To know and live well in the immediate and ultimate worlds is a human endeavor that has appeal for many individuals and has a recognized status in most societies. To search beyond the immediate is a spiritual and pragmatic or materially useful value.

A personal search

A Journey in Being is also the result of a personal search.

Common approaches and their limits

The common approaches are transsecular—via religion; and secular search for meaning with appeal to science, technology, exploration, philosophy, and art.

The general limits of the transsecular are (i) dogma, (ii) limited imagination, (iii) though it has emotional and allegorical meaning, its literal content is rarely confirmed and often contradictory and absurd.

The main limit of the secular is its appeal to science for (i) science is confirmed for at most the empirical world and projection to the entire universe at best speculative, and (ii) the foundational objects of science are posits (hypothetical) and not known to be real.

Together, the secular and transsecular limiting in the extreme of modern views of the world. There may be worlds beyond science and ways of knowing such worlds. Because science is empirically dogmatic (a good requirement when the aim is detailed prediction in the empirical region), to attempt to search beyond is almost automatically rejected in secular thought because of the absurdity of the common transsecular (religious) views.

Study of the trans-empirical region

It follows that there may be a trans-empiric, trans-mythic region.

Is there such a region, do speculation, myth, and science exhaust the means to study and know that so far hypothetical region?

This question was one of the motivations for the developments to follow.

Motive

The main motive, however, has been the question—What is the greatest knowledge and being that may be attained? An implicit question is that of the means of attainment.

Foundation

In this division, (i) except in headings, bold font indicates a definition (ii) Courier New font indicates colloquial use of a defined term.

Being

Being is existence.

In this narrative version—problems of Being are addressed no more than cursorily.

A being is an existent.

The capitalized form ‘Being’ refers to existence; the lower case ‘being’ and ‘beings’ refer to existents.

Being will serve as perfect foundation for understanding and knowledge of the universe. It is able to do because it is real, neutral, and inclusive.

That is, (i) Being is given, not hypothetical; (ii) it is not a special kind such as substance, entity, process, or interaction—it is not a kind at all; and (iii) all that there is falls under Being.

The universe and the void

The universe is all Being.

For the universe, there is no other being and so the is not and cannot be either caused or created by another being.

The void is the null being.

Existence and nonexistence of the void are equivalent.

The void exists.

Law, possibility, and the greatest possibility

A natural law—or law—is a pattern.

The patterns or laws are not necessary; they could be otherwise—i.e., they are ‘contingent’.

Laws have Being—they are beings.

There are no laws of the void.

Possibility is that which may obtain subject to certain constraints.

The greatest possibility is the least restrictive possibility.

The greatest possibility is that for which the constraints are necessary, i.e. are satisfied in all worlds and situations. The fundamental principle of metaphysics

The fundamental principle of metaphysics says that universe is the greatest possible.

This principle, demonstrated below, is also written the fundamental principle and abbreviated FP.

Demonstration—If there is a conceived existent that is possible (in the greatest sense) but does not emerge from the void, that would be a law of the void. Since the void has no laws, all such existents or beings must emerge from the void.

Heuristic understanding of the principle—if the universe has a cause, it cannot be an other being for there is no other. The alternative to material cause is modal—i.e., of possibility an necessity. If the cause is positive or effective, it cannot be mere possibility for that allows that the universe might not be eternally non-manifest. Hence the cause must be necessity. Now, since necessity presumes no particular possible state, e.g. our empirical cosmos, it implies the manifestation of all possibility—i.e., it implies the fundamental principle.

A second heuristic—it is easy to imagine what the next laws of theoretical physics might be like but difficult to know what they will be. What about the laws after the next… and the ultimate laws? That would seem impossible. However, the greatest conceptual boundary of the laws is obvious—it is the fundamental principle.

The demonstrated fundamental principle is consistent (i) internally—i.e. harbors no contradiction (or other violation of logical principle) and (ii) externally—it is consistent with valid experience and valid knowledge of scientific theory and fact.

That is, the fundamental principle conforms to ‘logic’ in which the meaning of logic is extended to include given and necessary fact. But since the greatest possibility cannot be less than logical possibility, the fundamental principle and logic are one (this logic must be logic in its greatest and final sense).

Introduction to consequences of the fundamental principle

The following outlines some consequences of the fundamental principle important to discovery and realization of ultimates in Being.

This brief version of the essay omits most conclusions of practical and metaphysical interest. Where proof is trivial it may be omitted.

Necessity as the cause of the universe

The universe experiences—must experience—manifest and nonmanifest phases.

Necessity is the cause or creative power of the manifest—and nonmanifest—universe.

Ultimate identity and Being of the universe and individuals

The universe has identity. The universe and its identity are limitless in extent, duration, and variety of Being.

The individual inherits the limitlessness of the universe—and so inherits the process of becoming ultimate power.

Individual experience is ever fresh. In peaks of Being, individuals merge as one—as peak identities of the universe.

There are paths to this ultimate from our experience of limited Being in this world.

While the process gives fresh meaning to the terms ‘God’ and ‘Brahman’ and is closer to the latter it is neither; this meaning is ultimate; the lesser meanings as in the religions are realized but insignificant in the universal context. For we are never outside that ultimate and the ultimate is never a final peak but is always peaking and dissolving—and we and the ultimate are always the peak in potential but never a final actual peak.

Is there a best way to conceive and be in this peak identity being? That is—what are the best meanings of the terms ‘God’ and ‘Brahman’? We often think that such words have definite meaning even if we do not know it. But in fact, just as the real itself is forging toward and from peaks, we do the same in the realm of meaning. It is a search in a space of existents and concepts (and signs of concepts). The best meaning must be one that designates an existent. It must recognize the fundamental principle. Therefore, whatever the meaning, God-Brahman, is the greatest possible being and includes the merging of all lesser beings. For the individual, knowing God-Brahman may begin with—feeling part of universal process, seeing that process everywhere, knowing and feeling it to already be ultimate and yet being immediate.

The journeys of realization are ever open.

The death of the individual is real but not absolute. Death is a gate to the ultimate. In this perspective all beings are eternal. There is no non-interaction between eternal beings.

Paths to the ultimate

Though realization is given, there is an imperative to act in a way that is an improvement in effectiveness and enjoyment relative to a merely casual attitude.

There are ecstasy and pain on the way—the universe is not perfect in the common senses of perfection as the best or idyllic or absence of all suffering. Ecstasy and pain are neither to be sought nor avoided (excessively). Even where pain seems unnecessary and unavoidable—as in cancer or the pain of an infant—the good approach seeks calm anticipation of the ultimate.

Though there is value in received secular and transsecular ways they are overvalued in that they both underestimate the extension (‘size’, ‘duration’), variety, and significance of the universe. The received estimates are effectively infinitesimal.

It is important to regard these developments with skepticism or doubt.

The existential meaning of certainty and intuition are that they should stand together with doubt or skepticism.

This openness is a desirable condition of our Being and true condition of our real nature.

The way

The aim

The first aim of the way is to recognize the imperative to realize what is revealed from the fundamental principle.

The central aim of the way is realization of the ultimate from and in the immediate.

The way—reason as the means of realization

What is the way of realization?

We begin with preliminaries—dimensions of Being and tradition and then find the way to be reason.

Dimensions of Being are—will be—a way of describing the world for understanding and instrumental use. In summary, the dimensions are psyche, nature, society, and the universal.

Tradition is (here to be understood as) all that is rationally valid and symbolically valuable in all cultures and secular and transsecular worldviews through history up to the present moment. It includes ways of knowledge and life and catalysts of change.

Reason is the best developed and developing way to know and act in the world and universe.

Foundation of reason is part of reason.

Reason and its in process foundation are immanent in the world, particularly in individuals and cultures. Reason is reflexive and involves the entire being of beings. Its purview includes action.

Reason is the means of realization.

On path templates

The following are two templates for realization—developed from reason, tradition, and the dimensions of Being.

The templates are adapted from personal use. So as to be adaptable, the form is skeletal and generalized. They are intended to be adapted; any specifics should be modified as needed.

An everyday template

Outline

Rise, review, realize, yoga, exercise, exploration, and renewal.

Detail of the everyday template

1. Rise early, dedicate, affirm; morning reflection.

2. Review the day, life, the path or way.

3. Realize: work and relationships, ideas and action, yoga-meditation in practice and in action, tasks and meals.

4. Exercise… and exploration of the world for experience and inspiration.

5. Evening rest, renewal, review, realization, network, community, tasks, preparation for the next day, sleep early.

A universal template

Outline

Pure Being, Ideas, Becoming, and Universal Being.

Detail of the universal template

1. Being—Pure Being… an aim, Being as if timeless and without restriction to place in the present, sharing, community.

2. Ideas—relation, knowing… acting.

3. Becoming—nature as place of Being and catalyst to the real; with psyche.

4. Becoming—civilization and society (culture and its dimensions; instrumental and immersive politics and economics).

5. Becoming—artifact (technology, especially as enhancing Being in the universe).

6. Becoming—universal, unknown.

7. Being—universal… an aim.