Remember Solutions

I just finished reading Angels & Demons by Dan Brown, the well-know author of The Da Vinci Code. Like The Da Vinci Code, this book seems to be as much about passing on the fruits of his research as it is about the storyline. The city of Rome, the artifacts of the Illuminati, and the (possibly real) revelations about mysteries hidden in plain view are the real meat of the story rather than the characters.

Here and there, though, a reader finds a concept more applicable to daily life. Early in the book, the prominent female protagonist, Vittoria, is trying to figure out the solution to a problem that seems hopeless. She mentally changes modes of thinking into one of remembrance rather than the more usual dependence on creativity and imagination. The idea is that by tricking your mind into believing you already know the answer, that solving the problem is a foregone conclusion, and that all you need to do is remember what to do, the stress that comes from the part of your mind that insists there is no solution is relieved.

Brown refers to this, through Vittoria’s inner monologue, as a Buddhist invention. If there is more to be read on the subject, I’m going to do so once I’m not on an airplane as I am as I write this.