On fear, the need of securities and the art of being free

We are complex beings in need of thousands of small specialist “sub-religions” to believe in.

Human beings have always needed certainties to subdue and control the fear of the unknown. We do not know who we are, we do not know why we're here, we do not even know where we are. Truth is, we know nothing and no matter how hard we try, every discovery is pregnant with a new mystery, every peak we reach only reveals to us a chasm and an even higher and seemingly more unreachable peak.

There are those who react to all this by creating stories, in other words a belief system based on nothing to which they cling to with so much strength as to perceive it as real, up to the point of sponsoring it and preaching it outside. Very few are so imaginative and creative to have their own, and the most end up borrowing, with a few modifications and many simplifications, something thought up and sponsored by others.

This is the mechanism that creates religions and believers, but we are complex beings and we need thousands of small specialist "sub-religions" to believe in. Thus, we have the various sciences, medicine, physics, anatomy, etc. These small churches / religions are sometimes so aggressive that they even have the presumption of being absolutely real and indisputable. Then, there are the extravagant intersections between the various "parishes" that lead to the purest esoterismm where concepts unveil such as "true self", "soul", "chakra" and many other small worlds made of invisible but colored energies that cross the human body and the whole universe like tiny shimmering comets. Then there are those who prefer to seek protection in narrower corners and spend their time talking about what is the best gear to use uphill, which ointment cream gives you the best results, if you need to rotate the pelvis on one side or the other to find a perfect alignment, which sequence of exercises gives you a more performing body and which points must be touched in the human body to free it from all the ills that afflict it.

You get it, don’t you? I could go on forever starting from sports and finishing up with board games. The problem is that none of this works and that we continue to be fucking scared. No matter how much we preach or listen to preaching, the minute there is a moment of silence, discomfort and suffering start crawling out again. 

I am not telling you to stop creating stories, because stories are what makes the human being so fascinating. I do not even know which is the percentage of reality in the stories that we create, what is certain is that some are really intriguing and fascinating as others are dead boring. It would be enough, however, to believe in them less, be less attached to them and face life by remaining "consistent" in the present moment. In the present there are no stories and beliefs, the present is a moment of absolute emptiness that contains everything, in which there can be pleasure as there can be pain but in which there is no suffering.

The present is a thin thread, stretched over a cliff, where we cannot see the starting point or the point of arrival but in which we are totally free.