by Jon Poindexter
We All come here, to this space, to this moment, with a question
The question may be large or small. It may have great significance and weight. Or it may be a whimsical, lighthearted question. Either way the question is important. And often times, the process of how we find the answer is the most important lesson.
Viktor Frankl, philosopher and father of logo therapy and existential psychotherapy speaks of our will to meaning as the root of human motivation. “Meaning must be found and cannot be given.”(Frankl 1975) Without this meaning, without finding the answer to our question, we live in a vacuum. Then we experience hurt, discontent and anxiety.
Anxiety comes from an inner pressure, that search for meaning and for our answer, and manifests in varying degrees of intensity. This manifestation influences our appearance, mood and health. Our relationships and work can be affected. It can fuel addictions and destructive behavior.
We must use the anxiety to motivate us. The anxiety can prod us to action, force us to evaluate, think creatively and find our way out of a situation. It can force us to go further, drive harder, seek more, be even more persistent.
These states of anxiety can be fluid and inter-transformational. Like Chinese Medicine’s Principle of Yin Yang – the dark anxiety of Yin can be a nutrient to fuel the Yang of desire for change and action. This inter-transformational cycle of leads to growth.
You came here with a question, a concern, something on Your mind. Perhaps You are under duress, ill, pressured, depressed or confused; perhaps You are elated, curious, energized, hopeful or aggressive. Whatever Your background state or condition, Your question is important. You are important.
No one else’s problem trumps Yours, even of they may have an apparent larger severity. His Holiness the Dalai Lama states, “From the moment of birth, every human being wants happiness and does not want suffering.” Your question brings a restlessness, a suffering; it brings weight, importance and urgency.
Sometimes a person, a family, a group an organization or even a nation or world can marginalize or minimize Your situation, Your problem or even You.
Don’t accept that!
You are important and valuable. Your mistakes, shortcomings or even failures do not reduce Your value as a human being, nor do they make Your question less important.
Insist, therefore on Your answer! Be relentless in it’s pursuit. Be demanding and persistent! Take the urgency and passion of Your emotion and channel it into finding Your answer. Sometimes this insistence smolders and glows with a patient consistency. At other times, the answer demanded rages in flames that consume and burn bright on the horizon! This is how Your fire burns, hot to the touch and insistent upon realizing it’s goal.
Your answer.
References:
Cheng, Xin-Nong. Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion. 1993. Foreign Language Press. China.
Frankl, V. The Unconscious God:Psychotherapy and Theology. 1975. Excerpt from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/frankl.html. 1975
Gyatso, T. ; The Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Compassion and the Individual. Retrieved 2012. http://www.dalailama.com/messages/compassion.