We Worry About Problems We Don't Even Have | Eastern Philosophy

Two people attend a house party, where they socialize with the same guests, drink from the same beer tap, and are exposed to the same music and atmosphere. They decide to share a taxi and drive home when the party is over as they live closely together.

“That party really sucked,” one person says.

“The beer was terrible, the DJ was really bad, and the guests were insufferable.”

Then the other person says, smiling joyfully:

“Really? I just had the best party in years. It was awesome.”

This example shows how differently we see, in essence, the same thing. How come someone experiences outside events as very pleasurable while another person is annoyed by the same circumstances? It seems that everyone has different interpretations of what’s happening around them. What’s gold for someone is mud to someone else. So, what’s preferable, unpleasant, beautiful, or undesirable, although consensus exists, ultimately lies in the eye of the beholder.

Nevertheless, many people have difficulties seeing their realities for what they are: subjective, based on opinion, and not the absolute truth. If someone believes a party inherently sucks, then this person doesn’t see it as a mere observation but as a fact. And as a consequence, the person believes he suffers the party, but in reality, he suffers his attitude towards it. The party itself cannot cause suffering.

Just like we can’t listen to music without ears or taste food without a tongue, something can only be suffered if there’s a sufferer. The party needs something to observe and interpret. And thus, in reality, problems cannot exist without a perceiver, as circumstances aren’t troublesome without someone or something identifying them as such.

So, if there’s nothing inherently problematic about reality, doesn’t that mean that we humans repeatedly (and on a grand scale) worry about problems that don’t even exist? If you enjoy this video, don’t forget to hit the like button.

Before we try to answer whether or not our problems actually exist, we’ll explore the nature of reality in the light of Eastern philosophical ideas. After all, most (if not all) issues relate to our circumstances; to what we perceive as reality. For example, according to our collectively agreed-upon norms, ‘having financial problems’ means that we cannot pay off debts over the long or short term or pay for our living expenses.

And since we cannot meet the norms, we consider our situation ‘problematic.’ But regardless of the discomfort that financial problems bring, the problematic element we attach to it remains subjective. It’s a consequence of a collective perception of reality, labeling appearances right or wrong, valuable or not valuable, desirable or undesirable.

As human beings, reality as we experience it consists of countless concepts and ideas. These help us make sense of chaos by naming things, using labels, bundling elements together, distinguishing one thing from the other, and applying value judgments. These concepts and ideas can be collective and individual, meaning that the human world consists of billions of ‘sub-worlds’ which are all realities on their own.

Hence, in one person’s universe, a party is fantastic. In another, it’s lame (repeat). Also, human reality isn’t the only reality out there. Animals, and possibly even plants, have their unique perceptions of reality. The world of dogs primarily consists of smells, for example.

Dogs cannot reason like humans and don’t understand concepts like ‘capitalism,’ or ‘religion,’ or ‘financial problems.’ And because they cannot comprehend these concepts, they won’t cause them any concern. Dogs are concerned with food, protecting their loved ones, and bodily affection, which are traits we share.

And so, the worlds of humans and dogs intersect but are still very different from each other. The Taoist scripture Zhuangzi mentions a parable about the human concept of beauty. In the story, two women considered most attractive by men were rather repulsive in the eyes of other living creatures. I ...