Japan's earthquake and tsunami 2011

The recently series of disasters in Japan triggered serious fear in some folks in America. This is curious considering how far removed we are from the actual experience. This, I reckon, is key to what sets us apart from other animals. Thinking enables us to make matters worse than they would otherwise be (of course the opposite is also true). The fluctuating stock market is a perfect example of both cases. On the other hand nightly newscasts focus on the negative; bad news sells.

Worry makes it worse
It’s a little different for people actually experiencing disaster. Theirs is a visceral sense: feeling shock, loss, discomfort, and fears directly resulting from a physical experience. Any animal, including us, would feel this way faced with similar circumstances. Where we part company with the animals is in imagined fear of loss and discomfort which cause worry and stress.

Checking for radiation

I was dumbfounded today to hear about a friend of a friend, arriving from Japan, who had her sandwich confiscated by US customs. Such irrational, not scientifically supportable fear of radiation also resulted in panic purchasing of potassium iodide by some Californians recently. This feels understandable. However, to see this at the official level feels much less so. Once I would have just seen this as “Them… those idiots”. Now I know it is “us… we idiots”, and this is truly humbling. I’m afraid our self-image is quite out-of-sync with who we truly are, animal-wise.

Grandma and child

Curiously, whenever we feel doubt, the mind invariably imagines the worst case to be the more probably one. Ironically, the worst case is usually not the case! My mother’s state of mind whenever her cat failed to return home at night exemplifies this. She would fret and worry that he’d been run over or what not. Every time he’d return home the next morning. Yet, every next time he’d stay out, she would always imagine the worst. I’d remind her of how he’d always return, and how he was undoubtedly “out on the town”. Nevertheless, evidence and reason were impotent; emotion ruled the day.

Don’t worry, plan wisely
On the other hand, it is equally striking how consistently we ignore real worst case probabilities that lie just beyond the horizon. An obvious example is the overly optimistic way we approach life. Decrepit years lie ahead, yet many fail to take heed and prepare in body or soul. The same lack of preparation occurs in countless other ways where there is no ‘news breaking’ stimuli rattling our cage. The current debt crisis is a most striking example. We need a shocking event to trigger serious concern, and when it happens, we invariably panic and over react. We think we are rational, we talk as though we are rational, yet we behave irrationally.

'Fear' pulls most of the strings

Fear is the master puppeteer
I’ve long underestimated the deep impact emotion, especially fear, has upon our lives. Not anymore. Fear is the master puppeteer. I’ve always remembered the way the Bhagavad Gita speaks to fear.

Prepare for war with peace in thy soul. Be in peace in pleasure and pain, in gain and in loss, in victory or in the loss of a battle. In this peace there is no sin.

This is the wisdom of Sankhya ‑ the vision of the Eternal. Hear now the wisdom of Yoga, path of the Eternal and freedom from bondage.

No step is lost on this path, and no dangers are found. And even a little progress is freedom from fear.

Yes, this is a bit idealistic, but it has the priorities right. I find a more practical and realistic”progress” in simply understanding that emotion (esp. need and fear) drives thinking which creates counter-productive worry (and desire of course).

A non-neurotic nitpicking conversation

Noticing differences really aids survival… up the point of diminishing returns. Continuing along this path is counterproductive and eventually leads to anxiety of some sort. Of course, in the wild, such discernment would seldom turn as worrisome.

Civilization, in taming the wilderness, removes natural stresses that would otherwise counterbalance us, and before we know it, we’ve become neurotic nitpickers in one way or other.

Noticing similarities (mysterious sameness) softens the glare and untangles the knots which effectively supports sanity. Knowing where we are on the ball curve of balanced awareness (not too much difference or similarity) helps in this. As in maintaining physical balance, noticing when we near the tipping point allows us to maintain a situation while it is still secure. For this, we must watch our own mind as circumspectly as possible. (I suppose that’s the weakest link in this chain.)

Okay, so far so good. Of course, if it that was all there was too it, who could fail? The heart of the difficulty lies in what we think we need. Desire (think + need) drives us to gloss over differences at times, and yet make mountains out of molehills of differences at other times. Simply said, we habitually think what we need to think; we habitually see what we desire to see. No wonder thinking that one knows will lead to difficulty. Seeing boundless examples of this constantly, leaves me continually on guard for this trap in my own awareness. Thankfully, by being alive to the difficulty I seem to avoid it… somewhat. Although, how do I really know? Impartiality is the lead indicator I use.

This indicates we have what I’d call a ‘worry gene’, with some folk inheriting an extra helping and some with a more meager serving. Like the gene for body height: Some are taller than others, but everyone has height. Simply put, we are all going to worry till our dying day no matter what solutions we embrace to alter that fact⁽¹⁾.

This sounds futile, but there is hope. It begins with recognizing that problems and questions are the constant reality. This means accepting the fact that any innovative solutions or answers we conjure up will be short-lived. The promise of permanency is just another of Nature’s hoodwinks. Realizing this helps avoid putting all one’s eggs in the basket of promised solutions.

This frees emotion somewhat from the scattered, confused, scapegoat searching approach to life that results from expecting to find the solution ‘out there’. With that, you can focus on the one constant problem you may actually have some dominion over. Buddha’s Four Noble Truths points to it, with the last truth being the only solution that rests completely in your hands (or rather head):

The Fourth Noble Truth is the Middle Path that leads to the cessation of suffering. There is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his duty. He who is wise will enter this path and make an end to suffering. Eight steps on the Middle Path are: Right Understanding, Right Mindedness, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Living, Right Effort, Right Attentiveness, Right Concentration.

Notice that at least half of these steps refer to the mind. Of those, attentiveness may be the one most directly connected to awareness, for without that, mind doesn’t exist. Attentiveness (awake, mindful, observant, watchful, etc.) optimizes all aspects of life for sentient animals. Attentiveness for humans is the foundation upon which Right Understanding, Right Mindedness, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Living, Right Effort, Right Concentration rest. Attentiveness for other animals (and us) is the foundation upon which survival rests. And so, the one constant problem you may actually have dominion over is attentiveness. As Christ said, “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” ⁽²⁾

⁽¹⁾ One important feature of the worry gene is that it drives us to worry about something no matter what. It is the perpetual version of Murphy’s law. When we lack truly mountainous issues of survival to worry about, we make worrisome mountains out of any molehill in sight. The worry monster must be fed. This easily (and perhaps inevitably) leads to neurotic stressful worry (i.e., emotion is blind, causing the body to respond as if being chased by lions).

The beauty of focusing on the one constant problem is that, no matter how much you toil, you’ll always have room for improvement. That gives the worry gene something to sink its teeth into.

⁽²⁾ I consider the ‘pray’ Christ spoke about as being synonymous to Right Mindfulness, Right Understanding, Right Concentration. The ‘watch’, or course, is Right Attentiveness.