ANXIETY

+++ Man is anxiety +++
In the world of animals there is no anxiety. In the world of Buddhas
{those who have found their true nature} again there is no anxiety,
they have arrived, they have become. They are siddhas-they are beings.
Now there is no goal left, no movement. The journey is complete. They
have arrived home ...
Between these two is man: half animal, half Buddha. And that is where
anxiety exists. Anxiety is this tension. A part of you wants to go
back to the animals. It goes on pulling you backwards. It says,
"Come back! It was so beautiful-where are you going?"
The other parts go on hoping for the future. In some indirect way you
know perfectly well that to be a Buddha is your destiny. The seed is
there! And the seed goes on saying to you, "Find the soil, right soil,
and you will become a Buddha. Don't go back! Go ahead ... "
This tug-of-war is anxiety. Anxiety is one of the MOST important words
to be understood, because it is not only a word: it is the very
situation man finds himself in. This is the human dilemma. The MOST
fundamental dilemma is anxiety: To be or not to be? To be this or to
be that? Where to go? Man is stuck on a crossroads, all the
possibilities open. But if you choose one, you have to choose against
other possibilities-hence the fear. You may be choosing wrong. If you
go to the right-who knows?-the path going to the left may have been
the right path ...
THIS is the anxiety: Where to go? What to do? And whatsoever you do,
anxiety will remain. If you become an animal, the Buddha part will go
on rebelling against it. Go and do something that your animal part
feels good doing, but your Buddha part starts creating guilt in you ...
If you follow one part, the other part makes you feel guilty. And
vice versa. This is anxiety. And this anxiety is very existential.
It is not that somebody is suffering it and somebody is not
suffering-no. It is existential: everybody is BORN into it. Humanity
is born into it. Human beings are born into anxiety. That is their
challenge. That is the problem they have to solve-that is the problem
they have to transcend.
Now, there are two ways to transcend it. One is the way of the world-
you can call it desire. Desire is the way to hide this anxiety. You
rush into earning money, madly. You become so absorbed in earning
money that you forget all existential anxiety. Then there is no point,
no time, to think about real problems. Then you put aside everything
and you just go into the search for money, more money. And as you get
money, more and more desire arises. This desiring for money or
political power is nothing but a cover for your anxiety ...
Desire is a way to avoid anxiety, but only to avoid. You cannot
destroy it by desiring. And desire gives you small anxieties,
remember, VERY small anxieties, which are not existential. Of course,
when you are earning money you will have a few anxieties: the market
and the sharemarket, and things like that, and prices. And you have
put so much money-are you going to earn out of it or are you going to
lose? These small anxieties. These are nothing compared to the real
anxiety-these are tricks to avoid the real ...
Desire is a cover-up for anxiety. It is a trick, a strategy.
And meditation is to uncover it ...
REAL meditation is not a technique. Real meditation is just relaxing,
sitting silently, letting it happen, whatsoever it is. Allowing the
whole anxiety to come up, to surface. And watching it, watching it.
And doing nothing to change it. Witnessing is real meditation.
In that witnessing your Buddhahood will become more and more powerful.
Witnessing is the nourishment for your Buddhahood. And the more
powerful your Buddhahood is, the less anxiety there is. The day your
Buddhahood is complete, all anxiety is gone.