An individual journey

The ideas and transformations described in this narrative are part of an individual journey. The word ‘journey’ is applicable in the following ways. In the beginning there was a sense of adventure—of experience and discovery amid the wonder and magnitude of being—but no definite or fixed or single way or goal. Early ambitions were neither specific nor articulated. There were many paths, some accidental, some imposed by society, some selected for enjoyment rather than some specific outcome, others selected for some practical need or occasion rather than an ideal. Some central interests were in ideas, in education, in travel and in nature, in people and in knowing and understanding people. Some paths faded as interest waned or another opportunity emerged. Over time, a picture of the universe was developed—was revealed as much as it was built up. A journey in ideas was supplemented by transformation—transformation of being, form and identity. As awareness of being grew to match initial idealism, the vague ambitions of earlier years were transformed into definite form—and this was made possible by the understanding of the universe of being that had emerged

Ambition

Early ambition was diffuse and affective. The ideas outlined in Foundation were instrumental in the emergence of an articulated ambition—to know and realize all being. The Theories of being and of identity show the possibility of ‘achieving’ this ambition. Still, a better statement might be that the ambition is to be in a process of knowing and realizing all being in the expression, at least initially, of individual interest and while acknowledge concerns of feasibility and desirability or morals

It is very pertinent to recall that though there is some concept of feasibility and of desirability, the concepts may be quite rough. It is even more significant that the present apprehension of what that final feasibility and final ethics may be is seen only as a dim apparition

Journey in being

The process of being—being-in-time—has been called ‘becoming.’ Becoming suggests some vague uniform process from formlessness to form and perhaps from being formed into formlessness. But every individual journey in all its ways and details and whether finite or without contingent limit—as revealed in the discussion of identity—lies within being (becoming.) ‘Journey’ is a more colorful and more revealing term to describe ‘formation’ and ‘un-formation.’ The Journey of being may be seen as the interacting sum of individual journeys—in their finite aspect—which, again, as seen in theory of identity, merge into one stream, one journey, one form. Journey in being applies equally to the story of an individual growing into and out of universal being as it does to the story of the universe in its transformations through void and manifestation and its myriad constituent and interwoven streams and individuals

Narrative

The narrative has a number of functions. In being written down, the story serves as a blueprint for a journey. More accurately, there is an ongoing interaction between narrative and journey with narrative giving definite form to ‘outer’ journey and ‘inner’ narrative. In being written down, the definite form of the narrative provides something substantial—something that, in its successive versions, shows definite movement and something that in its definiteness provides a form that may be subject to doubt and criticism. A second function of the narrative is to share the ideas one of whose outcomes is useful criticism. Sharing is more than publication, appreciation and criticism. It is a form of invitation, one way to weave together the individual streams…