Human beings seek SIGNIFICANT MEANING in a weave of varying emphasis on everyday and ultimate contexts. This occurs in wide ranges of awareness and implicit to explicit commitment.

The AIM of The Way of Being is to be in a process of DISCOVERY and REALIZATION of the ULTIMATE from and in the IMMEDIATE.

When it is explicit such aims may be systematized by a WORLDVIEW understood as an iconic-conceptual picture of the universe. Tacit views are always present; it may enhance the process by recognizing them and merging with an explicit system forged from imagination and criticism.

Modern worldviews are SECULAR and TRANS-SECULAR. The secular centers on experience and science. A widespread if tacit view is that there is little beyond the secular. However, the true secular is consistent with a limitless world beyond its region of validity. Even where there is conflict between religion and reason, trans-secular intuition of a limitless beyond is consistent with secular realism.

Is it possible to go validly beyond science to make definite and valid assertions about the region beyond? Traditions of metaphysics in philosophy have long attempted to do so. However, in the modern era this tradition has been criticized as going beyond experience and into a realm of mere speculation. An attempt to go beyond the secular must answer to this charge.

The answer in this essay may begin with a consideration of the success and limits of science. The limits of any science that would be universal, e.g. physics, is that the CONFIRMABLE base of FACT or data is small; extension just beyond the empirical is likely but extension to the universe is unjustified. So EXPLANATION (theory) that purports to the universal can be DISCONFIRMED but not confirmed. Why then is there confidence in theories? It is because (a) science does capture local patterns and (b) the theories considered valid are just those that have so far withstood extension of the empirical boundary (experiment).

In contrast to science, the foundation of the metaphysics of the essay begins with simple objects—experience, being, and so on. As understood here, the objects are so simple that OBJECT (fact, data) and CONCEPT are equivalent—there is no theory. Though it may seem trivial, the simple foundation results in the immensely powerful metaphysics described in the next few paragraphs.

This essay has two main parts—the foundation and its implementation: the ideas and the way; these correspond, respectively, to discovery and realization of the aim above. They are only partially distinct; in the large perspective they mesh and merge; and each is incomplete without the other.

The first part on ideas explores knowledge of the universe. The approach begins in experience through the void with the simple foundation described above. The remainder, develops the foundation as a perfect framework for understanding the universe (the universal metaphysics); and extends it via alternate but justified criteria to include TRADITION (the term will hence refer to what is valid in secular and trans-secular tradition). An essential conclusion, the fundamental principle of metaphysics, is that the universe is the realization of all possibility: the metaphysics is a perfect framework for the ultimate and its realization. It is a consequence of the metaphysics that while in limited form realization remains ever in process.

The second part on the way develops and presents an approach to the ultimate. While doubt is essential and intrinsic to development of the first part, it reviewed in a chapter on doubt. The remaining chapters develop and show an approach for the way. The concern is with the individual and the group (civilization) and with the intrinsic (roughly, mind) and the instrumental (technology).

An appendix on a fill-in template for the way provides a form that readers may modify for use in their process.

Part I. Ideas

1. Experience

EXPERIENCE is awareness in all its forms. There is experience.

Experience is of a REAL WORLD that includes experience.

Experience is RELATIONSHIP to the world; it is the place presence to the world. Significant meaning regarding the world occurs only in experience.

That which never affects experience has no significance. The real world is indifferent to its acceptance or denial. Fundamentally, the SUBJECTIVE and OBJECTIVE merge.

Sameness versus difference is the most elementary experience.

SAMENESS is (sense of) sameness of an object.

DIFFERENCE is the most elementary pattern.

EXTENSIONALITY (different from extension) refers to modes of difference—with or without sameness.

Sameness with difference marks IDENTITY of person or object and marks TIME or duration (note: from an abstract perspective a person is an object). Difference without identity marks SPACE or extension (time and space are modes of extensionality).

Consequently, while the world is not necessarily marked by extension and duration, there are no further markers of extensionality. Extensionality is IMMANENT in the world and its two modes may be intertwined inasmuch as the modes of difference are not distinguished; and to the degree that identity is indefinite, space-time phases of the world may merge with phases marked by absent to minimal extensionality.

ENTIRETY is the whole world—the whole that is marked by extensionality (over all time and space) and the rest.

2. Being

BEING is that which obtains in some regions of entirety.

Alternatively, being is that which exists.

Experience and the real world HAVE BEING.

3. Universe

The UNIVERSE is all being—i.e. it is being over entirety.

The universe has being.

A DOMAIN is a definite part of the universe (‘definite part’ means that given some situation we can tell whether it is or is not in the domain). The universe is a domain.

If CREATION is formation by another entity, the universe was not and cannot have been created. ‘Gods’ are logically possible but they are part of the universe; they may logically be implicated in creation of another part and the perfection of any part (the significance of the last assertion—including the meaning of ‘perfection’—is evaluated in the chapter on cosmology).

4. Possibility

Relative to a context, something is POSSIBLE (its conception realizable) if its obtaining does not violate definition of the context.

With universe as context, obtaining and possibility are identical (the concepts are co-extensive).

Generally, possibility is a LIMIT on the world and a CONSTRAINT on ideas that are realizable under the given kind of possibility. Of all kinds of possibility, the kind that is not a limit on the world but only a constraint on the realizability of ideas is the most liberal kind of possibility and is called LOGIC.

5. Law

A NATURAL LAW is a pattern—i.e. under the law some states of being (including process) may obtain and others may not.

Natural laws have being; they are in the universe; they define domains (thus domains need not be defined by spatiotemporal boundaries).

A natural law defines a kind of possibility: some states, processes, patterns do not violate it; some do.

Physical law defines PHYSICAL POSSIBILITY. We can imagine a situation that violates physical law but if the law obtains the situation cannot obtain.

Logical impossibility is violation of logic.

Though such violations are hard to imagine visually, they are easy to specify in language. Examples are ‘an apple that is eternally and entirely green not green’ and ‘a square circle’. The requirement of logical possibility is not a limit on the world but a constraint on concepts for realizability (this ‘liberal’ nature of language is an aspect of the freedom of concept formation necessary for creative thought; it is not a defect but obviously it may result in invalid—unrealized and unrealizable—specifications of the world). Perhaps we could define the critical side of thought as the evaluation of validity of the products of the imaginative side (because critical and imaginative thought do not arise ex nihilo, they must originate together and interactively).

Logic has universal application; unless shown otherwise more restrictive possibility such as that of a natural law is at most of local application.

6. Realism

Perhaps the world extends to a place where the known natural laws do not apply. However, the world does not extend to a place that logic does not apply; the imagined world that extends to such a place is never realized. Natural laws define local or (better) contingent impossibility; logic defines impossibility that transcends all contingency.

The union of local natural laws, each pertaining to some domain, and universal logical constraint is called REALISM.

We have our world. That the great world as a union of worlds each expressing and the expression of local law while the law of the great world is logic was imagined in the previous paragraph. What is the reality of the great world? Is it any greater than our world? It may be limitlessly greater without violating realism; however this does not imply that it is greater. These issues are addressed in the fundamental principle and subsequent discussion. There it is found that the great world, i.e. the universe, is the world of all possibility.

Realism defines the most liberal externally (roughly, fact including local science) and internally (roughly, logic) consistent universe. The degree of liberality of that universe is explored in what follows, especially the discussions of metaphysics and cosmology.

Why is the word ‘roughly used in the previous paragraph? It is because while the concepts of logic and science appear to be sound, there specific forms are rough and / or incomplete.

7. The Void

The VOID is the null domain.

The void contains no law.

If the universe is non-manifest it is the void. If the universe is manifest a void may be considered attached to every existing part of the universe for no difference is made to the part.

Effectively, therefore, the void exists—that is:

The void has being.

8. The fundamental principle

Every realistic state must emerge from the void for the contrary would be a law of and in the void. Therefore the universe is the realization of all realism—i.e. of the most liberal possibility or all possibility.

Particularly, given a void state of the universe, manifestation must emerge; and given a manifest state of the universe it must become the void

The universe is the realization of a realism whose first approximation has a universal part that is our systems of logic and a local part that is our systems of science.

That the universe is the realization of all possibility (i.e. of realism) is named the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF METAPHYSICS (abbreviations for the principle will be the fundamental principle and FP).

The phrase ‘all possibility’ raises concerns. One is that a more careful formulation is necessary for the notion of ‘all’ easily engenders paradox (the universe cannot itself be paradoxical; therefore paradox arises in the assumption that apparently well formed but in fact unrealistic concepts are realized). The kind of care is roughly of the same kind needed to avoid the paradoxes associated with set theory and the assumption that arbitrary statements have reference (the set of all sets with ‘set’ interpreted naïvely is unrealistic in the foregoing sense). Another concern is how all possibility may be realized. Perhaps there are domains outside the empirical cosmos where limitless variety and extension are realized. How does that change or (better) merge with our fate or destiny? Only by later or earlier connection; thus time is implicated. Imagine possibility x that is not realized in this phase of our empirical cosmos; however, as the cosmos merges with or dissolves into wider being all x within realism are realized.

9. Metaphysics

METAPHYSICS is PERFECT knowledge of being as being.

With ‘perfect’ as PERFECT REPRESENTATION, metaphysical knowledge is clearly beyond possibility for all objects; from this, critical thought of the modern era in the western tradition has often concluded that metaphysics is impossible—which of course, since knowledge and knowledge claims are in the universe, is a metaphysical statement showing (a) the possibility of some metaphysics (if the claim is true it is metaphysics, if not there is some other metaphysics) and (b) the propensity of critical schools to extend criticism of some knowledge to all knowledge. But the burden of proof, if knowledge would be secure, must be placed on the claim of knowledge. From the criticism above, we clearly cannot have perfectly representational metaphysics for the entire universe. However, we have seen in previous chapters that experience as experience, real world as real world, difference as difference, extensionality as extensionality, identity as identity, entirety as entirety, being as being, universe as universe, domain as domain, law as law, void as void, and realism obtain and are known perfectly. These notions and others defined in terms of them or otherwise identified as known perfectly constitute a system of perfectly known objects. They are the beginning of a metaphysical system; the part so far, the perfectly representational, may be called pure metaphysics.

The system that began with experience defines a metaphysics that will be called the universal metaphysics and abbreviated the metaphysics. We know the perfectly represented objects both directly and indirectly. However, under the metaphysics we know of other objects, ones commonly perceived or conceived, only indirectly (assuming consistency). That is, under the metaphysics we know they exist but do not know them directly. Under the universal metaphysics many proofs of significant aspects of being are trivial and need not and will not be given (it does not follow that there are no non-trivial proofs).

The fundamental principle is that subject to realism all ideas are realized. Of these the only concepts that are located in direct experience (perception) are the pure or perfectly known objects (e.g. experience, being and so on). Other objects may be known imperfectly as they come into the sphere of experience. This is the pure side of the universal metaphysics for which the tacit criterion of perfection is perfect representation.

To anticipate cosmology, the variety of FORMS and KINDS (e.g. experiential and experienced which may be figuratively called the mental and the material; and living) and extensionality of the universe and identity are without limit.

That is, the universe and its identity are limitless with respect to variety and extensionality and must go through acute, diffuse, and non manifest phases. Also, from realism, this power must be conferred on individuals. The apparent contradiction of physical law is merely apparent for realism requires our physical laws but also requires that they not be universal. That is, they are transcended but it is not given that they are easily or immediately transcended. The apparent contradiction of our mortality is also but apparent for, under realism, death must be real but not absolute.

As intelligent how may we accelerate transcendence? (1) It stands to reason that ultimate realization will be enhanced by intelligent engagement (this is explained in cosmology below). (2) Our system of laws are local approximations to be discarded as civilization moves to universal civilization(s) and we move from our particular cosmos to cosmoses. (3) As instruments of realization the laws of mind and matter are essentially limited and therefore perfect in the sense of good enough to the purpose. (4) In this extended sense of perfection, the metaphysics and what is valid in tradition from ancient times to the present day mesh to form a perfect practical metaphysics (it may be seen that the join is more than a mesh with tradition complementing the ‘pure’ metaphysics and the metaphysics showing ways in which certain features of cosmology are ultimate and in resolving what would otherwise be dilemmas such as the relative versus absolute nature of space-time and the questions of relations between what we call mind and what we call mater).

If the criterion for the imperfectly known objects is changed to, say, GOOD ENOUGH knowledge for being-in-the-world then, meshing the pure and the practical (good enough) results in a MOSAIC but best desirable criterion that extends the static pure metaphysics to a PRACTICAL METAPHYSICS that is ever in process for limited forms and sufficient to the process of overcoming limits in realization of the ultimate. The extended metaphysics in process may also be referred to as the universal metaphysics.

10. Cosmology

The metaphysics outlines beginnings of general cosmology. It does not explain how particular cosmologies come about.

Realism implies that given a cosmology of any complexity and variety, there are (a) others of greater complexity and variety that are significant in being known and inhabited by intelligent life and (b) still others that are the creation of intelligence and that creatures such as us or our later forms will participate in such intelligence.

The metaphysics implies that there is no general mechanism of formation. This means that well formed systems—cosmologies—will simply come about without mechanism. It also means that in some cases there will be mechanism. We will argue for mechanism that is and cannot be exclusive but that may be reasonably said to dominate formation and population of stable cosmologies that support intelligent life.

What is the mechanism of formation? We begin to answer the question with a very brief survey of our knowledge of mechanism.

With regard to cosmology there are three levels of understanding: (1) the level of mere DESCRIPTION, (2) the level of LOCAL MECHANISM and law (e.g. as in physics and biology), and (3) the level of FORMATION, e.g. of cosmos or life.

Today’s biology has maturity at levels 2 and 3: level 2 is the various levels of physiological function; level 3 refers to the origin of life and function. Reasons that level 3 has maturity in biology are that (a) the theory of origination is explanatorily satisfactory and comprehensive and well supported by observation and (b) that levels 2 and 3 mesh: the chemical and physical mechanisms of function are of the same kind as those of origins.

What features make the theory of evolution a sound explanation of the origin and flowering of life forms? The forms are of course possible without the mechanism of evolution (variation and selection—i.e., non selective variation and selection by adaptation to environment and self) but not deterministically contained in earlier forms. Therefore an element of indeterminism is necessary. However, indeterminism is indifferent to adaptation (stability): most mutations will be maladapted but some will be equally or better adapted and it is the last that will flourish due to positive differential survival. The skeletal explanation does not refer to details of biology but extracts what is necessary to formation of novel form and function.

Today’s physical law has maturity at level 2. There is no mature theory or consensus regarding the origins of cosmoses (the big bang explains what happened after the bang). However, a mature theory (aside from metaphysical necessity) will have to satisfactorily explain cosmological structure and novelty (e.g. of physical law). We have just seen how such explanation must involve indeterminism from more primitive levels (at which there is no law or at most proto law) and selection by self adaptation. And of course the ultimate in explanation is from ultimate simplicity; no proto law. Though mechanism is not necessary we expect that the greatest population of the universe by any form (physical, biological, sentient) will be proportional to the product of fecundity and longevity. We do not need to know what the detailed mechanism is to know the kind of mechanism and that there are and must be such mechanisms (realism implies that some but not all cosmoses be formed by mechanism; considerations of probability suggest that most cosmoses be formed by semi-mechanism).

The mechanism of indeterministic variation and selection by stability of form, in increment, probably dominates the continuum from the void to the higher and most significant forms. Given any form, there is a greater form that is the result of immanent and committed experiential intelligence. Thus SIGNIFICANT FORM is as LIMITLESS.

What is the nature of death under the universal metaphysics?

It is and must be that DEATH is real but not absolute. Death is one GATEWAY TO THE ULTIMATE (it is important to note that it is but one gateway).

Before turning to means of realization in the way below it will be useful to make a few comments on religion and god (I will not address abuses of religion because I see these as the way of some men and not of religion itself).

On the cosmological side, religion attempts to address the intuition that there is more than is seen in the secular world view. Even where the expressions of such intuition are empirically improbable and logically unsound, the intuition of the trans-secular is reasonable. From realism we now see that the intuition is true (beyond the recorded imagination of religious thought). In this circumstance I suggest the definition that RELIGION be the use of all dimensions of being in the realization of ultimate being in and from the immediate.

We saw earlier that there may be gods who may be implicated in ‘perfection’, i.e. further and conscious evolution of the universe. Realism implies that this is necessary. However, perhaps the essential question concerns what the nature of such gods might be. Except that they be ‘subject’ to realism, there is no limit on gods (some may object saying that god can overcome anything but to say that is to imply that god has not given us the ability to be absurd—it is to put man above the universe).

Except the logical limits, e.g., the universe has no creator (all creation is part of the universe) what can we say of god? Referring back to the distinction between general and particular cosmologies it follows that whereas god can be as in the scriptures (except violations of logic) the most likely meaning of god is that it is an integral part of a stable cosmology and forms and dispositions in between the stable cosmologies, the transient background, and the void. Perhaps the most significant meaning is that we, in our process of an attempt at realization of the ultimate, are a prime example of the meaning of ‘god’.

Part II. The way

The way has two meshing parts: daily practice and universal process.

In this version of the essay I omit how the way is arrived at. There is and was a process that is described in the essential way of being. Here the process is mentioned as part of the way.

11. Doubt

Here, two kinds of DOUBT recognized as natural—critical and existential.

An example of CRITICAL doubt concerns experience. Doubt that there is experience leads to establishment that there is experience. However, the establishment is more a recognition of the meaning and given character of experience than a proof in a traditional sense. A second doubt is the doubt that experience has objects; this leads to seeing that there is a real world which is the object of experience and contains experience. Thus critical doubt establishes and clarifies.

The essay has a single but important case of EXISTENTIAL doubt. The doubt concerns existence of the void. Given a sub domain of the universe, clearly its complement exists except perhaps in the case that the domain is the universe itself. The development bypasses this doubt by beginning the proof of the fundamental principle with the phrase ‘If the universe were in a void state’. However, the conclusion is so momentous that I have not satisfied myself that all doubt is removed (it is crucial to recognize that the existence of the void and the fundamental principle violate no principle of reason whether rational or empirical). There are alternate proofs, some rational and some heuristic and yet, still, I find myself unable to claim that all doubt has been removed. It is difficult to be sure whether the doubt is rational or psychological; yet to assert this uncertainty is to entertain rational doubt.

This existential doubt is not negative. The fundamental principle implies realization of the ultimate but does not tell us when or how that will happen; and it assures us that we will experience both JOY and PAIN (and suffering)—the negative and the positive—on the way (and this is one source of meaning to pain; and though it is possible for pain to far exceed joy and all bound, it is likely in stable life forms in stable cosmologies that pain should not far exceed pleasure and here the meaning of pain is enhanced as it aids survival; and the meaning of apparently pointless pain is that as an efficient survival mechanism it cannot be so precise an adaptation that it occurs only to ensure survival—rather, its effectiveness depends on a balance between being sufficiently particular and sufficiently generic). The effect the existential doubt concerning the void is to add sharpness to the quality of the existential concerns relating to the fundamental principle.

Where the fundamental principle implies the ultimate nature of the trans-secular, ordinary sense from, say the history of science, suggests the vastness of the trans-secular region; and modern science, especially quantum theory, already suggests its accessibility and negotiability for currently limited forms (e.g. human being).

Human beings are of course in some real and good sense morally free to conduct their lives as they see good. How is this conditioned by the universal metaphysics? The metaphysics entails significance of the entire universe—the immediate and the seemingly remote ultimate. Individuals are free to select their focus but the metaphysics suggests the ultimate value of a dual focus on the immediate and the ultimate. The value of the ultimate is so great that we are beholden to dedicate some resources to it (a formulation in terms of optimizing expected outcome is possible and may be instructive). In this regard:

The fundamental principle may be regarded as an ultimate or optimal PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. This principle would obtain in absence of doubt regarding the fundamental principle but its quality is enhanced by the doubt.

12. Developing the way

The elements below follow from reflection on the world in light of the metaphysics.

The way

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 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.

Derivation

These follow from the origin of this work, the nature of human process (as part of a universal-general and an adaptive-stable and sentient cosmology).

The mechanics

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

Derivation

This follows from the nature of adaptive process and intelligent being; and from the fact that given any level of structure, there is a significant form created by intelligence that is greater in its level (and of course vice versa but this is not relevant to the point being made except that sometimes intelligence should seek to change the change-worthy, live in the process of the unchanging, and have the wisdom to know the difference).

The elements

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.

Derivation

The nature of identity, space, and time.

Dimensions

The DIMENSIONS of the way are nature, psyche, civilization and artifact (and technology), and universal process.

Derivation

Nature—primal being and its two primal aspect of being-as-being and being-in-relationship—is primitive to higher forms.

Psyche—the significant aspect of the higher forms: embodied sentient intelligence (it may be thought that there is such a thing as pure not embodied psyche; however, consider that any intelligent psyche must have form and feeling: that form and its support are the body).

Civilization—(1) Multiplication of intelligence (2) Civilization nurtures the individual, the individual fosters civilization, and (3) Civilization is one mode of higher population of the universe: Civilization as the matrix of civilizations across the universe.

Artifact and technology—the instrumental or extrinsic aspects of psyche and civilization

Elements of 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—i.e. pertaining to self or being of the individual, to group, and environment).

Derivation

The means follow from the nature of sentient being—(a) representation and change, i.e. (b) intelligence and form, i.e. (c) ‘mind’ and ‘body’.

The mechanics constitute efficient means and are as explained above.

The ways and catalysts correspond roughly to a division of change or transformation as: (a) continuous / rational-feeling / attitude versus (b) discrete / risk-chance-consolidation / deep-embodied. The ‘versus’ is conceptual—obviously their efficient occurrence is interactive and parallel.

Disciplines and practices are the above as inherited from tradition.

The modes refer to the dimensions of change, especially psyche versus civilization and artifact.

Path

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

This is implemented in EVERYDAY PRACTICE and UNIVERSAL PROCESS (below).

Derivation

These follow from the elements and dimensions arranged according to the present phase of my process.

13. Everyday practice

Rise

1.	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

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

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

Realization

3.	REALIZATION—work, care and meditation (below); action and experiment; ideas; and writing—in process journal (field notes), essays, and publishing (networked and printed).
4.	REGULAR and occasional tasks—morning: do daily morning tasks; do weekly, monthly, and longer term tasks on pre-selected but flexible assigned days (e.g. day before trash pickup).

Meditation-in-action

Meditation-in-action includes practice of meditation that is continuous with living. It is an essential part of realization.

5.	YOGA-THERAPEUTIC EXERCISE-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.

Practical tools for action and meditation

Meditate and act on my ambitions and final goals. Accept pain and joy. My future must be a straight line with no deviations from the universal.

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 be silent and remove myself from negative influence and judgmentalism.

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 and physical yoga

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

Evening and sleep

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

14. Universal process

Table for a system of pure being, ideas, and action

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

Action	Dimension	Details and links. Time and cross phase
Being	The universal: pure being	The ultimate in the present / pure being. Time. All; especially when becoming is sufficient. Cross phases. All; everyday practice.
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, network-shared endeavor (and publishing in printed, www website, and other dramatic and spoken forms…) /civilization: engagement in the world. Time. After the phase in nature begins.
	Artifact	Support, synthesis with organism, independent / artifactual being. Time. After the phase of involvement with civilization begins.

Template for the phases of realization

15. Developing resources

Following are some resources, primarily knowledge for study and development. Details are in a detailed plan for study and action.

Summary

METAPHYSICS—especially process and symbolic; SCIENCES—science as such; concrete and abstract sciences including mathematics and logic; CIVILIZATION, WAYS AND CATALYSTS (note placement of ways… near civilization), ARTIFACT and ART; INSTITUTIONS, PERSONS, PLACES.

Metaphysics

THE METAPHYSICS, metaphysics, foundation and development, language, logic, mereology, adequacy and minimal arrangement of the dimensions, processes, and phases of being and becoming. Some DETAILS: begin with some case studies—e.g., 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 may be useful and suggestive even though it is quite different from the concept of the abstract object in this essay). The metaphysics of natural law is a useful topic that might well go under science below.

Narrative mode and philosophy

See a detailed plan for study and action.

Design and planning

See a detailed plan for study and action.

Science and the sciences

SCIENCE and the SCIENCES—abstract and concrete in relation to realism and possibility: logics as a first approximation. SCIENCE AS SCIENCE, as defined by principles—descriptive, elementary, and adaptive with focus on origins, form, and adaptive systems.

Abstract sciences

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. Some DETAILS. LOGIC: (a) concepts of logic and realism (b) formalism for maximal capture realism and possibilism without paradox, (c) specific topics—propositional and first order predicate calculus, and (d) mathematical logic—proof theory, model theory, set theory, and recursion theory (and relations to theory of computation and category theory); (e) reading: W.V. Quine [Philosophy of Logic, 1986; Methods of Logic, 1982; Mathematical Logic, 1981; Set Theory and its Logic, 1969]. Related topics: the AXIOMATIC theories of sets and MEREOLOGY. FURTHER TOPICS IN MATHEMATICS for the metaphysics: number theory, number systems, transfinite numbers, analysis; algebraic structures; geometries—including non-Euclidean, convex, discrete, topology, homotopy theory, Morse theory; statistics and decision sciences; theoretical computer science.

Concrete sciences

CONCRETE SCIENCES. PHYSICAL SCIENCES and the interface of metaphysics, quantum theory and relativity; physical cosmology; geosciences. BIOLOGY, evolution, and ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS—general theory and application in biology and cosmology. PSYCHOLOGY and social sciences with focus on immersion.

Foundations of ethics and value

Foundations of ETHICS and VALUE with special focus on implications of the metaphysics and the way of being.

Ways and catalysts

Select focus on trans-secular and INTRINSIC MODES of being and transformation—principles of special metaphysics and religion, yoga, Tantra… PRINCIPLES, DISCIPLINES, and PRACTICE (select and focus). 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—some TOPICS: life ways of Buddhism (especially Tibetan) and Hinduism (especially the Gita and Kashmir Saivism); catalysts of physical, isolation (vision quest), death awareness, sacred places, and acting; and (3) UNCONVENTIONAL AND HETERODOX ways and sources. Later—perhaps rewrite the Gita (sources currently not available on the Internet 1, 2, 3). Special focus on CATALYSTS—dreams, hypnosis, meditative states; altered states and CATALYTIC FACTORS.

Civilization

CIVILIZATION. (1) Concepts of civilization (understood in terms of the theory of meaning); 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; artifactual and technological enhancement—support, synthetic, and stand alone. (2) IMMERSION CULTURE—knowledge, sciences of matter, life, society, mind, politics and economics; (3) In relation to the section cosmology > cosmology of life and identity > civilization what is the dynamic of process, realization, problem, opportunity; and (4) Items below—artifact, ways and catalysts, institutions, places, contacts.

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.

Appendix on a fill-in template for the way

Everyday practice

Rise

1.	RISE

Dedication

Dedication.

Affirmation.

Review

2.	REVIEW

Realization

3.	REALIZATION


4.	REGULAR and occasional tasks

Meditation-in-action

Meditation-in-action includes practice of meditation that is continuous with living. It is an essential part of realization.

5.	YOGA-MEDITATE:

Practical tools for action and meditation

Meditate and act on my ambitions and final goals…

Meditate on—own my strength…

Be assertive in discovery, cultivation, and expression of my power…

Be assertive about negative influence…

Meditate on my truth…

Healthy living…

Exercise and physical yoga

6.	EXERCISE

Evening and sleep

7.	EVENING

Universal process

Table for a system of pure being, ideas, and action

Action	Dimension	Details and links. Time and cross phase
Being	The universal: pure being
Ideas—essential to becoming	Knowing
	Design and planning
	Ideas for phases of becoming
Becoming—completes ideas	Everyday practice
	Nature
	Civilization
	Artifact

Template for the phases of realization

Developing resources

Following are some resources, primarily knowledge for study and development. Details are in a detailed plan for study and action.

Summary

Metaphysics

Narrative mode and philosophy

Design and planning

Science and the sciences

Abstract sciences

Concrete sciences

Foundations of ethics and value

Ways and catalysts

Civilization

Artifact and art

Other topics

Institutions, persons, and places

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