Many of us suffer a great deal because of the uncertainty of life. We don’t know whether things are going to turn out in our favour or not. This fear can be very unsettling even if our experience to this point has shown us that things do in fact turn out ok.
The principal reason for this kind of anxiety is a lack of understanding about which actions lead to happiness and which actions lead to suffering. We may think that we have a grasp of such concepts but if we really understood the causes of happiness then we would have nothing to worry about.
On the other hand, once we have settled on mindfulness as taught by the Buddha as our guiding compass we would not experience anxiety about the future to the same extent. This will take some time to establish but after training and patience, it is possible to live life with a greater confidence and sense of purpose.
How can we begin that training? The essential factor in determining our spiritual success is ensuring that our practice is authentic as taught by the Buddha. While the practice of mindfulness is simple, it is also subtle. It is important that we undertake our mindfulness training under the guidance of a teacher trained to provide instruction in Insight Meditation. Once we take steps to begin this training, we start our journey on the path to freedom from worry and doubt.