The Way of Being
Path templates

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© Anil Mitra, 1986 – 2024

Contents

About the templates

Preliminary – on pathways

The templates

General

Everyday template

About the template

First things

Affirmation

Dedication

Realization

Other activities

Planning (everyday)

Universal template

About the template

Being in the world

Ideas

Becoming—immersive and instrumental

Being in the universe

Planning (universal)

The Way of Being
Path templates

About the templates

The templates are in-process—so far, they are templates for the templates—further concrete options are to be incorporated; see planning for the templates.

They are designed as an improvement on the older templates, templates and dedication, which has greater detail and printable templates in the downloadable docm and pdf versions. There are also standalone docm and pdf versions here (both docm and pdf versions were created and should be editable with Microsoft Word 365).

They are a supplement to a plain version of the way of being, which grounds and explains the templates and their form.

Currently, the templates reproduce the templates in the plain version; later, at least one of the following will be done (i) eliminate the templates in the plain version and refer to this document (ii) change the templates here to be tailored to use, with automation.

Preliminary – on pathways

The following is paste special from outline of the way-new.docm and should be edited at the source.

The aim of an enlightened, healthy, or effective lifeway or pathway is effective realization of the ultimate, beginning with its best form in this world (i.e., the world of the seeking beings).

That is, there is dual focus on quality of life in our world and the ultimate. The effective path recognizes that experiential human being is discrete over time but ultimate – peak being – over long enough times or at a level of description above time; that is, birth and death are real but not absolute—locally but not absolutely real.

In this world the individual experience—perception, thought, feeling, will, and action—is the focus of ends – political, economic, moral and other (positively because it is where all significance lies and negatively by elimination of inanimate / non-feeling objects). Groups and institutions are important but their importance derives from the significance of individual experience. In the universe at large, experience itself is the focus and generator of all ends (and, thus, ‘inanimate objects’ are included because, when primitive experience is taken into consideration, they are not essentially non-experiential).

A healthy pathway (physical, mental, communal, and spiritual) attends to needs and effective action individual, society, and world, in meditative, material, and immersive aspects of the dimensions on a path to the ultimate. A healthy life emphasizes the needs of the individual and society in this world and on the way to the ultimate.

An enlightened path (i) seeks intelligent and shared negotiation (not just following received ways or masters) (ii) results in a replica – typically incomplete – of the ultimate in the being – body and mind – of the individual in ‘this’ life and rarely in the ultimate itself (iii) but is on the way to the ultimate and while realization is given, the enlightened path is efficient in realization of the ultimate as we cross from life to life, from form to form, amid the myriad of cosmoses, while dwelling in nothingness in between.

Pleasure and pain (physical pain, doubt, anxiety) are unavoidable. The issues of pleasure and pain are addressed (i) pleasure for its own sake need not be avoided, but paths emphasize pleasure in being on the way—on the path (ii) by shared negotiation of pathways (in which leaders may arise but are not seen as absolute in truth) (iii) with therapy – the best therapy of the time (iv) by the able and fortunate giving aid to the less able or fortunate (v) by attention without obsession to healthy living – physical, mental, communal, and spiritual (vi) and above all that local enlightenment which avoids illusions of ideal perfection but seeks a pragmatic balance of pleasure and pain on shared paths—i.e., as far as reasonable, seeks process through and not around pain.

The path of enlightenment is one of seeking balance and integration of emotion, reason (fact, inference), and action in interest (service) of self, community, world, and approach to peak being.

Effective pathways address living in the immediate world on the way to the ultimate—they address the everyday and the universal, (and, as elaborated in the document outline of the way-new.docm), dimensions of being (i) at a high level the pure subject and object aspects of experience (ii) in the world, the pragmatic. Particularly included are (a) meditation, calming, analytic, and visionary (including an attempt to visualize and ways to actualize panbeing) (b) (yogic or) healthy living directed at individual, family, work, and community – local to global.

Thus, enlightenment pertains to being in this world for the ultimate is not in need of enlightenment; in received religion, enlightenment is often thought to be a kind of ideal perfection; however, the real perfection emerged here sees it as a good to best mix of an idealized notion of perfection and the work – even struggle – of being on a path.

The mix of (i) the ideal and the struggle vs perfection and (ii) negotiation vs following are two differences between the path described here and common received ways. As the worldview of the present system is ultimate, the paths here frame received pathways. The present system gives preference to those received pathways that see limited being as on the way to the ultimate rather than the ultimate as a remote reward. Still, all systems are recognized for symbolic and community value.

The focus of an individual-as-individual-as-communal-and-for-discovery-and-realization is day routine and discipline including health issues – diet, mental and physical exercise, sleep, and physical and mental health concerns; preparation for the day – affirmation, dedication, sustaining a good attitude, setting times for activities; developing and living the way (‘their way’) – ideas, attention to self – meditative and physical; attention to community – social, political and economic, cultural, and spiritual – and networking; urgent action (if any); tasks; planned excursions and physical activity; evening review, preparation for the next day, relaxation, social activities; sleep.

Planning – a sample – my current planning. The following is flexible (i) morning routine and tasks (ii) the way – foundation and transformation, with relationships and sharing (iii) urgent agenda – security, safety, push twb, zero now (iii) tasks and lunch (iv) exercise (v) pm routine (vi) sleep early.

The templates

General

There are two complementary templates—everyday and universal. Both attend to the immediate and the ultimate, the individual and the universal. Their foci are— The everyday template focuses on the immediate, the individual, and the communal. The universal template focuses on the ultimate, the communal, shared action, and peak being (Brahman).

Everyday template

About the template
Main activities Numbered main options. Details of the options.
The template is designed to be adaptable to life situations, interest, being at home vs away, and choice of activities. Right justified items are details or explanation and will later be put in a detailed version of the dedication and affirmation in this document.

First things (preparing for the day) On waking. Set attitude for the day+—limitlessness, dedication and affirmation, relationships. Reset attitude if in doubt, insecurity, or pain—meditate – accept, reflect, breathe; exercise (hatha yoga) in nature. Affirmation “Every being is all being. The void, the universe, and all beings are one. Tat tvam asi— ‘Thou art that’ “. Dedication “We dedicate our lives to (the way of) being, To living in the immediate and ultimate as one. To its shared discovery and realization, Under the pure and pragmatic dimensions of being. To shedding the bonds of limited self, So that the path is flow, relative to force. To realizing the ultimate in this life and beyond.” Review the day, life, path of realization. Rise before the sun. Greet others. Coffee in nature. Set times for optional activities. Breakfast. Short walk.

Realization (activities especially for the way of being) Foundation. For realization—study, experience, reflect, critique, synthesize, write, publish, advertise. For living—ground, below. Ground. Material—finance, place to live, place to retreat. Discipline—balance moving forward with waiting for aware readiness, flexible routine, minimize diversion. Relationships—attention to others, shared attention to all activities of mutual need and interest. Empowerment—self (attitude, meditation), engage with the world, consultation on needs. School—school is a focus, yet energy of youth through early retirement may make it possible to include other activities. Work—see comments in the previous item. Retirement—an opportunity to focus on relationships with persons, nature, society, and the universe. Late retirement through death—continuation of retirement activities at a level that matches lesser capacity balanced with an awareness of the magic of being, awareness and acceptance of death as real but not necessarily as absolute (for those—but not only those—who regard death as absolute, an existential attitude may be adopted). Adaptability—adapting and learning how to adapt to changing circumstance of self and world, e.g., in relationships, school to work to retirement to late retirement through death, and the losses and gains involved. Note—of course existential and learning-from attitudes to death are appropriate at all aware phases of life. Directed realization. The day—physical yoga; meditation – emptying; mindful – on awareness, living, the real, realization. Immersion, home—nature, societies with culture (languages), meditation as portals to the universal. Immersion, away—items above – travel, journey, exploration; solo and shared. Instrumental—science, technology (AI), politics, economics, communal spirituality as universal portals

Other activities (though labeled ‘other activities’ these, too, are elements of realization) Tasks. Daily—check and resolve needs, cleanliness, lunch. Weekly (plus)—shop, clean, prepare food, appearance. Exercise. Excursion, 2 hours—for exercise, exploration, and photography. Evening. Review—the day, plan the next day next day – items, times, exercise route, review the way, meditate. Network—friends, relationships, share the way; create opportunities for publication, publicity, and funding. Last things—relaxation, snack, entertainment, music, and simple enjoyment. Sleep early

Planning (everyday) Select activities. Set up a daily schedule, perhaps in the form of a table. Enhance the schedule by introducing flexibility. Given access to software with programming capabilities, automation of the schedule may be introduced (Microsoft Word is just one example of such software).

Universal template

About the template
Dimension of being Dimension or main aspect—activity. Other related activity.
The template is designed to be adaptable to life situations, interest, being at home vs away, and choice of activities. Kinds of activity have a basis in the dimensions of being in the way of being. In the template, the (name of the) dimension or other important aspect is underlined.

Being in the world Pure being—yoga, meditation, immersion, ideas to action. Community—education (general, paradigm, ways of life), retreat to the real, renewal, development-reemphasis of paradigm.

Ideas Relation—knowing as relation to the world, reason, art; acting—effective creation of the real. Means—reason, imagination, meditation and yoga, and the real metaphysics.

Becoming—immersive and instrumental Nature as catalyst to the real. Animal being and devolution—observation, situational empathy, defocus, reason. Society—civilization as vehicle and path to the real. Transformation via psyche—by immersion in social groups as place of being and catalyst to the real. Artifact—civilizing the universe (especially technology as enhancing being in the universe). Universe as peak consciousness via spread of sapient being with agency. Universal, incompletely known. The common way from self to Being (Atman to Brahman), via the block universe and extended secular worlds consistent with experience of and in the world.

Being in the universe Universal—realizing Peak Being (Brahman) in the present. Said to be rarely achieved in ‘this life’ which is a beginning that is continued beyond death. Outcome of previous items, being in the world, ideas, and becoming—immersive and instrumental. The means are in the previous dimensions, the everyday templates above, and are further open to discovery. The open life may be chosen (or natural to the person) at any phase of life, but may be most natural to the phases of retirement and late retirement through death

Planning (universal) Review phases of life, reflect on possible emphases for life and the phases. Assess current phase and select activities of focus. Review and plan daily, short, and long term aims and possible activities. Include timeframe to execute and then review, assess, renew, and alter plans. Build these elements into everyday planning.