Stage 2. Stop Breaking Things
Stage 2 - Stop Breaking Things
Category 2 - Week 2
Category 2 - Deception
Week 2 - Catching: scoring begins, using the 0-4 scale. The goal is not to stop the behavior yet - it's to notice precisely when awareness arrives: before, during, or only after.
"These are the things you are to do: speak the truth to each other." - Zechariah 8:16
Start scoring Deception each evening using the same 0-4 scale from Category 1. Don't chase a good number - an honest 1 beats an unearned 0.
Today's Practice
Score today's day honestly using the scale.
Evening Sit + Scoring
10-minute sit. Score.
- 0: Didn't catch it, ran on autopilot.
- 1: Caught it after - retrospective awareness, real but late.
- 2: Caught it during, aware, and kept going anyway - harder to admit than a zero or a one, more useful than either.
- 3: Caught it during and changed course - the target.
- 4: Saw the setup forming and chose differently before it started - rare, and worth noting when it happens.
"Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought. If one speaks or acts with an impure mind, suffering follows, even as the wheel follows the hoof of the ox that draws the cart." - Dhammapada 1
There's a specific feeling right before you shade the truth - a tightening, a quick calculation about what version will land better. Get familiar with that feeling by noticing it right after it happens, repeatedly, until you recognize it earlier.
Today's Practice
Score the day, using the scale. After any instance today, reconstruct the moment right before it. Write one sentence describing what it felt like.
Evening Sit
10-minute sit. Score.
"Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves." - James 1:26
'It wasn't really a lie' is the story. Resist it. When you score a 1 or 2, don't explain it to yourself - just score it and move on.
Today's Practice
When you catch a deception today, score it without the explanatory story.
Evening Sit + Scoring
10-minute sit. Score.
- 0: Didn't catch it, ran on autopilot.
- 1: Caught it after - retrospective awareness, real but late.
- 2: Caught it during, aware, and kept going anyway - harder to admit than a zero or a one, more useful than either.
- 3: Caught it during and changed course - the target.
- 4: Saw the setup forming and chose differently before it started - rare, and worth noting when it happens.
"Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." - John 8:32
Weekly Question
Where did I assert my needs at the expense of another this week?
Write one specific instance from this category this week: one moment, one person, exactly what happened.