katy s:
Hi Richard - you both want actual freedom and have points of concern.
Yes. My first impulse when I found it was "I want this! This is it!". As I progressed, using the instructions, these concerns came up.
To add, since I applied the AF method to the concerns, I could clearly see they were an instinctual survival response. Looking into it using the AF method helped a lot, although they are not willing to go entirely yet, so I would like to keep this thread alive for the time being.
Interestingly though, the moment I applied the AF method to the concerns, I experienced a bit of a PCE. My focus shifted to the environment and experienced the beauty of it as it is.
katy s:
These concerns and yearnings can go on indefinitely. Thus, I engage the pce aspect of your inquiry. All other interests may be exhausted with willing parties. As interruptions to PCE come up, then those interruptions become relevant in so much as they are interruptions. What is actual: you are a human being and PCE/AF/Actualism is not going to handicap you. You may handicap yourself, but there is no instruction given to handicap the human you are in anyway. If you find any, please share it. This may address some of your concerns.
It certainly does! You put it exactly right, I was afraid that it might handicap me.
katy s:
My own status: as of yesterday afternoon I had one senseless, tiresome pang of emotional occupation. That was followed by re-entry into pce wherein "my time" generally seems to be "passing". So, I am not actually free and someone who is AF is naturally a superior teacher, night and day. Otherwise, I am comfortable with buddhist method/terminology as well, though I have little experience knowing various "path" systems. It appears somewhat frequently that people who arrive on a buddhist website and find AF writings do go back and forth between the two 'methods'.
I'm open to many things, and have been, but for me AF somehow hits me exactly in the right place, if that makes sense.
There is, if I may, a slight discrepancy between what Richard says and what gets talked about on the forum.
Richard does not focus on making PCE's happen, they are the natural result of applying the method. Also, he does not see it as necessary that one can remember, or even has had an PCE.
On this forum I see that some people use triggering a PCE as part of the method.
Don't know why, but just something I noticed. Also, in my own experience, trying to trigger a PCE feels forced, while the PCE-like experience that are the result of following the method feel very natural.
katy s:
The thing is, if I, as I do at times experience the world as magical, I sometimes see it as overwhelmingly beautiful as it is. I guess this kind of fits the PCE experience. But the perception of such beauty is based on a feeling. A highly pleasurable feeling in my eyes as I look at something. Or, when it comes to things being delightful, there is a feeling of it being delightful.
What is the actual definition of PCE from the AFT, and how do you understand it?
Pure Consciousness Experience:
Richard: A PCE is when one’s sense of identity temporarily vacates the throne and apperception occurs. Apperception is the mind’s perception of itself … it is a pure awareness .
It is, in my understanding, the experience where you experience the world as is, purely through your senses alone.
Though I can't remember any such experience (although now that I think about it, some memories are coming back). But though I don't really remember one yet, I seem to have the experience for instances more and more often since I starting to practice the AF method.
Thanks a lot Katy! And if anyone has any ideas about my other questions, please contribute. Not just for me, but for anyone who might run into those concerns!
Rich