We live in the age of anxiety. We who see, see clearly this is a pandemic of fear. One of the central emotional responses during a pandemic is fear. Fear comprises both an emotional and physical response to stress. Functional fear helps people develop coping strategies, and the ‘right’ amount of anxiety can help us perform better and stimulate action. However, the fear created during this pandemic is completely disproportionate and irrational (2). The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemonium is associated with highly significant levels of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychological distress (3). The ruling class say functional fear predicts our compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic (4). The more anxious we are, the more we comply. Eastern religion philosopher Alan Watts wrote, “If we look deeply into such ways of life as Buddhism, we do not find either philosophy or religion as these are understood in the West. We find something more nearly resembling psychotherapy” (3) . Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, helps eliminate or alleviate disturbing symptoms to enable one to encourage personal well-being and encourage healing. Our controllers know this hence they apply behavioural science techniques on us that discourage well-being and healing; the intention to increase compliance (5).
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The Watts quote is still relevant, but Buddhism is much more than psychotherapy while the West’s understanding of philosophy and religion has evolved far beyond Watts’ time. Today, Nagarjuna is widely considered to be one of the world’s great thinkers, to say nothing of the Buddha himself. Buddhist ideas permeate not only psychotherapy but also how we think of the mind, including the idea of this being a conscious universe. ABN
American Buddhist Net 