Journey in Being—A Way of Discovery and Realization

Anil Mitra

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Contents

Introduction. 2

Foundation. 2

Meaning. 2

Existence. 4

Experience. 4

Being. 5

Universe. 5

Law.. 5

Void. 6

A Fundamental Principle. 6

Substance. 6

Metaphysics. 6

Logic. 6

Logos. 7

Identity, Power, and Cosmology. 7

Mind and Matter 7

Individual 8

Journey. 8

Freedom.. 8

Psychology. 8

Civilization. 8

Disciplines. 9

Method. 9

Realization. 10

The Way. 10

Program.. 11

Introduction. 11

Ideas. 12

Individual Transformation. 12

Transformation of Civilization. 13

Transformation via Artifact 14

A Brief Version of the Program with Timelines. 14

Journey in Being—A Way of Discovery and Realization

Introduction

To know and approach highest ideals requires action informed by understanding the Universe as a whole. This ideal primes a journey in being

The following paragraph absorbed to Journey in Being.doc

In the history of human civilization various disciplines and endeavors arise. These provide knowledge methods—a method is the ‘how’ of doing something but, in general, it does not guarantee a positive outcome—for various kinds of activity. At a higher level we may realize methods for development of the disciplines—e.g., the scientific method. Such methods may appear to be received but evolve in interaction with the specific activities

Is there ideal or method to the whole enterprise? A methods and ideals stand outside the enterprise to which they refer. At the highest level there is no above or outside. This suggests there is no universal method. We might as well ask whether the Universe has a method. However, any real answer to the question will require some understanding of the Universe as a whole

Foundation

Portions below that are crossed out are absorbed to Journey in Being.doc

Meaning

Our first objective is to study Being. Meaning is important because it is medium and means of understanding. It includes linguistic meaning. Since our intent is study of the Universe, we focus on referential meaning as the instrument of study (we can incorporate ‘non-referential meaning’ as an element of the study or perhaps by finding objects that are implicit in explicitly non-referential constructs). In the following ‘meaning’ will mean ‘referential meaning’

We use ‘concept’ to refer to mental content. The idea of concept as, e.g., ‘unit of meaning’ is a sub case. Percepts are concepts

A concept is an association of icons and non-iconic signs. For a concept to refer, it must have iconic content. Non-iconic signs acquire iconic character—and iconic signs acquire further iconic character—(a) in association with iconic elements—thus the abstraction and efficiency of language—and (b) by their arrangement (e.g. sentences)

Reference carries projection; thus the very concept of an object is in question. However, we will find cases of (a) perfection in which projective contribution is eliminated by abstraction only of what is effectively untouched such contribution and, later, (b) practical objects that are good enough in some pragmatic sense

A concept and its object constitute the meaning of the concept or associated word-sign

In normal affairs it is natural and efficient to conflate concept and object

The significance of this concept of meaning is that the distinction of concept and object is essential to the clear understanding of meaning, elimination of obscurity, vagueness and paradox. We find that experience is incorporated in meaning and the advance of meaning, i.e. analysis of meaning is profoundly and simultaneously empirical and conceptual

What is the nature of a concept in itself, i.e. as part of the Universe? Concepts have been seen as mental and as abstract ‘objects’. However, these cases will later be ruled out and it will be found that concepts are just things in the world (they are at least and in some sense organizations within the brain and perhaps entire body)

Thus the idea of the concept harbors self-reference which can be a source of paradox. However, this is not the only source of paradox nor is it necessarily a source of paradox. The sources of paradox lie in the naïve expectation that concepts will do what they inherently do not do. Three sources of paradox are (1) implicit reference, i.e. reference that is not explicit in the concept (2) the freedom to form illogical concepts (3) assumption that the form of reference entails reference

For determinateness, meaning is ultimately not to be founded in further meanings—as it is in a dictionary—but in context and use. Context and use provide appropriate balance between stability and fluidity of meaning and knowledge. In a stable context meaning is stabilized in use; variations may be accommodated but if too severe they are likely to be rejected. In a changing context the severe variations are adaptive and may be selected by the process itself or, in special situations, by cognition

Thus (i) Study of meaning is not mere lexical meaning but the study of the nature of objects, already empirical, and, when analyzed in relation to changing or formation of contexts; such study and development of meaning will be called ‘analysis of meaning’. This will be seen to be an immensely important aspect of the method of all knowledge, especially of the metaphysics to be developed. If we admit seeking consequences and experiment into analysis of meaning—they are already implicitly present—then, with appropriate interpretation, the foregoing analysis already includes scientific method (ii) Analysis of meaning may be deployed in resolution of numerous significant and minor paradoxes

Existence

Existence marks what is there

It is the most elementary of distinctions

Since ‘everything’ exists, existence has been called trivial

However, ‘the tiger exists’ means, from the analysis of meaning, ‘there is something that corresponds to the concept of tiger’. Since I can conceive ‘things’ that do not exist, existence is not entirely trivial. However, it is trivial enough and it will be seen that this triviality is a source of power of the concept

‘Unicorns do not exist’. That sentence appears to lack meaning for if they do not exist what does ‘unicorn’ mean. This has been called the problem of negative existence or of the non-existent object. The resolution in terms of the foregoing analysis of meaning is trivial. ‘Unicorns do not exist’ means ‘There is no thing that correspond to the concept of ‘Unicorn’’

Experience

The idea of experience begins as the aware part of awareness, i.e. consciousness

In western thought the name of Descartes is connected to the intimate connection between ‘being’ and experience

From materialism many thinkers have denied or minimized experience

Analysis of the meaning of (the concept of) matter—regardless of its reality—shows that the exclusion of experience is not an essential part of it for absence of mention does not mean absence in fact. The idea that matter excludes experience (mind) is a prejudice or alternatively an example of the ‘fallacy of misplaced concreteness’

Experience (though not its putative content) is a primary fact of our ‘being’. Though not everything it is the place of significance. It is metaphorically our lens or aperture on the world. Metaphorically and in hyperbole we may say that experience is our world. If we are to be neutral to commitment at outset we should allow that the apparent metaphor is more than metaphor. We will find this to be the case

‘Experience’ names this primary fact of experience. It is given and named; it is named experience. In experience we know that there is a world and there is experience; for if it is all illusion then there is still experience for illusion is experience; and the world is then made up of illusion

That the world is rich we do not doubt; we know this from the rich variety of experience

The extreme regarding the illusory nature of the world is the solipsistic view that ‘all is experience’. However, from a degree richness which is properly inferred but not directly known in experience we conclude that ‘all is experience’ is either (a) a renaming of a world that is real or (b) contradictory

There is therefore a real world (which is rich and which is known in and contains experience)

But the question ‘precisely what exists’ has hardly been answered. We know that there is a rich real world and that experience is real. However we do not yet know that the objects of everyday experience and science—for example—as we experience them are real for all purposes even though they are real enough. We now take up the implied project

Being

Being is that which is—i.e. which exists of has existence

The ideas of Being and existence have been distinguished, e.g. Being is that which exists-in-itself. However, the metaphysics to be established will show that this distinction is empty

The power of the concept of Being is its triviality and neutrality. It makes no ontological commitment to kind or substance e.g., to concrete and abstract kinds; to entity, process, property; mind, matter, and spirit; it makes no epistemological to commitment or lack of commitment. It allows kinds and commitment to emerge. It is a neutral container for what emerges from in-process justification. The neutrality of Being includes that the ‘is’ in ‘that which is’ may but does not necessarily refer to any particular region in time and space or other distinction or to the givenness or universality of such distinctions. That is—Being is the most trivial of concepts and its power lies in its triviality

The world is known in experience, i.e. in concept

Concepts may define perfect objects

Being and experience in itself are perfect

There is Being

It is the triviality of Being that permits its synthetic definition and given character, i.e. it is not necessary to postulate that there is Being

In experience we know the richness and reality of the world

Universe

The Universe is All Being

The significance of this conception is that it eliminates vagueness without introducing premature over-specification—especially of scientific and mythic metaphysics and cosmologies

 ‘All Being’ connotes Being across all distinctions including measure—e.g. extension and duration—and variety

The Universe has no outside or boundary or other or greater

The Universe was not created. There are no Gods outside of or creator to the Universe. Any Gods are in the Universe

Law

A Law is a pattern. All Laws have Being—else they would be outside the Universe

The Universe contains all Laws

Void

The Void which is the absence of Being contains no Laws

If the Void had a limit that would be a Law

Therefore the Void and—consequently—the Universe have no limits

To repeat—

A Fundamental Principle

The Universe has no limits—i.e., no limits with regard to distinction

This conclusion, the fundamental principle of metaphysics or FP, is found—shortly—to be basis to a perfect, unique, and ultimate system of knowledge (metaphysics) of the Universe

The meaning of FP will continue to emerge in what follows

Substance

From FP, the Void—therefore any state—is equivalent to any state including the Universe

I.e. FP founds the Universe in the Void or any one of its states. This is a non relative foundation without substance or need for substance. The foundation is explicitly ultimate in depth

Further, every state is implicit in this foundation. I.e. the foundation is implicitly ultimate in capturing breadth or variety of Being

I.e. the Universe has no substance and needs no substance for understanding

Thus the foundation is ultimate—in depth and breadth—and shows the Universe itself to be ultimate; the foundation is Universal in this sense

From the perfection of the basis, the foundation is perfect

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is knowledge—study—of Being as Being. Contrary to centuries of doubt and rejection regarding metaphysics the foregoing demonstrates metaphysical knowledge

Metaphysics over any domain must be unique and, except that it may be expressed in different forms and developed in different degrees of detail, is not subject to revision

Therefore FP is basis to a perfect, unique, and ultimate Universal Metaphysics. From uniqueness we may refer to it as the metaphysics

Logic

Define Logic as the concept of the Universe. Then Logic is identical to the metaphysics

Logic is not a limit but harbors all constraint on the concept of the Universe

It is therefore the only constraint on the concept of the Universe

Logic includes all valid explicit and tacit human knowledge, especially valid science, logic and mathematics

Logic includes all valid knowledge

This Logic is far from empty for it includes the sciences, logics (and mathematics) in their valid domains

In so far as they have referential form, it includes—subject to Logic—art, literature, history, religion, the humanities of the modern tradition; and all traditions and cultures

It includes exploration and technology in the realms of the material, the social, the organic including the body, the mind; these include the idea of spirit which is not another thing but from tradition deserves mention

It is immensely greater than the valid content of the human tradition. In breadth, the valid human tradition is a negligible fraction of Logic

In this conception Logic is ultimate expression of freedom

The Universal Metaphysics and Logic are identical

Logos

Logos, conceived as the object of Logic, is the Universe in all its detail

Identity, Power, and Cosmology

The Universe has Identity

The Universe and its Identity manifest in acute, diffuse, and empty phases. Core identity—we do not emphasize the idea of soul—is that which has continuity across the non-manifest phases

There are no limits to the variety, duration, and extension of Being in the Universe

Power is degree of limitlessness. The Universe contains all power. It is the greatest power

The Universe and its Identity manifest in unlimited variety of ‘physical law’ and cosmological system against a greater background that includes the transient and the Void; except logical contradiction every event occurs on some cosmos; every cosmos has parallel and almost parallel ‘ghost’ cosmoses with minimal interaction

Mind and Matter

Absorbed to Journey in Being.doc

The elements of physics make no reference to mind. Therefore matter is often conceived as a substance that has no mental elements. In this case mind must arise in the organization of matter. However, experience is merely coincidental. Therefore matter must contain mental elements. These may be (a) other than matter or (b) inherent to matter—discovered or undiscovered—but not recognized as such. Mental causation shows that mind cannot be entirely other than matter; further the distinction at the elemental level is surely terminological (an artifact of the peculiar way in which we naïvely experience our own minds). That the structure of mind has correspondence to brain organization shows that physical-mental elements include the already known-discovered. However, if physics so far is deterministic, creativity requires that some elements of the physical-mental are as yet undiscovered. Even if physics so far is indeterministic there may be some yet undiscovered elements. This direction of thought provides resolutions to (i) nature of mind and matter, i.e. as having the same root and of primitive-macroscopic matter relation as similar to primitive-macroscopic mind (ii) primitive mind as roughly ‘feeling’; macroscopic mind as variety, intensity, layering of same, the bound-free aspect (see discussion of psychology for more detail) as adaptation (iii) problems of mind and matter, e.g. their coexistence and interaction (iv) mental causation (v) freedom of will (i.e. of creating choice and consequent action)

Given that mind (experience) is inherent to matter, what is it? First, at the elemental level it is so primitive that it is not ‘experienced as experience’; i.e. human level experience is the result of amplification, layering etc. Second from the character of experience, mind in one element must be associated with the effect of another element. Pure experience is possible at the elemental level because from FP, there are no atoms, i.e. infinite divisibility. The compound case allows explanation of numerous phenomena of mind and consciousness that are otherwise puzzling—e.g., the apparent on-off nature of consciousness, cases—e.g., in brain damaged persons—of behavioral response to stimulus without awareness of the stimulus, consciousness as focused and intense versus lower lever consciousness versus unconsciousness as a continuum versus opposition, ‘body consciousness’ as part of the unconscious, self-referential consciousness and language as intensifying and enabling insight into and talk of consciousness, that it is not consciousness-feeling as such that are adaptive (though perhaps a sufficiently ordered cosmological background is necessary and that might have some relation to stability and therefore population of the Universe with stable over unstable cosmoses) but their intensification and adaptation to environment

What is different in the Universal case? First, there may be multiple modes of matter (which can be substantial only for limited practical purposes). Therefore there may be multiple modes of mind. These may arise at various levels. However, the levels are not fixed for there may be reaching across modes and reaching up and down within modes. The variety of phenomena is broad and includes what may appear to be ghosts and spirit

Individual

Though normally limited, individuals inherit the power, cosmology, and Identity of the Universe

In unlimited form, realization is an act of perception and Being. It—realization in unlimited form—is ‘Aeternitas’, i.e. eternity in a glance. Limited form may know of this mode of realization and partake of elements of it

Journey

In limited form, realization is an endless and ever fresh journey in variety (distinction)

The journey is unlimited in summits, their variety and quality, elevation and dissolutions; it is an ever-fresh process. This is one source of the title ‘Journey in Being’. Pain is unavoidable; for itself is neither avoided nor sought

Freedom

Limited forms mesh constraint and freedom; for its value and difficulty, discovery-expression of freedom is the greatest challenge. Thus while realization is given, effectiveness and enjoyment require intelligent and reflective commitment of all resources of the individual

Psychology

See Journey in Being-Essential.html

Civilization

Human civilization is the continuity of humankind as an arc in the Universe

In the human endeavor civilization and individuals are vehicles and agents of realization

The concept of Civilization itself is the matrix of civilizations in communication and community populating the Universe

While growth of civilization is given, effectiveness and quality depend on intelligent and communicating use of resources

Ultimate Civilization is the Universe in its phases of acute universal Identity

Disciplines

The human endeavor—culture—has disciplines and special activities which provide methods—from rough and uncertain to algorithmic—for classes of problem and activity

The development of the disciplines is more open ended and experimental with regard to ideas and action. Yet method can—at least sometimes—discerned, e.g. scientific method. This method has been contrasted to deduction in logic. However, a more apt comparison would be to the development of logical systems

The disciplines—which include methods—and their methods of development, i.e. content and method, develop together

The Universal Metaphysics reveals that the ideals of perfection in the traditional disciplines, e.g. completion in science and Platonism in logic and mathematics, cannot be realized. There are domains of perfection; outside the perfect moving forward requires ‘completion’ by action, i.e. in participation and immersion

The disciplines and activities and civilization in their standard—e.g. secular—views and manifestations reveal an infinitesimal fraction of the Universe

What we often regard as established and received and which generates a whole culture of guru-disciple, expert-novice, professor-student has islands of value and definitiveness. As a whole—over the range of endeavor or time—the definitiveness is a mirage born properly of conservatism but improperly of economic and self-serving ego incentives

The Universal Metaphysics includes what is valid in experience, the disciplines and endeavors; if it did not it would not be perfect. It may be deployed to fame ‘imperfect but practical objects’ that are effective in negotiating the known world; provides for their integration with perfect objects; and it illuminates ‘good enough’ and ‘value’ interpretations for perfection of these objects

It would seem that the entire endeavor has no method. Indeed the metaphysics reveals ever openness in variety (distinction). However it has closure in foundation

That is, the ultimate nature of the metaphysics is explicit in depth but only implicit in breadth

Method

In the Universal Metaphysics content or subject matter and method arise together. The content is the metaphysics itself. The method includes analysis of meaning, abstraction whose result contains no projective distortion, identification and naming of givens. The process is simultaneously empirical and conceptual. It is deployed for the primitive concepts—Being, Universe and so on; and it is used in developing the concept of Logic. This situation is as it should be for the content concerns knowledge of the Universe while method concerns knowledge of knowledge which is also in the Universe and is therefore also content

The metaphysics provides an approach to vast stretches of knowledge of Being—Logic. However, this is subject to limitations (1) for limited form (being) conceptual formulation of knowledge of All Being under Logic is a process in being and knowing without end (2) when the Logic informs us of the existence of some state it still remains to discover or realize that state

Within the received paradigm of a culture including its empirical and symbolic sciences, method may be divided into disjoint (a) creative and rather private discovery (b) critical, confirming and rather public justification. At the edges however this breaks down. Criticism and creation become interwoven. In the details and beyond the level of a given discipline creation and criticism occur in sequence. Further, some internalized critical attitude enhances creation; and creation is required in the discovery of method

The Universal metaphysics frames the Universe and, particularly, the disciplines and their methods

From adaptation the methods of the disciplines are ‘good enough’; the Universal Metaphysics shows that such methods may approach contextual perfection; they combine with the metaphysics to constitute broad classes of practical and of perfect knowledge; the join may be called applied metaphysics

The metaphysics reveals one dimension, depth, in which perfection is given and another dimension, breadth, which is ever open, never fully subject to method where, even when one discipline is ‘disciplined’ other disciplines, new regions of Being, open up

The ‘method’ emphasizes intelligent engagement—some of whose lineaments are suggested above and below

Realization

The following absorbed to Journey in Being.doc

Growth of individuals and civilization and of civilizations in connection and communication across the Universe in ultimate realization is given

Intelligent action applied recursively, therefore holistically and analytically, entails enjoyment and effectiveness of realization

Intelligence is not limited to conscious cognition but includes all modes of conscious and unconscious psyche, each separately but also integrated—i.e., in reflexive and synthetic interaction. The unconscious, the imaginative, the intuitive, and catalysts of psyche suggest, reveal, and create paths; conscious thought and action realize the paths, e.g. give them substance and permanence; and the conscious and unconscious join in continuing realization

The Way

Attitude—Conservatism and Liberalism

The attitude of conservatism reflects accomplishment and limitations of culture and the individual. Without these limits received tradition would not be necessary. Because of the limits tradition and authority born of tradition have value which conservatism values more than individual initiative. Conservatism naturally emphasizes learning from a teacher

The attitude of liberalism reflects the facts that contexts change, that opportunity for realization is ever open, and that despite limits there are true abilities. Liberalism naturally reflects learning from experience

The way will combine conservative and liberal approaches. We use the received elements as well as intelligence and experience in realization. That we are learning while realizing results in content (way as method) and method (empirical-rational-experimental development of ways)

The Elements of the Ways

Received ways include some of the following elements—metaphysics, psychology, mindfulness and morals, practice and practice-in-action, retreat and return, catalysts

Metaphysics refers to ultimate, mediate, and proximate realms. Psychology is embedded in metaphysics—i.e. in the body, in nature and culture—and thus for example the sensory modalities and language and freedom in balance with determinate elements

Integration

The Universal Metaphysics including an associated psychology also suggest ways (see Journey in Being-Essential.html-Psychology)

These ways and the received ways will be integrated by analysis and subsequent synthesis via reason and experiment—empirical trial—under the Universal Metaphysics and its psychology

The Way

The Way of realization, a part of Logic, is experimental in ideas and action

It is—best as—an amalgam of traditional ways (valid parts of ancient through modern disciplines and disciplined activities, e.g. technology, exploration, and yoga) and experiments in ideas and transformation illuminated and directed under the Universal Metaphysics

Traditional presentations tend to present as if whole; they suppress the experimental character of the process; they suggest their realization as the realization

This is not meant to suggest that traditional ways are without value or validity. However, since the disciplines evolve with a culture what has validity—local or more than local—is not always apparent. Adaptation and integration must therefore include experiment

The elements of the received ways, may include a metaphysics—view of the universe, the world, society and civilization, morals and values, individual (body, mind, spirit), and a way or prescription. Not all ways include all elements. The Buddha eschewed metaphysics. Science develops understanding but is not thought of as a way of life

A typical way, based in its metaphysics, of living-transcendence includes prescribed practice and practice in action, endeavors—e.g. the Beyul journey-pilgrimage of Tibetan Buddhism

The Way incorporates elements of ways—i.e., method; and Method—the growth of ways

I will tentatively call the way Yoga. This is because the root Sanskrit meaning of ‘yoga’ is ‘yoke’ or ‘to unite’. One of the connotations of yoga is union with the ultimate… or the way of union. Every discipline concerns going beyond the static and the immediate even if this is only improving the immediate. While this is my source, it does not dictate meaning. I choose the word ‘Yoga’ to denote ‘The Way’ (a braid from one perspective, separate threads from another, and braid making from a third perspective). There is no intent to displace specific meanings or authority or to affirm them. Etymology does not determine use; past use does not determine eternity or authority

Program

The remainder absorbed to Journey in Being.doc

The following defines A Minimal Program of Experiments in Realization

Introduction

Ideas and transformation (action)—the modes of endeavor and realization—are essential to realization. Realization is impossible without ideas and incomplete without transformation. These define the essential phases

Ideas and thought constitute the first essential phase. The metaphysics is its main result; and the metaphysics is central in defining and illuminating the journey. Metaphysical content centers on foundation review, development, cross-application with and among disciplines and endeavors

Transformation of Being is the second essential phase. The approach begins with standard systems which it develops and deploys in interaction with the Universal metaphysics. It analyses the standard systems—metaphysics and ways—into practices and practices in action, and catalysts. It experiments with these eclectically, toward incremental and step realization; this naturally includes learning—and synthesis and evolution of systems; the process is illuminated by the Universal Metaphysics. It proceeds everywhen—in the present, i.e. in inspiration and pain (pain is inspiration) and in the conceptual future; and everywhere—at home, in culture, and nature; and learning, change and synthesis of approach

I choose two secondary and supplementary phases as follows

Development of artifactual Being—organic, mechanical and symbolic—to assist understanding, implementing, and complementing transformation

Understanding and deployment of civilization as a vehicle of realization is the second complementary phase. This phase is one of community and charismatic action and sharing. The approach requires openness to concepts and processes of civilization and destiny. This openness is essential from local indeterminism and the need to balance conservatism and liberalism; and from guiles of utopia. In realization Civilization is the matrix of civilizations across the Universe—a pictorial analog to islands superficially separate, connected in the deep. Modes of approach include those of civilization itself—of culture, immersion, and participation; an approach that cultivates organic adaptive community; and an instrumental approach to Being from science and technology

Ideas

The content of the ideas emphasizes knowledge of All Being—the metaphysics and Method or Way; it includes knowledge of disciplines and methods both formal-explicit and informal-tacit. The idea of method includes transformation of implicit to explicit knowledge

The process of the ideas is that of development of content and method. In specific situations a systems of ideas and their approaches separate out from general action. This separation is not universal over all ideation

The method(s) for systems of ideas include abstraction, naming of givens, analysis and synthesis of meaning. These activities have an obvious conceptual component. However in abstraction from experience and in analysis of the relation between concept and object it is also empirical. In the synthesis of meaning it is simultaneously conceptual, empirical, and experimental. At the edges ideas and action cannot be separated. Ideas are not only verified but completed in action, i.e. in immersion and participation. Because discovery is endless (for finite form) all science of the future will encompass immersion and participation

Individual Transformation

The ‘vehicle’ of transformation is the individual—body and person

Objectives of individual transformation are determined and illuminated by the metaphysics—the ultimate ideal or aim is universal identity, the immediate is being in the present as ground and being in process toward the ultimate

Analysis and synthesis of transformation begins with standard systems which it develops and deploys in interaction with the Universal metaphysics. It analyses the standard systems—metaphysics and ways—into practices, practices in action, and catalysts. It experiments with these eclectically, toward incremental and step realization; this naturally includes learning—and synthesis and evolution of systems; the process is illuminated by and interactive with the Universal Metaphysics. It proceeds everywhen—in the present, i.e. in inspiration and pain (pain is inspiration) and in the conceptual future; and everywhere—at home, in culture, and nature; and learning, change and synthesis of approach

A practice that emphasizes everyday and home is as follows. The practice is meditation for centering, focus, reflection on means and objectives. Action—presence, accept anxiety and doubt, focus on care and goal, charisma

A practice that emphasizes nature and presence in nature is as follows. It begins with presence in nature as essential to opening up to its way, meaning, and inspiration. Specific practices will be catalyst—risk, exertion, isolation, and nature presence. Action—deploy mind-body toward ground-ultimate in presence of nature which is inspiration, gateway, to the ultimate and ultimate

Here is a moral practice and action—it is first, right thought and action in the present and toward the ultimate; and second, setting up of and presence to opportunity

Limited form is not complete in itself. Civilization is one natural vehicle. Charisma and its development merge individual and group

Transformation of Civilization

Objectives of transformation—preliminary and final—are as follows. (1) Work toward reflexive defining and realizing potential of this civilization (2) Explore and realize setup for individual expression (3) Search for and communication with other civilization and, in parallel with the third item (4) Population of the Universe

Approaches to transformation will include the following. (1) Focus on civilization as such—definition, potential; charisma and communication; science (social, e.g. political-economic), participation, and immersion. (2) Focus on organic Being—transformations of the individual. (3) Deployment of artifact perhaps emphasizing science and technology and investigating cosmology, life as information, technology of space travel and population of organic and information modes

An Institute—I have long had an interest in founding a research group dedicate to the goals of the journey. There would be workers in relevant fields. The common purpose would be the goals of this program. In addition to special interests, general interest, cross communication, and synthesis would be required. The ideal would be that every worker would be a generalist and a specialist. Years ago I wrote a plan and estimated a budget at Institute.xls; this needs much change for in its original version the emphases were modern, secular, and academic. The original emphasis is now one emphasis. Older traditions are now important for their suggestive character and understanding of psyche and a world outside the secular (the older views may be incorrect in their picture of that world but are correct in thinking that there is such a world). Further, the metaphysics of the narrative introduces a new and encompassing perspective

Transformation via Artifact

An artifact is a construction. It may be organic—bio-physical—andor symbolic. An artifact may be stand-alone or symbiotically integral with (human) being. This section details aspects of science and technology in transformation of individual and civilization

Objectives—understand sustained Being; build artifacts that will populate the Universe with soul andor assist (human) being in population

Study and Research—Develop and assimilate source material from cognitive science and related material (AI and artificial life or ALife, robotics, adaptive and self-replicating systems, ontology, physical eschatology, theology, cognitive science, computation and information theory...) Develop concepts (theory) in relation to the objective

Design and Development—Systems may be symbolic including computational, mechanical, and mixed. Approaches may include design, fabrication, experiment (systematic and ad hoc or ‘tinkering’), and adaptation

A Brief Version of the Program with Timelines

1.      Ways. Design ® Action ® Learning and modification of Ideas, Ways, Transformation approaches ® Ongoing review (implicit in ways)

2.      Aspects of Being—sequence. Individual—fall 2012. Proceed sequentially and in parallel as groundwork is adequate ® Civilization ® Artifact (interactions are three-way)