Worry

~ By Ajahn Jayasāro ~

Imagine an artist at work, He makes a rough outline of the landscape of an imaginary world and then starts to fill it in. Some of the features in his emerging landscape are recognizable. Others are distortions of flora and fauna we are familiar with in our own world. Some are quite bizarre. The more colour and detail the artist adds the more realistic the landscape appears.

When we worry about things we are like this artist. But rather than a physical landscape we add colour and details to a rough outline of our future. The more colour and detail we add to our basic fears and concerns the more real seems the imaginary future we believe awaits us. But, in fact, only a few of its features bear any close relationship to the truth, many are distortions and some are totally bizarre.

Many highly unlikely things can seem highly likely to occur because of all the work our worrying mind has put into making it seem that way. Many people spend so much time worrying over thigs that are highly unlikely to happen that they don’t have the time or energy to prepare for challenges ahead that nobody can avoid: old age, sickness and death. Worry is not preparation; indeed it is the opposite of preparation.

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"Food for the Heart", a series of Dhamma teachings handwritten weekly is posted on the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives page with Ajahn's kind permission.

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For other teachings by Ven. Ajahn Jayasāro, please visit the Panyaprateep Foundation website.