Does Buddhism Mean Don’t Worry? – Dialectic Two Step

Estimated reading time: 5 minute(s)

Does Buddhism Mean Don’t Worry?

Questions: Is impermanence a practical reason not to worry?

I don’t have an intuitive understanding of why impermanence implies that nothing is a problem. I mean conceptually I understand that everything is a flux of change, and nothing stays that way forever. But, say, if we have a chronic pain or lose one important body part, in principle, the problem eventually goes away (when we die), but is this view practical, because the problem stays with us as long as we live?

Worry – what’s it good for?

Worry is great – It’s a signaling system that our bodies use to say, “wake up, there’s a problem, or danger, or something that needs your attention.”

Worry can be a problem – if you enter into a cycle where worry begets more worry, then you’ve spun out of control. If you can’t get out of your head to do something about what’s happening, then worry is actually harmful.

Impermanence – what’s that got to do with worrying?

One of my favorite Dalai Lama quotes goes something like this:

If you can do something about the problem, why worry? If you can’t do anything about the problem, why worry?

Everything changes, that means whatever the problem is now, it will be different later.

If we can adjust – say, if we’re worried about getting sunburn –  you can get out of the sun, or use sun screen. Worrying about the sunburn has a useful effect, it spurs us to action – we get out of the sun or put on sunscreen.  Problem solved, we can stop worrying.

If we can’t adjust – say a meteor is about to hit out planet – then no amount of worrying will help.

But you’re right; you can’t say “don’t worry” because worrying has its place. But we want to be attentive to how productive our worrying is. If we become overwhelmed with worry, that’s a sign that we need a change.

Dialectic Two-Step  is an ongoing series of my thoughts on questions that come my way.

Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. - Octavio

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