Do I make decision based on well-formed or clearly identified problems and risky choices listed?
No time to reflect on such question!
Being a Buddhist by choice and by birth right, I am always looking for ways to live my life more in tune with my chosen way. So how do I do my PhD following my chosen way?. I prefer the word ‘way’ to ‘law/rules/policies’ or anything that resembles ‘rigidity to the extreme’ or anything that involves little respect for human and our environment. Also, the word ‘way’ brings me closer to the ‘way of the Tao’.
I came across a four-step procedure in a book, CHANGE Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution by Paul Watzlawick, et al. The steps on page 110 are;
1) a clear definition of the problem in concrete terms;
2) an investigation of the solutions attempted so far;
3) a clear definition of the concrete change to be achieved;
4) the formulation and implementation of a plan to produce this change.
In the book, the footnote for this four-step procedure has this;
“Only long after we had systematized our approach in this way did we realize that we had, without blasphemic malice aforethought, plagiarized the four Noble Truths of Buddhism, namely: of suffering, of the origin of suffering, of the cessation of suffering, and of the path leading to the cessation of suffering. On reflection this is not too surprising since the basic teachings of Buddhism are eminently practical and existential.”