Being and Life Series

Being and Life
Description
Excerpt

Ontological Losses and Gains
Description
Excerpt

Friendship, Sex, and Love
Description
Excerpt

Ontological Conflicts
Description
Excerpt

Ontological Glossary

Scott K. Smith

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The Being and Life Series

The Being and Life Series by Scott K. Smith consists of four volumes. This first volume, Being and Life, sets the foundation for the ontological ideas for the rest of the series. Most of the ontological components are described, and almost all the terms used in the series are defined in this book.

Many ontological emotions and ideas are discussed in Being and Life, and Ontological Losses and Gains (publication date: to be decided), the second volume, continues in the explanation of how these emotions and the ideas they generate are connected. Being and Life and Ontological Losses and Gains focus mainly on the emotions and ideas that are directly related to one’s own realself and to the increasing of one’s degree of realself.

Friendship, Sex, and Love (publication date: TBD), the third volume, is on ontological relationships, and it describes many of the ways that the realselves in men and women influence their relationships. For instance, sexuality is shown to be a “realself event,” which means that the realselves in men and women have a profound influence on their romantic and sexual relationship. As a couple’s relationship deepens and becomes more intimate, ontological emotions play a bigger and bigger part, even though almost all couple are unconscious of their realselves’ involvement.

The final book in the series, Ontological Conflicts (publication date: TBD), looks at many of the ways our realselves influence our day-to-day lives and the ontological world in which we live. This influence is responsible for the magazines we read, the presidential candidate we vote for, the opinions we have about the death penalty, the feelings we have about “foreigners,” and the bond we have, or don’t have, with the natural world and its inhabitants. All of these types of ontological feelings, beliefs, and understandings are discussed in Ontological Conflicts, along with many others.

From one perspective, this series examines how a person becomes all his or her realself; how couples develop a realself-to-realself relationship; and how a person becomes all his or her realself in the natural world. But more than this, this series is actually about fundamental questions about human existence.

A description and the table of contents of Being and Life are available, along with an excerpt from one of its chapters. Descriptions, tables of contents, and excerpts from the other three books in the series are also available.

The Being and Life Series

Being and Life:
On Becoming One’s Being
  Publication Date: May 16, 2005
  320 pages, 6" x 9" trade paperback
  ISBN: 0-9718379-5-3
  $19.95 USD
Description and Table of Contents
Excerpt

Ontological Losses and Gains:
Losing One’s Self and Finding One’s Being
Publication Date: To be decided
Description and Table of Contents
Excerpt

Friendship, Sex, and Love
Publication Date: To be decided
Description and Table of Contents
Excerpt

Ontological Conflicts
Publication Date: To be decided
Description and Table of Contents
Excerpt

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Being and Life
“Breaks New Ground”

“Because little is available to guide those following this path [to one’s being or realself], Smith breaks new ground as he charts the territory, sharing maps of what is found on the journey to the realself.”

“ForeWord Magazine,” May/June 2005 (Full review).

Our Realselves

Throughout this series, the word “realself” refers to the being within humans, and to nothing else. I joined the words “real” and “self” into one word to comply with this narrowed definition—to differentiate the being within each of us from the “self” others are thinking about when they say “real self” but are not referring specifically to the being in us. Also, there is no generic “realself,” as one quickly realizes on first becoming conscious of one’s own realself. Every person’s realself is unique, important, and the essence of who the person is, and so I use the singular “realself” when referring to the being in one person or to each person’s own being when discussing two or more people. I use the plural “realselves” when referring to the bein in two or more people collectively.

The Ontological War

Even though very few people have been conscious of their realself’s existence, we humans have been fighting ontological battles of one sort or another for thousands of years. These battles have been fought within us as individuals over the self we should be, how we should relate to others, and how we should relate to the natural world. These battles have also been fought within societies: the so-called “cultural wars” are actually ontological wars. And finally, these ontological battles have sometimes escalated into wars fought over nationality, race, or religion.

In this series I do take a sides in these battles. I am always on the side of those who are striving to become more their realself and to bring about the world and life where we are all being our realselves.

Ontological Sources

28 of the main books and articles cited in the Being and Life Series are described on the ontological sources page. Many of the world’s most ontologically sensitive and insightful writers are included in this list.

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