Reaction vs. Response Human behavior is a very complex process. Quite often we are not aware how human behavior is formed. Generally, whatever we perceive in our environment (sense-data) converts into memory and form mental facts. And, since childhood we can imagine how much baggage of memory we contain in our mind. The difficulty is that whatever we store in our memory does not remain as it is. We mentally make it more complex by adding personal liking and disliking to the sense-data as well as to mental contents; and thereby draw variety of conclusions, form prejudices (eg. sth. is good or bad, right or wrong etc.), opinions, attachments, hatred, and so on. The cluster of the whole baggage is called ‘I’ (when one says ‘I am this…’, ‘I feel..’, ‘I think… ‘I like’ etc. the ‘I’ refers to the baggage – the dead junk, that people call experience). Now, when we encounter a new situation or meet somebody, we interact/behave based upon the baggage of the aforesaid pre-existing mental contents (information, opinions, beliefs etc.). Such behavior is called ‘reaction’. Precisely, we react to the situation, we do not respond to the situation. Our reactions are controlled by the baggage of our opinions, beliefs etc. which we are not aware of. The moment we are aware of the pre-existing baggage, then our conduct is very much controlled/ governed by our wisdom, our mind-full decisions; and then the reactionary behavioral outputs (which may include hatred, violence, anger, lust, harsh words, un-civic body language etc.) are filtered and averted by our awareness. That is what we call ‘response’. In nut shell, reactions are the results of our ‘I’ – the ego (howsoever subtle or soft it may be). On the other hand, response comes from our awareness (about our own mental built up at the moment) and naturally, the response will be filled with virtues, humility, affection, compassion, respect for the other, friendliness and decency. If you feel worth you may introspect it on, or else just ignore it. Sorry, if I have troubled anybody.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 18:05:54 +0000
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