Is the “Why” Important?
Something I’ve been wondering about lately is how pure our motivations really need to be for something to be useful to us. Similar to asking if the ends justify the means, I wonder if utility of what we do is independent of why we’re doing it.
The thing that made me think about this was reading about Mindfullness Meditation. It seemed interesting, useful, and generally in keeping with my philosophy of seeking continuous self-improvement. But…when I try it, I worry that part of why I’m attracted to this is how fascinating I find the whole aesthetic of Buddhism (e.g. Tezuka’s Buddha series, the general beauty of the language and symbols associated with it).
For some things, perhaps, it doesn’t really matter: If you’re going to the gym because you want to look hot—well, that’s basically why people do go to the gym, and you’ll still get into shape. But something like this, where so much of it has to do with one’s own mind, I’m not so sure. Well, I guess defeating the ego and really examining what I’m thinking (and why) is part of what this sort of thing is for, so maybe it’s good; I have something obvious to work on. In any case, I think I can find something interesting for shallow reasons and also be interested in the deeper ramifications of the practice.
Steping Back
In general though, does it matter more what we do, or why? It seems to me that if you can keep why you’re doing something a quiet, only your actions really matter. Even if you’re doing something good with less-than-pure motivations, you’re still doing good—and eventually you’ll probably internalize the good part and end up doing them for their own sake.
Postscript
I actually didn’t want to write this because I thought it would be too weird to admit that I had started trying that meditation stuff. I guess it is kind of weird, and I usually am disdainful of things that smack of weird hippy-ness — naturopathy, crystals, all that crap — but these seems like something more along the lines of self-improvement: There’s no mysticism of any sort involved, just developing willpower and focus. And hey, it was mentioned on LessWrong, so it can’t be that illogical (one hopes).
