and torture. With men and women living together in peace, harmony and equity. With sexual pleasure freed of guilt, shame, aggression and perversion. With no religious or territorial wars fought over right or might. With no police, no legal battles, no need for justice or retribution. Where everyone treats each other as fellow human beings and wishes well of each other. Where equanimity, co-operation, consensus and helpfulness are readily apparent in all interactions. Where the current money and effort used to fight wars and keep the ‘peace’ are used to bring the benefits, comforts and pleasures now possible for the few to all humans on the planet. Where care and consideration replace greed and avarice, ending pollution forever... We actualists are simply saying – stop believing what the other players tell you is your fated script and stop believing that the rules of the game can never be changed. That it is possible for individual players to delete the old, ancient and decrepit, survival program in its entirety and to now run on the sensible and sensate, stripped-down version, free of malice and sorrow. One can now become free of the Human Condition of malice and sorrow, if you want to make the effort.
It’s a tough call, looking self-extinction in the face, but it sure beats a life of pretence and being hung in the superficial. I have no other interest in the discussion other than looking at and discussing the facts of the Human Condition that we humans find ourselves trapped in. We humans have endlessly sought solutions ‘within’ the Human Condition – never daring to question the Human Condition itself. We have all looked in the same old places and at the same old solutions that have obviously failed to deliver anything remotely resembling peace on earth. We have forever believed and trusted that Ancient Wisdom would provide a solution to the horrendous mayhem and suffering that we humans inflict upon each other. We have huddled together in fear and trepidation around the temples and God-men, unwilling to strike off on our own to question, discover, uncover, investigate and find out for ourselves exactly what it is to be a human being. This is why both this list and the writings are unabashedly iconoclastical. There is no solution to be had in spiritual or religious pursuits, in fact any belief or faith actively supports, ‘nourishes’, enhances and embellishes the very problem – the psychological and psychic entity, the ego and the soul It is obvious that the solution has to lie outside of the Human Condition – it is the whole of the Human Condition itself that we have to become free of in, order to find an actual personal peace and facilitate an actual global peace. This mailing list offers an opportunity for those intrepid pioneers to swap stories, facts, experiences and discoveries on the wide and wondrous path to an Actual Freedom from malice and sorrow.
In short, you have said I am on the tried and failed path as far as I am a disciple of Rajneesh because master-disciple relation prevents a person from questioning every blind belief. Not only you. This is nothing personal. It is writ large in the Human Condition, sub-section, ‘Religious and spiritual pursuits’, sub-section ‘Peace on Earth’... ‘Each Religion, God-man or Guru offers the promise of peace on earth in return for the follower or disciple’s love, gratitude, faith, loyalty, trust and surrender. Peace on earth will then occur when everyone (all 6 billion, at the moment) similarly ‘sees the light’ and becomes a disciple or follower of that particular religion, thus finally ending religious wars and conflicts on the planet. Until that magical event occurs, there will still be ‘pockets of resistance’ (wars) caused by the ‘others’ who dearly and stubbornly want to hold on to their religious beliefs – but one day, hopefully, one of the religions will win out and conquer the world – and peace will reign. The other common theme is one of Armageddon or the End of the World, in which case the true believers of one of the particular religions will be the sole survivors and, as such, peace on earth will ensue. The keys to maintaining this system in existence are firm belief, love, gratitude, faith, loyalty, trust and surrender of disciples and followers.’
Just some comments on what you wrote the other day – How would things be different if we were motivated by truth? The problem with being motivated by the ‘truth’ is that everyone has their own version of the truth, as in ‘my truth’ and ‘your truth’, and that each Religion has their own particular version of the Truth according to the Teachings of their particular Master, Messenger or Guru being followed. Further, some people believe that there is but One Truth, an obvious fantasy as it is such a nebulous thing as to be ‘beyond words’. When it is put into words the fighting begins in earnest as to which version is the Real Truth. This nonsense has gone on for millennia and is a mere excuse to have a mythical God to bow down to or look up to. Just because everybody believes something to be true doesn’t necessarily mean it is true. It just means that everybody believes to be it to be true. To believe means ‘fervently wish to be true’ as per dictionary definition. Whereas a fact is a fact. What about if we were motivated by a common sense evaluation of facts rather than imaginary concepts? What about if we considered that there was no life after death? What about if we were motivated to become happy and harmless, rather than the frantic desire to visualize an after-life? What if we stopped believing in mythical Truths and looked at the facts for a change? How would things change here on Earth if we all worked to help one another instead of just ourselves? One of the significant problems with the tribal system of clinging together for support is that we are socialized, cajoled and forced into ‘helping’ others. This means that we constantly focus our awareness on the behaviour and conduct of others and completely neglect our own emotions, feelings, words and actions. This results in a scenario where the other is always wrong or at fault and results in those insidious ‘if only’ ... scenarios. ‘If only we all loved one another...’ ‘If only I found the right partner...’ ‘If only it had lasted...’ etc. I simply adopted the sensible approach that the only person I could change (or help) was me. To consider the possibility of changing the other 5.8 billion people to suit my version of how things could be better is ridiculous in the extreme. And waiting for God to do it with a wave of some magic wand is but a fairy-tale with diabolical consequences. Since He/She/It is nothing but a figment of our imaginations we wait in vain (not to mention despair, anguish, hope, trust and faith). How would people live if we made decisions to support the All rather than each as individuals? As humans are now, because we have a set of well-meaning morals and concepts practiced by almost every religion and culture, that concepts alludes to a common good, to mutual support and compassion for those less well-off, rights of minorities, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, love for neighbour, etc. And it does a reasonable sort of job of keeping the lid on our instinctual malice and sorrow. We have managed to stamp out cannibalism at least, but have a long way to go to make a dent on war, rape, domestic violence, suicide, corruption, etc. I suggest it is time to sort out ourselves rather than others, firmly based on the fact that the only one you can change is you. How would our decisions change if we understood that whatever we do to our neighbour we do to ourselves? The concept falls down badly on the first point which is that when ‘push comes to shove’ nobody cares what they do to their neighbour, everybody reverts to ‘survival’ mode. Each human comes into the world wired with a set of instincts (fear, aggression, nurture and desire) and a primitive self. This is overlaid with a set of social conditioning and we then adopt a social identity in order to fulfil the role expected of us. Thus there are 5.8 billion humans, each with a ‘self’ that is basically lost, lonely, frightened and very, very cunning. No wonder, we still need to keep up law and order with the point of a gun. Adopting moralistic or idealistic concepts is to treat the symptoms and not the disease. It is merely sticking one’s head in the sand. * It is not a beautiful thing to watch thousands starving in the streets, as they already are and will more so in the future if things continue on the path we’ve collectively chosen. To say that we have collectively chosen assumes firstly that human beings are a collective. We are obviously the same species but are in fact there are 5.8 billion humans each with a separate sense of ‘self’. Each is born with primitive sense of self, reinforced by a set of survival instincts. We then are imbued with a social identity from birth onwards so as to fit in one of literally thousands of tribal and/or religious groups. Further, from our peers we ‘round out the package’ with a personal selection of beliefs in order to form what we then consider to be a ‘unique’ identity. It is from our social conditioning that the belief comes that we are a ‘collective’. We are instilled with a set of morals and ethics such as to make us ‘fit in’ and to curb our instinctual aggression. The major problem is that each person within the particular group, tribe or religion then depends on the group for survival. This dependency is both instinctual and imbibed with the mother’s milk and is so strong that group members will kill and die for the group’s survival in the face of both actual and perceived dangers. To imagine that we choose to act this way is to defy factual evidence to the contrary.
Just a brief note to your comments on the Human Condition of malice and sorrow – These are the real causes of the ‘Human Condition’
Tell that to the woman who has just been seized, held at knife point and raped by a group of soldiers in the Balkans while on an ethnic cleansing patrol
Tell that to the African child who for the second time in three years faces starvation because ‘tribal conflicts’ in his country mean there is no food to be had.
Tell that to the 16 year old prostitute and heroin addict, who has just been beaten up by her pimp for ‘answering back’.
Tell that to yourself, over and over, over and over, ... to avoid being brainwashed. Then again there is always the ‘avoid brainwashing’ button.
Tell that to the man who, in a fit of jealous rage, has shot the man he found in bed with his wife.
Tell that to the Buddhist monk who entered an isolated monastery at the age of 13 and, after 40 years, is still ‘seeking’ Enlightenment.
And I’ve got many, many more as well ... There’s the one about the man who stood by the coffin of his 13 year old son, and ...
I can’t give you more than the sense I make of the Human Condition. Of course you cannot, not even this. Because you can know the human condition as your condition, nothing more. The Human Condition is common to all, as per definition. The ‘spiritual’ world is firmly within the Human Condition. Since time immemorial humans have worshipped Gods, believed in good and evil spirits. The only difference between you and I is that I acknowledged the Human Condition in me and actively pursued its total elimination in me. I gave up trying to become God and immortal and set myself a sensible, down-to-earth aim – to become free of the Human Condition of malice and sorrow.
– but you are not offended cause ‘Forgive them God cause they don’t know what they doing’. For a start God is but the figment of our fertile imaginations, implanted and reinforced by social conditioning. Thus we have a myriad of representations of God depending on cultural backgrounds. As for ‘they don’t know what they are doing’, nobody does. We are born into a world into the safety of a family who rear us and socially condition us to fit in. This is done by carrot and stick and consist mainly of teaching us what is considered right and wrong, good and bad. Then, when we start to interact and spend time with our peers outside the family we begin to develop a personal identity such that we play a role in society at large. We adopt beliefs, behaviour patterns etc. such as to fit in – or we adopt the identity of a rebel of sorts, going through life adopting positions and beliefs such that will reinforce our identity. All this is on top of a wired-in set of survival instincts that drive us in fear, aggression, nurture and desire. To say that we ‘know’ what we are doing is to ignore the facts of what we are – human animal – and how we are programmed – social animal. When I met Richard, I had to admit that I knew not one skerrick (... a colloquial term for nothing) about what it is to be a human being. And I knew nothing about freedom after 18 years on the spiritual path. It took me 12 months to ‘dig myself out’ of all the beliefs that I had accepted as truths. 12 months of intense, exciting, thrilling, astounding investigation. I kid you not when I say it was the adventure of a lifetime. And now I am able to tell anyone else who is interested enough to give it a go.
You decide what is/has been insanity, what people have done, their results, how everything and everyone has failed... and then you offer solutions to what never was more than projections and speculations. Only in your delusion do your speculations become facts. I decide nothing of the sort. We humans, with our programmed separate sense of ‘self,’ imagine that we are individuals operating with a free will, but a quick study of history, behavioural studies, sociology, psychology, religious texts reveal that we are all instinctually programmed with fear, aggression, nurture and desire. This programming is further overlaid with social conditioning – Western, American, Christian, etc., and we then adopt our role that we act out in society. Despite the imposition of ethics and morals, and adherence to spiritual and religious teachings we still have nothing resembling peace on this planet either individually or collectively. I fail to see this as a delusion. Don’t you occasionally watch the news on television?
You are unable to know the experiences of others. There is nothing unique in the Human Condition. One is either normal or spiritual. I have had the experience of 32 years of ‘normal life and 17 years of spiritual life so I see myself as well qualified. I am also well qualified in the ‘new business’ of actualism, although by no means as well qualified as Richard. He was Enlightened for 11 years until he saw through the sham. Mind you, writing on this list is certainly an eye-opener as to the reactions one gets when one dares to question anyone’s dearly-held beliefs.
Osho is alive in me, I’m no longer searching for outside assistance, and frankly ... if you’re looking for followers I wouldn’t think this list is where you’d find them. No. I am most definitely not looking for followers. It would be both an imposition on the other and on me which does us both no good. However, having escaped from the Human Condition, I am able to write of my experience, and this will be of use to others who wish to travel this way. This is exactly why I wrote my journal, and why I am replying to you. It is such good fun, and I am experimenting with a new e-mail format. I think it might be easier to follow. Unless you are in competition with Osho ... perhaps your ego was wounded by something he said, and this is your attempt to prove your worth to yourself. No. I set my sights higher than merely being Enlightened when I met Richard. Nothing Osho said has been of any use to me – like most others it was the Energy at the time that was the attraction. He could have been talking about anything (as he did anyway – Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, Taoism, etc...) and I wouldn’t have cared. As for worth – I have none, also no use, purpose, value, reason, mission, meaning, significance, importance ... Nor am I humble, for another human being to be free of the Human Condition is an event of profound evolutionary significance, and I applaud the fellow who started all this business almost 2 years ago. But he certainly is not me as I am now.
Do you know everybody from the inside out to make such strong statement? Why not just say that YOUR perception about everyone and the world was wrong or different – this much you can say – if this is what you were saying. You sound as if you can tell what other people are like just by looking at them and this I really doubt. I am not attacking you, just wondering why you have made these strange, strong statements about people and the world? Why did you assume that everyone lives in some unreal world of expectations / hope / imaginations? So a guy at work meditated for 10 minutes – so what? You might have had a coffee or a cigarette instead – same thing – so what? What does it tell you about the other guy? Is he trying to escape reality because he happens to meditate, etc? Maybe he is just doing his thing as you are doing yours enjoying your sex. Why sex is more ‘natural’ than meditation or a cup of tea? Maybe to someone else these are ‘peak experiences’. Sex may seem like sneezing to someone else – so what does it mean to you? My point: what works for you may be or may not seem applicable / true to others. There is a common misconception that all human beings are ‘unique’ and different, whereas we, as a species, are all the product of the a fertilized egg, wired with a set of survival instincts, nurtured through the first few years when our physical and mental functioning develops, and then socially conditioned to fit in to the tribe. We do develop a few individual quirks, we come in an amazing variety of shapes and sizes, etc. but we are all human. If you look at a forest, no two trees are the same but they are all trees. So all humans have the same instincts wired and all humans have the same social conditioning that varies only according to the social group you are born into. This basic programming is what is known as the Human Condition. A study and knowledge of the Human Condition results in a knowledge and understanding of this basic program such that one is able, given sufficient intent, to become free of it. The clue to eliminating it is not to regard it as ‘preciously’ yours only and defend it like ‘all get out’, but to acknowledge it as a common ‘disease’ we are all inflicted with. I call it a disease because this programming is the cause of malice and sorrow within each of us. Further if one is prepared to abandon the belief in a God or a someone or something else to fix you up, then you accept that the only one who can fix you up is you. And then you can decide what you want to do with your life. At last there is a chance to avoid your fate. I liked the way Richard put it – ‘Blind nature cares not a fig about your happiness’ – in fact it has conspired to prevent it. I really liked the challenge, and quickly appreciated the perfection and freedom that this possibility offered.
how can you possibly know from your own experience that there are no others who are happy and harmless? Have you in fact encountered every other single human being alive on this planet in order to be able to judge the absolute state of humanity? I think not... A lot of people on the list seem to have this objection. I wrote in the introduction to my journal that ‘... as I gradually forced myself to admit, I was as mad and as bad, as everyone else.’ It was difficult as I had a good dose of spiritual arrogance running such that I was on the path, I was seeking, I wasn’t one of them who was fighting and killing and arguing. A sincere and honest self-appraisal soon revealed sorrow – sadness, melancholy, compassion, sharing, etc. and malice – resentment, withdrawing, ‘subtle’ revenges, sarcasm, gossiping, etc. But the thing that really got me going and up off my smug complacent bum was reading of the Milgram experiment – it’s in my journal in the Peace chapter. And then to contemplate what I would have done at the end of the Ranch when an armed conflict looked a distinct possibility. The level of honest introspection required in becoming free of emotions and feelings is frightening to most. And rightly so as it would be the end of you as you know yourself now. You readily and willingly ‘self’-immolate. As for my ability to judge the absolute state of humanity, it is universally (albeit a little reluctantly) acknowledged, that we are born with the instincts of fear, aggression, nurture and desire. It is denied by those who believe we are born ‘innocent’, but not only do we have the evidence of behavioural studies, direct personal observation but specific genes are beginning to be discovered that relate specifically to this instinctual programming. No doubt some freaks and genetic mutants do exist who may have escaped a bit of this genetic programming but it essentially tars us all with the same brush. Most people do a bloody good job on keeping a lid on these instinctual urges in themselves, but this very need to control oneself is the cause of most of our sense of ‘not being free’ or having shackles on as I experienced. Only when these instincts are tackled and eliminated is the individual capable of becoming actually free from malice and sorrow. It’s just that 160,000,000 have been killed in wars this century alone not to mention all the murders, suicides, rapes, tortures, corruption, repression, depression, etc.
Because this experience of challenging one’s belief systems is so entertaining, one does not need to watch soap operas on TV to escape life’s dull moments. I don’t know if I would call it entertaining. For me it was often times scary, bewildering, challenging, dis-orienting, fearful, thrilling, and down-right insane and it required stubbornness, bloody-mindedness, nerves of steel, pig-headedness, but above all a pure intent. As for soap operas ... have you noticed that we humans most like love stories (sorrow) and thrillers or ‘action’ films (malice). Our entertainment is watching other humans ‘playing’ at being sorrowful or malicious – the Human Condition.
You seem to be putting words into my mouth and then become offended by what you then claim I said. This tactic is the cause of so much conflict, abuse and mis-understanding in the world, used equally by the peace lovers as it is by the war-mongers. We humans love to fight, and if not much is happening and we are bored, we invent something that we feel someone is doing or thinking or saying, simply to get offended. Yet, when I state the fact that humans are born with the instincts of fear and aggression everyone says ... ‘I’m not!’ Remember Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ when Brian says ‘you’re all individuals’, and one guy pipes up... ‘I’m not!’
The current fashionation is to study, glamourize and glorify the instinctual passion of nurture in operation in other mammals and one can see this in operation in much of society. Even tigers, wolves and poisonous snakes are seen as warm-hearted beings who are misunderstood. I guess if they make animals out to be as ‘good’ as humans, then we can all ‘accept’ that the Human Condition is ‘as good as it gets’. The fervently good even grant ‘rights’ to animals and then proceed to fight for these rights, but the good always love fighting for causes. The other advantage of granting ‘rights’ to animals is that one can then get angry, sad and depressed when these ‘rights’ are abused, like when some bad people hunt and kill animals for food or profit. If this isn’t enough of an emotive outlet, one can then become worried about ‘endangered species’ which offers endless opportunities to indulge in fear and despair, malice and anger, sorrow and sadness. I do mean endless, given that scientists estimate that there are between 2 and 4.5 million animal and plant species on the planet, all of which are seemingly endangered or whose ‘rights’ could be abused by ‘evil’ humans. Evolutionary psychology, behavioural biology or behavioural ecology – call it what you will – is but the same old ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ game, except this time it is the good instincts vs. the bad instincts and not the good spirits vs. the bad spirits. But then again, given that these scientist and academics believe God (or Existence) gave us the good instincts to counter the bad ones ... it’s really just that same ♫ ‘old time religion, that old time religion, it’s good enough for me’ ♪. The other one they sing loudly is ♫ ‘all you need is love, ... love, ... love is all you need’ ♪ as if this is some magical and new solution that hasn’t yet been tried enough, by enough people, for enough time. I often wonder whether these people who trumpet this advice to others have perfect, harmonious, equitable and delightful companionship with their wives, husbands, girlfriends or boyfriends. The wondering only lasts a few seconds and then I remember the Human Condition which is to gratefully accept the periods between fights with one’s companion as some sort of blissful truce, a peaceful if temporary cessation of hostilities. ‘As good as it gets’ in normal human relationships is a sad compromise of the delightful intimacy possible between human beings, even in a virtual freedom from the Human Condition. If one really studies the Human Condition – ‘evolutionary psychology and behavioural biology’ – with open eyes, one may see what an actualist sees –
The history of Humanity, both past and present, is essentially a history of continuous warfare between various tribal groups on the basis of territorial disputes, religious and ethical differences or acts of retribution. Human malice is much more vindictive and vicious than the innate aggression obvious in other animal species due to human inventiveness, cunning. Furthermore in the human animal much hatred, bigotry and spite is also passed down from generation to generation as a social conditioning that is layered on top of our instinctual animal passion for aggression. There is no evidence that human malice is abating – quite the contrary. This last century has been the bloodiest and most savage to date. To call the brief periods of ceasefire that occur between human wars and conflicts ‘peace’ is to completely misuse the word. These are indeed the Savage Times. Sorrow ... The other major feature of the Human Condition is the underlying feelings of sorrow and despair that continually threatens to overwhelm human beings. As humans, we are all subject to physical dangers, ill-health, accidents, earthquakes, floods, fires, etc. which can cause loss and pain. But to have to , and to actively indulge in, emotional suffering additional to these hardships is to compound the situation to such an extent that the resulting feelings are usually far worse than dealing with the facts of the situation. To be conscious beings, aware of our emotional suffering is held as the distinction between us and the rest of the animal world. As such, sorrow, sadness and despair are accepted as an integral unchangeable part of the Human Condition. Indeed emotional suffering is even lauded as a noble trait. To suffer rightly or deeply is held in high esteem and often evokes a bitter-sweet feeling. Compassion and empathy – our compulsion to emotional suffer others’ emotional sorrow – are also universally held in high esteem for the solace and bitter-sweet feelings evoked. Human sorrow is based on the feelings of separation, loneliness, fear, helplessness, despair and dread and many people know only too well the sorrowful spiral downwards from melancholy to sadness, depression, despair and eventually to suicidal feelings. These are indeed the Sad Times. ... Just a bit from the Introduction that I thought relevant. Arche Aye ... the ‘real’ world is a bad, sad and very mad world. Good thing there is a simple, down-to-earth alternative – a method to become free of all this madness. Good Hey Peter’s Text ©The Actual Freedom Trust: 1997-. All Rights Reserved. |
