1.1. Evaluate the Diet

We have no ability to choose. 

We can feel as if we are making choices, however, we act based on the universe of preceding causes, inputs, and past experiences that have shaped our existence. We proceed, always, in the one way possible. This applies equally to the most consequential actions and to the slightest impulses to which we may succumb.

This dynamic reveals the extreme importance of inputs. These inputs create and play through our unique biology to form the realities of our life. We gradually see that we are the sum of these inputs or, more dramatically, that we are these inputs.

The term 'diet' originates from the Greek word 'diata,' denoting a comprehensive perspective on what we consume, which in turn shapes our way of life. This expansive concept of 'diata' encompasses not only food but also music, stories, activities, ideas, and people. From a Causalistic perspective, it follows that our life depends entirely on our diet. Our diet quality is our life quality.

Fortunately, there is a helpful and simple, yet crucial input for achieving a healthy diet: this is the awareness of the critical importance of inputs. This is reflexive and powerful. The awareness of the truth of the three paragraphs above is itself an input. When taken seriously, this self-contained input causes re-evaluation, filtering, and behavior change.

As we know from experience, permanent behavior change is rarely experienced as a singular act of free will. Prolonged suffering or living with painful knowledge of that which is better cultivates a deep awareness. This awareness, often operating beyond the normal confines of consciousness, becomes our guide. We are gently led toward good and away from bad. 

Instead of the torture of believing behavior change is quick, or worse, accomplished through willpower of your own, perhaps evaluate your diet. You may find awareness to be a more subtle and potent practice. When we face up to the fact that we are our diet, care for that diet becomes more immediate, realistic, urgent, and natural.

Ongoing evaluation, when done honestly, is both challenging and profoundly powerful.

1.2. Follow the Chains Backwards

When observing any facet of your life, try to follow the causal chains backward.

This practice can dig into something as simple as the 'why' of what you had for dinner last night or your entire existence.

Let's examine the latter with an illustration. 

Your parents both lived complex lives, interacting with and being attracted to hundreds of humans along their way. Eventually, they met. In one very pivotal moment of their togetherness, your entire existence was conceived. (Causalistic elements of birth are further explored in Section 2.5) But is this where it all started? What about all the innumerable links that brought your parents together? And what about their parents? What about the 8,000 couples of your ancestors that had to copulate around 400 years ago leading to the generational amalgamation of your existence now?

You reading this sentence here is more improbable than can be comprehended.

1.3. Bring It Down From the Clouds

There is nothing 'fantastical' or 'up in the sky' about Causalism. It is not weighed down by history and rituals. There is no suspension of reason. In fact, it is the opposite. Causaism requires a serious and humble reasoning of the implications of, 'What if existence, particularly my existence, really is causally determined? What if I have absolutely no free will?' 

Instead of claiming, 'This is definitively the nature of reality!' or 'This is what you must believe is happening up in the clouds!', we ask: if we believe Causalism to be true, then what?

It is a belief-based prompt, not a fact-based conclusion. 

It is a beginning, not an end.

(See more in Section 2.6.)

1.4. Daily Memento

Consider doing or having something that keeps the two commitments centered in your mind. Some set a daily alarm, while others keep an object by their nightstand. Some journal at fixed intervals. The memento can be anything that reliably makes the two commitments present.

This is incredibly simple and incredibly hard.

1.5. Focused Reflection

It is in the silence of contemplation that we find the shortest distance between cause and effect within. In such a mode, one is free to contemplate anything. One can even contemplate the causes that brought them to that very state of focused reflection. It is going inwards to the root.

Such reflection is not a time to 'ask' for anything or 'try' to change. Only to evaluate the causes that one's life is comprised of. In this deep inner mode, our individual small selves and problems are put in the context of the larger life we inhabit. In this stillness, we subtly observe the reality of our lives as it is. This experience is fertile ground for sowing the seeds of our future actions.

Various wisdom traditions refer to this reflective state of contemplation as prayer.

1.6 Doing Good

Socrates stated, in a variety of ways, that "to know the good is to do the good."

Being aware of how various inputs, or causes, create our life (as outlined in Section 1.1.), one might seek out frequent moral learning. This can be through conversations, reflections, readings, or lectures. Moral substance and beauty can be found in many of humanity's great wisdom traditions and philosophies. These are all more available than ever.

Steeping oneself in moral learning allows for the absorption of goodness. This is a critically important process – as we become the inputs we are surrounded by (Section 1.1). To do good, by default, one must become it.

1.7 Listen to Language

When listening to language, one can hear how free will unthinkingly pervades daily life. Listen for the words 'decide,' 'choose,' and others that a belief in free will leads people to use. 

In language, we see clearly the default submission to the belief in free will. Further, we can see how quickly and unthinkingly this belief is held – and the problems it can cause for those who hold it. More often than not, the language of free will is used around self-justifying, troubling, or negative situations.