Definition of Metaphysics: Definition of Metaphysics

By Times of India

Definition of Metaphysics: Definition of Metaphysics

The term metaphysics originally referred to the writings of Aristotle that came to light after his writings on physics, in the arrangement made by Andronicus of Rhodes, about three centuries after Aristotle's death.

Traditionally, metaphysics refers to the branch of philosophy that attempts to understand the fundamental nature of all reality, whether visible or invisible.

It seeks a description so basic, so essentially simple, and so all-inclusive that it applies to everything, whether divine or human or anything else. It attempts to tell what anything must be like in order to be at all.

To call one a 'metaphysician' in this traditional, philosophical sense indicates nothing more than his or her interest in attempting to discover what underlies everything.

Old materialists, who said that there is nothing but matter in motion, and current naturalists, who say that everything is made of lifeless, non-experiencing energy, are just as much metaphysicians as are idealists, who maintain that there is nothing but ideas, or mind, or spirit.

The processes of nature involve psychical functions as sensing, feeling, remembering, desiring, or thinking.

Dualists say that mind and matter are equally real, while neutral monists claim that there is a neutral reality that can appear as either mind or matter.

Philosophers, generally, are content to divide reality into two halves, mind and matter (extended and unextended reality) and do not emphasise such distinctions within the mind as spirit or soul.

Metaphysics (this science of the Self) is a useful aid to disentangle the chaos of the wonderful and miraculous powers of the Mind...

Ordinarily... You live in an awareness that assesses/apprehends a world of objects and events external to me; so it 'appears' external.

Rarely... do you stop to consider what is going on within the mechanism that is generating this awareness, instead of its product (i.e. the ordinary so-called 'external world' with its creatures, forms and events).

If and when the attention is turned inward, to what lies behind this awareness, the resultant alteration of perception is momentous!

Upon achieving such a shift (in awareness), something immediately and automatically dawns, which is intellectually intangible.

This shift acts as a gateway towards exploring the wide realm of energies associated with and beyond matter.

What is Metaphysics?

Metaphysics is, in essence, the exploration of that which lies behind the appearance of things.

Just like physics deals with the science of visible matter, metaphysics deals with the science of the Invisible Self.

This body of knowledge is 'metaphysics'. It starts with the fundamental existential question: ' Who am I? '

This is not about exalting the ego.

It is a question - and a most powerful one - that each of us might ask ourselves as a means, not necessarily to arrive at a definitive answer, but to achieve a certain attitude that may serve to re-shape our self-perception as well as how we relate to the world and life in general.

Coming from the Greek, Metaphysics can be translated as "that which comes after physics, matter, or nature."

Thus Metaphysics is looking for the permanent Reality, the unchanged Beingness, and the stationary Existence as the Base for everything that shows constant change.

The 'theorising' mind gives this Being the name 'God '. The 'practical' seeker experiences this Being as pure 'Awareness'.

A commonly employed, secondary, and popular usage of metaphysics includes a wide range of controversial phenomena believed to exist beyond the physical.

Popular metaphysics relates to two traditionally contrast, if not completely separate areas, which are:

Mysticism, referring to experiences of unity with the ultimate, commonly interpreted as the God who is love, and

Occultism, which itself has two practical aspects:

a) The activity of knowing (e.g. extrasensory perception, including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and mediumship), and

b) The activity of doing (psycho-kinesis) beyond the usually recognised fields of human activity. The academic study of the occult (literally hidden ) has been known as psychical research and more recently, parapsychology.

The terms metaphysics and metaphysical in a popular sense have been used in connection with New Age Thoughts, Spiritualism, Occultism etc. Some of the varying understandings of metaphysics have been discussed in the writings of Bertrand Russel, Immanuel Kant, etc.

Cutting across the division of the academic and the popular, there is another way of dividing metaphysics: 'theoretical' and 'applied' .

This distinction is like the division between science and technology...one describes...the other applies the description to practical problems, putting knowledge to work.

Gathering knowledge in physics is traditionally, by rational thought, by popular understanding.

In metaphysics, knowledge gathering may be either mystical or occult; in either case the pure knowledge is to be distinguished from the practical application of it.

From time immemorial there has been in existence a body of knowledge, available to all who had sufficient inclination to investigate it.

Within it can be found certain principles and laws of nature which lead to discovery of a 'level of awareness' that is wonderful and miraculous, which we are not ordinarily conscious of!

.

.

More from same author see: Times of India

See also: Metaphysical Principles, Definition of Metaphysics, Metaphysical Techniques, Miracles, Creating Miracles Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, Peace of Mind, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)