Performed as a Live Service on 26th September 2015
I was recently discussing some topics with a couple of Jedi and thing which came up was how it can be difficult to know when we should stop to deliberate our actions and, when we do, how much deliberation should be done. These considerations are important, they help inform us of the scope of the act in question, a scope which can be both vast and subtle, networked to myriad other variables and factors.
When we deliberate on something it can be easy to get caught up in the deliberations for their own sake, when we begin introducing variables into our considerations we increase the size of the network we need to think of. But this increase in the scope of our consideration can be almost exponential, thus we become paralysed by overthinking.
Overthinking, over-deliberations, on which action to take is the same as choosing not to take any action at all. As a member of the Council I have personally experienced topics being “discussed to death” which is a drag not only on our ability to manage the Temple but a drain on one’s enthusiasm to manage it.
What can be done to prevent this over-deliberation? A Jedi should always be mindful of their actions. The 16 Teachings of our doctrine offer some thought to this: Jedi should be mindful of the context their actions arise in, the impact they will have on the future, mindful of the role our ego plays in acting them.
We must here be careful, careful not to conflate mindfulness with deliberation. They are similar and related but they are distinct. Mindfulness is a check which we can place on deliberation; when we are mindful of our action, including deliberating, we can take a step back from what we’re doing and consider the extent to which we’re deliberating and thus inform us of when we can stop and act.
Of course we shouldn’t fall into the trap of using what mindfulness has informed us of as a springboard into more discussion! The aim of deliberating an action isn’t to deliberate but to act. Mindfulness can help remind us of this aim, remind us when we begin over-thinking situations, remind us to abandon our deliberations to a conclusion and act on what we’re decided.
Of course how can we know that it is the right time to conclude our discussions? Well I doubt we ever can know, there will always be more which can be said, but what we’re doing isn’t about saying, it’s about acting. If we can’t know, then we must trust ourselves in having deliberated enough to make a right call, a call which might not be perfect, but how would we ever know what was perfect?
What it possibly comes down to then is some kind of faith, patience in what we do, trusting the course of our actions, and our deliberations, trusting that we have given circumstance enough consideration, that we are mindful of the variables, but mindful too of how those variables are related to how we discuss them.
