Preying Could Make You Happy!?

We spend a lot worrying about whether things are good or bad.

A lot of people used to think that the people who got stuck after going to war got stuck because bad things happen.

First, we said that we got stuck because of war.

Then, we said war was a bad thing.

So we said bad things are what made us stuck,

Not just times when we saw people die or got injured.

Now we say times that gives us feelings we don't want are bad.

And that badness makes us stuck.

PTSD. Trauma. Etc.

Well, it looks like psychology is catching up to anthropology & sociology.

This week, I heard a therapist tell a bunch of veterans, "It's not what happened. It's what you come back to."

This is something that war reporter Sebastian Junger emphasized in the ‘The Last Patrol’ (2014).

The rigidity of getting stuck in escape is made worse when your society (or tribe) will not accept what you did.

This is why Vietnam veterans had the highest rates of PTSD. Their nation did not approve of them. Their people didn’t want to see or hear about them. They wanted to set them aside, to pretend like the things they did are things that aren’t a part of our world.

In contrast, Vietnam accepted its veterans. And their rates of PTSD turned out to be shockingly low.

But what does this have to do with you?

It might be easy to fear things.

To feel stuck in your head.

To disassociate.

Worrying about what someone at your job might thinking. Your friends. About doing what you’re supposed to do.

This puts you into a state of looking for dangers.

In an earlier letter, we talked about the differences you can use to tell the difference between a coyote and a similarly-sized dog when looking at their tracks.

The key is in behavior.

Coyotes are actively searching for prey.

Dogs are kind of bumping into everything in a haphazard manner.

Does a wolf get paranoid from the violence of getting chased by a bear away from the carcass of a whale?

If they do, they’re dead.

So when you spot a thought that is alarmed with the possibility of danger…

Shift your eyes.

Spy all around.

There is looking for danger.

And then there is looking for prey.

For a predator, prey is life.

Prey can be very dangerous. Lions are killed by elephants. Wolves are killed by bison.

But they are food.

Opportunities.

Consider the kind of person who clears a room. The modern incarnation of the koryos, at their best. The wolves of the modern state.

They could go in fearing for their life.

Or they could go in hoping for prey.

One of these options gets them stuck. Scared. Fearful. Rigid.

Another gives them life.

So, too, with your anxieties.

They may represent unknowns.

Dead space.

Places that danger to come from.

Or…

They could be opportunities.

Prey.

The unknown that could feed you tomorrow.

So the next time you find yourself worrying about a risk, like going to an interview, a date, or asking for time off from work…

Consider, how could the unknowns associated with this event feed you tomorrow?

You’ll have to acknowledge your predatory side, of course.

We are omnivores.

We know now, that even plants suffer.

To live, we eat. To eat, we kill. One day we will be eaten, too.

This is one of the messages of the Bhagavad Gita.

One many of us would have a hard time accepting in the wake of Christian domination.