If life is eternal, death is eternal. Though neither are real, they come and go and they depend on each other. We know we will die one day and we have a lot invested in living another day because life is a great gift.
Neutralizing Fear
Since Covid-19 got the world’s attention recently, several people asked why I’m not worried. I usually quote a famous verse from the Bhagavad Gita, “Discriminating people grieve neither for the dead nor for the living,” ontological categories that include everything that exists.
Although it seems to live, the body is actually dead. If I cut my finger, it hurts because a sentient mind pervades it, but if I cut my nails or hair there is no pain, because they are inert. Of course I worry about the living part of me, but what use is worry about the material part since it is already dead? Having said that, I needn’t worry about the living part either, because I need to be alive to worry. Yet we worry about both.
I’ve done my due diligence concerning the ruminations of the great and the good concerning the world’s present predicament and am not surprised that a number of very helpful thoughts are conspicuously absent from the global conversation. The first is: the body isn’t me and it can’t worry. The second is: the mind isn’t me either and it needn’t worry.
The quotation above is based on the fact that the body and mind are not the self. The logic is simple and impeccable: I can’t be what I see. The body sees the world of material objects, but it doesn’t see me. The mind sees the body and the thoughts and emotions passing through it, but it doesn’t see me. I, the conscious existent self, see the body and mind. Were I to cogitate on this fact for some time, I may very well free myself from worry, unless I include the body and mind along with my self, which it seems most everyone unconsciously does.
This essay, which reveals the unexamined logic of everyone’s existence, offers a sure-fire solution to the problem of worry. Partially assimilated, a little of it will remove a lot of fear, if not all.
In a recent film, Bridge of Spies, Tom Hanks is a lawyer assigned to defend a Russian spy caught red-handed. He is surprised when the spy, informed of his certain hanging, is noticeably unperturbed; he relaxes in his chair obviously enjoying his cigarette. When asked why he isn’t worried, the spy replies, “Will it help?”
Quite. It hardly bears mention, yet it does; we are responsible for our actions but the results are out of our hands. So what is responsible for the results?
The complex conscious matrix to which we offer our actions, variously called the world, God, the field of existence, the law of karma or life itself, to name a few. I invest a thousand dollars in the stock market and the market determines the result. In the glow of love I say “I do” and consign my mind to anxiety henceforth. Even my significant other doesn’t know how he or she will feel hours, days, weeks or months down the line. I throw a pass in the waning seconds of a football match and leave the rest to the weather, fifty thousand fans, twenty-two contenders, seven officials and God knows what else. The result is unknown – until it is. But there is no way I can take credit.
So what? So worry is unnecessary. It doesn’t influence the result. I may get what I want. I may not. I may get something I don’t want. Or I may get something I never imagined. Or nothing at all. It’s not up to me. If it were, I’d have everything I want and would avoid everything I don’t want.
But worry is up to me because I can choose my thoughts, unlike other species. Generally, I don’t choose to worry, because it seems natural, even though worry is a nasty virus like any other. Imprisoned by the habit, I won’t choose not to worry, however, unless I can appreciate the obvious fact that the results of my actions aren’t up to me.
Should I worry about death? No, because the fact that I’m alive means that I’m as good as dead. It is only a matter of time, place and circumstances.
Should I worry about a virus?
The virus is a piece of DNA code that causes certain respiratory problems that kills, so I should wash my hands and distance myself from other vectors as much as possible. And once I have done my part, I should consign the worry to whatever delivers the result of my actions, even though doing all the recommended actions is no guarantee that I won’t catch it, catch it and live or catch it and die. Yes, the field of existence gives give worry and death but it also gives joy and life, my number-one value, because of which I wish to live another day. I can say no to worry and yes to joy; it’s up to me.
A Liberating Train of Thought
Once I have surrendered my worries, what should I do with my mind, which is not going to stop thinking unless I stop it? Here is a liberating train of thought. We know that the virus can kill the body, as can any number of things. About 150,000 human bodies die a day worldwide, which is fine as far as the body is concerned, since it doesn’t know it is living. The mind, however, exists in a different order of reality. When a person sleeps or is in a coma, it doesn’t think, which means that it is not required for life. Yet in the morning, it begins thinking again. If it thinks the “virus” thought, fear arises and the mind is unhappy. If someone calls on the phone to inform you that you have just won the lottery, the “I’m rich” thought arises, and the mind is filled with happiness.
Here is a much underappreciated fact: the mind can only think one thought at a time. Now ask yourself, where is the fear when you are thinking happy thoughts? You say you have a wife or husband, but where is your spouse when you are thinking of President Trump? You have no spouse until the thought of them returns. Did you make the “spouse” thought disappear? No, you didn’t. The “Trump” thought, which makes some people happy and others unhappy, pushed it out of your consciousness and you experience one of a variety of emotions that you associate with your spouse. Did you make the “spouse” thought disappear? No, you didn’t. Any number of thoughts, perhaps the “virus” thought, returned and caused fear.
From these facts it is safe to conclude that thoughts have a life of their own – although they needn’t – and that they are connected to emotions. It is impossible to tell if the thought precedes the emotion or the emotion precedes the thought, but it doesn’t matter, because you can deliberately think a particular thought. Yes, actors can deliberately generate emotions, but circumstances over which we have no control generally generate emotions, positive and negative, in the rest of us. If you could generate thoughts, you wouldn’t generate a “virus” thought, because you don’t want to feel fear. Yes, people love Stephen King novels and go to the House of Horror because fake fear is exciting. But the “virus” thought is a depressing. Taken to its logical conclusion, it spells the end of everything, which is really depressing, because life is beautiful.
Depression, it turns out, isn’t good for the mind or the body. Certain emotions, fear and anger particularly, compromise the mind’s ability to make intelligent choices. So I do actions that put me in dangerous situations, which reinforces the fear and anger, which further deludes me until I come to such a point that I am spiritually dead, which is a great pity.
The Solution
Animals can’t change their thoughts. If you can’t change yours, you are not a human being, a self-aware animal. This doesn’t mean that you aren’t lovable like dogs and cats, which are incapable of deliberate thought and reasoning, but it does mean that it is difficult to love yourself because you aren’t taking care of your spiritual duty, which is to be happy.
You were given irrefutable proof that you are not your body and mind above. And you were informed that you are the consciousness that observes your thoughts, emotions and actions. Here is a true thought that will produce a continuously happy mind: I do not die.
Why is it true? Because I, consciousness, was not born. If you can’t get your head around this fact, ask yourself if it is possible to be dead if you don’t know that you are dead? To say that you die, something has to be there to witness it or knowledge is not possible. And that something is you, unborn existence/consciousness. If you are unborn, it is impossible to die.
That you are consciousness is something you know innately. Did anyone ever tell you that you exist or that you are conscious? Nobody did, because it is self-evident. However, it is not self-evident that you are immortal, because you confuse your self with your body and mind, which are born and do die. That I am immortal solves the security issue that the “virus” thought – the thought of my mortality – produces. It uplifts me and makes it easy to love myself because the immortal me is love itself.
So wash your hands and keep your distance, and think of who you really are. I recommend that you send this essay to anyone you know who is worrying about the virus.
~ James