Character Development, Modern Science and Mindfulness Practices

Modern Neuroscience and Psychological Researchers provide answers to explain the development of character and the how-to, now commonly known as mindfulness practices. Character development must take place at 3 places, the fast reactive thinking system, the slow thinking systems, and the management and control of our animal-instincts thinking systems. By using mindfulness practices, done daily over time, we can train the 3 systems to adopt the right philosophy and values and achieve better well-being, effectiveness, and success.

Two Thinking Systems:
Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 2002, Daniel Kahneman, in his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow", tells us that we have two thinking systems.

1. The fast-thinking system is fast, automatic, reactive, frequent, emotional, stereotypic and subconscious. We need it to quickly react to sudden and impending danger for our survival. We perceive the sudden threat and quickly reacted with eight fight, flight or freeze. There is too little time for deliberate analysis and decision making. This fast reactive system is of course bias and error-prone, using associative memory and past experience.
2. The Slow-Thinking system is effortful, infrequent (comparatively), logical, calculating and conscious. It is deliberate learning from long-term memory and using a system of reasoning. Of course, if our reasoning system and our stored knowledge are not correct, we would be making erroneous decisions leading to bad outcomes.

The Third One - Animalistic Dino Brain

Albert J. Bernstein wrote a very interesting book, "Dinosaur Brains: Dealing with All THOSE Impossible People at Work", that shows us how our natural thinking system is.  Our animal level types of thinking include the following:

1. Go get it now.
2. Fight, Flight or Fright
3. Be Dominant
4. Defend the Territory
5. Get the Mate
6. If it hurts, Hiss
7. Like Me Good, Not Like Me Bad.

We can understand our self-centered, instant gratification, mine & mine kind of thinking. Maturity and Emotional Intelligence are about controlling our desires with awareness of others, delayed gratification, and even just doing good just for goodness sake without expecting any rewards.

Xun Zi, the number 3 in the Confucianism School, when discussing how man is more valuable than animals says the following: 

《荀子·王制篇》群

水火有气而无生, 草木有生而无知, 禽兽有知而无义；人有气、有生、有知, 亦且有义, 故最为天下贵也. 

Water and fire have Qi(Energy) but no life.

Plants have a life but no knowledge.

Animals have knowledge but no moral (no sense of right and wrong).

Men have Qi(Energy), Life, Knowledge, and Moral. Hence men are most precious under the sky.

The sense of right and wrong causes men to manage and control their animal impulses for the benefits of the community and themselves.

Men must develop a virtuous character and behave accordingly.

The Right Moral Virtues and Behavior

Generally, the values and virtues that men want are quite similar. Consider the Confucianism list and the Christianity list as follow:

The Confucius virtues are usually summarized as 仁义礼智信 as 五常 (5 common values) and also “仁、义、礼、智、信、忠、孝、节、勇、和” as 十德 (10 virtues)。

仁、love, charity.

义、righteousness

礼、proper conduct, good manners

智、wisdom

信、integrity, trustworthiness

忠、faithfulness

孝、filial piety - Elders loves younger, younger respect elders.

节、self-control

勇、boldness, decisiveness

和. Harmony and Peace.

Christianity uses the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23 English Standard Version (ESV)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.

How do we develop character?

We need to change the three Thinking-Systems. 

We use the Slow-Thinking Systems to acquire wisdom and knowledge. We use such knowledge to train and obtain control over the Dino-Brain. We practice and practice to get our Fast-Reactive Thinking to conform to the Slow-Thinking System

The Mind-Map：

The Mindfulness Practices

How do we practice and practice? The secret is in being mindful, being aware of our feeling, thinking and reactive behaviors and outcomes daily, if not constantly.

A simple series of steps for mindfulness is as follows:

1.  Pause. Especially we are triggered by anger or fear (except for dangerous situation - in such a case, the step is run, hide, observe, notify). Pause first before reaction.
2. Breathing Technique.
1. Control your breathing.
2. Be aware of your breathing.
3. Focus on how your chest, belly move with the breathing.
4. Slow down breathing and start to be aware of your sensation and feeling.
3. Naming the feelings
1. Try to label your feeling, anger, fear, worry, joy, depress, disappointed, sad, etc.
2. Labeling them calm us further.
3. Do not be judgmental. There is no right or wrong. The purpose is to be aware of how you are feeling.
4. Considering your feeling.
1. Comforting your self with you are OK, you are loved, you are capable, ...
2. We try to engage the Slow-Deliberate Thinking System into the situation.
3. Once we are calm and rested, we can start analyzing why we feel and react that way. Then figure out how should we do to gain a better outcome to achieve our purpose and meaning in life.

The best time is not to wait for external triggers. 

It is best to start the day, mid-day, and end the day with mindfulness practices. Always being aware of the events, the feelings, the thinkings, the reactions, the outcomes and then intentional re-examine and make improvements.

Daily and Not Annually

Now we probably can figure out the answer as to why our annual resolutions do not work. It is too long a period to discover and make corrective actions.

All the best to your daily practices for becoming a better person, better well-being and greater success in life.

Lim Liat (c) 4 May 2018

See also: Mindfulness and The Book of Great Learning

Mindfulness and The Book of Great Learning

The mindfulness practice can be found in the Confucianism Book of the Great Learning. The steps are discussed here.

How does one develop one's character to be mature? I have always thought that just by learning, memorizing and then practicing over time. Recently, the word, "mindfulness" becomes very popular.  It is being popularized by the positive psychologists and medical doctors. But its actual origin dates back to the ancient world of the Buddhism, Daoism, and Christianity. Some call it meditation. Christians call it Quiet-Time with prayers and worship.

The Book of Great Learning 大学 begins with:



The above translation, using the perspective of mindfulness, is slightly different from the usual translation of the book. That is likely due to the text itself was too brief. But I find the above translation more practical and meaningful, given the present advances of the neuro and brain sciences.

Daily Practices and Not Annual Resolutions

The growth occurs daily and not annually. If we want our annual resolutions to really work, we have to do that every day and not once in a year.

Consider Zeng Zi (a disciple of Confucius) recorded in Analect Chapter 1v4
曾子曰：“吾日三省吾身：为人谋而不忠乎？与朋友交而不信乎？传不习乎？”

Zeng Zi said, "I daily reflect on my life on the following three things: have I been faithful in my work for others? Have I been trustworthy with friends? Have I practiced what I teach others?"

In the Bible, we find Daniel 10:6b Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 

Leading Others begins with Leading Ourselves from Within

The top step of the 8-steps is ruling the world with peace.  But the first step is about observation and the study of things. Chinese philosophies have always been teaching leadership begins with self. If we can't rule ourselves, how can we rule others? Zhuang Zi uses the phrase 内圣外王 ruling outward as a king from the inside as a saint. Mencius uses 内修外治 internal development enables management of the external affairs. 

Ruling ourselves begin with the daily practice of being mindful and aware of what we have done, how we are feeling and thinking now, and our plan for the day. It is becoming an observer of ourselves and be a manager of our behavior following the virtues that we so desire to have.

See also:Character Development, Modern Science and Mindfulness Practices

Lim Liat (c) 1 May 2018

For more see Understanding The Great Learning DaXue in One Minute
and even more, see Confucius and the Ru School