I think I had my first PCE yesterday after a year or so of practising actualism (about time eh). I was walking down a country lane and suddenly the drive that I was going somewhere completely disappeared, my slightly brisk pace was replaced by an ambling forward and I was delightfully surprised by how I just really wanted to be here.
The genuinely and completely wanting to be here instead of having a slight drive to get somewhere was such a contrast to the usual experience of having at least a slight resentment. Even when usually cultivating felicity there is a slight holding back, a half-heartedness, a putting up with it, or making the best of it, some vague dissatisfaction which vanished in this experience.
Another effect was that everything, although quite vivid already in day-to-day life, became crystal clear.
Well, as it took nearly a year and a half to have one pce I'm probably going to get AF in about 15 years ;);)
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PractiseWhat helped to have the experience was to maximise felicity
in order to eliminate being. Keeping in mind the purpose of felicity, was somehow helpful. By 'being' I partly mean the good and bad feelings, which includes all the passionate imagination and swirling vortex of calenture. With the activation of felicity, all this stuff doesn't get a look-in. By 'being' I also mean the feeling of being, which somehow is something more than can be dismissed as just a feeling or just a part of the package. It seems to be at the core of the other stuff, it's what I feel myself to be right at my core. This quote by Tarin was helpful:
Tarin, http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/871970:
felicitious feelings are indeed just as much affect as are ' other feeling' ... yet, they are worth cultivating, because their maximisation (practised together with the minimisation of the 'good' and the 'bad' feelings) lessens one's dependence on 'being' by rendering it increasingly unnecessary (and increasingly uninteresting). hence, the actualist endeavour is really to eliminate being, and with that, feeling/affect, rather than the other way 'round.
Today I'm working on this quote from Richard, hopefully it will lead to some more pce's!:
Richard, Journal article - Personal Peace-On-Earth is Feasible For Everyone:
Are you able to contemplate the atmosphere of your pure consciousness experience? By contemplation I do not mean trying to feel the experience; a peak experience is not a matter of emotions and passions, it is in a realm of its own, as you may remember. Contemplation, to work successfully, needs to be pure … stripped of emotive thought. For a moment allow yourself to set aside – not give up – your psychological state of ‘being’, which is occupied by the latest accumulation of worries and preoccupations. Make all of your identity unimportant, for now, and contemplate the perfection of being here now.
Note to self: Keep in mind the excellence of non-being, and remember to activate joie de vivre
- Martin