Chicago Street at Night
I came across this quote “Anxiety is the fundamental mood of existence” — attributed to Martin Heidegger — in Wittgenstein’s Mistress by David Markson. Markson also wrote that Van Gogh could make everything — even a pair of boots — seem to have anxiety. I don’t remember who he attributed that to.
Wittgenstein’s Mistress is a marvelous book — the height of the experimental novel, according to David Foster Wallace who committed suicide — probably due to his anxiety. But I don’t want to write about the book right now. I want to think out loud about the idea of Heidegger’s about the fundamental mood of life. Is it anxiety for most people? Is anxiety the fundamental mood of your life?
I discussed this with my wife. At first Aurora was skeptical. She is a very positive and cheerful person so ideas like this don’t usually sound right to her. Then, later after thinking for awhile she said something like — “you know it makes sense. We are in a mode (not mood) of survival — always deciding to flee or fight when pressured. And we are often pressured.”
Many of us feel like we are fighting a war. Business is war. The economy is survival of the fittest. In America when its time to file your income taxes it is always anxious time for most of us. We speak of the dog eat dog world. Even our holidays create anxiety. Getting away for a vacation is a source of anxiety for most of us too.
So is the purpose of philosophy and religion to help us over come this anxiety? There is another cause of anxiety — a kind of background noise for our existence as super-sentient beings — the knowledge of our impending, inevitable death. As I read about Buddhism I am learning that one purpose of meditation is to figure out how to deal with knowing that we will certainly die but at a time that is unknown and not of our choosing. Some Buddhists meditate on that daily and afterwards decide how to spend the day — which could be the last one for any living person.
Mortality is one of the truths about life Buddha woke up to. Its a pretty fundamental truth but many mortals do not face it until late in life if ever. By face it I mean think through what it means and how this knowledge should inform our daily life. Buddhist thinking has it that we can only be sure of the present moment. The past is gone, tomorrow may not come and is unknown if it does. Some western religions ask us to focus our attention on ‘the next life.’ Live in a way that will ensure entrance to heaven. Of course Buddhists — some Buddhists — believe in Karma and reincarnation. Karma = actions and the associated reaction of the laws associated with Karma. So this amounts to the same thing, I think.
Meditation is good practice whether dealing with mortality or trying to calm jittery nerves. So is being in nature if one really is there to enjoy it. Real work can also relieve anxiety but there isn’t as much of that around as there used to be. By real work I man doing something for the joy of the work itself and what it will accomplish. Some of us still have that kind of work, others seek it and make it out of an avocation. But there is no doubt that real work is a big help. And maybe the most favorable way to calm down to to help others. I think after meditation there are Buddhists who decide to do just that as well as Catholics, Unitarians and atheists as well.
I recently read a book entitled “Buddhism Without Beliefs” by Stephen Batchelor Its a condensed introduction to Buddhist practice and thinking without the mysticism. A little like Thomas Jefferson’s bible — Jefferson cut out all the mysticism and miracles from the New Testament and made a book that was mostly the sayings and wisdom of Jesus. I highly recommend it. It might help you deal with your anxiety — it helped me with mine.
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January 12, 2011 at 10:26 am
Beth Peterson
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, interesting to question to ponder.
I think stress is fundamental to existence and a positive force. I’d hate to live a life without any stress.
I’ve always thought of anxiety as a negative, wasteful reaction to stress and anxiety most often includes feelings of lack of control or lack of acceptance.
My niece, who is a beautiful girl of 18 and has a terrible opiate addiction, describes her biggest reason for relapse as “unrelenting anxiety”.
“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things that I can; and the wisdom to know the difference”
Achieving serenity in our world of constant stress…that’s what I’m hoping for.
January 12, 2011 at 10:59 am
Frank Winters
Thank you, Beth for taking the time to read and comment. I don’t see stress as positive. I used to live in a very stressful world that I thought was unavoidable. I now feel that stress can be mitigated and that we can control our world, our lives. Even under the most difficult circumstances. But I think understanding that stress is not inevitable is only step one. And by avoiding/mitigating stress I don’t mean eliminating it all. It can be a result of positive efforts which are worthwhile and generate stress.
I see many people who generate their own unhelpful, unnecessary stress and anxiety. I do it to myself. I sometimes have an anxious feeling and when I examine it I realize that its over something so monumentally trivial that I laugh out loud.
I’m learning about meditation. In preparation for meditation we are not counciled to ignore what’s bothering us, rather we are counciled to notice our aches and pains and stress and anxiety. Then meditate. Being aware of our state of mind is the first step to improving it I think.
I admire the AA motto you quoted. As you probably know, its from a prayer by Reinhold Niebhr. He winds up in the hands of God and that’s a place many people go to to achieve serenity. I don’t know if there is peace in eternity (like to think there is tho) but I am sure there can be peace on earth in the here and now.
Here is the prayer:
The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr
God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things that I can;
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next.
Amen
February 5, 2012 at 9:21 am
Brian Robinson
Thank you for this post. It expresses some profound and worthwhile thoughts. There is a potential misunderstanding of Heidegger, though — and while it does not devalue anything you have said, I thought it would be worth commenting on.
You begin by saying: ‘I came across this quote “Anxiety is the fundamental mood of existence” — attributed to Martin Heidegger — in Wittgenstein’s Mistress by David Markson.’ Then you discuss anxiety in a quite different sense to that meant by Heidegger when talking of it as fundamental mood — although the two are connected, as I will try to explain.
Anxiety is the term commonly used to translate the German word ‘Angst’ in Heidegger’s book, Being and Time. I prefer anguish as a translation; however, I think the potential for confusion is more to do with what Heidegger was attempting to say than with issues of translation. You come close to Heidegger’s meaning when you talk of ‘our impending, inevitable death’ as ‘a kind of background noise for our existence’.
Our existence — everything we do and feel, including feeling happy or sad and anxious or calm — is structured by the always imminent end to that existence. Here, anxiety (or Angst in the German, or anguish as an alternative translation) is not a particular feeling or state of mind, etc. Rather, it expresses how finite-ness (finitude) shapes our existence such that all the concrete details of living our lives are affected by it, even when (or perhaps especially when) we “run away” from it. This fundamental mood itself is not one of those concrete details, and thus is not a mood at all in the everyday sense of that word.
Whether we face it or seek to hide from it, our own death is there, not as a future “event” that we might think about or not think about but as something that conditions our lives. This need not be overly gloomy: for me, as for everyone else, all possibilities will end; but the possibilities I have are precious.
February 7, 2012 at 5:05 pm
Frank Winters
Brian, thanks for your comment. I’m sure I don’t understand Heidegger – I’ve read little. I did just start to read a bit more so maybe I’ll catch on (doubtful he is famously dense and ambiguous). In fact I’m not sure the quote is actually attributable to Heidegger – Wittgenstein’s Mistress is full of intentional misquotes and inaccuracies and I’ve seen the quote attributed to Kierkegaard.
Modern philosophers and artists dwell on dread as much as anything else. Angst, anguish, anxiety and fear of death. We find ourselves in an imperfect world not to our liking.
The philosophers delve into this black aspect if human existence but do they have recommendations for us? I am too new to philosophical readings to say, but so far it seems the answer might be no. Buddhists on the other hand deal with the same issues – somehow they have managed to design a way of life that offers a way forward out of the anguish of knowing we all die.
Yoga too seems to have some related advice. In fact I just read that one solution is to constantly explore the world around us. This use of time seems much better than hand ringing over things we cannot change.
Thanks again,
Frank