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How I Achieved Actual Freedom GARDOL: I wrote most of this before I posted ‘How I achieved Actual Freedom’. At this point in my email I intended to finish with sledgehammer and blowtorch, and completely repudiate the whole AF web site and enterprise. I intended to use the title as a meme, and to post it in different places on the internet, so that it would come up as people researched AF. Then I would move on with my life. I also intended it as a tease and a trick. I used paradoxical phrasing, so people ‘in the know’ would not take it too seriously. I doubt that someone who became actually free would say it that way, as in: ‘How I achieved success in Real Estate in two weeks’ or ‘How I achieved financial independence’. The ‘I’ of course does not achieve actual freedom, but disappears, leaving the talking meat robot. Oh, I mean the flesh and blood body. RICHARD: It is transparently obvious that if Gardol had really meant ‘the flesh and blood body’ (instead of ‘the talking meat robot’) he would have, as a matter of course, just back-spaced it out and then typed that instead. GARDOL: I felt a little guilty about my tease, so I included my letter to Vineeto to give this email a little more weight and meaning. We get teased and hooked so often by media, and then disappointed. RICHARD: And what a bizarre justification that is (for doing the very same thing himself). GARDOL: I felt motivated by fellowship regard, which I also call sympathy or compassion ... RICHARD: As that term is given a particular connotation in the actualism writings then all Gardol is doing here is conveniently blurring distinctions which, whilst giving an illusion of being on the same page, only serves to muddy the waters. GARDOL: ... to give something more than the quick conclusion and ‘ha ha, I tricked you, bye now’. RICHARD: Here is an example of what he is really saying:
And/or:
‘Tis fascinating to see how feeling guilty (about the cheap-trick tease) then transmogrifies (through a bizarre justification) into a feeling of sympathy/ compassion (for those he teased) which translates (via some evidently-felt need to compensate) into making public a private email (thus putting a few flaws on display) so as to give this ... um ... this ‘stunning conclusion’ email a little more weight and meaning. O what a tangled web they weave when first they practice to deceive. GARDOL: It gets a little knotty for me here because I can no longer no longer conclude, as I intended to, by completely repudiating the whole AF website and enterprise. By a strange twist of fate I find my path now, post enlightenment, and, ‘as far as I can ascertain’, parallels Richards’ path ... RICHARD: Going by the few snippets of information available (such as the deliberate ‘talking meat robot’ jibe and the ‘sympathy or compassion’ muddying of the waters, for instance) it may very well be the case that the parallel path is still proceeding in the opposite direction from the wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition. GARDOL: ... more than any other teacher or purveyor of ‘facts’ I’ve found. RICHARD: Given that Gardol probably would not recognise a fact even if it suddenly sat up in front of him with a flashing neon sign gaudily displaying the words ‘This Is A Fact’ it is just as well he has put that word in scare-quotes. Vis.:
GARDOL: Instead of a ‘tree’ of self, I now have a stump. At the base of that stump, I tend a small fire. The fire hallows out the stump from the inside. RICHARD: Humph ... so much for the parallel path, eh? GARDOL: My own wordless inquiry, while different from Richards question ... RICHARD: Again ... so much for the parallel path. GARDOL: ... brings me into the present moment, and into my body. Time slows down for me. It only works, or I can only do it, when I muster ‘pure intent’. So that phrase has new meaning for me. RICHARD: To loosely use a common expression: gob knows what new meaning the term ‘pure intent’ now has. GARDOL: The markers Richard proposes: ‘Good ... Happy ... Perfect’ and the whole bootstrapping method have no relevance to me. RICHARD: And again ... so much for the parallel path. GARDOL: At any moment I practice, I could answer ‘yes’ to all three. So I don’t need to mentally backtrack into previous states and bootstrap myself back up to the most recent marker. RICHARD: And yet again ... so much for the parallel path. GARDOL: Nor does Unity, Bliss, or Oneness have relevance. I feel neither in Unity nor out of it. I do feel plugged into my purpose in life. And I have no more need than the meaning of this moment, as I practice. RICHARD: Uh-huh ... add a bit of meaningless new-age gobbledygook, stir well, and then slowly bake in a moderate oven (until the cows come home). GARDOL: So if you have to slog through those tar pits of the AF website ... RICHARD: Once again this is a good place to draw attention to the following:
In other words, what is essentially a very simple matter has had multitudinous layers of (unnecessary) complexification added, again and again, by many and various peoples of the same, or similar, ilk as Gardol. GARDOL: ... you will find inconsistencies and contradictions galore. RICHARD: Going by what has been clearly demonstrated all throughout this diatribe it is, of course, beyond doubt that nothing of the sort is to be found. GARDOL: However, you might also find some gold there. RICHARD: The only gold Gardol has found is some type of chalcopyrite or yellow pyrite (popularly known as fool’s gold). GARDOL: Excuse me for not replying to all your emails well worth replying to. RICHARD: And again the admonisher brings communication (be it either the one way or two way kind) to an end. GARDOL: In a way, posting here and thinking about my posts distracts me from pure intent ... RICHARD: Well then, one thing is for sure: it ain’t the pure intent, described in detail, on The Actual Freedom Trust website. GARDOL: ... and from my practice. I may reply more in the future, if I can balance the two. RICHARD: And thus does the denouement (aka ‘stunning conclusion’) of Gardol’s argument fade vacuously back into the nothingness it never quite made its way up out of anyway. Vis.:
Oh, well ... c’est la vie, I guess. RETURN TO RICHARD’S CORRESPONDENCE INDEX The Third Alternative (Peace On Earth In This Life Time As This Flesh And Blood Body) Here is an actual freedom from the Human Condition, surpassing Spiritual Enlightenment and any other Altered State Of Consciousness, and challenging all philosophy, psychiatry, metaphysics (including quantum physics with its mystic cosmogony), anthropology, sociology ... and any religion along with its paranormal theology. Discarding all of the beliefs that have held humankind in thralldom for aeons, the way has now been discovered that cuts through the ‘Tried and True’ and enables anyone to be, for the first time, a fully free and autonomous individual living in utter peace and tranquillity, beholden to no-one.
Richard’s Text ©The Actual Freedom Trust 1997-2008 |
