Ours has been called the Age of Anxiety. Many hold that this is an inescapable hazard of modern existence. Few realize that each individual contributes to and actually causes this psychological phenomenon to occur. The reason—lack of understanding about the real nature of Man, and the part played by Mind in perceiving or failing to fulfil his Divine Purpose.
Today, so far as one can judge, no remedies are available to combat this "disease." Fewer and fewer are turning for help to that mental idol, the Personal God, which, day by day, in accelerated degree is losing its pretension to authority. The great majority is held fast in the toils of Materialism, which has in large part contributed to this problem, and is helpless to offer a solution.
Most people believe that "reality" exists in external conditions, the environment. They do not realize that it is our attitude towards the environment that defines "reality" to each one. By attitude is meant: (1) the belief we hold as to the significance of the environment, and (2) the values we place upon it because of our belief.
Anxiety is an experience of the mind, while that about which I am anxious exists outside the mind, i.e., in the body, circumstances, situations. Thus, we clearly perceive a process of duality: (a) events outside the mind; (b) reaction to the events within the mind. On the basis of this perception, we can recognize the meaning of the expression—"we live in the mind."
After pondering this thought—"we live in the mind"—and dwelling on its possible significance, a feeling will struggle through our consciousness that we are not as completely dependent on "things out there" as at first we believed. Somehow, in recognizing that we are directly concerned with mind, and only indirectly with body, questions and hopes rise. Maybe the mind-reactions need not slavishly follow the changing fortunes of circumstances! Why do they, anyway? Can they be made free from the tides of change?
Immediately, there arise in memory confirmations of this intuition: the polio victim with smiling face and cheerful disposition; the healthy, affluent one with a perpetual scowl. The "inevitable" mental reaction can then be broken! But how?
It is then that statements often read suddenly assume a startling significance. We see their relevance, their application to this poignant problem. Belief and Personal Desire—these are the keys! As we ponder on the relation of each to the creation of anxiety, a wonderful realization arises—I can do something about eliminating anxiety! Slowly, or in a flash, the steps become clear.
Belief, in one sense, is like a rocket in space, opening vast areas for exploration; in another sense, it is a statute of limitations. In the latter case, the believer seldom or never ventures outside the limits of possibilities prescribed; because, as a result of such belief, the task seems either useless or impossible. Such a belief is Materialism.
The effects of Materialism are too well known to require anything more than a quick résumé. The limitations: one physical existence, no purpose, no meaning; only matter is "real"; therefore in the body, no particular value is given Mind, except as tabulator, memory-bank, planner; the only pursuit worth while is pleasure. What brings pleasure? Things, circumstances, situations that are "right"; wrong kinds bring pain. So, mind plans to get and to hold the "right" kind.
Thus it is that mind registers joy at a pleasurable sensation, and anxiety when we fear the loss of those things upon which pleasure depends. And this process, for untold millions, has become automatic. This is how Materialism has chained the Souls of men to perpetual anxiety, through its false doctrines.
Theosophy brings the message and the method to break the chains that lead to mental slavery. Man is Soul, a Mind-Being. His existence does not depend on any states or conditions of matter. He uses matter for the sake of experience. Thus, his presence in the body is analogous to that of a visitor to a foreign country. He observes the life there, he tastes the representative dishes, he compares the customs with his own, but never forgets that he is an Observer. Unlike this visitor, we, in the body, have forgotten our own Country. We must feel unbounded gratitude for the Messenger who reminded us of our real status—that of Observer of the life around us and within the body. If we use this wonderful knowledge, we need never feel the pangs of anxiety, no matter what loss or deprivation comes to the personality. These become merely experiences from which we may garner precious direct knowledge.
Personal desire is the other cause for anxiety. Expressed in terms of the dual process of mind-reaction to things or conditions—if "I love that summer vacation," I will be "anxious and fearful" that unexpected circumstances will deprive me of it. Or, in more general terms, if I place dependence on things outside of Self, for joy or happiness, I have built my house of life on shifting sands. The perpetual winds of change will shift the foundation, and then my happiness turns to worry, fear and misery.
What then is the remedy? Separate mind from body, in refusing to place dependence on external events. Assume the position that mind is the observer of events, not the participator. To view what happens to me, with the same impartial appraisal that I apply to a stranger, will bring freedom to mind. Let us become researchers in the laboratory of the mind, and sift out all the impulses and desires that lead to dependence on externals.
To what end? So that mind, liberated from involvement in matter, may, in time, reflect the glories of Soul Life.
In sensation no permanent home can be found, because change is the law of this vibratory existence. That fact is the first one which must be learned by the disciple. It is useless to pause and weep for a scene in a kaleidoscope which has passed.
—Light on the Path