The Predisposition towards Arising

35 views
Skip to first unread message

Jeffrey Angelson

unread,
May 25, 2026, 12:21:32 AMMay 25
to diehar...@googlegroups.com
I have been sitting with this and decided to integrate it into one document. 
Hope it’s interesting and generates meaningful dialogue. 


Jeff Angelson
The_Predisposition_Toward_Arising_Jeffrey_Angelson.pdf

Paul Rezendes

unread,
May 25, 2026, 6:22:40 PMMay 25
to Diehards google
Jeff,

I read through what you sent in. Whenever we try to put this into words, it's going to fail. But I wonder how close we're coming, if at all.

This is just my limited take on things as I've been watching this through the decades: it seems to me that there is no prior to. There's nothing that came first. There is no time. I like Bohm's term, all potential. I see it as this undulating field that extends forever. Call it a quantum entangled field of waves or vibrations/energy. It changes according to whatever is observing as it. It has always been there and is always changing. Consciousness, awareness, form, emptiness, is all of it changing. It is a continuum. Some physicists are now saying there's no such thing as matter, just waves entangling to look like something solid, but there are no things. This fits well into certain forms of Buddhist ways of articulating this. Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. There is nothing that becomes permanent in this field since it is constantly undulating, changing. There are no nouns here, nothing to hold onto, no solid ground. 

Just some limited expressions of how it seems to me, and I'm sure it misses the mark. I wonder if it even gets anywhere near close, but that was fun anyway. As they say, the Tao cannot be spoken.

Peace,

Paul

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Diehard Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to diehard-grou...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/diehard-group/CAAUbiCR5C0oApfjmBRZxFChyi_SR5dyaeTUtW1GkRujrWvAK8w%40mail.gmail.com.
<The_Predisposition_Toward_Arising_Jeffrey_Angelson.pdf>

Jeffrey Angelson

unread,
May 25, 2026, 7:15:21 PMMay 25
to diehar...@googlegroups.com

Paul,


Something I continue to sit with is the part about there being no prior to, no first, no before.


I follow what you are pointing toward — no separate creator standing outside THIS, no fixed things, no solid ground, no beginning point in time where reality suddenly starts.


That resonates.


Yet something still opens as a question for me.


Not what created all this in a conventional sense.


Not God as a separate being.


But why manifestation at all?


Why does potential express?


Why does anything appear rather than nothing?


Perhaps even asking it introduces one concept too many.


Yet I continue to wonder whether what is unmanifest carries an intrinsic tendency or predisposition toward manifestation when conditions co-arise. Not a “before” in time. Not a creator standing outside the field. Not something separate initiating reality.


More that expression may be intrinsic to the nature of Being itself.


Or perhaps, as you point toward, even that adds one thought too many.


Peace,



Jeff Angelson

Paul Rezendes

unread,
May 26, 2026, 7:16:52 AMMay 26
to Diehards google

Jeff,

Don't really have any answers for a lot of these questions you're asking. I don't think there are any answers. However, it seems to mean that the nature of all this is creation as differentiation.

🕊
Paul

Jeffrey Angelson

unread,
May 26, 2026, 7:46:04 AMMay 26
to diehar...@googlegroups.com

Paul,


I appreciate this. I’m finding myself less interested lately in having answers and more interested in seeing clearly.


“Creation as differentiation” resonates. One movement appearing as many. One field expressing as countless forms. Not separate from each other — but differentiated.


Maybe that is why compassion matters.


The suffering is differentiated. The joy is differentiated. The confusion, beauty, fear, love — differentiated expressions of one movement.


And yet something recognizes this.


Maybe that recognition doesn’t give answers.


Maybe it changes how we meet life.


Meet you in the gap.




Jeff Angelson

Paul Rezendes

unread,
May 26, 2026, 9:46:41 AMMay 26
to Diehards google

Jeff,


You said in your email:


"And yet something recognizes this.


Maybe that recognition doesn’t give answers.


Maybe it changes how we meet life.”

Yes, there seems to be something that is its own action. Seems to me, observation itself can change things. Wei Wu Wei. There is something done there that thought can't do.

As for compassion: it seems to me that once it's very clear that what's happening to other people, the planet, other lifeforms, is affecting me, that is me. I'm not separate from what's happening to the planet. If there is an understanding that, that is compassion. It's not a matter of trying to be compassionate. It seems to me, it is the understanding itself that is the compassion.

Wei Wu Wei,

Paul 

Paul Rezendes Photography
3833 Bearsden Road
Royalston, MA 01368-9400
USA

Photography
Check out our new rotating images on our home page: http://www.paulrezendes.com

Search Online Photo Library:  https://www.agpix.com/results.php?agid=PaRe12
Videos 















Jeffrey Angelson

unread,
May 26, 2026, 10:23:37 AMMay 26
to diehar...@googlegroups.com

Paul,


Yes. This feels very close to what I was trying to point to.


There seems to be a seeing or observation that thought can’t do. Thought can analyze, compare, and explain. But sometimes there is simply seeing. And in that seeing, something changes.


Not because “I” changed it.


The seeing itself seems to be the action.


And what you said about compassion resonates too.


Not trying to be compassionate. Not making it into an idea or a practice.


But seeing clearly that what happens to others, to life, to the planet, is not separate from me.


Maybe that understanding itself is compassion.


Wei Wu Wei




Jeff Angelson

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Diehard Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to diehard-grou...@googlegroups.com.

Paul Rezendes

unread,
May 26, 2026, 11:37:10 AMMay 26
to Diehards google
Jeff… YES!

inca...@gmail.com

unread,
May 26, 2026, 7:28:48 PMMay 26
to diehar...@googlegroups.com, Diehards google
Paul,

It would be helpful and appreciated if you explain more about Wei Wu Wei. How does it tie with the subjects being talked? 

I have noticed you started using it often recently. 


Thank you,

Sunhee 


On May 26, 2026, at 10:37 AM, Paul Rezendes <pho...@paulrezendes.com> wrote:

Jeff… YES!

Rani Madhavapeddi

unread,
May 27, 2026, 9:16:05 AMMay 27
to diehar...@googlegroups.com
Sunhee,
I am sure Paul will reply. It’s a Tao principle that says doing without doership. No identification with the body mind. As in Nish Kama karma action without desire ( no small self). Effortless action being in the flow are other ways to put it in words. 
Who was the author "Wei Wu Wei"?

Wei wu wei is a foundational concept in Taoism that translates to "acting without acting" or "doing without doing". It represents the art of effortless action—living and working in complete harmony with the natural flow of the universe rather than forcing or resisting events

Rani Madhavapeddi Patel


On May 26, 2026, at 4:28 PM, inca...@gmail.com wrote:



Paul Rezendes

unread,
May 27, 2026, 9:28:43 AMMay 27
to diehar...@googlegroups.com
Sunhee,

I think Rani had it covered pretty well. What I am generally pointing to when I use the term Wei Wu Wei is that there is an action in our lives that does not have a doer. Just like when you’re lost in thought, there’s a realizing you’re lost in thought, and that realization is its own action of waking up. Seeing is that direct action. It hasn’t got an actor. I’m going to have to cut it short. I’m on the road right now.

Love to you,

Paul

PS. An unconditioned seeing that changes the condition. 

Sent from my iPhone

On May 27, 2026, at 09:16, Rani Madhavapeddi <rmadha...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sunhee,

Jeffrey Angelson

unread,
May 27, 2026, 9:36:20 AMMay 27
to diehar...@googlegroups.com
Sunhee Paul Rani

It may also refer to the author Wei Wu Wei which is a pen name for a guy Terrence  Grey. His books include Fingers Pointing to the Moon. I am reading it now. Interesting read but not easy. Jeff 


Jeff Angelson

Rani Madhavapeddi

unread,
May 27, 2026, 10:29:17 AMMay 27
to diehar...@googlegroups.com
Jeffrey,
This guy is a 20 th century writer but the concept is ancient. 
Rani Madhavapeddi Patel


On May 27, 2026, at 6:36 AM, Jeffrey Angelson <jeff.a...@gmail.com> wrote:



Jeffrey Angelson

unread,
May 27, 2026, 10:55:42 AMMay 27
to diehar...@googlegroups.com
I know 


Jeff Angelson

inca...@gmail.com

unread,
May 27, 2026, 1:34:44 PMMay 27
to diehar...@googlegroups.com, diehar...@googlegroups.com

Thank you both Rani and Paul!! 🙏😊



On May 27, 2026, at 8:28 AM, Paul Rezendes <pvrez...@gmail.com> wrote:



Rani Madhavapeddi

unread,
May 27, 2026, 2:51:02 PMMay 27
to diehar...@googlegroups.com, diehar...@googlegroups.com
Sunhee,
Wei Wu has its beginnings in the Tao philosophy of Sunyata! Sunyata is not emptiness but points to seeing that everything that arises is not in isolation but codependent on what exists.And whatever exists is some total of the parts that exist and is constantly changing. Example a paper exists only because of a tree, a car is the sum total of all its parts. Dismantle the parts can’t be called a car!  You and I are a part of the cosmos. The carbon and all the atoms in our body is as old as the cosmos. So, in this sunyata there is this wholeness. Not a singular entity existing. When the mind is empty there is no individual identity but everythingness or Onesness or wholesomeness! 
This is a philosophy propounded by Nāgārjuna who was born as a Sanatana Dharma person but converted to Budhism. This form of Budhism is the Mādhyamika or middle way! As Budhism was splintering into different groups he came up with this philosophy ( very similar to advaita Vedanta), to unite different factions of Budhism. Zen Budhism is an off shoot of this philosophy. The Dalai Lama follows this Budhism so does Thich Naht Hanh.
This is often referred by Paul as interbeing and emptiness (for want of a better word). 
Love peace and joy ! 
Rani Madhavapeddi Patel


On May 27, 2026, at 10:34 AM, inca...@gmail.com wrote:


Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages