From Worry to Serenity

Unless a man is insane or super-sane, he must be subject to worries, anxieties, grief, agitation and so forth. These are the stages on the way to lead a man from sanity to super-sanity, that is, spiritual wisdom... Our worries and anxieties can be made footstools towards the higher life of truth, beauty and liberation for all mankind—like the love of the Buddha for all living beings.
Hari Prasad Shastri

Worries are natural for humankind, faced with the many challenges of this complicated and unpredictable world. Even small children often appear to be overshadowed by concerns they cannot express, so that the compassionate mother hugs the child and says: ‘But darling, what are you worried about?’ As adults, we may have outgrown the insecurity of childhood, yet it is likely that our faces are visited many times a day by a worried expression.

We say to each other, ‘Don’t worry’, but this kind of hand-squeeze rarely changes our mood. The mind goes on worrying just the same. More to the point would be to say to our would-be comforter: ‘OK, I won’t worry if you will kindly share with me your method for stopping worries.’