I was reading an excerpt from a book called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That
Can't Stop Talking by Susan
Cain. Cain describes how the most significant discoveries in science and
business often come about not through endless collaborative dialogue and
group-think, but through the dedicated attention of a single person working
with minimal collaboration. Cain’s thesis is somewhat surprising, considering
that many are leaning toward the trendy idea of a collective community of
learning. But at the same time, it does make sense to me, because I feel that
individual focus and determination are so key to accomplishing anything in
life. Cain’s book is a quiet reminder that it is only myself who can decide how
to devote my time and commitments. And time is short, so I need to be aware of
what is worthy of devotion and commitment, and what needs less attention.
I don’t think that Cain’s thesis is without challenges or
controversies. Rather, it represents one pole in a balance of opposites. I see
the same balance in the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation,
as well as David Riesman’s distinctions between ‘outer directed’ and ‘inner
directed’ people, which he describes in the book, The Lonely Crowd. In a sense, even Buddhism has had a similar
controversy, where the Theravadin tradition’s stress the power of mind in reaching
Nirvana, while Mahayana tradition stresses the need to point to Buddha nature
in all beings. To me, one tradition emphasizes the need to walk a path of inner
discipline and follow many interlocking principles to get there, like a kind of
recipe. According to this path, there is no sense in trying to save others if
one’s own stick is not strong enough to weather the storms. On the other hand,
there is the opposite need to see such principles in all life, and not to
discriminate between ‘my’ way and the other person’s way. All are essentially
mind. I think it is possible to harmonize both ideas if one considers that
there are no separate beings out there, but only thoughts that I need to take
care of. Even then, taking care of thoughts requires a dedicated practice to
settle the mind. Without that ability to settle the mind, it is so hard to get anything
done. And it is important to understand this power as something that happens
every day when we are performing even the simplest tasks.
To give an example, if someone encounters me and I feel
fear around that person, do I need to react to the phenomena of the person? I can acknowledge that the fear is arising
from thoughts, but do I need to react to those thoughts? Considering that the
thoughts are all of the mind, then there is no need to react as though I were
needing to run away from my own thoughts. In this way, Cain’s thesis is
correct, because we waste our time if we think we are collaborating with
separate beings. In fact, my experience with others is a unified experience:
there is no ‘me’ and ‘you’ in it, so there is really no need to pick and choose
between my purpose and the other’s purpose. On the other hand, if I reject the
phenomena of other people, this is also incorrect, because it assumes that
there is a mind that is separate from all phenomena. In this way, there is no
need to pick and choose between ‘my’ way and someone else’s way, since all
these are just thoughts. I can harmonize with all the different ways, while finding
what thoughts are most needed for the current condition of all beings. To put
it in a different way, if there were no ‘all beings’, would Wozniak have bothered
to devise the personal computer that could be used by all people?
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