The greatest MOTIVE has always been the beauty in the worlds of nature, ideas, people, and culture. The wonder I feel is impulse to cultivate and sustain the loveliness, to any ultimate beyond the immediate.

The PURPOSE OF THE SYSTEM OF IDEAS of this essay, in the essay, is not to stand by itself but to be in interaction with realization (this is necessary to say only to those who think of knowledge as a stand-alone affair; but it cannot be so—even if that is the interest—for agreeing with experience of the world (e.g. testing) is a case of action). The metaphysics is applied to range of topics selected for the purpose of realization, to reveal the nature of being and universe, and so to show the power of the metaphysics. However, the work is not intended to be a compilation of established ideas or application to the range of such ideas.

I anticipate the following INTERESTS:

A GENERAL interest in the development and main implications of the new metaphysics.

An interest in the IDEAS (the narrative from experience through cosmology). Because the ideas are pivotal to the aim, I hope they will be of at least practical interest to readers who do not define themselves as intellectual or academic.

An interest in REALIZATION (the narrative from the way of being through the template for realization).

The VEHICLES of knowledge and realization are the individual and psyche; civilization (and culture and society); nature as ground; and openness to the universal and its conception and realization.

Human CIVILIZATION will be understood to be the web of (human) cultures across time and continents.

A number of TOPICS and themes from the history of thought arise naturally in the narrative. Where the historical development is incomplete, the universal metaphysics enhances completeness and definitiveness. Some topics are experience and the real world, meaning, being, universe, cause and creation, first cause, possibility, meaning of ‘beyond space and time’, natural law, the void, efficient and final causes, the fundamental problem of metaphysics, theory of objects, general cosmology and the stable cosmologies, and the way of being.

The THEMES are topics whose development emerges naturally over the course of the narrative. The following themes are selected for significance: metaphysics; theory of knowledge; logic and science; identity, space, and time; mind and matter; the aim of being; on certainty, meaning, and the aims of knowledge; ways of thought; secular and trans-secular world views; the way of the ordinary—a way out of the secular / trans-secular divide; the ordinary is extra-ordinary.

Jointly the secular as REDUCTIONIST the trans-secular as FUNDAMENTALIST are limiting in all realms. However, even when their approaches are open they are beset by constraints of styles of thought and attitudes toward the possible and the potential. They are particularly limited in relation to what is, for them, unrealized potential from the power of the idea of being (i.e., they seem to have not as yet seen or recognized the metaphysics of this narrative). Open, initially neutral, and critical thought and action—metaphysics—is an approach to the ultimate as such and the ultimate in the immediate.

Experience

EXPERIENCE is awareness in all its forms.

OSTENSIVE definition is definition by showing or pointing to what is defined. In some fundamental kinds or cases ostensive definition collapses definition and proof that there is such a kind or case. These kinds may be said to be GIVEN.

It will be useful to catalog a VARIETY OF EXPERIENCE for to illustrate the nature of experience and for possible later use. Some kinds of experience, not all independent from one another, are receptive, active and pure; and feeling, sensing, perception, thought, emotion, choosing, intending, willing, and the experience of body movement, of controlling, and of general ‘doing’. It is important that it is not being said here that such kinds do or do not exist as they are or may be conceived.

There are PRINCIPLED ways to making such a catalog approach coherence and completeness—e.g., from a consideration of human being as an organism in a set of environments and that it is effective to consider the organism as one of or on par with the environments, the various activities and needs such as physical and information inputs, processing, and outputs; from the physical modes of being—physical as such, chemical, sound, and light; from the particular type of organism that human being is, especially that an adaptation is adaptability itself and that physiology, free concept formation, language, and socialization are part of this; from neurophysiology; and from the fact that the kinds of experience are not tightly compartmentalized—that they interact. A parallel approach is multi-cultural—the list above is rather western; it may be useful to look at other cultures and ask what they see as the varieties and how and why they arrived at their catalogs. Finally—and this should occur in interaction with the foregoing, there is the question of the PRINCIPLE OF THE PRINCIPLE concerning how these principles are better formulated (of which some are already implicit in what has been said).

That THERE IS EXPERIENCE as such has been established by ostensive definition of a given. Descartes’ famous cogito (argument) aimed at establishment of certainty amounted to this: wondering about the nature of experience and, particularly, doubting experience are experience. Though presented as proof that there is experience, the main function of the argument is to clarify what—and the nature of what—is being called experience.

Descartes’ COGITO ARGUMENT has been criticized for assuming that the doubt of the argument is had by an ‘I”. Provided the ‘I’ conceived appropriately as a relatively AUTONOMOUS LOCUS of experience, WILL, and AGENCY, establishment that there is an ‘I’ for the already established experience is not difficult.

The term IDEAS will refer to all forms of experience but especially to knowledge and knowing, to designing and planning, and in relation to practice and action. ACTION is process under the guidance of ideas—particularly, intentional ideas.

Where there is apparently structured experience there must be FORM. The metaphysics to be developed posits neither substance nor form as fundamental; however, in a SUBSTANCE ONTOLOGY or cosmos, where there is form there must be substance.

Meaning

THE IMPORTANCE OF A CLEAR CONCEPTION OF MEANING is that it makes for clarity and precision of understanding otherwise impossible and helps avoid confusion that is otherwise at least difficult to avoid. A good ‘theory of meaning’ is essential to successful systems of thought, e.g. philosophy, and has been found powerful in the development of the ideas of this narrative.

A CONCEPT is the content of an experience (this is different from a concept as a unit of meaning; however the latter may be a concept in the sense used here; see The way of being-essential for depictions as concepts).

A REFERENTIAL CONCEPT is a concept that has an object in the world (the reference may be ‘empty’). In this essay primary focus is on referential meaning and so ‘concept’ will generally mean ‘referential concept’.

CONCEPT MEANING is constituted of a concept and its objects.

WORD MEANING is a word associated with concept meaning.

A non-conceptual word—i.e., a PURE SIGN—in association with a concept is the most elementary LINGUISTIC MEANING.

Linguistic meaning also obtains by GRAMMATICAL CONVENTION from an arrangement of words depicting features of the structure of an object—in a generalized sense that includes states of affairs. Grammar has necessary—e.g., metaphysical and logical—as well as seemingly merely conventional features.

The word-structure-concept-object conception of referential linguistic meaning will be referred to as the THEORY OF MEANING.

World

Something EXISTS if it obtains as it is known (e.g. as I know it).

The assertion about existence above does not make existence dependent on being known. What is the case is that WHAT DOES NOT IN AFFECT OUR WORLD IN ANY WAY IS NOT AN EFFECTIVE PART OF THE WORLD. The metaphysics developed later will show that the object that can have no effect on our world does not exist.

From the foregoing remarks on existence, then, a NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT CRITERION OF EXISTENCE IS POWER—power as the ability to have an effect (it will turn out that there is no ability to have an effect without actually having an effect). It is interesting that this suggestion was made by Plato. Consequently, the following may be marks of existence but are not necessary for it: matter, mind, process, and intrinsic quality. If something has an effect it would be causal and so causality is necessary for existence. However, it does not follow that physical or material causation is necessary for existence. Later we will see that the void is causal but not material; and though it is irregular and not traditionally recognized, its causal type is universal while the kind of physical causation that we recognize in our cosmos is not universal.

There is a REAL WORLD that, as a whole, is an object of and contains experience.

EXPERIENCE IS RELATIONSHIP. Given a rough but adequate interpretation of an ‘I’ experience or, for a primitive organism, experience is relationship between ‘I’ or organism and the world (which includes the ‘I’ and the organism). Even pure experience is internal (and potential) relationship.

Experience is the place of BEING ALIVE AND PRESENT to the world. SIGNIFICANCE is of the world and occurs in experience.

ENTIRETY is the whole world in all its degrees of pervasion from null to full by space, time, and any other dimension (so far as such dimensions obtain).

Being

BEING is that which is.

Being is that which occurs as ANY COLLECTION of regions of entirety.

Universe

The UNIVERSE is all being.

There is precisely ONE UNIVERSE.

If CAUSE or CREATION are the effect of one thing on another, then because the universe has no other, it is neither caused nor created.

Any GOD is part of the universe. No god is creator of all being.

The FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION ABOUT GOD relative to my mind is not whether god exists but what god is or may be and the meaning of ‘god’ is, in turn, part of the process of being rather than a given meaning or fact. ‘God’ is a concept and an object searching for one another.

A DOMAIN is part of or the whole universe.

ONE DOMAIN may be part of or IMPLICATED IN CREATION or causation of another.

However, from the metaphysics to be developed, best explanation of most form and structure will be seen to occur via INCREMENTAL SELF ADAPTATION—and may be taken ultimately to emerge from the void.

A COSMOS is a closed causal domain.

‘Cosmos’ is an UTTERLY DIFFERENT concept than that of ‘universe’.

Possibility

For a defined context, something is POSSIBLE if it satisfies the definition.

PHYSICAL POSSIBILITY is defined by satisfaction physical law (and is particularly pertinent in our cosmos).

COSMOLOGICAL POSSIBILITY seems to be a restraint specific to a cosmos, e.g. total energy and other boundary issues, over and above the physical. It is conceivable, however, that cosmological and physical possibility intertwine to form one.

ONLY CONCEPTS in relation to objects can SATISFY or violate logic. Logic does not pertain to the world as such.

LOGICAL POSSIBILITY is DEFINED as satisfaction of logic.

Logical possibility pertains to concepts: LOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE CONCEPTS CANNOT HAVE OBJECTS; alternatively, the ‘object’ of a logically impossible concept is the ‘null object’

For UNIVERSAL POSSIBILITY, i.e. with the universe as context, the actual and the possible are identical.

In a universe MAXIMALLY PERMISSIVE with respect to being, universal possibility is logical possibility.

Identity, space, and time

DIFFERENCE is the most elementary PATTERN.

SAMENESS is sense of sameness of an object.

Sameness with difference refers to IDENTITY of PERSON or OBJECT and marks TIME or DURATION.

Difference without identity marks SPACE or (spatial) EXTENSION.

EXTENSIONALITY refers to modes of difference—with or without sameness.

Space and time—extension and duration—are the ONLY MODES OF EXTENSIONALITY.

Natural law

A NATURAL LAW is a reading of a pattern. The pattern itself is the LAW that is read.

Laws and patterns have being. They are LIMITS: under a law or pattern only some arrangements obtain.

The void

THE VOID is the NULL domain.

The void HAS being.

There is at least one void.

The void has neither space, nor time, nor law, nor pattern (nor thing, nor POSITIVE kind).

The void has NO LAW.

The FIRST INSIGHT concerning the void is that the equivalence of the universe and the void—if it could be demonstrated—would lever an ultimate metaphysics, especially one that would be absolute in transcending while including time and perhaps in going beyond all a priori elements.

The SECOND INSIGHT was that to see that to show the equivalence, I should especially focus on the void and its properties. Particularly important to this was that natural laws have being and that the void exists and contains no laws.

I find it immensely significant that these two and many other insights occurred in the context of extended times spent (solo) in and near NATURAL WILDERNESS AREAS (especially, in Northwest California and Mexico). The significance of the ‘wild’ goes beyond just that for I have found the wild to (of course) beautiful and wonder-full but more: it is an inspiration to and place of realization. Many friends remark that they would feel lonely if alone in the wilderness. I have not ever felt lonely in nature—my times of loneliness have been in ‘urban jungles’.

Metaphysics

In this essay, METAPHYSICS is knowledge of being as such (i.e. ‘being as being’).

APPRAISING METAPHYSICS. The CRITICISMS and RESPONSES below constitute an appraisal of metaphysics, particularly metaphysics as knowledge of being. The main criticisms and discussions are from (a) experience (knowledge) is not the object, (b) the tacit assumption that perfect faithfulness is the universal criterion of knowledge (the metaphysical framework of the narrative is perfect in this sense), (c) the claims of what is called ‘special metaphysics’ (concerning special objects, e.g. those of the established religions—which is not the concern of the framework developed), (d) the critique of what has been called the ‘grand narrative’, and (e) the criticism of systematic metaphysics, especially from the perspective of a history of failed systems from the past.

CRITICISM—EXPERIENCE IS NOT THE OBJECT. Response. Though it is not the object, in the case of the objects of the metaphysics to be developed, experience is PERFECTLY FAITHFUL. In other cases, a significant range of knowledge from tradition, perfect faithfulness will be shown impossible and so not to be desired; this range will, however, be PERFECTLY SUITED AS A LOCAL INSTRUMENT at the border of the immediate and the ultimate.

CRITICISM—THE QUESTION OF PERFECT FAITHFULNESS. Response. PERFECT FAITHFULNESS and certainty have often in the history of ideas been taken as tacit criteria. This criterion is appropriate sometimes but not universally.

CRITICISM—SPECIAL METAPHYSICS. Response. The metaphysics of the narrative is NOT A SPECIAL METAPHYSICS. As will be seen, the metaphysics may be deployed to develop and evaluate special objects; such evaluation in the universe as realization of all possibility must be for significance rather than absolute truth.

CRITICISM—CRITICAL THEORY and the meta narrative system. Response. TRUTH, significance, and RELEVANCE should be evaluated case by case. The criticism from critical theory is itself a form of grand narrative.

CRITICISM—SYSTEM. Response. In fact, the world exhibits SIMILARITY and DIFFERENCE. Therefore SOME SYSTEM IS NATURAL. Where it is natural, it brings coherence and efficiency of understanding. To have some system does not disallow but may enhance the study of the variety. System requires criticism, of course, and the outcome will be case by case acceptance or rejection.

GENERAL RESPONSE to criticism—THE METAPHYSICS OF THIS ESSAY. The FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS of the metaphysics arose in a search for what is fundamental in our place in the universe and each concept has been established as perfectly known in experience. The SYSTEM of the metaphysics of the narrative developed naturally—it was neither forced nor imposed.

Justification of the present sense of ‘metaphysics’. The present sense of metaphysics is VALID and POTENT (but it should not be confused with or thought of as displacing other senses).

The fundamental principle

The FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF METAPHYSICS, also the fundamental principle (FP) is the assertion that the universe is the realization of all possibility.

The PROOF is simple: if there is a state that does not emerge from the void that would be a law of the void. Thus every state must emerge from the void (and consequently from every state of being).

Under the fundamental principle ALL STATES OF BEING ARE EQUIVALENT. Any state may emerge from any state (same or other). This apparently clear VIOLATION OF OUR SENSE OF PHYSICAL CAUSATION AS LOCAL INTERACTION AND TRANSMISSION calls for address and is taken up later.

LOGIC AND SCIENCE constitute a continuum. Logic occupies the universal end of this continuum; science occupies what remains and possessed of patterning.

Since the universe is the realization of all possibility, logics and sciences are ever under discovery. The fundamental principle forces a reconceptualization and suggests using new words: SCIENCE for science and LOGIC for logic. However the capitalized forms will not be used hereafter for they will be combined below as realism.

A void may be regarded as being attached to every domain. Except that THERE IS AT LEAST ONE void, there is no particular relevance to the number of voids.

The POWER OF THE VOID IS WITHOUT LIMIT. It can create and destroy ‘all objects’ particularly, atoms, cosmoses, arrays of cosmoses, men and women and gods.

But since a void may be regarded as attached to every domain or state, EVERY DOMAIN AND STATE HAS POWER WITHOUT LIMIT.

Earlier, in the main narrative, it was said that there is no universal causation in the common sense. It is necessary to be clear that this refers to causation understood as efficient physical causation. However, the attachment of the void to every domain or particle implies that there is a universal efficient causation over and above every other kind or example, e.g. the physical causation of our cosmos. THIS UNIVERSAL CAUSATION has no regularities. Yet it is universal though not physical. It is clear that physical causation is not universal. Why then does the universal type not show up? Some answers are (a) we have not been observing for very long and (b) maybe it has and is. The real answer, I think, is that cosmological causation is a special case of the universal and irregular but no non-interaction type causation.

THE VOID IS NOT THE QUANTUM VACUUM for the latter has a law or laws; the void has greater power than the quantum vacuum; still, there is an analogy between the void and the vacuum state (awaiting development).

Realism

The continuum from science to logic is named REALISM. The fundamental principle implies that realism (logic and science) are ever under discovery.

The AIM OF THE FOLLOWING EXPERIMENT IN THOUGHT is to evaluate the relation between partial determinism in our local history and the vast openness of the universe—briefly, the aim is to understand the relation between determinism and openness (‘absolute indeterminism’). A being that knew all things would not need to make further perceptions inferences or syntheses to know. It would belong to a causal phase of the universe. Our phase on the other hand is locally causal: for us, in our limited form, the universe is open with regard to possibility (except under the regime of our cosmos). The universe moves between such phases.

WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN CAUSAL AND OPEN PHASES OF SENTIENT BEING IN THE UNIVERSE? The relation between causation such as we experience and the openness of absolute indeterminism includes that the universe itself passes through phases of limit, cause, and definition—of which we and our cosmos are a manifestation; and it passes through phases of full openness when the once determinate are in open transition. That not all memory is erased—that there is a RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BEINGS IN DIFFERENT CAUSAL PHASES IS GIVEN by, i.e. follows from, the fundamental principle; a mechanism for the preservation of memory across individual and cosmological death is later developed from the theory of objects.

The universe RECURS through phases—phases from limited to ultimate possibility; which is ultimate possibility. But the recurrence is not mere repetition or determined repetition because possibility is ever open and so being must be EVER FRESH (for limited being; it would be deterministic in the eyes of limitless being).

While in LIMITED FORM, approach to the ultimate must be ever in process and ever fresh.

The universe is realization CONSTRAINED only by realism (a constraint is not a limit; it is the requirement on ‘freely formed’ concepts for them to have objects).

Many implications of realism, though significant, are TRIVIAL AS DEDUCTION. There is no proof needed other than to check for realism, i.e. satisfaction of logic and local non violation of local science. There will of course be difficult proofs.

The fundamental principle solves what has been called the fundamental problem of metaphysics: WHY THERE IS BEING at all rather than nothing. Under realism, the universe must exist in both manifest and non manifest states.

The FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM OF METAPHYSICS now becomes the question WHAT HAS BEING?

While proof and other reasons have been given, doubt remains about the fundamental principle. An optimal EXISTENTIAL ATTITUDE is to adopt the principle as fundamental in a program of action.

Even under the truth of the fundamental principle, realization is ever open and FAILURE in balance with SUCCESS, PLEASURE with PAIN. The existential attitude retains its significance.

Extension of the metaphysics

TRADITION is what is valid in the history of (human) knowledge and practice from origins to the present day.

That all possibility is realized implies that DEATH is and must be real (not just empirical) but is not and cannot be ABSOLUTE.

The metaphysics so far shows what may be realized; and it may be joined with tradition as an instrument of action. Though necessarily imperfect with regard to precision, completeness, and certainty this is the best expected or desired of tradition. In the join, some significant general features of tradition—local metaphysics—are capable of perfect precision. This join could be called ‘PRACTICAL METAPHYSICS’ which would be another term for the entire system of knowledge to which is attached the foregoing positive interpretation of its potency (the fact of limitlessness means of course eternal ‘failure’ and ‘pain’ together with ‘success’ and ‘enjoyment’: being is a mosaic; and this is the general ‘meaning’ of the negative; this existential meaning will be enhanced in stable cosmologies). This entire system may also be called the universal metaphysics or the metaphysics provided that the two meanings are not confused.

The ultimate metaphysical framework and tradition join in a practical metaphysics that is PERFECT IN RELATION TO THE AIM that it reveals (below).

The universal metaphysics

The fundamental principle is the basis of a metaphysics that will be called the UNIVERSAL METAPHYSICS or, simply, THE METAPHYSICS. These terms may be used to refer to the metaphysical framework as well as to the mesh with tradition.

The PRIMARY CONCEPTS of the metaphysics are experience, significance, meaning, existence, real world, being, universe, domain, possibility, identity, person, natural law, the void, limitlessness, realism, object, death, the way and aim of being, commitment, and tradition.

Of these concepts, perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT are EXPERIENCE, BEING, UNIVERSE, LAW, VOID, and REALISM.

Some SECONDARY CONCEPTS of the metaphysics are difference, time or duration, space or extension, extensionality, the distinction being-as-being versus being-in-relationship or ‘matter’ versus ‘mind’, ideas, action, nature, spirit, variety, the ultimate, abstract versus concrete objects, form, limited form, cosmos and physical law, adaptation, pain, joy, intelligence, care, eternal process, the secular and the trans-secular, science, the abstract and the concrete sciences, Brahman, Aeternitas, freedom of will, life, psyche, civilization, mechanics of becoming, the elements of being and becoming, phases of becoming and life, knowledge, discipline, practice, ways and catalysts, design, artifact, daily practice, meditation, review, ethics and value, pure being, and narrative mode.

Objects

An OBJECT is the referent of a concept.

We conclude: (a) all objects are in the one universe, (b) all except the completely abstract have some degree of concreteness and it would seem that there are no completely abstract objects, (c) there is no essential distinction between the abstract and the concrete, (d) the difference is better sought in the nature of the concept (without which: no object)—the CONCRETE are more effectively studied empirically or perceptually; the ABSTRACT are better understood in terms of (higher) concepts (‘rationally’), and (e) that, partially or wholly, an abstract object seems to not be located in space or time or that it seems to lack causation is the result of these features being omitted in the abstraction. This is here called the THEORY OF OBJECTS.

The abstract objects that are selected with (and perhaps for) form are the PLATONIC FORMS.

The present theory of objects, particularly the statements that ALL OBJECTS ARE IN THE ONE UNIVERSE and that there is NO ESSENTIAL DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE ABSTRACT AND THE CONCRETE, derived from the universal metaphysics, enables understanding of objects in general and is, via definiteness and clarity, a contribution to the modern theory.

It opens up the possibility / actuality that beings (e.g. human) can INHABIT ABSTRACT OBJECTS.

MEMORY across death and COSMIC DISSOLUTION may be preserved in abstract objects or DISPOSITIONS or FORMS.

Logic, science, and MATHEMATICS are brought under a UNITY. The mathematics (plural) are the SCIENCES OF ABSTRACT FORM and the natural sciences are the SCIENCES OF CONCRETE form; the two merge in logic at the universal end of a continuum as constraint on thought rather than law of the real.

Can METAPHOR and ART be brought under this unity? On one hand in so far as they have objects in some interpretation the answer must be yes. On the other hand, one of the ‘functions’ of art is that we are not dealing with concreta or forms that are (yet) capable or perhaps even in need of precise conceptualization; and the intent may be to evoke rather than refer.

Cosmology

The object of COSMOLOGY is the variety, extension, and duration of being in the universe.

The GENERAL PRINCIPLE of cosmology is the fundamental principle of metaphysics.

Our EMPIRICAL COSMOS is but one example of one kind of form. There are an infinite number of infinitely varied cosmoses; a background void; and a continuum from transience to stability in between. Every cosmos is an atom, every atom is a cosmos.

A GENERAL CONCLUSION of cosmology is that manifestation and identity in the universe are limitless in variety, extension, and duration. Particularly, there must be phases of presence and absence of manifestation. The phases of presence are marked by peaks of being which themselves are without limit in variety and magnitude.

The abstract forms may approach the eternal. Here resides MEMORY across individual death and cosmological dissolution. The ultimate form may be called BRAHMAN or AETERNITAS.

The CENTRAL QUESTION about Brahman or God, under the universal metaphysics, must be, not whether it exists or why it may seem to not care, but what and of WHAT KIND OF BEING it is—what kind of process. Reverting to our intuition of the ‘good’ the metaphysics implies that there is a peak form of good and that our good is part of its process. That is, we do not expect ‘God’ to do good for us; rather, our process attempt at knowing-PERFORMING GOOD IS OF THE PROCESS OF BRAHMAN.

The PEAKS of form are not blind in general. They must include intelligence and commitment applied to form. The greatest significance occurs in experience.

Given any ‘blind and remote’ peak of being, there is a significant peak (one known in consciousness) that is higher and a conscious peak that is higher. There is NO LIMIT TO REALIZATION by sentient (e.g. human) forms.

However, while in limited form the approach to the ultimate is eternal process which from the fundamental principle must contain EVER FRESHNESS.

The POPULATION the universe by cosmological systems should be dominated by a product of frequency of formation and longevity. We therefore anticipate that MOST COSMOSES ARE STABLE ones formed by incremental adaptation.

In a stable cosmology with living, experiential forms it is expected from adaptation that for the greatest population of experiential beings (a) in the mosaic of pain and joy, pain will be bounded by joy and understood as essential to adaptation (allowing for the possibility of its overcoming) and (b) INTELLIGENT AND COMMITTED action (i.e. thinking and feeling) aimed at knowing, creating, and realizing local and ultimate values WILL BE MOST PRODUCTIVE of enjoyment and peaks of form.

There are AS IF SUBSTANCE cosmoses. Some of these, perhaps ours, will be as if one substance cosmoses. Generally, however, a domain may have infinitely many as if substances. At root however, the as if substances will interact and there is NO AT LARGE SUBSTANCE. The void may function as substance for some purposes but is not substance.

There is no doubt that there is FREEDOM OF WILL. But this freedom does not mean total control. It allows that expression of freedom is often a struggle to know what is desirable and feasible and to act incrementally toward it. The argument from materialism and determinism is false because that is not in the character of even what is called the material substrate; those who argue from such materialism, e.g. that social offenders have no choice in their acts, should recognize that, if their argument is true, they too have no choice in their ‘judgment’ or the processes leading to it. It may well be, however, that virtue is a high expression of individual freedom while antisocial behavior is the result of an absence of freedom of will (and other factors) in the particular individual (this should have no particular bearing on any philosophy of ‘punishment’ based in prevention of such individual behavior and general dissuasion rather than retribution or justice).

In summary, while we anticipate that the HIGHEST REACHES OF FORM may be dominated by civilizations of committed intelligent forms, it remains true that there is no limit to the reach of such form.

The ‘FUNCTION’ of civilization regarding the ultimate is this. The individual fosters civilization and its process; civilization nurtures the individual and magnifies individual achievement.

The magnitude (variety, extension, duration) of SIGNIFICANT AND CONSCIOUS FORM is WITHOUT LIMIT.

The way of Being

Aim

The AIM of the way of being is to know the range of being and to realize its highest immediate and ultimate forms.

The way of being

THE WAY OF BEING is the use of all dimensions of being in knowing the range of being and realizing its highest immediate and ultimate forms—especially in negotiating the weave of the intermediate-ultimate.

THE WAY. The mechanics is choice-risk-consolidation (in light of the metaphysics).

Elements: dimensions and elements of process

The ELEMENTS of being are divided according to DIMENSION and place, and PROCESS and time.

INTELLIGENT COMMITMENT and APPLICATION over time is essential to becoming in the light of the ultimate.

The DIMENSIONS of the way are nature, psyche, civilization and artifact, and ‘universal process’.

The ELEMENTS OF PROCESS are means (ideas and action), mechanics (above), ways and catalysts, disciplines and practices (intrinsic and external), and modes (intrinsic and external).

Path

The path has three interacting PHASES—IDEAS, BECOMING, and PURE BEING. Sub phases are identified for the ideas and becoming.

Template

Everyday practice

EVERYDAY PRACTICE. Times, places, and other phases. All. Intended as adaptable to rhythm, activity, day, season, year, circumstance, and phase.

RISE before the sun—begin with dedication of my life and the day to the way of being, to focus on essence; and affirmation of commitment.

DEDICATION. I dedicate my life to The Way of Being: / Its discovery, revelation, and realization— / To live and grow in all worlds as one; / To shed the bondage of limited self— / So that I may see The Way so clearly / That living it, even through difficulty / Is flow over force… / And so to show and share its truth, power, and care.

AFFIRMATION. I commit my being, thought, speech, and action to the way; to a positive attitude; to the good and care of the world and all persons, especially to seeing but not taking imagined or real fears and resentments as affronts to security and sense of self. I pray for these things, especially for the good and understanding of those I may resent.

REVIEW and meditate on realization and other priorities and means (priorities); using of time and space effectively.

REALIZATION—work, care and meditation (below); action and experiment; ideas; and writing—in process journal (field notes), essays, and publishing (networked and printed).

REGULAR and occasional tasks—everyday, weekly, and longer term.

MEDITATE: focus and focal issues; quieting—spaciousness of being; death as spur and transition; pain and resentment—their defusion in relinquishing ego to ‘being’; meditation-in-action. Incorporate yogic elements—e.g., of the Gita, the Tantra…

MEDITATION-IN-ACTION includes practice of meditation that is continuous with living. It is an essential part of realization.

PRACTICAL TOOLS for action and meditation

Act on my ambitions and final goals. Accept pain and joy.

Meditate on—own my strength, power, pain, and weakness: I am their active core and source—and so of their transformation as energy.

Be assertive in discovery, cultivation, and expression of my power and goals; seek and encourage active receptivity.

Be assertive about and transform or remove myself from negative influence.

Meditate on my truth; not let apprehension prevent speech or action when they are good or ego force them when they are not. Consciously expose myself to and act on my fears, selected for importance.

Healthy living—routine, sleep, food and fluids; avoid toxic substances and influences.

EXERCISE—posture, general (aerobic, flexibility, hiking fitness and strength), and yogic.

EVENING—realization / renewal; review the next day, plans (and special events); realization if energy-time; evening chores; meditate; sleep early.

A TEMPLATE-system for the phases of realization is (1) Ideas—knowledge, design, ideas for the phases of becoming, (2) Becoming—everyday practice, nature, civilization, and artifact, and (3) Pure being—the ultimate in the present.

Action	Dimension	Detail / link. Time and cross phase
Ideas—essential to becoming	Knowing	Essential to realization / program of ideas. Time. Secondary to becoming. Emphasize again after becoming. Cross phases. All.
	Design and planning	For the entire process / ways and design. Time. As needed. Cross phase. All.
	Ideas for phases of becoming	Continuous with becoming and sub-phases / ways and design. Time. As needed. Cross phases. Becoming.
Becoming—completes ideas	Everyday practice	For the ultimate in the immediate and the phases / everyday practice of thought, presence, and action. Time. All. Cross phases. All.
	Nature	Ground of real, inspiration / nature as ground. The Beyul journey (pilgrimage) of Tibetan Buddhism. Time. Immediate.
	Civilization	Support, shared endeavor / civilization: engagement in the world. Time. After ‘nature’ begins.
	Artifact	Support, synthesis with organism, independent / artifactual being. Time. After ‘civilization’ begins.
Being	The universal: pure being	The ultimate in the present / pure being. Time. All; especially when ‘becoming’ is sufficient. Cross phases. All; everyday practice.

Template for the phases of realization

Topics for study and development

Some TOPICS FOR STUDY and development. (1) The METAPHYSICS, metaphysics, foundation and development, language, logic, mereology, adequacy and minimal arrangement of the dimensions, processes, and phases of being and becoming. (2) ABSTRACT SCIENCES and sciences of symbolic systems—logic, mathematics and set theory and its foundations, linguistics and grammar, topics such as self-representation, computation and finite mathematics. (3) SCIENCES OF THE CONCRETE—‘natural’ and other—physics and physical cosmology, geosciences, biology; psychology and social sciences with focus on immersion. (4) SCIENCE AS SCIENCE, as defined by principles—descriptive, elementary, and adaptive with focus on origins, form, and adaptive systems. (5) Foundations of ETHICS and VALUE with special focus on implications of the metaphysics and the way of being. (6) DESIGN and PLANNING. (7) NARRATIVE MODE and philosophy. (8) WAYS and design; catalysts. Select focus on trans-secular and intrinsic modes of being and transformation—principles of special metaphysics and religion, yoga, Tantra and so on. (9) Special focus on CATALYSTS—dreams, hypnosis, meditative states; altered states and CATALYTIC FACTORS. (10) CIVILIZATION as process and nurture—the concepts of human and universal civilization and history; physics, cosmology, sociology, psychology, for universal civilization; immersion in natural, social and cultural, psychic and universal process; shared endeavor; see TRANSCOMMUNITYDESIGN (http://www.horizons-2000.org/1. World and Being/realization/being-elements/2010/2011-2012 jib in-process/TranscommunityDesign.html); artifactual and technological enhancement—support, synthetic, and stand alone. (11) Other topics in a SYSTEM OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE (http://www.horizons-2000.org/1. World and Being/realization/being-elements/2010/elements/system of human knowledge.html), selected for significance to the aims and ways; art.

Resources

development and use

This overlaps the same chapter in The way of being-essential but (a) omits much of the resource system I have already used and (b) emphasizes resources I want and or might need, especially for the path ahead. Note overlap with the end of the previous chapter.

Knowledge

KNOWLEDGE resources. METAPHYSICS—especially process and symbolic. SCIENCES—science as such; concrete and abstract sciences including mathematics and logic. Focus on topics at the end of template.

METAPHYSICS. Begin with some case studies—Process and Reality (1929), A.N. Whitehead; Space, Time, and Deity (1920), S. Alexander; the Symbolic Metaphysics of Edward N. Zalta, e.g. at The Metaphysics Research Lab (Zalta’s interesting conception of abstract objects is metaphysically deficient but suggestive).

SCIENCE and sciences. LOGIC and the sciences on a continuum, e.g. as here and as in Philosophy of Logic (1970, 1986), W.V. Quine. Reading in COMPUTATION, computability, decidability, completeness of systems; Alonzo Church’s LAMBDA CALCULUS and other systems. W.V. Quine on Logic and SET THEORY. The AXIOMATIC theories of sets and MEREOLOGY. The interface of metaphysics, quantum theory and relativity. BIOLOGY, evolution, and ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS—general theory and application in biology and cosmology.

CIVILIZATION, WAYS AND CATALYSTS, and ARTIFACT.

Civilization

CIVILIZATION. (1) Concepts of civilization (understood in terms of the theory of meaning). (2) IMMERSION CULTURE—knowledge, sciences of matter, life, society, mind, politics and economics, (3) Items below—artifact, ways and catalysts, institutions, places, contacts.

Ways and catalysts

WAYS AND CATALYSTS—principles, disciplines, and practice. It is CRITICAL that the goal for ways and catalysts is experiment with incremental and step-wise realization. STUDY EMPHASIS is therefore supportive rather than definitive and multi-fold—(1) The MEANING OF RELIGION (understood in terms of the theory of meaning), (2) The CLASSICAL ways and catalysts emphasizing practice and use-in-action, and (3) UNCONVENTIONAL AND HETERODOX ways and sources.

Artifact and art

ARTIFACT. Review (1) The AIMS—support in realization and creation of AWARE AND AUTONOMOUS systems (and why, in terms of the metaphysics the latter is one sufficient approach), (2) The concept of ARTIFICIAL BEING (understood in terms of the theory of meaning), (3) Concepts of the same (e.g. ‘SCENARIOS’), (4) Theoretical and computational approaches, (5) Practical approaches.

ART including literature and drama and its relevance to metaphysics and realization.

Institutions, persons, and places

INSTITUTIONS, PERSONS, AND PLACES. (1) For the above, (2) Support and sharing, (3) Contacts, (4) Place—nature and culture.