Actions will only be alive to the extent they are governed by the terrain.01. The pathIt is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it.

Unfolding

THE WHATNESS

To seek the timeless way we must first know the quality without a name.02. The what-nowThere is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named.

Brewing

03. Being aliveThe search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person, and the crux of any individual person’s story. It is the search for those moments and situations when we are most alive.

Brewing

04. Patterns of eventsIn order to define this quality in buildings and in towns, we must begin by understanding that every place is given its character by certain patterns of events that keep on happening there.

Brewing

05. Patterns of spaceThese patterns of events are always interlocked with certain geometric patterns in the space. Indeed, as we shall see, each building and each town is ultimately made out of these patterns in the space, and out of nothing else: they are the atoms and the molecules from which a building or a town is made.

Brewing

06. Patterns which are aliveThe specific patterns out of which a building or a town is made may be alive or dead. To the extent they are alive, they let our inner forces loose, and set us free; but when they are dead, they keep us locked in inner conflict.

Brewing

07. The multiplicity of living patternsThe more living patterns there are in a place—a room, a building, or a town—the more it comes to life as an entity, the more it glows, the more it has that self-maintaining fire which is the quality without a name.

Brewing

08. The quality itselfAnd when a building has this fire, then it becomes a part of nature. Like ocean waves, or blades of grass, its parts are governed by the endless play of repetition and variety created in the presence of the fact that all things pass. This is the quality itself.

Brewing

THE OPENING

To reach the quality without a name we must then build a living pattern language as a gate.09. The flower and the seedThis quality in buildings and in towns cannot be made, but only generated, indirectly, by the ordinary actions of the people, just as a flower cannot be made, but only generated from the seed.

Ripening

10. Our pattern languagesThe people can shape buildings for themselves, and have done it for centuries, by using languages which I call pattern languages. A pattern language gives each person who uses it the power to create an infinite variety of new and unique buildings, just as his ordinary language gives him the power to create an infinite variety of sentences.

Ripening

11. Our pattern languages (cont.)These pattern languages are not confined to villages and farm society. All acts of building are governed by a pattern language of some sort, and the patterns in the world are there, entirely because they are created by the pattern languages which people use.

Ripening

12. The creative power of languageAnd, beyond that, it is not just the shape of towns and buildings which comes from pattern languages—it is their quality as well. Even the life and beauty of the most awe-inspiring great religious buildings came from the languages their builders used.

Ripening

13. The breakdown of languageBut in our time the languages have broken down. Since they are no longer shared, the processes which keep them deep have broken down; and it is therefore virtually impossible for anybody, in our time, to make a building live.

Ripening

14. Patterns which can be sharedTo work our way towards a shared and living language once again, we must first learn how to discover patterns which are deep, and capable of generating life.

Ripening

15. The reality of patternsWe may then gradually improve these patterns which we share, by testing them against experience: we can determine, very simply, whether these patterns make our surroundings live, or not, by recognizing how they make us feel.

Ripening

16. The structure of a languageOnce we have understood how to discover individual patterns which are alive, we may then make a language for ourselves for any building task we face. The structure of the language is created by the network of connections among individual patterns: and the language lives, or not, as a totality, to the degree these patterns form a whole.

Ripening

17. The evolution of a common language for a townThen finally, from separate languages for different building tasks, we can create a larger structure still, a structure of structures, evolving constantly, which is the common language for a town. This is the gate.

Ripening

THE WEAVING

Once we have built the gate, we can pass through it to the practice of the timeless way.18. The genetic power of languageNow we shall begin to see in detail how the rich and complex order of a town can grow from thousands of creative acts. For once we have a common pattern language in our town, we shall all have the power to make our streets and buildings live, through our most ordinary acts. The language, like a seed, is the genetic system which gives our millions of small acts the power to form a whole.

Materialising

19. Differentiating spaceWithin this process, every individual act of building is a process in which space gets differentiated. It is not a process of addition, in which preformed parts are combined to create a whole, but a process of unfolding, like the evolution of an embryo, in which the whole precedes the parts, and actually gives birth to them, by splitting.

Materialising

20. One pattern at a timeThe process of unfolding goes step by step, one pattern at a time. Each step brings just one pattern to life; and the intensity of the result depends on the intensity of each one of these individual steps.

Materialising

21. Shaping one buildingFrom a sequence of these individual patterns, whole buildings with the character of nature will form themselves within your thoughts, as easily as sentences.

Materialising

22. Shaping a group of buildingsIn the same way, groups of people can conceive their larger public buildings, on the ground, by following a common pattern language, almost as if they had a single mind.

Materialising

23. The process of constructionOnce the buildings are conceived like this, they can be built, directly, from a few simple marks made in the ground—again within a common language, but directly, and without the use of drawings.

Materialising

24. The process of repairNext, several acts of building, each one done to repair and magnify the product of the previous acts, will slowly generate a larger and more complex whole than any single act can generate.

Materialising

25. The slow emergence of a townFinally, within the framework of a common language, millions of individual acts of building will together generate a town which is alive, and whole, and unpredictable, without control. This is the slow emergence of the quality without a name, as if from nothing.

Materialising

26. Its ageless characterAnd as the whole emerges, we shall see it take that ageless character which gives the timeless way its name. This character is a specific, morphological character, sharp and precise, which must come into being any time a building or a town becomes alive: it is the physical embodiment, in buildings, of the quality without a name.

Materialising

THE BREATHING

And yet the timeless way is not complete, and will not fully generate the quality without a name, until we leave the gate behind.27. The pulseIndeed this ageless character has nothing, in the end, to do with languages. The language, and the processes which stem from it, merely release the fundamental order which is native to us. They do not teach us, they only remind us of what we know already, and of what we shall discover time and time again, when we give up our ideas and opinions, and do exactly what emerges from ourselves.

Pulsing

WHERE YOU'RE NEEDED

What's available for your engagement.28. What is helpAssist to completion. Collaborative completion. Do what only you can do to make whole. Completing what wants to emerge. Look to your own capacity to determine what's alive.

In formation

29. Donate resources

In formation

30. Participate in researchJoin a living process.

In formation

31. Apply to work with us

In formation

Chevron Up

THE TERRAIN

❝

Actions will only be alive to the extent they are governed by the terrain.

Chevron Down

01

The Path

It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it.

UNFOLDING

Chevron Up

THE WHATNESS

❝

To seek the timeless way we must first know the quality without a name.

Chevron Down

02

The what-now

There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named.

BREWING

03

Being alive

The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person, and the crux of any individual person’s story. It is the search for those moments and situations when we are most alive.

BREWING

04

Patterns of events

In order to define this quality in buildings and in towns, we must begin by understanding that every place is given its character by certain patterns of events that keep on happening there.

BREWING

05

Patterns of space

These patterns of events are always interlocked with certain geometric patterns in the space. Indeed, as we shall see, each building and each town is ultimately made out of these patterns in the space, and out of nothing else: they are the atoms and the molecules from which a building or a town is made.

BREWING

06

Patterns which are alive

The specific patterns out of which a building or a town is made may be alive or dead. To the extent they are alive, they let our inner forces loose, and set us free; but when they are dead, they keep us locked in inner conflict.

BREWING

07

The multiplicity of living patterns

The more living patterns there are in a place—a room, a building, or a town—the more it comes to life as an entity, the more it glows, the more it has that self-maintaining fire which is the quality without a name.

BREWING

08

The quality itself

And when a building has this fire, then it becomes a part of nature. Like ocean waves, or blades of grass, its parts are governed by the endless play of repetition and variety created in the presence of the fact that all things pass. This is the quality itself.

BREWING

Chevron Up

THE OPENING

❝

To reach the quality without a name we must then build a living pattern language as a gate.

Chevron Down

09

The flower and the seed

This quality in buildings and in towns cannot be made, but only generated, indirectly, by the ordinary actions of the people, just as a flower cannot be made, but only generated from the seed.

RIPENING

10

Our pattern languages

The people can shape buildings for themselves, and have done it for centuries, by using languages which I call pattern languages. A pattern language gives each person who uses it the power to create an infinite variety of new and unique buildings, just as his ordinary language gives him the power to create an infinite variety of sentences.

RIPENING

11

Our pattern languages (cont.)

These pattern languages are not confined to villages and farm society. All acts of building are governed by a pattern language of some sort, and the patterns in the world are there, entirely because they are created by the pattern languages which people use.

RIPENING

12

The creative power of language

And, beyond that, it is not just the shape of towns and buildings which comes from pattern languages—it is their quality as well. Even the life and beauty of the most awe-inspiring great religious buildings came from the languages their builders used.

RIPENING

13

The breakdown of language

But in our time the languages have broken down. Since they are no longer shared, the processes which keep them deep have broken down; and it is therefore virtually impossible for anybody, in our time, to make a building live.

RIPENING

14

Patterns which can be shared

To work our way towards a shared and living language once again, we must first learn how to discover patterns which are deep, and capable of generating life.

RIPENING

15

The reality of patterns

We may then gradually improve these patterns which we share, by testing them against experience: we can determine, very simply, whether these patterns make our surroundings live, or not, by recognizing how they make us feel.

RIPENING

16

The structure of a language

Once we have understood how to discover individual patterns which are alive, we may then make a language for ourselves for any building task we face. The structure of the language is created by the network of connections among individual patterns: and the language lives, or not, as a totality, to the degree these patterns form a whole.

RIPENING

17

The evolution of a common language for a town

Then finally, from separate languages for different building tasks, we can create a larger structure still, a structure of structures, evolving constantly, which is the common language for a town. This is the gate.

RIPENING

Chevron Up

THE WEAVING

❝

Once we have built the gate, we can pass through it to the practice of the timeless way.

Chevron Down

18

The genetic power of language

Now we shall begin to see in detail how the rich and complex order of a town can grow from thousands of creative acts. For once we have a common pattern language in our town, we shall all have the power to make our streets and buildings live, through our most ordinary acts. The language, like a seed, is the genetic system which gives our millions of small acts the power to form a whole.

MATERIALISING

19

Differentiating space

Within this process, every individual act of building is a process in which space gets differentiated. It is not a process of addition, in which preformed parts are combined to create a whole, but a process of unfolding, like the evolution of an embryo, in which the whole precedes the parts, and actually gives birth to them, by splitting.

MATERIALISING

20

One pattern at a time

The process of unfolding goes step by step, one pattern at a time. Each step brings just one pattern to life; and the intensity of the result depends on the intensity of each one of these individual steps.

MATERIALISING

21

Shaping one building

From a sequence of these individual patterns, whole buildings with the character of nature will form themselves within your thoughts, as easily as sentences.

MATERIALISING

Request Access

22

Shaping a group of buildings

In the same way, groups of people can conceive their larger public buildings, on the ground, by following a common pattern language, almost as if they had a single mind.

MATERIALISING

23

The process of construction

Once the buildings are conceived like this, they can be built, directly, from a few simple marks made in the ground—again within a common language, but directly, and without the use of drawings.

MATERIALISING

24

The process of repair

Next, several acts of building, each one done to repair and magnify the product of the previous acts, will slowly generate a larger and more complex whole than any single act can generate.

MATERIALISING

25

The slow emergence of a town

Finally, within the framework of a common language, millions of individual acts of building will together generate a town which is alive, and whole, and unpredictable, without control. This is the slow emergence of the quality without a name, as if from nothing.

MATERIALISING

26

Its ageless character

And as the whole emerges, we shall see it take that ageless character which gives the timeless way its name. This character is a specific, morphological character, sharp and precise, which must come into being any time a building or a town becomes alive: it is the physical embodiment, in buildings, of the quality without a name.

MATERIALISING

Chevron Up

THE BREATHING

❝

And yet the timeless way is not complete, and will not fully generate the quality without a name, until we leave the gate behind.

Chevron Down

27

The pulse

Indeed this ageless character has nothing, in the end, to do with languages. The language, and the processes which stem from it, merely release the fundamental order which is native to us. They do not teach us, they only remind us of what we know already, and of what we shall discover time and time again, when we give up our ideas and opinions, and do exactly what emerges from ourselves.

PULSING

Chevron Up

WHERE YOU'RE NEEDED

❝

And yet the timeless way is not complete, and will not fully generate the quality without a name, until we leave the gate behind.

Chevron Down

28

What is help

It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it.

IN FORMATION

29

Donate resources

It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it.

IN FORMATION

30

Participate in reasearch

It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it.

IN FORMATION

31

Apply to work with us

It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it.

IN FORMATION

Chevron Up

PSYCHOTECH

Actions will only be alive to the extent they are governed by the terrain.