What Do I Know?

Worrying will get me nowhere

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Uncertainty. It’s at the base of all anxiety. My anxiety is sky high right now.

The uncertainty of the outcome of the midterm elections, projections of a future fascist state. My mind is working overtime, trying to find a plan of action, worried about the horrors that the future possibly holds.

But, what do I know? Probable outcomes are not guaranteed outcomes. I have done my best to practice “right thought”, and that is all I can do.

The Buddha explains that Right Intentions [Thoughts] are threefold: intentions of renunciation; intentions of good will; and intentions of harmlessness.

So, I tried to do the right thing, with the right thoughts, but my desired outcome may not manifest. And this is where the real work begins.

My anxiety does not serve me. It confuses and tires me, and doesn’t support the kind of “thinking” that is helpful to anyone.

As Pema Chodron wrote:

“Perhaps there is no solid obstacle except our own need to protect ourselves from being touched. Maybe the only enemy is that we don’t like the way reality is now and therefore wish it would go away fast. But what we find as practitioners is that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.