The way of being

Contents

The way of being

(small capitals mark definitions and important terms)

Origins

The origin of the way of being is in an individual and the historical endeavor to see the truth of and go beyond received worldviews and ways of being.

What is the ultimate truth of received worldviews? It appears that some but not all extrapolation beyond their region of local validity is possible. That is, the best we know is that they have a limited region of truth. Further, it is consistent with reason and experience that what is outside that region is limitless.

What—if anything—can we know about the far regions of the universe? We will find significant knowledge. Particularly, the universe conceived as all being is limitless, which has significant implications for human being. The approach to developing the view of limitlessness and its implications begins below with seeing that there is information in what we perceive and know, but which we tend to overlook.

The way

The way of being is shared discovery, p. 2, and realization, p. 4, of the ultimate in and from immediate worlds.

The world

A being is that which exists; being is existence.

The universe is all being; the universe is a being.

The void is the absence of being; since its existence and nonexistence are equivalent, the void may be validly said to exist; the void is a being; the void has no sub-beings.

Logic is the minimal requirement for being. Therefore, the greatest possibility is logical; real objects are innately logical; therefore, real possibility does not exceed logical possibility (physical law for our cosmos is an example of real possibility).

A natural law is a pattern within the universe; laws are beings; there are no laws in the void.

The void is equivalent to the greatest possibility, for the contrary would be a law in the void.

The universe is the realization of the greatest possibility; from the abstraction of the concepts, this results in an ideal as follows.

The universe has identity; the universe and its identity have limitless variety, extension, and duration; they endlessly phase in and out of the void state; they realize peak states of being without limit of any kind (it is understood that logic cannot be violated).

All beings realize peak being; in doing so they merge as one. There are intelligent and effective pathways to the ultimate. Pain and other impediments are unavoidable, but there are enjoyable pathways to the ultimate that best address the problem of pain. Peaking and dissolution are an endless recurrent process, of which the variety is without limit, of which we are a part. That is, if god is to have meaning, its best meaning, perhaps, is that of a process of which we are a part.

Every individual is original, so, while cultural pathways are a ground and an instrument, they are insufficient. There will always be impediments; the way is to give attention to both overcoming and realizing.

Experience is conscious awareness in all its forms; all significance is seen in experience; we are essentially experiential beings, for without experiencing, we are effectively dead; the very root of being must be experiential in some primitive form (derivation omitted); the universe is a field of experiential being.

It does not follow that the universe is or is not of mind or of matter, for experience has aspects that are—at least as if—of mind (the experience) and matter (the experienced). As we are experiential beings, the instrument of discovery and realization is experience—experiential being—with its as if mind and matter aspects.

This instrument may be named, ‘yoga’ (perhaps there is a pan-cultural term already available or waiting to be coined), understood as derived from its traditions but itself part of ongoing discovery and realization. In this ultimate sense, yoga is and encompasses the best available cultural traditions (integration of the ideal and the cultural as a real unity is omitted), e.g., an integration of western and eastern elements, particularly their philosophies, science, technology, religions (understood symbolically and critically), and more, which (yoga) is understood to always be at a beginning and in process.

Pathways

Here are some elements of a pathway (for detail, see ‘templates’ in the resources, p. 5; for the range of activities, ‘activities for realization’ in the resources). Focus is on experiential being.

A daily routine is set up to include ground (basic needs, employment, relationships, health, routine of activities, planning, meals, adequate sleep), foundation (shared discovery and realization, publication), and realization (physical training of the body and exercise, training of mind—meditation—toward the immediate and the ultimate as one).

What is an effective attitude toward impediment (and pain)? In individual and shared discovery and realization it is for those who have choice and ability to attend to both address—therapeutic and functional—of impediments, aware waiting for resolution and insight (when efficient or necessary) and moving forward. Energy will also be given to (a) daily sustenance of attitude and forward motion and (b) periodic renewal, for which resolutions include practice and retreat, respectively.

Intermediate to open range social and group activities are of this world (knowledge and education, politics and economics, art, symbolic religion; and practice, e.g., traditional yoga) and regarding the ultimate (metaphysics and science for navigation of identities of persons as many and one, and for material navigation of this cosmos and beyond, from void to peak, to dissolution).

Guide to the way

Relation to received views | This work | The print edition | Resources | Understanding the way

Relation to received views

Recall that “The way of being is shared discovery and realization of the ultimate in and from immediate worlds.”

The way of being sees scientific-empirical views of the world as true but incomplete, sees most religious and many metaphysical attempts at completion as inadequate, and seeks beyond the world as known so far.

This work

The document is intended to capture the conceptual and practical essence of the metaphysics of the way of being (see the resources, p. 5, for metaphysics).

Regarding concepts, this work covers the bare essentials; it omits sophistication, explanation, and elaboration. For example, while modern metaphysicians make distinctions between concrete and abstract objects and between objects and beings, such distinctions are not essential, which is shown in an extended version of the document (resources, p. 5: extended version).

Regarding practice and practicality, the document is not a manual or a template for realization (a manual or template might inhibit initiative and devolve into dogma), it is an essence, a framework upon which to build. There is a place for a manual and a template (resources, p. 5: a manual, templates).

The print edition

The resources listed below can be accessed at horizons-2000.org/2023/supporting/resources for short version.html (type the link in the address bar element at the top of an Internet browser such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge).

Resources

The way of being site—https://www.horizons-2000.org.

Metaphysics—extended version of this document (and search the site).

Implication for knowledge—system of knowledge.

A manual—the extended version, and the ‘little manual’.

Activities for realization—dimensions of being.

Templates—templates and dedication (pdf, html, docm).

About contradiction—dialetheism.

Sources—for sources in eastern and western thought, see my influences and the bibliographies.

Understanding the way

This work is close to the briefest possible of its subject. Its content will be new and unfamiliar to many readers. These considerations, the magnitude and definiteness of its conclusions, and other factors may be impediments to understanding. This section lists impediments and their address.

First. On ideas and action—the two main parts of the work are (i) a description of the world (in ‘the world’) (ii) realization (in ‘pathways’), or ideas and action, respectively. Ideas and action are often thought of as rather distinct (even though thinking is a kind of action) and thinking so is often adequate. However, in any ultimate picture, they are and must be interwoven. But even the ‘weave’ analogy is insufficient, for there is an original unity, which bifurcates but never separates (at a fundamental level). This way of thinking, separation and unity of thought and action, is an attitude to be absorbed by readers.

Second. On the ultimate nature of the work—the view of the ultimate in the way, is ultimate in two ways (i) it is the realization of the greatest possibility (ii) the framework of the picture of the ultimate is perfect in capture of the real, which includes that it is perfect in its depth or foundation. It is greater in its range, variety, and content, than in all any view that sees the universe as less than limitless; this includes almost all received views, and, for most persons, will require effort of imagination to appreciate it. In this document, the details of the view are minimal (see the resources, p. 5, for documents with greater detail).

Third. On the depth of the work—the document necessarily addresses some of the deepest problems of thought about our being—but address is significantly implicit rather than explicit. This makes for easier reading but leaves open much room for doubt and a feeling of incompleteness. Some problems whose address is at most minimal are (i) whether and to what extent perfect knowledge is possible and may be achieved (ii) how the framework is perfect (iii) while the framework is perfect, the details are imperfect on received criteria for true knowledge—the problem here is how the perfect and the imperfect mesh to form a system and how and in what sense in what sense the system is perfect (iv) the nature, support, and fate of the being of the universe and its beings, and what aims and actions are therefore desirable. In the minimalism of the document, the address is not explicit; rather, it is implicit in the selection, meanings, and system of its concepts. Though the framework is minimal, it is rich, especially in use of the term ‘logic’—for while logic may be minimal in what it requires, it is most rich in what it allows.

Fourth. On meanings of the terms. In familiar situations, the meanings of words may be more or less definite. Beyond the familiar, new terms may be needed, old meanings may need revision. Therefore, it is essential to follow meanings as given here (definitions are marked by small capitals). Two issues arise, (i) the present meanings arose incrementally and required revision of my intuition—consequently, I expect that it may take more than one reading for readers to absorb the new meanings (ii) the terms are elements of a system that has meaning over and above those of the individual terms—and it will require time and reflection to absorb the meaning of the system.

Fifth. On use of the term ‘yoga’. I have used the term yoga because it suggests use of all aspects of being—mind and matter—in realization of ultimate being. There could not be anything more inclusive. However, yoga connotes particular cultural activities (originally eastern, now world-wide). I am looking for a better term; meanwhile I remind readers to understand yoga in the as described above.

Sixth. On perfect knowledge of the metaphysical framework. Definiteness and perfect knowledge of the objects as defined through the universe is a field of experiential being, above, follow from their abstraction, which is to remove from a concept all detail except that which corresponds precisely to the object.

Seventh. Doubting the work. In this brief work, doubt has not been addressed. Yet, there is and ought to be doubt. Doubt should arise at demonstration of u, p. 2—“ since its existence and nonexistence are equivalent, the void may be validly said to exist;” which, since it is its crux, is the essential doubt of the development. How is this doubt to be addressed?

It is addressed in two ways in the ‘little manual’ (resources, p. 5: little manual). The first is to provide alternative, more robust proofs. However, doubt is found to remain. The second, therefore, begins with allowing—sustaining—doubt while seeing that even if proof is doubted, existence of the void is consistent (empirically and rationally). Alternate attitudes to the (new) emergent picture of reality are then, (i) as a postulate regarding the real and its ultimate character (ii) consequently as an axiom for development of a ‘real metaphysics’ (ii) as an existential principle of action.

Eighth. On contradiction in this work. In continuing to reflect on doubt, ask, “Is not existence and nonexistence of the void a contradiction?” One response is as follows. For most objects, to exist and not exist is contradictory. However, for the void, the meaning of ‘to exist’ is altered (‘enlarged’), since, intuitively, if the void is removed from the void, the void remains (but for manifest objects, to remove the object does not leave the object; rather, it leaves the void). What is being said here is that whereas in general, contradictory referential concepts have no object, some do, and an example is ‘the void exists and does not exist’. That is, ‘the void exists and does not exist’ is a ‘true contradiction’. Unless the reader is familiar with and accepts it, they will find the idea of a true contradiction absurd. However, the foregoing argument has removed the absurdity in one particular case.

The idea of a true contradiction or ‘dialetheia’ is a contested issue in current philosophy and is elaborated upon in dialetheism (resources, p. 5: about contradiction). Is the notion of dialetheia more than an issue of formal logic? Systems of dialethic logic may indeed be formal. The value of a formal system here is not that it is original capture of reality, for reality is captured by intuition, reason, and formal thought in interaction. A major standalone value of formal thought regarding the real, first as a test for consistency and, second, as lending or confirming consistency.

However, consider that while the void is ‘nothing’ it is generative of ‘everything’; it is ‘nothing’, but it also prevents nothing; and in that way the void and everything (the universe) are analogous to the quantum vacuum and quantum fields (this is of course would be a minor application; and, further, it is important to see that the theory of being and the world of this document goes far beyond our cosmos and its physics). It is argued in dialetheism, that dialetheia are artifacts of descriptions that suppress certain distinctions. Still, the formal logics of dialetheia may capture aspects of (quantum) reality.

Ninth. On incompleteness in the way of being. The reflection on doubt reminds me that the positive knowledge claims made in the work might suggest that there is nothing really left to do. That is quite untrue. Even if we accept the positive as proven, what has been shown is a framework and some fill in that is ultimate in ‘depth’ or foundation. However, for limited beings it is ever open in breadth or variety of being. Though we will arrive at the ultimate, the way is ever uncertain, the final goal never ultimately secure. The adventure is not one in which sophisticated language can convince us that a feeling of final and eternal perfection will be arrived at—and especially not by a formula. The possibility of pain is never eliminated. Limitless adventure remains.