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KHTK AXIOM FOUR: EXISTENCE IS WHAT IS WITHOUT ANY FURTHER QUALIFICATION.

The proper way to understand existence would then be to stop speculating about it because speculations create filters that qualify existence.

We should start recognizing and eliminating  the filters created by speculations, assumptions and justifications that have already been injected. The understanding of existence would increase as filters are reduced.

Thus, we have the formula recommended by Buddha:

Observe things as they are, not as they seem to be. 

You don’t know what is actually there as long as there are inconsistencies present.

Reference: Inconsistency & Looking

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Complete Reference: KHTK Axioms: A Work in Progress

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KHTK AXIOM TWO: CONJECTURES ABOUT EXISTENCE ARE MANIFESTED AS CONJECTURES.
Corollary: Anything, whether physical or not, when manifested exists.

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Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274), a theologian in Medieval Europe, conceived the idea that the Universe must have been caused by something that was itself uncaused, which he asserted was God. This became one of the most influential versions of the cosmological argument.  This justified God to be the source of all existence.

Few centuries earlier, the Islamic philosopher Avicenna (c. 980–1037) had inquired into the question of being, and had reasoned that existence must be due to an agent cause that necessitates, imparts, gives, or adds existence to an essence. To do so, the cause must coexist with its effect and be an existing thing. This argument makes both cause and effect to be part of existence.

The First Cause arguments have been posited in Greek philosophy by Plato (c. 427–347 BC) and Aristotle (c. 384–322 BC). Plato posited a basic argument in The Laws (Book X), in which he argued that motion in the world and the Cosmos was “imparted motion” that required some kind of “self-originated motion” to set it in motion and to maintain that motion. In Book 12 of his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation: itself contemplating. He equates this concept also with the Active Intellect. This Aristotelian concept had its roots in cosmological speculations of the earliest Greek “Pre-Socratic” philosophers. This argument makes existence to be cause of itself.

Ideas, such as,  “Uncaused cause,” “Unmoved mover,” “God,” “Supreme or Unconditioned Being,” etc., which are proposed as source of existence, exist as ideas, and, therefore, they are also part of existence. 

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Complete Reference: KHTK AXIOMS: A Work in Progress

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The following group of KHTK Axioms is an attempt to summarize the fundamentals that are consistent with Buddhism. This project may become part of a PhD thesis.

Even when all the ideas employed in this project may not appear original in themselves, the originality of this project resides in the clarity of what is presented.  I am very proud of the contributions from “Maria,” Chris Thompson and John Christmann of the Facebook Group “Philosophiles“.

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INITIAL CONSIDERATIONS:

1. For us, existence depends on our ability to look and perceive.
2. The ability to look and perceive is the result of considerable evolution.
3. What we perceive has to be manifested already and is persisting.
4. Knowledge cannot be absolute because there is the level of UNKNOWABLE before manifestation
5. Resolution of inconsistencies reveals the unknown.

Axiom 0: Unknowable, Manifest, Exist, Evolve, Ability, Look, Perceive, Unknown, Inconsistencies, Knowledge

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KHTK AXIOM ONE: 
EXISTENCE IS EVERYTHING THAT IS MANIFESTED.
Corollary: There is no existence that is not manifested.
Corollary: Anything that is manifested is capable of being perceived.

1. There are conjectures made.
2. All conjectures are thoughts.
3. Thoughts may be perceived to manifest and exist.
4. Existence is what it is; there is no separate cause.

Axiom 1: conjecture, thought, (also part of existence)

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KHTK AXIOM TWO: 
CONJECTURES ABOUT EXISTENCE ARE MANIFESTED AS CONJECTURES.
Corollary: Anything, whether physical or not, when manifested exists.

1. Uncaused cause, Unmoved mover, God, Supreme Being, and Unconditioned being, as “source of existence,” are all conjectures.
2. All these “source of existence” manifest and exist as conjectures. They are also part of existence.
3. Anything, whether physical or metaphysical, when manifested exists.

Axiom 2: Conjectures: Uncaused cause, Unmoved mover, God, Supreme Being, Unconditioned being

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KHTK AXIOM THREE: 
ANYTHING THAT CAN BE PERCEIVED IS MANIFESTED.

1. There is no clear consensus on the source of existence (God).
2. Judaism, Christianity and Islam see God as a being.
3. To this being are assigned the properties of holiness, justice, sovereignty, omnipotence, omniscience, benevolence, omnipresence, and immortality.
4. This makes God a part of existence.
5. Vedas and Eastern religions see God as transcendent.
6. This makes God unknowable and not part of existence.
7. God is Unknowable, but conjectures make it part of existence.
8. The sense of God actually arises with awareness.

Axiom 3: God as source of existence, God as existence, God as Unknowable

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KHTK AXIOM FOUR: 
EXISTENCE IS “WHAT IS” WITHOUT ANY FURTHER QUALIFICATION.

1. Existence is naturally consistent.
2. Arbitrary conjectures introduce inconsistencies.
3. Presence of inconsistencies indicate arbitrary conjectures.

Axiom 4: Existence, Conjecture, Arbitrary, Inconsistency

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KHTK AXIOM FIVE:
ABSENCE OF  MANIFESTATION GIVES RISE TO MANIFESTATION.

1. Anything unknown triggers questions, speculations and conjectures.
2. This results in manifestation of some kind.

Axiom 5: Unknown, Trigger, Question, Speculation, Conjecture 

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KHTK AXIOM SIX:
A MANIFESTATION CONSISTS OF BEINGNESS AND AWARENESS.

1. Manifestation results in existence, beingness and awareness.
2. Awareness does not exist independent of beingness.
3. Beingness does not exist independent of awareness.

Axiom 6: Manifestation, Beingness, Awareness

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KHTK AXIOM SEVEN:
OBJECTIVITY CAN NEVER BE ABSOLUTE. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A DEGREE OF SUBJECTIVITY.
Corollary: Subjectivity comes from the viewpoint one assumes.
Corollary: A viewpoint acts as a filter.

1. Objectivity is lack of conjectures.
2. But objectivity is never absolute.
3. Subjectivity introduces conjectures. 
4. Subjectivity comes from the viewpoint assumed.

Axiom 7: Objectivity, Subjectivity, Viewpoint, Absolute

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KHTK AXIOM EIGHT: 
EXISTENCE CONSISTS OF MATTER, ENERGY, SPACE, TIME AND THOUGHT.

Faced with Unknowable, considerations are triggered. Consideration starts with visualization of what might be there. Existence is considered in terms of matter, energy, space and time. Matter is a concentrated sphere of fixed beingness. Energy is a larger sphere of activity that includes matter. Space is a still larger sphere that includes all dimensions of beingness and activity. Time considers changes in all these dimensions to the extent of their evolution over a life time. Finally, thought is the complete sphere of considerations.

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