Contents

About the way of being	3

Being	4

The universe, the void, and laws of nature	4

All possibilities emerge from the void	5

What is the greatest possibility?	5

A fundamental principle	6

The universe and its beings realize the ultimate	6

On abstraction and precision	7

A real metaphysics	7

Essentials of realization	8

Experience and identity	8

Enjoyment is imperative	10

(Uses and beguilements of sophistication)	10

Dimensions of being	11

Paradigms	12

Incremental variation and selection in action	13

Two levels of understanding	14

Pathways and programs	15

Resources	15

The ever freshness of eternal being	16

The Way of Being

About the way of being

The way of being aims at the ultimate Its sources are wonder, the beauty of the world, experience, experiment, reason, and tradition The secular traditions are empirical and though some thinkers see it as defining the world, the secular is consistent with the greatest possibility Transsecular traditions which attempt to go beyond tend to dogma, as in many religions, or limited and speculative metaphysics Reason is an element but reason applied to itself reveals limited imagination and a critical attitude that is insufficiently critical toward itself The way builds on sources and attempts to go beyond them.

In what follows, it is found that—the universe is limitless in the sense the greatest possible All beings inherit this limitless Realization is an imperative and begins in and from our world While pain is unavoidable, it is always mixed with pleasure There are intelligent and effective ways to the ultimate, which do not minimize the world Process—realization and dissolution—is eternal, ever fresh, and, if we are true, there is always a sense of being at a beginning.

Links to resources are given at page 15 of the narrative.

Being

A being is that which is Being is the property of beings as beings (a being is an existent; beings are existents).

The universe, the void, and laws of nature

The universe is all being The universe is a being.

The void is the being that contains no beings Existence and nonexistence of the void are identical (though a contra-diction in form, this assertion does not define an opposition and therefore does not specify a contra-real) The void exists (has being).

A law of nature has being There are no laws in the void.

All possibilities emerge from the void

All possibility emerges from the void, and this is the greatest possibility, or the void would have a law The greatest possibility is the collection of beings whose conception alone does not rule out their being.

What is the greatest possibility?

How is the greatest possibility to be understood? If it is to be ultimately rich in what it allows, it must be ultimately sterile in what it rejects It must be understood as what is allowed by logic Though logic is often seen as sterile, it defines the ultimately permissive boundary of being All true science, religion, and art—as far as it is about the real—and so much more fall under what logic allows If it is not contra-real, fiction is realized in some world.

A fundamental principle

The universe is the greatest possible (this the fundamental principle of metaphysics)

The universe and its beings realize the ultimate

Some consequences are—the universe must have identity, in peak and void phases The universe, its manifest and void phases, have necessary being All beings realize this greatest for otherwise it would be a limit on the universe; beings and identities merge in this realization The ultimate and the immediate are one.

On abstraction and precision

The development so far is precise in virtue of its abstraction (To abstract is to remove from a concept of an object, that which cannot be rendered precise.)

A real metaphysics

How shall we realize the ultimate in and from the immediate?

To the abstract knowledge so far, join pragmatic knowledge, which includes what is valid in human cultures The pragmatic may be imprecise even as we endeavor to improve it.

The abstract—the ideal—illuminates the pragmatic and guides it in realization; and the pragmatic illustrates the ideal and is instrumental in realization In terms of ultimate realization, the join of the abstract and the pragmatic is perfect The join is named the real metaphysics or just the metaphysics.

Essentials of realization

Realization involves a medium—what it is that realizes and means. What are the medium and means of realization?

Experience and identity

Experience is consciousness in all its forms It is essentially the place of our being and meaning We are experiential beings.

Because the universe is ultimate, its primitive root is experiential The universe is experiential Action in interaction with meditation—conscious directed and undirected change in experiential content and quality—is intrinsic to realization.

The universe and its identity are limitless in variety, extension, duration, peak, and dissolution There are limitlessly many cosmoses of limitless variety; every atom is a cosmos, every cosmos an atom The cosmoses are in transaction with one another and the void Identity crosses these forms in realizing the ultimate Between death and birth, an eternity is an instant The realizations are not limited to animal form—all beings merge as peak and fragment in dissolution.

The medium and means of realization are intrinsic to being, i.e., experiential, and instrumental, which are forms that may be labeled ‘mind’ and labeled ‘matter’ What follows includes exploration of the means and medium.

Enjoyment is imperative

Pleasure, pain, and the varieties of experience, receptive and active, are unavoidable Enjoyment is appreciation of the varieties Enjoyment is an ultimate value; therefore, realization of the ultimate is an imperative There are intelligent, shared, and effective paths to the ultimate.

(Uses and beguilements of sophistication)

(There is a world of productive sophistication and doubt behind these developments; the sophistication of thought, especially the traditions of philosophy may appear removed from but contribute toward realization Sophistication may be beguiling and so we ought to endeavor to not to lose sight of the ultimate Further, preoccupation with doubt can be transformed to positive and existential doubt; the real metaphysics can be seen as embodying an empowering metaphysical theory.)

While our being is limited, perfection is not achieved In realization we attempt to negotiate the world creatively, amid dissolution (and ‘evil’) Preoccupation with the negative in the world (evil) and ourselves (limits, blocks) ought not to distract us from realization.

Dimensions of being

Dimensions of being are elements of the world that are effective in describing and negotiating the real – and are related to what have been called ‘categories’ of being The pure dimension may be seen as experiential being in form and formation as the world on the way to and from the limitless ultimate A version of pragmatic dimensions of being are natural (of which experience is a part), social, and universal Since we are experiential beings and experience is the place of meaning, therefore—persons are the aim and object of all endeavor (institutions are important, too, but secondarily) This—the person – the collection of persons—is the real focus of culture, cultural transformation and enculturation, ethics, economics, politics, and law (‘justice’)—which are to be founded in the natural and informed by the universal.

Whereas meditation is intrinsic to (our) being, the pragmatic dimensions are instrumental in realization (though derived from our world, to project the dimensions beyond, is an aspect of perfection of the real metaphysics).

Paradigms

Paradigms of being are general features of the world that summarize its behaviors and forms (paradigms, e.g., causality and mechanism, are more general than laws and theories of science) A fundamental perfect paradigm of being is logic in that what logic allows is possible A fundamental pragmatic paradigm of formation is that of incremental variation and selection derived from the theory of evolution (it is fundamental because newness—that which is not contained in what came before—cannot arise without indeterministic variation and, secondarily, because incremental variation is far more likely than large steps) (this is one possible paradigm of formation; the other is formation in random, spontaneous, or transient formation in large steps).

Incremental variation and selection in action

From lower or no form, this paradigm in action, results in relatively stable, symmetric, and robust form Since the robust forms are those that persist and foster high-level experientiality (‘higher consciousness’), they effectively dominate the population of the universe Human beings and the world are most likely robust. Earth-beings, including the human, are significant achievements of being—we can ask and give some answers to questions of the meaning and nature of being and of the status and possible destiny of earth-beings, yet we are far from peak.

Though we think our empirical cosmos to be more or less stable and real as experienced—It may be the present fragment of my imagination However, such forms are not robust Therefore, our empirical cosmos as we see it is most likely robust and real (and while we are limited beings, we cannot know our world better than what is ‘most likely’ without introducing metaphysical hypotheses).

Two levels of understanding

As far as we are limited beings, we live at two levels of being and knowledge—the ordinary and the ultimate; in the ultimate, being has a single ‘level’ and is, perhaps, beyond the robust and the transient.

Pathways and programs

A pathway or program of realization will attend to the immediate—the everyday—and the ultimate the intrinsic or experiential and the instrumental, the individual community, and civilization.

Pathways will begin with the real metaphysics and the pragmatic (with tradition).

Resources

For more, see, https://www.horizons-2000.org, especially , https://www.horizons-2000.org/2022/resources-more.html.

For pathways, see https://www.horizons-2000.org/2022/realization-more.html and https://www.horizons-2000.org/2021/narratives/templates%20and%20dedication.pdf.

The ever freshness of eternal being

However, the real metaphysics and our best traditions are in-process and shall submit to imagination, reason (and the varieties of experience), trial and experiment, and refinement, for—

“In our true being and in realization, we are always at a beginning”.

The eternity of peak and dissolution is not an eternity of repetition, for the variety is without end. There is no end to adventure.