The Way

(The Way of Being: A Manual)

Anil Mitra, © AUGUST 2015—September 2015

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CONTENTS

Introduction  1

Ideas  2

Being  2

Realism   3

Cosmology  5

The way  8

Elements of being  8

Everyday process  10

Universal process  10

Resources and resource development 11

Introduction

The Way of Being is discovery of the real and realization of its highest forms for beings and civilization. To immerse in the process we turn to paradigmatic views of the world, of reason, of what is worth achieving, and how to achieve it.

SECULARISM is non-religious; its source of knowledge and reason is experience so far; so, though it is widely seen as essentially complete, it is crucial that it is consistent with very different worlds, natural laws, REASON beyond ours. TRANS-SECULARISM, metaphysical and religious, tends to limited imagination and / or invalid literalism. The paradigms deny the potentially vast unknown or view it dogmatically.

The approach here stands above the modern divide. A key: (1) There is some certain knowledge, e.g., there are beings; there is a universe; and possibility is definable; and (2) These seeming trivialities are deep in implication. Ideas proves a new, visionary, ultimate universal metaphysics (METAPHYSICS is knowledge of the real), which incorporates and goes far beyond what is valid in the world paradigms and their PRIMAL sources—it is the envelope of all true views. It gives prominence to the local, the ultimate, and their mesh. It is deployed toward a way of realization of the ultimate in The Way. Essentials at the beginnings of divisions are overview. Resources suggest development for understanding and realization.

The new view may seem counterintuitive and inconsistent with common experience and views. However, its truth and its consistency and continuity with what is valid in common views are shown. The apparent conflict may be resolved by familiarization and attention to meaning and proof.

This is not a step by step manual. It provides essential information for a design for discovery and realization by individuals, cultures, and civilizations. Online resources have references and further topics.

Imagination and reason are critical to realization. Here you will find new light on imagination and criticism. I encourage you to allow yourself the greatest freedom in both.

Ideas

Essentials. The immediate and the ultimate interpenetrate each other; the realizations of individuals, civilizations, and the universe have no limit. While in limited form realization is ever in process. The ideas become complete only in entering The Way.

In this division * marks essential content.

Being

* The UNIVERSE is the whole world over all difference and its absence. There is exactly one universe.

* A BEING or object is the universe or part of it, ascertained only in knowing. A vital issue—what concepts define beings?

* BEING is the property common to all beings. There is being. From this, being and related ideas key foundation for the Ideas and The Way. Beings are not being; they HAVE BEING. To have being is to EXIST. The universe is all being; it exists.

* The VOID is the null being or absence of being. It is unclear so far whether the void exists.

POWER, ability to have an affect, ascertains being when direct knowledge is unclear. Thus POTENTIAL has being, even if unsubstantial. As potential of something that has had being to REMANIFEST, NONBEING has being.

A conceived state—simple or compound, conceptual including perceptual—is POSSIBLE for a being if its obtaining does not violate the constitution of the being (context). A state that obtains, called ACTUAL, is possible. Possibility is LOGICAL—of logos, word, or concept—when the only constraints on obtaining inhere in the concept. Logical possibility is not a limit on the world. REAL possibility, over and above the logical, is marked by constraints that inhere in beings or objects. Logical possibility is the most LIBERAL—a state cannot be real but not logical. UNIVERSAL possibility has the universe as being. Some sub-contexts of universal, and so of the logical, are marked by NATURAL LAWS (e.g., of our cosmos)—which are true LIMITS or constraints and define NATURAL (e.g. PHYSICAL) possibility. As PATTERNS, natural laws have being. We later distinguish SENTIENT versus NON-SENTIENT possibility.

The following inclusions for possibility and actuality obtain. Let ‘>’ be ‘includes’ and ‘³’ be ‘includes or is the same’. Then: logical ³ universal ³ natural ³ physical. It is normally expected but not given that (a) the first inclusion is ‘>>’ or ‘is far more inclusive than’ and (b) all but the last are ‘>’. What actually holds? We now turn attention to this question.

Realism

* If the universe is in a non manifest (void) state, there are no laws. Therefore, any logically possible state must emerge from that void state for the contrary would be a law.

* But the void state is present with the universe and all beings (being + void = being). It follows that the universe is the realization of all possibility; or, universal and logical possibility are identical. I call the above demonstrated assertion (in italics) the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF METAPHYSICS, and abbreviate it fundamental principle or FP.

Emergence from the void shows that the void has power—and therefore being. Except that there is at least one, the number of voids is without clear significance.

FP implies identity of the logically possible and the universal actual. It implies that the truth of the inclusions about possibility and actuality is (1) logical = universal = limitless, and (2) in a NORMAL sense in which our cosmos and its laws are more or less as we know them per valid TRADITION (cultures from origins to the present time), logical = universal >> cosmological and natural.

* In plain terms FP implies (1) the universe has no limits (logic is a constraint on concepts for realization but not a limit on the universe) but (2) in a normal sense our cosmos is limited—infinitesimal in comparison to the universe. The meaning of ‘normal’ includes that what we regard as necessary or impossible from cumulative experience of our cosmos (i.e. excluding logical NECESSITY and impossibility), are merely (normally) very PROBABLE or very improbable.

Let us enquire into the nature of logic. Traditional logics exemplify it, at least approximately. With logic and science, constraints inhere in concepts; in science, they inhere also in objects. But the concept-cum-percepts (facts) of science may be seen as logical where conclusion is premise. This suggests that in regarding laws of nature as facts on limited domains—not universal hypotheses, SCIENCE and LOGIC join in a new concept: LOGIC (capitalized). But tradition sees logic as deductive, science as inductive. The contrast resolves in observing that arrival at logics and sciences is inductive (particular to general), but inference under both is deductive (general to particular). The distinction remains but may be indefinite. Here, then, we find Logic as (1) constraint for possibility that inheres in concept-percepts such that Logical possibility = universal actuality and possibility, (2) in process, and (3) a join of logic and science. Later, Logic is seen to include mathematics—see abstract objects.

The object of Logic, so understood, is the universe—the real. * That is, REALISM obtains in the sense that Logic and the real are concept and object. * Another term for this realism shall be UNIVERSAL METAPHYSICS or the metaphysics. Let us flesh it out. Its PURE part (logic as the only constraint the concepts), pure metaphysics, shows the limitlessness of the universe; and, since its primitive founding objects are known precisely, its EPISTEMIC criterion may be perfect faithfulness. Valid pragmatic science and tradition—cumulative experience—are locally and approximately faithful but this is all that is needed (or possible in so far as our form is limited). It is perfect from the point of view of adequacy and instrumentality in negotiation in and just beyond the normal to the universal. The pure and the pragmatic form a joint system: the pure frames, clarifies, extends, and is fleshed by the pragmatic; their criteria are perfectly adapted: each to its ends and both jointly to the metaphysics and The Way.

* The POTENCY of being includes avoiding common paradigmatic prejudices. Development so far shows potency. As the pure and the pragmatic, each on its criteria, are perfectly of the real, the FOUNDATION is perfect. Contrary to post-enlightenment criticism, there is potent metaphysics as knowledge of being. Its source is its choice of ‘categories’—being, universe, beings, void, possibility, and pragmatism.

* It is clear that many significant consequences follow trivially from FP. We will not give PROOF that is TRIVIAL—this should be remembered in reading what follows.

FP resolves issues of the concrete and the abstract. FP: every logical concept has an object. Consequences: no essential difference between CONCRETE and ABSTRACT objects (beings); REALISMS—LOGICAL, MATHEMATICAL, and SCIENTIFIC—on par (every Logical concept has an object, so mathematical systems are sciences of abstract forms which are real and in Platonic worlds as parts of the one universe); all content—perhaps neither literal nor explicit, e.g. art—that has possible objects has real objects; * DEATH as real but not absolute—as reminder that this life is no less significant than the ultimate and so to live well; * the ultimate abstract is a RECEPTACLE of disposition to being, of memory and identity of beings. * Local science is valid in its domain but otherwise limited—in transcending a cosmos, it shed snakeskin like; religions may be allegorically real and socially significant but premature when interpreted literally; which suggests * THE WAY OF BEING, the aim of wholeness, of real religion, as discovery-realization of immediate-ultimate being by limited being using all elements of being.

Cosmology

* The universe is a field of being and SUBSTANTIAL beings (entities, processes, relations…) are its concentrations.

In referring to knowing, experience and meaning were implicit; in talk of power, the meanings are extended. This will now be justified.

* EXPERIENCE is subjective awareness in all its forms (this is distinct from other uses, e.g. as in cumulative experience and is related to sentience, awareness, and consciousness). Experience seems ephemeral but FP implies a fundamental sense in which it is essence of and coextensive with being. Treatment here avoids complications of SUBSTANCE i.e., of ad hoc notions as real; and eliminates equivocation from not having FP.

A CONCEPT (mental content including the percept) and its OBJECTS constitute REFERENTIAL MEANING (here discussion of meaning is minimal; see the online resources for detail). Referential LINGUISTIC MEANING associates a pure or compound sign with concept-object; pure signs cannot have intrinsic meaning; compound signs may have meaning in virtue of their structure. This concept of meaning is essential to possibility, adequacy, and definiteness of meaning. E.g., it was crucial in defining Logic and science; it may key resolution of semantic and other paradoxes.

* The real world is of and contains experience; pure experience is potentially real; experience is relationship; it is the place of AGENCY and SIGNIFICANCE but is not all significance; subject and object meet in experience—yet experience is one.

* The SIGNIFICANT UNIVERSE is a field of experience (in the extended meaning) and sentient beings are its concentrations.

* All peaks of form are (also) available to sentient form. We might expect (apart from FP) that all actuality >> sentient actuality; however given any form there is a greater sentient form (and vice versa). The universe of sentience and significance has no limit; it is effectively the universe.

* It is only in sentience that there are pain and joy; and so it is in and only in sentience that there is pain, its sometimes temporal non-overcoming, its universal release and overcoming into JOY (bliss) and dissolution.

* We regard MEDITATION as practice in, alignment with, and YOGA (yoke or join) to the real; the ideal is when being-process in the present and ultimate are the same; this is broader than the traditional sense—e.g., it includes science and philosophy and their ‘methods’ as special cases.

General cosmology

DIFFERENCE is the most elementary pattern; the oneness of the universe is over the modes of difference. IDENTITY is (sense of) SAMENESS of person or object. Difference with and without identity mark TIME (duration) and SPACE (extension), respectively and are thus the modes of difference. Difference (spacetime) is IMMANENT in the world, is not absolute, has and is of being. Identity is transparent when local: space-time-identity (matter) does not always separate into its components. Where identity is absent, so is spacetime.

* The universe has identity. Its manifestation and identity have no limits—especially to their variety, peaks, extension, and duration; they cycle endlessly—without simple periodicity—with acute, diffuse, and non-manifest phases; the process is clearly non causal in a traditional sense of connected CAUSE; beyond and coextensive with ours, there are cosmoses, natural laws, physical and living forms without end or limit; these occur meshed to a void-transient background; some occurrences have non-universal mechanisms; every atom is a cosmos, every cosmos an atom; individuals and civilizations inherit these powers—while in limited form realization is eternal process and endeavor; local civilizations merge with universal civilization and being; discovery and realization beyond a cosmos—beyond the normal—is limitless but eternal journey. Individuals realize the ultimate but only in overcoming limited form—in becoming BRAHMAN (Upanishad) or AETERNITAS (Thomas Aquinas). Except as process even these are only local peaks.

What has been called the ‘fundamental question of being’—the question of why there is manifest being at all—is trivially resolved; it is replaced by the new fundamental question, What has being—i.e., what is the true relation between ideas and the world? There is a sense in which all questions, even the most fundamental, have this form (see the discussion of abstract objects). Even the how of becoming is being.

General cosmology does not follow strict substance metaphysics—fixed kinds, no emergence. In monism experience and being are coupled through and through; in dualism their interaction is inexplicable. In general cosmology the kinds may occur independently but will and must occasionally merge and emerge—and thus the kinds are not substances. Our cosmos normally approximates monism.

Cosmology of form

* There is no universal mechanism of origin of form. There are one and multi-step origins. Biology suggests a mechanism: indeterminist variation, then selection of adaptive states and a rough optimum step size: if too large, the probability of a non viable organism is high; if too small, larger steps achieve more. From FP, this kind of ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS origin is a general though not obviously universal kind; it is indeterminist in one sense though causal in a general sense but not the common sense of cause; it gives an explanation of some populations of the universe (in terms of the product of frequency of origins and longevity or relative stability); it is an explanation of the origin of our forms, causes, and laws. There may be other kinds of explanation; but, relative to origin of form from non form it would seem that any mechanism or adequate explanation must involve INDETERMINISM for novelty and DETERMINISM for form.

Generally increase in function has some proportion to increase in form; a SINGULAR EVENT is one in which an increase in form results in a disproportionately great increase in function. FP implies that there must be such events; a mechanism may be found in adaptive systems with self-reference; such events may explain many transitions from the origin of life from complex molecules, to the origin of human and linguistic intelligence, to a hypothesized and perhaps imminent immense leap in and speculated dominance of machine, computational, and networking intelligence.

* Some pertinent forms or DIMENSIONS of being and PHASES of growth are the primitive ground or NATURE (elementary and higher), INDIVIDUAL and PSYCHE (embedded experience, divided roughly into heart as EMOTION and mind as COGNITION), LOCAL CIVILIZATION (its being and instruments, e.g. artifact and technology) and UNIVERSAL AND ULTIMATE BEING-CIVILIZATION (peak and immersed-immediate-pure).

The way

This division is an approach and guide to realization, founded in the Ideas. Its essence is to join the metaphysics with what is valid in traditional and modern disciplines of transformation. This results in an instrument for discovery and realization. Once the ideas are adequately absorbed, the main task is to begin the process. In thought we conceive ultimate ends; in acting we begin the process of realization.

Attitude

We may and should have DOUBT about the universal metaphysics. However, it is internally consistent and consistent with all we know (valid tradition). Its argument is at least highly plausible, e.g. from the proof itself; and as a form of OCKHAM’S PRINCIPLE it is minimal regarding what is not in the universe.

We therefore adopt universal metaphysics as an EXISTENTIAL ATTITUDE—valuable in itself and one that affords the greatest probable outcome of life in the immediate and the ultimate.

While accepting temporal limits this side of death—i.e. while living in this world, we also live and act in and toward the ultimate.

Elements of being

The AIM of The Way is to know and realize significance—to know the range of being and to realize its highest immediate and ultimate forms for all beings and civilization.

The aim has an obvious ethical dimension. However, the metaphysics shows and common reason suggests that the ethical, the epistemic, and the metaphysical are interwoven. Ethics is an element of the whole, already woven in. Here, it is enough to say that ETHICS is driven by ‘heart’, channeled by thought or ‘mind’, and encoded in culture.

The way of being was stated earlier in terms of elements. The ELEMENTS of The Way—of being and becoming—are dimension (and association with place) above; process in time, and relationship or interaction.

Elements of PROCESS are MEANS (ideas, choice, action); CATALYSTS and WAYS (fracturing-revealing vs. integrating-illuminating; ways, e.g. religion, have catalysts such as sensory deprivation and one pointed meditation); intrinsic, cultural, and instrumental MODES (individual, civilization), DISCIPLINES and PRACTICES; and IMMERSION in LOCAL and UNIVERSAL PROCESS.

A MECHANICS of The Way spells out the means of realization. The mechanics, here, always under discovery and self-examining, is an active component of the metaphysics. It is incremental in small and significant steps: in seeing-choosing-risking action-consolidating and / or revaluating consolidating in search of significance and the ultimate. It employs and develops The Way and catalysts and ways. It has a core of intelligent and feeling or passionate COMMITMENT.

Path

All being is ever on the path if only implicitly. It is sometimes consciously on the path with a view to DESTINY—what can desirably be designed and affected. As individuals and civilizations peak they are a stage of ultimate realization; in death and decay they transact with and dissolve into the receptacle of eternal being. The greatest cultivation of the present occasion of being is crucial: in the singular case (this life seen as the only life) it is the occasion; in the eternal case, the alternative is as if condemned to eternal ennui.

The focus of everyday process is living in the immediate as in the ultimate. It is a process. The focus of universal process is living in the immediate for and with openness to the ultimate. It too is a process.

It is crucial that the everyday and the universal reflect each other and both reflect the immediate and the ultimate.

The path of being so far

An evaluation of The Way of Being—the ideas are relatively complete but always under review. The ultimate is given to all being but normally only felt, seen, or potential in ‘this life’—transformation is ongoing.

Everyday process

The everyday and universal process templates are intended as adaptable to a range of situations; entries are examples.

Universal process

The actions and dimensions in the table are sufficiently complete. The details show a program of my design; here they are intended as illustrative and suggestive.

Resources and resource development

General resources. Resources are instrumental in discovery and realization. Listing resources enables their use and cultivation; the latter is a process of improvement, addition, and elimination. Here, I outline some kinds of resources and topics for development. For details see the longer manual and essential way of being.

Kinds of resource. Breadth of experience and knowledge and practice; processes of knowledge and practice, approached reflexively (i.e. in which the process or method itself is an element of the unknown or partially known). The tradition, cultivation of ideas and experience, and the dimensions of being—nature, psyche, civilization, being and the universal.

Topics for discovery and realization (focus is always general and broad but there is particular focus on what arises as useful in the process). Metaphysics; narrative mode and philosophy; design and planning; science and the sciences; abstract sciences; concrete sciences; foundations of ethics and value; catalysts and ways; civilization; artifact and art; other topics; institutions, networking, persons, and places; publication, sharing, and influence; and experience.

Online sources. The Way of Being website.