Overcoming anxiety is a very noble quest. I began by describing three ways of looking at anxiety in the previous posts; personal, cultural and spiritual(relation to the unknown). Religions provide an environment to address spiritual anxiety for the culture. They provide rituals, practices and beliefs to address seemingly unanswerable questions. Such as: What’s life? What’s death? What is the purpose of life? Why do we suffer, so? What is right and wrong? What is god? Just writing these questions brings up anxiety for me.
Positive anxiety
This anxiety is a warning from the ego, the small i, our humanness. Usually, people supposed feel anxious with anything outside of ones knowledge or control. Anxiety is a warning. The ego’s job is to keep track of things and protect us from something unexpected or hurtful. As we attempt to broaden our horizons through questioning the nature of things, anxiety is naturally triggered. As we search out answers to these questions, a confidence and new wisdom appears to sooth the anxiety. Therefore, the ego matures because it understands the spiritual background better. It is in a less anxious position with the unknown.
The Dalai Lama in his book “Answers” said, “If we view the world’s religions from the widest possible viewpoint and examine their ultimate goal, we find that all of the major world religions, whether Christianity or Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism, are dedicated to the achievement of permanent human happiness.”
Relaxing with the unknown
Spiritual anxiety is a sort of resistance to our limitations; such as the limits of our consciousness. I feel I cannot know everything, I cannot know what will happen in the next moment, I cannot control everything, I cannot be all things to all people. However, as I practice with these spiritual questions, the answers are refined, just as a religious person refines their rituals, practices and beliefs, discarding practices and beliefs that have become un-useful and now only cause dissatisfaction and get in the way.
Awareness of the breath is the first step in overcoming anxiety, because, when the mind is on the breath, it is not on the anxiety. That is why we breathe the anxiety in and let it go on the exhalation. We shift our “devotion” to the breath, rather than the anxiety. Then, as the thoughts and feelings settle down a little, insight can be brought in, to face these deeper questions and how to be happy.
For example, if I am aware of a spiritual anxiety, let’s say, “anxiety about the purpose of life?,” I can begin to think about it, read something about it, or do something new to have a broader understanding about this topic. Then the ego can relax, because there is a more sensible point of view toward the unknown. It’s been looked at directly. Finding the right information and teacher is the main problem. Religions are fine in themselves, but there are broad ranges of understanding with spiritual teachers of all sects. Start by studying different points of view and notice what clicks for you, meet different spiritual leaders to see how they effect you. Essentially, it is up us.
Always a student of life
Anxiety of the unknown is usually based on success and failure. Failure hurts. The antidote for this is keeping a “beginners mind”. Shunryu Suzuki points out, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”. It is important to stay a disciple of life, to keep the spirit of curiosity and experimentation, and to learn from anything, anyone, and at the most unusual times.
