Monday, January 19, 2009

Fear & Anxiety


Came across an interesting theory posted by Kierkegaard in his journals called "The Concept of Anxiety" also known as "The Concept of Dread" depending on the translation. His journals were meant to be a way for him to write and test his ideas in a somewhat stream of conciousness. His works were referring to Christianity while he was running from Lutheran but they can be pulled into many directions in the spiritual sense.

The main gist that struck me was his concept that we are born into an internal anxiety state (as opposed to an external or environmental anxiety) and that we inherently are spiritual and continually searching based on this idea of anxiety. Interesting that if one is able to recognize this or react to this (and we all know people who are not so it is not really universal but inherent) it would be the basis for our continual evolution in the concept of searching for something hire. His label was Christianity but it is not necessary to think in those terms. Allegorically he references the fall from Eden and the bite of the apple. That affected our society's quest to overcome inherent guilt and search for deeper meanings to assuage the guilt or internal anxiety. The idea of reacting to guilt from an internal point of view and having that as an instinct to delve into deeper thoughts is really interesting.

Now if you tie it to Buddhism where the first noble truth, dukkha, is that life as we know it ultimately leads to suffering. Buddhists also believe that this state of angst makes a person who they are and that the struggle or acknowledgment of this state leads them to meditation to overcome this state with their mind. After all, meditation leads to a state without anxiety or angst and is often used to ward this state off. So if the inherent human nature is a state of anxiety and the buddhist path is to use one's mind to overcome that in the meditative or alternate state, does that mean this is a way we are reincarnated into another self?

There is a difference in personality types... one that accepts the idea for a quest for more, the answers to questions, etc and then the others that react to stimuli that they receive from the outside in. I cannot help but to notice that this later group of people also tend to be living in fear of new ideas, of pushing themselves to better their knowledge or even a fear of liberals (or event the New York Times). If this is the case and if the idea of reincarnation is used as a single trip in the human world, are we coming face to face with the evolution of the human spirit?