The Way of Being
Path templates

Contents

About the templates	3

Everyday template	4

About the template	4

The arrangement	4

Design	4

First things	4

Affirmation	4

Dedication	4

Realization	5

Other activities	6

Planning (everyday)	7

Universal template	8

About the template	8

Arrangement	8

Design	8

Being in the world	8

Ideas	8

Becoming—immersive and instrumental	8

Being in the universe	9

Planning (universal)	9

The Way of Being
Path templates

About the templates

The templates are in-process—so far, they are templates for the templates—further concrete options are to be incorporated; see planning for the templates.

They are designed as an improvement on the older templates, templates and dedication.

They are a supplement to a plain version of the way of being, which grounds and explains the templates and their form.

Currently, the templates reproduce the templates in the plain version; later, at least one of the following will be done (i) eliminate the templates in the plain version and refer to this document (ii) change the templates here to be tailored to use, with automation.

The templates are available as printable microsoft word and pdf documents.

There are two complementary templates—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 (Brahman).

Everyday template

About the template

The arrangement

Numbered main options

Details of the options

Design

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

First things

(preparing for the day)

On waking

Set attitude for the day+—limitlessness, dedication and affirmation, relationships.

Reset attitude if in doubt, insecurity, or pain—meditate – accept, reflect, breathe; exercise (hatha yoga) in nature

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 so the path is flow, relative to force;

To realizing the ultimate in this life and beyond.”

Review the day, life, path of realization

Rise before the sun

Greet others

Coffee in nature

Set times for optional activities

Breakfast

Short walk

Realization

(activities especially for the way of being)

Foundation

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

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

(though labeled ‘other activities’ these, too, are elements of realization)

Tasks

Daily—check and resolve needs, cleanliness, lunch

Weekly (plus)—shop, clean, prepare food, appearance

Exercise

Excursion, 2 hours—for exercise, exploration, and photography

Evening

Review—the day, plan next day next day – 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

Sleep early

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 (Microsoft Word is just one example of such software)

Universal template

About the template

Arrangement

Dimension or main aspect—activity

Other related activity

Design

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

Kinds of activity have a basis in the dimensions of being in the way of being. In the template, the (name of the) dimension or other important aspect is underlined.

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

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—immersive 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

Asses current phase and select activities of focus

Review and plan daily, short, and long term aims and possible activities

Include time-frame to execute and then review, assess, renew, and alter plans

Build these elements into everyday planning