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The Way of Being
Anil
Mitra © May 2018—June 2018
Updated
June 23, 2018 @ 02:32:11
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Contents
The table of contents is a summary of essentials.
SOME CONVENTIONS
Essentials are dark
red and in the main text, details are
black.
Secondary material
is indented.
Definitions are bold.
An ‘is’ after a term means ‘is defined as’. Also see the section Linguistic
meanings in this document.
THE MAIN
IDEAS
Being
A being is that
which may be said to be.
That is, to clarify, a being is that which is
validly predicated by some form of the verb to be.
Simply, a being is that which is.
The quality that marks beings as beings is Being.
At this level of abstraction, Being and beings
have no further distinctions—e.g. with regard to substance or kind such as
entity, relation, process, place, quality or property, quantity, and
sub-kinds. A further abstraction may be permitted in which the distinction
between Being and beings is null. It is precisely this neutrality that gives
the concept of Being its ontological power. It is of course essential to
consider the distinctions which will be done later, especially in the section
Kinds of Being and possibility.
The discriminatory ability within neutrality renders
Being an immensely if not ultimately powerful concept.
The verb to be
Being is Existence.
Becoming
Becoming is an
aspect of Being in the present sense of the latter.
In some meanings, Being is contrasted to becoming. Here,
where confusion will not arise, ‘Being’ may do double duty as (i) its
inclusive sense and (ii) contrasted to becoming.
A preliminary statement of the Aim of Being
In this narrative, The Aim of Being will be found
to be living well in The Immediate and The Ultimate as one.
Power
Power—Interaction
or Relation—is the measure of Being.
The hypothetical being that has no power does not exist.
Experience
Experience is
subjective awareness or consciousness.
Meaning
Experience is the Place of Being (our being).
Significant meaning
is that which answers to existential concerns.
A symbol is a sign-concept. A
linguistic meaning is a symbol-object (linguistic meaning
is a system of symbol-objects).
Experience is the place of meaning—significant
and linguistic.
Nonexistent beings
A Nonexistent being—one that has Nonexistence—is
one for the object part of meaning null as a matter of contingence but not
necessity.
Linguistic meanings in this document
Where meanings are distinct, the concepts are distinct
even if the signs are the same. The meanings of terms in this document are
not to be conflated with meanings in other formal or informal use; to do so
would lead to misunderstanding and confusion.
Experience and effective nonexistence
The hypothetical being that has no effect on experience
is effectively nonexistent.
It may be said to have ‘effective nonexistence’
(and will later be seen to be simply nonexistent).
The universe
The Universe is all Being.
Whole, part, and null part
The null part of an object is no part at all.
All null parts are identical, regardless of the object.
The void
The void is the null part of the universe—or of any object; it is
the absence of manifest Being.
The void exists.
Demonstration. If
the universe enters a void state, the state exists. This same state or being
exists together with or alongside every being.
Doubt
Doubt and
resolution have been pivotal to the developments in this document. This brief
version explicitly considers primarily an essential doubt.
The essential doubt in this document concerns the
existence of the void.
However, (1) the given proof is straightforward and
involves no ontological sleight of hand and (2) existence of the void is not
inconsistent in experiential, scientific, and logical terms. Further, there
are alternative proofs and heuristics. One heuristic is that the existence
and non-existence of the void are equivalent.
Therefore, a valid alternative to doubt is to regard
existence of the void (and its subsequent consequences) as an existential
hypothesis.
An existential heuristic begins with the
assumption or axiom that our existence has a foundation. A
demonstration then follows. (1) The foundation must be necessary, for the
contingent is not a true or ultimate foundation. (2) The foundation cannot be
in another manifest datum, no matter how primitive or simple, and so must be
in the non-manifest, i.e. the void, must therefore exist. And now, since
existence of the void entails existence, we may express this pithily though
imprecisely as the foundation of Being is in Being. Precisely, however, the
foundation of All Being is in any being (since all beings are equivalent to
the void).
Beings
In elaboration of its meaning, A being is a part
of the universe—i.e. the universe, a proper part of the universe, and the
void are all beings.
Logical possibility
The idea of possibility is crucial to the development.
The naïve concept of possibility may be ill
defined and paradox ridden. The following renders the concept of
possibility consistent and potent.
Logical possibility
is that which can obtain in some world—i.e., which does not violate necessary
or deductive logic.
Possibility for a
being or kind of being is defined by the states that do not violate its
constitution—which are its possible states.
An actual state is one that obtains. Actual
states are possible.
Patterns, laws, and Laws
A law is a reading of a local pattern of
Being. The Law is the pattern; it is a restriction on the possible
over and above the logical. Laws and patterns have Being.
The fundamental principle of metaphysics
The void has no Laws. Therefore there are no limits to
the realizations of the void.
The void realizes all logical possibility.
In particular there must be endless phases of manifest
and Nonmanifest Being (“something from nothing”).
The universe is the realization of all logical
possibility. This is the fundamental principle of metaphysics
or, simply, the fundamental principle, abbreviated FP.
This derivation need not have invoked the void; for the
Laws pertain only to beings (but since we see only beings, we imagine their
qualities to extend beyond them).
In the following, conclusions that follow trivially from
FP are stated without proof.
In confirmation of an earlier observation, the
(hypothetical) object that has no effect on experience (or that has no power)
does not exist.
Some consequences—building the worldview
In the void and therefore in all beings and the universe
there is no universality to classical causation, mechanism, or spacetime.
These are but local and immanent; but it
is necessary that there be phases or epochs with them (they may be as-if
absolute in sub phases). The stability of our world and its laws is
necessary, locally with regard to space and time. Such behavior may be termed
normal.
The universe must be a mix of indeterminism and determinism.
The universe alternates between manifest and void
states.
This resolves the fundamental problem of metaphysics
(Heidegger)—i.e., of why there is something rather than nothing. It
shows that both something and nothing are necessary.
The fundamental problem of metaphysics is now the
elaboration and understanding of kinds of Being.
That there should be manifest and experiential or
conscious Being with agency is necessary.
The universe has Identity. Individuals, too,
realize this Identity.
The universe and its Identity—and individual
identity—cycle endlessly through dissolved (void), formative, and peak
phases without limit to variety, magnitude, extent, or duration—realizing
relatively isolated domains, i.e. epochs or cosmoses,
limitlessly with limitless range of physical law and strong causation but
interrelated weakly.
Individuals, realizations, and re-realizations are a
unity within peak realizations which is revealed as the Ultimate Aim of
Being.
The manifest and the void interact; and their Identity-information
is preserved in non classical causal potential of the void.
Perfect knowledge via abstraction
Despite human limits, our knowledge of the foregoing is
perfect via abstraction; it is consistent with and requires the experience of
limited individual and cosmic form.
A relational notion of Being
Being is relational.
Which follows from the earlier conclusion that object
that has no power (or effect on experience) does not exist, Being is relational.
There is no knowledge of the thing-in-itself
because there is no thing-in-itself.
However, there may be and are objects rendered perfect
their concept (i) by sufficient abstraction, (ii) by perfect cognition of the
concrete which is seen as impossible in the correspondence sense, or (iii) by
relaxing criteria of perfection to ‘good enough’ or ‘pragmatic’,
perhaps for some defined purpose.
Here, the main purpose for which perfection obtains is
realization of the ultimate revealed by FP.
It combines the abstract and relaxed criteria stated just above.
Perfect dual metaphysics and epistemology
FP reveals the universe as realization of all logical possibility.
The Aim of Being is living in the immediate and ultimate as one. Relative to
this aim tradition—the valid in all cultures—and the abstract metaphysics
constitute an integrated perfect metaphysics of an ultimate universe
according to perfect dual epistemic criteria: perfect correspondence
for the abstract universe and pragmatic for the concrete.
Reason
Reason is means
of analyzing and executing activities well; reason is in the world and so
both part and object of (the) metaphysics.
Rather than to impose it by fiat, such perfection in
reason as there may be will emerge from analysis.
There is an often pedantic but sometimes useful
elaboration of terms relating to reason—rationality, logic, argument,
rhetoric and others. The essence of these terms is here incorporated under
reason. The scope of reason is further expanded to include ‘heart’,
‘mind’, ‘action’, ‘the human element’—but all within a shell of rigor.
The elements of reason are
1. To seek foundation
but not absolute and final foundation; rather to begin in the present with
what we have and know; and to then work outward—simultaneously down to ground
and up to Being and its conception.
2. Use of all faculties—cognition,
emotion for bonding to the world and source of (pragmatic) value, and their
integration; action; and learning.
3. Using resources
that include the perfect metaphysics which implicitly includes systems of
knowledge and practice.
4. Including
material-instrumental and experiential-intrinsic means
(the two overlap).
5. Argument—establishing facts, drawing inferences, certain and
necessary, and in degrees of confidence from weak to strong. Includes
abstract and concrete sciences, particularly logic, mathematics, and method
in science—and whatever part of humanities, art, religion, and technology may
pertain to knowing and choosing.
6. Reflexivity—use of all elements of reason including imagination,
doubt, and criticism; in mutual and self interaction, which emphasizes most
effective use relative to aims, particularly the Aim of Being.
Reason is means of realization.
Cosmology—perfect and concrete
All logically possible cosmologies are realized. These
are not just material but also systems with identity.
However, we enquire into efficiency. Evolution—variation
and selection—provides a pragmatic paradigm.
Random variation shows no preference for adaptation and
is not creative; selection is selection for near stable form and is
determinist so also not creative; but the join of the two non-creative
processes is creative. From the void, the first selections are
self-selection; given existing form, there is also environmental selection.
The source of creativity in adaptation is that of
indeterminist variation from the existing—the void or any determinist
structure—and then selection for stability and thus structure (just structure
if staring from the void, further structure if starting from given
structure).
The paradigm from evolutionary biology applies, in broad
terms, to cosmological and physical law formation; as well as to human
creativity.
The cloud of non-form and its continuum is in
transaction with form; and any discreteness and finiteness required for form.
This is the paradigm of efficient formation. Note that for essential novelty,
indeterminism is necessary because novelty is not contained in what came
before. The question of efficiency, therefore, concerns, not the paradigm so
far, but whether it must be incremental or saltational (large steps);
heuristically, until shown otherwise, it is incremental (however there will
be saltations on the scale of the limitless universe even if they are
infrequent).
The most stable cosmologies and the most frequent
are the ones formed by a variation and selection or adaptive systems
path.
The Abrahamic Cosmologies, cleaned to eliminate
contradiction, obtain but their artificial and in-organic conception seems to
render them devoid of universal and significant (literal) meaning. The most
likely ultimate cosmologies are those in which ‘Being itself’, is the
adaptive cosmological process; it finds its way; it is not created or
specified in fragile yet dogmatic terms. We are part of that.
Thus the Vedantic tat tvam asi or ‘you are
that’—i.e., the essence of the individual is the essence of all Being
at its highest.
Reason is means of conceptual and real
exploration—experiential and material.
Kinds of Being and possibility
The kinds of Being include the elementary natural
(natural), and the emergent complexity of life and the experiential
agent (of psyche), interactive group (society, civilization),
and ultimate (and ‘unknown’). These are also our phases of
growth.
Civilization is
movement of communities of beings outward from local environments. It is used
in the sense of being-together, not being-over. Human civilization
is the collection of human communities over time and continents. Universal
civilization is the web of civilizations across the universe.
Life has struggle and overcoming. Beauty
and pain. Amid the tumult there is serenity, in which we may ask—what
is this beauty, this pain, this experience about? Yes, it is about a sentient
agent in the world; yes, it is about adaptation. But that does not touch the
essence of the experience. What is it; why is it; how is it. I am the being
that can ask “What am I?” And the limit of the answer has to be that I, my
experience, the universe, and its Being, are necessary. What I am, what we
are, what Being is—these are projects.
Logical possibility is the limit of all other kinds of
possibility. From the metaphysics, universal possibility is logical
possibility.
Logical-universal possibility is broader than the
natural and the experiential (agent); however, from the metaphysics the
natural and experiential achieve the universal: for any non sentient (‘purely
material’) realization, there is an experiential-agentive (aware, designing)
realization whose formed aspect is greater.
All Gods and religious cosmologies
stripped of logical inconsistency are realized; however, from the paradigm of
adaptive or efficient formation, they are most probably neither frequent nor
stable; in the universe as a whole they are remote. Any ‘real god’ would be
just a more potent being but possessed of frailties like the Greek Gods whose
frailty might demand they be appeased.
From the paradigm of efficient formation, peaks of Being
in which we all individuals participate are the most extensive, meaningful,
and stable (from FP, it is
necessary).
This ultimate Brahman or Aeternitas
(derived from Vedanta and Thomas Aquinas) is our being and neither asks nor
needs worship, other than being true. Pain and joy on the way to
Brahman are not absolutely avoided or sought or else they become distracting
objects; but they may dissolve in Brahman (because of ultimate power).
THE WAY
Our world
Our world—the
immediate—is where we begin.
The Aim of Being
We have seen that The Aim of Being is being in
the immediate and ultimate as one.
Variables of the Way
The main variables of the way are the kinds of
Being and phases of growth:
1. Of psyche or mind and culture—inner, intrinsic,
essential, ultimate, and transforming.
2. Of nature,
society, and civilization—outer, instrumental, immediate, and
sustaining.
3. Of the universal
and unknown—the join the inner and outer and beyond—the realm of the
concrete to abstract metaphysics.
Means
Reason
Reason is the general means.
Ways
The ways of sustaining and transformation of the
religions, spiritual practices, and therapeutic techniques.
Our adaptation is (i) non-dogmatic, (ii) experiential,
learning, and eclectic according to reason, and (iii) not exclusively
transsecular; includes material transformation where efficient.
An example—Buddhism: the four truths and the
eightfold path.
Impediments,
resources and growth
Impediments are
blocks to effective reason.
Examples of impediments or blocks are
resentment, attachment and desire, anger and aversion, and ignorance.
Efficient realization must be a balance between resolution
of blocks and engagement in realization—for meaning and efficiency.
The resource is reason which includes ways,
catalysts, instrumental means, and programming.
Catalysts
The catalysts are similar to the ways but more
focused and emphasize the cathartic.
Examples—Meditation: (1) emptying, (2) exploration of
inner realms, (3) contemplation of the ultimate, and understanding death
as catalyst, (4) in action. Also see the templates.
Instrumental
means
Physical exploration—aims: Civilizing the
universe; universe as identity.
Metaphysics and physics of eternity.
Theory and technology of minds in machines or machines
as minds—(1) the essential conditions for embodied mind, (2) theory, (3)
evolution, (4) self-design.
The environment
The
individual
The individual is the ‘locus’ of realization.
Place
Where we live, place and home may be
conducive or counter-conducive to realization.
The conducive is important. However, it is also
important to spend time in the world at large.
Sangha—community
in The Way
Sangha and
building sangha—community of shared aspiration, ways, and action.
Teachers
and exemplars
Is leadership needed—yes but as focal point,
example or inspiration, and organizer.
Place, community, and leadership. Is leadership
essential? Yes as inspiration, channel, and focus; but
authority is institution for its own sake rather than realization.
The open
world
See the section Place.
The path
The templates constitute a program that is
adaptable to individuals and situations—e.g. at home and in the
world.
Everyday
template
A brief adaptable everyday template.
1. Rise before the sun. Dedicate to the way. Affirm
the aim.
2. Review and meditate on realization, priorities, and means.
3. Realization. Work; relationships; ideas; network; shared action;
days for engagement, days for renewal.
4. Tasks. Daily, long term.
5. Experimental yoga, in nature;
posture. Experimental meditation,—part of yoga: analytic /
contemplative, for daily action, and the ultimate.
6. Exercise. Aerobic: in nature; and photography.
7. Evening. Rest, renewal, realization, and community. Tasks,
preparation and dedication of the next day and the future. Sleep early.
Universal
template
A brief adaptable universal template.
Template format: ACTION
– dimension – detail (hyperlinks are italicized).
1. BEING – pure
Being, community – everyday process, vision retreat.
2. IDEAS – relation,
knowing – reason
3. BECOMING – nature,
psyche – nature as ground: beyul
4. BECOMING – civilization
and society – shared immersion, populating the universe, cultural
economics and politics
5. BECOMING – artifact
– artifactual being as and adjunct to realization
6. BECOMING – universal,
unknown – catalytic transformation, ways, aimed at the
universal; includes elements of items 1 – 5.
Stories
I am writing stories—narratives intended to
emphasize heart—to bring the way to life and give it direct appeal amid the
tumult of everyday life.
The Pocket Manual
Essentials are dark red and
in the main text, details are black.
Secondary material is
indented.
Definitions are bold. An
‘is’ after a term means ‘is defined as’. Also see the section Linguistic meanings in this document.
A being is that which may be
said to be.
That is, to clarify, a being is
that which is validly predicated by some form of the verb to be.
Simply, a being is that which is.
The quality that marks beings as
beings is Being.
At this level of abstraction, Being
and beings have no further distinctions—e.g. with regard to substance
or kind such as entity, relation, process, place, quality or property,
quantity, and sub-kinds. A further abstraction may be permitted in which the
distinction between Being and beings is null. It is precisely this neutrality
that gives the concept of Being its ontological power. It is of course
essential to consider the distinctions which will be done later, especially
in the section Kinds of Being and
possibility.
The discriminatory ability within
neutrality renders Being an immensely if not ultimately powerful concept.
The second ‘is’ in the definition of being is to be
interpreted as the verb to be in a generic sense—i.e., not as the singular
present tense form.
Being is Existence.
Becoming is an aspect of
Being in the present sense of the latter.
In some meanings, Being is
contrasted to becoming. Here, where confusion will not arise, ‘Being’ may do
double duty as (i) its inclusive sense and (ii) contrasted to becoming.
In this narrative, The Aim of
Being will be found to be living well in The Immediate and The
Ultimate as one.
Power—Interaction or Relation—is
the measure of Being.
The hypothetical being that has no
power does not exist.
Experience is subjective
awareness or consciousness.
It is relation or interaction: Receptive experience,
Contemplative experience (Pure experience; contemplative and pure
experience are Inner relation) and Motive experience.
Experience is the Place of Being
(our being).
Significant meaning is that
which answers to existential concerns.
An object is a being. A concept is any
mental content; thus a concept is an object.
This is distinguished from another use in which a concept
is, roughly, a ‘unit of meaning or understanding’.
Concept meaning is an association of a concept with
an object.
A sign is an object that denotes a concept-object.
If the structure of the sign contributes to the denotation it is a compound
sign; otherwise it is a simple sign. The combined sign-concept is
a symbol.
Only if there is a perfect system of atomic signs, do
compound signs depict compound objects.
A linguistic meaning is a symbol-object. Linguistic
meaning is a system of linguistic meanings.
A symbol is a sign-concept.
A linguistic meaning is a symbol-object (linguistic meaning
is a system of symbol-objects).
Experience is the place of meaning—significant
and linguistic.
A Nonexistent being—one that
has Nonexistence—is one for the object part of meaning null as a
matter of contingence but not necessity.
Does Nonbeing have Being? Yes, when the concept has
Self consistency and if we admit Nonmanifest Being that is Potential
Being (potential because consistent)
Linguistic
meanings in this document
Where meanings are distinct, the
concepts are distinct even if the signs are the same. The meanings of terms
in this document are not to be conflated with meanings in other formal or
informal use; to do so would lead to misunderstanding and confusion.
The hypothetical being that has no
effect on experience is effectively nonexistent.
It may be said to have ‘effective
nonexistence’ (and will later be seen to be simply nonexistent).
The Universe is all Being.
A Whole is an entire object; a Proper part
is some but not all.
The null part of an object is
no part at all.
All null parts are identical,
regardless of the object.
The term Part often means proper part but here it
shall mean some or no part and since all is also some, here the whole, proper
parts, and the null part are all parts.
The void is the null part of
the universe—or of any object; it is the absence of manifest Being.
The void exists.
Demonstration. If the
universe enters a void state, the state exists. This same state or being
exists together with or alongside every being.
All ‘voids’ and null parts are identical. There is
effectively one and only one void.
Doubt and resolution have
been pivotal to the developments in this document. This brief version
explicitly considers primarily an essential doubt.
The essential doubt in this
document concerns the existence of the void.
However, (1) the given proof is
straightforward and involves no ontological sleight of hand and (2) existence
of the void is not inconsistent in experiential, scientific, and logical
terms. Further, there are alternative proofs and heuristics. One heuristic is
that the existence and non-existence of the void are equivalent.
Therefore, a valid alternative to
doubt is to regard existence of the void (and its subsequent consequences) as
an existential hypothesis.
An existential heuristic begins
with the assumption or axiom that our existence has a foundation. A
demonstration then follows. (1) The foundation must be necessary, for the
contingent is not a true or ultimate foundation. (2) The foundation cannot be
in another manifest datum, no matter how primitive or simple, and so must be
in the non-manifest, i.e. the void, must therefore exist. And now, since
existence of the void entails existence, we may express this pithily though
imprecisely as the foundation of Being is in Being. Precisely, however, the
foundation of All Being is in any being (since all beings are equivalent to
the void).
The following amplifies the earlier definition of a being
or beings.
In elaboration of its meaning, A
being is a part of the universe—i.e. the universe, a proper part of the
universe, and the void are all beings.
The idea of possibility is crucial
to the development.
The naïve concept of possibility
may be ill defined and paradox ridden. The following renders the
concept of possibility consistent and potent.
Logical possibility is that
which can obtain in some world—i.e., which does not violate necessary or deductive
logic.
Logical possibility is the outer reach of all Being or
universe—there can be no beings outside logical possibility. Logical
possibility is the outer constitution of Being; it is not a limit on Being.
A specific being or kind of being is defined by a constitution;
logical possibility must be at least implicit in the constitution.
Possibility for a being or
kind of being is defined by the states that do not violate its constitution—which
are its possible states.
Such kinds of possibility are limits or patterns over and
above the logical. These are the limits of the being or kind.
An actual state is one that
obtains. Actual states are possible.
A law is a reading of a local
pattern of Being. The Law is the pattern; it is a restriction
on the possible over and above the logical. Laws and patterns have Being.
The void has no Laws. Therefore
there are no limits to the realizations of the void.
The void realizes all logical
possibility.
In particular there must be endless
phases of manifest and Nonmanifest Being (“something from nothing”).
The universe is the realization of
all logical possibility. This is the fundamental principle of
metaphysics or, simply, the fundamental principle, abbreviated FP.
This derivation need not have
invoked the void; for the Laws pertain only to beings (but since we see only
beings, we imagine their qualities to extend beyond them).
In the following, conclusions that
follow trivially from FP
are stated without proof.
In confirmation of an earlier
observation, the (hypothetical) object that has no effect on experience (or
that has no power) does not exist.
In the void and therefore in all
beings and the universe there is no universality to classical causation,
mechanism, or spacetime.
These are but local and immanent;
but it is necessary that there be phases or epochs with them (they may
be as-if absolute in sub phases). The stability of our world
and its laws is necessary, locally with regard to space and time. Such
behavior may be termed normal.
The universe must be a mix of indeterminism
and determinism.
The universe alternates between
manifest and void states.
This resolves the fundamental
problem of metaphysics (Heidegger)—i.e., of why there is something rather
than nothing. It shows that both something and nothing are necessary.
The fundamental problem of
metaphysics is now the elaboration and understanding of kinds of Being.
That there should be manifest and
experiential or conscious Being with agency is necessary.
The universe has Identity.
Individuals, too, realize this Identity.
The universe and its Identity—and
individual identity—cycle endlessly through dissolved (void), formative, and peak
phases without limit to variety, magnitude, extent, or duration—realizing
relatively isolated domains, i.e. epochs or cosmoses, limitlessly
with limitless range of physical law and strong causation but interrelated weakly.
Individuals, realizations, and
re-realizations are a unity within peak realizations which is revealed as the
Ultimate Aim of Being.
The manifest and the void interact;
and their Identity-information is preserved in non classical causal
potential of the void.
Despite human limits, our knowledge
of the foregoing is perfect via abstraction; it is consistent with and
requires the experience of limited individual and cosmic form.
All objects are effectively experience-experienced or
concept-object. There is no object in itself in eternal isolation. This
relational notion of Being and knowledge is further confirmed below. It
implies that there are no things-in-themselves to be ‘known’; further we
never get out of experience because even the object is conceptual; but it is
not an infinite regress situation because a small number of iterations
suffice: the experience, the experienced, and the experience of their
relation. Still, however, there may be objects that are perfectly rendered in
the concept (i) by sufficient abstraction, (ii) by perfect cognition of the
concrete which is generally seen as impossible in the correspondence sense,
or (iii) by relaxing criteria of perfection to ‘good enough’ or ‘pragmatic’,
perhaps for some defined purpose.
Being is relational.
Which follows from the earlier
conclusion that object that has no power (or effect on experience) does not
exist, Being is relational.
There is no knowledge of the thing-in-itself
because there is no thing-in-itself.
However, there may be and are
objects rendered perfect their concept (i) by sufficient abstraction, (ii) by
perfect cognition of the concrete which is seen as impossible in the
correspondence sense, or (iii) by relaxing criteria of perfection to ‘good
enough’ or ‘pragmatic’, perhaps for some defined purpose.
Here, the main purpose for which
perfection obtains is realization of the ultimate revealed by FP. It combines the
abstract and relaxed criteria stated just above.
Our experience of concrete limits of local being and
knowledge is not illusory but part of the greater revealed whole. Though
limited and pragmatic in its local setting, the pragmatic is ideal in
ultimate realization for the ultimate shows there is and can be no better
instrument. We have revealed a metaphysics—the perfect metaphysics or
just the metaphysics: abstract knowledge of an ultimate universe and
personal identity joined to tradition-as-the-pragmatically-valid in all
cultures. It has a perfect epistemology—a dual one with perfect
correspondence in the ultimate realm; it is pragmatic in the concrete realm
but this is perfect in relation to the ultimate aim. The dual is that of abstract-perfect
and concrete-pragmatic. Local limits are not locally overcome but this is
shown impossible and so unnecessary.
FP reveals the universe as realization of
all logical possibility. The Aim of Being is living in the immediate and
ultimate as one. Relative to this aim tradition—the valid in all cultures—and
the abstract metaphysics constitute an integrated perfect metaphysics
of an ultimate universe according to perfect dual epistemic criteria:
perfect correspondence for the abstract universe and pragmatic for the
concrete.
Reason is means of analyzing and executing activities
well. It is tacit above. It is in the world, so part of the metaphysics. To
avoid static metaphysics, we regard the metaphysics and reason as one. If we
seek perfect foundation, the result is despair. We begin where we are, remain
in process, seeking foundation and realization at the same time. What should
the elements of reason be? Argument is establishment of truth—by establishing
fact and drawing inference; both facts and inference have degrees of confidence
from certain to strong to weak; doubt and criticism, imagination and
confidence are dual. We have seen instances of certain and necessary fact and
inference; the necessary are abstract and cradle our deductive logics; the
strong cradle concrete sciences which we have seen have pragmatic perfection.
Among our faculties are experience: cognition, emotion for bonding to the
world and source of (pragmatic) value, and their integration; action; and
learning. Among our resources are our systems
of knowledge and practice. As part of the metaphysics, reason has its
perfect and pragmatic sides. It is the essential means of realization. Reason
includes both material-instrumental as well as experiential-intrinsic means;
but the two are not distinct. Reason is reflexive; all its elements (just
described) must interact for reason to be its ‘best’; including imagination
and criticism of reason itself.
Reason is means of
analyzing and executing activities well; reason is in the world and so both
part and object of (the) metaphysics.
Rather than to impose it by fiat,
such perfection in reason as there may be will emerge from analysis.
There is an often pedantic but
sometimes useful elaboration of terms relating to reason—rationality, logic,
argument, rhetoric and others. The essence of these terms is here
incorporated under reason. The scope of reason is further expanded to include
‘heart’, ‘mind’, ‘action’, ‘the human element’—but all within a shell
of rigor.
The elements of reason are
1.
To seek foundation but not absolute and final foundation;
rather to begin in the present with what we have and know; and to then work
outward—simultaneously down to ground and up to Being and its conception.
2.
Use of all faculties—cognition, emotion for bonding to the
world and source of (pragmatic) value, and their integration; action; and
learning.
3.
Using resources that include the perfect metaphysics which
implicitly includes systems
of knowledge and practice.
4.
Including material-instrumental and experiential-intrinsic
means (the two overlap).
5.
Argument—establishing facts, drawing inferences, certain and
necessary, and in degrees of confidence from weak to strong. Includes
abstract and concrete sciences, particularly logic, mathematics, and method
in science—and whatever part of humanities, art, religion, and technology may
pertain to knowing and choosing.
6.
Reflexivity—use of all elements of reason including
imagination, doubt, and criticism; in mutual and self interaction, which
emphasizes most effective use relative to aims, particularly the Aim of Being.
Reason is means of realization.
All logically possible cosmologies
are realized. These are not just material but also systems with identity.
However, we enquire into efficiency.
Evolution—variation and selection—provides a pragmatic paradigm.
Random variation shows no
preference for adaptation and is not creative; selection is selection for
near stable form and is determinist so also not creative; but the join of the
two non-creative processes is creative. From the void, the first selections
are self-selection; given existing form, there is also environmental
selection.
The source of creativity in
adaptation is that of indeterminist variation from the existing—the void or
any determinist structure—and then selection for stability and thus structure
(just structure if staring from the void, further structure if starting from
given structure).
The paradigm from evolutionary
biology applies, in broad terms, to cosmological and physical law formation; as
well as to human creativity.
The cloud of non-form and its
continuum is in transaction with form; and any discreteness and finiteness
required for form. This is the paradigm of efficient formation. Note that for
essential novelty, indeterminism is necessary because novelty is not
contained in what came before. The question of efficiency, therefore,
concerns, not the paradigm so far, but whether it must be incremental or
saltational (large steps); heuristically, until shown otherwise, it is
incremental (however there will be saltations on the scale of the limitless
universe even if they are infrequent).
The most stable cosmologies
and the most frequent are the ones formed by a variation and selection or adaptive
systems path.
The Abrahamic Cosmologies, cleaned
to eliminate contradiction, obtain but their artificial and in-organic
conception seems to render them devoid of universal and significant (literal)
meaning. The most likely ultimate cosmologies are those in which ‘Being
itself’, is the adaptive cosmological process; it finds its way; it is not
created or specified in fragile yet dogmatic terms. We are part of that.
Thus the Vedantic tat tvam asi
or ‘you are that’—i.e., the essence of the individual is the essence
of all Being at its highest.
Reason is means of conceptual and
real exploration—experiential and material.
Kinds of Being
and possibility
The kinds of Being include
the elementary natural (natural), and the emergent complexity
of life and the experiential agent (of psyche), interactive
group (society, civilization), and ultimate (and ‘unknown’).
These are also our phases of growth.
Civilization is movement of
communities of beings outward from local environments. It is used in the
sense of being-together, not being-over. Human civilization is
the collection of human communities over time and continents. Universal
civilization is the web of civilizations across the universe.
Life has struggle and overcoming.
Beauty and pain. Amid the tumult there is serenity, in which we
may ask—what is this beauty, this pain, this experience about? Yes, it is
about a sentient agent in the world; yes, it is about adaptation. But that
does not touch the essence of the experience. What is it; why is it; how is
it. I am the being that can ask “What am I?” And the limit of the answer has
to be that I, my experience, the universe, and its Being, are necessary. What
I am, what we are, what Being is—these are projects.
Logical possibility is the limit of
all other kinds of possibility. From the metaphysics, universal
possibility is logical possibility.
Logical-universal possibility is
broader than the natural and the experiential (agent); however, from the
metaphysics the natural and experiential achieve the universal: for any non
sentient (‘purely material’) realization, there is an experiential-agentive
(aware, designing) realization whose formed aspect is greater.
All Gods and religious
cosmologies stripped of logical inconsistency are realized; however, from
the paradigm of adaptive or efficient formation, they are most probably
neither frequent nor stable; in the universe as a whole they are remote. Any
‘real god’ would be just a more potent being but possessed of frailties like
the Greek Gods whose frailty might demand they be appeased.
From the paradigm of efficient
formation, peaks of Being in which we all individuals participate are the
most extensive, meaningful, and stable (from FP, it is necessary).
This ultimate Brahman or Aeternitas
(derived from Vedanta and Thomas Aquinas) is our being and neither asks nor
needs worship, other than being true. Pain and joy on the way to
Brahman are not absolutely avoided or sought or else they become distracting
objects; but they may dissolve in Brahman (because of ultimate power).
The ideas are preliminary and abstract. The ultimate is
the ideal; the way must also emphasize the concrete.
The foundation for the way is the immediate in transaction
with the ultimate.
Our world—the immediate—is
where we begin.
We have seen that The Aim of Being
is being in the immediate and ultimate as one.
The main variables of the way
are the kinds of Being and phases of growth:
1.
Of psyche or mind and culture—inner, intrinsic,
essential, ultimate, and transforming.
2.
Of nature, society, and civilization—outer,
instrumental, immediate, and sustaining.
3.
Of the universal and unknown—the join the inner and
outer and beyond—the realm of the concrete to abstract metaphysics.
Reason is the general means.
The ways of sustaining and
transformation of the religions, spiritual practices, and therapeutic
techniques.
Our adaptation is (i) non-dogmatic,
(ii) experiential, learning, and eclectic according to reason, and (iii) not
exclusively transsecular; includes material transformation where efficient.
An example—Buddhism: the
four truths and the eightfold path.
Impediments are blocks to
effective reason.
Examples of impediments or blocks
are resentment, attachment and desire, anger and aversion, and ignorance.
Efficient realization must be a
balance between resolution of blocks and engagement in realization—for
meaning and efficiency.
The resource is reason which
includes ways, catalysts, instrumental means, and programming.
The catalysts are similar to
the ways but more focused and emphasize the cathartic.
Examples—Meditation: (1) emptying,
(2) exploration of inner realms, (3) contemplation of the ultimate, and understanding
death as catalyst, (4) in action. Also see the templates.
Physical exploration—aims:
Civilizing the universe; universe as identity.
Metaphysics and physics of eternity.
Theory and technology of minds in
machines or machines as minds—(1) the essential conditions for embodied mind,
(2) theory, (3) evolution, (4) self-design.
The individual is the ‘locus’
of realization.
Place
Where we live, place and home
may be conducive or counter-conducive to realization.
The conducive is important. However,
it is also important to spend time in the world at large.
Sangha and building
sangha—community of shared aspiration, ways, and action.
Is leadership needed—yes but
as focal point, example or inspiration, and organizer.
Place, community, and leadership.
Is leadership essential? Yes as inspiration, channel, and focus;
but authority is institution for its own sake rather than realization.
See the section Place.
The templates constitute a
program that is adaptable to individuals and situations—e.g. at home
and in the world.
Everyday
template
A brief adaptable everyday
template.
See everyday
process template for details.
1.
Rise before the sun. Dedicate to the way. Affirm
the aim.
2.
Review and meditate on realization, priorities, and means.
3.
Realization. Work; relationships; ideas; network; shared
action; days for engagement, days for renewal.
4.
Tasks. Daily, long term.
5.
Experimental yoga, in nature; posture. Experimental
meditation,—part of yoga: analytic / contemplative, for daily
action, and the ultimate.
6.
Exercise. Aerobic: in nature; and photography.
7.
Evening. Rest, renewal, realization, and community. Tasks, preparation
and dedication of the next day and the future. Sleep early.
Universal
template
A brief adaptable universal
template.
See universal
process template for details.
Template format: ACTION – dimension
– detail (hyperlinks are italicized).
Template:
1.
BEING –
pure Being, community – everyday process, vision retreat.
2.
IDEAS –
relation, knowing – reason
3.
BECOMING
– nature, psyche – nature as ground: beyul
4.
BECOMING
– civilization and society – shared immersion, populating the universe, cultural economics and politics
5.
BECOMING
– artifact – artifactual being as and adjunct to realization
6.
BECOMING
– universal, unknown – catalytic transformation, ways, aimed at the universal; includes elements of
items 1 – 5.
I am writing stories—narratives
intended to emphasize heart—to bring the way to life and give it direct
appeal amid the tumult of everyday life.
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