A Canticle of Reality
A Canticle of Reality presents a process philosophy of reality, epistemology, self-realization, influence, and leadership. Canticle blends principles of physics, biology, psychology, and sociality into a consilience of wisdom. The lessons of A Canticle of Reality guide the reader to excellence in every aspect of living.
“Preface”:
Spirituality awakens with wonder: when awareness questions its habitat. Curiosity expresses spirituality. Spirituality – desire for awareness – is an inborn trait.
Spirituality dies when wondering ceases. Those who think they know what is going on are the walking dead.
To entrance commoners, ancient spiritual texts were often poetic prose. Parable and analogy were common narrative devices. This followed oral storytelling tradition. The currents of concepts underlying the folksy tales ran deep.
Intellectually, spirituality evolved into philosophy: defining terms and linking concepts into a collage of comprehension.
Advancing technology pushed philosophy into the background. Science came to the fore.
But science proved a supplement to philosophy, not a substitute. A scientific theory is a philosophic construct, where facts are treated as axioms.
Selfsame questions provoke science, philosophy, and spirituality. What is reality? What is the nature of Nature? How to reconcile the mind with matter? Why am I here? How do I best conduct my life? Is there life after death?
Science acquired a bevy of amazing discoveries. These revelations provide puzzle pieces to answer the elemental questions, and thereby create a consilience of guidance for living and endeavor: a proper way to be and do.
This is a philosophy book, written in the style of archaic spiritual texts. The ample glossary testifies to terms defined. Underlying the verses is science, with currents running deep.
From the chapter “Paradox”:
Paradox is the nature of Nature.
From chaos comes order.
Longing is for contentment.
Dying begets birth.
Vitality depends upon stillness.
Perception is deception.
The physical is metaphysical.
The absolute becomes relative.
Solid is fluid.
From nothing comes everything.
Diversity disguises unicity.
Reality cannot be.
Commentary on “Paradox is the nature of Nature.”
A paradox is a contradiction resolved by construing a complement. An inyō is a dynamic with entangled opposites. An ouroboros is an endless cycle of instantiations.
Nature is the perceived exhibition of existence. To understand that exhibit, the mind construes contrasts via polar comparison, by which categorization arises, from which recognition can occur. Paradox, inyō, and ouroboros are integral facets of comprehension.
Commentary on “Vitality depends upon stillness.”
Consciousness is the faculty for awareness. Though consciousness is an interested witness, awareness itself is quiet, like still water. Mentation generates waves upon that stillness. As witnessing requires a show, consciousness and perception are a paradox of tranquility and activity.
The vital energy for living emanates from the will of consciousness, which instantiates in the mental process termed willmind. The mind powers itself by the energy of consciousness. The willmind process is an inyō.
Commentary on “Perception is deception.”
You experience Nature as a dualism. Your mind informs you that you are an individual amid an external world. As reality is instead a monism, dualism is deceit.
Dualism is proven untrue because a mix of mind and matter is inexplicable. No one in history has devised a science that upholds dualism.
Either matter makes the mind (matterism) or the mind makes matter (energyism).
The mind’s insistent deception of dualism presents a paradox. That paradox is resolved by understanding that dualism imparts a sense of realism that is essential to treating living as a meaningful experience.
Commentary on “The physical is metaphysical.”
The central, paradoxical, tenet of energyism is that the material world is a mirage of the mind.
Modern physics has proven that physicality is illusory. In explaining his now-proven equation of matter-energy equivalence (E=mc2), physicist Albert Einstein declared “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it.” Physicists admit that energy itself is nothing but an idea. Carlos Calle plainly stated that “Energy is an abstract concept.”
Matter and energy are an ouroboros. The creation of energy from matter and dissolution of matter into energy are the processes respectively termed fusion and fission.
Matter is born of energy and releases energy thunderously in its death throes.
Energy is just a label for the impact that immaterial forces have upon matter. We can only measure energy through matter. By this, we see that the relationship between matter and energy is paradoxical.
Commentary on “Solid is fluid.”
Perception is deception in the large by obscuring the monism of reality for a dualism of existence. In the small, perception deceives in depicting a world of objects when, instead, Nature is a flow of activity.
As all is process, the term “mind” is a misnomer. There is no mind. There is instead the activity of mentation.
Commentary on “Diversity disguises unicity.”
Underlying the diversity which characterizes existence is a reality of oneness: a monism. This is the fundamental inyō which is also a paradox and an ouroboros.
From the chapter “Cöcö”:
Cöcö is an acronym for Cönsciousness/cöherence. Cöcö is the noumenal reality unicity: the unitary process behind the diversity of existence.
Hinduism, and later Buddhism, were originally based upon ancient Vedic teachings, which were first orally transmitted over 4,000 years ago, and then later written down in 4 corpora of texts. The Vedas signified Cöcö as Brahman (ब्रह्मन्), which is the unitary reality from which came the diversity expressed as existence.
The legendary Chinese sage Laozi (老子) wrote of the Dao (道) as Cöcö is written of here. Laozi reputedly lived 2,800 years ago.
The chapter “The War Within”:
A war is waged for a soul’s destiny.
The war cannot be won through achievement.
The war cannot be won through detachment.
The war cannot be won through esteem.
The war cannot be won through thought.
The war cannot be won through faith.
The war cannot be won through knowledge.
The war can only be won by silence.
Commentary on “A war is waged for a soul’s destiny.”
A transcendental soul incarnates as a willful witness to the proceedings of living. The mental behaviors of this consciousness is willmind.
To make living a challenge, cöherence contrives a nemesis: nattermind. Banishing this bane is what willmind must do to shape a better destiny: both while alive and for incarnations to come.
The war willmind wages is for higher awareness: enlightenment and beyond. Nattermind wants consciousness mired in iğnorance.
Commentary on “The war cannot be won through achievement.”
Enlightenment is not of doing, but of a refined beĩng.
Commentary on “The war cannot be won through detachment.”
Attachment is emotively clinging to conceptualizations for psychological comfort. Attachment is a salve for insecurity. The compulsion to attachment is strong in iğnorance. Enlightenment cannot be attained by pretending nothing matters.
Commentary on “The war cannot be won through esteem.”
One’s esteemed values are irrelevant to awareness level. There is no morality to enlightenment.
Commentary on “The war cannot be won through thought.”
Now is all that exists. Thought is the robbery of the present moment from awareness.
Thought is useless. Vasistha, the ancient Indian guru who wrote seminal Vedic texts, observed, “Though appearing to be intelligent, thought is unable to comprehend anything really.”
Commentary on “The war cannot be won through faith.”
Faith is attachment to certain beliefs. Belief is the esteem of concepts. Belief supplies no bullets in the war against iğnorance.
Commentary on “The war cannot be won through knowledge.”
Enlightenment is not of the mind but of awareness. It does not matter what is known.
Commentary on “The war can only be won by silence.”
Enlightenment can only be attained by subduing nattermind and attaining quietude.
A Canticle of Reality will be published in June 2023.