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The way
of being
Anil Mitra, Copyright 1986 – 2025
Home
Contents
Plan of development
Into the
way of being
Being
Universe
Cosmos
Laws
The void
Possibility
The
ultimate
Metaphysics
Real
metaphysics
Doubt and
Certainty
Experience
Dimensions
and paradigms of being
Method
Limitlessness
of being
Cosmology
Value
Pathways
Background
The idea
of an enlightened pathway
Design –
elements and means
An
enlightened pathway
The way of being
The way of being is shared
discovery and realization of the ultimate in and for our world and beyond.
Though
the universe as all being is commonly seen as limited, it will be shown that
it is the realization of possibility in its greatest sense.
Being
The void is the absence of being –
nothingness .
Existence and nonexistence of the
void are equivalent. Therefore, it may be said that the void exists—that
is, the void is a being. That is—
The void is the being that contains
no beings other than itself.
Since laws are beings, there are no
laws of the void
Doubt
should arise here and at various points below and is addressed in doubt and certainty.
Possibility
The ultimate
Non-emergence of a logically possible
being from the void would constitute a law of the void would constitute a law
of the void. However, since the void has no laws, all logically possible
beings must emerge from the void. That is, the universe is the
greatest possible—limitless—in the sense that it contains all logical possibility.
That is, the universe is limitless in
the sense that all possibility obtains. Particularly, the universe phases
eternally between peak being and dissolution to the void.
Further,
since a being is the void and the being, every being is unconditionally
limitless – realizes peak being (which is not contradictory, for beings
merge in the peaks). While peaking is given, there are (must be)
enlightened, effective, and share paths to the ultimate.
This
concludes a resolution of why there is something rather than nothing, i.e.,
to the problem of why there is being at all. Particularly, there must be
phases of nothingness but they do not and cannot span the universe.
This will challenge intuitions that serve well in
ordinary and scientific realms. However, from limitlessness, except that
logic obtains, laws and paradigms from a cosmos – cause, variation and
selection, mechanism, quantum behavior, and coordinate measure – have no
necessary purchase. This may summarily be written – for the universe, cosmological
realism is suspended.
The limitlessness of the universe shall
be named the fundamental principle of metaphysics (abbr. fundamental
principle, fp).
The
argument to the fundamental principle and its consequences constitute a
framework that may be called an ideal metaphysics. The ideal
metaphysics is perfectly faithful to its object and as a framework it needs
to be filled out with content that may be pragmatically faithful at best.
Later we will see that the system that results from filling out is perfect in
a value sense.
It is effective to place further conclusions later,
especially in the real metaphysics.
Metaphysics
The metaphysics
The
perfect metaphysical framework may be supplemented by what is at least
pragmatically valid in the system of (human) knowledge. The perfect
illuminates and guides the pragmatic and the pragmatic illustrates and is
instrumental toward what is revealed in the perfect. The join is not
perfectly faithful to the real. However, in terms of the value of ultimate
realization, as our best instrument toward guaranteed realization it is
perfect. The join is named the real metaphysics or just the
metaphysics.
While the
real metaphysics has application in our world via, e.g., theories of science,
how does it apply across the universe? It began in the ideal metaphysics,
with the universe as the realization of possibility. It continues with
dimensions and paradigms of being, below.
General logic
or general argument
The
paste special from argument.docm has been deleted and placed in essence
of the way - micro.docm.
Source
or study topic 1.
General doubt
Doubt
is important where we want reliability with confidence ranging from good to
certain.
It is
important that there are purposes for which we ought to have doubt about
doubt. One such purpose is that living with risk may have better outcomes
than any principle of certainty is the best option.
Doubt about the proof of limitlessness of the
universe
Doubt
ought to have arisen regarding—
A. The arguments—the basic issue being the existence and
properties of the void,
B. The conclusions—for they seem to go against science and
ordinary experience.
The
following responses arise
A. The meaning of existence is that there is an object
corresponding to a concept. We normally think that the object must be
manifest. However, even if the universe is nonmanifest, the void is there.
That is, for the void, the nonmanifest and manifest have the same meaning.
Thus either (i) the meaning of ‘to exist’ must change in moving from ordinary
objects to the void or (ii) the (deep) meaning of ‘to exist’ must be already
different from the naïve meaning in ordinary and common philosophical use.
That is, since the void is by its nature nonmanifest, it is manifest in the
sense of being there. I.e., for the void, nonexistence is equivalent to
existence.
B. The conclusions do not go against ordinary experience or
science for they lie beyond the empirical boundary and there are
contradictions only with projection of experience and science beyond the
empirical.
Yet
doubt may remain. Given that essential doubt should arise regarding existence
of the void, the following options arise—
1. To regard the existence of the void as one or both of (i)
a postulate for metaphysics – an ultimate system of understanding of the
universe and beings as ultimate (ii) an existential principle to guide living
and action.
2. To reject and abandon the system developed here.
On proof
The kind of proof
Other proofs
Experience, defined below, is implicitly but necessarily
present in talk of anything at all and especially in talk of being and
beings. The significance of experience to beings and to metaphysics is
brought out below.
Though
experience it could have been introduced earlier as motivation, it is
effective to introduce it after the metaphysics to make the development more
efficient.
In
order to make the metaphysics more effective, a pivotal concept is a system
of ‘dimensions and paradigms of
being’, which are similar to the concept of categories in metaphysics.
Using experience as part of an approach to the dimensions and paradigms (i)
is effective in making the dimensions and categories explanatory and
predictive over and above mere classification (ii) bridging the gap between
the older (Aristotelian) notion of dimensions (categories) as real and the
Kantian notion of dimensions as of our conceptual systems and (iii) bridging
the gap between and synthesizing dimensions at a high level (categories) and
low level, e.g. scientific, understanding.
Experience and being
Experience
is awareness in all its kinds and levels.
We are experiential beings—it is in experience that all
significance registers and without experience we are effectively nonexistent.
The
hypothetical being that does not register in experience is effectively
nonexistent.
It
will now be seen that the word ‘effectively’, just above, may be omitted.
Why experience
We are experiential beings
From
the metaphysics as justified by the metaphysics—
We are
experiential beings—it is in experience that all significance registers and
without experience we are nonexistent.
The
hypothetical being that does not register in experience is nonexistent.
Being
is essentially experiential.
The universe is a field of experience
From
the metaphysics, it may be seen that—
The
universe is effectively a field of experience – from limitlessness,
experientiality (i) cannot be inherently pervasive but (ii) can reach down in
primitive form to elementary objects (i.e., to elementary levels of
description) (iii) is therefore, effectively pervasive as an experiential,
i.e., subject-relation-object field.
The main structure of experience
The
structure of experience is (a) experience of – the subject or
as-if mind (b) the experience – the experiential relation (c)
the experienced – the object or as-if material.
Comments
In
what is called pure experience there are no real objects but may be potential
ones.
Matter
and mind are neither affirmed nor denied but may be regarded as ‘as-if’ ways
of speaking about experience.
Elementary distinctions
The
structure and process of experience in detail
High-level structure of the world
(universe)
Dimensions and paradigms of being
Source
or study topic 2.
Aristotle’s
Categories, Categories,
(Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
See essence of the way -
short for details of headings and content.
The concepts of dimension and paradigm
Introducing dimensions and paradigms
Dimensions
Dimensions
are similar to categories (the highest genera or kinds, just under being
understood as the most inclusive real). However, there are differences of
concept and emphasis.
The
main conceptual differences are (i) dimensions are layered at levels of
inclusivity (ii) low level dimensions may be only pragmatically of the real
(which is justified by the real metaphysics).
The difference
in emphasis is to explicitly develop dimensions to be, over and above just
metaphysical categories, to be instruments of explanation and prediction,
which leads to the concept of paradigm.
Paradigms
The
paradigms are general patterns immanent in being and beings. We have seen
that there is no general world paradigm to which being is subject. However,
understanding (prediction, explanation) regarding being is subject to logic.
Later, the concept of logic will be extended as an ultimately inclusive
paradigm.
Principles of development
How
ought the dimensions and paradigms to be decided—i.e., arrived at and
justified?
First,
there is the question of kinds. Aristotle’s approach was to ask what can be
predicated of subjects. Second, the problem of subjectivity: in writing down
distinctions that we think to be real, are they in fact real or artifacts of
our understanding or both? Aristotle thought of the categories as real but
since Kant, the idea of categories as pertaining to our conceptual system has
been emphasized (Kant thought of his categories as both real and artifact,
i.e., as real artifact, and this is what will be done here for the high level
dimensions and paradigms). Third, one would like dimensions to constitute a
system—complete and perhaps unique. Finally, the dimensions should not be
just a classification; they should be a basis for explanation and prediction
and though this is implicit in ‘being’ as not limited to any kind, it was
made explicit above by introduction of paradigms.
We
will address these issues via the real metaphysics and the concept of
experience.
Experience,
introduced and developed above, will pivotal in deciding the dimensions and
paradigms, which are real at high enough levels (while also being artifacts),
which at lower levels are artifacts of our understanding but also
pragmatically of the local structure of the universe, and which are complete
at the highest level, fairly comprehensive at our local level, but
completeness at levels between the local and the highest is not known. This
incompleteness is the result of the limitations of our being in its present
form. Further, while there is uniqueness at the level just below being
itself, at lower levels it is more appropriate to think of different systems
as suited to different objectives.
Dimensions and
paradigms – the concepts elaborated
Dimensions
As
noted, the dimensions will be layered.
(i)
The dimensions will include – begin with –
being itself, i.e., existence or existents without further qualification.
This is not traditional however being can be regarded as the kind that
transcends kinds (thus disagreeing with Aristotle’s argument that there
cannot be a highest kind but also agreeing with his point). Thus, being will
be regarded as a level 0 category or dimension. Further, since being is
experiential being, an equivalent level 0 dimension is experiential being (it
could be called a co-dimension or co-category).
(ii)
Also, as has been seen, the structure of
experience has subject – experience – object aspects, while the metaphysics
has pure and pragmatic (high and low level) aspects. This gives a principled
way to highest level distinctions—the high-level dimensions as developed and
justified below.
(iii)
The dimensions will also included low level
and pragmatic aspects of being, e.g., as known in a world or cosmos; the low level may go down at least to specific theories
from science.
Paradigms
The
paradigms are paradigms of understanding—explanatory and predictive.
Paradigms corresponding (number wise) to the dimensions above are
(i)
Since understanding regarding being is
subject to logic, logic may serve as a (the) paradigm corresponding to being
as a dimension or category – logic will be (regarded as) the level )
paradigm. This may be generalized to theories of abstract sciences,
particularly logic, mathematics, and formal metaphysics; absolute
indeterminism of emergence from the void (which is also absolute determinism).
As noted above, later, the concept of logic will be extended so that the
broader conception yields an ultimately inclusive paradigm.
(ii)
The integration of experience in structure
and process with pure and pragmatic sides. Understanding from philosophy,
art, history, and that spirituality which sees the world-universe as one, not
divided as kinds of being or planes of existence.
(iii)
Paradigms from the sciences (incremental
evolution via variation and selection, mechanism and causation, individual
and group behavior); down to specific theories of physics (relativistic,
quantum-wave, and their classical approximations), biology, psychology, and
the social sciences. The choice of western science explains suitedness to
certain objectives but non-uniqueness at this level.
The
dimensions and paradigms
In the
following, entity, relation, and process are implicit.
Pure
Paradigm and dimension
Dimension—experiential being—subsumes subject – experiential
relation – object.
General
paradigm—as realization of possibility
under logic (as explained in possibility).
Process
Process—integration of dimensions, ultimate with immediate, risk
with security – doubt with confidence – stirring with contentment
Path paradigms
An
inclusive path paradigm is yoga – uniting of being – understood
in a broad sense, in process, inclusive of philosophical (and scientific) and
technological categories. Meditation as dual subject-object exploration of
experiential space.
Yoga
may be supplemented for western readers by secular humanism and for readers
from Abrahamic traditions by mysticism in
action.
Pragmatic
Pragmatic
dimensions are categorized (i) according
to the above aspects of experience (ii) and then, according to divisions of
human knowledge and experience (pure or abstracted aspects included).
Subject
Simple structure of mind
The
subject side has reason (perception and thought via intention to
fact and inference), emotion (with feeling, and enjoyment, especially
pleasure and pain), value (e.g., ethics and aesthetics, which results from
reason, emotion, and selection), and will to action (the integration of the
subject aspect is in structure and process of organisms in interaction with
their environment).
Meditation and metaphysics
Exploration
of and with mind – metaphysics
(knowledge, its development, and paradigms) and meditation (yoga is implicit,
for though yoga transcends the subject-in-a-limited-sense, in reality the
subject is not separated from the object).
Paradigms
Paradigms are similar to those of the object side.
Object
A western emphasis emphasizes
disciplines and paradigms from philosophy
and the science (with justification from the metaphysics).
Metaphysics and abstract sciences
Metaphysics
Metaphysics as science (with epistemology, ethics, and logic), i.e.,
philosophy as general knowledge.
Abstract sciences
Abstract
sciences – symbolic systems, linguistics, ideal metaphysics as an
abstract science, formal logic, mathematics, computer science.
Paradigms for metaphysics
General
logic
Concrete sciences
The sciences
The
sciences – physical, life, social, and
psychological; and their application including exploration of space, time,
and the universe.
The social sciences and technology
Some
detail on the social sciences and technology is relevant, especially to exploration of the universe
from the as-if material side – sociology (individual and group, one
and all, few and many), politics, economics, law, technology, exploration,
resource location and extraction, and culture.
Culture is conceived as knowledge development and transmission
and includes tradition, art, religion, and entertainment.
Paradigms from the concrete sciences
Paradigms include indeterminist (random) process; formation by
incremental variation and selection to form (e.g., void to transients to
structures to cosmoses and particles to molecules to replicators to species
to species); causation and mechanism – with and without probabilistic
process; groups – formation and process.
What
is the role of these paradigms? Logic in its pure form allows worlds and
beings that we would normally think of as absurd; the paradigms enable
estimation of probabilities or likelihood.
Summary
Focus – self, community, world, ultimate.
Paradigms – metaphysics, science, technology.
Subject-object relations
Immersive
approaches to the object aspects—e.g., economics as study of value;
spirituality as creation of value which is limitless but for the cost in risk
and pain.
General logic as paradigm
General
logic or general argument is the paradigm of being.
Synthesis
Dimension—experiential being.
Theory—real metaphysics.
Paradigm—general logic.
Pathways
For a
beginning, see essence
of the way - micro.
Source
or study topic 3.
Words yoga, enlightened.
Source
or study topic 4.
Received ways.
The
essentials so far for realization are (i) the universe and its identity are
limitless in extension, duration, variety, peak, and dissolution (ii) all
beings merge in the peaks—birth and death are real but not absolute and their
seeming absolute reality is an artifact of limits of our present form but not
of our ultimate form (and even in this form, we can conceive and argue for
non-absoluteness0 (iii) there are intelligent and effective pathways from our
world and cosmos to the ultimate which are a best balance the elements of experience—especially
cognition, emotion with pleasure and pain, will, and action—in the process
(iv) shared negotiation of pathways beginning in our world are a moral
imperative which do not ignore but require attention to the quality of life
in the world.
Preliminary – ultimates, recurrence, and
issues
Eternal
recurrence of ultimates is given. Issues are (i) (dual) focus on this
world and the ultimate (ii) effective pathways with shared and intelligent negotiation
based in emerging knowledge (with suggestions from received ways – secular
and transsecular (iii) full use of dimensions of being and experience,
especially (iv) the issue and use of pleasure and pain.
The idea
An enlightened pathway is shared
and intelligent discovery and realization of the ultimate in, for, and from
this world.
Enlightened
pathways emphasize healthy living (i) a balance of aspects of experience and
of dimensions of being (ii) pleasure in being in the world and on a path, and
(iii) and does not seek to avoid all pain – it cannot – but addresses pain
via aspects of healthy living, which include right attitude, speech, and
action for and toward all being.
Though
ideal perfections of traditions are acknowledged, the real perfection of the
way emphasizes process and a balance of the dimensions of experience,
especially cognition, emotion, will, and action.
In the
following, entity, relation, and process are implicit.
Pure
Paradigm and dimension
Dimension—experiential being—subsumes subject – experiential
relation – object.
General
paradigm—as realization of possibility
under logic (as explained in possibility).
Process
Process—integration of dimensions, ultimate with immediate, risk
with security – doubt with confidence – stirring with contentment
Path paradigms
An
inclusive path paradigm is yoga – uniting of being – understood
in a broad sense, in process, inclusive of philosophical (and scientific) and
technological categories. Meditation as dual subject-object exploration of
experiential space.
Yoga
may be supplemented for western readers by secular humanism and for readers
from Abrahamic traditions by mysticism in
action.
Pragmatic
Pragmatic
dimensions are categorized (i) according
to the above aspects of experience (ii) and then, according to divisions of
human knowledge and experience (pure or abstracted aspects included).
Subject
Simple structure of mind
Error! Not a valid link.
Meditation and metaphysics
Exploration
of and with mind – metaphysics
(knowledge, its development, and paradigms) and meditation (yoga is implicit,
for though yoga transcends the subject-in-a-limited-sense, in reality the
subject is not separated from the object).
Paradigms
Paradigms are similar to those of the object side.
Object
A western emphasis emphasizes disciplines and paradigms
from philosophy and the science (with justification from the metaphysics).
Metaphysics and abstract sciences
Metaphysics
Metaphysics as science (with epistemology, ethics, and logic), i.e.,
philosophy as general knowledge.
Abstract sciences
Abstract
sciences – symbolic systems, linguistics, ideal metaphysics as an
abstract science, formal logic, mathematics, computer science.
Paradigms for metaphysics
General
logic
Concrete sciences
The sciences
The
sciences – physical, life,
social, and psychological; and their application including exploration of
space, time, and the universe.
The social sciences and technology
Some
detail on the social sciences and technology is relevant, especially to exploration of the universe
from the as-if material side – sociology (individual and group, one
and all, few and many), politics, economics, law, technology, exploration,
resource location and extraction, and culture.
Culture is conceived as knowledge development and transmission
and includes tradition, art, religion, and entertainment.
Paradigms from the concrete sciences
Paradigms include indeterminist (random) process; formation by
incremental variation and selection to form (e.g., void to transients to
structures to cosmoses and particles to molecules to replicators to species
to species); causation and mechanism – with and without probabilistic
process; groups – formation and process.
What
is the role of these paradigms? Logic in its pure form allows worlds and
beings that we would normally think of as absurd; the paradigms enable
estimation of probabilities or likelihood.
Summary
Focus – self, community, world, ultimate.
Paradigms – metaphysics, science, technology.
Subject-object relations
Immersive
approaches to the object aspects—e.g., economics as study of value;
spirituality as creation of value which is limitless but for the cost in risk
and pain.
General logic as paradigm
General
logic or general argument is the paradigm of being.
Synthesis
Dimension—experiential being.
Theory—real metaphysics.
Paradigm—general logic.
In culture, tradition, and religion
Religion
We do
not present received religion here but note that readers may supplement the
narrative with their preferred tradition. Received ways and masters are informative but not
merely followed (religion, philosophy
of, …and science), e.g., Christian
mysticism, the four truths and the
eightfold way of Buddhism.
What is religion?
Meta-questions
How
can we best conceive religion? Is it via empirical study, finding common
elements and differences among what are called the religions, and (i) in a
simple or naïve empirical approach, leaving it at that or (ii) in a rational
approach superposed on the empirical, analyzing the empirical results for
essence?
But
that has deficiencies, (i) the pre-judgment in appealing to institutions
named religion without a concept of religion (ii) the idea that an ideal can
be extracted even from the ‘best’ institutions of a limited species (we are a
low rung on the hierarchy of experiential being)?
How
can we escape these apparently inescapable limits? We need an ultimate
picture of the world to frame the question and its answering. However, it is
commonly thought that we have no such picture and on this view we will
forever flounder without any finality, no matter how sophisticated our
analysis (except that we may by chance hit upon finality). But we now know
that that common thought regarding our limits is only partially
correct—though the pragmatic side of the real metaphysics is limited relative
to purist conceptions of knowledge, the pure side is not so limited – is
ultimate. We might supplement this knowledge by asking “How would an ultimate
being conceive religion?” (a similar approach may be used for metaphysics
itself and indeed is implicit in the way of being).
What religion is
Sometimes
its estimation is limited by the limits of self evaluation and the sometimes
conflict of science and religion.
The
real metaphysics suggests the following.
What
is the name of the activity of entire being in search of all being? We
identify it as the essence of spirituality and religion in their views and
shared practice. They are framed by the real metaphysics.
On the use of religion
We may
use the religions for suggestion but not as dogma or as limiting.
See The
Varieties of Religious Experience.
As far
as unjustified belief or disbelief are religious, most people who have a
position on the truth of dogmatic religion are religious.
The
path of the way is open to use of religion though not to its dogmatic
insistence. We recognize two approaches in religion—one that emphasizes a
relationship with a powerful divine element which may symbolically energize a
positive life and another that emphasizes correct thought, speech, and action
on the way to realization which may be mundane or universal.
The place of ways from tradition
The
mix of (i) the ideal and the struggle vs perfection and (ii) negotiation vs
following are two differences between the path described here and common
received ways. As the worldview of the present system is ultimate, the paths
here frame received pathways. The present system gives preference to those
received pathways that see limited being as on the way to the ultimate rather
than the ultimate as a remote reward. Still, all systems are recognized for
symbolic and community value.
Secular humanism
Secular
humanism is a worldview and attitude that rejects dogma, supernaturalism, and
superstition but employs reason, logic, secular ethics, as the basis of knowledge,
morality, decisions.
It may
be naturalistic or neutral to the nature of being. If naturalistic, its
spirituality would be symbolic. If neutral, its spirituality, if more than
symbolic, would see the world and what lies beyond as belonging to one rather
than multiple realms.
Other
Enlightenment
Eternal
recurrence of ultimates is given. An enlightened pathway (i) gives weight to
all beings, their worlds, and beyond (ii) is shared, effective, and
intelligently negotiated—received ways and teachers are useful but not seen
as absolute (iii) is based in best knowledge available—framed by the universe
as realization of most inclusive possibility (iv) recognizes and addresses
all elements of experience (the structure
of experience in detail) and their integration and the issue of
enjoyment (v) particularly, pleasure in the path is emphasized and pain is
not shunned but addressed by healthy living.
On intelligence*
In
considering intelligence, the focus is on cultivating it rather than on
native intelligence (it naturally incorporates such notions as conceptual,
spatial, linguistic, emotional, and charismatic intelligence).
Intelligence
is optimum use of elements of experience elements of experience (the structure of experience in detail)
and emphasizes negotiation within and for the world.
Healthy living
Healthy
living addresses
1. Balance of the aspects of experience and dimensions of
being—natural, mental, communal, and spiritual aspects of being, and their
integration in process (regarding ‘spirit’, as observed earlier, “an approach
from being promotes the view that there is but one realm and what is called
spirituality consists in seeing its entirety”),
2. Pleasure and pain by neither excessive seeking nor
avoiding but emphasis on finding pleasure in being on a path and pain by (a)
the able giving aid to the less able or fortunate (b) where indicated, the
better therapies of the time (c) avoiding illusions of idea perfection but seeking a pragmatic balance of emotion, pleasure and
pain, perception and reason, will, and action on shared paths—which, as far
as reasonable, seeks process through and not around pain
A summation
Enlightenment pertains to being on aware
and shared pathways to the ultimate in, for, and from a world; in received
religion, enlightenment is often thought to be ideal perfection; however,
real perfection as emerged here sees it as a balance of the ideal and the
work – even struggle – of being on a path.
Pathway
There
are two complementary and interwoven programs
1. Personal and everyday,
2. Global and long-term (merging with universal and
eternal).
Program elements
Personal – beings
Defined
above – see from
the dimensions and paradigms.
Universal – being
Defined
above – see from
the dimensions and paradigms.
World
(what are the players), Home (America)
Timelining the universal elements.
How
they are incorporated in the daily program.
Universal program
Timelining
the global – long range through universal elements – a range of time frames
The
program below is an amalgam of (i) the goals and elements of my life (ii)
general options for planning focus of an individual-as-individual-as-communal-and-for-discovery-and-realization
as a flexible routine.
Readers may construct their own program from the program below.
It is designed to be
adaptable to life situations, interest, being at home vs away, and choice of
activities for individuals and societies. Kinds of activity have a basis in
the dimensions
of being as coded in universal.pdf in the way of
being. In the template, the
dimension or other important aspect is underlined. Related and
secondary items are in separate paragraphs or lines without underlining.
Being in the world
Pure being as if timeless and
placeless—yoga, meditation, immersion, ideas to action.
Pure being here and now… being as if timeless and without
restriction to place in the present—means: everyday (everyday template)
process is bridges the immediate-ultimate.
Sangha or community—a spiritual
home and sharing community (home and community are ground to truth which
gives back to normative truth in Sangha).
Retreat for vision quest and
experience of Being. Education (general, paradigm, ways of life), retreat to
the real, renewal, development-reemphasis of paradigm.
Ideas—foundation and development of the way
Relation—knowing as relation
to the world, reason, art; acting—effective creation of the real.
Ideas and experience are the
first and final place of being, significance, and action; and are
instrumental in realization.
Means—reason, imagination,
meditation and yoga, and the real metaphysics.
Becoming—immersive and instrumental
Nature
Nature as catalyst to the real.
Animal being and devolution—observation, situational empathy, defocus, reason.
Nature, psyche, and their
interactions; immersion in nature as a place of being and catalyst to the real.
Effect on culture and understanding of the universal.
Sources—nature
as ground for the real and renewal—with
focus on nature as gateway. Beyul,
quest for the real, as in Tibetan
Buddhism.
Explanation
and details. Nature is inspiration as
essential place of and portal to Being, catalyst to meditation and ideas.
Life in nature exemplifies being (a useful reflection is—on the Being
of land, plants, and animals and to know that Being is illuminative of self
and attained not just by meditation but also in immersion, for which one
beginning is defocus on experience of experience and focus on earth, sky,
trail, and plant and animal worlds). Meditation (yoga) is an intrinsic way to centered and transformative
attitude in this world and shedding limitations (bondage) of self and growing
into the universal.
Society
Society—civilization as
vehicle and path to the real. Transformation via psyche—by immersion
in social groups as place of being and catalyst to the real.
Civilization and society as
vehicle and path to the real (culture and its dimensions; instrumental and
immersive politics and economics). Transformation of individuals via
psyche—by travel and immersion in social groups, informal and institutional
or formal, as place of being and catalyst to the real. Informal—self,
family, community, and world.
Institutional aspects—(i)
accessing the range of social and cultural institutions of society (from
earlier: political, economic, technological, military, academic or research
and education, artistic and religious) (ii) building specific institutions
for realization and community. One beginning of political immersion is
seeing politics not as institutionalized, but as individual and common
endeavor toward individual and common goals, particularly with defocus on
state and focus on individual action and effective levels of individual and
group action.
Sources—the system
of human knowledge—is a guide to secular and
transsecular elements of local through global action. Meditation is (self)
guide to shedding bonds of self and to action. For instrumental
transformation of society see political
and cultural economics.
Details—immersion. The individual does not stand outside the
world as just objective observer and commentator. The individual as
experiential-relational being is key. Engagement may begin at any point in a
cycle of self and social awareness > speaking one’s truth and action >
group action and Sangha > re-form (self, other, world). Self and world
awareness are essential to the cycle and an effective place to begin—
Details—attitude. Awareness of self and limitation—and to
openly aim at the highest in this life and beyond (and recognition of poverty
of exclusively secular and exclusively dogmatic). Cultivation of attitude in
meditation-yoga-practice.
Details—problems, challenges, and opportunities of the world.
A crucial problem is that of the nature of the world. The real metaphysics is
true and illuminating. However, since there are so many views, many held
passionately, there will be natural resistance. One default that may be found
acceptable is a limited secular view. This, however, presents a
paradox—because world views are in conflict, it promotes the least of them.
A
resolution is to hold to the real
metaphysics but speak it where effective; this is perhaps the minimal
resolution consistent with truth. Thus, the truth may illuminate the world of
problem and opportunity. Another problem is to identify the problems and
opportunities.
Some
common approaches identify only the
material problems such as war, hunger and so on). Such approaches are limited
(a) in identifying only material problems, but not the entire range of
challenges and opportunities, material and other (b) in not identifying the world
political-economy as key to resolution of the issues and therefore a
problem-opportunity in itself.
Approaches
to political-economy are (i) the way politics
and economics are done (ii) the science and practice of politics and
economics (iii) related philosophy, not ideological per se, that identifies
the nature or kind of thing (referent) that politics-economics is (iv)
immersion via reflection, meditation, and action in politics-economics by the
individual.
Sources
for problems etc—see challenges
and opportunities in journey
in being.
Artifact
Artifact—civilizing the
universe (especially technology as enhancing being in the universe). Universe
as peak consciousness via spread of sapient being with agency.
Artifact has potential as
sapient being, reservoir of our being, and auxiliary in our search for intrinsic
and instrumental being (e.g., the spread of ideas and civilization).
Details—artifactual being as realized being and as adjunct (science and
technology of advanced civilization on the way to the ultimate; use of
computation and networking in realization—as adjunct and as independent
identity). Address of pain via modern medicine and therapy, supplemented by
what is good in the traditions, is important to individuals and realization
by civilization—either in part or in whole.
Sources—see system of
human knowledge, for artifactual being.
Universal
Universal, incompletely known.
The common way from self to Being (Atman to Brahman), via the block universe
and extended secular worlds consistent with experience of and in the world.
The path to Being—where secular
and transsecular paradigms visualize completeness or impossibility of
completeness, there is neither completeness nor impossibility. This action is
on the way to the ultimate.
Details—transformation aimed at
the universal deploys catalysts and ways and their conceptual and
experimental development under the real metaphysics, for the transformation
of being-civilization. The use of the catalysts and ways is in everyday
process, renewal, knowledge, and technology.
Sources—see dynamics,
catalysts and catalytic states, and ways
and catalytic states.
Being in the universe
Universal—realizing Peak Being
(Brahman) in the present.
Said
to be rarely achieved in ‘this life’ which is a beginning that is continued
beyond death.
Outcome
of previous items, being in the world, ideas, and becoming—immersive and
instrumental.
The
means are in the previous dimensions, the everyday templates above, and are
further open to discovery.
The open life may be chosen
(or natural to the person) at any phase of life, but may be most natural to
the phases of retirement and late retirement through death
Planning – universal
Review
phases of life, reflect on possible emphases for life and the phases.
Assess
current
phase and select activities of focus.
Review
and plan daily, short, and long term aims and possible activities.
Include
timeframe
to execute and then review, assess, renew, and alter plans.
Build
these elements into everyday planning.
Everyday program
Planning
for everyday is built into the program.
Defining the program
How
the universal program is incorporated into the every day program
Periodic
and as needed brief plan with inspiration.
The
morning and the day items are daily and may be set up in a daily routine.
The
path is a life endeavor and may be set up as a program for periods from a
week through life, death, and beyond.
Morning
Awaken
early – affirmation of being, dedication to realization, meditation on
sustaining an attitude of achievement and equilibrium with others through
distraction and pain, review priorities for the day through long-term, and
how and when to die.
Recognition
of ground issues—safety, security, focus on the way, health issues
(medications, diet, mental and physical exercise, sleep), and discipline.
Rise
before the sun.
Morning
tasks—medications and treatments, open files to edit, walk – stretch –
vitamins – breakfast – fluids, set times and reminders.
Affirmation*
“Every
being is all being.
The
void, the universe, and all beings are one.
Tat tvam asi—
‘Thou art that’ “.
Dedication*
The
dedication is an adaptation of the third step prayer of twelve-step programs.
Text to the right is explanation, i.e., not said.
“We dedicate our lives to
(the way of) being,
To
living in the immediate and ultimate as one.
What does this mean?
How do we know it is true and good?
How are we to live it?
Why being?
These questions are now addressed.
To its
shared discovery and realization,
Under
the pure
and pragmatic dimensions of experiential being,
In
form and formation as the world,
On
the way to the transparently limitless ultimate.
This derived from the metaphysics—
Being--from neutrality and power.
The world is experiential and beings are its centers.
The way is healthy living
in this world on the way…
Especially emphasizing pleasure found in the path, and
Address of pain via sharing, therapy, balance with
process.
To
shedding the
bonds of limited self,
So
that the path
is flow, relative to force.
The bonds are overcome in process,
In the ways above, especially,
Pleasure and pain through process.
To
realizing the
ultimate in this life and beyond.
The process version of the transcendent
Living in the immediate and ultimate as one.”
Set attitude*
Set
attitude for the day+—limitlessness,
dedication and affirmation, relationships.
Reset attitude if in doubt, insecurity, distress, or pain—meditate – accept, reflect, breathe;
exercise (hatha yoga) in nature.
The way of being – path
Foundation and development
Developing
and foundation for the way—ideas, experience, reflection, study, cowriting
and editing, publishing, and presenting.
Realization—living the way
Living
the way (one’s way)—ideas, attention to self – meditative and physical,
immersion in nature and the real, attention to community – social action (see
elements of being for aspects),
attention to spiritual being, relations and networking, acting roles.
Particularly
included are (a) meditation, calming, analytic, and visionary (including an
attempt to visualize and ways to actualize panbeing) (b) yogic or healthy
living directed at individual, family, work, and community – local to global
and immediate in time to ultimate.
Realization—the world—detail
Material—finance, place to live, place to retreat.
Discipline—balance moving forward with waiting for aware readiness,
flexible routine, minimize diversion.
Relationships—attention to others, shared attention to all activities
of mutual need and interest.
Empowerment—self (attitude, meditation), engage with the world,
consultation on needs.
School—school is a focus, yet energy of youth through early
retirement may make it possible to include other activities.
Work—see comments in the previous item.
Retirement—an opportunity to focus on relationships with persons,
nature, society, and the universe.
Late
retirement through death—continuation of
retirement activities at a level that matches lesser capacity balanced with
an awareness of the magic of being, awareness and acceptance of death as real
but not necessarily as absolute (for those—but not only those—who regard
death as absolute, an existential attitude may be adopted).
Adaptability—adapting and learning how to adapt to changing
circumstance of self and world, e.g., in relationships, school to work to
retirement to late retirement through death, and the losses and gains
involved.
Note—of course existential and learning-from attitudes to
death are appropriate at all aware phases of life.
Directed realization—detail
The
day—physical yoga; meditation –
emptying; mindful – on awareness, living, the real, realization.
Immersion—in the world in itself and as
transformative—home – nature (beyul), societies with
culture (languages, cultures for learning, impact on identity), meditation
as portals to the universal; and away – the home items with travel, journey,
exploration – solo and shared.
Instrumental—science, technology (AI), politics, economics, communal spirituality as
universal portals
Remainder of the day
Pressing and urgent issues
Pressing
and urgent action—being present to the real – emptiness now, security,
safety, money (savings, conservation, income), place, and pushing the way.
Tasks
Daily
and weekly tasks, lunch, review of plans and planning, preparation and
planning for travel and immersion.
Exercise
Exercise—aerobic,
stretching, light weights; excursions and photography.
Evening
Evening
rest and review, preparation for the next day, relaxation, social activities,
networking; sleep early.
Summary
path programs—(i) morning routine and tasks (ii) the way – foundation
and transformation, with relationships and sharing (iii) pressing and urgent agenda
– emptiness now, security, safety, push and execute the way of being at
personal and world levels (iii) tasks and lunch (iv) exercise (v) pm routine
(vi) sleep early.
Resources
printables
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