Wang Yangming
Act on what you already know
The answer is in your first reaction
Instructions for Practical Living, part two
Most of what we call being unable to decide is being unwilling to admit. Why he said the judgement is already there.
What actually happened?
Late in life Wang Yangming compressed everything into three characters usually rendered as 'extending innate knowing'. The knowing is the judgement every person already has: that bit of innate knowing in you is your own standard. The moment an intention stirs, he said, right is right and wrong is wrong, and it cannot be fooled. Don't cheat it, act on it, and that is the whole of it. So the difficulty was never knowing right from wrong. It is admitting the one you already know.
The first reaction has usually already answered
Before you have begun finding reasons, the judgement in that instant is generally accurate. The weighing that follows is mostly not a search for the answer. It's a search for an acceptable substitute for the answer you have.
You see the figures are wrong and know in one second it goes back. The next half hour of 'no time', 'close enough' isn't analysis. It's negotiation.
The hard part is not cheating it
Three things cover the knowing: not wanting the hassle, not wanting to look bad, not wanting to offend. Extending it isn't improving your judgement. It's moving those three screens aside so the judgement that's already there can reach an action.
You know this call is yours to make and hand it to someone else, because 'it lands better from him'.
Sages fill the street
If everyone has it, the gap between people in judgement is smaller than we imagine — the gap is in willingness to act on it. That sounds egalitarian and is actually severe: you can no longer plead that you lack the insight.
The most reliable person on a team is rarely the cleverest. It's the one who does it knowing it's a hassle.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: you've been turning something over for a long time without deciding, and there has been a direction in you the whole while.
Ask first: what was my judgement in the first second? Are these later reasons testing it, or replacing it?
Where it goes wrong: mistaking unwillingness for lack of clarity and gathering more information; using 'I need to think more' to postpone an answer you have.
Lines to keep
That bit of innate knowing in you is your own standard.
Everyone has a sage inside. Most bury him by not trusting him.
The difficulty was never knowing. It is admitting.