Anyone tried the Shortcut Path to AF?

Hi Jason,

I wouldn't say the rapid path to an actual freedom is something that one can "try." Please note Richard's words in the passage you helpfully linked to:

"‘I’ do not make it happen, because ‘I’ cannot make it happen. What is more ... ‘I’ am not required to make it happen. An actual freedom happens of itself only when one is fully ready, and not before. One has to become acclimatised to benignity, benevolence and blitheness, because the purity of the actual is so powerful that it would ‘blow the fuses’ if one was to venture into this territory ill-prepared. To precipitously apprehend the vast stillness of infinitude would be too much, too fast, too soon ... one could go mad with the super-abundance of pleasure that pours forth’."

It is likely that the rapid and sudden way is what occurred in my case, though the fact that I became actually free on 9/22 was a surprise to me in the sense that "I" didn't think it would happen so soon. The rapid and sudden way to an actual freedom though, does not mean that everything is instantaneously cleared up as Richard also points out a little further on in that page you linked to:

"The rapid (and sudden) way is certainly possible – given sufficient pure intent – yet even so there needs to be a tidying-up of social mores and habitual patterns ‘after the event’ anyway ... an actual freedom does not miraculously remove every little detail. It does make the fine-tuning a breeze, though’."

And my experience since September has certainly proven Richard's words here to be a good description of what can occur when one rapidly and suddenly becomes actually free.

+ 1 ;-)

Its a very organic path to an Actual Freedom. When one is not ready deep examination has to take place.

Darn, I was thinking maybe a really good PCE would be enough brain acclimatisation.

Thanks for clearing this up.

Hi Jason L -

Relatively speaking, arriving on a buddhist dhamma site which dhamma is conventionally seen to have thousands of years of exploration, AF's decade-ish exploration with many fewer words could been seen as some shortcut.

It's not a short cut (more a 'designated period of goal intensification'), but a 'marathon' practice thread will be set up shortly whereby persons who like to train during the same window of time with other persons using AF/dhamma/both/whatnot enter practice periods (i.e., 6 days of self-scripted practice(including rest), 7th day bar/beer/cheer), a bootcamp/p90x for body and non/self. Analogy: focused period learning to ride a bike with periods of rest/contemplating the bike/riding with deliberate availability time for ignoring the bike and its riding. Designated periods of goal intensification with others are useful to me.

thoughts?

Cheers,
Katy

For those doing a meditation practice I guess meditating together maybe beneficial, but I don't think the actualism method would be enhanced by knowing others are doing it at the same time. Perhaps someone else here has a different perspective?

One of the constituents of the social identity is a need to follow others rather than pioneer one's own path. In establishing an actual freedom from human condition it is always one's own path and not the path of the other. That being said it certainly pleases me to know that other people are actively practicing, but why arrange for a period of practice set aside from the rest of one's life or dependent on others' practice? This just doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make sense to say "ok here I'm going to try and be happy and harmless and here I don't care what happens to me. I'll just let myself go any wayward direction and see how that goes." I already know where that goes... But, no matter what I am doing I can practice the actualist method. While working and while having a spacious retreat in the woods. When I'm at the bar or even in my car. Its always now and that's when to do what you came here to do. You can rest assured that I'm devoting every moment to living in a PCE, if it helps anyone at all to know it then that is fine by me.

Hi,



The method itself would only be enhanced if one's partner(s) helped one to refine one's application of it. However, the overarching process itself is also improved in a multitude of ways: motivations such as competitive spirit, collaboration such as helping one another maintain honesty with oneself (which is crucial to being sincere/naive), intimate engagement with actuality may be easier if with someone one is emotionally comfortable with (which for many people would be someone 'like me' [e.g. another actualist]), helping each other to problem solve various identifications and methods by providing unbiased opinions and/or diverse experience, etc.

Suffice it to say: working together harmoniously on such an endeavor is a benefit for all engaged.

Trent