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Richard’s Selected Correspondence On Ancient Wisdom and the New Dark Age
RESPONDENT: I’ve been thinking lately (with all this war occurring) about what it’s usually called a ‘doomsday scenario’ and if that is to be considered a possibility in the near future. There are some things that triggered these thoughts; the Apocalypse (Revelation) by St. John or Luca, I don’t remember exactly, a book which I’ve read a couple of years ago; the fact that humans have never invented a weapon without making use of it; the current state of affairs within the human psyche (which is widely explained on this site). RICHARD: The ‘current state of affairs within the human psyche’ is essentially no different to the state of affairs in the human psyche 3,000-5,000 years ago (according to recorded history) and 5,000-50,000 years ago (according to legendary pre-history) and, presumably, 50,000-120,000 years ago (according to archaeology and palaeontology). Have you never noticed that many an otherwise intelligent person has been afflicted by the doomsday syndrome all throughout human history? If so, the words ‘all throughout human history’ should speak for themselves. RESPONDENT: I bring this topic into discussion although I know it is not a desirable or too pleasurable subject for discussing. I don’t know how many of you have read the Apocalypse ... RICHARD: I started to read it yet had some difficulty getting past the first sentence (Rev 1:1) ... by the third sentence (Rev. 1:3) the writer has used up the last remnants of any credibility he had left. Upon writing the second-last sentence (Rev 22:20) the writer should have twigged to the fact that, as a (biblical) generation is 40 years, it was all but a frantic hallucination and gone and sought psychiatric help. RESPONDENT: ... but when I’ve read it, there were many things which resemble the current global situation. RICHARD: There is nothing in it which resembles the current ‘global’ situation as the earth was flat for most people in that part of the world, when the writer had his delusory visions, and the Americas (the continents) did not exist as far as they were concerned. Mr. Jesus (if he ever existed that is) was a flat-earth god-man with a limited comprehension of worldly affairs. RESPONDENT: As I’ve personally experienced an ASC-PCE?, I know firsthand that in these kind of states it’s possible to know things which are not available in an ordinary state of consciousness ... RICHARD: As the above ‘things’ are an example of what is knowable in an altered state of consciousness (ASC) it is just as well they are not available in ordinary states of consciousness ... the global situation is in a parlous enough state with sanity running rampant. RESPONDENT: ... and that these states have the possibility to transcend time. RICHARD: As long as you keep on insisting that an ASC is a PCE (a pure consciousness experience), despite the correspondence you have had with me these last 22 months on that very subject, you will not comprehend a single thing on The Actual Freedom Trust web site. Time is *not* transcended in a PCE ... all of the above is the fruit of ASC’s. RESPONDENT: So, I somehow regard what’s written there, with all the rudimentary language trying to describe things of the future, as a highly possible outcome. RICHARD: What is ‘a highly possible outcome’ is that human beings, being
contumacious For such is the case with stubborn perversity. RESPONDENT: If you are interested I can bring about exactly those passages in the book which are the most relevant ... I’m very much interested in what you have to say. RICHARD: Hmm ... if you actually were you would have been reading with both eyes and this conversation would not had to have taken place. Plus by now you might even have been making your contribution to global peace-on-earth. RICHARD: ... I was agreeing with you that the metaphysical meaning you give to the word intelligence was the same as I started off with. Vis.: [No. 42]: ‘... an all pervasive intelligence which operates outside of thought. (...) Intelligence to me is not a material quality that can be projected’. [Richard]: ‘I too had started out with the heart-felt conviction that the nature of that movement was that of an ‘all pervasive intelligence’ . RESPONDENT: You started with a religious bias, heartfelt conviction, and intuitive belief. In dropping belief as to an omniscient deity, you nevertheless continue to operate from assumption as to the nature of the absolute. Otherwise, you would simply state the obvious ... that the essential nature of the absolute is beyond human comprehension. RICHARD: But what if the essential nature of the absolute is not beyond human comprehension ... do you see how you close the door on enquiry by saying that it be obvious that it is? RESPONDENT: It is quite evident when you are at the end of the rope of thought. RICHARD: Only where thought is tethered by the ‘Self’ (aka ‘That Thou Art’) is it experienced as a ‘rope of thought’. RESPONDENT: You can examine and know or comprehend objectively only when you are there as an observing subject separate from what is observed. But what is absolute is beyond any such subject/object split. RICHARD: You are now providing the ‘tried and true’ reason as to why you have closed the door on enquiry into the nature of the absolute ... for example:
Obviously something else, other than the traditional way of comprehension, is required if the enquiry is to proceed ... I call it apperception (which is what occurs when both ‘I’ as ego and ‘me’ as soul die). It takes great daring to move out past one’s comfort zone. RESPONDENT: You might consider having a photo taken and going to Rabbit Photo; they will give you the photo on CD – in digital format – so you can have your image on the internet by this evening. Or you can keep limiting your exposure to your conceptualisation which in the end is as valid as mine; or Osho’s’; or Veeresh’s; or Ramana Maharshi’s; or Leonard Cohen’s; or Isaac Shapiro’s ... RICHARD: This is an example of a vital opportunity being frittered away with empty rhetoric again (with some brand-names thrown in for good measure). RESPONDENT: Am I hearing that you consider each of these people – living or deceased – to have value ONLY as ‘brands’ – or alternatively, as fodder for the anti-branding brigade – rather than inherent value as an actual human person? In your way of seeing; do I have value as a person? Do you? RICHARD: May I suggest taking my words at face value? I am always straightforward and up-front; there is no subterfuge, no hidden meaning, no secret agenda, no ulterior motive – I mean what I say and I say what I mean – and I have oft-times said that I like my fellow human being irregardless of whatever mischief they get up to. And if someone wants to be valued as an actual human being then they ought to get off their backside and do something about being actual instead of presenting an image for public consumption (although when that happens the whole notion of being valued is meaningless). The term ‘brand-names’ has quite a common usage ... take the automobile industry, for example: Rolls Royce is a brand-name; Cadillac is a brand-name; Porsche is a brand-name; Lamborghini is a brand-name and so on. Each name conveys a quality according to public opinion or personal predilection ... consumers buy a car from a particular brand-name’s stable because of their track record; reliability, safety, after-sales service or whatever other criterion is considered valuable. There is a corollary in the spiritual bazaar (given the billions of dollars that changes hands it is undeniable that there is a product being marketed with the discerning consumer in mind) and seekers are often uncompromising (sometimes to the point of being rabid) when it comes to lineage, for instance. And you mentioned some recognisable ‘brand-names’, to demonstrate your point, that are readily comparable to the commercial world of motor vehicles inasmuch as it could be said there is a Rolls, a Stretch Limousine, a Bentley, a Hearse and a Datsun Bluebird on offer. But not necessarily in that order. RICHARD: When the delusion of ‘me’ transmogrified into ‘Me’ (‘I am That’) is seen ... that is the end of everything thus far known in human history as being the summon bonum of human experience. Thus the ‘Ancient Wisdom’ ends ... being atavistically tied to the spirit-ridden experience of the Bronze Age peoples is finally over. Set free from the apron-strings of spirit ... one can allow the actual to become apparent. RESPONDENT: 1): You mention a tie back to the ‘spirit-ridden’ Bronze Age. Why the Bronze Age in particular (the time around which mankind first became aware of ‘self consciousness’ and began to hear voices – the ‘I’ – in his head and invented a spirit to go with it)? RICHARD: No ... palaeontology has found circumstantial evidence of ‘self-consciousness’ dating from at least 50,000 to 60,000 years ago (reverential burying of the dead with artefacts). Archaeological digs on the North-West Indian sub-continent has shown similar concern for the well-being of a departed ‘self’ in grave-sites estimated at maybe 9,000 to 11,000 years ago. Twentieth-Century contact with what is described as ‘primitive peoples’ shows even clearer (direct and living) evidence of the human race being spirit-ridden back to maybe 10,000 years ago ... the highland natives of New Guinea being but one example (I have seen black and white film taken in 1932 when contact was first made). I used the term ‘Bronze Age’ because hard evidence – written text – at the most dates back maybe 5,000 years ... thus I have no need to base what I propose upon somewhat speculative theories derived from scanty evidence. The texts themselves – the revered ‘Ancient Wisdom’ – can speak for itself ... and there are trillions of words dating from that era. RICHARD: Now, while most people paddle around on the surface and re-arrange the conditioning to ease their lot somewhat, some people – seeking to be free of all human conditioning – fondly imagine that by putting on a face-mask and snorkel that they have gone deep-sea diving with a scuba outfit ... deep into the human condition. They have not ... they have gone deep only into the human conditioning. When they tip upon the instincts – which are both savage (fear and aggression) and tender (nurture and desire) – they grab for the tender (the ‘good’ side) and blow them up all out of proportion. If they succeed in this self-aggrandising hallucination they start talking twaddle dressed up as sagacity such as: ‘There is a good that knows no evil’ or ‘There is a love that knows no opposite’ or ‘There is a compassion that sorrow has never touched’ and so on. This is because it takes nerves of steel to don such an aqua-lung and plunge deep in the stygian depths of the human psyche ... it is not for the faint of heart or the weak of knee. This is because past the conditioning is the human condition itself ... which caused the conditioning. To end this condition, the deletion of blind nature’s software package which gave rise to the rudimentary animal ‘self’ is required. This is the extinction of ‘me’ at the core of ‘being’ ... which means that ‘being’ itself expires. RESPONDENT: Okay, for those that don’t have nerves of steel ... where is the proof that this can happen? You’d appreciate that your mere claim is not sufficient evidence. RICHARD: I invite anyone to make a critical examination of all the words I advance so as to ascertain if they be intrinsically self-explanatory ... and if they are all seen to be inherently consistent with what is being spoken about, then the facts speak for themselves. Then one will have reason to remember a pure conscious experience (PCE), which all peoples I have spoken to at length have had, and thus verify by direct experience the facticity of what is written (which subjective experiencing is the only proof worthy of the name). The PCE occurs globally ... across cultures and down through the ages irregardless of gender, race or age. However, it is usually interpreted according to cultural beliefs – created and reinforced by the persistence of identity – and devolves into an altered state of consciousness (ASC). Then ‘I’ as ego – sublimated and transcended as ‘me’ as soul – manifest as a god or a goddess (‘The Truth’ by any name) and preach unliveable doctrines based upon their belief that they are ‘not the body’. Doctrines like not being judgemental, for example. KONRAD: If we look at a table, we do not only recognize the table by our senses, but there is always something ‘added’. If the table had, for example, only three legs, but we could not see the missing leg from our perspective, we would experience some surprise when we discover it. Or, in the same sense, we would be surprised when the table turned out to be attached, glued to the ground. These are simple examples that show that the recognition of a table involves an act of thinking. Add to this, that if we walk around the table, we experience the table to be one and the same object, in spite of the fact that the information of the senses continues to change. This ‘space – vision’ picture of the world is situated in the right hemisphere of the brains. Normally only the left hemisphere of the brains is dominant. However, it can happen that a switch occurs, that causes the right hemisphere to be the dominant one, and the left the one being dominated. I think that this is what has happened with Richard. This causes him to see, what takes place inside of him. But it also causes him to experience the world from the Euclidean invariant of the 3-dimensional space. In effect, he IS this 3-dimensional space. And this makes him conclude, that he is able to observe the world ‘directly’, although he errs. It explains also, why he thinks to have gone through a transformation. Richard is most consistent for he clearly realizes that what he is in is not the enlightenment of J. Krishnamurti. But he errs in thinking that it is something beyond enlightenment. RICHARD: I see that you are still trying – in vain – to explain Richard’s condition away with ever-frantic theories. Fancy having to drag in that hoary ‘Left-Brain/Right-Brain’ hypothesis in a futile attempt to dismiss one person’s discoveries about freedom from the Human Condition. What about the instinctual fear and aggression and nurture and desire that blind nature endows all sentient beings with at birth? Where do they fit into your borrowed ‘Left-Brain/Right-Brain’ speculation? Nowhere in your thesis have you addressed the issue of the total absence of malice and sorrow in Richard ... in fact you have never gone into this issue. You would rather babble on with convoluted quantum-like concepts about time/space continuums and four-dimensional realities than eliminate the root cause of all human suffering from within yourself. A concept is just that ... a concept. It has nothing to do with actuality. Meanwhile war, murder, rape, torture, abuse, sadness, loneliness, grief, depression and suicide run rampant in the world. With all this happening, does it matter whether one sees three legs to a table or four? Or whether they are glued to the floor or whatever? What about people blind in one eye ... where is their three-dimensional vision? What has this to do with achieving peace-on-earth, anyway? KONRAD: In enlightenment there is a balance between the right hemisphere of the brains and the left, and not a total domination of one of the halves. Only when both are in balance, there is a mutual ‘mirroring’, a feedback loop that manifests itself in a clear process. Therefore the absence of this process in him. RICHARD: ‘Both in balance’ eh? Sounds like a variation on the ‘Tried and True’ wisdom of the centuries ... Yin and Yang harmonised and the inner ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ in conjunction and the ‘Middle Way’ and all that twaddle ad infinitum ad nauseum. I watched the BBC ‘Hard Talk’ interview with Mr Robert McNamara (US Secretary for Defence during the Vietnam War) a couple of nights ago. He estimated that 160,000,000 people have been killed in wars this century. I have always understood it to be 100,000,000 ... which was bad enough. I wonder how many of them – and their killers – had ever thought about how they visually saw table-legs. Maybe if they had they would still be alive today. RESPONDENT: The dictionary is not a sacred text. RICHARD: And I am very pleased that it is not, because faith and trust is not a requisite, when looking-up a word in a dictionary. Instead, a dictionary is a summation of all the understanding humans have had for millennia, codified as sounds that we call words – which may have their origins in grunts – and are thus an expression of experience. As such they are an indication only of what is or can be experienced ... dictionaries (unlike sacred texts) are descriptive and not prescriptive. As such, it is indicative of human experience that the mind can indeed be aware of itself, as is epitomised by the descriptive collection of grunts ‘apperception’ and is not intended to be prescriptive as (presumably) your sacred texts do in insisting that you believe it to be not possible. (I say ‘presumably’ because I obviously cannot know what you feel, think, read, believe in or not believe in, or whatever, in order to be as silly as ‘The Ancients’ ... maybe you are capable of being silly all of your own accord). RESPONDENT: Words only point at truth. RICHARD: Yet these ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to a timeless and spaceless void; these ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to a formless and deathless emptiness; these ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to an unknowable and immutable presence; these ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to an immortal and ceaseless being and so on. These ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to the physical universe as being an illusion, a dream and not ultimately real. These ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to reincarnating through multiple lifetimes until ‘Liberation’ frees one from ‘Karma’ and one never needs being born again. These ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to physical life as being inherently sorrowful and the best thing to do is to scarper ... off into a metaphysical realm of the ‘unborn and/or deathless’ state by whatever name. (That, The Real Self, The Higher Self, The True Self, The Greater Reality, The Essence, The Truth, The Absolute, The Supreme, The Universal Mind, The Ground Of Being, The Tao, Cosmic Consciousness, Nirvana, Satori, Samadhi, Thatness, Suchness, Isness and so on). Nowhere in the scriptures do these ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to nothing other than this physical universe being it; nowhere in the scriptures do these ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to it being that only this lifetime is it; nowhere in the scriptures do these ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ consistently point (more or less) to it being that death is the end, finish, oblivion. Truly, these ‘words’ that you claim ‘only point’ are amazingly accurate pointers ... one could almost say, that the words you use, are the thing prescribed, eh? RESPONDENT: The mind cannot see itself. RICHARD: I fully agree that the mind that is busily ‘being still and knowing that it is god’ cannot see itself. Yet if that self-same mind would become genuinely concerned about the plight of humanity – and be a mind that actually cares about one’s fellow human being – then such a considerate mind would observe that it is swamped by a transmogrified and vainglorious identity that has realised that it is god for purely self-serving post-mortem reasons. Then there would be action ... and such action is not of ‘my’ doing. Voila! The already always existing peace-on-earth becomes apparent upon ‘my’ demise. RESPONDENT: You are what you seek, Richard. RICHARD: Ahh ... this is that ‘seek thee not’ adage is it not (as in ‘seek thee not that thee be thee that thee seeketh’)? Or do you mean ‘seek thee not thine’ (as in ‘seek thee not thine, that thee be sought by thine that seeketh thee when thee seeks thee not’)? I oft-times mused upon just who was seeking who in the first place ... I found it much simpler to ‘seek not thee nor thine’ (as in ‘seek not thee nor thine, that thee which be not sought by thee, nor by thine that seeketh thee when thee seeks thee not, may be extirpated’). Thus I am freed to ask: are thee thine ... or are thee thee? RESPONDENT: Nevertheless, Mother Nature has been around too long to let a few billion ‘mealy mouth’ human beings come along and destroy her. The Earth has become nothing but a garbage dump anyway, and a good house cleaning is in order. So for those who have no plans to leave on a space ship, it might be wise to work harder at uncovering the root of all problems – the self. RICHARD: The earth has not ‘become’ a garbage dump, as you so quaintly put it; it always has been so. Every human that has ever lived has discarded their refuse onto the earth – there just were not so many people back then to have enough waste material accumulate to call it pollution. Pollution has everything to do with massive population ... and a good start has already been made on becoming aware of the issue. It only was talked about in the fifties – now something is being done ... a good start has been made. ‘Mother Nature’ is a concept that has no bearing on facts and actuality. Nature is not caring or nurturing – which is what the concept so fondly conveys – it has not the slightest consideration for you or me or any other individual. Blind nature is only intent on the survival of the most fitted to survive ... and as the human being has a thinking, reflective brain, we will improve on nature even more than we have already done ... and are doing. And we do this because we humans alone care about ourselves. And yes, by all means let us uncover the self ... so as to put an end to the wars, the murders, the tortures, the rapes, the domestic violence, the corruptions, the sadness, the loneliness, the sorrows, the depressions and the suicides. Then we can truly work together to turn this earth into a paradise garden. Yet there is a lot we have done, are doing and will do, whilst we are busy doing the uncovering. Life is not all gloom and doom. RESPONDENT: Are you the ‘world teacher’ to carry on where Krishnamurti (and/or others) left off? Just curious. RICHARD: ‘Just curious’? Or just plain facetious? Can I put it this way: We each come on to this List for many reasons, but, is it not basically to share our experience of life, the universe and what it is to be a human being with one another? And that through earnest and candid discussion, we may be able to find out together about what it is that is standing in the way of human beings living in peace and harmony on this verdant planet? This is my position: we are all fellow human beings who find ourselves here in the world as it was when we were born. We find war, murder, torture, rape, domestic violence and corruption to be endemic ... we notice that it is intrinsic to the human condition ... we set out to discover why this is so. We find sadness, loneliness, sorrow, grief, depression and suicide to be a global incidence ... and we gather that it is also inherent to the human condition ... and we want to know why. We all report to each other as to the nature of our discoveries for we are all well-meaning and seek to find a way out of this mess that we have landed in. Whether one believes in re-incarnation or not, we are all living this particular life for the very first time, and we wish to make sense of it. It is a challenge and the adventure of a life-time to enquire and to uncover, to seek and to find, to explore and to discover. All this being alive business is actually happening and we are totally involved in living it out ... whether we take the back seat or not, we are all still doing it. I, for one, am not taking the back seat. A very brief personal history to explain: Spiritual Enlightenment has been around for some thousands of years ... and there is still no peace on earth. I entered into an ongoing Altered State Of Consciousness on Sunday, the sixth of September 1981, becoming ‘Enlightened’ in the Eastern spiritual sense of the term. I spent the next eleven years endeavouring to discover why it did not work ... why it did not deliver the Peace On Earth it seemed to promise ... and why it was not for everyone. Accordingly I sought to go beyond Spiritual Enlightenment into a condition I had glimpsed on many an occasion during those eleven years. On Friday, the thirtieth of of October 1992, I succeeded and landed in actuality ... as distinct from either ‘reality’ or the ‘Greater Reality’. Nowadays I know, intimately, why an Altered State Of Consciousness does not deliver the goods, for it is but a delusion ... and, of course, I now know what does. I am not an ‘Enlightened Master’ sitting in an exalted position, driven by a ‘Divine Sense Of Mission’ to bring ‘Truth and Love’ to the world ... and what a relief that is. I am a fellow human being, albeit neither ‘normal’ nor ‘divine’, living in a condition of perfection and purity offering my discoveries to whomsoever is vitally interested in peace-on-earth. It is possible to be actually free of the Human Condition, as this body, in this life-time, here on earth. The ‘World Teacher’ business is a myth hatched many, many centuries ago and revitalised by the Theosophical Society around the turn of the century. All religions have this myth running through their fantasy. For example, Christianity has the second coming of Mr. Jesus; Buddhism has their Mr. Maitreya; Islam has their Mr. Mahdi; Hinduism has their Mr. Kalki; Judaism has their Mr. Messiah ... and so on. The moral of the story? People want somebody else to do all it for them. Nobody, but nobody, can set you free but yourself. RESPONDENT: No one can answer that. That is what Krishnamurti says may ‘come to you’. You cannot go to it. I’m not saying I believe him; I’m not saying that I don’t believe him. I’m just saying what he said, emphasising a point. RICHARD: And what ‘point’ might that be ... that you are gullible? Have you ever been to India to see for yourself the results of what they claim are tens of thousands of years of ‘That’ coming to you? I have, and it is hideous ... and it is also sobering to realise that the intelligentsia of the West are eagerly following them down the slippery slope of striving to attain to a self-seeking ‘otherness’ ... to the detriment of life on earth. ‘Otherness’ is simply Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti’s term for ‘The Absolute’ ... which is another word for ‘Brahman’ (the Hindu ‘Ground Of Being’). Thus any designated ‘Intelligence’ translates easily as ‘God’s Word’. The trouble with people who discard the god of Christianity is that they do not realise that by turning to the Eastern spirituality they have effectively jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Eastern spirituality is religion ... merely in a different form to what people in the West have been raised to believe in. Eastern philosophy sounds so convincing to the Western mind that is desperately looking for answers. The Christian conditioning actually sets up the situation for a thinking person to be susceptible to the insidious doctrines of the East. At the end of the line there is always a god of some description, lurking in disguise, wreaking its havoc with its ‘Teachings’. If it were not for the appalling suffering engendered it would all be highly amusing. RESPONDENT: If the ego is so big that it cannot see the vastness of itself, it can believe it responsible for any and everything and get away with that delusion, don’t you think? RICHARD: Yes, it requires repeated injections of commonsense to penetrate the chinks in the otherwise inviolable bastions of ‘Goodness’ that protects, nourishes and sustains the infinitely expanded identity. As this ‘Reservoir of Goodness’ shields the apotheosised identity from ‘Evil’ – and the physical world is believed ‘evil’ as in the ‘temptation of the senses’ meaning – then commonsense has its work cut out to even make a dent. The outcome? When commonsense is labelled ‘worldly’ – and the gullible seeker buys this shrewdness – then the ‘Ancient Wisdom’ propagated by the ‘Bodiless Ones’ reigns supreme. Then they can declare ‘Ultimate Responsibility’ – whatever that means – and even weep crocodile tears of Divine Compassion for the suffering of humanity. Because in the ‘real world’, when a Government Minister, for example, is caught ‘in flagrante delicto’ he and/or she ‘takes responsibility’ and resigns, at the very least, and pines away ... if suicide be not an option; in the Military Forces, not too long ago, when a Ranking Officer committed an unpardonable sin he ‘took responsibility’ by ritual disembowelment or shooting himself or whatever (‘the buck stops here’). But when a Guru or God-Man – whose ‘Ancient Wisdom’ initiated the morals in the first place that cause these outrageous suicides – displays anger (or any other human trait) it is said to be ‘Divine Anger’ (or any other Divine Trait) and is indicative of the fragile and elusive link between ‘Purusha’ and ‘Prakriti’ (consciousness and nature) and known by some as being ‘Sacred Schizophrenia’. For example: ‘Two birds, inseparable companions, are perched on the same tree; one eats the sweet
fruit and the other looks on without eating’. (Rig Veda I.164.20). This vision, deemed to be meaningful, is duplicated
in Mundaka Upanishad (I.III.1) and in Shvetashvatara Upanishad (IV.6). In the same way as the two birds are inseparable,
a human being is not thought complete and whole without both the aspect of ‘Prakriti’ (which experiences the domain
of time and space and form) and the aspect of ‘Purusha’ (which is timeless and spaceless and formless). Mr.
Ishvarakrishna (compiler of ‘Samkhyakarika) pointed out: ‘Purusha without Prakriti is lame and Prakriti without
Purusha is blind’ Similarly, when Mr. Jesus got angry and cursed the out-of-season fig tree for not bearing fruit, he is excused by apologists as not being ‘In The Spirit’ ... taking ‘Ultimate Responsibility’ means absolutely zilch when you are god ... but it sure sounds good to the desperate believer. Why, even Mr. Ken Wilbur can write pages of meaningless justifications for the Guru’s and the God-Men’s failure to eliminate ‘Basic Nature’ rather than merely transcending it ... and that failure is the only place where ‘Ultimate Responsibility’ has any meaning. Perhaps Mr. Christopher Calder’s attitude sums up why these antics are condoned:
In other words: they are saying that it is not possible to be free from the human condition, here on earth, in this life-time, as this flesh and blood body. And is it no wonder ... after all, the Buddhist’s ‘Ancient Wisdom’ extols ‘Parinirvana’ and the Hindus ‘Ancient Wisdom’ exalts ‘Mahasamadhi’ and the Christians inscribe R. I. P. on their tombstones and so on and so on ... on unto the after-death ‘Ultimate Freedom’. After all, the ‘Ancient Wisdom’ propagated by the ‘Bodiless Ones’ reigns supreme here on earth. The ending of all the wars and murders and rapes and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse and sadness and loneliness and grief and depression and suicides requires the ending of malice and sorrow ... which involves getting one’s head out of the clouds – and beyond – and coming down-to-earth where the flesh and blood bodies called human beings actually live. Obviously, the solution to all the ills of humankind can only be found here in space and now in time. RESPONDENT: It seems that passions or feelings are just changing phenomenon that seemingly arise and pass away in awareness just as thoughts. RICHARD: You have used the words ‘seems’ and ‘seemingly’ ... and both in the one sentence. What is conveyed is this: ‘manifest to the senses or mind as real or true on the basis of evidence that may or may not be factually valid; external appearance as distinguished from true character; having an often deceptive or delusive appearance on superficial examination; meaning not actually being what appearance indicates; suggesting appearance to unaided senses that is not or may not be borne out by more rigorous examination or greater knowledge; implying a false impression based on deceptive resemblance or faulty observation, or influenced by emotions that prevent a clear view; implying a character in the thing observed that gives it the appearance, sometimes through intent, of something else and suggesting a discrepancy between an openly declared or naturally implied aim or reason and the true one’. Are you trying to tell everyone that you do not actually know anything? Because you did the same only recently in a post. [Respondent]: ‘It seems that what arises out of nothingness is only apparently real’ . But, I did predict some little while ago that next someone will come trotting out with that tired old maxim about being truly wise only when one can say that one does not know any more. RESPONDENT: To label that ever-changing phenomenon as an instinctual self seems to be the addition of thought. RICHARD: I am beginning to consider that there is not only a touch of Mr. Ludwig Wittgenstein’s influence happening here ... there is an indication of something else operating. I did not just ‘label’ mindlessly ... my words accurately describe a reality that the ‘I’ that used to be in this body saw that I needed to be free from. Words in themselves are not a problem, for words are a description of something ... and it is that something that is being lived which is trapping you ... not the words. I know that some people (Post-Modernists, for example) re-arrange words and definitions to suit themselves, but the underlying reality remains the problem. Semantics is only a superficial problem, in spite of those who write profound tomes about it as if it were the problem in itself. Maybe another person’s post from another Mailing List last year may be able to explicate this syndrome for you:
People will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid facing facts and actuality. RICHARD: Thus started my search for freedom from the Human Condition ... and my attitude, all those years ago was this: I was only interested in changing myself fundamentally, radically, completely and utterly. Twenty six years later I found the third alternative ... but only when ‘I’ ceased to exist in ‘my’ entirety. There was no change or transformation big enough or grandiose enough to cure ‘me’ ... only extirpation – annihilation, expunction, extinction – ensures peace-on-earth. RESPONDENT: Was it sought? RICHARD: Yes. ... with all of ‘my’ being. RESPONDENT: Was it uninvited (which is what I meant by ‘grace’)? RICHARD: Then why not say ‘uninvited’ ... because the word ‘grace’ means unmerited divine assistance given to a human being for their regeneration or sanctification ... it is a virtue coming from God resulting in a state of sanctification. It is the spontaneous gift of the divine favour in the salvation of sinners, and the divine influence operating in humans for their regeneration. The English word ‘grace’ is the usual translation for the Greek ‘charis’ which occurs in the New Testament about 150 times. Although the word must sometimes be translated in other ways, the fundamental meaning in the New Testament and in subsequent theological usage is that contained in the Letter of Paul to Titus: ‘For the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of all men’ (2:11). From the time of the early church, Christian theologians have developed and clarified the biblical concept of grace. The word grace is the central subject of three great theological controversies: (1) that of the nature of human depravity and regeneration (2) that of the relation between grace and free will and (3) that of the ‘means of grace’ ... whether the efficacy of the sacraments as channels of the divine grace is dependent on good works performed or dependent on the faith of the recipient. Christian orthodoxy has taught that the initiative in the relationship of grace between God and man is always on the side of God. Once God has granted this ‘first grace’, however, man does have a response to give and a responsibility for the continuance of the relationship. Although the ideas of grace and of merit are mutually exclusive, neither Augustine nor the Protestant defenders of the principle of justification by ‘grace alone’ could avoid the question of reward of merit in the relationship of grace. In fact, some passages of the New Testament seem to use charis for ‘reward’. The Roman Catholic theology of grace stresses the habitual character of the life created by the gift of grace and therefore ascribes merit to obedience to the law of God; classical Protestantism spoke of a cooperating grace after conversion as a way of including man’s activity in the life of grace, but it avoided language that would suggest that man earns something by his obedience in grace. Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and some Protestants agree that grace is conferred through the sacraments, ‘the means of grace’. Reformed and Free Church Protestantism, however, has not bound grace as closely to the sacraments as have Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and Lutherans. Baptists speak of ordinances rather than of sacraments and – as do evangelical Christians and those in the Reformed and Free Church traditions generally – insist that participation in grace occurs on the occasion of personal faith and not at all by sacramental observance. Therefore ‘grace’ requires belief in an imaginary god. An actual freedom is all one’s own doing ... nobody can set you free but yourself. RESPONDENT: My understanding is that K said: ‘you can be sure, if someone says ‘I know’, that they do not’. His point was that knowledge is always of the past, whereas Life is now, living and ungraspable (by knowledge), at least in what I read his statement to be saying). RICHARD: Yes, the ‘Truth’ cannot be known (according to mystics) because it is a mystery ... it is the ‘Unknowable’. Mr. Mohan Rajneesh popularised the old wisdom that there is the ‘known’, the ‘unknown’ and the ‘unknowable’ and that one can cease living in the ‘known’ (where 6.0 billion peoples live) and reside in the ‘unknown’ (where 0.000001 of the population live) but never in the ‘unknowable’ as it is forever inscrutable, unfathomable, immeasurable and so on. Thus anyone who says that they know (according to mystics) obviously is not living in the ‘unknown’ (it is one of those ‘tests’ of enlightenment). One cannot ‘live’ in the ‘unknowable’ (according to mystics) until after physical death (known as ‘Mahasamadhi’ for Hindus and ‘Parinirvana’ for Buddhists). Thus (according to mystics) the ‘Secret to Life’ or the ‘Riddle of Existence’, or whatever one’s quest is called, cannot be known until the ‘afterlife’ (by whatever name). However, this is not what is meant by ‘he who knows does not speak’ because nobody (according to mystics) can know the ‘unknowable’ until after death. The ‘he who knows does not speak’ is possibly a popular misunderstanding of the intent of the Chinese characters that Mr. Stan Rosenthal, UK possibly more correctly translates as: ‘Those who know the natural way have no need of boasting, whilst those who know but little, may be heard most frequently; thus, the sage says little, if anything at all’ (which boasting is what No. 12 is so insistent about, despite the fact that virtually all the sages had much to say, even if they covered up their ‘boasting’ with humility). I say ‘possibly’ because the origins of Taoism are so vague and Chinese pictograms are so open to a variety of equally valid conceptions that it will never be known for sure. Just by-the-by, there is a very intriguing conversation recorded by Ms. Mary Lutyens where Mr. Jiddu Krishnamurti says:
RESPONDENT: What is your view of all this? RICHARD: I have posted it before so I will present a shortened version. Vis.: The blame for
the continuation of human misery lies squarely in the lap of those inspired people who, although having sufficient
courage to proceed into the Unknown, stopped short of the final goal ... the Unknowable. Notwithstanding the cessation
of a personal ego operating, they were unwilling to relinquish the Self or Spirit ... and an ego-less Self or Spirit is
still an identity, nevertheless. In spite of the glamour and the glory of the Altered State Of Consciousness, closer
examination reveals that these ‘Great’ persons had – and have – feet of clay When the ego dies, the separated identity dissolves into Oneness ... I am Everything and Everything is Me. The eyes seeing is Me looking at Me. I am The Absolute and The Absolute is Me. But beyond Me – beyond The Absolute – lies the actual ... and the actual is already always here now. In actuality there is no ‘Me’ and/or ‘The Absolute’. When the soul dies the need for oneness – unitary perception – dissolves ... as does any ‘Otherness’. Then I am this flesh and blood body being apperceptively aware. Now I am the sense organs: this seeing is me, this hearing is me, this tasting is me, this touching is me, this smelling is me, and this thinking is me. One is now living in the infinitude of this fairy-tale-like actual world with its sensuous quality of magical perfection and purity where everything and everyone has a lustre, a brilliance, a vividness, an intensity and a marvelous, wondrous, scintillating vitality that makes everything alive and sparkling ... even the very earth beneath one’s feet. The rocks, the concrete buildings, a piece of paper ... literally everything is as if it were alive (a rock is not, of course, alive as humans are, or as animals are, or as trees are). This ‘aliveness’ is the very actuality of all existence ... the ‘actualness’ of everything and everyone. Human beings do not live in an inert universe but ‘I’ am forever cut off from the magnificence of the actual world ... the world as-it-is. ‘I’ am eternally separate from the benignity of the actual, where the utter absence of any angst and anger at all is infinitely more rewarding than the deepest, the most profound, Divine Compassion and Love Agapé. The purity of the actual world owes its excellence to the fact that there is no sorrow and malice here ... hence no need for succour. The ‘everyday reality’ of the ‘real world’ is an illusion. The ‘Greater Reality’ of the ‘Mystical World’ is a delusion. There is an actual world that lies under one’s very nose ... I interact with the same kind of people, things and events that you do, yet it is as if I am in another dimension altogether. There is no good or evil here where I live. I live in a veritable paradise ... this very earth I live on is so vastly superior to any fabled Arcadian Utopia that it would be impossible to believe if I was not living it twenty four hours a day ... there is no use for belief here. It is so perfectly pure and clear here that there is no need for Love or Compassion or Bliss or Euphoria or Ecstasy or Rapture or Truth or Goodness or Beauty or Oneness or Unity or Wholeness or ... or any of those baubles. They all pale into pathetic insignificance ... and I lived them for eleven years. There are three ‘I’s altogether, but only one is actual. RESPONDENT: Except if you consider how man’s intellect has allowed him to blindly contaminate his own house: the Earth (capitalization is a term of respect for Grandmother Earth and is not meant to deify her). RICHARD: Good grief ... more NDA platitudes and yet more ‘intellect-bashing’. It is the instinctual passions that cripple the intellect ... and the instinctual passions are bestowed by ‘Grandmother Earth’s’ daughter ... ‘Mother Nature’. RESPONDENT: In the spirit of paraphrasing, here are the main points of this discussion so far: 1. [Richard]: human beings are the same at the level of instinctual passions. 2. [No. 33]: human beings are different as each one experiences the world differently. 3. [No. 33]: genetically we are different, and we grow to be different human beings. 4. [No. 33]: these differences – how each one experiences the world – is the essence of creativity and the reason for our species’ survival and (apparent) superiority. I will grant you (1) that there are certain instincts that we are born with. RICHARD: Would you care to name and describe these ‘instincts that we are born with’ so that we have a common ground for discussion? RESPONDENT: I will still argue that the human being can transcend (at least some) instincts: for example, human beings can transcend sexual, reproductive instincts as also life preservation instincts. A human being is, in my opinion, unique in that respect. RICHARD: What is it that you are conveying with the use of the word ‘transcend’ ? Are you conveying it in its ‘beyond the range or grasp of human experience, reason, belief, etc.’ meaning (Oxford Dictionary) ... as in ‘of, pertaining to, or belonging to, the divine as opposed to the natural world’ meaning (Oxford Dictionary) ... and thus being ‘above and independent of and existing apart from the limitations of the material universe’ (Oxford Dictionary)? I only ask because you refer to Mr. Aurobindo Ghose (below) as being a prime example of ‘meta-evolution’ and Mr. Aurobindo Ghose’s ‘meta-evolution’ can be described as follows:
RICHARD: For those who are ‘that’, punctuating this pithy aphorism should be a breeze. For those who are not ‘that’, punctuating the witty doggerel should be an eye opener. For those who are not interested in ‘that’ at all, clicking the delete button should bring great satisfaction. Vis.: ‘I am that that is I am that that is that that is is and is not simultaneously I am that that is and is not and that is it it is it really is it’. RESPONDENT: ‘I am that. That is, I am that that is. That that is is and is not simultaneously. I am that that is and is not and that is it. It is, it really is it’. Is that it? RICHARD: Near enough: (‘I am that. That is, I am that that is. That that is, is and is not simultaneously. I am that that is and is not – and that is it. It is. It really is it!’) RESPONDENT: Is that all there is to it? RICHARD: That is not ‘all there is to it’ for those who believe in this eastern mystical thought ... it is their whole ground of being. It is their passion, their very core identity. RESPONDENT: What’s it to you? RICHARD: It is one of the main causes of the promotion and perpetuation of all the anguish and animosity that has beset this fair planet since time immemorial. Many years ago – nearly a quarter of a century ago – back in my ‘hippy’ days when I lived in and travelled around this country in a psychedelic bus for five years, I had that painted along the sides. Not many passer’s-by could work it out ... eastern mystical thought had not infiltrated into the West so thoroughly then as now. Anyway, I believed in it through and through ... so much so that I lived it as a reality for eleven years. I was situated in a living nightmare of what I came to see was nothing short of institutionalised insanity. Any altered state of consciousness was a delusion born out of the illusion of self ... but only because of humankind’s ignorance. It is truly dreadful to be trapped in a massive delusion for eleven years, unable to find any way out and knowing that no other human being can help, for the altered state has been held up for millennia as being the Summum Bonum of human existence. All the literature on the subject praised the state of consciousness I was in (Enlightenment, Illumination, Moksha, Samadhi, Satori, Nirvana, Sunyata and so on) and yet I just knew it was a mirage that I was living. I am simply sharing my experience for others to do what they will with. Is that not what this List is here for? RESPONDENT: Do you really want to go at it with me? Let’s have a go at it, what do you say? RICHARD: Have a go at what? A self-centred (and therefore selfish) belief system devised by our stupefied ancestors? Is it really worth fighting over? RESPONDENT: Seriously, isn’t the above little exercise a waste of time? RICHARD: I think not. RESPONDENT: What are you trying to prove with such statements, how witty one can be? RICHARD: Oh ... wit. Yes, that comes next. You have only solved the ‘pithy aphorism’ part. (For those who are ‘that’, punctuating the pithy aphorism should be a breeze) The ‘wit’ lies in the second solution. (For those who are not ‘that’, punctuating the witty doggerel should be an eye opener: ‘I am that. That is, I am that that is. That that is, is and is not. Simultaneously, I am that that is – and is not – and that is ‘It’. It is? ‘It’ really is ‘It’?’ Seeing that you appear a trifle disappointed, maybe you should have followed the sensible advice: ‘For those who are not interested in ‘that’, clicking the delete button should bring great satisfaction’. You still can, you know. RICHARD: Yet I do not have an ‘wholistic intelligence’ ... therefore I present facts. The fact is that human suffering has at least a 3,000 to 5,000 year recorded history – and as peoples everywhere are relying upon an ‘Ancient Wisdom’ that is 3,000 to 5,000 years old – all it takes is a simple observation to see that everybody is going in the wrong direction. To wit: How come it has taken 3,000 to 5,000 years ... and peace on earth is nowhere to be found? RESPONDENT: Wisdom that has 3000 to 5000 years? RICHARD: Yes. In the Judaic/Christian/Islamic thread (depending upon which school of research) the Sumerian texts are dated circa 3,000 B.C. (5,000 years ago) and the Abrahamaic texts circa 2,000 B.C. (4,000 years ago) and the Mosaic texts are dated circa 1400 B.C. (3,500 years ago). In the Hindu/Buddhist/Jain thread (depending upon which school of research) the Vedas are dated circa 3,000 B.C. (5,000 years ago) and the Upanishads 2,000 B.C. (4,000 years ago). The Taoist/Confucian thread (depending upon which school of research) is drawn from the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti) oral traditions (depending upon which school of research) are dated circa 2,000 – 3,000 B.C. and the written texts are dated circa 200 B.C. Current archaeological research is becoming ever more accurate. RESPONDENT: That is clearly a conceptualised wisdom. RICHARD: Well, yes and no ... the enlightened sages certainly lived their delusion as a reality and not as a concept (and most peoples would disagree with your description that Mr. Buddha, for example, lived a ‘conceptualised wisdom’). Yet, either way, their influence on gullible minds has been enormous ... just look at what is discussed on this Mailing List for starters. RESPONDENT: Wisdom never had, has not, and will never have an age. RICHARD: Yet, the ancient wisdom probably pre-dates the written word (3,000 to 5,000 years of recorded history) and gets lost in the mists of pre-history ... that seems to be what I would call quite an age by any standards. And that piece of wisdom you just espoused is precisely the same-same piece of wisdom that was espoused 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. If you fondly imagine that you are being original, then dream on. Meanwhile, all the wars and murders and rapes and tortures and domestic violence and child abuse and sadness and loneliness and grief and depression and suicides rage on around you. Which is what has been happening for 3,000 to 5,000 years. RESPONDENT: Man of Wisdom never tried to save the world. RICHARD: I have no idea what books you read ... but all the versions I have read show the opposite of what you say. RESPONDENT: Only the delirious ones, for the human world is the summing up of the individuals. RICHARD: Uh huh ... and the ones that were not delirious (who are not the ‘summing up of individuals’ presumably) were not of the ‘human world’ then? In what way did/do they differ from the ‘Wisdom of the Ancients’... and who are/were they anyway? RESPONDENT: Chain reaction of Wisdom (you mentioned somewhere)? What’s that? RICHARD: No ... I never mentioned ‘wisdom’ anywhere. I advocate individual action (the extinction of identity in it’s totality), not the acquiring of ‘wisdom’ ... be it ancient or modern. I wrote that an ‘individual freedom from the human condition could lead to a global freedom from the human condition’. This unilateral action could precipitate a ‘chain-reaction’ effect ... or not. It does not really matter either way because even if global peace was a long time coming – as is most probable due to stubbornly recalcitrant identities – the most appealing aspect of actual freedom is its instant bestowal of universal peace upon the individual daring enough to go all the way. RESPONDENT: This is an intellectual viewpoint, the viewpoint of ego. RICHARD: Not so ... intellect (the faculty of reasoning, knowing, understanding), along with ‘I’ as ego, is innate at birth. When ‘I’ as ego dies and/or dissolves and/or whatever description ... intellect keeps on operating. Enlightened people can do sums, for example, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, working in fractions and so on. RESPONDENT: I heard an interesting quote that fits here. Its from 6 iv 5 of the book Course in Miracles. ‘the ego uses the body to conspire against your Mind, and because the ego realizes that its ‘enemy’ (the Mind) can end them both (ego and body) merely by recognizing they are not part of you, they join in the attack together. This is perhaps the strangest perception of all, if you consider what it really involves. RICHARD: I am not inclined to take much notice of the wisdom of a bodiless entity ... if any notice at all. The Web Page – ‘A Course in Miracles’ – describes in great length how [quote]: ‘A Course in Miracles was ‘scribed’ by Dr. Helen Schucman through a process of inner dictation she identified as coming from Jesus. A clinical and research psychologist and tenured Associate Professor of Medical Psychology, she was assisted by Dr. William Thetford, her department head, who was also a tenured Professor of Medical Psychology at the Medical Centre where they both worked. A Course in Miracles was first published in 1975’. [end quote]. Today, this would be described as ‘Channelling’ ... that is, some ‘Disincarnate Entity’ speaking through some specially selected person to bring a ‘Message To Mankind’. And how would such a bodiless entity advise flesh and blood bodies to operate and function in the world of people, things and events? One way and one way only: dissociation (‘I am not the body’), of course. RESPONDENT: The ego, which is not real, attempts to persuade the Mind, which is real, that the Mind is the ego’s learning device, and further, that the body is more real than the Mind. No one in his right Mind could possibly believe this, and no one in his right Mind does believe it’. RICHARD: As both ‘the ego’ and ‘the Mind’ are illusions and/or delusions anyway it is moot as to who persuades who as to who is more real or who is learning for who or who is believing who or what, or when, or where, or how or why. This is such fun, eh?
RETURN TO RICHARD’S SELECTED 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 1997-2001 |
