The method
Everything is in relation.
When you're aware, you steer.
Two assumptions
The whole way of thinking rests on two sentences: “Everything is in relation” and “Every entity is made of infinitely many entities and relations”. The first says nothing exists on its own. The second says you can zoom into any entity and find another network inside.
Nodes and edges, entity and relation
In the abstract model we speak of nodes and edges. In the real world we call them entities and relations. An entity is a thing, a feeling, a person, a process. A relation is the connection between them.
The three states
A relation is never just on or off. It moves between empty (never activated), active (sending and receiving) and passive (learned, but quiet). Once a relation has been active, it never becomes empty again.
- empty
- active
- passive
A signal sets it all in motion
What activates an empty relation I call a signal — an impulse, a stimulus. Nothing mystical. A trigger sends a signal, it reaches an entity, a chain starts.
Graph as text
- Trigger → Thought (active)
- Thought → Feeling (active)
- Feeling → Action (passive)
- Thought → New path (empty)
The glowing chain is currently active. The dotted path is an empty relation — a path you have not taken yet.
Network levels and zoom
Entities can be sorted into network levels — such as everyday life, mind and body. A trigger on one level activates entities on others. And with zoom in / zoom out you can collapse a whole cluster into one entity or look inside an entity.
The six viewpoints
You are stuck because you only see the active entities. A new viewpoint is nothing but an entity you had not activated yet. The six viewpoints help you find it: the other person, time, the level, the outside, the unknown, distance.