Arun Chandrasekaran

Purpose, Addiction & Mindfulness

February 20, 2026

Purpose, People, Process

We can approach life and structure our career with three core principles: Purpose, People, Process. This is a personal framework I've found useful for navigating work and life. None of the three is less important than the others - they need to be in balance.

Purpose

The goal or intent[1] that motivates you to do something. The reason why you want to do a job, or the intention that gives you the motivation to be part of and to contribute to a certain activity/goal/company/industry.

It is also extremely important to couple the purpose with righteousness (though it is made a mockery of in the current American society). Good intentions are beneficial for the individual and for the society in the long run.

Although each culture has its own interpretation of good/bad (through religions, social norms, etc), two simple rules can help navigate this in an effective manner.

  1. Unwavering acceptance towards kindness, compassion and truth.
  2. Uncompromising rejection towards jealousy, greed, anger, negative/hate words.

In a non-dogmatic Buddhist terminology, any "wholesome intent" is a good purpose to develop, hone and work towards.

A person with a genuine purpose with a good base in (1) and weak in (2) will turn out to be a disaster for the self and the society. A person with a good base in (2) and weak in (1) will not be liked by others and thus the potential for their vision to be not accepted by others is high.

People

The reality is, majority of our lives involve working for/with/of/by people. I don't have to explain when you have to work with a team because that's obvious. But even if you are the smartest person who can do everything yourself, the work product you produce will eventually be used by some people or will in turn impact some people. So it is extremely important to acknowledge the fact that our lives will be filled with people in some shape or form. Those who embrace this fact, can shape up, fine tune and work towards achieving their purpose.

Process

The map of the actual journey of getting something done, executing and achieving something. The procedures, the steps involved in navigating the path, the events one will experience and the emotions they might undergo and react compulsively or respond to mindfully. I define this from system thinking perspective and for more advanced/academic thinkers, from a complexity theory perspective.

In simple terms, a system accepts a set of inputs and transforms them into a set of outputs. Some or all of the outputs are fed back into the system through feedback loops. A reinforcing (positive) loop amplifies change - more leads to more. A balancing (negative) loop dampens change, pulling the system back toward equilibrium.

Neither type is inherently good or bad. In a system with only rabbits, unchecked reinforcing growth leads to overpopulation and starvation. A balancing loop, say, limited food supply, keeps the population sustainable. The key is that healthy systems need both.

From the human point of view, this influences whether people are happy and content during the journey, with themselves and their environment and the necessary steps they need to take accordingly.

When Purpose Goes Sideways

Purpose, people, and process give us a framework for building a meaningful life. But what happens when the brain's own wiring works against us?

People get motivated for different reasons. Their brain gets stimulated when coming across the things they like and care about, so they are happy doing what they enjoy. The word "motivation" itself is construed in a positive way. But the brain gets stimulated by all kinds of things - not just wholesome ones. When that stimulation causes negative consequences and we can't stop seeking it, purpose collapses into compulsion. To understand how this happens, we should understand how our brain's reward system works.

Reward System

The reward system is a network of brain structures responsible for motivation, pleasure, and reinforcement learning. It evolved to promote survival by encouraging behaviors like eating, socializing and reproduction.

When a rewarding stimulus is encountered, dopamine[2] is released by the brain[3], creating feelings of pleasure and reinforcing the behavior. Different parts of the brain[4] work together to process rewards, form memories, and guide decision-making. Our brains create "wanting" feeling, produces pleasure ("liking"), and supports associative learning, making us more likely to repeat actions beneficial for that pattern over and over again.

Drug substances and behaviors hijack the reward system by causing excessive dopamine release, leading to compulsive repetition despite negative consequences, aka, addiction. We will specifically look at gaming addiction which is very relevant for the kids these days.

Gaming Addiction

Gaming offers visible progress, instant feedback, and a sense of control elements often missing in daily life. Games are intentionally designed to be addictive through instant gratification, progressive rewards, fear of missing out (FOMO) and variable reinforcement schedules (ex: loot boxes). These elements encourage prolonged play and repeated engagement.

Addiction ("compulsive intent") arises from a complex interplay of neurobiological, psychological, social, and environmental factors.

Video games trigger the brain's reward system, releasing high levels of dopamine. Over time, repeated gaming can reduce dopamine receptors, leading to tolerance and a need for more gaming to achieve the same reward. This will be motivated by:

Gamers seek belongingness and social connection in online communities of friends and strangers, especially those lacking strong real-world relationships. Multiplayer online games (like MMORPGs) foster deep social bonds, making the virtual world feel more rewarding than reality. Even when the gamers often realize such bonds are ephemeral, their brain's reward system would not let them break out of the habit.

In systems thinking terms, this is a reinforcing loop running unchecked - more gaming leads to more dopamine tolerance, which leads to more gaming. The balancing loop that should exist (real-world relationships, physical activity, purpose-driven work) has been weakened or cut off entirely. So how do we restore it?

Mindfulness as the Balancing Loop

Recall that addiction is a reinforcing loop - compulsive behavior driven by the brain's reward system, with no counterweight. Mindfulness can serve as that counterweight. By training the mind to observe cravings without acting on them, it interrupts the automatic stimulus-response cycle that keeps the loop spinning.

Mindfulness is the act and practice of paying deliberate, non-judgmental attention ("void of like/dislike") to the present moment, including thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and the surrounding environment. It involves awareness without reaction, allowing individuals to observe experiences as they are, rather than getting caught up in automatic responses or judgments. Common techniques include breath awareness, body scans, and mindful movement, often practiced through formal meditation or integrated into daily activities like eating or walking. Now, that's a relaxed, watered down definition of the modern times.

Active Mindfulness

According to Sayadaw U Pandita[5], mindfulness is not passive awareness but an active, penetrating observation of experience. He emphasizes that mindfulness must "leap forward on to the object", covering and penetrating it completely, like a stone sinking to the bottom of a stream, not a cork floating on the surface.

He describes mindfulness through three key aspects:

U Pandita warns that Western interpretations often "water down" mindfulness, turning it into mere relaxed awareness. For him, true mindfulness is "observing power" - precise, bold, and relentless, essential for insight (vipassanā) and liberation.

Such a mindfulness strengthens self-awareness and helps break habitual thought patterns, making it a valuable tool in managing anxiety, depression, and addiction. Where the reward system creates "wanting" that overrides rational intention, active mindfulness trains the capacity to observe that wanting without being consumed by it — restoring the space between stimulus and response where purpose can reassert itself.

This is ultimately why process matters as much as purpose. Having the right intention is not enough if the mind's own feedback loops can hijack it. Mindfulness — the real kind, not the watered down variety — is the process that keeps purpose honest and the people around us closer.

  1. Purpose originates from the Middle English purpos ("intention, aim, goal"), via Anglo-French from Old French porposer ("to put forth") — por- (Latin pro-, "forth") + poser ("to put, place"). It corresponds to the Latin propositum, "a thing proposed or intended". The word entered English around the 1300s; the phrase on purpose ("by design") dates to the 1580s. ↩

  2. A neurotransmitter linked to pleasure and motivation. ↩

  3. Primarily from the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens. ↩

  4. VTA, nucleus accumbens, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. ↩

  5. In his book In This Very Life. ↩