Category: Life
-
We need a new worldview more consistent with life
Christopher Alexander presented propositions about living structure throughout his four books on The Nature of Order.1 They are, most importantly, results of observation. Many are based on felt sense.2 Unless our worldview is changed to one which is more consistent with the felt reality of life, the idea of life, aliveness, or livingness, will not…
-
Life brings responsiveness
Iain McGilchrist conveys in The Matter With Things the complexity, responsiveness, and purposiveness of living cells — let alone trillons of them acting together.1 Iain McGilchrist maintains that “life vastly enhances the degree of responsiveness of, to and within the world“.2 What life brings is the capacity for valuing. All living creatures are able to…
-
Life and unfolding wholeness
We need to discover how to sense what is unfolding rather than simply trying to execute a plan… —John Huss 1 …all our experience…is…a complex flow, a constant unfolding, responsive dance of reciprocal gestures. It exists in process and in relationship… —Iain McGilchrist 2 It is…a process of unfolding…, in which the whole precedes the…
-
Personal feeling is directly connected to deeper order and life
Personal feeling is directly connected to deeper order and life. It is my vulnerable inner self being connected to the world, participating in all things. It is, for example, the feeling of being part of the ocean. The personal nature of deeper order appears in nature. The ocean, with its waves, is personal, and has…
-
Christopher Alexander on the Personal Nature of Deeper Order
Christopher Alexander laid a foundation for order to be understood as living structure.1 Living structure, furthermore, cannot be understood as something separate from ourselves. It is both structure and personal. It is related to the geometry of space and to how things work. And it is related to the human person, deeply attached to something…
-
Christopher Alexander on the Nature of Deeper Order
The Real Nature of Human Feeling There is a way of understanding order which is general. It is a view of order which helps us understand natural beauty and the life in buildings. It is a view which changes our cosmology. Christopher Alexander assumed the real nature of human feeling — that human feeling is…
-
Wholeness is not breakable into parts
Wholeness is not breakable into parts. —Skye Hirst Skye Hirst said in a conversation that “wholeness is not breakable into parts”.1 It caught my attention. I saw it in relation to what Christopher Alexander has been trying to do with patterns. Christopher Alexander attempted to formulate the principles that lead to a good built environment…
-
My 10 Year Summary: What I Have Learned
Contents 1. Introduction2. Background3. My Journey 3.1. The initial years (2012–2015) 3.2. The middle years (2016–2018) 3.3. The final years (2019–2022)4. Conclusions5. Afterword6. Acknowledgments7. Recommended Books 1. Introduction I started blogging ten years ago today (Sept 26, 2012). At the same time, I started searching for life-giving ways of working. This is a summary of my journey and…
-
Iain McGilchrist on Life & Value
The following quote is from an interview with Iain McGilchrist by Jnanavaca: I believe that values, meaning and purpose are not invented by us, but discovered by us. And to discover means literally to unveil, uncover, something that is there. So we don’t make it. The left hemisphere understands things as it is made. It…
-
New orders reflect new values
The world crumbles. New orders are emerging. Conditions are getting worse and worse. There is less and less to hold on to. There are fewer givens to assume. How to live? What to do? How to organize? The world is falling apart. Fear deepens as necessary orders are lost. Events force rapid reassessment of everything,…