JOURNEY IN BEING

I have not experienced revelation as instruction or word from an external divine being and have no intent here to consider or argue—pro or con—this conception of revelation.

However, I have sometimes experienced ideas as if possessing their own flow, force, and reality. In as much as this experience is truly the result of influence from some greater being I think it must be that we are part of the greater being of the Universe.

The following brief outline of Journey in Being is a reconstruction rather than what I experienced as original flow. I write it down as the barest of outlines to the essential ideas of the narrative.

Being is that which exists.
The power of ‘Being’ is its neutrality
To hypothetical kinds such as matter, mind,
And word-as-world.

Experience—awareness—is the core,
Place of knowledge and theatre of our—human—being.
Experience is pure, receptive, or active. These combine
As pure and creative ideas; and action.

The Universe is All Being.
There is one and only one Universe.

Whatever has Being is in the Universe.
The hypothetical being that is not in the Universe
Does not exist—it is nothing but a hypothesis.

‘Being’ discriminates only existence from non-existence.
It does not distinguish kinds of Being.
Whatever is real exists in the one Universe.
There is no other Universe of partially real kinds.

The Universe contains all creation
But is not created.
The Universe has neither beginning nor end.
The Universe is.

Knowledge of the natural world is
Coded in ‘laws’ and natural histories.
Natural history may be coded as law,
Legend, myth, or ancient cosmology.

The primary examples of laws
Are the laws of natural science.

A law is a reading of a pattern;
The pattern itself is the immanent Law.
All Laws have Being.
The Universe contains all Laws.

The Void is the absence of Being.
As complement to the Universe,
The Void exists and contains no Law.

All states emerge from the Void,
For the contrary would be a Law of the Void.
It is thus shown that the Void—and so
Being and the Universe—have no limits.

The Universe has no limits.
This demonstrated assertion
Is named the ‘fundamental principle of metaphysics’,
Which implies what follows.

Realism—i.e., Logic—is the only constraint for concepts
To have objects in the Universe.
Agreement with fact is part of this concept of Realism.

Natural science and experience have domains of validity
But the Universe is greater without limit than those domains.
The Universe is limitlessly greater than our cosmos.

The Universe has (must have) manifestation and Identity
In acute, diffuse and absent (non-manifest) phases.

That something must come from nothing is a trivial corollary.

The extension, duration, variety, summit, and dissolution
Of manifest phases of Being in the Universe
Are without limit.

The Universe confers these powers on individuals—
For the contrary would entail a limit on the Universe.

The individual realizes the Universe.

Power is conceived as degree of limitlessness.
The Universe is ultimate power;
The individual realizes this power.

Apparent limits are part of the constitution
Of the forms of Being—
Though temporary, limits are—part of—the form of beings.
Limits are the likely result of origins.

Such, too, is the nature of human limits.

While in limited form realization is endless process—
A Journey in Being.

In unlimited form realization is Aeternitas—
Eternity in a moment—
To which life and death are gateways.

The oneness, connection, and continuity
Of these forms lie in Identity—
In experience, idea and action.

That realization for limited form is endless
Requires that the empirical and symbolic sciences
For such forms remain ever in process and
Be complemented by immersion for their full expression.

Our civilization is the web of human culture
Across time and continents.
Greater Civilization is the matrix of civilizations
Across the Universe.

Individuals foster Civilization;
Civilization nurtures the individual.
Civilization is the hearth of realization;
The individual is the manifestation of realization.

(While in limited form realization is endless process—
A Journey in Being.)

While individual and Civilization are vehicles,
Ideas and action are modes of transformation and realization.

Civilization provides ways of ideation and action—
Disciplines of thought, discovery, and transformation.

The standard forms of the disciplines—
Secular and trans-secular—
Are marked by incompleteness and error
But their core constitutes ground on which to build.

Our apparent limits are Laws or
Expressions of Law
Which also constitute initial ground on which to
Transcend limits on the way to universal realization.

The apparently stable initial ground
Is transient and incomplete,
But knowing and living its transient incompleteness
Is on the way to the ultimate.

The individual journey is given.
However its efficiency and enjoyment
Require commitment.

(The thoughts that follow amplify
Basis for a program for realization.
Program design is in the Précis Edition
And detailed in the Complete Edition.)

The way of realization lies
In break down and experiential rebuilding of ideas and Being,
Which includes thought, experiment,
And correction.

This break down and rebuilding is appropriately described as
Analysis and synthesis of ideas and Being.

The places of realization are
Nature and society.

Realization derives inspiration from the disciplines
And the powers of Being and thought
Revealed above.