Usually, we will say that children have "entered a rebellious period". The so-called "rebellion" is actually a kind of "megalomaniac", because in the past, I was full of awe of authority and unconditionally absorbed all kinds of knowledge fed by authority, which led to a cognitive bankruptcy. In other words, this is the end of a cognitive cycle.
People's cognition also has cycles, but sadly, many people have entered a rebellious period, that is, at the end of the first cognitive cycle of life, cognition basically solidified in that state, and there is no way to start the next cognitive cycle.
In the past, my father had the final say in this world, and my father was right; Now, only I think what is right in this world, and only I can have the final say. No one will think that they don't get along well in society and are beaten to death-this situation actually increases their cognition. This world is full of deception and is my enemy, a world waiting for me to smash.
Therefore, when such people encounter problems, they will form a habitual defense and explanation: all the people and things that challenge my cognitive views, like my father, are waiting for me to subvert ... Now my strength is not big enough, but these are worthless and meaningless-in this way, cognition has fallen into a closed-loop state of self-harmony. When an adult is immersed in a state of "megalomania", he becomes a "cognitive repeater".
From 1 to 7 years old, our learning curve is very steep (the so-called "steep" refers to the linear trend formed by the connection of "1 year old cognitive appearance" and "7-year old cognitive appearance"). At this age, we have learned and mastered a language-mother tongue, and mastered basic skills, techniques, response styles and so on.
In the age range of 7 to 14, although our learning curve is still steep, we have shown some gentleness: you have not learned another language, and your knowledge of the world has not changed qualitatively-this steepness tends to be gentle.
From 14 to 2 1 year, 2 1 to 28 years old, 28 to 35 years old ... our "learning curve" gradually flattens, just like entering a "plateau effect": from the Sichuan basin to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; But after going to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, although the altitude is there, the relative height is not so obvious-even the relative height of Mount Everest is only over 3,000 meters.
The "learning curve" from steep to gentle is a natural process, and there is a very important reason for this: it is difficult for us to return to the natural state of awe and humility of children.
Buddhism calls this state an "empty cup": "modesty" keeps the space in your heart from being blocked, and new things outside can easily come in. If it is full of things, even if those things are not really useful and effective knowledge, if you don't get rid of them, there will be less and less new knowledge coming in.
Tagore said in "Gitanjali":
This fragile cup, you keep emptying it and filling it with new life.
This sentence is a state of love: when you are in a state of intense love, both love and love for God are "empty cups", and you are fully aware of your own insufficient state-this is a basic indicator: love is whether you strongly feel your disability in front of him, and realize a feeling of "I am not worthy", which will make you very likely to change.
The terrible thing about "megalomaniac" is that there is no way to empty the cup of one's life and inject new life and new cognition. Instead, fill the cup with something illusory to stop all new things from coming in.
When others and the world constantly challenge your existing cognition in various ways, you use a self-comforting and self-paralyzing defense system to resolve it. In this way, our cognitive cycle can not be unfolded, and we can only make our learning curve more and more gentle or even decline in an unconscious "megalomaniac". At this time, you will "fail the cognitive level".
Our cognition has its own default, but we don't know it. In other words, "what we see and perceive is what we think, just like eating in a collective canteen-eating whatever we give." The cognitive process of human beings is the process of gradually waking up from this default state. When we were children, we had to go through a process of enlightenment. The so-called "Meng" means that you can't see anything clearly in the dark and there is no beginning. Enlightenment is the process of opening a door to let light in and ending the darkness.
Our cognition is never achieved overnight, it has a cycle. A "cognitive cycle" begins with accepting something without criticism and awe, and gradually doubts all kinds of fallacies in existing cognition. In this sense, when we realize that our cognition is full of fallacies, it means that a cognitive cycle is over.
At the same time, when you realize this fallacy, we should say "welcome to a world full of doubts"-this proves that one cognitive cycle of yours has been completed, or you may enter the next cognitive cycle.
Recognizing the "cognitive fallacy" does not mean that your cognition is mature, but only means that you have to start the next cognition.
There is a story between Rockefeller and his son: Rockefeller likes to make his children jump up, then catch them, then jump up and catch them ... Suddenly, his hand suddenly opened and the children suddenly fell on the carpet. Of course, the fall was not that serious, but the child was in pain. Rockefeller said to his son, I just want to tell you that if you want to live in this world, you must realize that dad is also untrustworthy.
Rockefeller's story tells us that the sooner people begin to doubt, the more likely they are to enter the next cognitive cycle.
Of course, there are many people like Rockefeller. Some people have never completed a cognitive cycle all their lives, but they have been accepting what they have been instilled-this state is unfortunate. When we begin to doubt, it should be said that it is a very lucky thing.
Everyone will go through a period of "doubt" or "rebellion" from believing to not believing. Rebellious period is a symbol of cognition: when we are 12 and 13 years old, more and more facts begin to challenge and subvert our cognition, the original authority begins to shake or even collapse, the original cognitive framework and thought paradigm begin to collapse, and the first cognitive cycle of our life is often completed in our rebellious period.
Doubt or rebellion is not the end, but the transit point.
In the movie "The Matrix", there is such a plot: Neo suddenly disappears and his companions can't find him. Later, they learned that Neo was trapped in a transit station leading to the matrix world-a small railway station, which was neither the real world nor the illusory world. At this time, Neo must get on a train and cross the imaginary world before he can return to the real world. His companions Trinity and Morpheus began to find ways to rescue him, otherwise he might stay in that transit station forever.
Doubt and rebellion are the transit points of our cognition, which are likely to be "fatal transit points" and as "super traps".
Doubt is valuable, but doubt is a means, not an end. To paraphrase a famous philosophical saying, "To believe without doubt is blind, and to doubt without believing is empty"-to believe without doubt is blind; Doubt has no faith, it is empty doubt.
Cognition is the weaving body of doubt and belief, just like when we weave a straw mat, we can weave a straw mat with vertical and horizontal straw-any cognition contains belief and doubt, and only doubt or belief does not constitute cognition.
The famous "conjecture and refutation" theory says: doubt is the end of cognitive cycle, and belief is the starting point of the next cognitive cycle. Only with doubt, people will fall into the quagmire of doubt, stay in the comfort zone of self-creation, and become the trinity of "shallow people, fools and lunatics", and never start the next cognitive cycle.
In life, it is not difficult to see that some people are just suspicious and provocative. They can't believe a new thing at the same time, thus weaving his new cognition and starting another cognitive cycle.
Patients with "eloquence" are such people. He has been pursuing a sense of accomplishment at unrelated nodes. His heart is very fragile, and he is aware of his weakness, but he has a fear of admitting this weakness-a typical "fear of weakness", because he is not strong and particularly afraid of weakness. In fact, the "speaker" is a cognitive repeater, who has been repeating grades without knowing it.
The way to start the next "cognitive cycle" is simple: escape from the "comfort zone" and let your mind return to the state of "opening the door to all possibilities", or "delay and suppress your negative judgment, gradually give up simple and rude reactions and let yourself be in a state of embracing others and the world".
"Hugging" means accepting and believing-although you still have doubts, you should keep this acceptance and belief; You can doubt everything, but all this must include your doubt itself-doubt your own doubt.
As long as you are willing to "doubt your own doubts", you will certainly find yourself suspicious and unreliable; As long as you are willing to trust others and believe in the world, you will find a place where the world and others can trust.
Marx said: "You have broken your faith in authority, but you must also establish the authority of faith." . Don't be superstitious about "the power of doubt". "Believe" is also powerful-believe in "the power of belief". You can doubt it a thousand times, but you must believe it a thousand times. A person who ends in doubt must be an irrational person.
To change and break this rigid opposition, don't let yourself stay in the transit station of cognition-learn to believe in doubt.
This article is a note of Wu Bofan's cognitive methodology.