Question - Meditation vs. Strategic Thought

[l20N]

Hey everyone - new to the forums here and I apologize ahead of time if this is the wrong section or this question seems to come a bit out of left field. I meditate daily and I, like I'm sure is the case with many others here, enjoy every second of it and the benefits it has brought to my life so far.

This question springs up over a debate I was having - I can't seem to grasp the concept of how meditating regularly would NOT be detrimental to a person's ability to think strategically. Again, I'm not saying it can't be done but I just don't understand how it's done.

Meditation has been proven to have positive effects on the mind and, more specifically, on thinking processes in general. Done correctly it can clear the brain of stress, anxiety, and promote calm focus and stronger concentration. However the basic concept behind it is to train your mind to work in the moment, and to slow the thoughts, whereas the basic concept of strategic thinking can sometimes be to think several steps ahead.

Generally a strategist needs to be very future-focused, and his or her thoughts at times need to be erratic, random, and convoluted. "I know that you know that I know" etc; - this would seem to me to be the exact opposite of what meditation teaches.

By these facts you would think that actively pursuing one would be detrimental to the other, as in meditative thought would be almost antagonistic to someone like a professional chess player, or a business or political strategist.

I also understand the fact that a spiritually advanced person would have very little need to be politically savvy or a crafty planner, but I'm sure there have been people like that such as Gandhi, Nehru etc;

Can anyone explain to me how these two ways of thinking are reconciled? How can you train the mind one way without it being detrimental to the other?

Done with the rant, and apologies for the long post. Any answers or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Hazelkay]

Welcome to the forums

Strategic thinking is a wonderful thing and enables us to solve problems and plan ahead.

Allowing thoughts not to be predominant when meditating allows us to be in the present moment and aware of what is happening in the body moment by moment. This also improves concentration.

So when strategic thinking is the task, meditation has improved focus so that inefficient thinking is at a minimum.

eg:- planning a holiday

strategic thinking is used to make packing lists, plan itineraries, buy tickets in time, check passport validity etc etc.

If one has not practised focussing the mind, the strategic thinking could be bypassed at times when we reverie about the sun we will get, the people we will meet, the possibility of falling in love and on and on......

Even when planning and problem solving one can be aware of what is happening in the body, so the two do work in combination also.
peace and joy
H

[olmate]

Hi L2ON,

Meditation and strategy fit together perfectly in my experience. The key issue is to contemplate what the concept of strategy actually is.

Some see the concept just as "thinking about stuff" and hatching a plan.

Implicit in any form of strategy is learning. So this is the context and field that meshes wonderfully with meditation. Meditation practice in my experience is a wondeful tool for "deep learning" Deep learning creates increasing awareness of a larger whole - both as it is and as it is evolving. Options for actions then emerge for the creation of alternative futures.

It raises a concept that some call "the field of the future". It relates to the idea that as we become more aware of the dynamic whole we also become much more aware of what is emerging.

Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine spoke of tapping into the continually unfolding "dynamism" of the universe, and experiencing its evolution as "an active process that ... I can guide by the choices I make." His commentary indicates that he felt this enabled him to reject common wisdom and develop a vaccine that eventually saved millions of lives.

I hope this helps...

Nothing but the best...

Olmate

[GilesC]

Hi l20N and welcome to the Project Meditation community,

Originally Posted by l20N

This question springs up over a debate I was having - I can't seem to grasp the concept of how meditating regularly would NOT be detrimental to a person's ability to think strategically. Again, I'm not saying it can't be done but I just don't understand how it's done.

Meditation has been proven to have positive effects on the mind and, more specifically, on thinking processes in general. Done correctly it can clear the brain of stress, anxiety, and promote calm focus and stronger concentration. However the basic concept behind it is to train your mind to work in the moment, and to slow the thoughts, whereas the basic concept of strategic thinking can sometimes be to think several steps ahead.

Generally a strategist needs to be very future-focused, and his or her thoughts at times need to be erratic, random, and convoluted. "I know that you know that I know" etc; - this would seem to me to be the exact opposite of what meditation teaches.

I buddhist terminology (I like it sometimes cos it's blunt and to the point) there are two types of strategic thinking... correct strategic thinking and incorrect strategic thinking.

From your words, it would seem that you are mixing and matching the two types, hence why you are experiencing confusion.

Now, one type of strategist would take a particular future goal and consider all the possibilities to get themselves to that goal, based on what experience they have from the past of similar goals. They would consider that, to achieve goal X, I can take the steps A, B and C to get there, because this goal is similar to what I had to do before and those steps will get me there. This strategist is using the past to reach a goal in the future and so is not living in the present moment. As an example, consider this as a chess player, who sits down to a game with the goal of winning, and is going to use a particular set of moves that they have used in the past, to achieve that goal.

The other type of strategist would take a particular goal, examine what their current position is and what knowledge (not beliefs) would assist them in aiming towards that goal, and act in the present moment to the best of that knowledge. Again this can be likened to a chess player, with a goal of winning, but is examining their current position in the game with past knowledge to decide what moves to make at that time.

The difference may seem subtle, but the first strategist lacks flexibility and may go too far down a particular route, based on their past beliefs of what is correct, before they realise that it isn't going to achieve the goal, and when they re-evaluate their position it may be too late to change and thus achieve the goal. This is the chess player who decided before the game started that they were going to use a particular set of opening moves only to get so far and not realise that their opponent had done something different to what they had experienced in past games, and something which could be detrimental to them achieving their goal. The second strategist, living in the present moment, examines the current position at each moment and re-evaluates the route to the goal letting go of the past strategy and re-formulating it as required. This is likened to the chess player who starts the game with a particular move, but on the next move, takes account of what the opposing player has done.

The strategist who is living in the moment, is not considering the future goal to be something that will be the same as previous experiences. The goal may be in the future, but the action to get to it are chosen in the present moment, based on the information available at that moment. Knowledge of the past (learnt experience) can be used to asses and judge the best action in the moment, as long as the strategist at that point in time doesn't start to believe that it's the same in the Now as it was in the Past, otherwise they will become attached to the experience of the past and miss what the needs of the present moment are. Each experience is unique and should be considered so, by acting on the information in the present moment, not what we believe to be in the present moment by believing it's the same as a past experience.

So, meditation is certainly beneficial to becoming a good strategist. Learning to be present and examine the needs of the present moment allows such a person to "Act" on those needs with the future goal in mind, rather than "React" (you can read that as Re-enact as it is trying to live out the past events) based on past ideas of what the situation is now. One is knowing what is right there in front of us to act as truthfully as we can, and the other is clouding over what is there with ideas from the past causing us to miss the needs and re-act.

Correct strategic thinking, is being present.
Incorrect strategic thinking, is living in the past and future.

Hugs

Giles

[GilesC]

To add...

Just to pick up on that last paragraph I quoted from you...

Generally a strategist needs to be very future-focused, and his or her thoughts at times need to be erratic, random, and convoluted. "I know that you know that I know" etc; - this would seem to me to be the exact opposite of what meditation teaches.

A correct strategist doesn't need to be very future focused. The future goal is known, but what will arise in the future isn't. To assume to know what is going to happen is false and the mind will live in the future and miss what is happening right Now.

"I know that you know that I know".... this is just a belief. We cannot know what somebody else knows. This would be like the chess player believing he knows the opponents next move. He believes he does, possibly based on strong evidence of past games, but he can't 100% truly know, even if he believes he has pushed the opponent into a particular situation where he believes there is only really one move they can make, they could do something else, or choose to quit the game. He just can't really Know.



Hugs

Giles