Question

Is there a systematic way for finding the best solution to a problem?

Answer

Some people are very systematic. I'm a person who was relatively good at mathematics, math has many different systems, I like thinking in a systematic way. I like cutting things up like scientists, that's my personality. Other people don't have that same sort of personality. The way that they solve some of their problems, the way they find a best solution may not be a systematic way at all.

I think many of you have had the occasion where you had something going on and you weren't sure what to do, then some solution pops up. You didn't have a systematic way for finding that answer, it just popped up. So sometimes that will happen, other times people will systematically go right in and chop things up.

Looking into the Four Noble Truths is, of course, one way to look at a certain problem. You see the Dukkha. You look for the cause. You look for how to end the cause. You look for how not to ever create that problem again in the future. That's a very normal Buddhist system by using the Four Noble Truths. Very simple and very direct.

Another way is that you find the answer by going and talking to somebody. How many times have you solved a situation by asking somebody who's wiser. It's like when I taught math, if a student was stuck, they asked me what to do, I pointed out what they to do, then they'd do it; they solved their problem by asking the teacher how to do it. So there are a number of different ways to actually solve problems. A systematic way is one of different methods.

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