The Way of Being	Copyright © Anil Mitra, 1986 – 2024
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The Way of Being
A basic version
Anil Mitra, Copyright © February 2024 – March 2024

Contents

Into the way

The way of being

To readers

Preview

The approach

Structure of the way

History of the way

Sources

Ideas

Meaning

What the world is made of

What we know

What is in the world

The universe

Persons

Doubt

Ways

Ways and pathways

Aim

Design

Pathways

Return

Resources

The Way of Being
A basic version

Into the way

The way of being

‘The Way of Being’, which refers to a way of being and its narratives, will be shortened to ‘the way’.

The way

Aim

To readers

Preview

The preview is a brief account of the way.
Its purpose is quick use and reference.
What it sacrifices in explanation is in the main essay.

Here are some preliminary ideas.
‘Thing’ and ‘exist’ are used in their most inclusive senses.
For example, entities, processes, and relationships,
whether concrete or abstract, are things
(sometimes ‘object’ is used for this meaning of ‘thing’).
Similarly, existed, will exist, exist, exists, and
supratemporal existence will all fall under ‘exist’.
Something is possible if its existence is neither self nor
world-contradictory. If is not self-contradictory,
the possibility is coherent (also ‘logical’).
If it is not universe contradictory, the possibility is real.
Real possibility presumes coherent possibility.
Therefore, the greatest possibility is coherent (logical).
The term experience is not used in the sense of
‘experience of’ but in the more general sense of awareness
in all its forms and levels.
The terms ‘mind’ and ‘matter’ are not used except
(metaphorically) for different but related aspects
of experience.
The terms ‘being’, ‘universe’, ‘void’, and ‘law’,
are defined below. Their meanings, particularly as
distinct from received meaning, have been selected
by design, so as to avoid characteristic errors and
limits in the history of thought, up to the present time.

Anything that exists is a being; being itself is existence.
The universe is all being(s).
The void is the being that contains no beings.
A law or limit of nature is a being.
The void has no laws or limits.

In the greatest sense of possibility,
all possible beings emerge from the void,
for the contrary would be a law.

Therefore, the universe is the greatest possible.
This demonstrated statement is
the fundamental principle of metaphysis, or FPM.

We are experiential beings; two aspects of experience
are ‘experience of’ and ‘the experienced’—an as if mind
and an as if matter side (more on this later), which are
related by experience itself.
If we think of these aspects of experience (as if) matter
and as if mind as two terms that begin a series,
we may ask what terms or kinds continue the series.
As matter is object-like and experience relationship,
a next term, relation of relation, would be experience,
itself.
Therefore, let us suggest that, there may be
lesser and greater varieties – lower and higher forms
of experience, but nothing beyond experience, itself.

The universe is experiential—it has identity;
the universe and its identity are limitless in variety,
extension, duration, and peak of being,
and phases in and out of the void state;
its cosmoses are limitless in number, magnitude,
complexity, and variety (e.g., of physical law),
which may be temporarily isolated,
but are in communication with one another
and the void over eternity.

We are experiential beings;
all beings merge as one in peak being;
and though not necessarily in the interval
between our birth and death, in eternity
we know the limitless universe with transparency.

There are intelligent, effective, and enjoyable
pathways to peak or ultimate states,
which may be realized in ‘this’ life, but, if not,
are realized and eternally re-realized in eternity.
In our present form we generally do not see these
ultimate states; they are therefore hard to conceive;
but their existence follows from FPM, and
their realization is available as—
(i) continuous transition from our present form
beyond birth and death, understandable in terms
of the continuity of our being(s) with all being
(ii) discrete transition.

Whatever is true in our thought,
whatever is true in religion,
whatever is true in science, and philosophy,
whatever truth is conveyed by art,
whatever is true of action and agency,
is framed by these ideas,
but not generated by them.
The generation of truth begins in our world
and peaks in peaks of being,
which are without end.
It is a process without end.

If enjoyment, the appreciation of our experiential nature,
is a prime value, it is imperative to be on a path.
There are traditional prescriptions; however, it is in our
essential nature to negotiate, share, and develop paths
(metaphorically, we are all Buddhas).
While moksha and bliss are traditional values,
and will be attained, their attainment is impermanent.
Pain is unavoidable, not solvable by salves or suicide;
an optimum resolution of pain is to combine
being on a path with the best therapy of the time;
it is the responsibility of the more fortunate to
help the less fortunate.
Being on a path is entertainment; ‘mere entertainment’
is not to be avoided, but path aware performance may
be most entertaining.

It is a worthwhile project to sketch
the form of the ultimate and to locate
the place and significance of moksha within it.

The means of realization begin with
the ultimate picture above. It illuminates the peak,
but not the way.
The way starts in the immediate world and
our knowledge of it—knowledge both material and spiritual.
While the ultimate picture is perfect representation,
our knowledge of our cosmos is at best pragmatic.
However, since the pragmatic (in process) is all we have,
when the perfect and the pragmatic are joined,
they are perfect in another, yet ideal sense—
the perfect shows the ultimate ideal, and
the pragmatic together with the perfect
make the best instrument of realization.

Paths will use and address dimensions of being.
The pure dimension is that of our experiential being
with two sides—‘experience of’
(as if psychological, subject, intrinsic, and immersive)
and ‘the experienced’
(as if material, object, instrumental, and manipulative)
which are related in ‘the experience’ itself
(which transcends the divide as experience
recognizes experience).
Experience is called ‘pure’ in the absence of
an immediate object.

The pragmatic dimensions are chosen pragmatically,
e.g., from western thought.
One system of pragmatic dimensions is—
nature or natural (physical, living, psychological),
society (beings, groups, institutions, economy, politics,
religion, cultural – including recording, development,
and transmission of knowledge, and technology), and the
universal (defined by the greatest possibility,
as elaborated above).

A project of realization may have two programs—
action now (‘everyday’) and
action toward the ultimate (‘ultimate’), which will mesh.

The everyday will emphasize daily routine at home and away,
personal activities (work, school, play, spiritual), relationships,
and mesh with the universal.

The universal will emphasize individual and
shared involvement in the way and dimensions of being

The aim of (the way of) being is shared realization of the ultimate
for, in, and from the immediate.

Dedication—we dedicate our being to living in the immediate
and ultimate as one;
to shared discovery and realization of paths
on the way to the transparently limitless ultimate;
to shedding the bonds of limited self,
particularly the blocks of fear and pain,
so that we see the way so clearly that
life is flow rather than force;
to realizing the ultimate in this life and beyond—
a process version of living in the immediate and ultimate as one.

The approach

Structure of the way

History of the way

Sources

Ideas

Meaning

What the world is made of

What we know

What is in the world

The universe

Persons

Doubt

Ways

Ways and pathways

Aim

Design

Pathways

Return

Resources

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