V – Selected Correspondence – Actualism Method 3

Please note that Vineeto’s correspondence below was written by the actually free Vineeto

(List D refers to Richard’s List D and his Respondent Numbers)

Vineeto’s Selected Correspondence

Actualism Method

January 28 2026

ADAM-H: Thanks Vineeto for the reminders. I did have in mind that my ‘30 minutes a day’ would be in addition to ongoing in-daily-life actualism practice, but I think this is true:

Vineeto: the 30 min per day easily becomes a duty, a chore, a daily ‘work-out’ like a session at the gym, and that would certainly defeat the purpose of learning the art of how to have fun and feel good.

It brought up the question: if the actualism method is to enjoy and appreciate being alive, why do I need to make an effort of spending time on it? Why is it not its own reward that I would just naturally spend my free time doing?

VINEETO: Hi Adam,

If you read more on the Actual Freedom website you will have it confirmed that your genetic predisposition is fear, aggression, nurture and desire, which is additionally socially conditioned to somewhat control the instinctual passions. You, the identity, having formed itself from those passions and beliefs, concepts, etc. and is pre-dispositioned to remain as ‘you’ are. (See for instance Richard’s Selected Correspondence on ‘I’, ‘Identity’, ‘Self’ and ‘Formation and Persistence of the Social Identity’).

As for effort, if you want to call intent, persistence and determination effort to perhaps overcome the habitual tendency of leaving things as they are then this might be informative –

Richard: It does take some doing to start off with but, as success after success starts to multiply exponentially, it becomes progressively easier to enjoy and appreciate being here each moment again. But, as success after success starts to multiply exponentially, it becomes progressively easier to enjoy and appreciate being here each moment again. [Emphasis added]. (Richard, This Moment of Being Alive).

*

Richard: However, it is never too late to begin to undo that which has been done to you. One of the marvellous aspects of entering into actualism is that it is a wide and wondrous path full of delight and discovery ... with some down-turns from time-to-time as the old ways reassert themselves. I will not pretend for a moment that all is rosy when one begins to dismantle one’s belief system; one’s very identity is at stake ... not to mention the self. The identity and self will put up a good fight for they want to stay in existence as they have a lot to lose. To wit: their life. As the sense of self is firmly based upon the instinct for survival, it will get up to all kinds of tricks to retain and regain its ascendancy. But it is not a hopeless case: if I can do it, anyone can. I am not special. I was born of normal parents and went to an ordinary State school. I got a job and worked for a living like anyone else. I became married and raised a family. I claim no special abilities other than a determination to succeed in my desired ambition. In 1980 I had what is known as a ‘Peak Experience’ wherein I experienced the perfection and purity of the universe as-it-is. I was hooked! I devoted myself to the task of setting myself free of absolutely everything that stood in the way of attaining what I had experienced. The word ‘fail’ is not in my vocabulary. [Emphasis added]. (Richard, General Correspondence, Page 1, 26 June 1997).

Syd had a similar misconception(?) when he called an instance of not feeling good “a glitch” as if the entire instinctual programming plus social identity was merely “a glitch”. It’s good to be aware of the ever-inventive cunning of ‘me’ and “the instinct for survival” the “sense of self” is based on.

ADAM-H: This connected with my other recent contemplations about ‘having a standoff with myself’ and the ways and which I am still trying to force myself to feel good against my will. It’s obvious my efforts still involve this to some degree, even though I thought I ‘saw through it’.

What I’m wondering is if this ‘internal split’ is always present at least in part until one is actually free?

What you call “my efforts still involve this to some degree” is the difference of a realisation and its actualisation. (See FAQ, Difference Between Realisation and Actualisation?)

The “internal split” will disappear once you recognize, at the core of your ‘being’, that you are as sad and as mad and as bad as everyone else, i.e. that you are instilled with the instinctual passions and its consequent social identity. Upon this penetrating recognition you can stop fighting to hide any occurring bad feelings and their twins of ‘good’ feelings. In other words you recognize each time that ‘I’ am my feelings and my feeling are ‘me’. Then putting the actualism method into practice as described in Richard’s article linked above should be a breeze.

ADAM-H: In the same vein, a contemplation I’ve been running lately goes along these lines: If the things I felt bad about were truly just preferences, (e.g. feeling bad because the ice cream store ran out of chocolate and I had to get vanilla) then would it not be deeply obvious that feeling bad was silly? Since this is clear enough, then what separates the things that I actually do feel bad about from being preferences, and how can I see them in the same way as those ice cream flavours?

ADAM-H: This is a good way right now to bring me face to face with conscious, heartfelt objections to treating things as preferences, which seems to be a prerequisite to unconditional happiness and harmlessness, which is helping me unsplit myself.

VINEETO: Before you aim for the far horizon of “unconditional happiness and harmlessness”, why not make feeling good your first priority in life. Putting everything on a preference basis may not be sufficient to further in-depth exploration (when strong fears and desires interfere with feeling good), especially when you call them “truly just preferences”. But when you have the intent to leave no stone unturned in order to blatantly imitate the actual, you will be successful.

Richard: What I did was:

• To constantly have the question running: ‘How am I experiencing this moment of being alive?’ This kept ‘me’ on the ball for all the waking hours.

• I did whatever to induce PCE’s on a daily basis so as to gain maximum benefit from living the nearest approximation to an actual freedom that was possible ... maybe two to three times a day.

• I examined all ‘my’ beliefs – cunningly disguised as ‘truths’ – as they came up in ‘my’ moment-to-moment living.

• I did everything possible that ‘I’ could do to blatantly imitate the actual in that ‘I’ endeavoured to be happy and harmless for as much as is humanly possible. This was achieved by putting everything on a ‘it doesn’t really matter’ basis. That is, ‘I’ would prefer people, things and events to be a particular way, but if it did not turn out like that ... it did not really matter for it was only a preference. ‘I’ chose to no longer give other people – or the weather – the power to make ‘me’ angry ... or even irritated ... or even peeved.

It was great fun and very, very rewarding along the way. ‘My’ life became cleaner and clearer and more and more pure as each habitual way of living life was consciously eliminated through constant exposure.

• Finally ‘I’ invited the actual by letting go of the controls and letting this moment live ‘me’. ‘I’ became the experience of the doing of this business of being alive ... no longer the ‘do-er’. (Richard, List B, No. 12a, 16 July 1998).

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Adam-H, 28 January 2026).

January 29 2026

KUBA: Hi Vineeto,

I really enjoyed this post, it hits on something that I have been observing for a long time and I understand even clearer now.

It’s this tendency to want to reduce actualism to a system/recipe precisely so that ‘I’ don’t have to do anything!

It’s putting it all back to front, it’s like if I read of some things that Richard did and then construct a system out of them, and then sit back and wait for change to happen… But the primary thing that Richard did was that he devoted himself completely and obsessively to evincing that which the PCE demonstrated. So the specific things that he did were secondary in that sense, the primary thing was the commitment and the intent.

Actually this is also a thing I observed back when I was rock climbing. That there were guys like myself that were just busy with doing the rock climbing, and chipping away at building the skills and eventually reaching a competent level.

Then there were the guys that would purchase all the cool climbing gear, they would walk and talk like advanced climbers, they did all the things that good climbers did, and yet they were never competent climbers. They invested all their attention into looking like one but never had the commitment and intent to actually become one.
It’s a tendency I have observed a lot, I don’t have a name for it but this is what I see described in your post.

Actually I find this fascinating because (without boring anyone with too many details) this is the current discussion which is happening in the BJJ world. Which is the question of whether the sport has evolved primarily because of the systems in place (better technique etc) or because of individuals demonstrating what is possible.

It seems that the most important thing is for somebody to demonstrate what is possible, then others will try to make systems out of what they did to get there. But those systems they are created after the fact, they are not what led to the success in the first place.

Sooo … Walking the walk is the most important, the specifics are secondary.

VINEETO: Hi Kuba,

Your post makes me grin from ear to ear – you put your finger on a crucial aspect of the human condition – ‘faking it’ and avoid change, and you described it quite well.

First an anecdote from real life. A few years ago when following current affairs, the US state of California was in a big political and economic crisis – bankrupt, the governor in major political scandals, illegal immigrants streaming into the state and public unrest looming. What happened? They made a law to ban plastic straws.

It’s actually quite humorous though in the black humour way. At the time I thought it was a perfect example of the worst, but quite common, way of ‘solving’ problems – all show and no substance, divert attention and gain popularity without having to fix anything. The British comedy series “Yes Minister” and “Yes, Prime Minister” from the Sixties was a true comedic representation of the struggle between power and popularity, and very educational of the human condition in action.

When you think about it, it is also quite natural. ‘Me’, the non-substantial identity, want affirmation from other, equally non-substantial entities, and pretence is the quickest and cheapest way to get this affirmation. Given the instinctual survival passions combined with the theory of mind (“Interestingly enough, it is this last point (deceit) which most of all signals the ‘Theory of Mind’”), it is rather astounding that words like honesty and sincerity and integrity exist and appeal to quite a few people in the world.

Actualists experience the same struggle between the potent cunning and deceitful ‘me’ engaged in the survival of the contingent ‘being’ on one side and the honesty of sincere intent and a willingness to do whatever it takes to imitate the actual. To be aware of the stakes may make it easier to whole-heartedly dedicate one’s life to peace on earth in this life-time and act on it.

You said it well – “Walking the walk is the most important, the specifics are secondary”.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Kuba 12, 29 January 2026).

January 30 2026

VINEETO: And here continues the watering-down of the actualism method – first remove ‘effort’, i.e. determination, then postpone the disappearance of the “internal split” until you are actually free and now assuming that everything is a matter of “truly just preferences” and nothing else. I only list them like this to demonstrate how the identity “will get up to all kinds of tricks to retain and regain its ascendancy” so you can recognize further tricks as such when they occur.
Putting everything on a preference basis may not be sufficient to further in-depth exploration (when strong fears and desires interfere with feeling good), especially when you call them “truly just preferences”. But when you have the intent to leave no stone unturned in order to blatantly imitate the actual, you will be successful.

ADAM-H: I want to clarify what I was saying here a bit. It was more like a thought experiment where I was trying to show myself how the things I cared about were not just preferences. I was basically pointing out to myself that “if the things I cared about were just preferences” then it would be deeply obvious that feeling bad was silly… which is not currently the case. The purpose of this contemplation was to try to bring myself closer to my feelings and heal that ‘internal split’.

VINEETO: Hi Adam,

Thank you for your clarification – it seems I unnecessarily jumped into the middle of your recording your thought-processes.

ADAM-H: I did end up having success again healing that internal split this morning however, and I want to note down how it happened again for future reference. Also it was again so interesting how the instant that internal split went away I was instantly back to feeling good in a really deep and wholehearted way that continued throughout the entire day and improved how I related to everyone.

The way the split resolved was by noticing that I was again in a similar trap as my recent ‘virtuous impatience’. Essentially what is happening is this:

initial feeling occurs

I look at the feeling, categorize it, and start emotionally reacting to it in a way that I pass of as part of actualism

I begin an internal narrative about how actualism works including telling myself to feel the feeling and comprehend that “I am my feelings and my feelings are me”. Also telling myself to not fight the feeling etc.

Sometimes the narrative goes a step further even, where I am imagining myself explaining how the method works to others.

At this point I often am paying attention to the feeling in the body, and continuing to call it ‘work stress’ or whatever it was to start with, even though in fact now I am “being” anything from ‘virtuous impatience’ to ‘frustrated despair’ which all stem from actualistic identity.

What happens to end it all is when I truly turn attention back around to look squarely at myself and what I am “being.” When I manage to catch a glimpse of the ‘man behind the curtain’ it’s all over in an instant. I am left feeling foolish and naive at how I was carrying on and fuelling that malice and sorrow, feeling good pervades my entire body and mind in a way that leaves no doubt.

Of course, calling it ‘catching a glimpse’ is maybe a bit misleading. It’s ‘me’ after all who is playing tricks on ‘me’, so it’s more about sincerity than skill or agility of some sort.

VINEETO: As Kuba already said , this is in excellent description of how the actualism method works for you with immediate results once you hit point 6 in your inquiries. That’s when there is no splitting oneself into parts but you perceive yourself “what I am “being”.”

VINEETO: The “internal split” will disappear once you recognize, at the core of your ‘being’, that you are as sad and as mad and as bad as everyone else, i.e. that you are instilled with the instinctual passions and its consequent social identity. Upon this penetrating recognition you can stop fighting to hide any occurring bad feelings and their twins of ‘good’ feelings. In other words you recognize each time that ‘I’ am my feelings and my feeling are ‘me’. Then putting the actualism method into practice as described in Richard’s article linked above should be a breeze.

ADAM-H: This is fascinating and also links up with what you said in your response to Kuba about solutions in the real world typically being all show and no substance. The internal split is all a big diversion I put on to avoid admitting that I am the problem. As soon as the sincerity to admit it is there the solution is indeed a breeze.

VINEETO: Indeed, most of ‘my’ protestations about any feelings occurring originate in how I want to see myself and how others see me – a good person, a clever person, a good actualist, a successful (… fill in your own aspersions). When ‘I’ genuinely admit “I am the problem” each time, then there is really only one solution – dissolution – and that can be ultimately scary at the start.

But this is where enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive come in, it is what you do in the meantime, until you cannot maintain your ‘self’ any longer. And “the means to the end – an ongoing enjoyment and appreciation – are no different to the end”. (This Moment of Being Alive, 4^th Banner)

Richard: In order to facilitate a PCE happening, one needs to see the place pride and humility plays in one’s life. ‘I’ am proud of ‘my’ major achievement … which is maintaining ‘myself’ as an identity. ‘I’ will do anything but relinquish ‘my’ grip on this flesh-and-blood body, including humbling ‘myself’ before some God in order to ameliorate the pernicious effects of pride. However, humility is merely the antidote to pride … and they feed of each other, continuously. For example, one cannot but feel proud of one’s accomplishment of self-abasing humility ... it is in the nature of the entity to do so. A humbled self is still a self, nonetheless, leaving one proud of one’s performance. When one realises how silly all this is; when one sees that pride and humility are standing in the way of freedom from all self centred activity, something astounding occurs. ‘I’ vanish. I am simply here where I have always been ... and pride, with its companion in arms, humility, has disappeared along with all the other feelings. (Richard’s Journal, Article Seventeen, p. 127)

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Adam-H, 30 January 2026).

February 4 2026

KUBA: In the words of my favourite YouTube content creator – “who let me have this much fun?!” . It’s so great to proceed now as a bona fide actualist, patiently dismantling whatever stands in the way of ongoing enjoyment and appreciation, it is indeed the “best game in town”. It is not about the investigation as an end in itself, it is that with each belief dismantled, with each habitual pattern left behind etc there is a palpable increase in happiness and harmlessness. Any genuine change ‘I’ get for keeps, the dividends are paid each moment again. I was thinking this when I was walking to the shops the other day, that it’s cool to develop a new skill in BJJ however the dividends are only paid when I go to practice BJJ, actualism is even better than that, any genuine change I benefit from each moment again for the rest of my life.

Yesterday after uncovering resentment I had big cry in the car when driving to train, it was like the dam broke. It was something like “what the hell have I been doing (‘being’) all this time”. This resentment was like a blanket of bitterness that covered all of ‘me’ and yet somehow “from the inside” it remained unseen. Then the blanket was removed and ‘I’ came face to face with the consequences of it, just what it had been doing all this time. How it got in the way of peace and intimacy between me and my fellow human beings. And there was this “call for action” in that experience, this intense yearning to set things right, which it was clear that this ultimately requires for ‘me’ to sacrifice ‘myself’. It was very clear that altruistic self-immolation is nothing at all like ‘me’ uncovering a belief or acknowledging something intellectually etc. What it takes for ‘me’ to altruistically sacrifice ‘myself’ is an even more powerful energy than ‘my’ selfism and it is sourced in an enormous caring and daring, it’s the entirety of ‘my’ being willing to go into extinction now, to set things right once and for all. I saw that this is the only way to ultimately “make those tears count”. Of course in the meantime I do exactly what I am doing, which is to proceed down the wide and wondrous path, both for the immediate benefit and eventually the ultimate benefit.

VINEETO: Hi Kuba,

What a marvellous experience and description of discovering a basic resentment underneath it all and how it “got in the way of peace and intimacy between me and my fellow human beings”, so much so that it made you realise that only ‘self’-sacrifice can resolve this significant obstacle. And even more wonderful that this insight, this “intense yearning to set things right” unleashed the powerful energy of “an enormous caring and daring” which you had walled up in your “precious independence and its resultant splendid isolation” – as Devika so eloquently called it. (Richard’s Journal, p. 218).

This powerful energy has been lying dormant for all those years and your yearning for ongoing enjoyment and appreciation has finally set it free. What a wondrous outcome and eminent proof that the actualism method of enjoying and appreciating this moment being alive, each moment again, works miraculously.

Life is truly wonderful.

I am full of admiration for your daring and caring.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Kuba 12, 4 February 2026).

February 17 2026

SYD: In hindsight, I’ll say that I don’t know what the fuck I was writing about. (1) kinda makes sense, but I couldn’t even bother to re-read my own (2) and (3).

VINEETO: Hi Syd,

I went back to your “attempt at verbalizing my understanding” of sincerity to find out what “kinda makes sense” to you and why in hindsight the latter part does not make sense –

Syd: (1) The normal state is one of mild dissociation. “I” have feelings; and “I” want to control the ‘inner world’ of dissociated feelings (like moving chess pieces around); When “I” have feelings, “I” am not responsible for them. It is usually somebody else’s or some event’s fault. This leads to wanting to control the ‘outside world’. If that control (of inner or outer world) fails, this can cause further feelings, reinforcing that control in more pathological ways. For example, “I” take on the fault, and try to control my ‘inner world’ (sometimes in the name of ‘actualism’); Overall, we end up being unwittingly busy either expressing or repressing emotions. (4 January 2026)

The question is, now understanding the fact of being in a state of mild dissociation, have you intently changed this state by remembering whenever feelings arise, that I am my feelings and my feelings are me?

I ask because that would increase being more genuinely sincere than continuing the ‘mild dissociation’.

Syd: (2) The only way to stop this dissociation is to “do” the opposite: put the emotion into a bind or not move psychologically. (4 January 2026)

What you were doing here, was to equate (via link) a Seinfeld episode to Richard’s report in the Audio-taped dialogue about “put the emotion into a bind”, by a slight of hand calling it “do the opposite”.

‘Putting the emotion in a bind’ is not the opposite to dissociating from one’s feelings. It is the third alternative. Neither expressing nor repressing means not to feed them by either endorsing them (express) or rejecting them (repress) – and when a feeling gets no support it withers.

Having equated ‘putting in a bind’ with “doing the opposite”, and linking it to a satirical farcical show, ‘you’, the cunning identity, successfully pushed aside the impact Richard’s report could have had. I am breaking it down in detail because one can learn as much about sincerity by recognizing and understanding insincerity in action (in hindsight) and thereby adjusting one’s course. Your follow-up summary in point (2) was fairly accurate but the slight-of-hand-action most likely prevented it to be a sincere successful process. Hence your point (3) never eventuated in practice.

Richard: By neither expressing nor repressing emotions, something new can happen. The emotion is put into a bind, it has nowhere to go. Next time anger, say, comes up in a situation, simply decline to have it happen. Observe it as it gets up to all kinds of tricks to have its way. Do not express it – but do not repress it either. Watch what happens … you will be surprised. Personally, I rid myself of anger in about three weeks when I started on this all those years ago. The more subtle variations like getting peeved, getting irritated and getting annoyed took a little longer, but losing my temper in an angry outburst ended after about three weeks. I kid you not. It all has to do with the determination to succeed, with patience and diligence born out of the pure intent garnered from a peak experience. You just know that it is possible to be peaceful because you have seen it for yourself. One will do whatever is required to be that experience, twenty-four-hours of the day.

Here we can start afresh. Here we can have success. (Richard, Audio-taped Dialogues, Be Totally Rid of Emotions and Passions)

VINEETO: There is also a page in Richard’s Catalogue where on the page for ‘sincere’ you find a whole collection of quotes where he talked about being ‘sincere’ with links you can look up for context.

SYD: I found this: (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 27d, #sincere)

VINEETO: Claudiu responded lucidly to your quote and questions from this link.

Did you also follow up the other 10 references in that catalogue page to broaden your understanding of sincerity?

I can also recommend Adam-H’s post from today as an example of sincerity in action with favourable results. Kuba’s last post gives a broad and long-term summary of what all is involved in getting closer and closer to the innocence he is genuinely and naïvely aiming for via rigorous sincerity.

SYD: My current understanding is that, for a feeling-being – the application of ‘sincerity’ (at least initially when practicing the actualism method) is a matter of being genuine (authentic, guileless, etc.) in regards to what is happening (especially affectively) such that we see clearly (without nescience or ignoration) as to how both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ feelings (and the instinctual passions that sustain them) stand in the way of feeling good, which understanding is to automatically result in action (in getting back to feeling good).

VINEETO: I don’t know if this is only a shortened way to describing the actualism method or if you are not aware that “getting back to feeling good” is not the whole story?

There is a sequence to ‘feeling good’ –

Richard: And, of course, once one does get the knack of this, one up-levels ‘feeling good’, as a bottom line each moment again, to ‘feeling happy and harmless’ ... and after that to ‘feeling excellent’. (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive)

And here is the text of the tool-tip right next to “feeling happy and harmless” – given that you mention “being naiveté” –

Richard: Okay ... it may be worthwhile bearing in mind that it is impossible to be happy (be happy as in being carefree), as distinct from feeling happy, without being harmless (being harmless as in being innocuous), as distinct from feeling harmless, and to be happy and harmless is to be unable to induce suffering – etymologically the word ‘harmless’ (harm + less) comes from the Old Norse ‘harmr’ (meaning grief, sorrow) – either in oneself or another.

Thus the means of comprehending the distinction lies in understanding the nature of innocence – something entirely new to human experience – and the nearest one can come to being innocent whilst being an identity is to be naïve (not to be confused with being gullible).

And the key to naïveté (usually locked away in childhood) is sincerity. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 62, 26 March 2004).

SYD: Beyond that I don’t yet understand what ‘being sincerity’ means (never mind ‘being the key’ to ‘being naiveté’) – except it is interesting to note that Richard says that “being sincere [..] is to have the pure intent” — or what being ‘true to facts and actuality’ means.

VINEETO: In order to move from feeling good to feeling happy and harmless to feeling excellent one needs to keep this in mind –

Richard: What the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago would do is first get back to feeling good and then, and only then, suss out where, when, how, why – and what for – feeling bad happened as experience had shown ‘him’ that it was counter-productive to do otherwise.

What ‘he’ always did however, as it was often tempting to just get on with life then, was to examine what it was all about within half-an-hour of getting back to feeling good (while the memory was still fresh) even if it meant sometimes falling back into feeling bad by doing so ... else it would crop up again sooner or later.

Nothing, but nothing, can be swept under the carpet. [Emphasis added]. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 68c, 31 May 2005).

This can only be done with sincerity because one’s instinctual reaction would be to bury the disturbing incident, whatever it was.

There is another reason why I emphasise there is more than ‘feeling good’ to the process of becoming actually free. It is because you only yesterday (17 Feb 2026) presented a 1000+ word excerpt from Geoffrey answering questions after he became actually free, without personal context or comment, appropriating the text in order to mark your preferred phrases with yellow highlights emphasising your personal preference. It was deceivingly titled “Geoffrey on Actualism Method (Feeling Good)”

I say deceivingly deliberately because just a day before (16 Feb 2026) you were not aware that ‘good’ feelings such as lust (which are as harmful and ‘self’-enhancing as ‘bad’ feelings) are not part of ‘feeling good’, and Claudiu explained it to you in a brilliant post. So your own understanding of the Actualism method and therefore your personal emphases are still developing and hence your no-comment emphases misleading.

Perhaps you are personally content to only get back to feeling good, but please do not promote it as the entire actualism method. What’s the word? Reductionism?

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Syd 2, 17 February 2026).

February 28 2026

JON: What did Richard say about shit like this? Something to the effect of accepting an unacceptable world as it is…

VINEETO:

Richard: Can I emotionally accept that which is intellectually unacceptable?

This way intelligence need not be compromised ... intelligence will no longer be crippled. (Richard, List B, James 2, 18 August 2001).

JON: How is that not close to what I said? It is better though. It would be beneficial to go and search what he exactly said. thank you.

VINEETO: Hi Jon,

Yes, that would be far more beneficial, particularly for yourself. When you read your own quote at the top, you can see the difference yourself. You are basically suggesting one should accept “shit like this”, “an unacceptable world as it is …”

Much more beneficial to apply it as it was intended.

Richard clearly makes a difference between emotionally accepting (not getting angry or sad or upset) about what is happening, while a lot of happenings are still “intellectually unacceptable”. Human beings are still run by instinctual animal passions … even though now there is a way to change that in oneself.

VINEETO: - Are you talking about yourself or more people than you?

JON: I was talking about me and Andrew.

VINEETO: Ok. Just remember that finding out how you ‘tick’ in order to better enjoy and appreciate being alive is something only you can do. Sharing notes can certainly add to the enjoyment of doing it. Also, there is something I remember from ‘Vineeto’ – “if he can do it, so can I”.

VINEETO: - What is the original feeling from where you want to “cultivate a sense of needing to do something”?

JON: I think it comes from wanting to feel good and be happy and harmless. I think giving myself a life’s purpose and happy and harmlessness being that purpose would be great for me.

VINEETO: Mmh, when you say “I think”, it indicates you are not sure if it was this or something else. When you set out to improve the art of paying increasing attention to how you feel (affectively), while you go about your business of living, then you can more easily pinpoint what it is exactly that in this instant caused your mood to drop from feeling good (if it did) – and then get back to feeling good.

Richard: Once the specific moment of ceasing to feel good is pin-pointed, and the silliness of having such an incident as that (no matter what it is) take away one’s enjoyment and appreciation of this only moment of being alive is seen for what it is – usually some habitual reactive response – one is once more feeling good ... but with a pin-pointed cue to watch out for next time so as to not have that trigger off yet another bout of the same-old same-old. This is called nipping it in the bud before it gets out of hand ... with application and diligence and patience and perseverance one soon gets the knack of this and more and more time is spent enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive. And, of course, once one does get the knack of this, one up-levels ‘feeling good’, as a bottom line each moment again, to ‘feeling happy and harmless’ ... and after that to ‘feeling excellent’.

The more one enjoys and appreciates being just here right now – to the point of excellence being the norm – the greater the likelihood of a PCE happening ... a grim and/or glum person has no chance whatsoever of allowing the magical event, which indubitably shows where everyone has being going awry, to occur. Plus any analysing and/or psychologising and/or philosophising whilst one is in the grip of debilitating feelings usually does not achieve much (other than spiralling around and around in varying degrees of despair and despondency or whatever) anyway.

The wide and wondrous path to an actual freedom from the human condition is marked by enjoyment and appreciation – the sheer delight of being as happy and harmless as is humanly possible whilst remaining a ‘self’ – and the slightest diminishment of such felicity/ innocuity is a warning signal (a flashing red light as it were) that one has inadvertently wandered off the way. (Richard, Articles, This Moment of Being Alive)

Footnote: What the identity inhabiting this flesh and blood body all those years ago would do is first get back to feeling good and then, and only then, suss out where, when, how, why – and what for – feeling bad happened as experience had shown ‘him’ that it was counter-productive to do otherwise.
What ‘he’ always did however, as it was often tempting to just get on with life then, was to examine what it was all about within half-an-hour of getting back to feeling good (while the memory was still fresh) even if it meant sometimes falling back into feeling bad by doing so ... else it would crop up again sooner or later.

Nothing, but nothing, can be swept under the carpet. (Richard, Actual Freedom List, No. 68c, 31 May 2005).

It’s best to read the article in the original to get the benefit of all the informative tool-tips, especially in those quoted paragraphs.

As you can see, when you read the description, you can do all this unilaterally, you don’t need anyone or anything to change for you to start improving your own enjoyment and appreciation of being alive.

VINEETO: When you say “fix the madness and the callousness” – are you talking about yourself or other people’s madness and the callousness?

JON: My madness and callousness, I think, is not being focused on being happy and harmless. Like that’s both crazy and callous. And the madness of the world and it’s callousness stems from other people prioritizing things other than happiness and harmlessness. So if I can cultivate a sense of being behooved to be happy and harmless for myself and to show to others that it’s possible then I think that’s a good life goal.

VINEETO: Why make it so complicated as if it were a duty to “cultivate a sense of being behooved to be happy and harmless for myself”? The straightforward question is – do you want to feel good? You know that is feels good to feel good, so where is the problem? And that in itself is worth contemplating.

When you find out more about the art of enjoying and appreciating you start to realise that being genuinely happy, i.e. unconditionally happy, includes being harmless as well. Being harmful, malicious, gleeful, selfish, self-centred doesn’t feel really good, it leaves at least a bad taste in your mouth, so to speak. It is far more enjoyable to experience the felicitous and innocuous feelings (happiness, delight, joie de vivre/ bonhomie, friendliness, amiability, consideration and so on) – hence it wouldn’t need a ‘cultivation’ to wanting to do it.

But maybe there is a belief, a conditioning, that states ‘thou shalt not be happy else you’ll be punished, or something similar? Something such as a guilt for being alive or taking up space? Check out the conversation I had with Andrew on this topic of guilt, he said it helped him drop a big burden. (Actualism, Actual Vineeto, Selected Correspondence, Guilt, 21 October 2025, and the following posts).

JON: I appreciate your time.

VINEETO: You are very welcome, Jon.

Cheers Vineeto (Actualism, Actualvineeto, Jonathan, 28 February 2026a).

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Freedom from the Human Condition – Happy and Harmless

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