I am thinking of radiance, thinking radiantly. So far, I have argued that reality consists of beings (finitude), being (totality), and non-being (infinity). I wish to revisit totality today.

Before, I claimed that the feature we perceive in totality is wholeness. In terms of ethics, we would want our souls to be as whole as totality is. This account, however, is incomplete.

After morning meditation, I came to realize that totality is

1. dilating (or expansive) and
2. encompassing (making-whole).

To say that this aspect of reality ‘dilates’ is to say that it widens, broadens, stretches, and ‘breathes’. To say that this aspect of reality ‘encompasses’ is to say (so to speak) that it wraps itself around all there is (finitude).

Next, ethics. To live in accordance with the ‘dilating’ and ‘encompassing’ features of totality is thus

1. to feel oneself widen and stretch outward and upward so that one’s excellences are practiced as widely as possible as well as
2. to feel that all of one’s salient virtues have reached the second-order beauty of which I have previously written: this being beauty of soul.