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The aim of the realizations is, as far as may be
possible, to
Know, experience, and realize the range of being and to
Realize its immediate and highest forms.
The aim is empowered by showing in the text a view
of human
And universal process as limitless in variety,
Extension, and duration.
The ideas narrated were often experienced as received—as
if
Entering an unfamiliar landscape of palpable beauty and form.
An aim of the narrative is effective presentation of the ideas.
Care with meaning is crucial in new contexts.
Without a concept,
A symbolic or iconic image, there can be no recognition of an
Object—i.e., no meaning. Meaning as concept and object enables
Development of a framework that envelopes all knowing and being.
Synthesis is essential to this framework. Though meaning
is often
Experienced as set, it is determined only in process. Meaning
Must have form to encode experience. New experience requires
New meaning and so the form of meaning is fluid.
Since new contexts have some continuity with the
old, the new
Meanings must often employ established terms and ideas as
Vehicles for the new meaning.
Many concepts of the text are familiar. However,
their meanings
Here are carefully chosen and are often significantly changed.
Understanding will be further enhanced in appreciating
that
The ideas form a connected system with new net meaning
That is not merely the collection of individual meanings.
To know the utmost reach of being requires faithful
depiction of
The universe and our relations to it. Metaphysics, cosmology,
And worldview are terms for such depiction.
Common cosmologies are secular and trans-secular.
The secular
Appeal to experience—especially science. The trans-secular refer
Also to trans-experience; the mythic-holist of oral traditions and the
Religious-literal are among its kinds.
David Hume showed that theories that agree with
experience on
Limited regions need not extend to the universe. When secularism sees
Science reach into the known realms and concludes that essentially all
Realms are known, it violates the principle of Hume’s argument.
History illustrates this: since Newton's synthesis many
unforeseen
Realms
have been uncovered—especially the quantum, space-time-
Gravity, and evolutionary. The error of ‘secular positivism’ is to
Conflate what is known with what is there.
So, science allows wide open metaphysics
beyond its border. What
Is the most liberal yet realistic metaphysics? An answer lies in ‘logic’
Which is most abundant in what it allows because it is minimal in what
It requires. In a sense to emerge, the universe will be found ultimate.
Many religious cosmologies conflict realism but are
positive where
They insist on openness where secular dogma is closed. The closed
Aspect of instrumental science is complemented by the intuitive
Mix of truth and openness of the mythic-holist and oral traditions.
A metaphysics that agrees with explicit cosmologies and
their
Principles of reason—in their domains of validity—
Is allowed by those cosmologies and principles.
One aspect of secular thought is significant—valid
metaphysics
Begins in experience and never outreaches the active experience
That constitutes knowledge and understanding.
The world of narrative has no beginning or end but a
discrete
Text has a nominal beginning. Experience is the place of our
Relation to the universe and so it is natural and effective to
Begin the narrative of realization with experience.
Experience—awareness—is the core and theater of our
human
Being. As conceived here, its forms are pure, receptive, seeking,
And active (of action, of conceptualization); it is of the world and
Inner—including the experience of experience itself.
Experience is the rock of knowledge of things—
Knowledge that something is ‘there’, for even if all is
Illusion, there is illusion—which is experience.
There is more than experience. A proof is more than
of theoretical
Interest: it will give us confidence in and understanding of experience
And the world; and it will sharpen analytic skill that will be
Immensely useful, later, in establishing metaphysics. Proof follows:
If there is only experience then it either does or
does not range
Over its conception of what the world is. The former is just another
Labeling of the world; the latter is a contradiction.
Therefore, there is experience which is part of the real world.
This does not imply that the world is as experienced
so far: if there is
Illusion the world may be less; if there are unknown realms, it may be
Far greater. Being open to both possibilities is openness to truth.
Preliminary care in foundation may yield immense return.
Further return is as follows. Experience invariably
mediates ‘objects’;
Meaning as experience (concept) and object is essential to meaning;
To clarifying meaning; resolving paradoxes due to poor concept
Formation; and to knowledge already present but implicit in meaning.
Some thinkers have erroneously argued that growth of
knowledge is
Analysis of meaning. However it can be seen that the growth is analysis
And synthesis of meaning. We will also see that realization of new forms
Of being is analysis and synthesis of being.
These thoughts have shown value to care in
foundation.
Foundation does not emerge in a single step. New
insights reveal
New problems. Care proceeds slowly. Here, as is typical,
Foundations have emerged in small increments.
There are also major increments such as, here, insights
into the
Significance and conception of the central ideas, especially
Experience, being, universe, Law, void, realism, and identity.
To ‘exist’ is to be. From reflections above,
existence is not an empty
Concept—its foundation in experience is robust and discriminating.
Well known issues regarding the concept of existence
are
Addressed in documents named on the title page.
Well known issues regarding the concept of existence
are
Addressed in documents linked at the head of this page.
In what follows ‘exists’ may denote any mix or
neutrality of verb
Form according as duration or time has or lacks local significance.
Being is that which exists. Being is neutral to kinds
such as space,
Time, matter, mind, spirit, soul, and word. Though potent, these kinds
Are not known to be universal or perfectly real. The power of being is
That universality and perfect realism follow from its neutrality.
The kinds are useful, even essential, as kinds of
being. Analysis shows
What aspects may be made perfect and universal. Then, the perfect
And the imperfect may be joined in practical metaphysics that have
Perfection in pragmatic and ‘being-in-the-world’ meanings:
From the reflections on experience, the core of
metaphysics that
Follows may be seen to stand above questions of knowledge as
Representation, versus pragmatic, versus ‘being-in-the-world’.
The universe is all being. There is one and only one
universe.
Whatever has being is in the universe. A hypothetical being
That is not in the universe does not exist.
‘Being’ discriminates only existence from
non-existence.
It does not distinguish kinds. Whatever is real is in universe.
There is no other universe of fact or kind or idea or form.
The universe contains all creation but is not
created.
Any creator is part of the universe—
The universe can have no external creator.
Knowledge of the natural world is coded in laws and
natural
Histories. Natural history may be written as law, legend,
Myth, or ancient cosmology.
The laws of natural science are familiar
Modern examples of natural law.
A law is a reading of a pattern; the pattern itself
Is the immanent Law (capitalized). All Laws have
Being. The universe contains all Laws.
This ‘realism’ may be extended. Morality, civil law,
and value
Judgment have immanent local forms we may name Ethics,
Justice, and Value. All such form lies in the universe.
The void is the absence of being; as complement to every
part of
The universe relative to the part, it exists; and as absence, it has no
Law. A void may be held to associate with all parts of the universe.
There is no inconsistency to existence of the void.
Yet, despite a
Proof, the magnitude the consequences underline doubt. But there
Is doubt for all significant propositions. We act in this existential
Doubt for the quality of the process and promise of outcome.
From the void (and therefore from the universe and
every part of it)
Al possible states will emerge for the contrary would be a Law.
Here, possibility must be the most liberal (roughly logical and factual).
In this sense, the universe has no limits.
That the universe has no limits is named the
fundamental principle
of metaphysics’ (abbreviated ‘fundamental principle’).
If power is degree of limitlessness, the universe is
ultimate
Power. Every state of being, including the void has this power.
Ultimate power is implicit in the present. Those forms are
Limited for which ultimate realization is only in endless process.
The worldview that results is called
The universal metaphysics
Or, simply, the metaphysics.
It is crucial to use of the metaphysics that its
meaning shall
Be understood. Let us now further develop requisite
Understanding, first taking up explicit meaning.
In this section ‘concept’ will refer to referential
concepts—i.e.,
Concepts that purport to have objects. Free concept
Formation is immensely useful in the progress of knowledge.
This useful freedom allows formation of concepts
inconsistent
With fact (‘science’) or one with another (‘logic’)—that is, it
Allows concepts for which it is impossible to have objects.
From limitlessness of the universe the only concepts
without
Objects are the impossible concepts. Realism, the constraint
For concepts to have objects, is not a limit on the universe.
This minimal realism constitutes an explicit meaning
of
The metaphysics: given realism, concepts have objects.
For the universe, the possible and the Real are identical.
Another term for realism is logic: the universe is
the object of logic—
Roughly of word or logos—now interpreted to include agreement
Fact (science). In this conception logic is not a limit on the real but the
Constraint for realism on freedom concept formation.
Realism a resolves doubt that should arise about
conceptual-
Logical and empirical-scientific consistency of the metaphysics.
The object of realism (logic) is the universe. All
valid science and
Systems of logic lie within logic so conceived. Universal metaphysics,
Logic, and science. As the universe is all being, so the metaphysics
Is an envelope for all knowledge including science.
Agreement with fact includes agreement with the
knowledge
Claims of human culture, for example science, religion, and lore
In their valid domains. Consistency among concepts includes
Agreement with systems of logic where they are valid.
The vastness and forms of realism (logic) await
discovery—
The theories of science and known logics are but forms of and
Within logic. And while the forms may be seen as rough and
Constraining this logic is the true and most liberal realism.
As realism, logic has been reconceived and is near
the very
Beginning of discovery of the universe and its forms.
This account of explicit meaning should be
complemented
By discussion of implicit meaning which lies in implications,
Which are the focus of sections beginning with Cosmology.
The universal metaphysics implies what follows.
It is especially the implications
That bring out its meaning.
Natural science and human experience have domains of
Validity but the universe—the object of the metaphysics—
Is greater without limit than those domains.
The universe is limitlessly greater than our cosmos.
The universe has neither beginning nor end. In a
sense
Of ‘is’ that accords with earlier remarks on ‘exists’—
The universe is.
The universe has arrays of cosmoses without limit
against a back-
Ground where extension and duration do not measure all being.
For every cosmos to be finite—or every cosmos infinite—would
Be a constraint over and above logic and therefore a limit.
Every state or element of being is equivalent to
every other.
That something must come from nothing is a trivial corollary.
At the deepest and most general level the question of
Foundation of being is forever resolved and closed.
Relative to the void (or any state), all Laws and
manifest states
Are emergent—as is extension-duration or spacetime.
However breadth is ever open—the extension,
duration, variety,
Summit, and dissolution of manifest being have no limit.
Subject to realism, systems of physical law are without limit.
Every Law, every cosmos is repeated without limit.
‘Ghost’ systems are ever passing through our cosmos.
In comparison to the limitlessness, our cosmos is
Infinitesimal in quantity and variety.
Every atom is a cosmos, every cosmos an atom.
There are no indivisible particles.
The universe has and must have manifestation and identity
In acute, diffuse and absent phases.
It can
now be reemphasized that realism redefines the concept and
Future of Logic-science regarded as one and differentiated only
By the universality of their truths. Particularly, it is implied that
We are very close to the beginning of discovery in these realms.
Individual identity shares these powers with the
universe—
Else there would be a limit on the universe. In merging identity,
Individuals realize all being, its identity, its extension, duration,
Variety, summits, and dissolutions.
Though real, individual versus group is relative
(every atom is
A cosmos…). The distinction is not relative.
Apparent and experienced limits are part of the
constitution
Of the forms of being—of human being and limits.
Though temporary, limits are of the form of beings,
Normally a result of origin and adaptation.
Realization is given. Still, effectiveness is
enhanced in engaging the
Whole individual (heart-mind-body). Givenness does not negate
The value and challenge of endeavor which enhances—gives—
Enjoyment, meaning to pain, death, and challenge.
While in limited form realization is endless
process—
And ever freshness in variety—a journey in being.
For limited being the forms of knowledge and being
Are ever open—an eternal challenge.
The oneness, connection, and continuity
Of these forms lie in identity—
In experience, idea and action.
In unlimited form realization is the Aeternitas—eternity
in a
moment—of Thomas Aquinas, the Brahman of Indian thought—
Which transcend but are not beyond space and time and to and
From which life and death and pain and joy are gateways.
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.
The meaning of the metaphysics has been given
clarity;
Its power has received illustration. An effective summation
And characterization of the metaphysics may now be given.
In foundation in experience and being the
metaphysics is perfect. From
Expression as logic it is unique; and ultimate—in complete but partially
Implicit capture of the variety, extent, and duration of being.
The universal metaphysics resolves foundation of being
but
Shows the variety of experience and being to be ever open:
While in limited form the variety of realization is
Unbounded, experience is limitless and eternal.
Though logic is ultimate, its forms continue to
emerge. Except
In dreams of certainty, security, and control, there can be no
Final foundation of logic, Ethics or Value outside context. For
Limited form logic, ethics, and value remain in process.
Being and experience—world and knowledge—are known
in
Experience. Variety of being and fields of knowledge—unities
And distinctions—merge in experience. The ultimate metaphysics
Is a metaphysics of experience.
The metaphysics so far is founded in concepts so
devoid of detail
That knowledge of them is perfectly faithful—there is no doubt of
The being of being, of experience, Law and universe. Consequently
The metaphysics has empirical and instrumental remoteness.
There is significant ‘tradition’—part of traditional
knowledge from literal-
Scientific to mythic-holist that is not perfectly faithful but is
Perfect in the sense of ‘good enough’ or ‘being-in-the-world’.
Where the metaphysics is complete if remote, the
tradition is
Immediate but incomplete. The metaphysics contains and may
Illuminate tradition; the tradition illustrates the metaphysics.
The two main be joined and each compensates the
others lack.
The result is a practical metaphysics that is perfect in that limited
Forms in transition can do no better. The metaphysics guarantees
Realization of the ultimate; tradition-in-process is the instrument.
Our civilization is the web of human culture over
time and
Continents (space). Greater Civilization is the matrix and
Interconnections of civilizations across the universe.
The metaphysics reveals a limitless universe open to
Individual and Civilization. It is appropriate and now possible
To address negotiation of the normal limits of our world.
The practical address of this concern is now taken up.
Individuals foster Civilization;
Civilization nurtures the individual.
Civilization is the hearth of realization;
Individuals manifest realization.
Civilization provides ways, rough methods, of
ideation and
Action—disciplines of thought, discovery, and transformation.
In culture, emergence of disciplines, too, has rough discipline.
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.
It is worth repeating: ultimate realization for all
beings is
Given by the metaphysics. However, efficiency and
Enjoyment are immensely enhanced in occurrence and
Quality by commitment and engagement.
Sacred scriptures speak of divine magnificence. An
example:
The Indian Bhagavad-Gita compares the splendor of being
To the radiance of a thousand suns. Yet its prescribed means
Of realization anchored in practice in the present.
The universe and the place of individuals in it are
limitlessly
Greater than in common secular and trans-secular cosmologies.
Especially on this knowledge, realization for limited forms
Begins in the present, touched and illuminated by the ultimate.
Action is not ‘mere’ process—ideas are a partial
guide: Ideas
And action are the means of realization. Realization begins
With ideas; transformation requires action.
The ultimate is not fully immanent in limited form:
realization must
Be indeterministic, have process. The way of engaged action lies
In risk—in small and large steps—and in selective consolidation.
This is the core mechanics of realization. Change
may begin with
Reason risk—to take a step—is essential to transformation.
Outcome, where adapted, is captured in being or artifact.
Development of ideas above is in breakdown,
creation, and
And rebuilding. The way of realization lies in break down,
Imagination and experiential rebuilding of ideas and being.
This is the analysis and synthesis of being; it
includes seeing,
Thought, risk (action), change, learning, and correction. The
Way is not essentially prescriptive: prescription emerges on the
Way and is ever subject to revision and enhancement.
Risk emphasizes acting even in the presence of
(existential) doubt.
Therefore from the significance of what it reveals
there is
Immense value to the metaphysics as a principle of action.
This situation is as for the doubt and value that attend
Essentially all significant endeavor.
At the front of realization the final resource is to
take a step of
Thought andor action. To share learning is effective; there are
Ways; there are accomplished-charismatic teachers but in the
Endless process there is no perfect master, no final discipline.
The vehicles of realization are individual and
group—
Being and Civilization and their transformations are
Among the dimensions of realization.
The places of realization are ground—nature, and fabric—
Individual: heart-mind-body, society and culture—of being
And civilization which link the immediate and the ultimate.
Modes of transformation are intrinsic and extensive.
Yoga,
As way to and in the universal, appropriately names the intrinsic.
The extensive or instrumental emphasizes science and technology.
The distinction between the intrinsic and extensive is not sharp.
Transformation of being was seen to be via ideas and
action.
Transformation of Civilization is intrinsic—via transformation of
Being; and extensive—inhabitation and population of the
Universe via exploration and instrument or technology.
The metaphysics shows inevitability of this
population. ‘Now’
Is the time for insight and developing and living mechanics
Of inner and instrumental transformation.
Realization is inspired by powers of being and
thought
Revealed above… and by the disciplines. It derives
Effectuality from the interaction.
The disciplines offer catalysts of mind-body change—such
as
Yogas, meditation, shamanic way, and hypnosis. Transient
Change in being, disciplines, and ways is stabilized by reason
In experience and recollection—in memory, culture, and artifact.
Disciplines, East to West, may all have use in
transformation.
However, even eclectic commitment would be premature.
Understanding of human being—organism and psyche—
Should continue to emerge in interaction with experience.
In summary, these ways cycle through be-ing
(sustaining) and
Transformation (ideas-individual-civilization-artifact-technology).
Elements include means-vehicles-places-modes-disciplines.
The mechanics is risk and consolidation.
Realization begins in the present,
perhaps with the disciplines,
But requires risk—reflection and experiment—and consolidation
In culture-artifact and individual form of heart-mind-body.
Living in transience—in joy and anxiety—is on the
way… is
Essential in realization, ever a flux of transience and arrival.
While limited realization is endless process—ever freshness
In variety and depth in a journey of realizations of being.
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