Rules for Provoking Enlightenment

Provoking Enlightenment 01: The Rule of Present
Provoking Enlightenment 02: The Rule of Practicality
Provoking Enlightenment 03: The Rule Of Variety
Provoking Enlightenment 04: The Rule Of Words
Provoking Enlightenment 05: The Rule Of Document

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Provoking Enlightenment 01: The Rule of Present

The "present", though inescapable as a location in time and space, can be a distinct subject of enquiry, with unique psychological benefits.

It may be true that anything we can be aware of is involved intimately in the fabric of the present universe as it affects you personally, but it will not always be true that we consider things in this context.

To keep the idea of something, anything, informed and moderated by %22the present%22 - that is, your idea of the present - is a sensible thing to do, because the present is the real-world situation in which you have to deal with that idea.

No thought, belief, truth, plan or principle has meaning by itself, it only has meaning in the context of a human's animal behaviour and real-life situations such as your own


Provoking Enlightenment 02: The Rule of Practicality

There is more to learn about any subject, especially the important ones. On the other hand, there are always other subjects that need your attention, so we have to maintain some kind of balance of ideas, throughout changing circumstances.

A realistic way to do this is to make our standards for what we know in tune with our standards for what we intend to do. In other words our knowledge should be judged according to its role in our plans, not according to some absolute standard that we had previously decided was "enough", or that someone else has tried to impose on us.

If one of our plans is simply to learn - and this tends to be common among humans - then we must remember that it is but one of many things we want from life. Learning as an abstract pursuit can always be a part of other plans, indeed it must, but it can't take precedence in every situation.

If we allow our curiosity to moderate itself, then we shall find that the more we learn about one thing, the more interesting everything else becomes. The only real way to feel you have enough understanding is to define "enough" according to practical metrics: the next five minutes, this week, this conversation, this moment.

There are many different concepts to take a hold of at any time, and much new information being streamed in from our senses, our instincts and our intuition, and we can ill afford to keep our theoretical standards separate from the unfolding of reality.


Provoking Enlightenment 03: The Rule Of Variety

There are a great many sources that inform your idea of the present. You have an awareness of your body's posture and position, five different senses, faculties that interpret them, abstract ideas about what's happening, and a sea of emotions.

The four dimensional picture of the present that you keep in your mind, will twist and grow according to where your attention is spent. If we assume that there is a universe containing us and the things around us, we can assume that these different inputs are all telling us about the same thing. It is therefore useful for comprehending any piece of present information, to draw context regularly from the rest.

An idea can become warped and lopsided, and it can stop working altogether, if it is too isolated, and fails to gain the enanchements it needs from the rest of our knowledge about how things are, and what we intend to do about it.

We may notice if we try to keep things systematically in context, that the different pieces of information interact, overlap, and go through all kinds of transformations when they combine. It may be that the lines between one kind of mental information and another are blurry or variable, but we have evolved the ability to consider things as both separate entities and integral parts, at the same time, and so the question need not be resolved in any perfect fashion, and can be explored further whenever it's practical to do so.

Besides a kind of intellectual insurance against things getting out of proportion, there is the more interesting benefit, that your ideas get richer, clearer, and more colourful, as their details are filled in from various unexpected places, and new links are made to your intentions.


Provoking Enlightenment 04: The Rule Of Words
For many subjects, we can apply the rules about words that we learn for speaking and writing, to the descriptions that we make in our mind.

This more advanced structure can help to tie different thoughts together and create an evolving concept that builds as you add to it, over time.

Something you build in this way can take all the attention you give it, so if it gets too big then impose a design.

Words can be a complex tool and must be co-operated with the circumstances, because a dischord is distracting.


Provoking Enlightenment 05: The Rule Of Document

Our brain's shortcomings, such as forgetfulness and distraction, can be cushioned with information technology, especially writing and typing. We sometimes take these for granted, but both of them took thousands of years to invent.

The value of a document can increase, and it does so largely in proportion to the number of rewrites, as long as they're not too brash. Pruning can be useful, but it serves a different purpose and is not a substitute for redrafting.

Aside from documenting as a memory aid, trying to put an idea into words is also a good way to test your understanding of it. A further test for your ideas, or for the document, is how well its conceptual contents can serve you in daily life. Imagine, test, repeat.