Vinaire's Blog

My introduction to Scientology was the best experience. I have documented it in My Introduction to America. I cherish that experience even when I have found Scientology to be an obsessively controlling money-hungry cult. The extraordinary experience started after being introduced to TR0, a confronting exercise, of Scientology.

The literal meaning of CONFRONT is “to be face to face with; be in front of.” But this meaning has the connotation of hostility, defiance and opposition. The followers of Scientology do “confront” that way in a forceful manner when they don’t like something, but that is not what TR0 is about. TR0 is more like practicing mindfulness.

This data is paraphrased from a book by L. Kin.

Hubbard assigned “confronting” the sense of “not flinching, keeping cool.” He described confronting as “the ability to be there comfortably and perceive,” in the sense of calmly holding one’s position without reaching or withdrawing, and seeing something as it is. He called it a state of being, not of doing. Doing followed from it later.

Consequently, “good confront” is the one and only prerequisite for seeing what is there. A man in panic won’t see any more what’s right in front of his nose. He does not “duplicate.” By duplication Hubbard meant seeing things as they are.

“Seeing things as they are” is the essence of mindfulness as taught by Buddha. To accomplish this the TR0 instructions were “to be there without flinching or avoiding, and do nothing else.” The understanding given was that discomforts will run out by themselves if you simply be there. There were no other instructions. To me this meant practicing mindfulness. That was the start of a wonderful adventure for me. That adventure still continues.

Here is a compilation of my understanding and what I did on TR0 in 1969 that just blew me away.

EXERCISE: Being There

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L Kin outlines the following “Scale of Confronting” developed by Hubbard.

Dub-in
Blackness
Being elsewhere
Ability to confront
Willingness to experience and participate
Being and knowing at will

A person may start out finding life to be difficult and hard to understand. He is assuming and speculating about life instead of directly looking and experiencing it. He does not see what is actually there.

As he starts to confront he may go through a period of confusion (blackness, nervousness, lack of concentration). This happens because he is now questioning all those beliefs that he had taken for granted.

As he starts to practice mindfulness, his willingness to experience and participate in life increases. His minds become clear of complexities. He can now learn quickly by spotting inconsistencies and resolving them as he faces them. He develops a refreshing view of life.

Though Scientology as a movement has gone off the rails at this point in time; but a person can move still up this scale of confronting by practicing mindfulness as described on this blog.

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Hubbard derived three brilliant maxims from his idea of confront:

1. The degree of complexity is proportional to the degree of non-confront.
2. The degree of simplicity is proportional to the degree of confront.
3. The basis of aberration is a non-confront.”

I have followed these maxims to this day to simplify my life and what I know. Actually, this blog is designed around these maxims, with the understanding that confronting is mindfulness.

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Reference: KHTK Postulates for Metaphysics – Part 4

The theistic viewpoint germinates from viewing one as a self separate from others and imagining God on the same basis. The theistic view is, therefore, a self-centered view.

The view of self starts from fixation on the body. It comes from a condensation of the universal view. Instead of looking at the universe as a single, vast entity or body, one’s viewpoint condenses by first separating mankind from all other forms of life, and then separating mankind into groups, and then separating groups into individuals.

The idea of self comes from this fixation on individuality. It is then projected back into the idea of divinity as God.

This is the theistic viewpoint. It is self-centered.

To me the theistic viewpoint is an aberration. It views God as a being.

The atheistic viewpoint does not deny God. It only objects to viewing God as a being.

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I had this realization on how the concept of AFFINITY got twisted in Scientology.

Hubbard defines affinity in terms of reaching. One reaches for something in order to have it close to one. Lack of affinity would be expressed in a withdraw. “Affinity is a phenomenon of space in that it expresses the willingness to occupy the same place as the thing which is loved or liked. The reverse of it would be antipathy (. . .) which would be the unwillingness to occupy the same space as or the unwillingness to approach something or someone.”

But…

True affinity would be the degree of comfort within oneself as one perceives the universe. And this makes one be inclusive of others and their viewpoints.

Affinity is just there, it is not created or enforced on oneself. One is already being.

Affinity has nothing to do with whether one can assume the beingness of another or not. The latter would require the ability to be a good actor. Just because an actor can pretend high affinity, it does not necessarily mean that he has high affinity.

Affinity is the degree to which one is comfortable within oneself and willing to look and perceive.

The point is that affinity cannot be forced on oneself. It just is, and it comes from being free of inconsistencies in one’s makeup.

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