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Okay, so in case you were wondering, YES I forgot to finish this series. So here you go, the next in worldviews.

Following is the 4th installment of a series on Worldviews. There are seven questions presented by James W. Sire in his book, “The Universe Next Door,” which he says every worldview must answer. This book is used in many colleges for philosophy curriculum, and Sire writes from a Christian perspective. Though influenced somewhat by Sire, what I proceed to give answers to comes from my own words and thoughts. No quotes. If you want Sire’s opinion, let me know and I’ll provide that for you.

1. What is prime reality⎯the really real?
Brahman is ultimate reality, the universal soul. Each person’s soul⎯Atman⎯is also Brahman. Even more, everything is Brahman in separate forms; nothing that exists is not Brahman. Brahman should be understood in the same reality as God, except that Brahman is God. Therefore, every person is God in separate forms. Brahman, though, is impersonal and holds no intrinsic good nature. In fact, Brahman has no particular “nature,” for it would then be considered a “self,” thus having personality. Brahman, however, knows no “self,” rather it simply is. Therefore, it is not good, not evil, not right, not wrong, not loving, not hating, not intelligent, not stupid, not wise, not dull, it is beyond all these things; there is no differentiating in Brahman.

2. What is the nature of external reality, that is, the world around us?
Though external reality is Brahman, some forms of external reality are lesser than others. Differentiating happens with external reality, therefore the closeness a thing has to being one with Brahman bares its significance, or ranking in the realm of “real.” Matter is seen as the least significant reality, then vegetables, then animal, then human. Therefore, the highest ranking of reality is of most value. There is no purpose to external reality; it is simply Brahman wondering through different forms of reality in an endless cycle.

3. What is a human being?
A human being is the highest form of the things that are real. Even though this is true, there are still lesser forms of humans. The closer one realizes his oneness with Brahman, the higher one rises on the scale of significance. Humans do not have some metanarrative, rather they have “goals.” Each person’s path to their goal may seem entirely contradictory to another person’s path, but in the end both paths end in the same place. They are both rivers draining into the same sea. The highest goal one can achieve is to realize one’s oneness with the One, with Brahman. What guides a person’s path to oneness with the One is entirely subjective. Teachings and doctrine do not necessarily provide guidelines on how this is achieved, rather it is discovering one’s own Atman and how this Atman is best directed toward Brahman. One person’s direction may be through piety, another’s through robbery. This can be true because the closer one gets to oneness, the more transcendent one becomes to external reality: beyond morality and reason.

4. What happens to a person at death?
At death a person will cease to exist as a person, yet his Atman will continue to recycle in the process of Karma. The level of closeness to oneness with Brahman one achieves determines the state in which Atman will reincarnate. There is no judging of right or wrongs, good or evil, instead any kind of “punishment” will be the reincarnation into a lesser significant reality. Humans can, however, realize oneness with Brahman and thus become one with Brahman once death occurs to their mortal bodies. This is the ultimate goal, when the person exits the cycle of reincarnation.

5. Why is it possible to know anything at all?
Humans have no form of revelation from God, or Brahman. What a person knows may not actually be real, or true. Knowledge can be quite a hindrance to the process of realization. The goal is to move beyond knowledge. Knowledge is therefore entirely subjective. Certain things make it possible to know, such as the human senses. But if the senses rely on external reality, which in many ways can be an illusion, then knowledge is unattainable. Therefore, personal experience brings forth the better epistemological method. The best, though, is through thought and meditation⎯to transcend knowledge, contradiction, and rationale, to realize oneness with Brahman.

6. How do we know what is right and wrong?
Right and wrong are ideas that become obstacles in the path to oneness. Ethics, however, should not be disregarded either. To one, piety paves the way to pure consciousness; to another, robbery. Ethics is concerned mainly with Karma, not with an objective moral standard, or even group cohesiveness for that matter. By realizing oneness with Brahman, one realizes that good and evil, right and wrong, are merely false perceptions of ultimate reality, because what is ultimately real is Brahman, and in Brahman everything is perfect, and Brahman is everything.

7. What is the meaning of human history?
History is cyclical. Time does not exist in reality, because Brahman transcends time. A person’s realization with Brahman is to move beyond time also. Everything is happening at once, yet it has not happened. Time is a concept of the mind, which also can prevent one from the state of oneness. There is no ultimate purpose of human history, no metanarrative. History in itself is of no significance other than for purpose of inspiration and stories. What may have been recorded in history to be real may have no value in the present. If something in history can benefit one’s path to oneness, then this element of history can be significant to them.

Related articles

• Worldview: Nihilism (sortingbeans.com)
• Worldview: Christian Existentialism (sortingbeans.com)
• Worldview: Naturalism (sortingbeans.com)

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