East meets West in cause and effect.

The education system I have been exposed to has always been heavily influenced by Western thoughts and ideas. Western-styled thinking focuses mainly on a very technical version of causality, and state that cause-effect systems give rise to what is, and as well as what isn't, just like how in physics we are told that forces result in change. Eastern philosophy somehow seems to downplay, or perhaps simply not focus on, this technical aspect of causality. The general idea is that everything in nature occurs as they ought to, and everything including us are just a part of it. There is, of course, causes and effects, but this version does not dwell on the interactions and relationships, but rather observe everything as a larger picture.

It isn't my focus to juxtapose both differing views and critique either of them, neither am I going to argue for or against either of them. The reason I highlighted the two different thinking is to point out a very familiar thought process most of us would experience in life.

Western philosophy would tell us that if something happens, there must be a cause or reason behind it. Friends quarrel because they have differing views, couples break up because of a whole variety of (sometimes dumb) reasons, etc. This perspective has led us to believe that once something in life is different from what we would expect, something must have gone wrong somewhere. While this may be very much true, the idea of always having something 'wrong' may be a little too far fetched. The problem with this way of thinking is that every time something occurs that is contrary to our expectations, we have a proclivity to assume that something somewhere is wrong, and that we need to fix something.

Eastern (and mainly Buddhist) thinking would tell us instead that what happens is merely a part of nature. Although they also say that "everything happens for a reason", the reason in question here isn't one of wrongness or of an anomaly. The cause-effect system in Eastern philosophy does not deal with searching for the cause and righting it, but rather, of accepting the effect and/or adapting to it, and perhaps, changing yourself to prevent such future occurrences. It is "I" who must change, not the cause, and there is nothing fundamentally wrong when things turn out different from as perceived, because everyone has his/her share of such events in life. It is all merely a part of nature.

We go about in life facing a lot of problems, as well as a whole lot of disappointment. While it seems highly sophisticated to be able to decipher all cause-effect systems that bring about your very own trouble(s), one must be careful not to overdo it, resulting in a never-ending loop of fault-hunting. Sometimes, things just really happen for 'no reason'. Additionally, such fault-hunting would often result in a 'victim' mentality, where you assume the role of a victim of whatever has happened. While victimizing yourself may allow you to pin-point the factors that culminated in your current situation, it also puts you in deeper pain and suffering. "Victims" also tend to put more focus on themselves, eventually leading to a narrow and constricted view on events that occur to them. The further they sink into this role, the worse it gets, till the become totally consumed by their role, and depression starts to set in.

Undeniably, t is good to be able to rationalize and analyse cause-effect systems. It gives you an alternative perspective to look deeper into issues you may not understand at a glance. It may sound like a difficult task, but really, once you've gotten the hang of it, one can easily point out many factors (and possibilities) to many happenings around you, albeit without complete accuracy. Such skills can be very useful in helping not just yourself, but others around you who may feel lost at times. Take caution however, that we ought to prevent ourselves from jumping into conclusions too quickly, given that there may be other underlying factors that we might not know of.

Basically, what we want in life is to be able to explain the reasons behind the happenings around us. Western-styled thinking gives us the ability to break down all the cause-effect systems and analyze them. While this may be very useful to us, the last thing you want when you are down is to keep dwelling on the reasons that brought you to where you are. Keep an open mind and learn to accept things as they happen, and perhaps you would find yourself in a better position to cope with life's ups and downs.