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9
(List D refers to Richard’s List D
Vineeto’s Selected Correspondence Out-from-Control
KUBA: Driving to London again so I thought I would do a little report whilst Sonya is behind the wheel. There has been so much going on recently that I don’t think I could chronicle everything but I will note the main things. A few days ago I saw that the next step in the direction I was proceeding was to abandon hope. It took daring for sure, it meant no more “redemptive straws”, only extinction ahead. I found though that without hope, despair also took its leave. Without hope and despair to maintain ‘me’ I have found myself pulled ever closer to my destiny, which is more and more experienced to be right under my nose. This is what is different now, that before the “no man’s land” was experienced almost with a hint of eerie, an alien land where nothing familiar to ‘me’ existed. Whereas now it is more along the lines of what Srinath wrote – that this magical (actual) world is our rock solid inheritance. So there has been a lot of wondrous contemplation along these lines as well as experientially coming closer and closer to the destination. It’s funny that in the past I was so hell bent on trying to reduce actuality into a bite sized intellectual package, one that I could copy and paste here and there. But this is missing out on the main event, which is the actual living of it, and how could I possibly place all this wonder into a neat little package anyways. There has been some choppy waters and ‘I’ have come in to spoil things here and there, but it seems I have been able to take all this into my stride and carry on proceeding, and things have only been getting more and more wondrous. In fact this what I am living now is so worth all that I did in order to arrive here, and not even as a step along some map but as a wondrous adventure in itself. It looks like all the “rehearsing” I did over the past year was not a time wasted either, as I have been able to successfully orient myself in this new territory. But back then I did not want to be on the ride, the resistance was completely unpalatable. Whereas this what is happening now, I would not have it any other way. And it’s something that has to be lived, the wonder and the enjoyment and appreciation possible. As a side note I notice that this wondrous enjoyment and appreciation is anhedonic, which means that it can be completely off the scales and yet it can never be too much. It looks like all the various things which could possibly be in place, are in place. I find no compulsion for the doer to come in and to try to force it to happen. As Richard said only the utter fullness can do it. What ‘I’ have left to do is to give permission (joyfully and wholeheartedly), to allow it to happen. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, Great to hear from you. You seem to be having a grand time. I am reminded of Peter saying quite fittingly in the Actual Freedom Library, Hope
Of course, there are no ‘Actual Freedom Trust offices’ but the call to “Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here” is applicable for every actualist at a certain stage in their process, and what a benefit has it been to you! I am also reminded of another quote which I had already sent you before, but perhaps you can now obtain some additional experiential benefit from it –
Cheers Vineeto
FELIX: Hello to you both, lovely to hear from you. Kuba It’s funny hey, how much fear really pushes one around internally. It fuels certain lines of thought propels particular strategies, closes certain doors of enquiry, and prevents clear thinking or seeing. It’s powerful and it acts from a place of trying to keep one safe, even though it’s actually doing the bloody opposite usually! VINEETO: Hi Felix, A splendid analysis, if I may say so. FELIX: Vineeto, thanks for your encouragement and apt references and anecdotes. I’m relishing your writing and very appreciative of your contribution. My diminished fear has removed the bee out of my bonnet (and the chip off my shoulder) regarding actualism and suddenly it’s a real thrill and pleasure to be involved with others and benefit from your particular expertise and insight as well. To what you wrote, indeed it’s amazing the degree to which this fear operated, unseen. To me it seems the strong feelings of fear protected and bolstered a very strong sense of ego – and that this ego (operating primarily as a very powerful sense of control/ doership) would not allow itself to be “captured” or discovered, so to speak. VINEETO: Your different way of writing certainly indicates that a noisy “bee” and a large “chip” have disappeared, and now a naiveté prevails which can consider the benefit of others as well as your own. It’s a precious time when your brain is rearranging itself to the new circumstances, and the thing right now to pay special attentiveness to any subtle machinations in the background trying to create a new persona to fill this beneficial gap created by the diminished chunk of fear, which has disappeared only a few days ago. It’s a common strategy of ‘me’ to replace the old persona with a new one, hence my cautionary note. What you can do instead is to delightedly settle in and feel at home with this budding naiveté where you are not quite sure what is happening but are nevertheless thrilled and fascinated to be alive and let more and more life live you. FELIX: As much of the actualism website is dedicated to the necessity to look at feelings/ soul rather than thought/ego, I’ll clarify that I’m not saying that feelings weren’t the culprit … just that it was my own evasive sense of ‘I’ that seemed to want to perpetuate itself. And this very pointed and inflamed sense of “I” was primarily fuelled by intense fear … mostly around things like criticism, status, perception, self in relation to others (as opposed to lions or tigers which would be more worthy of such fear!). VINEETO: The reason for mainly using “feelings/ soul rather than thought/ego” in the writings on the website is because the equivalence of thought and ego, and therefore vilification of thought, is the way of the old, spiritual paradigm intending to lure you into the pursuit of ego-death aka enlightenment, whilst ignoring the vital part that the instinctual feelings, particularly the so-called ‘good’ feelings play in the creation of misery and mayhem. Have you ever considered that this “very strong sense of ego” is/was also responsible for your self-castigation and the self-inflicted stress you experienced? In other words, you were caught in the dichotomy of pride and humility, ego and self-castigation with no tangible resolution. Or in Richard’s words –
In other words, all of it, both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ and the battle between the two are part of the old paradigm, while being naïve and enjoying and appreciating being alive is the new paradigm. FELIX: In that context it makes sense now why I have been so intensely analytical – an “overthinker” who was trying to attempt a top-down, intellectual coup on my entire system (with fairly disastrous results I might add). Luckily the fact I have been aware over the years, at least as a “witness”, has also given me insight into the kinds of routes to not bother going down again … such as intense self-improvement, comparison to others, self-castigation, stress/ neuroticism, misanthropy, to name a few. In my intense insecurity I was always attempting to gain some kind of imagined psychological dominion over others to find “safety”, often through ambition and self-judgement. Being perceived to be less than others or an object of criticism from the herd was extremely threatening stuff, like an annihilation. It wasn’t always just intense fear, often it came as a constant gnawing anxiety. And my desires were just as fuelled by fear as well – the desire to be good enough, to evade criticism, to be infallible, to achieve, to be a free spirit etc etc. Desire seems to be the flip side of fear. VINEETO: Now that you describe it in all its painful details – what a blessed disappearance of these “feelings, belief structures and behaviours”. They have conspired in concerted effort like a tight-woven web to keep you imprisoned … until … until you were so fed up with suffering and had gathered enough courage to look straight into the core (which is far more than ego) –
FELIX: It’s weird how certain feelings, belief structures and behaviours can disappear. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced such a big “chunk” of my issues going at once. There is some clean up still, certain habits and automatic reactions and such, but the main engine seems to be really disengaged. With that gone, I’m finding there is an “underneath” to all of this that I can sense. I’m closer (at times) if I can put it that way. There’s a sense of softness, of sensuousness, that makes this moment liveable in a different way to what I’m accustomed to. It feels so safe as well, and with that safety I feel emotionally open and there is a sincerity that is a pleasure to feel. A sweetness! And with that sweetness the sense of intensity around the need to become free has become more, not less – even though my feeling-led intensity has rapidly diminished. At times when I lean into the appreciation of this potentiality the tears come to my eyes. I don’t want humans to suffer any longer, and I see that suffering all around … in news articles, in overheard conversations, in personal interactions, in the comment sections of social media platforms, in documentaries, in fictional series. I can “feel” it – I know what I am seeing in others when they complain, when they grieve, when they fight, when they are in shock, when they are bored. I know it all, I know it from where it is often hardest to see of all, in me. And while this is good back pressure, I’m listening when you say that “the actualism
method is enjoying and appreciating, not diving into deep emotions for the sake of it.” There’s a fun and
smooooth enjoyment in making contact with This Moment of Being Alive. I’m tasting it here and there, sinking in
slowly to a sense of delight. I want the full shebang but I know not to force either … I enjoy as is available to
me at the time, based on the (physical/ sensorial) circumstances as they are. I’m enjoying as I write this. VINEETO: Indeed, when that sweetness of spontaneous appreciation pervades you (when pure intent is tangibly experienced like an actually occurring stream of benevolence and benignity that originates in the vast and utter stillness that is the essential character of the universe itself) then all you want to do is keep allowing it and keep appreciating it.
By the way, you have not yet “experienced (psychological) death before” – in a PCE the identity is merely in temporary abeyance, ready to spring into action at any time. But you know from your PCEs what the actual world after ‘your’ demise is like.
FELIX: I keep thinking of the Shakespeare quote “Tis a consummation devoutly to be wish’d” from Hamlet’s famous soliloquy. I can’t help think what a pleasure awaits, To Not Be. VINEETO: Ha, Shakespeare – whoever wrote Hamlet under this nom-de-guerre – knew nothing of an actual freedom, he could only point to an imaginary fantasy of a life after death. You, on the other hand, can consciously give permission for the actualism process to commence –
Cheers Vineeto
VINEETO: An excellent post (as well as your two follow-up ones KUBA: Yes that PCE has turned out to be quite pivotal, it has shown me – without a shadow of a doubt – that the target is completely outside of ‘me’, a different dimension in a sense, to where ‘I’ exist. I think up until now I didn’t see this clearly enough, so there was room to kid myself with imagined targets. That seeing is solidly lodged in my memory and it’s undeniable – there is not a shred of ‘me’ in the actual world. And I have been rememorating this experience, coming close to it again. Although the doing of it is actually out of my hands, in the sense that I find myself spontaneously pulled into the actual world. VINEETO: This is indeed a pivotal experience which, when rememorated, will prevent you from ever again building an imaginary world with ‘you’ as the surviving actor. It literally pulls the carpet from underneath ‘your’ feet – and what a great confidence-boosting and direction-confirming experience that is. KUBA: Today it happened when I ran a bath and just as I got in this shift occurred, and magically I found myself in the world where “nothing dirty can get in”, the perfection and purity was undeniable, and in that experience I as this body am just as clean as the rest of the world. This aspect in particular is so delightful, that there is nothing ‘dirty’ anywhere to be found, not in the world and not in the body. VINEETO: This is amusing in the way you described it – and it is indeed so that utter purity prevails here, of which the feeling of beauty is only a paltry imitation (plus it requires ugliness for comparison). And yet beauty is considered the highest value in the real world, equivalent to truth (Truth) – in spirituality – and in mathematics. KUBA: And the shift, when it happens ‘I’ don’t do it, in an instant all is wiped clean, somehow magically ‘I’ disappear and there is this other world which becomes immediately apparent (there is no lag at all), this world is discovered (yet again) to be right here where it has been the whole time. VINEETO: Yes, it is magic the way it happens in an instant, a demonstration that when ‘you’ disappear the always already existing actuality becomes instantly apparent. KUBA: Interestingly enough none of those intense fears which I
experienced in the past have returned at all, and actually seeing that actuality is completely outside of ‘me’
has diminished any fears further if anything, ‘I’ don’t have to worry about that which is “on the other
side” so to speak, it is nothing to do with ‘me’, the danger exists where ‘I’ remain, that is the risk. VINEETO: It reminds me that I was writing to you on similar lines back in November last year when it was obviously too early to sink in –
A very significant experiential observation that you are now, what Richard described in a private email, on his side of the wall of fear surrounding all of humanity.
Or as Geoffrey put it –
A wonderful place to be … and more to come. Cheers Vineeto
KUBA: There is an experiencing happening lately which makes me think of the last of the winter’s frost melting away and the coming of spring with life bursting all around. Except it is those last vestiges of ‘me’ making way for the “utter fullness” [my attempt at a bit of art]. It is very calm too, this is rather pleasing as it was a very intense period of digging and daring which lead to this place. This utter fullness, it not only refers to the world, it also refers to the flesh and blood body called Kuba:
This is what I glimpsed yesterday, that the flesh and blood body called
Kuba has/is an organic integrity, there is a free flowing dignity intrinsic to what he is, whereas ‘I’ can never
be that as ‘I’ am an identity. This is a difference not in degree but in kind, it’s a difference that ‘I’
can never ever possibly make up – this ‘I’ can also see without a shadow of a doubt now. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, Ah, this is so wonderful and marvellous to read and it reminds me (of course) of a passage from your favourite book –
Cheers Vineeto
KUBA:
It is precisely this “dynamism” which is allowed when ‘I’ “leave the keys behind”. I wrote yesterday that this action is extreme for one could be inviting something else but actually I am certain that there is no danger here in terms of going off the rails in any kind of way. The way Richard describes it above is exactly what I have found, that when ‘I’ am living ‘my’ life as the ‘do-er’ this “dynamism” is no more and it’s like a crucial ingredient has been taken away, nothing that ‘I’ can do can make up for it’s lack. This is precisely what I mean that there is nothing attractive about the prospect of ‘me’ living ‘my’ life, because in that place the “dynamism” is lacking. It’s somewhat like living out a “Groundhog Day” over and over. And then when the “dynamism” is active I could be doing anything at all and there is
exactly this lustre, brilliance, vivacity, the very here and now aliveness. It transforms life into a wondrous
adventure which could never ever get boring, it is experiencing life as if a child again. As the ‘do-er’ ‘my’
life is static and as the ‘be-er’ this moment is dynamic. The other fascinating thing which I experienced yesterday when contemplating all this is that this moment is eternal whereas ‘my’ life has periodicity. ‘My’ life exists across the past-present-future, there is always a distance to travel from now to then, from here to there etc, this is actually very painful, it’s only experienced just how painful this is when it stops. It’s weird because in the past when I read “enjoying and appreciating this moment of being alive” it seemed like this moment was something fleeting, at times so very fleeting… But actually it is the present which is fleeting, this moment is eternal, it has no periodicity, no distance to travel between now and then. And last night I experienced exactly this, that daring to give up ‘my’ life is to no longer exist in this periodicity and instead to find oneself in this moment which is eternal, this is such an incredible freedom, to arrive before one starts, to no longer travel that painful psychological/psychic distance. VINEETO: Hi Kuba, What an excellent experience and description. Now you know experientially what actualism means –
Cheers Vineeto
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
Freedom from the Human Condition – Happy and Harmless Vineeto’s & Richard’s Text ©The Actual
Freedom Trust: 1997-. All Rights Reserved.
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