The Way of Being
Path templates

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© Anil Mitra, 1986 – 2025

Contents

Introduction and background

Background

On pathways

Enlightened ways

A balance of emotion, reason, sharing, and action

Pleasure and pain

Effective pathways

About religion

The place of ways from tradition

Path programs

Overview of the templates

Resources

Everyday template

First things – on waking before the sun

Affirmation

Dedication

Set attitude

Rise before the sun

Activities for the way of being

Foundation and development of the way

Ground

Pressing and urgent issues

Directed realization

Other activities – also elements of realization

Tasks

Exercise

Evening

Planning – everyday

Sleep early

Universal template

Being in the world

Ideas—foundation and development of the way

Becoming—immersive and instrumental

Being in the universe

Planning – universal

Endnotes

The Way of Being
Path templates

Introduction and background

This work presents path templates for realization according to the way of being as in the short way of being.html, the long little manual.html, and the in process outline of the way-new.html.

The templates are samples and may be seen as templates for templates, which readers may adapt to their situations.

Background

The way of being is background. The essentials are that the universe is the realization of the greatest kind of possibility and therefore has identity and is limitless in extension, duration, peak and dissolution; all beings inherit this limitlessness and merge in the peaks; and – there are efficient and intelligent pathways to the ultimate.

On pathways

The following is paste special from outline of the way-new.docm and should be edited at the source.

Enlightened ways

The aim of an enlightened, healthy, or effective lifeway or pathway is effective realization of the ultimate, beginning with its best form in this world (i.e., the world of the seeking beings).

That is, there is dual focus on quality of life in our world and the ultimate. The effective path recognizes that experiential human being is discrete over ‘ordinary time’ (e.g., lives) but ultimate – peak being – over long enough times or at a level of description above time; that is, birth and death are real but not absolute—locally but not absolutely real.

In this world the individual experience—perception, thought, feeling, will, and action—is the focus of ends – political, economic, moral and other (positively because it is where all significance lies and negatively by elimination of inanimate / non-feeling objects). Groups and institutions are important, but their importance derives from the significance of individual experience. In the universe at large, experience itself is the focus and generator of all ends (and, thus, ‘inanimate objects’ are included because, when primitive experience is taken into consideration, they are not essentially non-experiential).

A healthy pathway (physical, mental, communal, and spiritual) attends to needs and effective action individual, society, and world, in meditative, material, and immersive aspects of the dimensions on a path to the ultimate. A healthy life emphasizes the needs of the individual and society in this world and on the way to the ultimate.

A balance of emotion, reason, sharing, and action

Enlightenment seeks balance and integration of emotion, reason (fact, inference), and action in interest (service) of self, other, community, world, and approach to peak being.

An enlightened path (i) seeks intelligent and shared negotiation (not just following received ways or masters) (ii) results in a replica – typically incomplete – of the ultimate in the being – body and mind – of the individual in ‘this’ life and rarely in the ultimate itself (iii) but is on the way to the ultimate and while realization is given, the enlightened path is efficient in realization of the ultimate as we cross from life to life, from form to form, amid the myriad of cosmoses, while dwelling in nothingness in between.

Pleasure and pain

Pleasure and pain (physical pain, doubt, anxiety) are unavoidable. The issues of pleasure and pain are addressed (i) in that pleasure for its own sake need not be avoided, but paths emphasize pleasure in being on the way—on the path (ii) by shared negotiation of pathways (in which leaders may arise but are not seen as absolute in truth) (iii) with therapy – the best therapy of the time (iv) by the able and fortunate giving aid to the less able or fortunate (v) by attention without obsession to healthy living – physical, mental, communal, and spiritual (vi) and above all that local enlightenment which avoids illusions of ideal perfection but seeks a pragmatic balance of emotion (particularly pleasure and pain), reason, and action on shared paths—i.e., as far as reasonable, seeks process through and not around pain.

Effective pathways

Effective pathways address living in the immediate world on the way to the ultimate—they address the everyday and the universal, (and, as elaborated in the document outline of the way-new.docm), dimensions of being (i) at a high level the pure subject and object aspects of experience (ii) in the world, the pragmatic. 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.

Thus, enlightenment pertains to being in this world for the ultimate is not in need of enlightenment; in received religion, enlightenment is often thought to be a kind of ideal perfection; however, the real perfection emerged here sees it as a good to best mix of an idealized notion of perfection and the work – even struggle – of being on a path.

About religion

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.

Path programs

The planning focus of an individual-as-individual-as-communal-and-for-discovery-and-realization is a flexible routine selected from options—(i) 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 and how and when to die; (ii) recognition of ground issues—safety, security, focus on the way, health issues (medications, diet, mental and physical exercise, sleep), and discipline; (iii) morning tasks—medications and treatments, open files to edit, walk – stretch – vitamins – breakfast – fluids, set times and reminders; (iv) developing and foundation for the way—ideas, experience, reflection, study, cowriting and editing, publishing, and presenting; (v) living the way (one’s way)—ideas, attention to self – meditative and physical, immersion in nature and the real, attention to community – social action (political-economic, of laws, technological, and cultural—knowledge development and transmission, tradition, art, religion), attention to spiritual being, relations and networking, acting roles; (vi) pressing and urgent action—being present to the real – emptiness now, security, safety, money, place, and pushing the way; (vii) daily and weekly tasks, lunch, review of plans and planning, preparation and planning for travel and immersion; (viii) exercise—aerobic, stretching, light weights; excursions and photography; (ix) evening rest and review, preparation for the next day, relaxation, social activities, networking; sleep early.

Summary—(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 twb (iii) tasks and lunch (iv) exercise (v) pm routine (vi) sleep early.

Overview of the templates

There are two complementary templates in this document—everyday and universal.

Both attend to the immediate and the ultimate, the individual and the universal.

Their foci are—

The everyday template focuses on the immediate, the individual, and the communal.

The universal template focuses on the ultimate, the communal, shared action, and peak being or Brahman.

Resources

There are three downloadable, editable, and printable Microsoft Word 365 templates—every day - home.docm, every day - away.docm, universal.docm.

There are also pdf versions—every day - home.pdf, every day - away.pdf, universal.pdf. The pdf versions were created and may be edited with Word 365 – some formatting may be needed.

The templates have further information in footnotes.

Everyday template

The template is designed to be adaptable to life situations, interest, being at home vs away, and choice of activities.

It is a template of templates – a menu (i) of possibilities for a range of persons and situations (ii) options for activities.

First things – on waking before the sun

Affirmation

“Every being is all being.

The void, the universe, and all beings are one.

Tat tvam asi—

‘Thou art that’ “.

Dedication

“We dedicate our lives to (the way of) being,

To living in the immediate and ultimate as one.

To its shared discovery and realization,

Under the pure and pragmatic dimensions of being.

To shedding the bonds of limited self,

So that the path is flow, relative to force.

To realizing the ultimate in this life and beyond.”

Review the day, life, path of realization.

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.

Rise before the sun

Greet others.

Coffee in nature.

Set times for optional activities.

Breakfast.

Short walk, stretching, light weights.

Activities for the way of being

Foundation and development of the way

For realization—study, experience, reflect, critique, synthesize, write, publish, advertise.

For living—ground, below.

Ground

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.

Pressing and urgent issues

Being empty this instant – present to the world, beauty, horror, without design judgment.

Safety.

Security – income, place with access to nature and relationships.

Push the way of being.

Directed realization

The day—physical yoga; meditation – emptying; mindful – on awareness, living, the real, realization.

Immersion, home—nature, societies with culture (languages), meditation as portals to the universal.

Immersion, away—items above – travel, journey, exploration; solo and shared.

Instrumental—science, technology (AI), politics, economics, communal spirituality as universal portals

Other activities – also elements of realization

Tasks

Daily—check and resolve needs, cleanliness, lunch.

Weekly through monthly—shop, clean, prepare food, appearance.

Exercise

Two hours—walking, biking, excursions for exploration and photography.

Evening

Review—the day, plan the next day (details below) – items, times, exercise route, review the way, meditate.

Network—friends, relationships, share the way; create opportunities for publication, publicity, and funding.

Last things—relaxation, snack, entertainment, music, and simple enjoyment.

Planning – everyday

Select activities.

Set up a daily schedule, perhaps in the form of a table.

Enhance the schedule by introducing flexibility. Given access to software with programming capabilities, automation of the schedule may be introduced.

Sleep early

Universal template

The template 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, 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—yoga, meditation, immersion, ideas to action.

Community—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.

Means—reason, imagination, meditation and yoga, and the real metaphysics.

Becoming—immersive4 and instrumental

Nature as catalyst to the real.

Animal being and devolution—observation, situational empathy, defocus, reason.

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.

Artifact—civilizing the universe (especially technology as enhancing being in the universe).

Universe as peak consciousness via spread of sapient being with agency.

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.

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.

Endnotes

On waking before the sun—rising before the world, enables looking at the world as special, sets a good tone for the day. It is an efficient use of daylight.

Dedication and affirmation—detailed versions—the headings and explanations on the right are not said; the first line of each paragraph on the left is said boldly, while the next lines are said in response.

DEDICATION

We dedicate our lives to (The Way of) Being
to living in the immediate and the ultimate as one.

What does ‘living in the immediate and the ultimate as one’ mean?
How is it known to be true and good?
How is it to be lived—
and how is the ultimate to be realized?

THE WAY OR MEANS

To its shared discovery and realization
under pure and pragmatic dimensions of experiential being in form and formation as the world on the way to the transparently limitless ultimate.

In the metaphysics, the universe is shown to be limitless,
which follows from the void as containing no law.

It follows that all beings are limitless
and merge in universal identity
in this life or beyond,
for limits, especially birth and death,
are real but not absolute.

(Logic is not a limit on the real but,
rather, a limit on concepts for realizability.
That is, logical limits on conception
are not true limits on the real.)

The universe is found to have experiential identity
of which we are a part and, therefore
there are paths to peak identity in this life or beyond.

The effective path is not just the followed path,
but the one that is negotiated by individuals,
shared, and with inspiration from tradition.

The means are the aware and object sides of experience—
‘mind and matter’.
I.e., rational, quiet, and contemplative meditation…
and instrumental action in this world, this cosmos,
and beyond.

To follow a path is enjoyment itself,
but pain is unavoidable.
The best address of pain is to be on a shared path,
with healing.

While there are no ultimate limits,
there are many contingent limits.
Beyond these there are personal limits,
the result of fear, anxiety, and so on,
that block path process.

THE PATH

To shedding bonds of limited self
so that I / we may see the way so clearly that even in difficulty life is flow over force—to moving toward positive light.

Approaches to shedding the bonds are
(i) affirmation of identity of self and peak Being,
(ii) for the bond itself—seeing, meditative acceptance,
forgiveness, attempt to consciously let go,
healthy living—exercise (yoga), diet, sleep,
and adequate but not excessive routine
and organization of possessions and affairs,
(iii) balance of healing with path negotiation.

SUMMATION OF THE PATH

To realizing the ultimate in this life and beyond—
the process version of the transcendent ‘living in the immediate and the ultimate as one’.

AFFIRMATION—A ritual reminder of identity of self and Being

“That pure unlimited consciousness—transcending all principles of form… that is supreme reality. That is the ground for the establishment of all things—and that is the essence of the universe. By That the universe lives and breathes, and That alone am I. Thus, I embody and am the universe in its ordinary and most transcendent form.” Abhinav Gupta, 10th century philosopher and mystic of Kashmir.

Identity of every being with the being of the universe
follows from the limitlessness of the void and, therefore,
of every being, including the universe.
This identity can be known, but is not clearly manifest
in individual lives. It becomes manifest in a mode
beyond limited time.

AFFIRMATION—Groundlessness of being

Every being is, grounds, and reflects all being—
—roughly in present limited form, but fully and precisely in ultimate form.

The void and therefore every being is generative of all being(s);
which becomes manifest in a mode beyond time.

Supplement to review—meditation on the needs of the day. This Vipasana meditation may be unstructured. The extent of the review depends on need. An accumulation of expectation and planning may occasion extensive review, perhaps of a few hours to days.

Immersion begins with focus on first order experience, i.e., defocus on experience of experience—and, thus, defocus on self.

For nature—Beyul—a tradition of Tibetan Buddhism is travel and being in nature, sometimes to remote places, in search of extended experience of self and the ultimate, with openness to inspiration. Nature photography.

For culture—experience traditions for learning and impact on identity.

Being-in-the-world—pure, community, retreat.

Ideas—reason, metaphysics, action.

Becoming—nature, society, artifact, and beyond (the incompletely known universe) as catalysts and path to the real.

Being-in-the-universe—realizing Peak Being in the present or beyond death—means: the previous items (being, ideas, becoming) the everyday templates, and open.

Most individuals and groups whose emphasis is realization, will follow being in the world, becoming, and being in the universe.

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) means: building community and civilization (c) Retreat for vision quest and experience of Being.

Ideas and experience are the first and final place of being, significance, and action; and are instrumental in realization.

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.

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 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.

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.

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”—T.S. Elliot.