Fearless joy

In the hustle-bustle competitive existence of academia, it’s vitally important to enjoy the simple things. Taking time to smell the roses isn’t just a kitschy cliche; it’s essential to a joyful existence. An impromptu coffee date with an old friend, a pre-class Runcible Spoon breakfast, a deep breath of crisp fall air. These are the things that keep me going in the midst of personal disasters and unbearable class stress. They remind me that things are honestly not that bad.\nIt’s important to keep a healthy perspective. When I feel myself spiraling into a vortex of anxiety and despair, I try to ask myself, “Okay, self, what is the worst that can happen?” Most recently, my inner monologue has involved the possibility of failing an essential course, thus not graduating in December, a thought scarier than any Halloween ghoul. But, I ask myself, what’s the worst that can happen, really? If I don’t graduate in December, I can still go home. I can graduate later. I can still be alive and happy with my friends and loved ones. The only things I will have lost are my plans.\nIn Buddhism, all the suffering of the world collectively and individuals personally comes from attachment. When we are afraid to lose something, we can suffer great pain in trying to keep it against the will of the universe and suffer even greater pain when it is finally lost. This ontological truth rings in our tendencies to procrastinate in ending a relationship, in the pain of failed plans and in the trepidatious anticipation of our own deaths. We fear uncertainty and have been socialized to place an unnatural importance on intangible concepts, such as plans for the future. \nQuite a bit of the pain, depression, drug addiction and desperate lack of personal fulfillment exhibited by many college students could be alleviated if we were more forgiving of ourselves and less attached to our plans. Last Saturday, the Dalai Lama spoke of the dangers of competition, how it eats away at our collective capacity for compassion. He said the heavy emphasis Western culture puts on the cultivation of the mind dangerously detracts from our capacity for warm-heartedness. From his words, I extrapolate that if our competitive natures keep us from loving others, surely we cannot have compassion for ourselves.\nWe are so competitive as a people, especially in the academic realm, that when we fail to fulfill some great goal we’ve been working towards since elementary school, we have a tendency to negate the worth of the work involved, as if the pleasure and fulfillment we feel along the way are worthless, if the end doesn’t work out as we had imagined it should. As the end of the semester approaches, however, I encourage you to remember the Dalai Lama’s wisdom. Cultivating your mind is important, but to do so to the detriment of your heart can only promote suffering. \nBe kind to yourself, forgive yourself your failures and embrace the new directions these “failures” can open to you. \nDon’t fear, just live.