I feel like this must have been asked a thousand times, but I am very pressed on time..

I know that on the AFT site there it is claimed that vipassana is worthless. I know that, more or less, every person on this forum practices vipassana, and some of them practice AF. I'm confused by this, and I really hope this could be elucidated as I'm currently chasing after enlightenment, which appears to involve the development of some sort of, albeit scientifically unverified, kundalini circuit.

Ought both be sought, or one and then the other, and can vipassana seriously not even be practiced in a PCE?

Also, on Kenneth Folk's website, his third gear and AF seem so very similar to me, what's up with that?

I hope someone can help!!

This thread might prove valuable, and also the Hurricane Ranch podcasts of Tarin + Daniel talking about AF.

Short Answer

Try both, they are complementary practices.


Detailed Explanation

The brain is like a pattern recognition machine. If one draws two dots and a line on a piece of paper, it sees a face.

Similarly our sense of self is essentially made up of the 5 physical senses + the mind. The brain subconsciously recognizes patterns in these and makes up an illusory 'me'.

The way I think of it is:

Vipassana is about training the mind to break the 'me' into smaller bits by quickly noticing it to see how it is made up of a combination of the 5 physical senses and the mind.

In a PCE / AF one is training the mind to directly experience reality at a sensate level, and as such the 'me' cannot arise and thus Vipassana is impossible.

To make things more confusing, when Richard talks about his spiritual enlightenment prior to AF on the Actual Freedom website. He is talking about something different altogether. Things he describes like agape and divine compassion, don't fit with the completion of the Vipassana stages of insight.

To continue this thread, what are the difference in intent between heading towards AF and towards Stream Entry?

In heading to AF the intent, as I see it, is happiness, harmlessness, peace.
What might be the intent of heading towards Stream Entry or Arahantship?