**\#️⃣ Tags:** #Wisdom #Philosophy #Holism > **🌱 Planted:** Sat 10 May 2025 --- Life isn't made up of fixed and separate parts that are assembled, rather it is a dynamic flow that continuously generates and regenerates what appears to be fixed. When we look at reality, what appears as form is actually being continuously generated and regenerated by an underlying process. This reverses the default way we tend to view reality (and ourselves). We see form and we believe that stable and fixed structures come first and that change is something that happens *to* them. But from the perspective of process philosophy ([[人 Eugene Gendlin]] in particular) and many ancient wisdom traditions, it is the other way around. Structure is not primary. Process is. We as living organisms aren't first a collection of separate parts that later interact, we're a continuous body-environment interaction that constantly regenerates its "parts" moment to moment [^1]. The structure that we see, then, like a thought, a tree, another human, our own bodies, our [[Our sense of self unfolds intersubjectively, not separately|self-concept]], or even a Part of ourselves, is just a temporary formation in a continual unfolding. They emerge from a generative background which Gendlin calls the "implicit", which is a richly patterned more than logical field of potential that is always progressing and carrying life forward. So then, what we see as fixed is actually the momentary appearance of a deeper process articulating itself. We can notice this in something as ordinary as speaking. When we go to say something, we don't typically pre-assemble existing words. We first have a bodily [[The way we experience ourselves is through the Felt Sense|Felt Sense]] of "something to say" that naturally unfolds into words as we speak. So we feel our way into what we want to say, and as we're speaking, our thoughts and therefore words continue to unfold. As this continues, it often leads somewhere surprising to the point where we might look back at everything we've just said with the recognition that there's no way we could've known we'd say all that before we started talking. This is what Gendlin would say is the "implicit" becoming "explicit". The implicit process therefore contains infinitely more possibilities than what has already become structured. Each moment brings with it a fresh implying of what could come next. This means that life is inherently creative by nature and open-ended, and isn't determined by what's already been structured and formed. This also explains why real change often seems mysterious. If we think of ourselves as fixed structures, then change feels like something that needs to be imposed or forced. If we instead realise the self is a process, then change is just what happens when process (or life) is allowed to flow. This also speaks to why [[Change happens when we stop trying to change]]. When it comes to [[✦ Developmental Trauma]] and the therapeutic process, nothing new needs to be added, rather what was already implicitly trying to move forward simply needs the right conditions—to be felt, received, accepted and allowed—so it can move and flow forward. The same principle applies when we are working with our [[✦ Parts]] in [[❍ Parts Work]]. --- **➡️ Next:** [[Parts are frozen process]] **⬅️ Back:** [[The mind can never know reality as it truly is]] --- **🈁 See Also:** - [[Parts come together to reveal new wholes beyond what they are alone]]. - [[The mind and the body are one]]. [^1]: [Process generates structures: Structures alone don't generate process](https://focusing.org/gendlin/docs/gol_2246.html)