The Way of Being
An extended outline for The Way of Being
Anil Mitra, Copyright © (this document) – February 2024 –
November 14, 2024
Anil Mitra, Copyright © (the way of being and precursors) September 1986 –
November 14, 2024

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Contents
The study topics include topics, persons, sources, and ‘to do’ items

Chapter 1.       This version

1.1              Net plan for the version

1.1.1             Main

1.1.2             Immediate

1.2              Focus and minimality

1.2.1             Center – out presentation

1.2.2             Minimality and detail

1.3              Concept template

1.4              System of concepts

1.4.1             Overview – representation and reality

1.4.2             Experience

1.4.3             Being

1.4.4             Beings

1.4.5             Possibility

1.4.6             Limitlessness and metaphysics

1.4.7             Cosmology (metaphysics continued)

1.4.8             System of knowledge

1.4.9             Realization

 

The Way of Being

 

Chapter 1.   This version

1.1     Net plan for the version

1.1.1  Main

Will

1.    Replace outline of the way.html., whose resources, study topics, sources… are to be minimally imported

2.    Have a minimal presentation embedded in elaborate detail (the latter will include formal, explanatory, historical and other elements – see concept template).

3.    Be concept driven (what this means), with dynamically revisable concept ordering.

4.    Have a concept template (including alternative terms, group, individual, me, enlightenment—do these terms need placement?

5.    Absorb material from concepts - detail.html, perhaps as part of the previous item.

6.    Have the parallel topics be part of the main development, but fully developed only in a parallel topics part.

7.    Have a ‘center – out’ / ‘top – down’ presentation.

8.    Import things to do and import—sources, find sources, study topics, comments, etc—after concept driven outline, dynamic reorganization, and setting up a hierarchical database of concepts and alternat terms.

1.1.2  Immediate

1.    Summary - main concepts; concept reordering and re-hierarchizing and database

2.    Concepts: template them, perhaps in a separate document

3.    More on realization

4.    More 'to do' in net plan—done in part.

1.2     Focus and minimality

1.2.1  Center – out presentation

At the core of the center – out presentation is a worldview of the immediate and the ultimate as one with pathways of enlightenment for living with attention to material and ultimate aspects of individuals, societies, and the world.

1.2.2  Minimality and detail

An aim of the narrative is to achieve minimality with elaborate detail.

Minimality is achieved by equating center – out and top – down presentation.

Detail is achieved by building up the system of concepts around the center – out and by adding to the concept system.

The minimal versions are generated by using MS Word styles, which enables capture in tables of contents at a range of levels of detail.

1.3     Concept template

Nature, definition, and significance, of the concept or system of concepts.

Alternate terms and reasons for the choice.

Relation to received meanings and reasons for differences.

Place in the hierarchical structure of the concepts.

Database.

1.4     System of concepts

See concepts - detail.docm (html).

1.4.1  Overview – representation and reality

high-level:

universe = self (individual—you, I, me, they, to universal self)

process:

universe > self > nothingness > universe > self > nothingness …

Comment 1.  It is essential to explain what this means and what its basis is. The basis is the real metaphysics of limitlessness which (i) agrees with our experiential sense of the real in its own domain but (ii) allows and requires limitlessness for the universe. This means that though our sense of finitude and separate identity is ‘real’ within our cosmos, we merge with ultimate universal identity above time and approximations thereof over sufficiently large times. The sign ‘=’ means equivalence and ‘>’ is transforms to or merges with.

1.4.2  Experience

experience (experience-of or mind-like, the experienced or object-like or matter-like, relation; sensation, sentience, feeling, perception, thought, self-knowledge, agency), value, concept (referential form – related to intentionality, referential concept), definition (real, linguistic / axiomatic), object, meaning, abstraction, knowledge (what – adequacy of representation – pure and pragmatic, for the present purpose; how, criteria), method, reason

Comment 2.  abstraction does not necessarily de-concretize the referent or result in an abstract object (more on this later).

Comment 3.  in contrast to linguistic definitions, in real definitions one locates things or kinds in the world, find words to specify them, show the specification is valid, and name them; one approach to locating an object and showing validity is abstraction.

1.4.3  Being

a being (plural: beings), being (existence), metaphysics, foundation (substance, infinitism, regress, self – superficial vs deep / trivial vs powerful, modal – e.g., necessity), grounding (constitutive determination or explanation)

Comment 4.  it should be shown that knowledge—content and method—is immanent in being, perfectly at the ideal (abstracted) level and pragmatically at the concrete level; ideally, the demonstration or ‘showing’ shall be immanent in the concepts

1.4.4  Beings

experiential, (experiential) hierarchy (primitive; societies, world; experiential – human / animal – god / God / peak / greatest / ultimate), dimensions of being (categories), real, universe, cosmos, law (natural), the void

1.4.5  Possibility

possibility (impossibility), coherent possibility, real possibility, natural possibility, possible being, contingent being, necessary being (relative, logical / absolute)

1.4.6  Limitlessness and metaphysics

existence (extended to the void), dialetheia, limitlessness of the universe (fundamental principle of metaphysics), ideal metaphysics, real metaphysics, doubt (knowing-doubt)

1.4.7  Cosmology (metaphysics continued)

cosmology, general cosmology, concrete objects, abstract objects, value (ethical, aesthetic, significant – in the sense of the ‘meaning of life’), cosmology of form and formation (paradigmatic principle, sameness, difference, identity, extension-displacement-space – relation-being – duration-change-time, space-being-time, properties), experiential cosmology (hierarchy, peak, god, gods), physical cosmology, pure dimension of being, pragmatic dimension of being

Comment 5.  on concrete and abstract objects—a received view is that while concrete objects are ones that we sense, take part in causation, and are located in space and time, the status of abstract objects, while they exist, is in question; yet one view is that they are conceived, rather than perceived; here, abstract and concrete objects have the same kind of existential status, that both partake of abstraction and concretion, but the more abstract objects have aspects of existence filtered out in abstraction—thus objects can be more and less abstract; there is, however, a difference in how we treat the more abstract objects such as number (for example); since number has had causation and spatiotemporality filtered out they are not sensed and are therefore (today) usually defined in abstract terms, i.e., by specifying undefined terms, definitions, axioms, and rules of inference; which means that their existence and nature is not guaranteed and must be investigated, e.g., by studying the system as well as systems of inference as objects – and by developing formal methods of such study

1.4.8  System of knowledge

Comment 6.  Knowledge was discussed in experience, above; the aim here is to discuss the extent of knowledge, the disciplines, their nature, their relations, how they constitute a system; and how all that informs the individual disciplines

disciplines, over-discipline, general logic (with art), system

1.4.9  Realization

1.4.9.1                Pathways

pathways (lifeways), pure and pragmatic, mind and object aspects of experience; (human) being, peak being (god, gods, ultimates, all-possible-being-as-one)

1.4.9.2                Pleasure and pain

pleasure, pain, enlightenment (contentment, mutual vs external salvation; intelligent, shared negotiation; therapy; healthy living – physical, mental, communal, and spiritual); process through rather than around pleasure and pain)

1.4.9.3                Program

program (everyday, universal), dedication, affirmation, commitment with acceptance of pleasure and pain