We, as humans, fear change (or more precisely loss through change) more than anything. Every evil deed that has ever come about has happened because of fear. That is the base emotion behind every primal instinct of survival.
Flight or fight. Fight or flight. Them or me.
But here's the thing that suddenly occured to me in the wee hours of 2010.......
To fear change is to fear our very nature. We are changing every second of our existence as is everything else around us. Every breath, every thought, every step, every action is change. Our bodies are impermanence itself. On every level of our existence we are impermanent. Without impermanence there is no growth - either toward the light or the dark. Without impermanence there can be no learning and no evolving.
Impermanence is the nature of the universe and all that it creates.
Don't get me wrong here, I am (much to my annoyance) quite a fearful, anxious person. And a million fears travel through my mind on a regular basis. Silly ones and serious ones - real, possible and completely stupid. The fact of the matter is, losing your house or car or whatever possession holds your attention is kind of irrelevant - you will survive - somehow. You'll pick yourself up and start again because sometimes thats all there's left to do. I know that and I understand that. I've done that.
And losing loved ones - the worst thing in the world to me but even then I have a philosophical view that sort of works. I must have seen it in a movie or read it somewhere. A man picks up a teacup, empties the tea out onto the floorboards and asks, "is the tea still tea?". Yes it is....not tea in a teacup....but still tea. And I have had enough experiences to tell me without a doubt that we are souls in bodies while we walk this earth and when our bodies perish - we do not. I'd never make an Atheists ass. So I understand that we never actually lose our loved ones when they die - we lose the physical contact that we have become accustomed to but not them themselves. Not even the babies we lose before they should have been born. Been there too.
So how can I still be anxious? How can I still be fearful?
Maybe....the true source of anxiety is my resistance to impermanence. My failure to accept my own nature.....to accept impermanence.....
Hmmm....watch this space.
Flight or fight. Fight or flight. Them or me.
But here's the thing that suddenly occured to me in the wee hours of 2010.......
To fear change is to fear our very nature. We are changing every second of our existence as is everything else around us. Every breath, every thought, every step, every action is change. Our bodies are impermanence itself. On every level of our existence we are impermanent. Without impermanence there is no growth - either toward the light or the dark. Without impermanence there can be no learning and no evolving.
Impermanence is the nature of the universe and all that it creates.
Don't get me wrong here, I am (much to my annoyance) quite a fearful, anxious person. And a million fears travel through my mind on a regular basis. Silly ones and serious ones - real, possible and completely stupid. The fact of the matter is, losing your house or car or whatever possession holds your attention is kind of irrelevant - you will survive - somehow. You'll pick yourself up and start again because sometimes thats all there's left to do. I know that and I understand that. I've done that.
And losing loved ones - the worst thing in the world to me but even then I have a philosophical view that sort of works. I must have seen it in a movie or read it somewhere. A man picks up a teacup, empties the tea out onto the floorboards and asks, "is the tea still tea?". Yes it is....not tea in a teacup....but still tea. And I have had enough experiences to tell me without a doubt that we are souls in bodies while we walk this earth and when our bodies perish - we do not. I'd never make an Atheists ass. So I understand that we never actually lose our loved ones when they die - we lose the physical contact that we have become accustomed to but not them themselves. Not even the babies we lose before they should have been born. Been there too.
So how can I still be anxious? How can I still be fearful?
Maybe....the true source of anxiety is my resistance to impermanence. My failure to accept my own nature.....to accept impermanence.....
Hmmm....watch this space.
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