Tumultuous Times

These are challenging, uneasy and tumultuous times: political disagreements, violence and war, climate change, disintegrating interpersonal relationships. Take your pick. None can be resolved with speed or easy fixes.

Do you ever wonder: How can we live like this? Where can we find some relief or comfort?

People respond to what’s happening in a variety of ways. Some try to fight against it all, hoping against hope that they can make it through until better days. Others try to ignore their uneasiness and carry on “business as usual.” If they don’t acknowledge it, then it doesn’t exist and does not affect them or their loved ones.

For some problems, folks may conclude that they will likely be dead by then anyway, so why worry?

For those who want a simple answer, don’t look to Zen. Zen master Omori Sogen makes this clear in his book Introduction to Zen Training. He wrote that people “inclined to escape from the troubles of this world” are not those who “seem to be willing to sit in zazen,” that is, sitting meditation. There are easier roads to follow if you just want to escape or forget.

To rid yourself of the cause of anxiety, fear, sadness – all those feelings that have kept you up all night, made it hard to get out of bed, or resulted in too many nights of alcohol over-indulgence – you truly must be willing to follow the tougher road of looking inside. 

All emotions come from the mind. Anxiety’s source is anticipation of what might or might not happen. Fear and sadness arise from focusing on what happened in the past. A closer examination tells you that you yourself are causing fear and anxiety in the present, which is the only moment that exists. (Note, however, that even as you notice this “present” moment, it is already gone!)

Some people think that Buddhism teaches us to be detached. That is not correct.  Detachment carries with it the sense that there was an attachment and then you turn away from whatever you were attached to.

Rather, what we train toward is non-attachment. Here, there is no attaching to anything from the start. Only by not letting our minds stop on something – whether desire or heartache, events or news – can we truly live moment by moment, thought by thought. Fully experience the moment, but then let it go. From the Zen perspective, not a thing has self-identity or self-substance. Truly, there is nothing on which to attach!

We feel what we feel when those feelings arise. At that moment, feel with all your might. Then, let go with all your might. The problem is not with the feelings; the problem is with attachment to those feelings, whether anger, sadness, fear, anxiety or joy.

So, yes, though finding freedom from anxiety, fear and sadness is hard, there is indeed a path. You just must make a commitment to start on that path.