Talks for The Way of Being ANIL MITRA © APRIL 2018—December 2018 Contents Human endeavor and its range—immediate to ultimate Tradition—its definition and limits What the tradition may claim to allow and what it does in fact allow 1 Introducing the way of Being 2.1 The endeavor of human being 2.3 Talk alone is empty: ideas and action 2.4 Meaning at the edge of the known, abstraction, and concretion 3.3 Universe, beings, the void 6.2 Pragmatic agency, ways, templates 8 The destiny of individual conscioiusness
Titles for talks should be plain and appealing Topics for reviewThe topics should lead readers in via their intuition and existing worldview. Human endeavor and its range—immediate to ultimateTradition—its definition and limitsTwo kinds of limit—traditional knowledge as limited knowledge; the traditional picture of the universe as limited relative to the universe itself (this is also limited knowledge but is important to mention because that knowledge is limited does not imply this particular limit). What the tradition may claim to allow and what it does in fact allowThe concept of the ultimateWhat is ultimate?The principle of the ultimateMetaphysics with traditionIntroducing the way of Being1 Introducing the way of BeingThe following are essential 1. That the paradigm is non-standard; to understand the way requires appreciation of this, and dedication to its understanding; the latter is a process that will dismay those who, because they are adult, think their paradigmatic knowledge of the universe is anywhere near complete (unless of course they already know the paradigm). 2. The paradigm shows a directions of closure as well as eternal openness to knowledge of and being in the world. 3. The closure is that the universe is the realization of all logical possibility. 4. The openness is the eternal exploration within all possibility; seeing what it means; meshing it with traditional knowledge; seeing that it implies our identity with the ultimate; but that this is a process (with never ending freshness and variety). 5. That the process began in reason; and it continues in reason… and that, however, as is in the nature of reason, it applies reason to reason itself. The result includes of course a critical analysis of reason; but it does not stop there as is the way of many critical philosophies; it strengthens reason critically but also adds to it in terms of adding elements – in seeing the place of imagination and heart in reason and in realizing that the understanding of reason is never complete and never finally formulaic even though the formulaic is useful. 2 Becoming2.1 The endeavor of human beingTrajectories of an individual life 2.2 Culture and its limitsNot just the sum of knowledge, aspirations, and ways… Science, religion, and metaphysics 2.3 Talk alone is empty: ideas and actionThe sources of secular meaning include the sciences, arts and humanities; secular exploration; and symbolic spiritual exploration. Some standard sources of transsecular meaning are the religions; which in their standard forms, no matter how liberated from dogma, tend to the formulaic. Which, when all is said and done, is empty. We must supplement ideas with action. Our action must be ever experimental; the universal metaphysics shows some places of closure and some of necessarily eternal openness. Ideas without action are incomplete and tend to sterility; action without ideas is meaningless; ideas and action complete each other. 2.4 Meaning at the edge of the known, abstraction, and concretionDo words have meanings or are they tags to meanings? The symbol and the object 2.5 What do people want?Maslow Knowledge Becoming but limited by consensus and desire for acceptance
3 Circle of ideal concepts3.1 Being3.2 Why Being?3.3 Universe, beings, the void3.4 Power, experience, reason4 Perfect metaphysics5 Cosmology of identity6 The Way of Being6.1 The way and its aim6.2 Pragmatic agency, ways, templates6.3 Path7 Renewal7.1 Periodic7.2 Impediments and resources8 The destiny of individual conscioiusnessIn Vedanta and the universal metaphysics individual consciousness is eternal. In reincarnation it arises over and over, with an opportunity to climb the ladder of Being. But let us take the limited view that we do not know. Imagine this conversation. A. I wonder if my consciousness will arise again. B. I would not be too concerned. If my consciousness arises again I’ll know it then. That’s the extent of my concern. A. Are you aware of past lives? B. No. A. Do you know that you had or did not have past lives? B. No. A. So in another life you still might not know. B. Yes. But if consciousness is eternal and universal, then we will ultimately see our limited consciousness as part of that. A. Yes. True. But perhaps the way to that universality is to try to become aware of the fact in every ‘this’ life. B. But how? A. Tradition has many approaches. Then there is the way of reason, experience, experiment, and the universal metaphysics. B. But there is no guarantee. A. Indeed there is no guarantee that it will happen in this life. It’s a little like a rational form of Pascal’s wager. B. True but according to your universal metaphysics it will happen. So I need not be concerned? A. In that case Pascal’s wager suggests that the quality of experience may be enhanced by ‘trying’. What the wager calls for is to devote just some energy to the attempt. |