Welcome Metaphysics Realization Design Resources Anil Mitra

Design is an essential metaelement of the way. It is also an element—necessarily because reflexive reference is reference and particularly because the way is a process. Even as a publication, the way must be in process—as is all publication—for, even when seen seminal, a work is part of a process of thinkers, actors, ideas, and text. As seen in metaphysics, ideas are crucial, but incomplete—therefore planning of action is essential. This page has planning, design, and development for the way, the currently in process 2022 site and its essays Hide detail Contents Introduction About this document About design Organization of work Principles This document Development of the way, realization Site development Miscellaneous issues A little book of the way of being Notation Prologue Part I. Metaphysics Part II. Realization Epilogue—return to the world Topics for study Metaphysics and logic Global concerns Miscellaneous topics Other Individual and shared planning About individual or personal planning Essence Sharing Site planning Review Design A simple and essential version of the site What Where How to begin Content for publication including the website Concepts for the way and for reading and reflection Lessons for the way Write on psychology Select, import, and reformat earlier material Move information on logic Miscellaneous issues Elements to add Improve proof of existence of the void On abstraction Other systems of pragmatic dimensions Design Introduction In this document, links that are not underlined have been placed in resources. About this document Design is an essential as it is part of the world and because it enhances understanding and realization. The document distinguishes and integrates (i) the general concerns of planning and design for the way, its implementation and development, publication (writing, this site), and (ii) those elements of individual (personal) involvement and resource management that intersect the general. The page may contain current and changing in-process details that are particularly significant to the way. The redundancy in the page is designed to enhance use. About design While formulation of ‘design’ is open, there are also necessary elements. A framework pertinent to the way is (i) aims—worldview including consequences for action, the immediate and the ultimate as one (ii) select areas of focus from the ultimate and the immediate (iii) develop ideas and actions (with immersive action) (iv) review and improve or reformulate. An issue Realization – intrinsic | instrumental-sharing-civilization. The way: process The main process pages are metaphysics (detail) and realization (detail) Framework and background. The metaphysics > (realization) – paths and pathways Meta-design Minimize to eliminate ‘meta’. Continual update and elimination of ‘meta’. Organization of work Principles Determine the elements Determine the elements—(a) putting it all together – the way and realization, coded in a minimal and essential version (b) other elements (below). Order the elements Order the elements prioritized as (i) design itself—this document, (ii) development and realization, (iii) site development, and (iv) miscellaneous issues. Circumstances of work ‘In the world’, with a travel computer, phone, and internet connection. Work on the priorities in parallel, selectively (a) emphasize integration of the way into self (b) share, seek help, promote (c) focus on conceptual and material realization. This document Review, minimize Development of the way, realization The little book of the way of being, second essential version of the way, topics for study, individual and shared planning. Site development Site planning, a simple and essential version of the site, content for publication including the website. Miscellaneous issues Miscellaneous issues. A little book of the way of being This is a preliminary version of a little book or field manual. It is rough. Here is a shorter version—little book.html. Notation Small capitals mark important terms. Secondary content may be in indented paragraphs or small font or both. Prologue Two common human aspirations and imperatives are living well in this world and seeking the ultimate, which are personal and historical reasons for the way. Common grounds for these endeavors are worldviews or paradigms. Two common kinds of worldview are secular and transsecular. The essence of the secular is that though it may go beyond it remains grounded in common consensus direct knowledge of the world. A widespread error associated with the secular is to think it determines the entirety of things; it does not, for the entirety may be limitless without contradicting its ground. The essence of the transsecular is to attempt to go beyond. It has two common forms—speculative dogma and reason. Even the way of reason is almost invariably limited by eschewing imagination and insisting on unfounded elements of criticism (imagination is essential; and while criticism is also essential, criticism of criticism reveals some of its unfounded, unnecessary, and immensely limiting but common aspects). Though limited, the common paradigms, east and west, are among the sources for the way. The limits of the paradigms motivate and require development of an ultimate metaphysics, which is the content of part one of the book. The second part takes up realization. Part I. Metaphysics The little book is aimed at action. It omits (i) all except one demonstration (ii) most explanation, doubt, elaboration, and discussion of attitude, and (iii) many definitions of terms. Experience, being, and beings Experience is consciousness and awareness in all their forms. Experience is relational—experience of – experiencing – the experienced (i.e., roughly or metaphorically, subject / psyche / intrinsic being – being – object / matter / instrumentality). Even ‘pure experience’ is relational—some experience is reflexive—i.e., self-relational—thus awareness of awareness etc; this is how the fact of consciousness is known. To exist is to be an object of some form of the verb to be (any given natural language may be deficient in its varieties of the verb to be). A being is that which exists in some situation (e.g., in spacetime). Being is existence. This simple identity is essential to careful development; depth and richness can and ought to be introduced later. Common errors of metaphysics It is not effective to begin with foundation (till final foundation has been found), but rather to begin at a middle ground and build ‘down’ toward foundation and ‘up’ toward elaboration and use or application. It is not effective attempt to put too much depth, richness, and detail in the foundational concepts (Heidegger’s error), but rather to keep them simple (abstract in the sense of omitting distortable and unclear detail, rather than the sense of abstract as abstruse or remote), and then, later, to build depth, richness, and detail around a foundational framework. There is a choice of beginning a foundation with the real vs appearance. A lesson from arguments in the style of Descartes’ cogito is that we can begin at a level or place where appearance is real. It would then be an error to think that (i) all further appearances are real and (ii) no further appearances are real. It is an obvious error to focus only or essentially on imagination (but good imagination already has critical elements built in, even if only implicit). This is why so much western philosophy is critical and analytical (there is no intended comparison with non-western thought). However, a further and not so obvious error is to focus only on critical thought (over and above the perhaps obvious fact that there is no thought without imagination). And it is an extreme though widespread error, almost gospel, that, unless it has been shown, our current canons of criticism are ultimate or absolute. It is a common error, also extreme and widespread, that paradigms and worldviews, especially current canon, e.g., materialism or physicalism, which may be thought to satisfy some canonical original source of knowledge, e.g., sense data or ideas, are the nature and source of all true knowledge. A particular example of this class of error is the common assumption that the empirical big bang universe is the universe and that it has captured the nature of the universe and that there is essentially nothing beyond, except perhaps more of the same, and that all niches of reality, e.g., matter, cosmos, sun, planets, earth, life, and mind-as-we-know-it, have been discovered. Thus, we will find that the universe is the universe of possibility—i.e., given a consistent concept, it is realized in some situation (e.g., in time and space). It is an error to think that we can know no things as they are; that we cannot know the void; that we cannot know the ultimate source of being (just because we commonly think that we have not gotten there yet). It is an error to think that the world of knowledge—things known—is either absolutely open or absolutely closed. We will find directions of openness and of closedness. Some kinds of being An experiential being is one that has experience. However, the term ‘experiential being’ will be suggestive of animal and human being. Animals are experiential beings. Human being is animal being, with the facilities of significance, language, meaning, knowledge, and reason. An element of reality is a simple, perhaps even uniform being that typically constitutes non-simple beings. A substance is a foundational element of reality in the sense that the entire real is composed of its substances. It will be found that entire real is not grounded in or composed of elements or substance(s). However, the concept of substance has some use. A cosmos is a world that, due to empirical limits, may seem substance like and may seem to be the entire real. If our cosmos is a substance world, its elements must have primitive experientiality, which combine and elaborate to constitute our experientiality. The universe and the void The void is the absence of being. Its existence and nonexistence are equivalent, and it may therefore be taken to exist. The void contains no beings (except that it may be regarded to contain itself). The universe is all being (over all situatedness). That is—the universe is all beings (in their unity and or diversity). The universe and the void are beings. If the universe is either a substance world or limitless, its simplest parts must have primitive experientiality, which combine and elaborate to constitute our experientiality. In the case of limitlessness, the elements may have zero but not null experientiality (just as in classical mechanics the force on a body may be zero but not null); and the universe would be a field of relational and experiential being, in which animal beings and the like would be bright, focal, and layered centers of reflexive experience. Dialetheia From equivalence of existence and nonexistence of the void, it is valid to say, ‘the void exists’ and ‘the void does not exist’. In standard logic, contradictory assertions are disallowed (the principle of non-contradiction) and in standard propositional logic, the premise that contains a contradiction implies the truth of all statements. However, ‘the void exists’ and ‘the void does not exist’ is a true contradiction. A true contradiction is called a dialetheia. Dialetheia can be accommodated in logic by (i) excluding from the logical universe (the ‘universe’ of allowed statements) (ii) adopting an alternate logic. There are such logics, e.g., paraconsistent logics. Though there are objections to dialetheia (and paraconsistent logics), note (a) we have shown a dialetheia (b) paraconsistent logics reduce to standard logics when the dialetheia are excluded from the logical universe. Wholes and parts Relative to the universe, the universe itself is the whole, the void is the zero (sometimes called null) being. Parts and kinds are taken in the following. Law The one demonstration of the little book begins here. A being has a pattern if the information to specify its state is less than the raw information. Patterns have being—they are beings. A law (of nature) is a pattern that is more than just local, for example, it may pertain to a world or cosmos. Laws are often expressed in abstract terms. As real objects of some form of the verb to be, laws have being—are beings. Therefore, the void has no patterns or laws. Possibility Given a concept of a being, the being is possible if its existence is not ruled out. The possibility is conceptual (logical) if existence is not ruled out by the concept itself. The possibility is real if existence is not ruled out by the nature of the universe (an example is physical possibility). Real possibility presumes conceptual possibility. For the universe existence (actuality) and possibility are identical. If from the void a being that is possible in the most inclusive sense does not emerge, it would be a law of the void. Therefore, all conceptually possible beings emerge from the void. The limitless universe The universe is the realization of conceptual possibility—i.e., possibility in its most inclusive sense. In this sense, we say that the universe is limitless. That the universe is limitless is called the fundamental principle of metaphysics or just ‘the fundamental principle’. The fundamental principle is the basis of an ideal or abstract metaphysics. The one demonstration is now complete. Does the realization of all possibility imply the existence of marginal, shadowy, and transient worlds? Indeed, it does, but though we do not show it here, the significance of such worlds is marginal—robust, relatively stable, worlds constitute the main and effective population of the universe (but the marginal, all taken together, have significance as interacting with and contributing to the robust). Let us now take up some significant consequences of the fundamental principle. Proof for much of what follows is trivial. Consequences for the universe and other beings The consequences are from metaphysics-more.html. General consequences Though the universe has no creator, its manifest existence is absolutely necessary—i.e., necessity without premise. The universe has identity—a sense of sameness through change. The universe and its identity are limitless in variety of being, extension, and duration. Beyond and even within our cosmos, there are limitlessly many cosmoses with limitless range of physical law, all in communication with one another and the void (there may be temporary isolation). All beings are limitless, for if not, it would be a limit on the universe (of course, as suggested earlier, there are limits that are real in that they may be difficult to transcend in a limited context or world). There is no contradiction here, for this achieving occurs beyond common experience, and in achieving the ultimate there is merging of beings. Every being is equivalent to every other being. In particular, the void and the universe are equivalent. Therefore, the universe phases between void, ‘ordinary’ manifest, and ultimate states. This is a resolution of the ‘problem of something from nothing’. Though beings may be limited in ordinary experience of the world, there are no isolated beings in the universe as a whole. The apparent finiteness of beings is a local phenomenon. All beings are eternal in that greater reality and every being is in interaction with all being. The following paragraph is original to this document. The universe is characterized by form which phases via formation (positive and negative) from absence of manifestation (the void and formlessness) to peak states of form. This can be seen in more than one way. For example, it follows from the equivalence of all beings. Pathways to the ultimate From limitlessness, there are and must be pathways to the ultimate. It is an ultimate in terms of both what it achieves and its value. To be on the way, therefore, is desirable –an imperative(seen as intelligent choice rather than compulsion), is not an affront to ‘the sacred’, and adds to value in our world. How may we be on the way? We develop and employ the real metaphysics, below). A question arises—if realization is guaranteed, is it not pointless? Even dissipative? No—for the path of realization through perhaps even limitless possibility is the true adventure.) Pleasure, pain, intelligence (seen as intellectual ability that effectively sees and promotes valued outcomes, for rather than just in the world), are unavoidable. If enjoyment is the appreciation of these and other elements of being and exploration, then it is the key to the way. If enjoyment is a value, to be on an intelligent path to the ultimate in and from this world is an imperative. Peak being It is in its empirical nature and our attitudes to it, that science is silent on ultimate causes of beginnings and sustenance of the universe. The metaphysics requires and therefore science allows limitless as revealed here. We have seen that there is no creator of the universe and therefore no ‘God the creator’. But is there God in some sense? Since ‘God’ is weighted with an excess of ‘meaning’, let us use the term peak being instead. One way of looking at the history of life is to see it as an upswelling of potential that is already present in matter—this view is consistent with the branching and iterative view from natural selection—it is an alternate description, one that omits detail but does not contradict the detail or the mechanism selection. Perhaps, with this in mind if you are sitting at riverside, teeming with life, you may get a sense of life rising from the elements and that you are part of that upswell. You may get a sense that it has further potential, potential for being higher than all animal being including the intelligent kinds of animal, which include you. You may speculate that if the names ‘Peak being’ or ‘God’ are to reasonably apply to something, they may apply to the upswell of life and its greatest destiny. The thought in the previous paragraph in isolation is of course speculative. But the thought is not in isolation From the metaphysics, Peak Being is real. It goes beyond our common experiential categories, and it answers to the searches for spirit and the religious kinds found in speculative dogma. What is more, the foundation from the real metaphysics is not just of life, but also of the necessity of the universe as the realization of all possibility. We are part of the being and process of Peak Being. If ‘God’ is to have meaning, we must be part of it. The real metaphysics The fundamental principle is ideal and to develop pathways requires supplement. Since realization is given, we refer to valid cumulative human knowledge so far—i.e., over all time, which we call tradition. Tradition is understood to include ways of observation, experiment, and reason. Though imperfect by its own criteria and the fact that it is ‘it is the best we have so far’, tradition is perfect relative to the imperative of realization (it is understood that tradition is not to be seen as static). Therefore, we join pragmatic tradition to the abstract metaphysics of the fundamental principle. The abstract illuminates and guides the pragmatic and the pragmatic illustrates and is instrumental toward the ideal shown by the abstract. Thus, the join is an integral whole, which is perfect by the criteria just above, which we name the join the real metaphysics or just ‘the metaphysics’. Consequences for experience The experiential nature of the universe, stated tentatively earlier, is implied by the metaphysics. We repeat its essence here—“Since the universe limitless, its simplest parts must have primitive experientiality, which combine and elaborate to constitute our experientiality. The elements may have zero but not null experientiality; and the universe is a field of relational and experiential being, in which animal beings and the like are bright, focal, and layered centers of reflexive experience.” Since experience is relational, this is an ultimate characterization of the real. That is so, for relation of relation is relation. What is not ultimate is our common experience of ourselves and other experiential beings, for this is implied by the metaphysics and was seen in the earlier section, consequences for being and the universe. We now know that there is a hierarchy of being, from elementary to peak and that we animal and human beings are not peak. Our distance from the peak is at least such that we do not easily know our identity with peak being or that we are continuous with other being over situatedness (e.g., time and space)—particularly other ‘selves’. However, we now know that we can know, discover, and realize identity and continuity, beginning in ‘this life’. Indeed, though it may be not so likely, realization may occur in this life. Part II. Realization In this part most of the material is (i) from realization-more.html or (ii) written for this document. A way is a system of the universe and the place of beings in it, showing the ultimate character of both, the nature of the immediate world—natural and social, and a pathway (or pathways) for living in the immediate world on the way to the ultimate. Aim The aim of realization is to develop and show how to live a way and pathways, based in the real metaphysics, with information and inspiration from tradition, especially traditional secular and transsecular ways and pathways. Principles and sources Principles—the real metaphysics; reason with experience, design, experiment, reflection, and learning. Prescription, as in so many traditional ways, is not enough. A complete approach to (the way of) being requires ways (principles—of the way—development and sharing) and pathways (prescription—the templates). Sources—the real metaphysics is a prime source. Further sources lie the traditions, particularly of knowledge, exploration, ways (and pathways)—east and west, ancient through modern and current. Design The design needs information (sources) and principles and information. Information and sources have the following supplements— Principles The templates shall focus on the immediate and the ultimate—thus the everyday template especially emphasizes action in the immediate, which the universal template especially emphasizes action toward the ultimate (but the emphases are not exclusive and even where they are explicitly one of instrumental or material and the intrinsic and the universal, the other is implicit). The templates shall be derived from experience, but generalized, and excess detail removed, so that they are flexible and adaptable to the anticipated range of contexts under the dimensions of being. Printable versions of the templates shall be available as a resource. An outline of the way may be derived from metaphysics > consequences for beings. Information from the sources A preliminary source for traditional ways is received ways. The worldview is in metaphysics, especially its sections, experience, being, and beings, the limitless universe, the real metaphysics, and consequences for experience. An important consequence, taken from consequences for beings, is— “The universe is characterized by form which phases via formation (positive and negative) from absence of manifestation (the void and formlessness) to peak states of form. This can be seen in more than one way. For example, it follows from the equivalence of all beings.” A second consequence of significance, taken from consequences for experience, is— “Since the universe limitless, its simplest parts must have primitive experientiality, which combine and elaborate to constitute our experientiality. The elements may have zero but not null experientiality; and the universe is a field of relational and experiential being, in which animal beings and the like are bright, focal, and layered centers of reflexive experience.” Information derived from the sources Thus, the (pure dimension of the) real may be seen as experiential being in form and formation as the world on the way to ultimate being. But experiential being is not merely of mind or psyche in their limited sense as subjective experience. Rather, the shape and form of the world is an aspect of it as “the experienced and its mirror in experiencing, mediated by experience itself”. Hence the importance of yoga with its physical and meditative sides. Hence also the importance of the intrinsic aspects of being as well as instrumental dimensions. What are the instrumental dimensions? We have no purism here, but from the real metaphysics do not need purism anyway. We therefore base the instrumental in western pragmatism—its science and its paradigms. The pragmatic dimensions are taken to be nature (the ground—elementary or physical, complex—or living, and experiential as intrinsic to the ground), society (formed from nature and deploying nature seen as a mix of fixed and formable, and society’s cultural, economic, political, and universal depictions of the world), and the universal (knowledge of which arises at first speculatively out of attempts to understand the world, and its formability, but is seen as limitlessly formable under the real metaphysics). Some paradigms from western science and philosophy are mechanism (which may lie on a determinism continuum from full to nil), and variation with selection as means of formation and evolution. Here are paradigms that are somewhat implicit above. Limitlessness vs robustness (limitlessness in the ultimate vs robustness in the immediate and on the way to the ultimate), which falls under logic in its most inclusive sense (that includes argument and science). Emergence (i) in the ultimate any kind of logically possible emergence will occur, but we have seen that being is essentially experiential and therefore there is only emergence of complexity, not of kind (ii) in a substance cosmos, there can only be one kind (since kinds do not interact), and again, only emergence of complexity (iii) in a near substance cosmos there may be multiple kinds and emergence of both kind and complexity, but in robust cosmoses, a single kind and emergence of complexity will dominate, but for unusual situations and exceptional cosmoses. Everyday template The final version of the templates will replace the version in realization-more.html. The ground and the way In the everyday template, activities that are primarily of (i) development and execution of the way are marked by a star(*), and (ii) ground are unmarked. The template Rise early, before the sun, dedicate to the way and its aim, affirm the universal nature of being (for a dedication and affirmation, see below and printable path templates). Morning reflection in nature. Breakfast. *Meditative-contemplative review 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 frames; see the discussion of experimental meditation and yoga at received ways. *Realization—work; care and relationships—networking; ideas and action; experimental and structured yoga-exercise-meditation-share in practice and in action; one of the aims of yoga-meditation is to see, reason, and sustain the worldview of the way—also see retreat; engagement in the world—languages, art, and other activities. 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. Physical activity—exercise and exploration of the worlds of nature and culture for experience and inspiration; photography. Evening tasks, supper, planning-preparation-dedication for the next day and future. Evening rest, renewal, review, *meditation and realization, network, and community. Sleep early. Summary—daily routine A routine can be constructed from the template. For example, the following could be set in tabular form with details from above, rise realize review times yoga, continue realization ground, tasks lunch exercise afternoon evening sleep. Dedication I dedicate my life to the way of being—to living in the immediate and the limitless ultimate as one. To its shared discovery and realization, under limitless experiential being in form and formation as the world on the way to the ultimate, and its pragmatic and limited dimensions of nature, society, self, and the universal. To shedding the bonds of limited self, culture, and world, via therapy and pathway, so that even in adversity, life is flow over force. To realizing the ultimate in this life—this world—and beyond, in process, and so to return to beginnings. Affirmation “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.”— Abhinava Gupta (950 – 1016 CE, a philosopher-theologian of Kashmir). In plain language— In plain language—All beings are ultimate being, which is the greatest possible being, which from blind and material beginnings, is the ultimate self-aware, designer, sustainer, and transformer of the universe as ultimate. Though we are not that ultimate in our present form there are aware, intelligent pathways to it, which traverse pleasure and pain. If we do not recognize it, that reality is already harbored deep in our being, and there are ways to bring into the light of awareness and shared transformation. Therapy The templates address ‘normal process’, group and individual. The needs of two kinds of individual may remain unaddressed—(i) exceptional and (ii) disturbed. Realist therapy is the best therapy a culture has to offer, within a framework of realization and feasibility. It shall address the issues as issues of being—i.e., as psycho-physiological issues. Universal template Pure being, everyday Being in the world—Dimensions: Pure being, yoga, meditation, ideas to action; Community, education (general, paradigm, ways of life), retreat to the real, renewal, development-reemphasis of paradigm. Ideas—Dimensions: relation, knowing as relation to the world, reason, art; acting—effective creation of the real. Means—reason, yoga-meditation, the real metaphysics, and the site plan for the way of being—for links to yoga-meditation and the site plan, visit the links ways and pathways and development, respectively. Essence—yoga, meditation, ideas into action. Community, education (general, paradigm, ways of life), retreat, renewal, development-reemphasis of paradigm. Becoming Introduction This introduction to activities in becoming lays out dimensions of becoming, and intrinsic-instrumental activities corresponding roughly to experiential-physical being. Note that the distinction between the intrinsic and the instrumental parallels the distinction between the pure dimension and the pragmatic dimensions. From the pragmatic dimensions, dimensions of becoming are (i) nature (ii) civilization, society, and culture (iii) artifact and technology (iv) pure being and the universal. Instrumental activities emphasize the science—physical, biological, psychological, and social—and technology of western culture; they enable knowledge of the world, exploration, and physical transformation. And while these enhance and support transformation and appreciation of the ultimate, they are not in themselves transformation of our being as shown by the real metaphysics. Intrinsic transformation is catalyzed by yoga and meditation, noted earlier; by the processes of science, art, and the humanities; and the immersive activities below—beyul, cultural immersion. Full transformation should require synthesis of the instrumental and the intrinsic. Nature Nature as catalyst and essential to the real. With animal being and devolution—observation, situational empathy, defocus, reason—as preliminary to reconstruction of being. Essence—being in nature as source—immersion over conquest, an example is beyul of Tibetan Buddhism (Generically, beyul is journeying to remote natural environments that evoke true self; for a link, visit the link beyul. In the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism, Beyul are hidden valleys which the Buddhist ‘master’ Padmasambhava blessed as refuges. They are places where physical and spiritual worlds overlap, and Tantric practice effectiveness increases with multiple perception dimensions.) Civilization, society, and culture 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. Essence—immersion and travel in a range of cultures; the dimensions of society engaged in directive and immersive manner (economics, politics, ideas and culture, art, religious-spiritual sources). Immersion in and attention to the challenges and opportunities of the world. Artifact and technology Civilizing the universe (especially technology as enhancing being in the universe)—universe as peak consciousness via spread of sapient being. Essence—technological enhancements of being (artificial being, sciences—abstract and concrete, technology of exploration and space travel). Pure being and the universal Realizing Peak Being in the present. Said to be rarely achieved in ‘this life’ which is a beginning that is continued beyond death. The means are in the previous items and the everyday template (see the printable path templates)—and open. Retreat A retreat is a time away from ‘normal’ society. The aim of retreat is to see, reason, and sustain the true worldview, which is the real metaphysics and its consequences. Retreat is not withdrawal. Though we think our worldviews are sustained by reason, they are most often sustained by being the norm of community (even if also based in reason). Since the worldview of the way is not the norm, it requires renewal. It is typical that a renewal should occur about two times a year. That is one of the purposes of retreat. Another purpose is the practice of the worldview in action. The retreat may be simultaneous with and overlap immersion in nature as the real (beyul). Essence of the template Metaphysics into action, meaning and awareness of self – human limits – birth – and death; their real but non absolute character. Resources The resources are to the way of being site, essays, and templates. Site Welcome (home) page—http://www.horizons-2000.org. Essays A brief essay manual—home > resources > detail > resources for development of the way > the way of being field manual. Templates The everyday and universal templates (with dedication and affirmation)—home > resources > detail > resources for discovery and realization > path templates. Epilogue—return to the world Source—modified from the way of being. This division emphasizes being in the world (‘return’ is a metaphorical emphasis, for we never left the world). Unconditional being Seeking via experiential and instrumental means, to experience the universe of all situations (places, times, beings) as one. We work toward the ultimate in which being, beings, becoming, exploration, and history are transparent. Living, ground, sharing, immersion, the dimensions Living in community, in contact with nature, instrumental and immersive action in the dimensions of being. Addressing issues and opportunities for the world (brief version of issues). Universal text An original thinker writes a work that becomes part of the ‘canon’. Philosophy is cumulative because it is always on the edge of the conceptual unknown (science not so much as its unknown tends to be ‘material’, but in the long run, we expect convergence of science and philosophy, as it was in their origins). There is an essential place, every generation or every few generations, for a summation of thought. It would be an extended labor. It would not be a compendium. It would be ‘this is how we see being today’. It would notice but not be too conditioned by fashion. Ordinary texts ought to be written, not as definitive—there is not so much general definitiveness to go around—but as open in their beginning and end. The cumulation of ordinary and generational text would be universal text. Return Though we may never find ourselves complete, we seek sublime satisfaction with our states of being and process. We seek a balance between satisfaction and achievement. With understanding that is perhaps new, we return to the world, to live in the ultimate, the immediate, past, present, and future as one. ‘Return’ is metaphorical and emphatic, for we never left the world—or the ultimate. Topics for study Only essential topics Metaphysics and logic Metaphysics, philosophical theory of everything (Nicholas Rescher), Logic (informative but useless for the concept as used in TWB), informal logic, first order logic, higher order logic. Logic as metaphysics and vice-versa and the contributions of Hegel, Wittgenstein, Kant, Heidegger, and others (note that there is a range of publications on the topics, ‘logic as metaphysics’ and ‘modal logic as metaphysics’). This gives rise to the thoughts about universal logic, below. Universal Logic (the link may be interesting)—however, the concept that is interesting relative to the real metaphysics is What is allowed in the universe under possibility in its most permissive sense, i.e., under limitlessness? That is, given a bifurcation of concepts (iconic and/or in language, where language need not be discrete) into those whose inherent nature is that they cannot be realized, and those that can, (a) what characterizes those that can be realized and (b) how can they be generated—or, if there is no means of generating all of them, how far can we go in generating more and more of them (or how may we effectively begin or proceed to do so); the following is relevant—from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy > possible worlds > combinatorialism. Logic as the theory of possibility—note that there is further material on logic in realization, which material, together with the material here, should ultimately go to metaphysics. How is logic the theory of possibility? Here is a beginning—(i) the concept of possibility and definition of necessity (ii) the example of impossibility of certain propositional constructions and how it implies the necessity of certain deductive inferences, which lead to the propositional calculus (and the issues of how this may be extended beyond the propositional calculus and how far it may be extended) (iii) extension to necessary fact (iv) extension of ii and iii to the case of ‘less than necessity’. Dialetheism and non-binary logics including paraconsistent logic The issues are whether there are inescapable contradictions and whether they are in some sense true: (i) bivalent truth values T, F “This statement is false” if it’s true / false it’s false / true, which is a contradiction only if it has a truth value (ii) trivalent truth values T, F, and M (neither, middle…) “This sentence is not true”—if T, then F or M; if F, Then T or M; if M, then M, T, or F… so not necessarily a contradiction even if all statements must be one of T, F, or M. Naming and Necessity (book), Kripke, which I do not care for but need to know because it’s thought to be very important. Global concerns Economics and politics, globalism, world problems and opportunities, challenges and opportunities for the world. Politics of specific to general issues—wars of aggression, suppression of development by developed nations and more. Rationality of approach to such issues. More… Miscellaneous topics Html – css – automation of site revision via the present system and by alternate css files. Spanish. Other Continue to review for opportunity – need. Individual and shared planning About individual or personal planning Individual planning is relevant, first, for effective development and, second, as one of a set of templates for readers and users of the way. Here are links to main priorities and ‘today’. The essence of these documents will be incorporated in realization and perhaps mirrored here. Essence Minimize > reduce to zero > self-resources | place-finance-immersion-community | twb Sharing Mechanisms. Planning. Site planning Review Review the present site format and its implementation—the intent is that the first look should present the essentials, which will be emphasized by minimality. At present all main pages have a minimal and ‘more’ versions but is this a good approach for any or all the main pages. Even if some ‘more’ pages are kept, should not the minimal and more contact pages be combined? This design page itself needs to be made more ‘meta’—but note that since the way is already self-referential (which is requisite of any decent system of synthesis), what is required of this page is that the meta needs to be more explicit and a little more detailed. Design Site design includes learning and using technical and aesthetic tools for page and template development—it is critical for efficiency to think through and develop the template before use—see development. Here is a link to priorities. Improve the use of templates (consider eliminating bold formatting from header links)—layout, minimality, color, html, css, and automation. Consider keywords, long-tail words, and their effective use. Look into SEO—Search Engine Optimization. Presentation for academic, realization, and general audiences. Internet commerce. Consider static and dynamic layout elements such as positioning, color, images, and banners for appeal. A simple and essential version of the site What Grab attention, minimal How Eliminate ‘more vs less’ pages, too many pages, detail, rigor (for rigor, refer) Where Complement 2022 folder with 2022-s (simple) How to begin Simple, fundamental, essential version of metaphysics Content for publication including the website Development requires involves reading and learning, reflection, experiment with transformation, writing, and sharing. An immediate and overriding goal is of the way itself—to refine and execute programs of experiential activities for study and constructive thought, sharing and publication, experiment, immersion, and transformation. Concepts for the way and for reading and reflection Planning the concepts—The following list of essential concepts, their meaning, their system and the issue of completeness, and relation to main and simple essays and lessons, shall be refined, elaborated as effective, but otherwise minimized. Some essential concepts are human endeavor, significant meaning, being, beings, experience, concept meaning, knowledge, abstraction, perfect knowledge, part, whole, null, universe, void, possibility, limitlessness, logic, dialetheia, identity, situation, duration-relation-extension, realization, path, enjoyment, pragmatic knowledge, metaphysics. A detailed system of concepts is human endeavor (ground, search, seeking), significant meaning; being (existence), beings; experience (experience of, experiencing, the experienced, relation; sameness, difference, experiencing is temporal, identity, situation, time, space, spacetimebeing or duration-relation-extension), concept meaning (concept, object, linguistic meaning, sign, symbol; system meaning), knowledge, the world (interpretation, tradition, secularism, transsecularism, empiricism, rationalism, abstraction, perfect knowledge); fact (establishment—necessary, contingent), pattern (establishment—necessary, contingent, possible; abstraction, science, logic, metaphysics), and value (imperative – ethics, sensibility – aesthetics) as one—logic and argument (elementary and universal); part, whole, null (beings, universe, void), possibility (real, experiential, scientific, metaphysical, logical), contingency (likelihood), necessity (necessary and pragmatic knowledge and their integration—the proximate and the ultimate), metaphysics, real metaphysics), limitlessness, dialetheia, human beings (their nature and approach to meaning), realization (ways, paths, enjoyment). Lessons for the way Develop and write a list of lessons for the way—here is a preliminary list, to be updated in coordination with an essay on the way. The lessons—Into the way The human endeavor and its paradigms Meta-issues—how to reflect on issues such as the human endeavor – issues of meaning and abstraction More on the secular and transsecular Limits of common paradigms That which lies beyond the empirical can be anything and yet be self-consistent and consistent with the empirical But consistency is not proof (yet the real is one of the consistent possibilities) How can we go beyond the empirical—the rational But common notions of the empirical are limited—properly understood, the rational is empirical The abstract metaphysics Filling in the abstract—common paradigms as guide—the real metaphysics Why this is perfect in terms of ultimate criteria, even though imperfect by received standards Meaning of the metaphysics Consequences of the metaphysics Pathways to the ultimate That living in the immediate and the ultimate as one improves this world. Write on psychology Metaphysics introduced a conception of psychology. The project is to write a chapter on psychology for the metaphysics. It will be carefully written. If detailed, the project will be a significant undertaking. There is further information in resources > psychology. Select, import, and reformat earlier material In this section, links that are not underlined are in resources. Kinds of material—essays and other resources. Material will be carefully selected. All material will be formatted consistently with the 2022 template. Source—port to the older site versions. When importing essays, import and combine the two sources of ‘the disciplines’—the professional and disciplines folders (directories). Main essays for import will be selective and formatted consistently with the 2022 template. Additional important material will show the build toward the form and design of the way in both designed and serendipitous ways (for recent material see details of metaphysics, realization, and their links). Some 2022 essays prior to the current formatting and earlier essays are—2022 field manual (docm), 2022 reason without apriorism (docm), 2003 axiomatic version (tentative, docm), original 2003 essay – journey in being (docm). Evolution and design (no docm version), very rough, written in 1986, was the beginning of the ‘journey’. Further mileposts were the 1987 history of western philosophy (in which I begin as a novice learner, and which is one of a few essays that are primarily imported—though with some original ideas), the 1996 metaphysics and the problems of consciousness and the 1999 philosophy mind and consciousness (two essays whose main views on consciousness I no longer hold, but which were a significant element in my learning and which later pointed the way to the universe as experiential and relational), 1999 field notes in the trinity wilderness (feeling toward the equivalence of ‘everything’ and ‘nothing’). The 2010 archive of older material is interesting, not for its content so much as that it shows learning and growth of ideational maturity to be a wide ranging and multi-faceted process. Resources for writing and development—a template edition—(i) resources for a detailed edition with collapsible format: the way of being (docm), (ii) other resources—the way of being – database (docm), what is philosophy (docm), toward a database for philosophy (docm), topics and concepts for the way (docm). Resources primarily for use and reference—(i) from metaphysics (docm)—main influences (docm), summary of influences (no docm version) (ii) from realization (docm)—note that these are currently repeated in the realization document—2021 materials—site, development, reading, field manual, path templates, received ways, beyul—immersion in nature, sources, bibliography, a system of human knowledge, useful links, more resources, database for the way, wilderness hiking. Move information on logic The material on logic in realization shall be moved to metaphysics. Miscellaneous issues Miscellaneous items and scratchpad—this is a temporary place to enter ideas on the way, and its planning, design, and development… should the material be placed in a secondary and temporary document? Elements to add On the contact page add a response form? Add search to the template. Improve proof of existence of the void In the essay, metaphysics for the way of being, it is said that ‘Given a term x, we say x exists if x designates a concept that has a real and intended object.’ It is then summarily stated that the void exists. This needs further justification. Is it superfluous to include the term ‘real’ in the definition of existence? Should the term ‘object’ be clarified? On abstraction ‘Abstraction’ is not abstract in the sense of remote or not concrete but in the capturing of undistortable essence. Other systems of pragmatic dimensions The issues are (i) characterizing the dimensions—simple to complex (if we choose nature, society, universal, we could choose other elements such as earth, air… but that approach seems simplistic or mythic—which is not to say that such consideration would give clarification) (ii) how to approach the dimensions—the options are via the dimensions themselves (materialism, which would be circular), via a limited idealism (but it is limited), via ‘being’ (which would be a full fledged articulated experientialism or idealism or materialism). Return to the welcome page | top