Hey Dan,
Glad to see you're interested in actualism!
I agree that the writing that's available on actualism doesn't seem to be extremely effective. There are very common aversive reactions and not many people seem to get it. The question I don't fully know the answer to, though I lean towards a particular answer, is - why is that the case? Is it the writing style, or the content?
I used to think it was the writing style and I tried to explain it better, back before I visited Richard in Australia. People seemed to appreciate my thoughts and style and to generally agree with what I wrote. During the visit my understanding of actualism changed quite dramatically, to the point where what I wrote before I now saw as factually and explanatorily incorrect. Then I thought ah ok, maybe it is the writing style - so I strove to explain my new understanding in the same way I had explained my old one. Yet the result was writing which caused much the same reactions as the writing on the AFT - quite different reactions to what I had written before! So either it is the content, or it's not but my writing style also changed to the same non-functional way, or it is a combination...
In any case, I do notice that in your rewrite you have changed the meaning of the words you are seeking to explain better! I can't address every single point right now, but one important one stood out. You eventually transform the sentence "Attentiveness depicts an activity that one vitalises with remarkable verve and vivacity which activates that quality that the word sensuousness specifies." to “pay attention to the senses”. Yet what does "attentiveness" refer to? Take a look at these sentences from that same article and consider whether they indicate that attentiveness refers to paying attention to the senses, or whether it refers to paying attention to
feelings:
To enable apperceptiveness to haply occur it is essential to allow a reflective attention – attentiveness – to one’s psychological and psychic world.
To one's psychological and psychic world,
not to the senses.
It is impossible for one to intelligently observe what is going on within if one does not at the same time acknowledge the occurrence of one’s various feeling-tones with attentiveness.
Again, this refers not to paying attention to the senses, but to paying attention to feeling-tones - which are non-sensory.
Whatever feeling one may be having, a fascinated attention – attentiveness – freely divulges it ... it is looking with discernibleness.
Again this points to being attentive to a feeling, not to the senses.
With attentiveness one sees the internal world with blameless references to concepts like ‘my’ or ‘mine’.
Again referring to the internal world, not to the world of the senses.
Attentiveness is the observance of the basic nature of each arising feeling; it is observing all the inner world – emotional, passionate and calentural – which is whatever is presently taking place in the affective faculty.
Again, this explicitly points out that attentiveness refers to the observance of feelings, not the senses.
Attentiveness is seeing how any feeling makes ‘me’ tick – and how ‘I’ react to it – with the perspicacity of seeing how it affects others as well.
Again explicitly pointing to feelings.
The actualist who is allowing attentiveness is concerned with the habitual superimposition of the inner ‘reality’ onto the world of people, things and events.
Again referring to being attentive to the inner reality and how it is superimposed onto people, things, and events - not being attentive to the senses.
I think these sentences make it clear that attentiveness at least has a very large part to do with paying attention to feelings, an inner reality, and not the sensate world. I should also point out that feelings are not just bodily sensations plus thoughts. There's also the affective aspect to them, which is the most important one. Yes, they cause physical changes, but the thing to look out for is the intuitively-felt part - that part is the affective one. So by paying attention to just the senses (and maybe thoughts), you end up essentially ignoring feelings.
I hope this helps to redirect your understanding!
Cheers,
- Claudiu