Cause and Effect

Yes, today's topic is about cause and effect. But don't worry if you're coming in for a light read. I'm not going to go into any religious stuff like nirvana, karma or enlightenment.



The concept of cause and effect is to illustrate that events are sequential. That for every effect, there is a cause behind it. Which sounds very logical until from which we imply that, for every course of action, there is a motive. Suddenly that makes everyone a scheming person. But i would say that it is only because the word "motive" has a much larger share of stereotyping.



I chanced upon a pair of chinese chess players the other day. I'll call them as lao lao and young young, although lao lao is not very old and young young is not very young. The first round of chess had them already talking about the game alot. But i had my ear phones tuned to channel 933fm and didn't hear a single thing.



The second match i removed my ear phones, and litsened to them, and hearing their loud thoughts, i was able to appreciate their game much more. Young young used a common but aggrresive start, which chinese chess players term as "zhong(1) pao(4)". And to defend against the zhong pao strategy, one had to move the horse to defend the middle soldier. Sometime in the game, young young moved away the pao, giving up the strategic zhong pao position.



Lao lao then kept telling himself "qi(4) zhong(1) pao(4)", which means giving up zhong pao position. He went like, "Qi zhong pao. ....... Qi zhong pao? ....... Qi zhong pao! ........" After repeating the mantra a million times (ok, maybe not that many times) lao lao made a move. He said, "Hao(3) la(4), ni(3) qi(4) zhong(1) pao(4) wo(3) ye(3) qi(4) ma(3)" which means lao lao is willing to give up the horse's (haha, horses and horse's pronounce the same!) defending position.



What's the whole point of this epic chess saga you ask? The topic coincides with the way lao lao played his game. He would scrutinise his opponent's moves and try to figure out a reason that would cause the opponent to make such a move. Motive -> Action.



And such is not just applicable to chess games. Much of what occurs in life and what people do has an underlying cause or motive behind it. I'm not asking you to guess the cause and motives of people around you, but to look at oneself, and question one's own cause and motive. And not only that but to question one's own actions, what kind of motive would that action present to people around you? Does it imply anything that is misleading or wrong?



Of course, one might adopt attitudes like, "So long as i'm true to myself, why should i care about what other people think?" or "God has his own reasons." etc etc. Abit about the former; indeed why should anyone care about what that person do if he/she has such an attitude. Abit about the later; i wonder if any of the anti-politically correct thingy made it to the bible, like why is god he and not she... ok bad joke :p



Ok, i'm gonna end off here, way past my start work time liao. You may think i'm not finished about the topic, but that's really all i have to say. Not happy? Why should i care... Dam, i'm such a hypocrite :D :p