Suppose an airplane crashes, leading to huge casualties and damages. When questioned about the cause of the crash, suppose the airline company reports, “The plane crashed due to gravity.” Yes, the plane wouldn’t have crashed if there had been no gravity; yet gravity is not the relevant cause. Why not? Because gravity always exists, and planes are designed to fly despite its constant presence. What made the plane unable to fly on this particular occasion? That is the relevant question.
While we would usually reject such pat explanations for airplane operation, we frequently accept them for human behavior, especially for our own (mis)behavior. Suppose we get angry and end up doing things that are reproachable, even reprehensible. When asked why we acted that way, we may answer, “I am short-tempered.” While that may certainly be true, that is not the relevant explanation here. Why not? Because if we are short-tempered, then that disposition exists within us all the time. Yet as civilized human beings, we do learn to restrain our anger on most occasions, or at least on many occasions. What, then, caused our self-restraint to snap on this particular occasion? This is the relevant question.
When we avoid facile labels that increase neither our situational awareness nor our social awareness, we can probe deeper and better understand ourselves. Thus, we can learn what outer situations and inner emotional states trigger our temper. By such deepened self-understanding, we can find ways to protect ourselves from future outbursts. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita exhorts us to become observers of our inner world (14.22).
One-sentence summary:
When examining our unhealthy behavior, don’t attribute it to labels that provide nothing helpful; analyze the outer and inner triggers for that behavior and thus learn to protect ourselves from relapses.
Think it over:
- For an airplane crash, what is not and what is a relevant explanation?
- For our angry behavior, what is not and what is a relevant explanation?
- Recollect the last time you lost your temper. By analyzing your outer and inner conditions, how can you better protect yourself from relapses?
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14.22: He who does not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present or long for them when they disappear; … – such a person is said to have transcended the modes of nature.
To know more about this verse, please click on the image
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