Dearest Friends,

It was delightful to be in your company again at our most recent gathering.

In our last session, we continued our explorations of how the Buddhist teaching on The Three Marks of Existence can support us in meeting stress and anxiety—maintaining our focus on the truth of impermanence (anicca). This time around though, we examined how we can lean on this particular teaching to transform our experience of anxiety.

If stress often emerges in reaction to the demands of the present, anxiety typically arises in reaction to the concerns of the future. The anxious mind is a remarkable storyteller: it can spin the most elaborate narratives from the sparsest pieces of information, rehash conversations that have never happened and predict outcomes that are wildly improbable. Underlying the compulsive storytelling is the deeply human longing for the safety and security that comes with certainty and control. We imagine that if we analyze, fret and prepare diligently enough, we can secure some kind of guarantee about how the future will unfold.

This is precisely where the teaching on impermanence becomes a profound source of wisdom. The teaching reminds us that guarantees are impossible because life is always changing—and the causes and conditions that converge to give rise to any particular moment are always changing. In other words, uncertainty isn’t a bug—it’s a design feature that’s yet another expression of impermanence. Rather than investing our time, energy and attention in trying to make life conform to our plans and predictions, we can relax into the unknowing and trust that we have the resources to meet what life sends our way. After all, if we truly reflect on our individual and collective experience as human beings, isn’t this how we’ve made it so far? If everything changes and nothing is certain, yet here we are nonetheless, then doesn’t that attest to an adaptability, a flexibility and a resilience that can inspire our deepest confidence?

SUGGESTED PRACTICE:

Sit quietly with your gaze lowered or your eyes half-closed. After a few moments, bring to mind a source of anxiety in your life. Notice what stories, predictions and beliefs arise with this recollection. Notice the desire to predict and to shape how the situation will unfold. Allow these thoughts to be present and attend to the emotions and sensations that they generate.

Then with a sense of gentleness and softness, silently tell yourself: “The future hasn’t arrived yet.”

Take a deep breath.

Then silently add: “Many causes and conditions have yet to unfold.”

Pause and take another deep breath.

Then silently conclude: “I’ve made it through countless, fundamentally uncertain situations just like this. So have other human beings just like me. Hence, I can trust that I can meet this moment—and all the moments that will follow.”

Return to the breath, being fully aware of the inward and the outward flow of the respiration. Free yourself from the fears of the future…and rest in the simple reality of what is here right now.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

• What uncertainties currently contribute most to your anxiety? What kind of certainty are you seeking from these situations?
• How does impermanence challenge the stories your mind tells about the future?
• Can you recall a time when reality unfolded differently than you expected? What might become possible if you trusted your capacity to meet uncertainty a little more?