The way of being
(the briefest version)

Anil Mitra, © October 16, 2023 – December 7, 2023

Contents

The way of being

There is another take on the briefest version, which, I think, is better than this one. However, I retain this one for its possible later use.

Essence of the way

The universe and its beings are limitless—the realization of all possibility.

Limitlessness implies that the universe has identity and phases between absent and peak manifestation and that all beings merge in the greatest peaks. Though we are eternal, limitlessness in variety implies that our being has ever freshness.

The aim of the way is to show the truth of these assertions, to show their significance, to find and develop pathways from our world to the ultimate, and address the problem of pleasure and pain.

This version

In this brief version, material that is secondary relative to the above aim is at most minimal.

Such material includes sources and acknowledgement, historical context, motivation and explanation, discussion of doubt, further development and elaboration of the ideas, applications to a range of disciplines and human endeavors, and resources.

The world

Our world is the universe seen from the perspective of sapient beings. The world is a continuum from the immediate to the ultimate.

Though emphases are different, the interest of most people lies somewhere on the continuum and on relations among its places. The question arises—how may we know, find, and experience the ultimate and is it worth doing so? Given doubts about both negative and affirmative answers, we ought to begin neutrally.

However, we ought not to be committed to neutrality without end, for there come times when judgment (deciding a good course of action even given limited knowledge) is needed. Further, neutrality cannot be absolute as it ought to include neutrality toward neutrality.

We shall therefore begin with ‘being’ conceived neutrally but remain open to later judgment.

Being

A being is that which is. Being is the property of beings as beings.

A being is an existent; being is existence.

We choose being in this bare sense for it is not a kind and is therefore an open conceptual container for the real (examples of kinds are matter, psyche or mind, and process, which, insofar as they are predefined, may be closed to the real).

The universe is all being.

There is exactly one universe.

The void is the absence of beings. The void exists as a part of every being.

A natural law is a pattern immanent in a being (e.g., a cosmos). Laws have being (are beings). There are no laws of the void.

Given a concept of a being, it is possible if nothing rules out existence of corresponding beings.

If there is nothing in the concept that rules out existence, it is logically possible; and if, further, there is nothing in the nature of the universe that rules out its existence, it has real possibility. Logical possibility is the greatest possibility; it includes all real possibility.

Relative to a subuniverse or cosmos, its possibilities are not necessarily realized in it. For the universe, the real possible and the actual are the same.

All possible beings emerge from the void, for otherwise there would be laws of the void.

The universe is the greatest possible; this is the fundamental principle of metaphysics, ‘fp’.

From the above the greatest possibility is logical possibility.

Experience

Experience is consciousness in all its forms.

The structure of an experience is concept – relation – object being or experience-of – the-experience – the-experienced. There is experience, for even illusory recognition is experience.

The experience-of and the-experienced may be labelled mental and material, which is the source of the perhaps prejudiced concepts of mind and matter.

The experienced may be apparently absent as in pure experience, but even in pure experience there is a potential object.

Experience may be the object—i.e., there is consciousness of consciousness.

A concept meaning is a concept and its possible intended objects; a linguistic meaning is a sign associated with a concept and the possible intended objects (the sign and concept may be simple, complex, or compound); knowledge is meaning realized.

Experience is the place of recognition of all significance and the world and therefore the effective place of our being.

From fp, experience must extend to the root of being.

At the root or ground, ‘experience’ is the primitive element of awareness and consciousness but lacking the richness, acuity, and modalities of animal consciousness. The meaning of concept of experience is thus extended to the ground of being. That is, beings may have experientiality that is zero in magnitude but not null.

The ultimate

The universe is a field of experiential being, abbreviated feb, which, from fp, is ever phasing between the void and peak being (in paths of limitless variety).

Further, the ever in process universe, limitless variety of being and peaking, and in which all beings are experiential and merge in ultimate peaking.

Animal beings are bright, focal, centers of experientiality, which have degrees of binding to and freedom from the environment, which gives them realism and creativity, which includes a critical ability.

We are experiential beings. That we are experiential beings does not imply that we are not material or mental; rather, without analysis, it is neutral to definite concepts of mind and matter.

Pathways

There are paths in and from the immediate to the ultimate, which are intelligent and effective, which are almost always in-process; the way of these paths emphasizes above all our nature as experiential beings—with ‘body’ and ‘mind’.

Generic path practice will emphasize the two sides in interaction. Received ways have such practices, which we ought not to regard as final, but which ought to remain empirical and seen in the light the precise ideal metaphysics which is our conception of the ultimate nature of the universe and our being.

Without understanding and aiming at the ultimate, this world is incomplete, its problems stark, meaning to be found in stop-gap measures such as existentialism.

Even in ultimate understanding, existentialism may of course have value.

An optimal approach to the problems of pleasure and pain is (i) to emphasize sharing effective paths of discovery and realization of the ultimate in the immediate and beyond (ii) recourse to therapeutic practices of the day, informed by knowledge of the ultimate.

Path process is more effective when supplemented by detailed knowledge for which we turn to tradition conceived roughly as our best received knowledge and practice. Though tradition may be in error and imprecise (i) when joined critically and in process to the ideal metaphysics it is a best practice (ii) relative to ultimate realization it is perfect (iii) it is understood that aspects of old tradition and old civilizations may be shed when new tradition, new civilizations (and new cosmoses) improve upon them. The join is named the real metaphysics, which is perfect in the sense stated above.

What tradition shall or ought we to choose? The above considerations give us significant freedom. In the changing world of the 21st century, living in the west, we may choose the modern western academic and intellectual tradition of science, reason, philosophy, art, symbolism, and technology, integrated with elements of eastern traditions, practices, and thought. Though established westernism emphasizes pragmatic materialism, it may be seen through the lens of the universe as a field of being, from which science bifurcates as the sciences of matter, especially physics and biology, the sciences of mind, the social sciences, and metaphysics as universal science.

Given that the universe realizes all possibilities, what is the status of (i) the apparent robustness and at least limited stability of experienced (‘normal’) reality relative to (ii) transient, unstable, and even seemingly bizarre worlds? The status is as follows. All possible worlds occur and are in interaction (which may be zero in magnitude but not null). Paradigms from the received tradition, e.g., variation and selection from biology and probabilistic mechanism from quantum theory, suggest normal reality is effectively preponderant in the universe (of course, normal is not merely that of our world but of hierarchies of stable being from low to our world to peak).

What is the significance of the transient etc. worlds apart from the necessity of their existence? A significance can be found or assigned—they connect the stable worlds.

How may we effectively share the present system of thought and action?

We may (i) improve the thought and language of this document (ii) identify main and indented secondary points (iii) have the especially important (central) points stand out in text and computer presentation (iv) publish and promote the enhanced documents, e.g., in print and as a website (vi) seek to share and invite sharing in the journey. The process will be metaphysics in action which shall unite the traditions as universal in process narrative.

Affirmation

We affirm the identity of our being and ultimate being.

We dedicate ourselves to the way of being—to living in the immediate and ultimate as one—

To shared discovery and realization of the way and the ultimate—under the pure and pragmatic aspects of experiential being as the world on the way to the transparently limitless ultimate,

To shedding the bonds of illusory and conflicted selves so that even in difficulty, life and realization are flow rather than force,

To realizing the ultimate in (and for) this life and beyond, a process version of the transcendent living in the immediate and the ultimate as one.

New world

The world is now seen in a new light—the light of a new world.

Though we are in process in our world, we are ultimate beings in an ultimate sense; our received conceptions of our limitations, such as physical and mental limitations, and birth and death, are real but not absolute. The immediate and the ultimate are interwoven. We look out on the world and see it in a new light, we see it as limitless opportunity and ever fresh; it is a new world.