A Problem and a Reason

I have given it a lot of thought. In fact based on my current life it could be more than 40 years of thinking on it, however if someone cares for karma and considers multiple lives then it could be centuries of thinking on it.

There is something that drives all our actions. Individually first and collectively next. And my years of continued thinking makes me conclude that there are only 2 drivers of our life and life actions. And these two drivers are “a problem” and “a reason “.

Let’s understand the problem first. (This is where all the problem begins, just kidding! ). In my growing years we had to learn the definition of a “problem” . And there are multiple definitions for it.. Maybe you can google it. But what stuck with me when I was a college student is what I write here.

Problem refers to the difference between “What is” and “what should be” .

“What is” refers to current reality – raw as it is. And “what should be” refers to each individual’s idea of how reality should become. This image of a “what should be” reality shapes the individual’s world and is the primary driver for all individual actions. Indeed often this idea even colours the “what is” reality.

In the work environment, one of the management philosophy was identify the root problem and then attack that for improving efficiency. If we read most of corporate success stories, it will speak directly or indirectly of identifying and resolving a core problem that others couldn’t see or act on before.

Most of the time we end up not focusing on the core or root problem. We just try to resolve the immediate problem. So what’s the root problem and what is the immediate problem? If someone has read the book “Goal” and “Goal 2” of Eliyahu Goldratt, then he or she would be acquainted with the thinking process. As per the thinking process there are only one or two root problems that one needs to address and rest of the problems which is lower in the hierarchy get resolved automatically. Yet owing to the layers before our eyes due to multitude of problems we refuse or don’t focus our attention on the core issue instead work on solving the immediate lower level problems.

Our dreams (or sometimes someone else’s) often define our notion of “what should be”. This acts as a measure of the gap between “What is” and “what should be” and lays foundation for a “problem” that needs us to solve or act. So am I saying our dreams are the problem? Let’s park this line of thinking for a short while.

Now think hard. How many “what should be” lies in your individual head? If we are honest, there will be innumerable. For eg: Our house is small it should be big, the food I eat is substandard, it should be like this, my looks are this, it should be that, my worth is this much, it should be that, the other person’s behavior is such and such, it should be so and so, my strength is this, it should be that, I am standing in queue, I should not have to be in queue etc… Now you are getting it. The “should be” list seems endless.

Each “should be” registered in our brain is a problem statement for the mind to solve. It has a charge (force that can bring a reaction) This causes the necessary chemical imbalance for action to get initiated in the human frame. Owing to the countless “should be” that we carry, the mind as a protector of the individual frame, puts to sleep many of these, focusing or bringing into consciousness only those “should be” that have very high charge and reacting accordingly.

Thus these “should be” with very high charge makes us act weird. It makes us reactive and passionate about closing the gap between What is and what should be. And we own it up thinking that is who we are, thinking that we may cease to exist if that cannot happen.

Now let me talk about the other driver – reason. All humans exist for a reason. This reason is a secret mission. I say secret because unless one tries to know about it, it doesn’t exist. And when it doesn’t exist there is no reason (or no reasoning with that person saying that a reason exists😊). Reason is like a problem where the “should be” is undefined and hence there is no problem per se. Yet something is lacking in the “what is” that brings an unease within. The unease usually takes time to develop and it develops differently for different individuals. It is when the unease grows in an individual, that one starts searching for the secret “reason”.

Now let me come back to our dreams. So what is our dream all about? It is the accumulated “should be” that has combined to become a clear defined goal. An individual can have multiple dreams depending on the “should be” charge one has accumulated. It is said that dreams are a means to human progress. Indeed I agree, that this is correct. However it is the interpretation of dreams that can bring true progress. And interpretation is where most humans fail.

World is meant to be complete in all aspects. Indeed, the wise assert that we are also complete. If this is true then why do we still insist on doing a – this is how world “should be” correction following our dreams.

Meditation and awareness techniques help us notice the “should be” thoughts that accumulate charge in our mind. It aids in us dropping the thought and thus reducing charges of those specific “should be”.

It is my firm belief that continued practice of awareness techniques helps reduce a lot of unwanted extra “should be”. What is unwanted is an individual consideration. Yet as I have personally experienced, even with focused awareness, many of the “should be” refuse to get dropped. We have accumulated them for so long, the charge refuses to diminish. These are our true dreams. Whether one should pursue it or not is again debatable. Some are so alluring that it is seemingly not dropable. However not all high charges translate into action. Often such charges remain dormant waiting for an appropriate environment for it to blossom. This is sad yet it seems necessary since it brings in the growth of “unease” that makes humans search for the other driver-reason. When one feels frustrated of not being able to achieve a dream, he or she gravitates towards trying to know the “reason” for existence.

Diving in to knowing the driver called “Reason” intimately, starts making us more and more spiritual in nature. In a conducive environment, we soon begin to notice our interconnectedness and begin to vibrate for a collective dream. While I have had glimpses, it is mostly still the narrow “individual dreaming” for me. Unless I learn to drop all individual dreams, the collective dream does not reveal itself.

I guess this where the tool of “detachment” and “continued practice” comes in play. That’s my interpretation and rambling for you to find resonance with. Hope you make sense of it. Go figure! 😉