Belief is one thing. What you are is something else

Man in the Moon by Aimee Stewart 

Anxiety is the whole thing, and it is this wholeness you must be aware of

What is anxiety?

You have the anxiety, and you have the mind, which says: ”There must not be anxiety!”

In this way a doubleness arises.

There is the observer who places himself outside the anxiety, and makes resistance against it, sucks energy and life away from the present and into condemnation, justification, comparison; the observer who analyses, theorizes, or goes to a psychotherapist.

And there is the observed. The observed is the anxiety, and the observer places himself outside this anxiety.

In this way there immediately arises a conflict between the anxiety and the observer who is in progress with defeating this anxiety, in getting rid of this anxiety.

In other words there is resistance, which has been produced by an inner spectator, doubter or calculator, who creates a discrepancy between the observer and the observed.

Anxiety is the whole thing, and it is this wholeness you must be aware of.

The cause of anxiety can´t be found in the content of anxiety

The cause of anxiety can´t be found in the content of anxiety.

The cause shall be found in the separation of the analyst and the analysed.

You have the existential condition, the anxiety. This is the fact, it is not in itself a problem. Then the analyst places himself outside the anxiety, analyses it in order to discover the cause of it, compares with earlier and hopes and desires something else, namely to get rid of it.

The analyst slides therewith off from the Now´s fact.

And the Now´s facts, seen from the analysts´ past or future, become a problem, anxiety-causing.

When the analyst is seeking the cause of the anxiety by comparing with earlier, and by desiring something else, he only isolates himself further, and therewith increases the anxiety.

How to make the impossible possible

A guest asks a philosophical counselor whether it is impossible to become free from anxiety.

The philosophical counselor must suggest that they face these questions without saying whether the change is possible or impossible. They must face it with a healthy mind that is eager after discovering, and so young that it can inquire and investigate.

That, which absorbs the guest and the counselor, is therefore how ”impossible” it is to become completely free from anxiety – and in this way you suddenly have another approach to the impossible:

The impossible has been made possible.

The cause of anxiety can´t be found in the content of anxiety

The cause of anxiety can´t be found in the content of anxiety.

The cause shall be found in the separation of the analyst and the analysed.

You have the existential condition, the anxiety.

This is the fact, it is not in itself a problem.

Then the analyst places himself outside the anxiety, analyses it in order to discover the cause of it, compares with earlier and hopes and desires something else, namely to get rid of it.

The analyst slides therewith off from the Now´s fact.

And the Now´s facts, seen from the analysts´ past or future, become a problem, anxiety-causing.

When the analyst is seeking the cause of the anxiety by comparing with earlier, and by desiring something else, he only isolates himself further, and therewith increases the anxiety.

In philosophical sense the thought must rest, so that the anxiety in existential sense can stop

The thought is necessary on some levels, but when the thinking in philosophical sense projects itself as the past and the future, and produces anxiety as well as secureness, the mind is becoming absent, and the inevitable result hereof is unreality, emptiness, boredom and ennui.

So in philosophical sense the thought must rest, so that the anxiety in existential sense can stop.

Truth is to be completely free from all prejudices and historical limitary influences

As a Philosophical Globetrotter you must put into question whether you, in order to get rid of anxiety, continual must analyse the content of anxiety in order to discover the endless many causes in your own individual life.

It is namely so, that if you - when you begin to analyse the content of anxiety - have to discover something true, then you must be completely and altogether free from all prejudices and historical limitary influences.

Otherwise, if your conception in any way is being distorted, then this distortion increases as you continue your analysis.

So, in art of life it is not the problem´s content that is interesting. What is interesting is the one who is seeking to solve the problem.

It is the separation of the analyst and the analysed, which is the cause of the problems, when we speak about human problems.

Anxiety is anxiety of nothing, anxiety of an uncertain threat

Anxiety is to have your identity in an absence, in the constant becoming something.

In this self-production there is no being. Anxiety is therefore anxiety of nothing, anxiety of an uncertain threat. The uncertain threat paralyses the identity, precisely because it is uncertain. The inhibition in the anxiety is lying in the paralysation.

Because the identity is paralysed in the anxiety, it is suspended. The hold, the grip of the world, which the identity is, is suspended. Anxiety is therefore an experience of an identity crisis. The whole of the situation is paralysed, and the space narrows around you.

As a Philosophical Globetrotter, you must therefore study the whole structure of the thinking, and see what place the thought has, see where it isn´t a necessity, and only then you will discover, that the mind functions in a reasonable way, both when the thought isn´t active, and when the thought has to be active.

In philosophy as an art of life it is in the inner calculator the only revolution can take place

The question for the Idler is whether you can neutralize the inner calculator – not the inner center for a certain desire, a certain lust or longing, but the whole structure of the desire, of longings and of hopes, which always bring along the anxiety of becoming disappointed. The more disappointed you are, the more you strengthen the Ego. The Ego is the one who says: ”It is no use with me!”; or: ”Wonderful me!” Both the denial, and the confirmation of the Ego, continues the Ego-process. 

It´s The Roads of Longing. But it is also The Labyrinth with The Dragons of Dissapointment.

As long as there is hope and longing it is always on the background of anxiety, and the anxiety strengthens the inner calculator.

In philosophy as an art of life it is in the inner calculator the only revolution can take place, not on the surface, which only diverts the awareness from the actual.

Unless you are free from anxiety you can´t see and feel clearly

Anxiety is the trap in which you are caught.

Unless you are free from anxiety and everything anxiety implies, you can´t see and feel clearly and deeply.

It is obvious that where there is anxiety there is a closed attitude, and therefore no freedom and love.

Both the denial, and the confirmation of the Ego, continues the Ego-process

The question for the Life Artist is whether you can neutralize this inner calculator, which is the Ego – not the inner center for a certain desire, a certain lust or longing - but the whole structure of the desire, of longings and of hopes, which always bring along the anxiety of becoming disappointed.

The more disappointed you are, the more you strengthen the Ego.

The Ego is the one who says: ”It is no use with me!”; or: ”Wonderful me!”

Both the denial, and the confirmation of the Ego, continues the Ego-process.

All opposites contain the seed to their own opposites

When we try to be something else than what we are, we cultivate the self-contradiction.

The anxiety of what you are grows the illusion about its opposition, and by striving after the opposite we hope to avoid anxiety, but this becoming something has no being, it is therefore the anxiety of nothing.

Synthesis is not, as Hegel claimed, the cultivation of an opposition; there arises no synthesis through resistance, because all opposites contain the seed to their own opposites.

It is fairly obvious, that there is conflict in the world because there is ruling discord in ourselves

It is fairly obvious, that there is conflict in the world because there is ruling discord in ourselves; a discord which shows itself outwards in society, in the Ego´s, and the other´s, activity.

Our images of life are filled with contradictions; that is to say: the Ego with its competitive lust and anxiety, and the other, which can be the ideal about living without conflict.

Herein there are a lot of mutual contradictory wishes, goals and initiatives.

If we are aware of this tension, we can in ourselves see how mutual contradictory desires, opposite assumptions, ideas and goals, move in separately directions.

When the thinking in philosophical sense projects itself as the past and the future, the mind is becoming absent

The thought is necessary on some levels, but when the thinking in philosophical sense projects itself as the past and the future, and produces anxiety as well as secureness, the mind is becoming absent, and the inevitable result hereof is unreality, emptiness, boredom and ennui.

So in philosophical sense the thought must rest, so that the anxiety in existential sense can stop.

As long as there is a desire of becoming something, there will be anxiety

In order to understand what you are, the duality-conflict must cease, because the negative response – to become something - is to deny the understanding of what you are.

If you as a Life Artist want to understand for instance haughtiness, you must not try to become the opposite, you must not become yourself absent in the effort of becoming something else, because this creates anxiety.

When the anxiety is removed you can be yourself present.

But it will be anxiety, and therefore absence, as long as there is a desire of becoming something.

That to be interested in something, is not the same as self-assertion

That to be interested in something, is not the same as self-assertion.

We can add to the word ”self-assertion” multifold meanings.

In art of life self-assertion is based on becoming something, and therefore anxiety.

But if a boy for instance is interested in becoming an engineer, because he is inclined towards raising beautiful buildings, to create wonderful bridges, to build excellent roads, then this is because he loves that act; and that is not self-assertion.

It is an expression of what he is, and therefore there is no anxiety.

In love there is no anxiety.

The present is never seized, though the understanding exclusively is lying herein

The future is always a becoming.

The present is therefore never seized, though the understanding exclusively is lying herein.

You can´t be present in the Now through the thinking´s past and future. This you only can meditative-existential; that is: when you are yourself, and the surroundings, present in passive listening.

As long as there is a becoming something, there is conflict and anxiety, and becoming is always the past, which uses the present to become something, to control and form: an expression of the will to power.

In this process of becoming Man becomes caught in the net of time.

And time will not be able to solve human problems, because such precisely originate from time.

In desire there is both defence and surrender, and therefore conflict

Now and then you change - according to the strength of your desire - the image, the god, the object, of your sense impressions.

You are for instance fed up with one kind of lust, and therefore you seek a new influence, a new idea, a new symbol.

You reject the old sense impression and adopt a new, with new words, new meanings, new experiences.

You defend yourself against the old, and surrender to the new, which you consider as being superior, nobler and more satisfying.

In that way there is in the desire both defence and surrender, which is implying temptation; and naturally, when you evade from a certain symbol of desire, there is always an anxiety present, the anxiety of becoming disappointed when surrendering to the new symbol. 

Therefore desire contains conflict.

In philosophical counseling truth isn´t something, which can be communicated to another

A central theme in philosophical counseling is that truth not is something, which can be communicated linguistically to another.

A human must be able to receive it, and nobody can help him by giving answers.

He must come to the truth, openly, free and unexpected.

In order to find an answer to one or the other question, the guest must therefore be guided to understand the question itself, rather than just giving an answer to the question.

If the question for instance is about anxiety, the guest must be guided to understand anxiety; that is to say: the guest must understand the one who is anxious, the human who has created the anxiety, and that is himself.

Philosophy doesn't analyse the anxiety in the individual person's life, but seeks to clarify the nature of anxiety

In order to discover the cause of anxiety philosophy doesn't analyse the anxiety in the individual person's life in the way that psychology does, but is seeking to clarify the concept of anxiety, the nature of anxiety, as it is everywhere.

In addition to this philosophy investigates the anxiety as a whole – not the numerous psychological forms of anxiety, but the anxiety.

In philosophy there is only one anxiety.

Though there in the individual person's life are different causes of anxiety, developed by multifarious challenges and reactions, then anxiety still is only one in philosophical sense.