Dear Diary,
Anxiety and tension are caused by everything that exists in some undefined “there” – everything that needs to be reached by investing maximum effort in the minimum possible time. Whether it’s a person, a purchase, the completion of a task or project, knowledge, a state, or any other goal. I am here, and what I crave is over there, and I must tear myself apart so that it too becomes here – that is the most elementary mechanism of generating tension. Restoring peace, restoring the aroma of Nirvana is actually just as simple as generating tension for yourself – it’s enough to step into open space and sincerely answer yourself whether there is at least some “there” in what surrounds you. “Of course there is!” you’ll answer in surprise, “Look, that house poking out beyond the grove! It’s there – a good two kilometers away!” Take another look, this time a bit more carefully. After all, that house, and the grove surrounding it, and even the water tower stretching up beyond an even greater number of kilometers – everything is here, everything is without any obstacles accessible to your gaze and attention – you can run your eyes along the roof edge, speculate about what hides behind those dark windows, follow the smoke curling up from its chimney into the sky. For that, you don’t need to walk to its doorstep by investing maximum effort in minimum time. And even if the journey is inevitable, walking toward a house that is already here is far more pleasant than reaching for some distant “there”.
Stop once more and experiment. Say to yourself “the house is there!” and feel the space, the distance, the remoteness and the tension it creates. Then tell yourself “the house is here” and watch how the distance disappears, how a certain merging of what is in the supposed “here” and what is in the supposed “there” occurs. Repeat several times and smile, realizing how much pointless tension you generate daily, by placing things that are here into some mythical “there”.
Without leaving that state, look around – a car of your dreams passing by, a luxurious villa it just pulled out of – nothing causes you any envy anymore, nothing makes you feel smaller, poorer than that gentleman sitting behind the wheel of that car. Nothing in your head persistently reminds you that to have such a car and such a villa you need to hustle even more. Everything becomes warm, compact, close and pleasant to the gaze and attention.
Now, having returned to the state where everything you see is already here, run your eyes over the surroundings a second time and try to answer yourself an even more important question – and what of what you see is not you? I did promise the aroma of Nirvana, didn’t I? :-)
