	Preface to the Précis Edition
	This work presents essentials of a universal journey of realization but omits technical material. It is a précis of a more Complete Edition of Journey in Being that provides flesh and substance—the précis provides understanding, the complete edition provides explanation, application and instruments for action. The précis emphasizes the stable core of the journey; the complete edition supplements the core with revisable and in process elements. The aims of the précis are ease and speed of comprehension, criticism, appreciation, and revision. This précis may be read as a stand alone account or as preliminary to the complete edition. The complete edition has further context, explanation, significance, application, charting and accounts of a journey in process, and sources. The aim of this précis is relatively complete but non technical understanding. Readers who want a quick but skeletal introduction to the narrative may refer to the Essential Edition. Readers who wish to follow upon and perhaps to use the narrative in the universal journey are encouraged in that endeavor.
	On Publication of this Work
	Maturity of the Main Themes The journey of ‘Journey in Being’ remains in process. However, I have decided to publish this work because I am satisfied with the integrity, maturity, and significance of the main themes.
	A Journey in Being
1	JOURNEY IN BEING aims at grounding in our world and realization of ultimates. Since the ultimate is incompletely known, creation in ideas (e.g., perception, thought, willing, and intending) is essential.
	Ideas are innately incomplete. The modes of transformation must be ideas and action.
	It is essential to empower ideas and action in interaction.
	To this end the narrative blends precision and brevity.
	World Views and the Ultimate View of the Narrative
2	It is a convenient simplification to assert that there are two standard world views today (1) A secular view whose material foundation lies in science and cumulative human experience (2) Religious and related trans-secular views that assert—but do not show—a realm beyond the secular world.
	These two views are often held to stand in opposition. It is also standard that they exhaust the kinds of world view that are possible. It is crucial to recognize that the worldview of the narrative—its metaphysics—introduced and developed below is new and that it includes what is valid in the common worldviews and goes immensely beyond them. It is neither included in nor entailed by the standard views. It is also crucial that the view of the narrative is demonstrated and therefore ultimate in depth or foundation. It is also ultimate in implicitly capturing the variety of the Universe. However, it demonstrates that no limited Being can capture this variety explicitly and therefore discovery and becoming are ever open.
	The main narrative develops this world view to which an introduction now follows.
	New Meanings in the Narrative Use of ‘meaning’ in this section is informal. Formal discussion of meaning is taken up later in the narrative.
3	When understanding grows new meaning is acquired.
	The worldview of the narrative (based in the fundamental principle of metaphysics developed in detail later) introduces and requires new (sometimes variant) meaning for its concepts and conceptual system.
	The entire system of meaning is new and stands as a whole.
	This general alert on meaning aims at enhancing clarity and understanding; readers will be alerted to particular meanings as they are introduced.
	Experience
4	EXPERIENCE is conscious awareness no matter how primitive the consciousness (this meaning will suffice here; the Complete Edition of the narrative extends and secures the concept of experience).
	As medium of knowledge and illusion (and error), the fact that there is experience is given.
	Experience is the place of the most direct knowledge of self and world.
	Though not the entire world, experience is the theater of the individual’s world.
	Meaning
5	A CONCEPT is any experiential content. The constituents of referential MEANING are a concept and its REFERENCE (object).
	In order to refer, a concept must have and refer in virtue of some iconic semblance to a referent.
	Meaning is stabilized in context. It derives flexibility from adaptation to change and changeability of context.
	The decomposition into concept-icon and reference is essential to meaning and understanding meaning and its use as a methodical instrument—especially the method of analysis and synthesis of meaning and Being whose development begins here and is continued later in the narrative. This method is of direct importance in the elucidation of meaning and meanings. It is also important to resolution of many confusions of meaning and resulting paradoxes.
	Existence
6	EXISTENCE is most effectively defined via the analysis of meaning: the phrase ‘X EXISTS’ shall mean that there is a ‘thing’ that corresponds to the concept X (this means that knowledge is conceptual; it does not mean that existence requires being conceived or known).
	The analysis of experience and meaning enables clarification of the nature of problems of existence and their resolution.
	‘X exists’ indicates present tense. Here we shall also use a tense-less sense in which ‘X exists’ means ‘X has existence over some ranges of locations and times’.
	BEING is that which exists.
	Being
7	BEING names that which is.
	Being and world are known in experience (awareness) which is theater and core of our being.
	As such, experience is so immediate its Being needs and has no proof—i.e., proof or foundation in terms of the Being of something else.
	The power of the concept of Being is neutrality. The power of experience is immediacy and centering (of our Being in the world). It is important that no commitment be made at outset to the nature of Being (beyond existence) or to kinds of experience (especially human experience).
	Universe
8	The UNIVERSE is All Being.
	Creation is a form of Being.
	The Universe contains all Creation
	But is not created.
	The Void
9	The VOID is the absence of Being.
	There is a Void. A simple argument for this lies in the meanings of ‘meaning’ and of ‘existence’.
	The Void contains no Law and so has no limits.
	Therefore the Universe—all objects, patterns, and Laws—emerges from the Void.
	Fundamental Principle of Metaphysics
10	The Void is ever present with every part of the Universe;
	Therefore the Universe has no limits.
	This is the fundamental principle of metaphysics,
	Also called the fundamental principle.
	The Meaning of the Principle
11	The meaning of the fundamental principle includes that
	But for the freedom of concepts (i.e., assertions or propositions) to have conflict—e.g. disagree—with facts or one another, every concept is realized.
	When the fundamental principle is thus expressed in terms of concepts its form is one of factual and conceptual realism.
	That there will and must be phases of ‘something rather than nothing’, i.e. phases of manifest Being, is a trivial corollary.
	Using the Principle
12	The fundamental principle has many implications that are momentous but relatively trivial to see or prove.
	‘Something rather than nothing’ is a first example. Other examples are that the variety of the Universe is far greater than that of our cosmos and that the Universe has Identity and ultimate power that are conferred on the individual.
	Any difficulty regarding such conclusions is in their interpretation—their significance, squaring them with common sense, science (fact), and logic (which includes mutual consistency); and questions of how they may be realized in action. There may of course be doubt regarding the fundamental principle itself. However, the principle is internally consistent and consistent with science and fact; it is therefore not absurd; and therefore action under the principle may fall under ‘existential attitude’ and ‘fundamental principle as hypothesis for action’, discussed in the Complete Edition of the essay.
	The fundamental principle harbors many further conclusions that are significant for which difficulties in intuition, demonstration, interpretation, and realization are anticipated. The range of application, revealed below, is that of the human endeavor. This reveals an opportunity for an immense and significant program of program of development.
	An Interpretation of Scientific law
13	Every valid law or theory of science or realm of experience of the world has interpretation as a compound fact
	Regarding some limited domain
	But implies nothing about the existence or non-existence, magnitude, or nature of what is external to the domain.
	This interpretation is superior to the interpretation of law as universal hypothesis and shows explicitly the absence of conflict among science-experience and the fundamental principle.
	General Cosmology—Universe, Identity, and Power General Cosmology is commonly identified with but includes and is far greater than modern physical cosmology.
14	The Universe has Identity in acute, diffuse, and non-manifest phases.
	This Identity has continuity across the non-manifest.
	The Universe is ultimate POWER (power is defined as degree of limitlessness).
	It is in the nature of the limitlessness of the Universe that its Power is conferred on the individual.
	Journey, Individual, and Eternity
15	All individuals inherit (realize) the ultimate—the Universe and its Power.
	For limited form, ideas—knowledge, understanding—must be essentially incomplete. For limited form, realization is given as an endless journey in interwoven ideas and action—unlimited in variety, magnitude (summit to dissolution), and extension-duration of Being.
	Demonstration—there is no limit to realization since a limit would be on the Universe. However, the concept—definition—of limited form is that it does not know-realize All Being in an instant.
	For unlimited form realization is a single acute act of Being and perception.
	General and Physical Cosmology—Variety of Being This section is about general and physical cosmology and their mutual study.
16	DURATION is difference as change in the same object (the concept of sameness as an aspect of identity is developed in the Complete Edition: Objects and Identity); EXTENSION is difference coordinated to distinct objects. Duration and extension are precursors to space and time (these ideas are developed further in the Complete Edition: General and Physical Cosmology—Variety of Being).
	The variety and extent of the Universe are unlimited.
	Cosmologies, Laws, and cosmological systems have no limit to their variety, number, and extent. They are relatively stable against a void and transient background.
	Mechanism is, roughly, structure and regularity of behavior that permits understanding and predictability.
	Civilization as a Vehicle of Realization
17	Civilization and individual are VEHICLES and ideas and action are MODES of realization. The individual fosters civilization—the individual is a focal point of Being and transformation or becoming; civilization nurtures the individual.
	In its internal and external endeavors civilization provides disciplines or means.
	‘SCIENCE’ and ‘YOGA’ will stand for the instrumental and intrinsic disciplines of Being-becoming, respectively.
	The matrix of civilizations across the Universe is Civilization.
	Growth, Processes, Aims, and Ways of Civilization
18	Are there ways (method), goal, and significance for the entire endeavor—process—of Civilization?
	The metaphysics shows an ultimate goal (realization) and frames the endeavor and its significance (in this account metaphysics refers to a system of understanding of Being developed explicitly from the fundamental principle in the Complete Edition of the narrative)…
	…From disciplines to civilization and from civilizations to Civilization and the ultimate.
	In the universal, however, there is only imagination, action, experiment, criticism, and attitude—i.e. existential attitude in the face of doubt and absence of resolve.
	Civilization, Human Being, and the Universe
19	For the journey, it is essential to recognize, accommodate, and deploy the tension between human freedom and received human nature (and situation).
	Understanding and transformation of civilization must be integrated with participation-immersion and illuminated by the metaphysics.
	As an institution, religion is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. No simple statement of the form ‘this institution is X’ is adequate to capture of all dimensions of the institution.
	A preliminary conception of religion that captures an ideal is just this: religion is an attempt to know ‘truth’—i.e., to understand the Universe in ‘our time’ and to live accordingly.
	Ideal or Ultimate Religion
20	An ultimate and powerful conception of RELIGION is use of all dimensions of being in understanding and realizing All Being. It is this idea, not the word ‘religion’ that is significant.
	The process of Religion as conceived here is identical to the process of Civilization conceived ideally. The ways of transformation (below), especially catalysts, occasion finite—more than just incremental—and embodied step change; reason and memory occasion continuity.
	This ideal recognizes and fills vast realms not recognized in or touched by the standard paradigms. The ideal is a shell to be given substance in individual, group, cumulative, and charismatic endeavor and reflection.
	For limited form, the ideals of this conception occasion endless process; the metaphysics shows that the individual—limited form—touches the ultimate in process.
	The Way of Transformation: Analysis and Synthesis of Being
21	The way—method—of understanding Being above an implicit analysis and synthesis of ideas and meaning.
	Similarly the way of transformation is analysis and synthesis of Being. Just as in knowledge, so in action and transformation: the way and the process arise together in interaction. We receive from the tradition but there is no ‘way’ that is an absolute given in that it is received rather than discovered or uncovered.
	We may arrive at analysis of Being by study of tradition—analysis and experiment with its ways—and by imagination, criticism and experiment which include discovery of the metaphysics of the narrative and illumination by it.
	Ideas and action—learning: imagination, action and experiment, criticism, review, correction, and charting or planning—are essential modes of becoming (synthesis). The vehicles and foci of transformation (synthesis) are individual (being) and Civilization. An outline of synthesis focusing on individual and civilization follows below.
	Transformation of the Individual Being
22	Synthesis I—Transformation of individual human being.
	All times and places—Yoga practice and action; death and crisis.
	Here and now—home, town, and country: ideas and experiments, health, routine.
	Cultural milieu and community—care and sharing; charisma and initiative; moral behavior, honesty; and abandon.
	Nature, psyche, and Universe—gateway to ultimate, immersion, inspiration, and catalysts such as fasting, isolation, meditation, and exertion that pushes any apparent limit to capacity.
	Civilization of the Universe
23	Synthesis II—Civilization of the Universe: Transformation of communities (of individuals).
	Organic—Civilization as matrix—individual transformation, sharing; communication and charisma.
	Artifact—or artifactual Being. Ideas regarding artifact—artificial intelligence and life; ontology, cosmology, cognitive science.
	A Vision For Our World The vision of this section has two components that correspond to two interacting purposes. The first component is as an outline of the process of realization for our civilization as it is today; this emphasizes concrete and practical as well as ideal concerns. The second component concerns the relation between our civilization and Being—between civilization and Civilization.
24	A vision for our world—the aim of the vision is participation, especially but not exclusively in light of the metaphysics as framework. So as to remain light, dynamic, and responsive to process these comments are kept brief. The following are significant:
	Political-moral-economic principles and action—participation and immersion.
	Culture—humanities, ethics and history; science, art, technology, and symbol—participation and immersion.
	Religion—Being in all its dimensions in realization of All Being.
	Dimensions The dimensions are the modes (ideas and action), vehicles (individual and civilization), places (nature, society and culture), and mechanics (analysis and synthesis of Being) of transformation.
25	A Universal Journey of Realization—individual and shared.
	Being Ideas—now mature they imply that ideas and text are never complete; therefore focus turns to transformation. Transformation of Being—action—focuses on the individual transformation which is at an early stage (recall ‘In the life of the spirit, we are always at the beginning.’)
	Civilization Civilization and Being—focuses on human civilization and Civilization of the Universe. Artifact and technology—use and development of technologies for transformation of Being and Civilization of the Universe.
	Assessment of Progress
	Being Ideas—the ideas are mature; two aspects of maturity (1) the ideas are innately reflexive—self-assessing and (2) completeness of foundation and breadth. Transformation—assessment will clarify achievement, hone principles of action, suggest areas and places of activity. Brief assessment (a) Dimensions above (details in Blueprint for Realization, below) (b) Yoga in its most general sense—ways and catalysts; application—self transformation, self healing, influence and transformation in small groups (c) Places—an aspect of dimensions, from my experience and travel—nature as ground (inspiration, and source of Being and connection) and civilization and community as fabric (sustenance and sharing).
	Civilization Civilization—work includes developing the idea and function of Civilization, investigating social sciences, and nature of science and implications for social science and their use. The present form of the idea of transformation has practical origin in personal and small scale group settings and is confirmed and enhanced by the metaphysics. Focused sources of particulars are Civilization and Transformation, and document Journey in being-detail.html). Artifact and technology—component studies in which I have experience and exposure: social science, history, cosmology, and cognitive science; design, computation, and programming. These may be useful, especially in design of artifactual Being for Civilization. (e.g. artificial intelligence).
	Blueprint for Realization
26	Being
	Ideas—topics for study and research Development of the following has begun. (1) Foundation and development of the metaphysics; inclusion of all dimensions of psyche; that as study of Being, metaphysics must be reflexive. (2) Unification of science and Logic; and concrete and abstract objects. Analysis-synthesis of the realms harbored in Realism (Logic). (3) Application—i.e. interaction of the metaphysics with academic disciplines and human endeavor, especially metaphysical thought of the past (e.g. Leibniz and the speculative systems,) Logic, mathematics, the sciences (fundamental physics, physical cosmology, and evolutionary biology), and science and philosophy for and of society. (4) Science—general interpretation—local fact versus universal hypothesis versus hybrid of fact and generalization without universalization; interaction with the metaphysics. Requirement of participation and immersion for limited form. (5) Symbolic systems—interaction with the metaphysics. Special application of the fundamental principle (the Universe is the object of Logic) to symbolic systems, e.g. language, logic and logics, set theory, mathematics, and computation and programming languages. An emphasis—mutual application of the symbolic systems (e.g., inflected languages and mathematical innovation) and mutual application with the metaphysics and Logic. What does it imply for foundations of general (and point) set theory that set theory must have an object or objects in the one limitless Universe? While the foregoing are of interest in the universal metaphysics and its application and implication the following are foundation for further study. (6) The system of human knowledge as system and in its categories. For interaction with the metaphysics. See System of human knowledge. Analysis of the secularism and trans-secularism—their standard forms, domains of validity, and limits—on their own methods and from the universal metaphysics. (7) Explicit meta-study—review all aspects of the process, especially analysis and synthesis of ideas and Being—including formulation in these terms. Nature of meta and planning process. The following concern extension to action and transformation. (8) Extension of metaphysics to action as implied by continuity of ideas and action. Principled deployment of the dimensions. Interaction with experience and disciplines to found and develop dimensions of transformation—modes (ideas and action), vehicles (individual and civilization), places (nature as ground—and inspiration and connection, society and culture as fabric—sustenance and sharing), and mechanics (analysis and synthesis of being—see method—with step increment-risk and consolidation by adaptation, reason and recollection). The idea of nature as inspiration has a source in the idea of ‘Beyul’ that in Tibetan Buddhism is a hidden land whose revelation and discovery parallel and precipitate inner revelation and process. (9) Study of ways—(1) The elements—grounding, transformation, and consolidation; (2) Approach—method: (a) analysis and synthesis of Being (which include experiment: ideas cannot be developed in isolation from action) with focus on catalysts of Being in interaction with emotion-cognition and integration with (b) tradition. (10) Study of artificial Being—stand alone, evolutionary, and symbiotic; technology for civilization and Civilization; cognitive science—especially, AI, A-Life: symbolic, computer implementation, and designs; reflection on and analysis of symbolic and computer models, significance, enhancements (quantum, distributed), and alternatives; development of dynamic and automated text: development—writing, revision in interaction with world (object). (11) Theoretical and experimental study of transformations with organisms, individuals, selves, and dissolution of self—psycho-biology.
	Transformation and action—report and record for immersion, sharing, and vertical interaction between execution and design. Design (1) Approach—mechanics: above, in Ideas. (2) Method and review—in light of experiment and learning. Grounding \| Everyday—Everywhere (3) Death—adaptation to death—understanding it, its nature as horizon to this life, conditions and time for death, death as normal and real and gate to the ultimate, is a first task. (4) Place—home—society and culture, continued—normal living, transient or stable, conducive to truth and realization. An ideal—share with others who enjoy and support these aims. Aim—empower and sustain increment and understanding by shared endeavor. (5) Practice and action. Yoga, meditation in practice and in action and living. Execution (6) Place—nature—ground of Being… of individual and civilization—gateway to insight and Universe (Beyul) and as place for physical being, immersion in Being—porosity and transience of boundaries, and experiment with self and catalysts. Aim—a place for insight, for catalytic experiments, and for consolidation via records, recollection, and renewal. (7) Place—society and culture—travel and immersion—especially ‘secular’ institutions (e.g., culture and knowledge, politics) and ‘trans-secular’ institutions (e.g., spiritual places-institutions-persons and influence on civilization and its processes). Aim—learning from and influence on civilization and its processes; staying to learn, share, and work.
27	Civilization
	Civilization and Being Dimensions—see A Vision for our world. (1) Internal (2) External Approach—participation and immersion; integration with transformation. (1) Internal dimensions—individual being; culture—knowledge, morals and institutions—secular and trans-secular; political and economic; artifact and technology. Participation and immersion; integration with transformation. (2) Civilization of the Universe—shared endeavor; metaphysics and transformation of being; retreat and return; exploration, artifact, and technology (3) Shared endeavor, research group—establish or join a research and transformation community; publishing the developments; integration with artifact and technology. The idea of a transformation community is developed in TranscommunityDesign. For a preliminary plan see TransCommunity (an Excel workbook) or TransCommunity (html).
	Artifact and Technology Use of technology in and for Civilization. (1) Artificial Being—stand alone, design and evolution, symbiotic, and adjunct—build (hardware-software), experiment, learn; dynamic text—i.e. automation of text and ideas… and text that is interactive with ideas and life via computer implementation (software, intelligent editing, remote interaction). (2) Experiments with organisms—especially the individual experimenting with him or herself—psycho-biology. (3) Shared endeavor, research group—establish or join a research and transformation community. (4) See the transformation community documents linked above.
	The Future of the Narrative The future—this place is held for reports and narratives of the journey (ideas, plans and planning, transformations, and goals) as it unfolds. The main elements for the future are (a) Sharing the narrative is essential to sharing the journey—the journey and narrative shall be open; the sharing will be with individuals and groups in the context of civilization (b) Reports on progress in transformation, ideas, and goals (plans).
	Influences and Sources
28	I would like to place on record some influences and sources for this work. The world (cumulative experience, reflection) and the tradition are sources. Breadth and depth are crucial, especially in interaction—each requires the other.
	General influences are defined by the world and cultures in which I have lived. Though diffuse and often in the background these influences are immensely significant. Significant events, spiritual (religious) leaders, and statesmen have been among my inspirations. Music, literature (particularly poetry), and drama including film have been especially inspiring. Good drama makes me want to live and share; fantasy is a source of imagination which when uncritical may be improved by critical filtering. Nature has been immensely inspiring—I have received so much from nature (1) as gateway to the universal and (2) inspiration for my ideas and thought. The core foundational ideas for this work and earlier thought have been conceived in nature. I have learned of the idea nature as map of inner and outer worlds from Tibetan Buddhism and cumulative personal experience in nature (environments less touched by human intervention—that in some interpretations of ‘civilization’ are its antithesis).
	Philosophical thought has been a significant influence. The main influences include ideas on the nature of the Universe from Indian Philosophy. From the thought of the West I have learned much about language and meaning; the nature of Being; and logic, mathematics, science, religion, and epistemology (the study of knowledge). Philosophical ethics—with its frequent striving to be rational—seems often unhelpful in actual situations which seem to not fit neatly into any one rational framework; it is nonetheless suggestive; however it must build, at least implicitly, on some foundation in Being—e.g. in tradition, emotion, day-to-day interaction, and in the moral systems and codes of the past. In my simple reflections on action under uncertainty I have learned much from philosophy but I have also learned about the importance and nature of multivalent thinking from an education in engineering, from economic thought, and finally in living with feeling and reflection.
	Science has served as inspiration and paradigm in many ways, especially in interacting with the metaphysics.

Maturity of the Main Themes

An Interpretation of Scientific law

General Cosmology—Universe, Identity, and Power

General and Physical Cosmology—Variety of Being

Civilization, Human Being, and the Universe

The Way of Transformation: Analysis and Synthesis of Being

Transformation of the Individual Being

Civilization of the Universe

A Vision For Our World

Dimensions

Being

Civilization

Assessment of Progress

Being

Civilization

Blueprint for Realization

Being

Civilization

The Future of the Narrative

Influences and Sources