Being and Life’s 10 Cover Images:
What the Heck Do They Mean?

Being and Life’s cover is more of an “inside out” than an “outside in” cover. Some people believe that a book’s cover should explain what the book is about, but a person has to read Being and Life to understand what its cover means. Many of the ideas in Being and Life are new, and so it would be impossible to create a cover image that could describe Being and Life’s content to someone who knows nothing about it.

The rectangular images on the cover all represent ontological states. Men and women become deeply involved with one ontological idea or emotion after another as they move forward toward their realself, and each of these deeper involvements makes up an idea’s or emotion’s ontological state. For instance, in a beginning ontological state people will feel directionless and lost, in a later ontological state they will feel imprisoned, and in a still later ontological state they will feel they are making their first attempt at a realself-to-realself relationship. To those who have read Being and Life, its cover is a visual representation of what the ontological quest is like.

The 10 Cover Images

The Path
The path represents the ontological progression of thoughts and emotions people think about and experience as they continue increasing their degrees of realself. At first, these thoughts and emotions seem to be an unrelated mish-mash of ideas and feelings. But after people learn more about them and become aware of their realself, these thoughts and emotions start to fall in place, one after another. Metaphorically, this progression has long been described as a path, and this path leads from one’s socialself to one’s realself. As much as anything, the Being and Life Series describes the steps along this path.

The Labyrinth
As just noted, in the beginning of the ontological path everything can seem all mixed up. People there know very little ontologically, and so their thoughts, emotions, and understandings have no structure or organization. Because of this, the ontological path can sometimes seem like a labyrinth, and people there feel that they can’t find their way. But for those who continue moving forward by learning more about their ontological thoughts and emotions, the labyrinth slowly changes into a path that has a definite direction and conclusion beyond the far horizon.

The Prison Gate
On first become aware of their realself’s existence, many people feel alienated from it and from its world and life. They may feel as if they are in a prison and are barred from what they now know is their true self, the true world, and true life. If they continue taking steps toward their realself, however, the prison gate slowly opens, and they enter the world and life they desire more than anything else. The lake image outside the prison gate is the same image used in “The Lake” image described below.

The Compass
The compass is a classic ontological metaphor because people have been using it to describe their lack of direction ontologically for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, there is no ontological compass to guide people as they move forward along the ontological path. But once men and women become aware of their realself, they use it to guide them, and it is ideally suited for the job. The realself is, after all, what these men and women have been searching for from their first ontological emotion or thought. See also “The North Star” below.

The Opening in the Wall
The ego boundary plays a tremendous role in every person’s ontological life because with each step people take down the ontological path their ego boundary thins slightly. At first, this thinning makes people feel vulnerable. But if they continue increasing their degrees of realself and thinning their ego boundary, they see that their ego boundary is actually an imprisoning barrier that is keeping them from everything they now know is most important in life. William Blake was at this ontological state, as his passage below shows. The lake image outside the window is the same image used in “The Lake” image described below.

The North Star
The North Star ontological state is similar to the compass ontological state. As people become aware of their realself, their realself becomes the North Star in their ontological quest. They know that as long as they keep it ahead of them and continue moving toward it, they will get closer and closer to what they desire more than everything else. See also “The Compass” above.

The Footprints in the Sand
Before people take their first ontological step forward, they feel connected to others, to the world, and to life. But as they become more aware of their realself they lose these feelings of connectedness. This loss occurs because with each step they take toward their realself and everything it represents, the self, relationships, world, and life that used to be satisfying to them no longer are. Among other things, they now want to develop realself-to-realself relationships, both with friends and with a lover or spouse. Men and women who reach this stage of the ontological quest often feel alone because they know of no one who is close to where they feel themselves to be ontologically—someone who is at their same degree of realself. But as more people become more their realself, men and women who feel this way will meet someone. And by doing this they will no longer feel as if they have been stranded alone on a deserted island: they have seen footprints in the sand by finally finding someone with whom they can be their realself.

The Lake
Lakes are almost like entire worlds unto themselves, and a lake is used on the cover and in the Being and Life Series to represent the natural world: the world we will all be living in once we become all our realselves. The natural world is our realself’s true home and so it is also our true home. The natural world is the only world where we will be able to be all our realselves, and so it is one of the main goals of men and women who are striving to become their realself.

The Hands
The hands represent a realself-to-realself relationship between couples. If men and women continue making ontological progress, some day they will become their realself enough to be able to be it with another person. After reaching this degree of realself, they will then reach out their hand in a realself-to-realself way to someone they love, they other person will take it, and the couple will then be at the beginning states of a realself-to-realself relationship, which is the kind of relationship all couples should have.

The Mountains
The ontological path sometimes seems as if it is on a flat plain with mountains ahead of it running all the way to the far horizon. Men and women who are on this path are never able to see to the end of it clearly, even though from its beginning steps they do get glimpses of what life will be like there. The mountains themselves represent the horizon beyond which exists the world and life where we will be all our realselves. Eventually, someone will reach the crest of the mountains, see beyond what had been the horizon, and then walk into the world and life that human life was always meant to be.