Reference: Book III: What is the Mind Really?
An anomaly is something that does not fit: a fact, event, belief, or experience that appears inconsistent with the larger picture. It may be a contradiction, an unexplained exception, an unanswered question, or simply a feeling that “something here does not make sense.” Resolving anomalies begins not by forcing an explanation, but by recognizing the inconsistency clearly and looking at it without distortion.
The purpose of such looking is not to defend a conclusion already reached. It is to let a more complete understanding emerge from the facts themselves. Very often, an anomaly persists because the observer is looking through expectations, inherited assumptions, preferred labels, or a desire for a quick answer. Mindfulness provides a discipline for setting these aside and attending more directly to what is present.
Start With the Broadest Anomaly
In any situation, one should begin with the broadest anomaly—the inconsistency that covers or influences the greatest area of experience. Smaller puzzles are often consequences, expressions, or fragments of a larger unresolved confusion. If attention is fixed only on details, one may spend a great deal of effort treating symptoms while overlooking the principle from which they arise.
For example, suppose a student repeatedly procrastinates. A narrow anomaly might be: “Why did I fail to complete this particular assignment?” One might answer that the student was tired, distracted, or busy. Those may be relevant facts, but they do not necessarily resolve the wider pattern. The broader anomaly is: “Why does this person consistently avoid work that they genuinely say is important?” Looking at that broader question may reveal fear of failure, perfectionism, uncertainty about the subject, resentment toward external demands, or a conflict between stated goals and actual priorities.
The broadest anomaly is not always the loudest or most dramatic problem. It is the discrepancy that, if understood, would bring order to the greatest number of lesser discrepancies. In the example above, resolving the student’s relationship to performance and self-worth may clarify many separate incidents of delay, avoidance, anxiety, and self-criticism.
Look More Closely
Anomalies tend to resolve when they are examined more closely. This does not mean inventing a clever explanation or forcing a theory upon the facts. It means bringing attention to the exact point where understanding breaks down and allowing more relevant data to appear.
A person may say, “I understand this idea,” yet become unable to explain it in plain language or apply it to a real situation. The anomaly is not a personal failure; it is useful information. It indicates that the person may possess a verbal formula without an actual grasp of the relationships involved. Looking more closely means asking: What exactly do I mean by this term? What facts does the idea explain? Where does it fail? What assumptions am I making without noticing?
For example, we expect monotheistic religions to live in harmony because they, in principle, should be united under that same ultimate reality. Yet history shows repeated conflict among communities that profess monotheism. This is an anomaly. Looking more closely at monotheism can reveal an impulse toward spiritual hegemony: the claim, aspiration, or expectation that one religious framework should hold ultimate authority over the spiritual life of all humanity. Thus, closer observation reveals distinctions that were previously hidden inside a familiar phrase.
The Laws of Looking
The resolution of anomalies is assisted by The 12 Aspects of Mindfulness. These aspects describe a disciplined way of looking that avoids premature conclusions and allows inconsistencies to disclose the missing information or hidden assumptions around them. The central attitude is to observe carefully, add nothing unwarranted, resist nothing, and remain with the anomaly until its relationships become clearer.
These are the laws of looking:
- Observe without getting influenced by your expectations and desires.
Desires make one want certain outcomes. This leads to speculations that have no basis other than one’s expectations. But it is only when you know what is there can you predict future in a reasonable and consistent manner. - Observe things as they are, without assuming anything.
Familiarity makes one assume certain things to be there. Such assumptions can take the form of beliefs, convictions, biases, fixed ideas, etc. The visualization is already there in the mind, and it gets superimposed over what is actually there. However familiar something may be, it is never permanent, and it may not actually be there. - If something is missing do not imagine something else in its place.
If something is missing, then recognize that it is missing. Do not imagine something in its place. If someone asks you a question and no answer come up in your mind, then do not feel obliged to make up an answer. Accept that you do not have an answer. - If something does not make sense, then do not explain it away.
If something does not make sense, then recognize that it does not make sense. Do not try to justify it. Justification simply puts the blame somewhere without resolving the inconsistency. When you are faced with an inconsistency, and you feel an impulse to explain it away, then be alert to what you might be taking for granted. At times it may take some out-of-the-box thinking to realize what is going on. - Use physical senses as well as the mental sense to observe.
We associate the idea of sense organs with eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. We use them to observe physical objects, such as, chair, car, house, etc. However, the mind is also a sense organ, which senses ideas, thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. These are mental objects. When being mindful, recognize both physical and mental objects for what they are. - Let the mind un-stack itself.
Let the mind un-stack itself naturally through patient contemplation on whatever comes up. Observe the issue uppermost in the mind, and then the next, and the next. Let the mind deal with issues in the order it wants to. There should be no effort to recall, to dig for answers, or to interfere with the mind in any way. Simply look at what is right there in front of the mind’s eye at any moment. The mind will never present anything overwhelming when allowed to un-stack itself. - Experience fully what is there.
Experiencing is the deepest form of mindfulness. A person is deeply mindful of his feelings, emotions and impulses when he is experiencing them. So, dive into the very heart of whatever arises in the mind without resisting. If the mind is racing, then experience it racing without contributing to it. - Do not suppress anything from yourself.
Not suppressing anything from yourself is being totally honest with yourself. Follow your attention wherever it goes and do not suppress. Do not avoid something just because it seems shameful or painful. It is the suppression of perceptions, memories, knowledge, visualizations, thinking, etc., that causes all difficulties in life. By not suppressing you establish complete integrity of your perceptions. - Associate data freely.
In order to practice mindfulness, you will have to let your mind associate data freely. Mindfulness is being comfortable with the very activity of thinking itself. So, let the mind associate data freely on its own. - Do not get hung up on name and form.
Name acts as a broad reference point to something. Form is one of the many ways that a thing may be represented. The knowing of a thing goes beyond its name and form. Fixation on name and form may act as built-in judgment of what is there. To know something, one must go beyond name and form and look at it more closely including all its associations. - Contemplate thoughtfully.
When mindfulness is practiced, thinking becomes contemplation. Problems are solved by looking at them non-judgmentally and recognizing the relationships. One looks around to get the missing information instead of trying to “figure it out”. - Let it all be effortless.
When you let it be, it becomes effortless. Effort comes into play only when there is resistance to letting it be. It is completely safe when you let the body and mind unwind gradually on their own. Trouble occurs only when you become anxious and start to dig for answers.
From Contradiction to Clarity
An anomaly is not an obstacle to understanding; it is an invitation to deeper understanding. It points to an area where the current picture is incomplete, distorted, or held together by unexamined assumptions. The broadest anomaly should be addressed first because it often organizes the smaller anomalies beneath it. Then it should be looked at more closely, without trying to suppress it, justify it, or replace it with a convenient answer.
Mindfulness provides the method for this work. It asks the observer to notice what is actually there, identify what is missing, avoid filling gaps with assumptions, and remain open to the facts and associations that clarify the inconsistency. In this sense, resolving anomalies is not a technique for defending beliefs. It is a practice of intellectual honesty: allowing what does not make sense to be seen clearly enough that a more coherent understanding can emerge.
The Main Ideas
- One should start with the broadest anomaly in any situation.
- Anomalies resolve when one looks at them more closely.
- The anomaly of monotheism is that monotheistic religions fight with each other.
- Looking closely at monotheism reveals that its idea is to have spiritual hegemony.
- Resolution of anomalies is assisted by the laws of looking.
- These laws are provided as The 12 Aspects of Mindfulness.
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