To understand the root cause of any situation, drilling with "5 whys" is my default approach. When I am curious and doing this exercise in my mind, I am not sure about counting the number of whys, to be frank. The "5 whys" is pretty much a natural flow of questioning that I've been doing without much effort for years.
Recently I was having a conversation and we were discussing how to change an outcome. This question was a trigger for me to think about the process of decision-making without our minds and how it leads to an outcome. Let me try to put my thoughts in a structured way.
Imagine a machine that takes inputs and gives an output. And it has various stages in between. Our mind is this machine. The stages are Inputs, Enhancing the Inputs, Judgement, Decision, Action, Outcome and Experience. Let's understand each of these seven stages.
Stage 1: Inputs
This stage represents the raw inputs that the mind is receiving. It can come from many sources the most common is our 5 senses - sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Let's call this "Raw Environmental Input". But thats not all. Inputs can also come from our thoughts. Let's call this "Self Manufactured Input". Now thoughts are a very interesting source of input. It's the trickiest one and full of slippery slopes. When you read this it's your thoughts that are processing the information. So we are trying to understand this stage which involves thoughts via thoughts. I hope you see the glitch. So just be careful, but let's continue.
Self Manufactured Inputs are based on your experience, your biases, and your blind spots. Even your culture, your family, your past insights and learning, your beliefs, your faith, your ego, your fear, etc
Please note that both these inputs can co-exist. They are not mutually exclusive. On top of this, they can influence each other as well. For example, you see a person and you have a thought that this person is not good. This thought is based on your experience with this person. So the raw input is the person and the self-manufactured input is your experience.
The last source of input is the body itself. Let's call it "My Body Input". The mind will use this input as well before enhancing and making the judgment. For example the current state of the body, the health, the energy level, and the mood. Also, what is the body doing at the moment as well as what can it do next and especially what it cannot do? These are very important inputs. Sometimes we call this input our subconscious mind. The mind is always aware of the body's inputs. And prioritize it more than the other inputs. Think in terms of weightage. The body inputs are the heaviest. The self-manufactured inputs are the lightest. The raw environmental inputs are in between.
Stage 2: Enhancing the Inputs
This stage is where the mind enhances the inputs. Just like a negative of a photograph is enhanced to get the actual photograph. Note enhancing doesnt only mean adding more inputs but also filtering the inputs or even ignoring them. This is where the mind is conserving its energy. It's simply not possible to process all the inputs. The mind has to be selective.
It uses its previous learnings to decide on what inputs to focus on and what to ignore.
Stage 3: Judgement
This stage is where "Awareness" plays a major role. An aware mind can work towards making the right judgment. However, an unaware mind will continue to make a judgment without realizing any flaws that were introduced while enhancing the inputs. An aware mind will simply nullify the majority of inputs. This is what is called "Vairagya" in Indian lingo. The inputs come in, and the awareness observes it and nullifies it without getting influenced by it. This stage is where meditation makes an impact. It helps in increasing awareness, which in turn helps in making the right judgment. Once the mind has made the judgment, it moves to the next stage, and it is too late to stop or change from that point. So please try and understand the importance of this stage. It's the most critical stage in the process of decision-making.
Nullifying implies realizing that the inputs aren't enough to make any judgment.
Stage 4: Decision
This stage is where the mind decides on the course of action to be taken. The actions are completely based on the judgment made in the previous stage. From this stage onwards, the mind is 100% in the execution mode. It will follow the course of action without any deviation at the fastest possible speed. The mind will not spend any more energy on doubting or slowing down to re-think. It will simply follow the course of action decided in the previous stage.
It will use its previous learnings, evaluate the current constraints, and come up with the best possible course of action. It will not spend time introspecting, or foreseeing the future implications of its action. On either itself or others. It will simply follow the course of action.
Stage 5: Action
This stage is where the mind executes the course of action decided in the previous stage. It will give commands to the body to perform the action. The body will follow the commands and perform the action. Note that sometimes the command can be to take "no action" as well. Taking no action is also taking an action for the body. It's just taking no action, results in conserving energy whereas taking an action consumes energy. Note the higher the energy you currently have, the more this encourages the mind to take the course of action that will require energy. So your energy level holds a very important role in the decision-making process.
Stage 6: Outcome
Once the action is taken by the body, it will result in an outcome. This we call "karma" too. There is no way to stop it or manipulate it. All you can do is change the course of your next action. But often time since the speed of this process is such and nature of this process is iterative, we usually miss the boat. Being aware is hence promoted by all Buddhist or Hindu texts as that seems to be the only key to change an outcome.
Stage 7: Experience
The outcome can be positive or negative. It can be immediate or delayed. It can be for you or others. It can be for the body or the mind. It can be for the environment or the society. It can be for the family or the nation. It can be for the world or the universe. It can be for the past or the future.
Whatever the outcome is, the body will experience it and the learnings will be stored back in the memory. The mind may use these memories in the next cycle to enhance the inputs, to decide on a course of action, etc. Note when adding the learnings back to the memory, this can trigger the self-manufactured inputs which can trigger the next stage, and so on. The cycle continues again and again and again. Imagine the last time your thoughts were running out of your control. You can visualize what was happening from these seven stages' perspectives and get to motivate yourself to learn meditation to be more aware.
Summary:
The speed at which our mind works complicates our grip on this process. So just by reading this blog or article, it will have no impact on your mind functioning. The only thing that helps is your awareness. So try to be aware and start observing your mind. You will start seeing the process in action. You will start seeing the inputs, the enhancement, the judgment, the decision, the action, the outcome, and the experience. You will start seeing the cycle. You will start seeing this recursive loop.
Once you do this a few times, try to then use this to find out the root cause of any problem, or situation bothering you or spiking your curiosity.
You must have heard this story of five blinds touching an elephant and each one describing the elephant differently. This is what happens when we are not aware. We are like the blinds touching the elephant and assuming that our touch is the full story. It's just NOT.
Realize this at the deepest possible level. Without awareness, inputs are bound to result in an iterative outcome. So changing an outcome is just not possible until you are aware. The best way to change the outcome is NOT to change the inputs. This is where most of us go wrong. Instead, slow down at the judgment stage, increase your awareness, and start nullifying the inputs. See the emptiness in the inputs. See the hollowness in your thoughts. See the futility in your actions. Our minds hardly have a few details but when we are not aware, we act in ignorance and assume that we know the full story and the inputs are 100% correct and reliable. Sadly thats is just not the case. Peace!!
P.S. A couple more related insights that I would like to share here in brief:
1) About kids being innocent and old people being wise. The reason is simple.
Kid's memory size is low hence when they judge they simply dont have enough memory to enhance the inputs. They simply take the raw inputs and make the judgment. This is why they act innocent.
The more older you are the bigger memory we get. This is also why the old people are considered wise. They have seen enough inputs and have enough memory to make the right judgment.
2) As and how we get older and older, especially at the time of death no new inputs are coming in as all our senses are dead. So all the inputs are purely 100% coming from memory. And that decides the outcome of your next birth. So the more aware you are at the time of death, the better your next birth will be. I am not fully sure but seems rational.
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