Worry is so commonplace in our lives that we take it for granted that to live is to worry. This might seem to be a self-evident truth, but it is not in any way true. If we give it some thought, we will soon realize what a waste of energy worry is. It makes us old before our time, it steals our energy, it robs us of our sleep, makes alcoholics out of some, drug abusers out of others, and causes a number of health problems like heart disease.
Regarding worry, I remember hearing a story of Murshida Ivy Duce that occurred just after she was appointed as the successor to Murshida Rabia Martin of a Sufi Order in America. She tells in her book, How a Master Works
“He looked astonished and replied, ‘Why no! The Master forbids it!’”
I first read that story almost 30 years ago and it made a deep impression on me. Just the thought of a master forbidding his disciples to worry made me think about it seriously. The spiritual path is one of channeling energy for specific spiritual purposes. To dissipate energy on worry is a waste.
It was around this time in my life that I started to realize that there is nothing to worry about. What’s the worst that could happen? We get sick and die? So what. I had already been so close to death that I realized it wasn’t worth worrying about. Been there, done that.
I love the story that Tara Brock tells of a man who gets a telegram from his mother that says, “Start worrying. Details to follow.” It’s almost as if people think that worrying is praying–that it helps produce a favorable outcome.
But actually the opposite is the case. There is an expression, “What we resist, persists.” The constant thought of an undesirable event is likely to attract that into happening. That’s why some doctors won’t operate on patients who are convinced they are going to die in surgery–because that is frequently the case.
Negative energy attracts more negative energy. It’s part of the universal law of attraction. Attractor energy fields are like magnets. It can also cause run away loops such as the man who has a heart condition. When he notices his heart rate is accelerated, he starts to worry. That makes the heart beat faster still. Self-fulfilling prophecy,
Have you ever noticed you or someone else getting worried about the outcome of a baseball, football, or basketball game? Do you ever worry at the movies, such as in a suspense thriller? The tendency to worry, even if it involves something illusory as a movie, is tied to the fact that we are attached to the outcome or the result.
And if this attachment to the outcome is the cause of worry, then not caring what happens would be the end of worry.
Krishnamurti revealed his secret to being happy when addressing a group gathered to hear him towards the end of his life. His exact words were, “I don’t mind what happens.”
Can you imagine living a life on that level of consciousness, being receptive to whatever unfolds from the universe? What a tremendous amount of surrender that entails. It would be a surrender of the ego and its obsessive wants, and everything rooted in “I, Me, and mine.” It would be a transition from being a participant in the drama of life to being an observer.
Perhaps when worry doesn’t exist in our lives, our perception becomes so fine-tuned that we are enthralled with life, no matter what happens. As St.Theresa said, “All the way to heaven is heaven.”
I think the more true statement would be, “All the way to heaven is heaven for the person who loves God so much that he doesn’t have time to worry about anything else.”
The Sufi Poet Rumi pretty much summed up that sentiment perfectly: “Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded. Someone sober will worry about events going badly. Let the lover be.”
