Given what many believe to be the case, narratives are what is usually the case.
-- Yogi Ananda Viraj
“What, me worry?”
--Alfred E. Newman
I.
There are times when we do not recognize that we are
worrying. You might even say that we are the worrying when we don't take note
of it. We simply do not notice that worrying is the case. In a manner of
speaking, worrying is what is going on, i.e., worrying is the experience or
that which is the case. But noticing that worrying is or more accurately was
going on could become the experience thus displacing the former occupant, the
worrying. Noticing that worrying is the case is not worrying. It is seeing that
worrying was the case. A space between the thoughts that were the
worrying and noticing that worrying was occurring is also a temporal distance
from the worrying, making the worrying an object, the past, and not the
subject, the present. The worrier is now objectified and hence rendered,
hopefully for more than a brief moment, a corpse. A new subject or self is born that is--even
if it is just for a split-second--an observant self that sees the former
worrying. The worrying is now an object. The noticing always takes place in the
present rendering the former moment spatially and temporally distant--a thing
of the past. This, in Yogic and Buddhist circles, is what is termed
"recollection" or "remembering," more often termed
"mindfulness." (The Sanskrit word is smrti the Pali word is sati.)
What is going on is what is being experienced, i.e., what
is being lived. Living is what is not what was.
II.
This is not to be dismissive of all of the folks that I meet
and hear them worrying about the future in the present. Sure, it's good to
plan, when you know what it is you are planning for. It's never good to worry
unnecessarily. It is a form of suffering. Ask yourself what is actually going on? Then, look around you.
What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell, taste, touch, and feel?
That is what is going on. What is going on is your experience. If it is being
worried, that is what is going on. But if you notice the worrying it is no
longer what is going on. It is a thing of the past. Its becoming a thing is no
small thing. Turning worrying into an object is not worrying. It is seeing what
was the case not what is the case. We do not see what is the case, we can only
see what was the case. I do not utter a lie when I say that experience is not
ours to have or hold. We, the many selves we live, are not experiencers.
