“You possibly can plan for 100 years. However you don’t know what’s going to occur the subsequent second.” ~Tibetan proverb
Some days it seems like a fog I can’t shake—this underlying worry that one thing painful or unsure is simply across the nook.
I attempt to be accountable. I attempt to put together, make good selections, deal with issues now so the longer term gained’t unravel later. However beneath that effort is one thing more durable to face: I really feel helpless. I can’t management what’s coming, and that terrifies me.
Perhaps you’ve felt this too—that stress between doing all your finest and nonetheless fearing it’s not sufficient. Fear turns into a behavior, such as you’re rehearsing unhealthy outcomes in your head simply in case they occur.
That’s the place I discovered myself after I turned to Buddhist teachings—not for consolation precisely, however for a special relationship with uncertainty.
What Buddhism Taught Me In regards to the Future
One of many first issues I discovered is that Buddhism doesn’t inform us to cease caring concerning the future. It teaches us to cease dwelling in it.
The Buddha spoke of struggling as arising from two core causes: craving (wanting issues to go a sure method) and aversion (pushing away what we don’t need). Once I spin into fear or attempt to predict every thing, I’m doing each—I’m greedy for management and resisting what I worry.
However the future is all the time unsure. That’s the half I don’t need to admit. I used to imagine that if I assumed laborious sufficient, deliberate fastidiously sufficient, I might outmaneuver danger. However I’ve discovered that fear isn’t preparation—it’s simply struggling prematurely. It doesn’t defend me. It solely pulls me out of the life I’m really dwelling.
The Actual Battle: Planning vs. Presence
Right here’s the actual stress I battle with—and perhaps you do too: I imagine within the energy of presence. However I additionally know I have to plan.
As a filmmaker, planning isn’t elective. With out preparation, issues collapse. A well-structured plan doesn’t simply stop chaos—it makes room for creativity. It permits me to focus, discover, and reply to the second with out dropping path. In that method, planning is a part of my artwork.
So after I first encountered teachings about letting go and trusting the second, it felt contradictory. How might I stay within the now when my work, and life, require pondering forward?
This was the actual battle—the push and pull between management and give up, between construction and movement. One is critical for functioning on this planet. The opposite is critical for really feeling alive in it.
A Actual-Life Lesson in Letting Go
Years in the past, I obtained grants to make a 16mm documentary about Emanuel Wooden, a standard Ozarks fiddler with a wealthy musical heritage and a colourful presence. I had high-quality gear lined up—Nagra 4.2 audio, movie inventory, the works—and the venture felt blessed. Emanuel was keen. I used to be hopeful. The plan was strong.
It felt like every thing was lastly coming collectively.
However through the years I’ve discovered one thing the laborious method: generally, after I really feel euphoric a few plan, it’s additionally a sign—a refined warning that life might need one thing else in thoughts.
Positive sufficient, Emanuel died unexpectedly just some months earlier than I used to be scheduled to start filming. Similar to that, the movie I had meticulously envisioned, constructed assist for, and formed my 12 months round was gone.
I used to be devastated. I couldn’t give the grant a refund, and I didn’t need to abandon the deeper spirit of the venture. So I did what I didn’t count on to do: I stayed current, and I listened.
I made a special movie. A brand new one. One thing simply as sincere and grounded on this planet Emanuel represented. It was formed by the identical love of music, the identical longing to protect that means, and it emerged solely as a result of I stayed with the discomfort and uncertainty of not realizing what to do subsequent.
Planning had given me the construction. However presence—and belief—allowed the story to stay on in a special kind.
The Center Path: Versatile Readiness
I take into consideration that lesson usually. The identical battle performs out throughout many fields. The army trains obsessively for what can’t be predicted. A jazz musician rehearses scales for hours, solely to allow them to go as soon as the tune begins.
We don’t need to abandon planning. We simply have to create space for improvisation.
That is how I’ve come to grasp the Buddhist path in a sensible world: Planning is critical. However clinging is elective.
Now, I attempt to plan the best way a musician tunes their instrument. Put together with care. Present up with intention. However when the second comes, play—not from management, however from connection.
What Helps Me Now
Today, when worry concerning the future rises, I pause. I breathe. I ask myself: Am I making an attempt to manage one thing I can’t? Can I nonetheless act responsibly with out gripping so tightly? Can I belief this second, even briefly?
I nonetheless make plans. I nonetheless take accountability. However I now not faux I can outthink uncertainty. I attempt to meet it with curiosity, flexibility, and somewhat kindness towards myself.
Typically I quietly repeat:
Could I be secure. Could I meet no matter comes with braveness and care. Could I belief this second.
That doesn’t clear up every thing. But it surely brings me again to the one place I even have any energy: right here.
You don’t have to surrender planning. Simply cease making it your emotional insurance coverage coverage.
You possibly can construct the construction, take the subsequent proper step, and nonetheless go away area for all times to shock you.
Let your plans serve your life—not substitute it.
About Tony Collins
Tony Collins is a documentary filmmaker, educator, and author whose work explores creativity, caregiving, and private progress. He’s the writer of: Home windows to the Sea—a transferring assortment of essays on love, loss, and presence. Inventive Scholarship—a information for educators and artists rethinking how artistic work is valued. Tony writes to replicate on what issues—and to assist others really feel much less alone.