A short history of The Way and this site—welcome from Anil Mitra. The site is an in process record of work that began with science and philosophy, and used their methods critically to go beyond received views. Though it is my work, the personal is basic information and what may enhance understanding. I have of course derived much from my sources.

It is effective to begin with some personal characteristics (1) Independence of thought. This manifests today as the attitude that external foundation to being in the world is not necessary. Thus foundation in Being has basis in what is presented—whIch is not superficial but does not exclude co-foundation in the remote or hypothetical. (2) Passion for nature as inspiration and a place of Be-ing, for tradition (ideas and practices from all cultures, regarded critically and suggestively) as sources of understanding, knowledge, and ways or paths of immediate-ultimate life and Be-ing. (3) Balanced tendency to imaginative-critical analysis and synthesis of ideas and experience and modes of thought-feeling-Being.

Origins of the ideas in my life and experience I sought ultimate knowledge and Being. I sieved critically through received paradigms which I found at best incomplete. I learned much in this process. I arrived, in part supported by the thought of Plato, Aristotle, and Heidegger at the idea of Being as foundational. To use Being, however, required to develop it anew—(1) With emphasis on the neutrality, generality, and abstraction of Being that make it truly foundational (it ought not to be 'contaminated' with particular kinds such as matter, mind, or Dasein; kinds come after rather than before Being). Note that the abstract is not remote but direct—what remains after concrete details subject to distortion and projection are omitted. (2) Beginning with Being, the concepts of power, experience, universe, void, possibility, tradition, and others lead to the metaphysics of The Way. (3) It is crucial that Being does not displace our standard paradigms whether materialist, transsecular, or pragmatic. Rather, it is joined to what is valid in them—'validity' is used in its traditional senses but modified according to the ultimate perspective revealed by the foundation in Being. (4) In developing the way, especially the paths in the immediate-ultimate, I have sought and used my experience in self, nature, culture, and the world.

Origins in the history of ideas I have derived much from the history of ideas—see the sources—and immersion in culture and the world. One theme of the history of ideas and exploration is a concern with ultimate. In thinking that its empirical-experiential models capture essentially all of reality, a significant strain of secular thought today has lost concern with the ultimate.

The website Established 1999, the aims were to (1) preserve the progress of my thought and experience, (2) have a record on which to build further development, (3) present and share my ideas, particularly "The Way", and (4) attract criticism, contribution, and shared endeavor. The site has had versions with start dates—1999, 2001, 2005, 2013, and 2017. This version, begun in 2019, aims at simplicity without sacrificing the essential; and at eliminating the earlier personal emphasis.