What is meant by sincerity as it pertains to the routine practice of haietmoba?

In the years of on and off practice and reading and re-reading of the AF site, still all I understand about 'sincerity' in actualism is that it is important to be honest with myself about how I'm feeling. Still doesn't seem like a big deal. Yet somehow this is the key to approaching the door of the actual world? I don't understand how sincerity is something that can be 'activated' or how it then leads to some other state.

What else is meant by sincerity that I may be missing? Can someone give an example of how practice would go without sincerity, or with the opposite of sincerity, to provide contrast?

I think you can try this out :-

Reach down inside of yourself intuitively (aka feeling it out) and go past the rather superficial emotions/ feelings (generally in the chest area) into the deeper, more profound passions/ feelings (generally in the solar plexus area) until you come to a place (generally about four-finger widths below the navel) where you intuitively feel you elementarily have existence as a feeling being (as in ‘me’ at the core of ‘my’ being ... which is ‘being’ itself).

Now, having located ‘being’ itself, gently and tenderly sense out the area immediately below that (just above/just before and almost touching on the sex centre).

Here you will find yourself both likeable and liking (for here lies sincerity/ naiveté).

Here is where you can, finally, like yourself (very important) no matter what.

Here is the nearest a ‘self’ can get to innocence whilst remaining a ‘self’.

Here lies tenderness/ sweetness and togetherness/ closeness.

Here is where it is possible to be the key.

I am unable to do that practice. Every time I try I don't know how even to begin to "reach down inside myself". We were discussing that here: http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/1229861

Yes , it can sound bizarre that feeling out some body part would induce sincerity. So what I would suggest is to simply not focus on inducing sincerity or anything in the begining...as a first step , simply try to find out the most distinct sensation ( or a feeling point/area ) about 4 finger widths below your navel ( inside the body ) . If you find it , just try to observe it as continuously as possible. Try this with eyes closed for a while in the beginning and when you can get a hold of it , try with eyes open.

Sincerity is what drives anyone towards freedom, whether that freedom is spiritual or actual. It is a sincere choice to disrupt the habitual in favour of the true / the actual.

If I feel lacking in motivation, I will ask myself: do I truly want to be free? Really? What's getting in the way? What urges/emotions/patterns are keeping me from sincerely practising? It's usually more obvious that I think. It's whatever distraction is stopping me from sincerely practising at that moment.

Whilst sincerity is vital, I wouldn't get too hung up on the term. If you are practising regularly already with the aim of attaining an AF, then there is already clearly some sincerity in operation.

Practise without sincerity is lacking in confidence, half-hearted, tepid. Some conflict of interest is taking place; a lack of integrity.

Practise with sincerity is dedicated, confident. It shows true integrity.

p.s. I've never had any luck with the 'reaching down' instructions either, although the pointer to "BE sincerity" is useful to me, and paves the way for naivete.

Excellent post Dan, thanks.

Would I be right then that sincerity in the actualist context is directly dependent on time spent in a PCE? Someone with no PCE experience has no truth or actuality to 'stay true' to.

My actualism practice is lacking in confidence, half-hearted, tepid, with a low success rate in getting back to feeling good and a zero percent success rate in producing PCEs. But I don't think it's a lack of sincerity. Perhaps it's the fact that I've only had 2 seconds worth of PCE-time.

As an example, I could not ask myself - regarding motivation when practicing haietmoba - "do I truly want to be free?" because I haven't had direct evidence that what I experienced or what haietmoba leads to is 'freedom'. Didn't have long enough in the PCE to garner that. Instead I could maybe ask 'do I truly want to revisit that seemingly purer, less-deluded way of existing on this planet?'.

So the other question I have is do you think insufficient PCE-experience could also lead to half-hearted, tepid ...etc. practice?

Hi Nad,

what I find useful in the context of not having had any (or very little) EE´s/PCE´s, is taking the next best thing: those moments of clarity in sensate perception. They might not have that magical or compelling quality to them as supposedly PCE´s do and in that regard probably won´t build your intent in the same degree but I just consider them as a contrast to compare my current experience against, 'setting the bar' is the term often used on the AFT site.
So if I don´t feel good, I´m attentive to these emotions and their corresponding patterns in the body which tends to soften and dissolve them slowly, combined with some reflective attention towards my senses perceptions and I´m usually back on track. This is then the right time to think about what triggered you to feel bad in the first place and apply silly or sensible.



What in your experience offers more freedom (i.e. the ability to act / think / sense in a way that you would choose for yourself if it was truly up to you): situations in which you feel bad or those in which you feel neutral / good / excellent?



That´s a start, isn´t it? Be aware of any lurking cynicism in that way of asking though. In the meantime, remembering to lighten up about the whole process and seeing that feeling bad for being attentive to negative feelings and investigating why one feels bad, is obviously silly, too, helps me out quite a lot.

Dan: "Sincerity is what drives anyone towards freedom"
Martin M: "sensate perception...Be aware of any lurking cynicism...lighten up"
Jeff Grove: "fart,fart"

Useful, thank you

By investigating the area below the navel you will discover a still point. Feel out the still point (where the stir of passions are stilled) where the feeling of being is at its most basic.

By investigating this still point were there is no energy fueling movement to or away from the object of your focus you will find entrance to PCE.

Also it has been mentioned elsewhere recently that AF experience expansive states which they don't HAIETMOBA leads to the end of contractive states

cheers
Jeff

Yes that can work for me a percentage of the time but at other times does nothing.



Again, a percentage of the time the silliness is seen and felicity commences but other times I just can't genuinely find my reaction either silly or sensible... instead it just feels 'automatic', inevitable or intuitive.



The latter.



I gave that question as an example. Questions like that have in fact already been my 'start' for years.

Thanks for clarifying. So far my attempts have been unsuccessful. I just feel physical sensations there.

Hi,

Here are some miscellaneous ideas regarding sincerity. If any of them make more sense to you than the others, please let me know. Also, I talk about sincerity consistently in my other posts; if you haven’t read them, you might consider doing so (even if the thread / topic name seems unrelated).

Being sincere is to be transparent to yourself and others. Because of this, it is also to be intimate with oneself and others, as there is no duplicity, no hiding of yourself out of a fear of rejection.

Being sincere is to approach one’s self and others in a way which is harmonious and cooperative, rather than competitive. If you have nothing to gain or lose, then there’s no reason to hide anything.

Part of being naive means asking/receiving questions sincerely to which honest answers are then proposed as replies. No question asked sincerely is every worthy of shame, guilt, ridicule, etc. from you or others; nor should it elicit fear or pride, etc from one’s self. A question viewed naively is only felt to be for the sake of eliciting an answer (and it will become more and more apparent when a question is not asked sincerely). Similarly, one must be honest with one’s self to be sincere, else one is not going to notice one’s own duplicity in action (and one cannot stop being insincere if one doesn’t know one is being insincere).

Sincerity in action: do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Naivete in action: sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me

Here’s one reason it’s safe to be sincere: one does not need to be insecure about changing out of consideration of other people’s opinions and/or the perceptions you think they may have of you. That’s because they never knew you anyway, just like you’ve never actually known them. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if you change, because no one ever knew either “person.” This means you’re free to behave however you want; it’s okay to change radically.

Something said sincerely is rarely embellished or over exaggerated. There are exceptions, such as remarks made facetiously (for fun).

Practicing sincerity: Let’s say an identification is found, say…something that elicits a fear response in you (it could be any feeling). Perhaps you are finding it now because you’re ready to be honest about it, whereas before you weren’t quite ready to inspect that side of yourself. So you give it a good looking over… you ponder what it’s like to feel fear as you think about whatever it is causing the fear. Maybe you wonder what it would be like to let go of it, and so on. You eventually decide that it is necessary to let go of it now for whatever reason or non-reason[1] you decide upon. Then you might say to yourself “ok…well… now I’m going to do it…” and then you try (to let go of it). Then there will be an experience of a nonverbal cognitive event—the feeling of trying whatever you intended to try—in this case, to stop being afraid of something you’re afraid of. Two outcomes can come from this. Either you recoil into yourself (the feeling of aversion) and begin an odd dialogue about the situation, or you side-track yourself on some tangential thought, or you become confused, or whatever. The other outcome is that you gain a relative clarity for a moment, like the world opens a bit wider, or your head or soul feels a bit lighter, or you suddenly feel better (no more fear, in this case), or you have a sense of relief, etc. The latter is sincerity, and the former is just an instance of not being able to be sincere during that attempt to let go of the identification (so just try again immediately after you realize that). Knowing these two outcomes also allows you to know whether you actually let go of the identification, and also how to avoid deluding yourself into hiding an issue as “case closed” when it actually is not. That is a very cunning way the self holds onto its existence. In case that has happened accidentally, you want to watch closely – monitoring your thoughts and behaviors—for projections. If you discard something in that way, you will end up projecting it all over the place (typically onto other people). Watch your judgments of others and see if they are actually true about 'you'. Note that a delusion of this nature (one of repression) tends to manifest as a thought/feeling/image that quickly arises for a moment and then disappears a moment later with some insincere phrase or implication such as “ah that’s not important, I get it, yeah I understand, no duh,” etc. It carries a sense of a feeling (sometimes very vaguely) which gilds over the obviousness of the lie being told.

[Edit: addition] A way to catch yourself being insincere is if you say one thing and think/feel another. So if you tell a colleague at work "have a nice evening" while smiling and then walk away while thinking/feeling "I hate you" or "I hope you choke on your dinner tonight," that's not very sincere! This is not to imply that one should sincerely express hate, either; pure intent (the intent to be happy and harmless) will keep one from any such thing.

Trent

[1] I use to tell myself, as a catch-all reason to let go of something: “look, I have to end suffering; this isn’t an option. I can either do it now, or later, but I have to do it now sometime… so let’s just do it now so that I can feel better about this”

Trent H: so well put, thank you.

I don't know where I read it, but I think somewhere on the AFT website, Richard says basically that sincerity basically means pure intent (as it pertains to HAIETMOBA). It is the intention to be happy and harmless, it is the intention to be free from sorrow and malice.

So, it's not just to be honest with yourself about your feelings, but to honestly intend to be free from malice and sorrow and to honestly intend to be happy and harmless in this actual world. It is pure intent. It can be activated just like pure intent is activated. Remembering or reflecting on EE/PCE or even the qualities of an EE or PCE, one activates the intention to be happy and harmless.



I'll take a stab at it...

Without sincerity: I'm feeling angry at xyz person for being a total %**$! I say that I practice actualism, and I state that my intent is to be happy and harmless no matter what. But, I don't do anything about it and continue to feel angry.

With sincerity: I'm feeling angry at xyz person, etc... With attentiveness, I notice the anger. I intend to be happy and harmless and then I just do it. I just stop being angry and I return to happy and harmless. I don't think about it, I don't cajole myself into it. I just do it, because my intent is sincere. I drop malice and sorrow like a hot coal. I may, then pick up another hot coal and then drop it and then pick up another and then drop it, quite a bit... but as soon as attentiveness notices the gap in being happy and harmless, sincerity brings it back.

Sincerity is important because dropping malice and sorrow (and the whole emotional ride) means dropping "me" and that really requires sincerity. "I" wouldn't do it otherwise.

Of course, this is my understanding as a not-yet-AF person... so it may be incomplete.

Nad - thanks for clarifying. So far my attempts have been unsuccessful. I just feel physical sensations there.

Hi Nad your on the right track, observe these physical sensations at the tantian (approx 3 fingers width below the navel) and you will discover the sweet spot, (still point, empty core or a balance point) where there is little or no movement of energy. This movement, this swirl of energy is the very same as the feeling of being.

When triggered it feels like a wave of energy between the tantain and the sweet spot or recoils back in response to your changing environment.

Thanks for the thoughts Trent.



I'm not sure I fully see why the latter is sincerity whereas the former cannot be, if that's indeed what you're saying. If the identification is not immediately dispensed with, after deciding to try to let go of it, there must be a lack of sincerity? Could you go into why that is?

Is it because sincerity is pure intent and if you really want to be free of the identification then pure intent should immediately make it so?

Ah the practicing sincerity really spoke to an experience i had this morning, although i wasn't aware it was sincerity as such.



walking to the subway, i just don't feel good or happy, but instead tired, wanting to reach for something (Enlightenment etc)...



i want to feel good. this is the only moment of being alive, so feeling good must happen now. and why not feel good? so i definitely must feel good.



i just decide that the feeling bad is silly, it's not worth identifying with, and i try to let go and look at the actual world around me



yep, the world became a bit brighter, a bit crisper, a bit lighter, and for a few seconds i felt good, until i started thinking about stuff again...



ah try again, i should. i dont know why it is "sincerity", which is why i quoted it in the title, though.. i guess i really did honestly/sincerely want to feel good and happy, and i really did sincerely realize the identification causing it was not useful, and then i did sincerely let it go for at least those few seconds until my mind wandered again.

I'm wondering again what is the key to activating sincerity. I know of the 'reach down' method which still doesn't work for me - I still just feel physical sensations. Daniel Johnson suggested another way here:



Remembering my EE's has in the past led to new EE's but I don't know which part of that process counts as pure intent/sincerity being activated. Since remembering EE's doesn't work every time, I think it would be helpful to understand which bit counts as sincerity being activated.

Those times when it works: I would remember how, during those EE's, I felt very light, everything was delicious and I was virtually nothing but the world experiencing itself. It was clear that any 'me' present was nothing but feeling-tone super-imposed on actuality. That makes me want to once again be nothing-but-the-world-experiencing-itself, an 'empty' human, to have that kind of experiential-simplicity.

Is sincerity the attraction towards the simplicity of the EE?

Is that simplicity, what I call being an 'empty human' or being almost nothing but the world experiencing itself, another way of saying naivete?

What is the difference between pure intent and sincerity?