To be guided by the whole, we must pay attention to the latent centers and enhance them

The whole, at each moment, is discerned by paying attention to whole configuration as it is together with the centers latent in that wholeness. This technique is quite general. In order to understand well what it means “always to enhance the whole”, we need to grasp clearly the relation between preserving structure and enhancing structure. What, precisely, is the relation between a transformation that is structure-preserving, and one that is structure-enhancing? How can these two apparently different ideas be reconciled?

The idea is that a structure-preserving process on the one hand transforms and preserves structure and on the other hand the idea that this structure-preserving transformation then also enhances the whole.
The two can be reconciled, because in every wholeness, in every structure, there are latent centers. These are centers caused by the overall configuration, dimly present in the structure, yet not yet fully developed. These centers are part of the structure, they are truly there, they are present. But they have not yet been developed, even though they are capable of development.
In developing these latent centers, one is then both respecting the structure which exists, yet also paving a path to some as-yet unborn new structure. Even though the structure which then merges is a new one, it has its roots in the old structure.
To do this right, and to pave the way to this conservative and life-giving emergence, one must both preserve the structure which exists, and its wholeness, yet also enhance the wholeness — and that means enhancing the latent centers, those that are not yet fully recognized.

#book/The Nature of Order/2 The process of creating life/9 The whole#