The Way of Being

Anil Mitra © 2002—2023

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Preface

The Way of Being is understanding and realizing the ultimate in, for, and from the immediate world.

As I see it as having significant new thought, the work is offered as a contribution in metaphysics, reason, and ways of life. Its sources are in experience and the history of thought through the present, western and eastern.

This article is a template for The Way of Being (2023).

Each section has a summary in the color of this paragraph, which is followed by a set of topics.

Main points of the summaries are bold.

The way in

It will be shown that—the universe is limitless and phases in and out of peak or ultimate being, in which all beings merge. There are effective and efficient paths to the ultimate, which weave together elements of intelligence and agency, especially pain and pleasure. The way of being develops understanding of the limitlessness of the universe, the ultimate nature of all beings, and pathways to the ultimate.

Being

The use of being as conceived here empowers understanding of the world as ultimate or limitless.

Metaphysics

As limits on the universe and beings are manifest, the nonmanifest (the void) has no limits; therefore, the nonmanifest and all beings, particularly the universe and beings with agency, are limitless. Some consequences are—

The universe has identity. The universe and its identity are limitless in variety, measure (extension and duration), and peak and dissolution of being. All beings merge as one in the peaks.

From the perspective of eternity or beyond measure, we are already limitless, and it remains but to see and experience it.

There are intelligent and effective pathways to the ultimate in and from the immediate.

A realistic meaning for the word ‘God’ is the peaking-dissolving process of the universe—a process of which all beings are a part.

Therefore, if enjoyment as appreciation of all elements of cognition and feeling is a core value, it is an imperative to be on a path to the ultimate—in, for, and from our world.

On doubt—as the demonstration above is rational in nature and not directly empirical, doubt is natural. Further, the magnitude of the conclusions makes doubt imperative. Despite doubt, the metaphysics is consistent with experience and reason. Therefore, the following attitudes to the metaphysics are appropriate (i) limitlessness of the universe and all beings as a powerful postulate (ii) the limitlessness as an existential principle of thought and action (iii) as a conceptual and instrumental framework toward understanding the universe and realization of ultimate being.

Cosmology

We are experiential beings in the universe which is a field of experiential being; that is—the means of realization are experiential and instrumental, i.e., of mind and matter, i.e., meditative and material in their most general senses.

Realization

For affirmation, dedication, and pathways visit the path template (https://www.horizons-2000.org/2021/narratives/templates%20and%20dedication.pdf). The templates will have both generic but adaptable pathways and specific programs of action.

Epilogue

We now see the world with a new vision. We live in the present for our being in-the-world and as ground-to-the-ultimate.

Appendix I. Resources – vocabulary

The vocabulary is one of a number of planned resources.

Appendix II. Categories of being

As understood here, the categories of being are kinds and aspects of being that are instrumental in understanding and negotiating the world. The motivation for this conception and how it relates and encompasses the traditional one is explained in the details of this section.

Appendix III. Plan

The document shall be reviewed for completeness, minimality, essence, and material to be placed in secondary documents and linked.

The Way of Being

Preface

The Way of Being is understanding and realizing the ultimate in, for, and from the immediate world.

The understanding is metaphysical, based on reason and experience.

As I see it as having significant new thought, the work is offered as a contribution in metaphysics, reason, and ways of life. Its sources are in experience and the history of thought through the present, western and eastern.

This article is a template for The Way of Being (2023).

Each section has a summary in the color of this paragraph, which is followed by a set of topics.

Main points of the summaries are bold.

The first main section, the way in, motivates and has an overview of the way of being. The narrative stands as a whole and interconnections are emphasized.

Appendix I. Resources – vocabulary lists important concepts and their interconnections.

Appendix II. Categories of being is conceptually important to metaphysics and realization but because it is somewhat theoretical, it is currently placed in an appendix. The categories may be placed in a separate article.

Appendix III. Plan is a temporary section maintained while drafting the article.

The way in

In a quest for realization, we will find received worldviews and lifeways to have local but not final truth. We will find the universe and its beings to be limitless—that what we experience as limits are real but not absolute. The following defines an essence of this view.

It will be shown that—the universe is limitless and phases in and out of peak or ultimate being, in which all beings merge. There are effective and efficient paths to the ultimate, which weave together elements of intelligence and agency, especially pain and pleasure. The way of being develops understanding of the limitlessness of the universe, the ultimate nature of all beings, and pathways to the ultimate.

Preliminary, motivation—what people want—survival, contentment, seeking

Preview—what the way of being is, the universe as the greatest possible

Overview—with strategy and worldviews (secular and transsecular), consistency, truth, and implications for a picture of the universe, limits – real but not absolute, reflexivity – method and content are one, transparency – no myth of the deep, the mystery is the world

Sources and origins—received views, history, experience, retreat, meaning and meanings

Metacontent—logic of the structure, reading the narrative

Being

Though the concept of being is critical to the way, its summary is not essential to basic understanding. Any valid reference of the verb to be (e.g., ‘is’), in all its inclusive and specific senses, is a being; and being is the characteristic of beings as beings. When we assign the contents of the world kinds of being such as mind or matter, it assists understanding. On the other hand, it also hinders understanding as far as mind or matter are not truly real or not perfectly understood. This hindrance is not serious in day-to-day matters. However, for true understanding, which is essential in moving beyond the immediate, the hindrance is serious. It is here that the neutrality and inclusivity of being are essential. As conceived above, being is just ‘what there is’ and will therefore not lead to error as mind and matter do.

In the history of understanding, ‘being’ has been used in other senses—e.g., in referring to the essence or richness of the world or of beings that are capable of understanding and meaning. A potential problem with the elementary conception of being used here is that while understanding will be true it will be flat. This is not necessarily a problem for the present use of being provides a precise framework that may be filled in with essence or richness as it may emerge.

In fact, it will be found that—

The use of being as conceived here empowers understanding of the world as ultimate or limitless.

And that the understanding itself is ultimate in depth or foundation; and while it is not ultimate in breadth or variety of being for beings while limited in form, it is (i) ultimate in for limited beings in showing that the variety is limitless (ii) it has perfection according to criteria that emerge with development of the way of being.

Being (primary and secondary use—the primary use is in the sense of bare existence, which is a container for secondary uses of ‘being’ as what is essential to the nature and richness of the universe, and how the division into primary and secondary uses empowers precision and richness), meaning (existential, i.e., of being, ‘of life’), beings, abstraction (and how, with sufficient abstraction, the abstracted concepts are precise), the universe (its existence is given), the void (its existence is shown later), laws (that laws exist in the same sense as existence of beings), the void has no laws

Metaphysics

As limits on the universe and beings are manifest, the nonmanifest (the void) has no limits; therefore, the nonmanifest and all beings, particularly the universe and beings with agency, are limitless. Some consequences are—

The universe has identity. The universe and its identity are limitless in variety, measure (extension and duration), and peak and dissolution of being. All beings merge as one in the peaks.
The trajectory of individuals across the universe is not a mere recycling of limited identities.
Ours is one of limitlessly many cosmoses of limitless variety in form, particularly physical law; the end of our cosmos and the beginning of the rest of the universe is arbitrary but may be regarded as defined by limits of our observation; all cosmoses are in contact with one another and the void (the nonmanifest).
Every cosmos is an atom and every atom a cosmos.
From the perspective of eternity or beyond measure, we are already limitless, and it remains but to see and experience it.
No element of agency—aware experience, intelligence, feeling, pleasure, pain and more—is avoidable.
There are intelligent and effective pathways to the ultimate in and from the immediate.
But if we do not transcend limits, including those of birth and death, in this life, limits will be transcended outside the measure of our present being—including in travel across the cosmoses.
A realistic meaning for the word ‘God’ is the peaking-dissolving process of the universe—a process of which all beings are a part.
In the ways, pleasure is to be primarily sought in the path, pain addressed by therapy integrated into the path and by commitment to the world and to realization.
Therefore, if enjoyment as appreciation of all elements of cognition and feeling is a core value, it is an imperative to be on a path to the ultimate—in, for, and from our world.

On doubt—as the demonstration above is rational in nature and not directly empirical, doubt is natural. Further, the magnitude of the conclusions makes doubt imperative. Despite doubt, the metaphysics is consistent with experience and reason. Therefore, the following attitudes to the metaphysics are appropriate (i) limitlessness of the universe and all beings as a powerful postulate (ii) the limitlessness as an existential principle of thought and action (iii) as a conceptual and instrumental framework toward understanding the universe and realization of ultimate being.

Metaphysics as understood here—knowledge of the real, strength of the concept and relation to received conceptions. A fundamental issue is whether anything can be known or said about the real, let alone whether a true and complete account can be given. This skepticism, characteristic of philosophy since Kant, is dominant today (but there are realist schemes of metaphysics in the literature); doubt (and reflexive doubt of doubt). The response here is (i) in many fundamental problems of our pictures of the world and of knowledge, a tacit metaphysics is presumed and therefore there is value to developing explicit systems (especially when this is not done the tacit and open metaphysics is vague and leads to vagueness and uncertainty of answers) (ii) we can and do develop a precise ultimate metaphysical framework which is filled in with pragmatic knowledge and though the pragmatic is imperfect by two common received criteria of universality and precision, it has perfection according to emergent criteria of being instrumental toward effective realization of the ultimate.

Existence of the void (implied by a true dialetheia or paradox), limitlessness of all beings from the void to the universe

Essential elementary consequences for beings, peak being, and cosmology—the universe and its identity; variety, extension, duration, and peak of being; cosmological systems, background

Possibility; conceptual and real possibility, logic and logical possibility, the greatest possibility; all beings – void to universe – merge in peak being

The abstract metaphysics; limits are real but not absolute; the immediate and the ultimate

The real metaphysics (or just the metaphysics); dynamic join of the abstract metaphysics and pragmatic knowledge; perfection in terms of emergent criteria; proof

Value—ethics and aesthetics—ultimate and proximate; the ultimate value of realizing peak or ultimate being in, from, and for the immediate is a framework for local value

Developments in metaphysics—what metaphysics is and its inclusivity, what a problem of metaphysics is, what the essential problems of metaphysics are (historical and current), and implications of the real metaphysics for these issues; solution schemas for the problems with and without the metaphysics

Cosmology

Experience is understood as conscious awareness in all its forms; the form of experience is mind (experience of, or concept) – meaning (the experiencing relationship, the concept-object) – matter (the experienced, or object) in dynamic change (here ‘mind’ and ‘matter’ are labels, not substances); from the limitlessness of the world, the very root of being is (primitively) experiential in kind (its level of experience may be zero in fact but not null in kind).

We are experiential beings in the universe which is a field of experiential being; that is—the means of realization are experiential and instrumental, i.e., of mind and matter, i.e., meditative and material in their most general senses.

…which are two sides of agency for which we use the suggestive label ‘yoga’.

I repeat—‘mind’ and ‘matter’ are labels, not substances; in particular, mind has experience of mind and thus presents with mind- and matter-like sides; and what we label matter has, as it was seen, mind—i.e., matter has experientiality that may be zero in magnitude but is not null in experiential kind; and so, matter, too, presents with both mind- and matter-like sides.

Metaphysics vs cosmology—while metaphysics emphasizes principles, cosmology is about content—i.e., the shape of being and the universe. However, the distinction is porous and metaphysics merges with cosmology.

Experience (immediate and extended meanings); significance and the place of being; concept, relationship, object (intrinsic and instrumental aspects of being / beings); no further kind in the object, experience series; meaning (conceptual, linguistic), and knowledge (emphasizes knowledge that, i.e., factual, but also acknowledges know how)

Interpretations and their reality (or otherwise)

Agents of knowledge, value, appreciation, for our world in itself and on the way to the ultimate

We are experiential beings in the universe as a field of experiential being

Categories—pure and pragmatic dimensions and paradigms of being; see Appendix I

Formal cosmology—general; cosmology of form and formation, and of cause as a contingent aspect of form; identity, situation, spacetimebeing (no further markers of situation), properties – issue of; physical cosmology and cosmologies

Beings and their realizations; ways—mechanism, design, chance, spontaneity, and necessity

Pathways to the ultimate, in and from the immediate

Realization

For affirmation, dedication, and pathways visit the path template (https://www.horizons-2000.org/2021/narratives/templates%20and%20dedication.pdf). The templates will have both generic but adaptable pathways and specific programs of action.

Aim, dedication, and affirmation

Means—instruments of realization—intrinsic and instrumental

Pathways, programs (in the categories of being), and templates

Therapy

Sources and resources—the resources include a vocabulary, pathway templates, lessons for and from development of the way, and more

Though it has sources in western and eastern thought, this work is offered as a contribution in metaphysics and ways of life.

Epilogue

We now see the world with a new vision. We live in the present for our being in-the-world and as ground-to-the-ultimate.

Our written story is a cumulative venture whose essence ought to be captured and refreshed—so that we will be freed rather than weighed down by our history of thought and exploration.

Return—being in the world, immediate and ultimate; immersion; sharing ideas and realization; publishing

A universal story—the real metaphysics is a framework; the essential narrative

Appendix I. Resources – vocabulary

The vocabulary is one of a number of planned resources.

Introduction

The vocabulary or glossary is a system of concepts for the way of being, especially its metaphysics and pathways.

The concepts are classed, roughly rather than precisely, as (i) existential (for direct use and living) vs foundational (for how we know what we assert and associated degree of certainty) (ii) basic (core, categorial) vs supporting (supporting, illustrative, lower level).

The treatment of each concept will be (a) what it is—definition and explanation, alternate and related meanings, reasons for the present choice (‘what it is’ is reflexive, for meaning itself is among the concepts) (b) the significance of the concept—what its importance is (c) how it relates to other concepts—vertically or horizontally or both, and how it fits into the total meaning, i.e., the meaning of the system of concepts and truth.

The vocabulary

In the initial system below, terms in small capitals are both core and existential.

Source—meaning (existential, of being, of life), purpose, human motivation, worldviews—secular vs transsecular and transcendent but inclusive, limitlessness—limits as real but not absolute.

Being—being (primary and secondary use), abstraction, beings, the universe, the void (the nonmanifest), laws.

Metaphysics—metaphysics, paradox, limitlessness, doubt, identity, peak being, cosmological system(s), background.

Possibility—possibility, conceptual vs real possibility, logical possibility, the greatest possibility.

The real metaphysics—perfect abstract metaphysics; pragmatic metaphysics; the real metaphysics as their dynamic join, perfection in terms of emergent criteria.

Systematic metaphysics—metaphysics, its nature, problems, and solution schemas.

Cosmology—experience, significance, concept, relation, object; experiential beings; meaning (conceptual, linguistic), language(including ‘grammar of being’ etc.) and knowledge; interpretation (and the real); agency; field of experiential being; categories; formal cosmology, cosmologies; realization, ways; pathways (to the ultimate).

Realization—aim of being, means—intrinsic and instrumental; pathways, programs, and templates; therapy; sources.

Epilogue—return, being-in-the-world (universe); universal story (narrative).

Appendix II. Categories of being

As understood here, the categories of being are kinds and aspects of being that are instrumental in understanding and negotiating the world. The motivation for this conception and how it relates and encompasses the traditional one is explained in the details of this section.

Though the categories are important to metaphysics and its use, this summary is not necessary to basic understanding of the way of being. In metaphysics, a system of categories is a complete list of the highest kinds of being, just under being itself in inclusiveness. As far as metaphysics is incomplete or indefinite, a system of categories will also be incomplete or indefinite. Early in the history of metaphysics, the categories were realist—i.e., intended to characterize the main kinds or properties of being. With Immanuel Kant, skepticism about knowledge of the real, led to seeing categories as our highest scheme of concepts in cognition of the world. Recently, skepticism about possibility, uniqueness, and completeness, has led to a perhaps lesser role in which categorial distinctions are intended to help avoid various philosophical confusions.

However, metaphysics and categories are and ought to be co-emergent. Here, we extract a system of categories from the real metaphysics. Its rationality derives from the rationality of the metaphysics. Further, as the metaphysics is an instrument of cognition, so are the categories. Given the abilities and limits of human form, the metaphysics is complete with regard to depth (knowledge of limitlessness) but not breadth (knowledge of variety—but note that we do know that the variety is limitless). The categories inherit the same limitlessness and limits. The intent here is not just that the categories should be a system of classification, but that shall also be instruments of cognition and exploration of being and the universe.

The categories occur at three levels—being itself, the abstract ultimate, and the pragmatic which is our human knowledge of details of the world. At present the system recognizes three kinds—kind of being; kind of necessity of existence; kind of form, formation, and patterning (useful in negotiating the world). At the level of being itself and the abstract, formation and patterning merge as one; at the level of the pragmatic, i.e., of our world, they have distinction.

One conception is that a system of categories of being is a “complete list of the highest kinds of being”—the highest kinds just under being itself. In order to be systematic, the system would not be an ad hoc listing but (i) would be derived from principles such as adequacy to describe the universe, i.e., metaphysical, conceptual, or linguistic kinds (which have overlap) (ii) would be reflexive in that knowledge itself is a kind and in that kinds of kinds would be at least entertained (iii) going beyond the descriptive, would recognize patterns that make description efficient or that enable efficient negotiation of the world.

In recent thought, skepticism over the possibility of any complete, unique, or well-founded ontological or conceptual scheme of categories (see categories from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), has led to a more modest metaphysical role for categories. The main modern emphasis is on drawing categorial distinctions that “diagnose and avoid various philosophical problems and confusions”.

If one were to be successful in developing a complete and precise systematic metaphysics, it would have a categorial system, which would be co-emergent with the metaphysics itself. Skepticism about the possibility of a categorial system is skepticism about the possibility of systematic metaphysics.

The real metaphysics is not a complete and systematic metaphysics. Rather, it has two parts (a) an ideal-abstract but perfectly real, precise, and systematic framework at the highest level, which specifies the nature of the universe in outline (it is an ultimate specification of an ultimate universe); this part may be regarded as complete-in-principle; the framework is accessible to all beings with what we regard as ordinary human intellect and imagination, provided there is a sufficiently critical attitude toward the critical canon (b) for limited beings, the framework is filled in by their pragmatic knowledge, which is imperfect by received criteria; further, as far as the pragmatic knowledge is not universal or necessary, this part has an ad hoc character. However, the entire system has perfection by the emergent criterion of an efficient and effective means of realization of the ultimate.

Thus, the real metaphysics will define a system of categories, the best we can do relative to the emergent criterion above. Since the metaphysics has two levels, the ideal and the pragmatic, the emerging system will have categories at two levels Thus a first principle of classification will be (i) the abstract or real vs the pragmatic (it is not that the pragmatic is not real but rather that its conception is neutral to reality status). The table below divides the abstract level into being itself and the remainder of the abstract level. This is one—a first—categorial distinction that an emergent system will encode.

What further principles would define a system of categories? We are concerned (ii) with what exists and how it is known (iii) simplifying schemes or patterns that encode data as patterns and which make the system useful in negotiating the world.

Here is a tentative system (later the material from the small print version and related documents will be imported).

Table 1 A system of categories

A system of categories, coemergent with the real metaphysics	Level of being
Being itself	Abstract real, precisely known	Pragmatic, concrete, instrumental
Categorial kind	Kind of being	No kind, but harbors the nonmanifest-manifest, part-pattern-whole, extension-identity-duration	Experiential continuum, from zero but not null to agency to the completion of peak being	Items on the left, and concrete-abstract continuum
Necessity of be-ing	Absolute	Necessary, possible, and impossible	Items on the left, contingent, probabilistic
Form and formation	No intrinsic mechanism, but harbors items on the right.	General logic, items above, and absolute determinism-indeterminism	Items on the left, incremental formation with indeterminism
Patterning	Items on the left, natural science, mechanism, residual indeterminism

Appendix III. Plan

The document shall be reviewed for completeness, minimality, essence, and material to be placed in secondary documents and linked.