ANXIETY Progress and Evolution Expressed as a function of relationship, life moves.

Things are not so concrete or solid in their reality as they seem to e, ecause they thus depend upon their antecedent circumstances. The process of our thought ma!es reality seem to e more fixed than in fact it is" and unfortunately for us, #e try to ma!e reality fit our thoughtful sense of it, instead of more hum ly seeing that our senses and thoughts should follo# #hat in fact is true. $eeling so sure of #hat is good for us, #e try to fix the #orld in #hich #e live, forcing it to fit straight lines, #here life prefers the current curves of reciprocity and rhythm. %e uild as if time must not change" and argue #ithin our conscious systems, devising a morality to support #hat life in its movement seems more #illing to destroy. If there can e no progress, #e gli ly say, then #hat can e the meaning of life for us& 'f course #e must progress" up and up and up, on and on and on, good etter est, never let it rest( )ut life seems to move upon another plan" up*do#n*up*do#n" having*losing*having*losing" in*out*in*out" seen*unseen*seen*unseen. 'ur insistence upon progress is lia le to run contrary to life+s larger la# of Evolution, #hich history can prove, ho#ever, to our egotistic undoing. Neglected y us or not, the larger la# holds good" life moves oth up and do#n, y day and night, or life and death. The most upon #hich our hopeful desire for Purpose and Progress can rely is a spiral, returning #hence it came, perhaps a little farther on, upon a different level of the scale of Evolution. Even so it is etter not to hope for much" the memory of life is long and its time distances cause our rief span of years to appear a little ridiculous, except to the urgent anxieties of self*righteous egotism. %e may have long to #ait efore #e can e sure of progress. A lapse of t#o thousand years is not very much in cosmic time, and may #ell e spent on a negative phase of Evolution, returning to that centre from #hich an a solving death leads to some ne# flo#ering of re irth. The gains of the past century have een in terms of differentiated !no#ledge and of opportunity for effective action" no# #e can have and do so much more than #e could then. )ut is that all #e mean y progress, or are #e still in fact far ehind that #orth of , eing+ #hich can appreciate or control this vast addition to our opportunities& The means to live are #ith us no# in plenty. %e have a #ealth of !no#ledge, material a undance, ut they seem only to provide an oppressive urden of responsi ility upon the heavy heads of man!ind, #ho are not yet ready to profit y this surfeit of opportunity. In fact, #e are in danger of dying from this excess of -ood Things. 'ur stomach is too small, and #e seem sic!, staggering eneath the

urden, desiring still more, yet .uite una le to assimilate even that #hich #e have. %e are suffering the threat of an extinction, ecause #e are not alanced. %e have so much, and don+t !no# #hat to do a out it" nor have #e yet discovered the la# that ,)eing+ is despite our opportunities, not ecause of them. I A/ is the deepest possi le state* ment of the la# of life" yet having and doing so much, ho# can I expect to find the space and time to )E& Progress is eing called to account, 0e it to alance 1redit. The argain of /ephistopheles and $aust remains, and #e must pay our 2oul in de t for these fine privileges of material progress. This is no angry voice from 3eaven, no punishment from an impatient angry -od. It is the la# of Evolution, the rhythm of life, the inescapa le amend, in regard to #hich it may indeed e said ,The #ages of sin is death+. 1hildren of our past, #e are reaping the seed of %ar so generously so#n. 2#iftly up means s#iftly do#n, unless #e can learn to lose even more s#iftly than the la# demands. It is no use as!ing or crying no# for peace. The mil! is spilt, the damage done, the seed is so#n. 3o# then are #e to live and ma!e amends in time& $irst let us see, and then to understand. It is not enough merely to escape from our anxiety y too urgently doing something a out it, for aggressiveness can e no cure for previous aggressiveness, nor can a negative get rid of any other negative. 2ee, accept, suffer" this must e the #ay of the transgressor, until he has pic!ed up the path again, in harmony of tune and time #ith life. I A/4 the simplest pattern of this state of eing may e dra#n as the flo#er or /andala, significant of life 50iagram 6, page 7o8. The first diagram sho#s the ,flo#er+ or energy system seen from a ove, the second from the side. Each sho#s the rhythm of spreading extension alanced y a central return" the relationship of a centre and circumference, each exercising a pull in turn, so*called Progress eing follo#ed y the alternating phase of 9egress, or return eing prior to another irth in moving time. %e can #ell imagine ho# any egotist #ould o :ect to such a la#, #anting it other#ise to his secure advantage. ;pon the circumference of our circle of experience #e manifest our differences, as the centre extends its parts y gro#th, from one to many, from egg to feathers, and from seed to leaves and flo#ers. In consciousness, the circumference contains the moving ,No#+ of our experience" here is the learned !nife of !no#ledge, and here is the opportunity for efficient exercise of active po#er. The centre, on the other hand, represents the source from #hich all action is generated, and it is the deeper goal of our return. It is the source of our unity, the common stoc! of universal experience 5hence the collective truth of intuition and common sense+8. It is the phase in rhythm of sleep and death, of recreation and re irth. This is the seed of

our experience of deeper truths, through the paradox of the light #hich shines in this dar!ness that is sometimes called ,mystical+ ecause it is unseen and unexplained. Yet it al#ays plays the most important part in every life, eing the roots from #hich the tree must spring. It is the source of life itself, #hether #e are active or at rest, mystic or materialist. In terms of polar difference, the circumference signifies action, distri ution, masculinity, and is thus negative, or ,spending+ energy. The centre signifies the resting, recreative, female phase, dar! and unseen, and is thus positive, rene#ing energy. A#a!e, conscious, #e spend energy upon the surface of our lives" asleep, and yet still ourselves, #e earn our income from the unseen source of eing. )et#een these t#o, #e move in constant rhythm, al#ays in oth #orlds and al#ays in suspense. )ut consciousness thin!s other#ise and plans its hopes accordingly. 2uspense If this is true, since no one li!es so great suspense, it is easily understood that #e should elieve the contrary, striving to fix this state of flux to some more permanent security of privilege. The success of these our efforts 3istory has proved, is proving still, and #ill continue to prove again, until #e have learnt more positive acceptance to the contrary. )ut suspense is hard to learn4 for #hat #ould happen to us if #e did not try to end life+s movement to our #ill& It seems as if every am ition, every sense of moral decency, in fact every human need, urges our action to achieve, as instantly as may e, the satisfaction of desire. There is al#ays the present tangle to e unravelled, the over#helming mess to e cleared up, the threatening enemy at our very gates. 2urely #e must do something a out that& <oo!ing at facts, #e see this urgent tendency of our moral compulsion and omnipresent o session, acting as an aggressive dictator or regimental sergeant*ma:or, issuing orders that seem to demand o edience. There are so many threats. Anxiety urges o edience, and #e seem to e compelled to fall in #ith the other marching feet of the attalions of #ar. )ut let us e still, and #atch. To ma!e it plainer for us to see and hesitate, 0iagram 7 5page 7=8 sho#s the ,<ittle man+ suspended et#een four moving #orlds. )ehind him is the Past, a little of it still to e seen amidst the falling mists of time. In front of him is the $uture, shrouded, threatening. In his external #orld, #ithin his !en and yet eyond his grasp, lur! enemies, seen and unseen, hopes deferred and .uestioning choice. %ithin, eneath his superficial exterior, there is a deeper self, hidden yet active, good and evil mixed, inextrica ly alanced. In his suspense, this point called N'% is threatening indeed,

and :ustifies his sense of deep anxiety. Anxiety %e may define anxiety as ,a state of strained desire or painful suspense+. It is note#orthy that this same definition #ould in fact fit life itself. In the previous chapter t#o different attitudes #ere discussed to#ards the asic duality of life, 5,eliminated contrary+ and ,accepted opposite+8 and illustrations #ere dra#n from the /andala or flo#er pattern. The asic la# eing one of related poles in a state of tension, more or less of strain, it #as claimed that all experience is in some measure due to this polar relationship, and that #e cannot truly conceive of anything existing ,a solutely+ y itself, in spite of conscious ha it to the contrary. It seems to e a legitimate assumption on this hypothesis, therefore, to relate 2pirit 5unseen8 and /atter 5seen8, as opposite poles of our system of experience, regarding /atter as the opposite of undifferentiated 2pirit, 2pace as the opposite of its occupant, and Time as the other face of an opposed Eternity. /atter is thus 2pirit in extension" and 2pirit and /atter are actively related as poles apart, plus and minus, undifferentiated and differentiated, unseen and seen, dar!ness and light, female and male, Yang and Yin. Thus some degree of strain is of the order of life itself, and the .uestion is, #hat #e may hope to do a out it. 0o #e hope to eliminate it and, if so, y #hat means& Is it going to pay us in the end to get tense a out tension and to strain against this sense of strain& /etaphysical, a stract, a struse as our argument may at times appear, it is :ust at these times that the pro lem is one of most vital and everyday importance. <ife is normally a situation of anxiety, in the sense that #e cannot possi ly !no# #hat is to happen to us in this moving #orld of discomfort and uncertainty. %e can adopt the method of eliminative lindness and refuse to see the truth, or #e can so dull our senses that they tell us nothing ut those lies #hich #e #ish to elieve. %e can e negative in our fear of fear, adopting a policy of fixing flight instead of courage4 ,I cannot ear the strain" let+s not fear" let+s not feel, ut only sense, s!in*deep" let+s e surface, let+s e certain, let+s e safe.+ %e can thus choose, ut if #e do in any #ay attempt thus to eat the truth of time, aggressively, #e shall there y have :oined the ministers of #ar. )ut if #e are prepared to see life road and alanced as it really is, #e must recogni>e this state of in#ard strain. It is the experience of related parent and child, #ife and hus and, today and tomorro#. It is the experience of every moment of our lives, thus to e faced #ith uncertainty. If #e :oin issue, ecoming negative to that strain, then #e have :oined the legion of uncomforta le aggressors #hose attitude to#ards life, eing so restless a out unrest, is in one #ay or another productive of that increased unrest #hich it is so un#illing to accept"

seed of dis*ease, it is in general la elled #ith the loosely defined ut oppro rious epithet, ,neurotic+. Identification #ith this alien enemy, or eing negative a out this negative, or strained a out this strain, is so far to increase the undesira le condition as to create a larger measure of pain, #hich it #as the ignorant purpose of this process to avoid. It is no# necessary to proceed #ith extreme care, in order to ma!e .uite clear the difference et#een Anxiety 5a state of strain8 and anxiety a out anxiety 5strain a out strain8. There is all the difference et#een these t#o states, yet there does not seem to e a #ord to ma!e the distinction clear. If #e may e allo#ed to use the #ord ,dimension+, #e could say that the latter is one dimension eyond the former. Then there is no reason #hy a dimension of Anxiety should not e carried any num er of dimensions higher, to the nth po#er, e.g. y eing anxious a out eing anxious a out eing anxious a out eing anxious. /any people have experienced this state, #ithout eing a le in any #ay to descri e their feelings in #ords. They #ould, ho#ever, e .uite prepared to admit that there is all the difference in the #orld et#een anxiety and anxiety raised higher to the nth po#er. It is perhaps curious to some that the nature of reality should e so a stract and metaphysical. The plain matter*of*fact man is .uite content to assume that ,It is it+ and ,That is that+, and that if something is unseen it therefore ipso facto does not exist. To the careful o server, ho#ever, the truth is exactly opposite, ecause the more #e go into the nature of our experience the more #e reali>e that in truth it is a stract and metaphysical, and that the concrete three*dimensional re* ality of external ,it+ or internal ,I+ is only a deceptive mas! and an illusion. Ta!e for instance the simple statement ,I am afraid of it+. 2upposing I #ere not afraid of it, the situation #ould have een changed for me, although ,it+ has not changed at all. 9eality is not ,it+ for me, ut #hat I feel a out ,it+. In other #ords reality for me is in fact my fear of it, #hich no one has ever seen except as it has een expressed in my panic*stric!en action. Yet panic is not fear, ut flight from it. It is as if fear is not really my trou le at all, ut only my attitude to#ards fear, #hich #as too frightened to sustain it, 5e. g. fright ? fear plus flight8. This is pure metaphysics again. It is not it that matters for me, ut #hat I feel a out it. And again, not #hat I feel, ut #hat I feel a out #hat I feel, and #hat I feel a out #hat I feel a out #hat I feel. 3ere #e are faced #ith the most unpleasant experience, #hether of emotion or philoso* phy. It is !no#n as an ,Infinite 9egress+, #hich is an endless recurring decimal of an a stract metaphysical nature. To those #ho have thus felt their lood run cold, ho#ever, their hearts running a#ay from them, and their stomach dissolved in fire, it is none the less real for that. Perhaps therefore it is not to e #ondered at that the plain matter*of*fact man should have ta!en refuge in the ald, lunt statement that things are simply #hat they are, and if #e do not see it,

it is not there. /etaphysical or other#ise, he feels safer if he says there are no ghosts, in case one might catch him una#ares. 3o#ever, he need not ma!e such a co#ardly pretence of attachment to #hat he hopes is real, ecause there is another alternative #hich presents a much simpler and more effective solution. <et us return to the concept of polarity again. %e can reali>e that #e have in polarity a criterion of direction #hich decides ,#hich #ay+, #hether positive or negative, Yes or No, this #ay or that #ay, for or against. 2ince that fear #hich #e felt for ,it+, #as itself also a phenomenon of negative polarity 5re:ection8, it is not to e #ondered at that the phenomenon of negative polarity should e experienced in regard to fear itself, there y transmuting fear to flight, and flight to panic, in Infinite 9egress. 1hange of polarity from minus to plus, from No to Yes, from strain to relaxation, from re:ection to acceptance, #ould, ho#ever, in spite of its deeply a stract and metaphysical .uality, have the immediate and fundamental effect of changing the entire situation, and thus #ould change the meaning of reality itself. The path is thus to retrace our steps from panic to flight, from flight to fear, from fear to relaxation and acceptance, from regress to progress. The enemy #ho is thus positively eloved, has changed instantly his very self ecause our feelings have changed to#ards him. It may e only a matter of metaphysics, a stract .ualities, unseen causes, dimensional differences, and yet it is the very root and ranch of our experience of reality. If #e are to e matter of fact and common sense, it is in the deep roots of metaphysics that #e have to loo! for our salvation. Not up#ards ut do#n#ards, not out#ards ut in#ards, not seen ut unseen, not concrete ut a stract, shall #e find the cause. 9eality of /etaphysics In reality, it is our attitude to#ards experience that counts. Positive or negative, open palm or clenched fist, it is a metaphysical and a stract matter that ma!es the difference. There are also other #ays in #hich the a stract is all*important in our valuation of experience. As #e fallaciously concede the importance of ,cause+ to external events, #e fail to notice that #hat #e are seeing as external, is actually reflected from ourselves, as if #ithin a mirror. $or instance, if #e say4 ,You are hateful,+ #e mean4 ,I hate you ecause you are un!ind to me+" and then there are t#o very important in#ard assumptions esides the out#ard fact, to #hich elong the prior significance of cause. The first is, ,You ought to e !ind to me+. 5If I did not elieve that, then I should not hate you for eing other#ise8. The second is that the actual experience of un!indness is in me and not in you. 5That I should hate you is at least my fault as #ell as yours.8 @udgment therefore depends not only upon ,it+, ut also upon #hat #e assume ,it+ ought to e.

Another a stract condition of experience that plays its metaphysical part in determining the nature of reality for us is the criterion of Purpose, #hich acts as a ,frame of reference+ to determine relatively #hether any particular experience is good or ad. The value #hich #e attri ute to any experience is conditioned y the extent and direction in #hich it varies from something #hich #e choose to #ant. If #e demanded less of Purpose 5e.g. less Progress8, life could not e so ad as no# it seems to e4 a pound #ould e #orth more, and a pain #orth less, if the standard of comparison #as not so hopefully high. Although it is difficult for us to reali>e it, the reality #hich #e experience is in#ard and unseen. It is an aspect of our ,anxiety a out anxiety+ that ma!es us tend to e so apprehensive of the material aspect of external cause. There is something comforting and #arm a out this external tangi le ,it+. It is a convenient scapegoat, this fixed external system, and it is much easier to lame ,it+ than to accept our o#n responsiveness to unseen relationships in a moving #orld. Perhaps it is the idle tal! of freedom and free#ill that has led us so far astray. )ut relationship implies a loss of it, for #here t#o or three are gathered together someone must suffer inroads upon independence, and mem ership of any society re.uires o edience to a strict discipline. 'ur lives are conditional upon these others, seen or unseen. It is nonsense to tal! of freedom, ut tal! #e do, as if it #ere some right to e :ealously guarded against all #ould* e aggressors. No, #e are functions of relationship, four*dimensional eings in spite of ourselves. %e are spaced in time4 that invisi le a stract and metaphysical concept is indeed the hidden master of our lives, from timely irth to :ust as timely end. There are times #hen our impulses are untimely and ill*timed" #hen ill temper rings more heat than light into the lives of those others #ho, since they have interfered #ith us 5or perhaps might do so8 must e put out of our harm+s #ay. Timely or untimely change means all that matters of the difference et#een Peace and %ar. In fact, #e are at the mercy of our metaphysic. The plain matter*of*fact man may e too lunt to understand as yet, ut he too #ill learn in time that 9eality is Time, and Time, relationship. 'ur metaphysic is our fact" indeed #e #ell may as!, have #e any other& 9eality is moving for our experience and sets up a state of anxiety or strain. In order to overcome this, #e attach ourselves the more securely to this seen and ,real+ #orld, comforting ourselves #ith the assurance that #e are matter of fact, #hen as a matter of fact #e are nothing of the !ind. It is part of the reassurance #ith #hich #e cover our feeling of #ea!ness, that #e should thus devote our attention to the placation of external o :ects. %e feel as if the audience matters most" and, eing so small amongst so many greater than ourselves, #e start upon our :ourney #ith the firm intention of eing on the side of the ig attalions. Alas for such a simple ruse, for nothing is to e gained y siding #ith the enemy, if #e #ould ever e

ourselves. The matter*of*fact man is in for a ad time. No description of reality could e more metaphysical than that. $ear 'f late years fear has een much maligned, as if it #ere a ad thing. )ut surely if it is defined as ,a feeling of inade.uacy+ it is a fundamental fact in our experience, and not to e ignored or eliminated as an un#orthy :udgment upon reality. It has een a ha it of careless definition to e.uate fear #ith flight, ut it #ould e e.ually :ustifia le to e.uate income #ith expenditure. $ear is a feeling, an act of cognition, a sentient #arning, a statement of fact4 it does not necessitate action a out itself. The .uestion then arises4 %hat shall #e do a out it& Although it may loo! as if the sole possi le reaction is a negative one 5e.g. fight or flight8, the fact remains that the positive acceptance of fear is far more effective, and can in fact e attained. It is then called ,1ourage+, #hich is not the opposite of fear, ut an attitude of positive acceptance to#ards the sense of fear. 2pea!ing thus accurately #ith alanced #ords, it is therefore not true to say that love, #hich is unconditional acceptance, casts out fear. It casts out flight, y adopting a positive attitude a out fear. As an attitude to#ards fear, it resolves it #ithin a greater love, as the negative is changed into the positive. It does not seem too much to claim that normal gro#th occurs ,in the fear of -od+. 2tar*pattern, from seed to ud and ud to flo#er" from egg to chic! and chic! to ird" from a e to child and child to man4 #e possess this positive attitude of expansion in face of the un!no#n, living in despite of circumstances. In vital circulation, at the mercy of the unseen, #e can yet live generously, timely, fitly, ,#aiting upon the <ord+. There y #e might omit much of that aggressiveness #hich comes either from lac! of fear, of common sense or of good manners. Although much of our most modern teaching has aimed at eliminating fear, this is not entirely due to the Ne# Testament emphasis upon love. The 'ld Testament constantly emphasi>ed the #isdom of the fear of -od. 3o# can #e e anything else ut afraid, if #e are to e true in our :udgment of life& If #e are #ise, ho#ever, #e shall not let that #orry us, ut #e shall accept and relax, eing as positive as #e can a out it. 0efining fear as a feeling of inade.uacy, #e can then the etter see the point of defining love as an attitude of unconditional acceptance, in spite of the feeling of inade.uacy. Thin!ing %hile #e are considering the t#o different polar attitudes in regard to anxiety, #e may see more clearly ho# this process affects our #ay of thin!ing. This also seems to have escaped the distinction of analysis

into its essential duality, for there is more in thought than can e accurately expressed in the assumed unity of a single #ord. There are, ho#ever, t#o .uite different aspects of thin!ing, #hich may e classified as follo#s4 Thinking Plus 1ognitive Passive %atching Incoming <ight Thinking Minus 1onative Active 0oing 'utgoing 3eat

Negative or active thin!ing is therefore a form of purposive ehaviour #hich urgently insists upon interference #ith reality. Thus involved in change, it most fre.uently elects to change itself, ecoming restless, anxious, dou tful and #orried. It is as if the cooler function of thought has ecome ,hot*headed+4 and such indeed are the su :ective symptoms #hich in the end result from using our perceptive apparatus as an engine to ta!e the neglected place of deeper drives of po#er. If #e use the terms ,discrimination+ or ,:udgment+, then the a ove t#o aspects of their meaning are included #ithin each of these #ords, and it is interesting that oth of them have tended to lean increasingly in their assumed meaning to#ards their active 5anxious8 aspect. If #e are told that #e have to go to ,:udgment+, #e anticipate something to our disadvantage" and the term ,discrimination+ sounds unpleasant, suggesting that it must e follo#ed y the #ord ,against+, as if someone has een anxious a out us, and is trying a policy of punitive extermination. The same applies to ,criticism+, #hich also suggests its negative meaning. )ut in fact all these #ords are !inder and more alanced than their usage sounds. The active process of punishment or revenge is a meaning #hich has een added, and a ias #hich has een t#isted into #ords that are at least e.ually significant of a passive process of alanced :ustice and illumination #ithout moral interference. )ut #e live in anxious days, and many other #ords 5,common+ and ,peer+, for example8 thus sho# the influence of infinite regress, to#ards the material, competitive and aggressive side of meaning. 3o# many of us can really use our thought process as an illuminant, #ithout moral ias or egotistic distortion& The tendency is all in favour of the active interfering !ind of thin!ing, #hich creates upon the mental screen an illusionary #orld, prefera le in so many of its details to that reality #hich exists eyond. The process of thin!ing in terms of #ish fulfillment, creative as it is of comforting fallacy, might almost e called ,political thin!ing+, ecause it seems to e the #ay in #hich the minds of those preoccupied #ith the social needs of others must operate. The other !ind of thought is the process of illumination

#hich elongs to the scientific method, rare in all of us and characteristically lac!ing in any !ind of moral discrimination, selective choice, act of so*called free*#ill or egotistic enterprise. 2uch good#ill, ho#ever, seems to demand an attitude to#ards life that is eyond the limits of am itious leaders, ecause it can never coexist #ith the more active forms of egotism. The error of the plain matter*of*fact man, #ho hoped that he could fix his reality in terms of material facts and unmoving definitions, seems also to have infected the psychologists, #ho should have !no#n etter. Attachment to any system, #hether psychological or other#ise, is suggestive of anxious escape from life. ;nfortunately, oth the plain matter*of*fact man and the psychologist are a le to shield themselves under the claim that they are eing the more scientific, ecause they are thus ignoring the unseen. There is a certain smug self* righteousness a out this a horrence of metaphysics. /etaphysic is so near to truth, that it never can e popular #ith anxious minds. 2ome people cannot thin! of the #ord ,metaphysical+ #ithout prefacing it #ith ,too+, and #e are not surprised to read in The Oxford English Dictionary that this is another of the #ords 5li!e mystical8 #hich are often used #ith a usive intention. Thus #hen #e get too near to truth for the safety of our cherished phantasies, #e ring rudeness to our aid, #hether #e are politicians, psychologists or men*in*the*street. $eeling and Emotion In regard to the next item for analysis, ho#ever, even the 0ictionary itself fails to help us. It is as if in this, as #ell as in many other #ays, our understanding has to travel eyond the limits of ha itual language and conventional meaning. In the case of the process of thought itself, #e found no #ords to ma!e clear the distinction et#een its cognitive and conative aspects. In general, ho#ever, language is !inder to us and there are usually t#o #ords in common usage to distinguish et#een t#o such different meanings, although very often the ignorant and careless may use them oth as synonyms, so that even the 0ictionary must loosely follo# current usage. 1onfusion is al#ays significant if #e regard it from the angle of potential purpose. It is the common ha it of oth layman and expert to use the #ords ,Instinct+ and ,Intuition+ as if they meant the same, from #hich #e may infer an instinctive preference for the former, and dou t in regard to the latter. Yet Instinct is as lo# as Intuition is high4 the one is heat, the other light. Instinct is a tendency to action, ut Intuition is a sensitiveness to :udgment from experience" the former is partial and the latter total" in all respects of our analysis, these t#o are opposites, and yet they are confused as one. 'ur ignorance of Intuition is in fact so great, that #e may infer it must e purposive, in order to protect us from this feared faculty of experiencing the reality of the unseen. 3ere

is a flight from fact, expressed in #ords of common usage. %e are at peace through Intuition, ut at #ar y Instinct. The same applies et#een $eeling and Emotion, for here also the same confusion commonly occurs. Yet $eeling is cognitive 5incoming8 and Emotion is conative 5outgoing8, and they are poles apart. $eeling, li!e intuition, is a state of sensitiveness, ut emotion is a tendency 5instinctively, aggressively, urgently8 to do something a out it. 2eeing that sensitiveness is usually related to a state of painful suspense, it is easy to understand our ias in favour of uneasy action, so that emotion is instinctively preferred. Although there can e no peace in our emotions, yet #e can feel peaceful, in spite of the external threat of %ar. Although the distinction et#een these t#o #ords is as important as that #hich exists et#een Income and Expenditure 5#hich surely should not e confused8 and is essential for an accurate analysis of Peace and %ar, yet in The Oxford English Dictionary Feeling is defined as ,the state of eing emotionally affected4 emotional attitude+. Emotion, ho#ever, is defined as ,a state of stirring, agitation, or passion4 psychologically, a feeling, e.g. of desire+. It seems strange that so little account should e paid in common usage to our state of peace in regard to reality, as distinct from the #arli!e tendency to do something a out it, prompted y our o#n desire for #ish fulfillment. There is surely something here #hich needs some deeper understanding, and clear ,cognitive+ thin!ing. That #hich #e lac!, namely, roadmindedness and toleration, such as is exemplified y the scientific method, depends upon this peaceful capacity to evaluate #ithout interference, to e sensitive #ithout doing anything a out it. Perhaps #e are gradually in process of learning a ne# attitude to#ards life, #hich involves this accurate analysis et#een feeling and emotion. )ut it seems #e have not learnt it yet, either in our pu lic ha its, or in the common usage of our language. 'ur learning is an uphill tas!, ho#ever, ecause #e are instinctively intolerant of that state of suspense in #hich the sensitiveness of our feelings must al#ays involve us. This instinctive tendency to resolve suspense y means of flight from feeling has resulted in a ha it of defensive ,ta oo+ upon feeling. It is something to e despised, ecause #e feel sure that feeling ought not to exist 5 ut note the contradiction8, and that its place should e ta!en y superior reason. The fallacy goes further, and #e :udge that, ecause #omen feel more and men thin! more, therefore men must e the superior sex. The morally defensive argain #hich #e have made #ith an offensive reality has there y ecome conveniently rationali>ed" that #hich #e chose for safety+s sa!e has no# also ecome morally recogni>ed as est. It is note#orthy ho# often this automatic process of urglar ecoming policeman is successful, as a solution of our possi le discomfiture.

0iagram A 5page A78 is dra#n to sho# the point of tension #hich exists, #here this analysis et#een feeling and emotion is fairly made. A ove the hori>ontal line is ,Not*self+, separate from 2elf" to the left of the vertical line is Income 5cognition8, to the right Expenditure 5conation8, #hich is the second necessary analysis. 'n the left*hand side 5B8 external stimulus 5C8 arouses sensation, #hich is then distri uted in the psyche in such a #ay as to create 5=8 a ,feeling+ or ,:udgment+ a out the external situation. 'n the right*hand side the outgoing path of the nervous impulse is traced from 5D8 emotion, through 5E8 impulse, until there is 568 some eventual response either physically, inside the ody, or externally, through ehaviour in regard to the environment. It is at 5F8, the ridge or ,synapse+, that the condition of strain is felt. It is important to relate the psychological #ith the neurological aspect of this pro lem. It seems as if the nervous system of some people finds it extremely difficult to maintain a state of strain at this nerve :unction or synapse, #ithout overflo#ing from one side of the ridge to the other. These are the ill* alanced people #hom #e are accustomed to call ,hypersensitive+ or ,highly strung+" or if #e :udge them y their defensive activities, ,emotional+ or ,hysterical+. In fact there is no dou t that our :udgment is never in favour of these emotional people, ut it is al#ays in favour of those #ho are restrained, alanced, self*contained, and deep instead of superficial. It proves the poverty of later psychological development, ho#ever, that of recent years the only alternative to this ill* alanced emotional overflo# has een generally considered to e the e.ual error of emotional repression. It is true that these t#o, emotional expression and repression, are opposite to one another. )ut there is another psychological attitude #hich is in itself opposite to them oth4 namely, instead of impulse eing allo#ed to travel unchec!ed #ithout resistance across the ridge or synapse, something may happen on the left*hand side of the diagram, #hich ena les alance to e maintained #ithout calling upon the emotional response at all. Through an attitude of positive re* laxation, the ,onion s!in+ of sensitive self may gro#. Thus the sensitiveness of feeling or a#areness may e intensified y a process of in#ard expansion, for #hich the proper description seems to e ,suffering+ or ,acceptance+. In other #ords, it is possi le to #ant something very much and yet not to ma!e a fuss if #e do not get it, although #e still #ant it. Also it is possi le to suffer a great distur ance of feeling, either of pain or pleasure, #ithout ursting into tears or laughter or doing anything #hatsoever a out it in order to change the strain either of in#ard or out#ard state. It is not that #e re.uire to preserve the impassivity of po!er*face, ut merely that good manners and good sense reali>e that feeling 5li!e many other things8 should most fre.uently e preserved in situ and in silence. The out rea! into

emotion elongs to a #orld of sentimentalism and sensationalism, #hich does not elieve in the essential pro ity of the unseen, ut #ould have all things undressed in the pu lic eye and served up to rea!fast #ith a !ipper. )ut thus to insist that the unseen should e seen is to ma!e it seem o scene, #hich it need not e if it is allo#ed to d#ell in its proper place. The emphasis upon emotion must of course inevita ly lead to a degree of intolerant interference, #hich is the early phase of #ar. If #e feel that #hich is true for us, then it is #ithin our o#n selves that #e suffer, and no one else is involved there y. )ut if #e ecome emotional a out it, then experience is eing externali>ed and someone else must share the privilege of our suffering. 2ensationalism, sentimentalism, emotionalism, lac! of self*control, a ha it of laming others and of most unphilosophical emphasis upon external cause, all go together to induce a final state of #ar. %e alance our in#ard insta ility y insisting upon some external change. It is instructive that this #hole aftermath of conse.uent #ar has developed out of a situation the original purpose of #hich #as self* defence. )ecause #e could not ear the strain, this #ar*li!e process #as first set in eing" it then must gro# as vicious circles do, ecause the end result is larger strain than that #hich first initiated it. If #e could only learn to ear the eginning of these trou les sensitively #ithin ourselves, there #ould e less argument and our external trou les #ould decrease instead of gro# upon us as they do. This idolatry of external cause and change, devised instinctively as it #as for safety+s sa!e, has propagated that very danger #hich it #as planned to avoid. )ut eing so sic! of #ar, physicians are no# trying to heal us y a dou le dose of our disease. Nerves No# that #e have made this diagnosis of diseased physicians, #e are in a etter position to understand #hat is meant y the general term ,Nerves+ or ,Nervousness+. This is no mere material error, no fault of the physical system per se, no sic!ness on the part of nervous tissue #hich has ecome ,frayed+ or ,#orn out+. It is an error of attitude, and therefore metaphysical rather than material. It is a process of escape y means of a general negative reaction of re:ection, employed un* consciously and instinctively as a mechanism of the psyche and the nervous system, oth in ody and mind. The asic concept of polarity ma!es plain the dou le possi ility of the t#o alternatives. %e can react to our experience #ithin ourselves either y Yes or No, and it is the prerogative of ,nerves+ to choose the negative reaction, preferring fight or flight instinctively, in self*defence. Thus nerves #ill choose and #ill say ,Yes+ to that #hich is good, ut ,No+ to everything else, operating a selective trapdoor to

experience, y #hich all is shut out that the nervous individual elieves might ma!e him suffer. Nerves are a process of escape from all ut the etter half of life, and the neurotic is the one #ho is o sessed y this selective mechanism, #hich #ould involve him in flight from so much of experience. )ecause fear is ad, therefore it must e fled" ecause anxiety involves suspense or uncertainty, therefore it must e avoided" movement and feeling may perhaps lead to some painful situation, and therefore must not e allo#ed to happen. All must e fixed and safe in the idolatry of #hat is seen upon the surface. 0ar!ness and ignorance are evil, ecause they may contain the unseen. Therefore actively #e must thin! and !no#, and all .uestions ought to have an ans#er, all pro lems must e solved. 2pace is to e avoided ecause it suggests the possi ility of the entry of unseen evil" death must e very ad, ecause it is a constant threat" the unseen must give #ay to the seen, and flux to fixity. Amongst the other lesser evils must e added all such adversaries as devils, dragons, demons, serpents, and sna!es, and the most mysterious evil of all, #oman, #ho contains #ithin herself all the evils in the list. In general the attitude exemplified y this negative state of mind is either This or That. The co*existence of any t#o such alternatives in a state of suspense con:oined y AN0 is one #hich cannot e tolerated. This peculiar state of mind is one #hich is shared ali!e y individuals and nations, and leads to much the same ehaviour in either case. )eing una le to ear the reality #hich is presented to them, these neurotic escapeologists, mas.uerading in moral self* :ustification, decide that something must e done a out it" and of course it must e done at someone else+s expense. Interference #ith the course of nature, ho#ever, even in so good a cause, unfortunately only pro:ects the intolera le conflict one stage further afield. A neg* ative attitude to#ards life, al#ays anxious to eliminate the offender, introduces us again to the concept of the Infinite 9egress. The #ar to end #ar is carried a stage further #hen aggressiveness aggressively eliminates aggressiveness, and the s#ord is used to expel the s#ord for using the s#ord. The vicious circle can only e ro!en y the introduction of a different attitude to#ards life, #hich #ill change No to Yes, aggression into acceptance, and nerves into a more tolerant pas* sivity of suffering. Nerves are N'+s. The close parallelism et#een external and internal events is very simply illustrated y the #ay in #hich the sound of a slamming door transmits the negative impulse throughout the #hole nervous system of a ,nervy+ su :ect. It feels as if the #hole psyche is eing slammed in self*defensive detail, as every door and #indo# #ithin the self is instantly closed against potential aggression. The door slams oth inside and out, and #e descri e the sensation as one of ,shoc!+. The polar relationship persists throughout the #hole psyche as #ell as the central nervous system, and throughout all the

parts of it. The reaction of self*defence precipitates a negative response, #hich sho#s itself not only in the psyche in one form or another of hysteria, ut also throughout the #hole physical organism y means of one of the many hysterical reactions of disease. 0isease is defence against dis*ease. Instinctively, negatively and defensively" unconsciously and yet morally and rationally, #e are again launched upon a path of infinite regress #hen #e call in the doctor to defend us against our o#n defensive system. The healer is he #ho is a le to ena le us to relax, opening again our positive response #hich had een closed y some previous shoc!. The lesson is particularly important for those #ho are interested in the preventative aspect of disease" namely, that no stimulus should ever e stronger than either mind or ody can afford positively to accept. There should e much more emphasis therefore upon rest and .uiet, in a civili>ation the unrest of #hich is almost entirely expressed in urgent ceaseless action. As #e are at present, it is as if an organi>ation, the nature of #hich is essentially verte rate, is ecoming turned increasingly y its instinctive ha it of self*defence to#ards that other organi>ation of the crustaceans, #ho #ould defend themselves against experience y developing an impermea le out#ard shell. The advantage of the verte rate over the crustacean is at the expense of increased sensitiveness, ut a dispirited neurotic soul li!es to feel himself safe ehind a #all that does not move. There are, therefore, many #ho are neurotic #ithout sho#ing it, or !no#ing it, and this applies to nations as #ell as to individuals. Nations as #ell as men may e sic! in mind as #ell as ody. Those #ho see! the doctor are those #ho are discontented #ith their state" ut there is nothing to prevent a neurotic from eing pleased #ith himself for a time or from passing on his trou les to others under the disguise of moral fervour, or from distur ing other nations on the plea that it is for their #elfare. /any patients #ho come to the doctor la elled as neurotic, having an insufficiently strong organi>ation to e a le to #ithstand the shoc!s of life except y means of this defensive method of passing them on to some ody else, have had the negative reaction induced in them y the aggressive ha its of those #ho rought them up. The really ardent neurotics are a le to get a#ay #ith it, ecause they are so usy doing something a out their o#n disease. They push causes, ecause they cannot a ide at home" they live parasitic lives, either upon their families or upon the society in #hich they live. <ife cannot e cheated, ho#ever, and someone must pay the price. 9e#ards and punishments are not distri uted according to our ideas of fairness, ut they are nevertheless inexora ly reaped y someone in the end, #ithout much reference to #ho has earned #hat. In a neurotic society, operating according to the #ell*#orn principle of infinite regress, the successful ones are the more a le to satisfy their sense of self*

importance y praising themselves for their success, #hilst on the other hand they must lame the criminal and diseased for their failure to succeed. All #ho succeed in society agree that they are ,normal+, ecause they can live successfully under ,normal+ circumstances. Those others #ho fail are la elled ,a normal+, ecause they are so o viously inferior. Thus morals are satisfied, as they al#ays are, #hen it has een satisfactorily proved that I am up and You are do#n, #hich is through /y virtue and Your fault. It should e possi le, ho#ever, to see a little farther into the process of re#ards and punishments, than does this attitude of self*satisfied and self*complacent self*deception. Tolerant 2ensitiveness It is not possi le to over*estimate the importance of emotion in regard to peace and #ar. %here there is emotion, there #ill e #ar, for emotion is the hot* ed and the reeding*ground of #arli!e gesture and action. To solve the pro lem of #ar #e must first solve this pro lem of emotion. )ut if that is to e done it is not y means of repressing or ignoring or eliminating emotion, ut rather y expanding our capacity to feel accurately and sensitively the full meaning of experience. This re.uires, ho#ever, more than most of us at present seem to e capa le of" namely, #illingness to tolerate that #hich #e disli!e, and a ility to hold in a eyance the strength of our o#n desires. To feel sensitively, #ithout ecoming emotional, re.uires this capacity to stand on one side and #atch the self o :ectively. )ut for most of us there is an identity et#een 2elf and 0esire, as there is at the same time an identity et#een %anting and 3aving, lin!ed in either case y the #ord ,ought+. There is al#ays this tendency to unify, and to :ump across the ridge or gap, #hich has the significance of the separative negative. 2uspense is so intolera le to us, that the state of the o# #ith the cord pluc!ed ac! must instantly e eased y the discharge of the arro# into some target. Thus male must e.uate #ith female in a seeming unity #hich denies the truth of oth. %hen #e feel inclined to :ump this gap and to identify ourselves #ith that external o :ect #hich #e love or fear, #e must learn to hold it. It is not enough merely to repress emotion, ut #e must learn also to expand #ithin ourselves as the #iser alternative. There is so much of this false identification #ith its resultant mechanism of pro:ection that #e have to learn that even !indness is not enough, ecause of the false e.uation #hich, it suggests et#een self and not*self, you and me. This is the fallacy of 3umanism, #hich has rought it so much disrepute. Interest in the #elfare of others, individual or collective, past, present or future, much praised as it has een in the past for moral virtue, is no# seen to have een motived very largely, although not al#ays entirely, y this false e.uation. Interest in the #elfare of our fello# men is not enough, unless #e

#ould truly love them as ourselves. 'ften this telling phrase is t#isted into a :ustification for ma!ing a false e.uation, ut its deeper meaning suggests that if #e #ould do so, #e can see ourselves in other people. %hat #e must then do is to internali>e our o servations, referring all such !no#ledge ac! to the sources from #hich it came, #ithin ourselves. It is certainly not enough to do unto others as #e #ould they should do unto us, if y doing so #e assume that they are li!e us and #ould choose as #e ourselves #ould choose. The only safe assumption is that #e are all different, #ith differences #hich re.uire to e re* spected, even #hen those differences are in apparent disagreement. It is not enough to agree #ith our friends, #e must also agree to differ from our enemies. 2elf*Expression There is so much po#er #ithin us all, compressed as the spirit #ithin this material manifestation of ody*mind, that #e very easily claim the right, in fact the moral command, to do something a out it. There is so much of value, so much of impelling importance, so much essential ,I+ in material ,/e+, that our conceit is very lia le to transfer values from the inner to the outer #orld. It is partly self*conceit and partly the self* defence of anxiety in flight from suspense, #hich adopts this attitude of evo!ing #ith moral encouragement that #hich #ould e etter if left latent and unseen. It is true that there is this magic po#er #ithin the self, although #e often seem to dou t it. In our anxiety to :ustify ourselves, #e lay premature claim upon the office of this in#ard -enie, calling him up to e of service, to go and do something for us. It is not that Aladdin is not possessed of a lamp" it is not that #e have no magic carpet, ecause #e certainly have. %e are extremely un#ise, ho#ever, #hen #e call upon them, ecause they are est left to call upon us. 50iagram BG, page III.8 The -enie should e !ept in the ottle and the smo!e of emotion should e !ept constrained #ithin the fire of feeling. It is all a matter of our discipline in time. This po#er is not to e repressed as evil 0Hmon, nor to e evo!ed as eneficent -enie, ut to e expressed as -enius #ithin the limits of the <a#. The art of living is not that #e may e a solved from action, ut rather that action may itself ta!e place accurately in space and time, #ithout that urgent in* terference #hich #ould displace it as a result of our anxious egotism and uneasy flight from fact. %e are igger than #e thin!, and it only re.uires a little experience of the reality of paradox to reali>e that the alternative to active interference is not necessarily complete inertia. Analysis must go #ith us to the end, so that #e can reali>e that there are t#o #ays even in the act of death. %e thin! of death negatively, either as nothingness or the unseen, ut there is another more positive point of

vie# in regard to this experience. In the course of phasic change from one aspect of rhythm to another, #e s#ing from day to night and ac! again, and from rest to action. %e may therefore regard death as eing a process in continuity #ith our present experience, representing only a different phase, negative it no# seems to us, ut one to e treated positively, accepted and fully #elcomed #hen the time comes. This positive attitude to#ards death is a very different matter from that aggressive negation of experience #hich is more dead than death, ecause it denies the positive value even of death itself" as #ell as life, #hich it pretends to hold more dear. There is something #orse than death, #hich is that death #hen due should e denied. That #hich is ta!en positively in due time, ho#ever evil it may seem, can never e evil in experience, ecause nothing is evil except that our negative attitude ma!es it so. There are many in life more dead than those #ho learn to adopt this #ay of life, #hich dies in due time, thus to create ne# life in the unseen. 9eligion 2eeing that the -enie is the spirit of the matter, no# to e returned to store for safer !eeping and to safe*guard misuse, ho# does this affect our elief in and practise of 9eligion& There can e no dou t that religion in practice does provide the est, indeed the only final, guarantee against anxiety. )ut religion 5 y our attitude to it, again8 may e false or true4 and if the former, dou ly dangerous ecause it removes our only source of strength in times of stress and crisis. $or our purpose at this point, it is the method, or attitude to life, that religion implies that is important. %e may therefore define religion as ,Acceptance of the ;nseen+, #hich emphasi>es the attitude of unconditional love. In practice, religion is the experience of the unseen, ut it su divides again, according to its visi le 5exoteric8 and invisi le 5esoteric8 aspects. The exoteric aspect corresponds #ith the right an! of the river. There #e should expect to find idolatry, priestcraft, theology, 1hurchianity and all the fearful stic!lers and fixers of elief. It is not that Priests and 1hurches are #rong4 it is that #e are not to e trusted #ith them, un alanced as #e are. No !no#ledge of the truth #ill prevent us from misusing it. It is not truth #e need, ut alance, #hich #e are more li!ely to achieve if #e have more faith than elief, and do not feel too sure of any of our facts. 9eligion should e a pa#n ut not a peg, a plaything ut not a privilege, for movement is its very life. It has een the fate of all religions to e crucified, not y their enemies, ut y their friends. 3uman earnestness, so fearfully direct, so anxious to improve, uilds monuments to house the living -od, and !ills him dead #ithin an ornamental prison. <ife !no#s etter the true path of #orship, and

uilds a dying altar for a living fire. The spirit is incarnate in a dying frame. The only safety in the teaching of religion, therefore, is to prefix every statement ,This is not true+. There can e no living truth that #e can fix in #ords, dogmas, eliefs or creeds. These are ut co#ards+ castles, neurotic fallacies that lead to suicide and self*destruction. %ords are suggestive, provocative and fee le means to e more hum ly used in the service of the flame of truth. They are li!e lanterns" ut they are not the light. They serve ,despite+ themselves, #here egotists #ould hope, , ecause+. $allacies disprove themselves in time. $alsehoods fail, dogmas appear ridiculous, pontiffs cease to e regarded as ridges unto -od, and 1hurches crum le in decay. They re.uire no holding*up, or fixing y means of the flying uttresses of a rational defence. That #hich has lived in course of time must die, to e rene#ed through that experience. )ut #hat of our anxiety& This truth is too stern to e encouraging, and that is #hat #e need. %here can #e find ne# spirit for our inspiration, ne# life to reathe& The ans#er seems to e, y first meeting death on friendly terms. That is our initiation, our proving of the truth today. <et these things die4 the time has come for us to learn from 0eath the deepest lesson of the #ay of <ife.