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Path templates and affirmation for the way of being  ¢  Contact.

Path templates for the way of being
(this document is being replaced by templates and dedication,
a document with the same name, but different content and a different location)

Anil Mitra, Copyright © 2015 – 2024

Contents

Introduction. 2

Everyday template—home. 3

Everyday template—exploration, immersive. 4

Universal template. 5

Endnotes. 6

The templates

Introduction

Conceptual background

The conceptual background will make use of the templates effective.

Some conceptual background is in the endnotes. A backup of a longer, earlier version has more information in its endnotes.

Especially see metaphysics, realization, beyul (search for bookmark “Beyul”), meditation and yoga, received ways of being, and dimensions of being. You may find the resources useful.

Versions of the document

There is an adaptable MS word edition of this document, which you can download and fashion to suit your needs.

Previous versions are in a backup folder (directory). The most recent backup is that of October 8, 2023.

The printable templates

The three printable templates are—every-day, home, every-day, exploration, and universal.

Everyday template—home

Item

Time

Everyday activities1—individual and group

1.     

 

Rise early2—before the sun, dedicate3 to the way and its aim, affirm the universal nature of being. Morning reflection in nature. Breakfast.

2.     

 

Meditative-contemplative review4 of priorities and plans—the way, life, the day. Reflect on realization, priorities, and means; employ simple reflection

Shamatha—calming meditation for re-orientation of purpose and energy—to experiential transformation toward oneness. Vipasana—analytical to visionary meditation—to see what is essential now and in other time frameworks.

3.     

 

Realizationwork; care and relationships—networking; ideas and action; experimental and structured yoga-exercise-meditation-share in practice and in action; engagement in the world—languages, art, and other activities.

4.     

 

Tasks—daily and long term; midday meal. Attitude—in tasks and toward others and the world—an element of realization; light; yoga in action. Merge with Realization.

5.     

 

Physical activity—exercise and exploration of the worlds of nature5 and culture6 for experience and inspiration; photography.

6.     

 

Afternoon7 tasks, planning-preparation-dedication for the next day and future. Evening8 rest, renewal, review; shower, supper; options—meditation, realization, network, and community. Sleep early.

Everyday template—exploration, immersive

Item

Time

Everyday activities

1.     

 

Rise early—dedicate to the way and its aim, affirm the universal nature of being. Breakfast.

2.     

 

Meditative-contemplative review of plans for the day.

3.     

 

Exploration—exercise and immersion in nature or society and culture or both—aimed at sharing and learning toward the immediate and the ultimate

4.     

 

Tasks—needs for the travel, place to stay, exploration; midday meal. Attitude—toward others and the world—an element of realization; light; yoga in action. Merge with Realization.

5.     

 

Exploration continued—exercise and exploration of the worlds of nature and culture for experience and inspiration; photography.

6.     

 

Evening—network, supper, planning-preparation-dedication for the next day(s), review, rest, meditation, renewal, network. Sleep early.

Universal template

Item

Dates9

Dimensions of being and transformation10, 11

1.     

 

Being in the world12—Dimensions: Pure being, yoga, meditation, immersion13, ideas to action; Community,  education (general, paradigm, ways of life), retreat to the real, renewal, development-reemphasis of paradigm.

2.     

 

Ideas14—Dimensions: 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.

3.     

 

Becoming—immersive, intrinsic, and instrumental

i.       Dimension15: nature as catalyst to the real. Animal being and devolution—observation, situational empathy, defocus, reason.

 

 

ii.     Dimension16: 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.

 

 

iii.   Dimension17: artifact. Civilizing the universe (especially technology as enhancing being in the universe)—universe as peak consciousness via spread of sapient being.

 

 

iv.   Dimension18: universal, incompletely known. The common way from self to Being (Atman to Brahman), via the block universe19 and extended secular worlds consistent with experience of and in the world20.

4.     

 

Being in the universeDimension21: 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 items 1 to 3. The means are in the previous dimensions, the everyday templates above, and open to discovery.

Endnotes

1 Summary. Rise before the sun > review and plan the way, life, the day > realization—work, relationships, yoga, engage the world > tasks, meals, yoga in action > physical activity, exploration of culture and nature > evening rest, renewal, meditation, realization, networking, tasks, supper, preparation for the next day and future > sleep early.

2 Explanation. Rising before the world, enables looking at the world as special, sets a good tone for the day. It is an efficient use of daylight.

3 Dedication and affirmation—the headings and explanations on the right are not said; the first line of each paragraph on the left is said boldly, while the next lines are said in response.

Dedication

I dedicate my life to (The Way of) Being
to living in the immediate and the ultimate as one.

What does ‘living in the immediate and the ultimate as one’ mean?
How is it known to be true and good?
How is it to be lived—
and how is the ultimate to be realized?

The Way or Means

To its shared discovery and realization
under pure and pragmatic dimensions of experiential being in form and formation as the world on the way to the transparently limitless ultimate.

In the real metaphysics, the universe is shown to be limitless,
which follows from the properties of the void as containing no law.

It follows that all beings are limitless
and merge in universal identity
in this life or beyond,
for limits, especially birth and death, are found real but not absolute.

(What we think of as a limit of logic is contra-diction and,
therefore, not a real limit.)

The universe is found to have experiential identity
of which we are a part and, therefore
there are paths to peak identity in this life or beyond.

The effective path is not just the followed path,
but the one that is negotiated by individuals,
shared, and with inspiration from tradition.

The means are the aware and object sides of experience—
‘mind and matter’.
I.e., rational, quiet, and contemplative meditation…
and instrumental action in this world, this cosmos,
and beyond.

To follow a path is enjoyment itself,
but pain is unavoidable.
The best address of pain is to be on a shared path,
with healing.

While there are no ultimate limits,
there are many contingent limits.
Beyond these there are personal limits,
the result of fear, anxiety, and so on,
that block path process.

The Path

To shedding bonds of limited self
so that I / we may see the way so clearly that even in difficulty life is flow over force—to moving toward positive light.

Approaches to shedding the bonds are
(i) affirmation of identity of self and peak Being,
(ii) for the bond itself—seeing, meditative acceptance,
forgiveness, attempt to consciously let go,
healthy living—exercise (yoga), diet, sleep,
and adequate but not excessive routine
and organization of possessions and affairs,
(iii) balance of healing with path negotiation.

Summation

To realizing the ultimate in this life and beyond
the process version of the transcendent ‘living in the immediate and the ultimate as one’.

Affirmation—

Ritual reminder of identity of self and Being

“That pure unlimited consciousness—transcending all principles of form… that is supreme reality. That is the ground for the establishment of all things—and that is the essence of the universe. By That the universe lives and breathes, and That alone am I. Thus, I embody and am the universe in its ordinary and most transcendent form.” Abhinav Gupta, 10th century philosopher and mystic of Kashmir.

Identity of every being with the being of the universe
follows from the limitlessness of the void and, therefore,
of every being, including the universe.
This identity can be known, but is not clearly manifest
in individual lives. It becomes manifest in a mode
beyond limited time.

Groundlessness of being

Every being is, grounds, and reflects all being—
—roughly in present limited form, but fully and precisely in ultimate form.

The void and therefore every being is generative of all being(s);
which becomes manifest in a mode beyond time.

 

4 Explanation. This Vipasana meditation may be unstructured. The extent of the review depends on need. An accumulation of expectation and planning may occasion extensive review, perhaps of a few hours to days.

5 For nature. Beyul—a tradition of Tibetan Buddhism is travel and being in nature, sometimes to remote places, in search of extended experience of self and the ultimate, with openness to inspiration. Nature photography.

6 For culture. Experience traditions for learning and impact on identity.

7 Explanation. Review for improvement. Plan and layout the next day for efficiency and to preserve productive time.

8 Explanation. Review for improvement. Plan and layout the next day for efficiency and to preserve productive time.

9 Phase of development and execution. Time frameworks for items 2 and 3 may be set.

10 Summary. Being-in-the-world—pure, community, retreat. | Ideas—reason, metaphysics, action. | Becoming—nature, society, artifact, and beyond (the incompletely known universe) as catalysts and path to the real. | Being-in-the-universe—realizing Peak Being in the present or beyond death—means: the previous items (being, ideas, becoming) the everyday templates, and open.

11 Most individuals and groups whose emphasis is realization, will follow items 1, 3 (iv), and 4; they will make selections from the others; they may make additions of their own choosing. For meditation and yoga, see the everyday templates.

12 Details. (a) Pure being here and now… being as if timeless and without restriction to place in the present—means: everyday (everyday template) process is bridges the immediate-ultimate (b) Sangha or community—a spiritual home and sharing community (home and community are ground to truth which gives back to normative truth in Sangha) means: building community and civilization (c) Retreat for vision quest and experience of Being.

13 Immersion begins with focus on first order experience, i.e., defocus on experience of experience—and, thus, defocus on self.

14 Explanation. Ideas are the first—and final—place of being, significance, and action; and are instrumental in realization.

15 Details. Nature, psyche, and their interactions; immersion in nature as a place of being and catalyst to the real. Effect on culture and understanding of the universal.

Sources. Nature as ground for the real and renewal—with focus on nature as gateway. Beyul, quest for the real, as in Tibetan Buddhism.

Explanation and details. Nature is inspiration as essential place of and portal to Being, catalyst to meditation and ideas. Life in nature exemplifies being (a useful reflection is—on the Being of land, plants, and animals and to know that Being is illuminative of self and attained not just by meditation but also in immersion, for which one beginning is defocus on experience of experience and focus on earth, sky, trail, and plant and animal worlds). Meditation (yoga) is an intrinsic way to centered and transformative attitude in this world and shedding limitations (bondage) of self and growing into the universal.

16 Details. Civilization and society as vehicle and path to the real (culture and its dimensions; instrumental and immersive politics and economics). Transformation of individuals via psyche—by travel and immersion in social groups, informal and institutional or formal, as place of being and catalyst to the real. Informal—self, family, community, and world. Institutional aspects—(i) accessing the range of social and cultural institutions of society (from earlier: political, economic, technological, military, academic or research and education, artistic and religious) (ii) building specific institutions for realization and community. One beginning of political immersion is seeing politics not as institutionalized, but as individual and common endeavor toward individual and common goals, particularly with defocus on state and focus on individual action and effective levels of individual and group action.

Sources. The system of human knowledge—is a guide to secular and transsecular elements of local through global action. Meditation is (self) guide to shedding bonds of self and to action. For instrumental transformation of society see political and cultural economics.

Detailsimmersion. The individual does not stand outside the world as just objective observer and commentator. The individual as experiential-relational being is key. Engagement may begin at any point in a cycle of self and social awareness > speaking one’s truth and action > group action and Sangha > re-form (self, other, world). Self and world awareness are essential to the cycle and an effective place to begin—

Detailsattitude. Awareness of self and limitation—and to openly aim at the highest in this life and beyond (and recognition of poverty of exclusively secular and exclusively dogmatic). Cultivation of attitude in meditation-yoga-practice.

Detailsproblems, challenges, and opportunities of the world. A crucial problem is that of the nature of the world. The real metaphysics is true and illuminating. However, since there are so many views, many held passionately, there will be natural resistance. One default that may be found acceptable is a limited secular view. This, however, presents a paradox—because world views are in conflict, it promotes the least of them.

A resolution is to hold to the real metaphysics but speak it where effective; this is perhaps the minimal resolution consistent with truth. Thus, the truth may illuminate the world of problem and opportunity. Another problem is to identify the problems and opportunities.

Some common approaches identify only the material problems such as war, hunger and so on). Such approaches are limited (a) in identifying only material problems, but not the entire range of challenges and opportunities, material and other (b) in not identifying the world political-economy as key to resolution of the issues and therefore a problem-opportunity in itself.

Approaches to political-economy are (i) the way politics and economics are done (ii) the science and practice of politics and economics (iii) related philosophy, not ideological per se, that identifies the nature or kind of thing (referent) that politics-economics is (iv) immersion via reflection, meditation, and action in politics-economics by the individual.

Sources. For problems etc, see challenges and opportunities in journey in being.

17 Explanation. Artifact has potential as sapient being, reservoir of our being, and auxiliary in our search for intrinsic and instrumental being (e.g., the spread of ideas and civilization).

Details. Artifactual being as realized being and as adjunct (science and technology of advanced civilization on the way to the ultimate; use of computation and networking in realization—as adjunct and as independent identity). Address of pain via modern medicine and therapy, supplemented by what is good in the traditions, is important to individuals and realization by civilization—either in part or in whole.

Sources. See system of human knowledge, reason, practice, and action, for artifactual being.

18 Explanation. The path to Being. Where secular and transsecular paradigms visualize completeness or impossibility of completeness, there is neither completeness nor impossibility. This action is on the way to the ultimate.

Details. Transformation aimed at the universal deploys catalysts and ways and their conceptual and experimental development under the real metaphysics, for the transformation of being-civilization. The use of the catalysts and ways is in everyday process, renewal, knowledge, and technology.

Sources. See dynamics, catalysts and catalytic states, and ways and catalytic states.

19 The block universe, here, is a description of the universe as a block over all change. From the real metaphysics, there are many histories intersecting at each being. It is via these converging and diverging histories that the beings merge with Being and one another.

20 Via the real metaphysics it is shown that the universe as Being and individuals as beings are essentially and not just contingently experiential. It is the experientiality that merges and diverges as described in the previous note. And it is thus, that identities merge with Being and communicate across lives and deaths.

21 “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”—T.S. Elliot.