Being Instrumental: RH'L1

Demands of the Pleasure Quest

The Pleasure Quest only demands a basic humanity. This entails recognizing a self and using it to do things that give pleasure. The self must, at least, be capable of organizing provision of bodily gratification and simultaneously staying alive and functioning socially. The self is found to have specific preferences in this regard, and these guide choices for «feeling good» via sensual experiences.

Apart from indulging in pleasure, such a self only does other things for a good reason. This reason is the purpose for doing anything. By far the most important reason and strongest motivator is survival in a competitive environment.
More:►

Anyone pushed to survive becomes practical. Anyone strongly conscious of survival risk prefers to be practical. In practice, survival is no longer the biological imperative to eat or be eaten, but is experienced in relation to social imperatives to get respect, to be self-reliant, to make a living.

Your «good reason to do» i.e. the survival-related purpose, may be provided by another person who pays you. In such a case, you become their agent (Syn. operative, functionary, official) rather than an autonomous actor. Because an agent is an instrument of another, your personal preferences, interests, and biases should not come into play.

So, in both the Pleasure Quest-RH'L1 and in many work activities (i.e. Endeavour-RH), the self is primarily an instrument. That is why the Pleasure Quest engenders a Model Being that provides perfect service. It is named Instrumental Being.

Being an instrument of another is not tolerable on a continuing basis—that equates to slavery. However, instrumentality does not cease in your free time, because (as noted) your self then becomes your own instrument.

The Practical Plane

The model Instrumental Being is stable and solidly grounded in sensory perception, empirical realities and the use of information. It is shaped by its focus on action-RL1, and therefore on the practicalities of any idea or proposal:
i.e. what to do, whether it can be done, and how to do it.

Being an instrument for another's purposes, provides opportunities to make a living either as an employee or via an agency business. However, there is only one intrinsic driver for doing things efficiently and effectively: competition. Remove competition and things get slack and sloppy.

This is therefore named in THEE the Practical Plane of Existence.

Ethics
on this Practical Plane is naturally:►

• more social and conventional than deeply personal
• about skilfully navigating existing obligations and expectations
• oriented to finding and experiencing pleasures without being disturbed
• oriented to personal consequences rather than the ethics of right-and-wrong.
  

Creativity
on this Practical Plane is naturally:► 

• practical
• spontaneous
• unselfconscious
• need-driven
• sense-based
• action-oriented
• imitative.
  

Perspectives

Example of Practical Plane Experience

This text, left unedited, was a comment on a blog about whether "you are your brain".

"I personally feel that scientist are overly complicating the matter and looking for things that just aren't there. I also feel human evolution isn't nearly as far along as some believe it is.  Human nature is simply those things that any and everyone would do given the opportunity to do so, and provided ingrained bias and cultural teachings don't prohibit or prevent you from doing it. Humans are simply animals and natural born instincts still play a big role in our decisions. Those decisions are tempered by social structure and upbringing and all the information acquired since birth that is of relevance. The less of a family structure or socially oriented upbringing you have growing up, the more you base decisions off natural instincts which call for you to establish territory, take a make, and defend and protect it at all cost. Unfortunately, that means a life of crime as it's the easiest and quickest way to accumulate wealth, power, and territory. Quite literally, you act just like an any other animal. And nature exist in a balance, there is no good or evil. So to these people, they feel they are doing nothing wrong while the rest of society is at odds with them. What does this have to do with consciousness? A person is simply the sum of their experiences, or those memories that they have accumulated in life. Those memories are what are used to help judge situations and determine the outcome that best fits their own perception of what is right and what is wrong."

• There should be respect and gratitude for anyone who is self-organized, socially adaptable, willing to compete, and can perform services for others.

  The social-conventional approach to ethics is highly significant. It means that a high standard of behaviour is possible if others set the necessary example and create the necessary social pressure. Those functioning on this plane will respond to change, but have a limited creativity to define the needed change.

• From the perspective of inhabitants of a higher plane, such beings are the salt of the earth whose saltiness can be lost rather easily because of a lack of imagination and little attention to ideals.
  Typical criticisms:

  Activity is too often repetitive, semi-automatic, thoughtless, convention-bound: but this may be a natural response to a discouraging or brutal context. Because current tasks serve personal goals, there is resistance to change that would have benefited others as well. In non-competitive situations which cannot be exploited for personal gain, choices may appear uninspired, insensitive, and poorly motivated. Certain choices, made without any pangs of conscience, seem unethical or corrupt. If the opportunity presents and culture provides the sanction, common sense will argue that corrupt activity is normal.

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• The Model Being that holds ideals and is mindful of others can generate change. Continue to this higher worldly existence.

Originally posted: 14-Sep-2012