What a statement, right?
Let’s ‘unpack’ This.
* Just in case, by any chance, it sounds any other way… just to be crystal clear, I’m all for reducing anxiety. In fact, I’m all for completely dispelling and obliterating and therein never experiencing anxiety - at all. Ever. None. Zero.
Fundamentally, the notion that there is anxiety is the notion that there is not - love.
Simply put, if there is anxiety, by definition, anxiety is other-than-love, or, is not-love.
More specifically, that there is not love, appearing as thoughts, and therein, that there is not - emotion.
Is it even possible that there is indeed LOVE, endless, boundless, infinite LOVE - and therein there is not - anxiety!?
What a ‘twisted’ & untwisting this would be, isn’t it so?
Such an untwisting wouldn’t even be a reduction of anxiety. Such an untwisting would be a dispelling of the notion that there ever was anxiety.
That there isn’t anxiety would be a revelation - isn’t it so?
A revelation of - LOVE.
Any method or manor of reducing anxiety is a withdrawing of attention from the activity of thought, and a ‘placing’ attention instead on perception and or sensation, such as seeing, hearing, feeling breathing, etc… isn’t it?
Being ‘where you are’, yes?
Being… present, yes?
Being present is therein - in accordance with direct experience - in accordance with feeling - not - anxiety… isn’t it so?
Anxiety seems to often be attributed to and even equated to… survival, or, raw primal survival responses ‘left over’ from an evolutionary period in & of which humans evolved… and yet oddly… no one has ever actually - experienced “that”.
NO ONE.
Not one single person, human, entity or being has ever actually experienced that.
That narrative, that story, that version of events - there’s virtually no one which hasn’t heard and therein experienced that.
But what the narrative claims to be true - no one has ever actually experienced.
That means… the notion or theory that there is anxiety… is entirely based on… some ‘thing’…some ‘past’… which no one has ever actually experienced.
So maybe, just maybe… in accordance with direct experience… the contemporary collective understanding & explanation of anxiety is entirely, in actuality, in truth - an utter… misunderstanding.
With honesty & integrity - where is ‘death’?
Who would have the audacity to lay claim to having actually experienced, death?
You?
And therein, where is - ‘survival’?
Again, who has the audacity to claim there is death, and therein, survival?
How you seen death, seen survival?
Or have you heard, listened to, agreed with & believed - a narrative of that there is, death, and therein, survival?
Indeed, The Truth is stranger than fiction.
Who would or could go against their conscience as it were, to such a discordant degree, against ‘their own’ health & well-being - as to outright claim there is - ‘survival’?
And… of what exactly?
What exactly was born, is surviving, and knows there is - ‘survival’?
What happened to - LOVE?
What happens as the ‘two dots’ are connected…
That all reductions and eliminations of anxiety are the withdrawing of attention from the activity of thought… and redirecting awareness upon - Being, present?
Is Being present not… the very same… awareness (‘attention’)?
On a seemingly other note - what is, Buddism?
Well, an ism is a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy.
So Buddhism is, a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy of - The Buddha.
But who or what then is, The Buddha?
You are.
You, are, The Buddha.
The Enlightened One.
The Infinite One.
Being.
Awareness.
Are you not aware!?
To really bring it Home…
Who tells you there is survival, evolution, anxiety?
Did you, awareness, Being - even come up with that narrative?
What does feeling tell you as it were, about this narrative of - survival?
Why does the withdrawal of awareness upon the discord of this narrative feel relieving to - you - awareness?
To the very Being of, Being… present…?
How does continuing to listen to this narrative… be it by thoughts or by speech… feel?
What does the discord inherently felt in either case, reveal about the truth of such thoughts, wether felt directly, or listened to & thought about?
Is the health, well-being & alignment of one telling you this even noticed? Considered? Questioned?
In listening to a narrative which is not based on direct experience, and is discordant with Being, and health, and well-being, and alignment… even noticed or considered!?
What might the continuing to do so in spite of the discord felt be called?
What word, what label, comes to mind?
Anxiety.
Perhaps there is no anxiety in Buddhism precisely because Buddhism is a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy of, about and for - The Buddha.
You!
“Oh! Phil’s a Buddhist, suggesting I become a Buddhist too!”
No!!!!!
”Phil” is The Buddha, as are YOU!
ALL. IS. LOVE.