The document is a template for The Way of Being (2023). In the standard plan, sections have two subsections—essential content and topics. Some sections deviate from this scheme.

Topics

The first main section, the way in, motivates and has an overview of The Way of Being. The narrative stands as a whole and interconnections are emphasized. Sections being through realization develop the main ideas. The epilogue looks inward at what has been accomplishes and outward toward the world.

Appendix I. Vocabulary (resources) lists important concepts and their interconnections. Appendix II. Categories of being is conceptually important to metaphysics and realization but because it is somewhat theoretical, it is currently placed in an appendix. The categories may be placed in a separate article. Appendix III. Plan is a temporary section maintained while drafting the article.

The way in

Essential content

Our endeavor as human and as of the universe seeks to integrate living in the immediate with attempting to go beyond—it seeks to balance living with the given and seeking.

In a quest for realization, we will find received worldviews and lifeways to have local but not final truth. We will find the universe and its beings to be limitless—that what we experience as limits are real but not absolute. The following defines the essence of this view.

Topics

Preliminary, motivation—what people want—survival, contentment, seeking, meaning (existential)

Preview—what The Way of Being is, the universe as the greatest possible

Overview—with strategy and worldviews (secular and transsecular), consistency, truth, and implications for a picture of the universe, limits – real but not absolute, reflexivity – method and content are one, transparency – no myth of the deep, the mystery is the world

Sources and origins—received views, history, experience, retreat, meaning and meanings

Metacontent—logic of the structure, reading the narrative; metanarrative, writing and developing the narrative, see Appendix III. Plan.

Formal development of the way begins with being.

Being

Essential content

Though the concept of being is critical to The Way, its summary is not essential to basic understanding. Any valid reference of the verb to be (e.g., ‘is’), in all its inclusive and specific senses, is a being; and being is the characteristic of beings as beings. When we assign the contents of the world kinds of being such as mind or matter, it assists understanding. On the other hand, it also hinders understanding as far as mind or matter are not truly real or not perfectly understood. This hindrance is not serious in day-to-day matters. However, for true understanding, which is essential in moving beyond the immediate, the hindrance is serious. It is here that the neutrality and inclusivity of being are essential. As conceived above, being is just ‘what there is’ and will therefore not lead to error as mind and matter do.

In the history of understanding, ‘being’ has been used in other senses—e.g., in referring to the essence or richness of the world or of beings that are capable of understanding and meaning. A potential problem with the elementary conception of being used here is that while understanding will be true it will be flat. This is not necessarily a problem for the present use of being provides a precise framework that may be filled in with essence or richness as it may emerge.

In fact, it will be found that—

The use of being as conceived here empowers understanding of the world as ultimate or limitless.

And that the understanding itself is ultimate in depth or foundation; and while it is not ultimate in breadth or variety of being for beings while limited in form, it is (i) ultimate in for limited beings in showing that the variety is limitless (ii) it has perfection according to criteria that emerge with development of The Way of Being.

Topics

Being (primary and secondary use—the primary use is in the sense of bare existence, which is a container for secondary uses of ‘being’ as what is essential to the nature and richness of the universe, and how the division into primary and secondary uses empowers precision and richness), meaning (existential, i.e., of being, ‘of life’), beings, be-ing as being and becoming, abstraction (and how, with sufficient abstraction, the abstracted concepts are precise), the universe (its existence is given), the void (its existence is shown later), laws (that laws exist in the same sense as existence of beings), the void has no laws

Metaphysics

Essential content

The mere infinite is not limitless—the former is without limit in some directions, the latter is unconditional. Received thought often holds us to be finite, where we experience limits in some directions; therefore, this received thought is without foundation. We might equate limitlessness to what has been called the absolute infinite, except that the latter suggests a state of being, whereas the former is neutral to the state – relation – process vocabulary and the implied distinctions.

Metaphysics—consequences for the way of being

The universe has identity. The universe and its identity are limitless in variety, measure (extension and duration), and peak and dissolution of being. All beings merge as one in the peaks.

The trajectory of individuals across the universe is not a mere recycling of limited identities.

Ours is one of limitlessly many cosmoses of limitless variety in form, particularly physical law; the end of our cosmos and the beginning of the rest of the universe is arbitrary but may be regarded as defined by limits of our observation; all cosmoses are in contact with one another and the void (the nonmanifest).

Every cosmos is an atom and every atom a cosmos.

From the perspective of eternity or beyond measure, we are already limitless, and it remains but to see and experience it.

No element of agency—aware experience, intelligence, feeling, pleasure, pain and more—is avoidable.

There are intelligent and effective pathways to the ultimate in and from the immediate.

But if we do not transcend limits, including those of birth and death, in this life, limits will be transcended outside the measure of our present being—including in travel across the cosmoses.

In the ways, pleasure is to be primarily sought in the path, pain addressed by therapy integrated into the path and by commitment to the world and to realization.

Therefore, if enjoyment as appreciation of all elements of cognition and feeling is a core value, it is an imperative to be on a path to the ultimate—in, for, and from our world.

Metaphysics—basis of the metaphysics in experience and reason

It was earlier said that the basis of the way is in experience and reason. How is this the case? The response is in principle and in detail.

In principle (as in received thought)—sources of knowledge can be classed as direct and indirect. Direct knowledge is via contact with the world—via experience (it is of course an error to think that knowledge and experience are not in the world). Indirect knowledge is via its transformations in thought—via reason (especially inference; and given that experience, knowledge, and—especially—reason itself are in the world, they too are subject to direct and indirect view, which implies that these means of knowledge must be regarded as open until shown closed).

Comment—in much received western thought the distinction between direct or empirical sources and indirect or rational sources seems to be presumed absolute. As far as we are a special kind of being—being with distinct organs of sense and of thought, the distinction holds. And we are a special kind of being. But we are not special in that we are also universal and peak, in which perception and thought merge. That we are and are not special is not a contradiction for the full case is that we are special in our particular moment and place but universal in measure (e.g., where and when) without restriction.

In detail—The essential and unstated premise above is that the nonmanifest—the void—exists, which we now show. Regard the universe as all that there is (the use of ‘is’ is inclusive—it is neutral to space, time, and particular regions of the real)—then the universe clearly exists, i.e., it ‘is’; this is experiential in that given any experience whatsoever, the universe exists, even if all experience is illusory. That is, the manifest exists. Let us now follow a process of reason to determine the existence of the nonmanifest, i.e., the void, which is nothingness. That there are occasions that the universe is the void is (a) false or (b) true. If false, the universe is eternal, therefore necessary without premise, and so by symmetry, it must enter all states rather than just the particular state in which we find it, which contradicts falsity. Therefore, on occasion, the universe is the void.

Metaphysics—basis in detailed knowledge

The basis so far is for an abstract—ideal—metaphysics. It is perfect in that its representation of the universe is precise. It shows that there is an ultimate and that the ultimate is given. However, since it does not address the concrete details of the world, it gives us limited guidance on how to live in a way that addresses the issues of the world and of realization.

Therefore, there is a need for a complement to the ideal metaphysics. We choose our pragmatic system of knowledge. Since (i) the ideal of realization is given and (ii) the imprecision of the pragmatic system is the best we have (iii) therefore the imprecision is the best we have relative to the ideal. The real metaphysics is perfect relative to the ideal. The basis of the real metaphysics is our best experience and reason so far. This illuminates the pragmatic endeavor and places it in context and affirms rather than negates our efforts to improve it.

This affirms rather than negates our valuation of and efforts to improve our pragmatic endeavor. It also places it in a universal context which gives it a grounding that is otherwise missing. Our valuations of the pragmatic endeavor range from nihilism and unbounded optimism; the grounding denies the extremes and provides a view that has optimism, provided that we accept that the way of being involves pain and pleasure, endeavor and retreat, and a sense of both success and failure.

Metaphysics—closed and open

The metaphysics shows knowledge closed in the direction of ultimate foundation—(a) the void or any being (particularly, the universe itself) may be seen either as generating the universe in a material-causal sense or necessitating it in a logical sense (at root, the material and logical are identical; it is in a locale, e.g., a cosmos, that they are different) (b) we have perfect knowledge item a.

On the other hand, limited being is not and does not know the entire universe and its variety; which is not the case for ultimate or peak being.

The metaphysics is closed in the direction of depth or foundation—this negates the myth of the deep—but ever open regarding breadth (for limited being).

As far as received thought has not recognized and does not recognize the closure above it remains not just open, but open in a confused and vague manner for (i) it does not see the clarity that results from the ultimate foundation and (ii) it does not recognize the magnitude of the openness in the open direction. This could be called the myth of the open or, perhaps, the confusion of the open.

Metaphysics—on doubt and doubts about the metaphysics

Doubt is useful in finding and justifying truth in its proper degree of certainty. It encourages both the imagination necessary to see what is possible and the criticism to see what is necessary.

Metaphysics—effective attitudes toward the metaphysics

Let us comment on the thought from the previous paragraph that “we ought not to wait for perfection to act on what is reasonable”. We are of the background universe, from which we are formed. In the form that we are, there is ‘thought’ and this discrete and symbolic thing, ‘language’. Now, reason in language, because of its discreteness, is capable of some precision—as we have seen. Some of its forms, the logical calculi are possessed of precision and certainty. The thing we call ‘science’ is not as precise, but it is perhaps the closest we have to precise in detailed knowledge of the world. There then arises a view, often tacit, that these endeavors define and limit what we ought to do. But language is an instrument of negotiation of the world (and of communication). In the tacit view, we have taken a transitional instrument, and made it ultimate. From the metaphysics, we see that the instrument is essential to our endeavor, but we also see that to make it ultimate in itself is limiting. Therefore “we ought not to wait”.

There is of course some risk in acting and there are choices to be made, for there are many reasonable calls to action. Regarding this, we can say (i) we ought to distribute our time and other resources among immediate and ultimate endeavor (so that neither is ignored for the other) (ii) we have resources enough to allocate resources to both (iii) even if a realistic and quantitative analysis of expected value and choice is possible, we can begin with the qualitative observation that the outcome of acting toward the ultimate is of such high value that some resources ought to be allocated toward it.

Topics

Metaphysics as understood here—knowledge of the real, strength of the concept and relation to received conceptions. A fundamental issue is whether anything can be known or said about the real, let alone whether a true and complete account can be given. This skepticism, characteristic of philosophy since Kant, is dominant today (but there are realist schemes of metaphysics in the literature); doubt (and reflexive doubt of doubt). The response here is (i) in many fundamental problems of our pictures of the world and of knowledge, a tacit metaphysics is presumed and therefore there is value to developing explicit systems (especially when this is not done the tacit and open metaphysics is vague and leads to vagueness and uncertainty of answers) (ii) we can and do develop a precise ultimate metaphysical framework which is filled in with pragmatic knowledge and though the pragmatic is imperfect by two common received criteria of universality and precision, it has perfection according to emergent criteria of being instrumental toward effective realization of the ultimate.

Existence of the void (implied by a true dialetheia or paradox), alternate proofs, limitlessness of all beings from the void to the universe. Properties of the void—the void exists (alongside all beings); the number of voids has no significance (perhaps even no void at all is equivalent to any number of voids); the void contains no beings; the void contains no laws; the void is the object of all contradictory propositions

Essential elementary consequences for beings, peak being, and cosmology—the universe and its identity; variety, extension, duration, and peak of being; cosmological systems, background

Possibility; conceptual and real possibility, logic and logical possibility, the greatest possibility; all beings – void to universe – merge in peak being

The abstract metaphysics; limits are real but not absolute; the immediate and the ultimate

The real metaphysics (or just the metaphysics); dynamic join of the abstract metaphysics and pragmatic knowledge; perfection in terms of emergent criteria; doubt, alternative attitudes; proof under the real metaphysics

Value—ethics and aesthetics—ultimate and proximate; proof, doubt, and value; the ultimate value of realizing peak or ultimate being in, from, and for the immediate is a framework for local value

Developments in metaphysics—what metaphysics is and its inclusivity, what a problem of metaphysics is, what the essential problems of metaphysics are (historical and current), and implications of the real metaphysics for these issues; solution schemas for the problems with and without the metaphysics

Cosmology

In this template for the way, the section on cosmology is shorter than the one on metaphysics because the former emphasizes content, but the latter emphasizes detail.

Just below, the meaning of ‘experience’ is different from its earlier use. Here, experience is understood as ‘experience of’ – ‘relation’ – ‘the experienced’; earlier, it was just ‘experience of’.

Essential content

Experience is understood as conscious awareness in all its forms; the form of experience is mind (experience of, or concept) – meaning (the experiencing relationship, the concept-object) – matter (the experienced, or object) in dynamic change (here ‘mind’ and ‘matter’ are labels, not substances); from the limitlessness of the world, the very root of being is (primitively) experiential in kind (its level of experience may be zero in fact but not null in kind).

…which are two sides of agency for which we use the suggestive label ‘yoga’.

I repeat—‘mind’ and ‘matter’ are labels, not substances; in particular, mind has experience of mind and thus presents with mind- and matter-like sides; and what we label matter has, as it was seen, mind—i.e., matter has experientiality that may be zero in magnitude but is not null in experiential kind; and so, matter, too, presents with both mind- and matter-like sides.

Topics

Metaphysics vs cosmology—while metaphysics emphasizes principles, cosmology is about content—i.e., the shape of being and the universe. However, the distinction is porous and metaphysics merges with cosmology.

Experience (immediate and extended meanings); significance and the place of being; concept, relationship, object (intrinsic and instrumental aspects of being / beings); no further kind in the object, experience series; meaning (conceptual, linguistic), and knowledge (emphasizes knowledge that, i.e., factual, but also acknowledges know how)

Issue of foundation—the template development is founded in ‘being’, regarding which ‘experience of’ is tacitly present. The foundation could be in terms of experience since it is a given for us and (i) as an explicit given for beings with significance, it might be a better foundation (ii) abstraction would be essential for the details of the experienced would not be suitable foundation (iii) the template could be restructured to have foundation in experience, but (iv) here, in the interest of efficiency, we do not do so. Regarding details of experience and thus of the world, the issue of illusion—e.g., non-reality, distortion, hallucination, delusion and so on—arises – are ‘experiences of’ true or illusory (some may be true, others illusory and so it is not one or the other). That is, we interpret our experiences as real or not, and there may be multiple interpretations and so the issue may be seen as one of interpretation

Interpretations and their reality (or otherwise); logically equivalent interpretations, all self-consistent stories and interpretations obtain in the universe; robust interpretations and their greater significance—numerical, effective, and existential

Agents of knowledge, value, appreciation, for our world in itself and on the way to the ultimate

We are experiential beings in the universe as a field of experiential being

Categories—pure and pragmatic dimensions and paradigms of being; see Appendix I

Formal cosmology—general; cosmology of form and formation, and of cause as a contingent aspect of form; identity, situation, spacetimebeing (no further markers of situation), properties – issue of; physical cosmology and cosmologies

System of knowledge and action—a system based in and including the real metaphysics, and in the seamlessness and reflexivity of be-ing; the meanings of discipline and activity names such as ‘philosophy’ are not to be discussed in received or empirical terms alone but also in terms of rationality, meaning, and as full a metaphysics and cosmology as is at hand

Beings and their realizations; ways—mechanism, design, chance, spontaneity, and necessity

Pathways to the ultimate, in and from the immediate

Realization

Essential content

The aim, means, pathways for realization, and information on their design, are placed in path templates.

The templates will have (a) generic but adaptable pathways for everyday and universal action (b) affirmation and dedication and (c) specific programs of action.

Template address—https://www.horizons-2000.org/2021/narratives/templates%20and%20dedication.pdf.

Affirmation and dedication

Affirmation—the immediate and ultimate are one; finally, our being is ultimate being.

Topics

Aim, dedication, and affirmation

Means—instruments of realization—intrinsic and instrumental

Pathways, programs (in the categories of being), and templates

Therapy—integrates explicit therapeutic modalities with the way-as-therapeutic

Resources—the resources include a vocabulary, pathway templates, lessons for and from development of the way, and more

Sources—see below

Formal development of the way is now complete.

Sources

Sources—see influences on the way and reading (2021); though it has extensive sources in western and eastern thought, The Way of Being is offered as a contribution in metaphysics, reason, and ways of life.

Return

An alternative title for this section is ‘Epilogue’.

Essential content

We now see the world with a new vision. We live in the present for our being in-the-world and as ground-to-the-ultimate.

Our written story is a cumulative venture whose essence ought to be captured and refreshed—so that we will be freed rather than weighed down by our history of thought and exploration.

Topics

Return—being in the world, immediate and ultimate; immersion; sharing ideas and realization; publishing

A universal story—the real metaphysics is a framework; the essential narrative

Appendixes

Appendix I. Vocabulary (resources)

The vocabulary is one of a number of planned resources. The aim is to provide a language for metaphysics.

Introduction

The vocabulary or glossary is a system of concepts for The Way of Being, especially its metaphysics and pathways.

The concepts are classed, roughly rather than precisely, as (i) existential (for direct use and living) vs foundational (for how we know what we assert and associated degree of certainty) (ii) basic (core, categorial) vs supporting (supporting, illustrative, lower level).

The treatment of each concept will be (a) what it is—definition and explanation, alternate and related meanings, reasons for the present choice (‘what it is’ is reflexive, for meaning itself is among the concepts) (b) the significance of the concept—what its importance is (c) how it relates to other concepts—vertically or horizontally or both, and how it fits into the total meaning, i.e., the meaning of the system of concepts and truth.

The vocabulary

In the initial system below, terms in small capitals are both core and existential.

Source—meaning (existential, of being, of life), purpose, human motivation, worldviews—secular vs transsecular and transcendent but inclusive, limitlessness—limits as real but not absolute, seamlessness or oneness of being (being – relating – becoming, manifest – nonmanifest, knowing – being, method – content…).

Being—being (primary and secondary use), abstraction, beings, be-ing, the universe, the void (the nonmanifest), laws.

Metaphysics—metaphysics, paradox, limitlessness, doubt, identity, peak being, cosmological system(s), background.

Possibility—possibility, conceptual vs real possibility, logical possibility, the greatest possibility.

The real metaphysics—perfect abstract metaphysics; pragmatic metaphysics; the real metaphysics as their dynamic join, perfection in terms of emergent criteria.

Value—ultimate and proximate, ethics and aesthetics.

Systematic metaphysics—metaphysics, its nature, problems, and solution schemas.

Cosmology—experience, significance, concept, relation, object; experiential beings; meaning (conceptual, linguistic), language(including ‘grammar of being’ etc.) and knowledge; interpretation (and the real); logically equivalent interpretations, all self-consistent stories and interpretations obtain, robust interpretations and their greater significance—numerical, effective, and existential; agency; field of experiential being; categories; formal cosmology, cosmologies; realization, ways; pathways (to the ultimate).

Realization—aim of being, means—intrinsic and instrumental; pathways, programs, and templates; therapy; sources.

Epilogue—return, being-in-the-world (universe); universal story (narrative).

Appendix II. Categories of being

Though the categories are important to metaphysics and its use, this material on the categories is currently in an appendix as it is not necessary to basic understanding of The Way of Being.

Historical perspective

The historical conception of the categories is that they are “a complete list of the highest kinds of being” (see categories from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). That is, the historical categories are kinds just under being itself.

A system of categories will not be ad hoc—it will derive from and may define a metaphysical system. However, the systems of metaphysics are not unique. As far as choice of system is ad hoc, the categories will also be ad hoc, at least to some degree. Further, it is not just that there is a variety of systems, but the nature of metaphysics has also been in question. Thus, Aristotle’s categories were intended to reflect reality. On the other hand, skepticism about true knowledge of the real, led Kant to develop metaphysics as a phenomenal scheme, and his system of categories was conceptual in which the concepts reflected phenomena, rather than ‘the thing in itself’.

In recent thought, skepticism over the possibility of any complete, unique, or well-founded ontological or conceptual scheme of categories (see the link above), has led to a more modest metaphysical role for categories. The main modern emphasis is on drawing categorial distinctions that “diagnose and avoid various philosophical problems and confusions”.

As understood here, the categories of being are kinds and aspects of being that are instrumental in understanding and negotiating ways through the world. The motivation for this conception and how it relates and encompasses the traditional one is explained in the details of this section.

Perspective from the real metaphysics

It is implicit that systems of categories are not mere systems of classification but would have some of the following: (i) they would be derived from principles such as adequacy to describe the universe, i.e., metaphysical, conceptual, or linguistic kinds (which have overlap) (ii) the systems would be reflexive in that knowledge itself is a kind and in that kinds of kinds would be at least entertained (iii) going beyond the descriptive, the systems would recognize patterns that make description efficient or that enable efficient negotiation of the world.

Metaphysics and categories are and ought to be co-emergent. Here, we extract a system of categories from the real metaphysics. Its rationality derives from the rationality of the metaphysics. Further, as the metaphysics is an instrument of cognition, so are the categories. Given the abilities and limits of human form, the metaphysics is complete with regard to depth (knowledge of limitlessness) but not breadth (knowledge of variety—but note that we do know that the variety is limitless). The categories inherit the same limitlessness and limits. The intent here is not just that the categories should be a system of classification, but that shall also be instruments of cognition and exploration of being and the universe.

If one were to be successful in developing a complete and precise systematic metaphysics, it would have a categorial system, which would be co-emergent with the metaphysics itself. Skepticism about the possibility of a categorial system is skepticism about the possibility of systematic metaphysics.

The real metaphysics is not a complete and systematic metaphysics. Rather, it has two parts (a) an ideal-abstract but perfectly real, precise, and systematic framework at the highest level, which specifies the nature of the universe in outline (it is an ultimate specification of an ultimate universe); this part may be regarded as complete-in-principle; the framework is accessible to all beings with what we regard as ordinary human intellect and imagination, provided there is a sufficiently critical attitude toward the critical canon (b) for limited beings, the framework is filled in by their pragmatic knowledge, which is imperfect by received criteria; further, as far as the pragmatic knowledge is not universal or necessary, this part has an ad hoc character. However, the entire system has perfection by the emergent criterion of an efficient and effective means of realization of the ultimate. Thus, the real metaphysics is positioned to define a system of categories, the best we can do relative to the emergent criterion above, with its precise and pragmatic levels.

How shall we define a system, which is emergent from the real metaphysics?

First, for completeness, whereas the received categories are the highest, it will also recognize the pragmatic—the emerging system will have categories at two levels Thus a first principle of classification will be (i) the abstract or real vs the pragmatic (it is not that the pragmatic is not real but rather that its conception is neutral to reality status). The table below divides the abstract level into being itself and the remainder of the abstract level. Thus, in the table there are three levels—being itself, the abstract level just under being, and the pragmatic level, our received human knowledge of our world as a concrete variety. This is one—a first—categorial distinction that an emergent system will encode.

Second, in addition to level of being, from the point of view of usefulness in understanding negotiating the world, we will recognize four kinds of category—kind of being, kind of necessity of existence, kind of formation, and kind of form or patterning. At the level of being itself and the abstract, formation and patterning merge as one; at the level of the pragmatic, i.e., of our world, they have distinction.

What further principles would define a system of categories? We are concerned (ii) not just with what exists but the form and means of knowledge (iii) simplifying schemes or patterns that encode data as patterns and which make the system useful in negotiating the world—that is we are concerned, not just with description, but also with theories even though they may be just local.

Here is a tentative system (later the material from the small print version and related documents will be imported).

Table 1 A system of categories

A system of categories, co‑emergent with the real metaphysics		Level of being
		Being itself	Abstractly and precisely known, real	Pragmatically and concretely known, instrumental
Categorial kind	Kind of being	No kind, but harbors the nonmanifest-manifest, part-pattern-whole, extension-identity-duration	Experiential field, from zero but not null to agency to the completion of peak being; agency is intrinsic (‘self’) and instrumental (‘object’), which are a seamless whole	Items on the left, and concrete-abstract distinction; not binary, for there are degrees of abstraction (not the same knowledge or concept abstraction)—discrete and / or more connected
	Necessity of be-ing	Absolute	Necessary, possible, and impossible	Items on the left, contingent, probabilistic
	Form and formation	No intrinsic mechanism, but harbors items on the right	General logic, items above, and absolute determinism-indeterminism	Items on the left, incremental formation with indeterminism
	Patterning	No intrinsic mechanism, but harbors items on the right		Items on the left, natural science, mechanism, residual indeterminism

Appendix III. Plan

The document shall be reviewed for completeness, minimality, essence, material, and resources, most of which will be placed in secondary documents and linked.