Don't Panic

This blog post was originally a sermon I gave thirteen years ago under different circumstances of change. I’ve edited to make it more relevant to today’s circumstances.

I’m sure many of you have heard of the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, found in almost every world religion. In light of the recent CoViD-19 epidemic, I would like to share with you what I call the Silver Rule. Also found in some form in nearly every world religion, it is most concisely summed up in the opening pages of Douglas Adam’s science fiction masterpiece, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or heard by any earthman.

Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book.

In fact, it was probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor of which no Earthling had ever heard either.

In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker’s Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.

First it is slightly cheaper; and second, it has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

“Don’t Panic,” that is the Silver Rule in its simplest form. Spring is usually a time of great change in any case - graduations, retirements, and other transitions – but probably never more so than this spring with graduations that are happening virtually, retirements that are quietly passing without the usual fanfare and celebration parties, and the transitions we are all experiencing in the “new normal” under the CoViD epidemic. So, I thought it would be best to flesh out this universal piece of advice. And it’s not just advice in a time of great change. Since the only thing that is constant is that nothing is constant, it is good advice for us all at all times. We are all experiencing some kind of change. So, don’t panic!

But, why not panic? Put yourself in the shoes of one of the typical graduates that are transitioning at this time of year. You have been running on this trail for the last four years and suddenly you discover that everyone you were running with has suddenly stopped and now they are waving to you from the edge of the cliff that you just ran off. Why shouldn’t you panic?

But, of course, you don’t have to imagine sudden change. We are all living it. A few weeks ago, Christians around the world were celebrating Ash Wednesday and the entrance into the Lenten season when they choose to give something up for the 40 days leading to Easter. And now we are all giving up a LOT more than we anticipated! Suddenly our very movement is limited. So, why not panic?

Let’s start with the answers found in the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Like several other religions, their response has to do with faith and gratitude in the abundance of God. Although most commonly read at funerals, the 23^rd Psalm says it well, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The Lord leads me to lie down in green pastures.” I won’t panic or be anxious because I look around me and everywhere I see God’s abundance. God has placed me in a field of blessings and I trust that those blessings will continue to be present. And you don’t have to be a Biblical literalist to believe that expression of faith. You don’t have to believe that God is actually watching over you with abundance at the ready for you personally. For liberal Jews and Christians, this passage speaks of the abundance of the earth’s bounty and their gratitude to the ultimate source of life.

Looking forward to the Christian scriptures, we have this passage in Matthew 6:25.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet, your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the filed, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the filed, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith?

So, Christianity, like Judaism says, “Don’t panic, don’t fret, don’t worry. Look at how well God takes care of so much of life on earth. You are at least worthy of that much care and love as well.”

But maybe you are not a Christian or a Jew. How about some of the Native American spiritualities? They also speak of trusting the abundance of their creator. Here are the words of Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa tribe:

These lakes, these woods, and mountains were left to us by our ancestors. They are our inheritance; and we will part with them to none. The Great Spirit and Master of Life has provided food for us in these spacious lakes, and on these woody mountains. We want for nothing.

Or Arapooish, chief of the Crow:

The Crow country is good country. The Great Spirit put it exactly in the right place. It has snowy mountains and sunny plains, all kinds of climate and good things for every season. When the summer heats scorch the prairies, you can draw up under the mountains, where the air is sweet and cool, the grasses fresh, and the bright streams come tumbling out of snowbanks. There you can hunt the buffalo, or trap beaver in streams. And when winter comes on, you need not be anxious. You can take shelter in the woody bottoms along the rivers; there you will find buffalo meat for yourselves, and cottonwood bark for your horses.

So, several religions say “Don’t panic because God, the Great Spirit has provided for you in the past and will continue to provide for you in the future. Look around, evidence of the Great Spirit’s abundance is all around you.”

Now, whether you believe that there is a God, a Great Spirit, or a Higher Power that provides that abundance or not, the evidence of abundance is still all around you. Even in a world where we need to be good stewards of the earth, we are blessed with creativity, intelligence, and resources to sustain ourselves. And there is plenty in these scriptures to remind us of our duty not to squander God’s bounty as well.

Now, let’s look to the Eastern religions. What do they have to say? Here is the 8^th chapter of the Tao Te Ching:

The supreme good is like water.

Which nourishes all things without trying to.

It is content with the low places that people disdain.

Thus, it is like the Tao.

In dwelling, live close to the earth.

In cultivating your mind, go deep in the heart.

In conflict, be fair and generous.

In governing, don’t try to control.

In work, do what you enjoy.

In family life, be completely present.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t struggle with others,

Everybody will respect you.

Taoism often speaks of how the Tao, or the Way, is like water. This passage of the Tao Te Ching is very representative of Taoism. It speaks of the abundance of nourishment, the value of contentment, and the power of understanding your nature well enough not to struggle against it. This passage says, “Don’t panic because in panicking you stop being true to who you are and you lose the respect of others.” Wow, aren’t we experiencing that lately. Who would have thought that so many people would panic buy toilet paper so that there’s none to be found? And I saw a poignant photo of a little old lady standing in front of an empty grocery store shelf as a reminder of what our uncharacteristic behavior has wrought. None of us would have literally jumped in front of that lady to take the last pack of toilet paper but that is, essentially, what we did.

So, Taoism says, “Don’t panic” because you stop being true to your nature. Instead, Cultivate your strengths. Go deep into your heart and find those qualities in you that are ready to be molded. Water is a powerful element. One drop can cause life to spring forth from a seedling. Gather a bunch of drops together and they can carve out the Grand Canyon.

Before I finish in the east with a Zen Buddhist story, let me return briefly to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. You might assume, especially if you have read the whole series of books, that the advice “Don’t Panic” is for hitchhikers who may find themselves in dire cosmic states such as floating in the vacuum of space. And you’d be right. So, Don’t Panic is a warning as in, “Don’t panic, you may think you are in trouble now but if you panic things will only get worse.” But it also a bit of advice as in, “Don’t panic because your best chance of survival is to stay present to what is going on right now and find a solution.” Which takes us to the Zen Buddhist story.

A young soldier was heading off to war when he realized that, in his hurry, he forgot to see to his spiritual well-being before he left. As he gets closer to the battle, he becomes more and more anxious about all of the unanswered questions he has about life. Finally, he is so worried about those questions that one of his fellow soldiers suggests that he visit a Zen master who lives nearby. He follows his friend’s advice and requests a meeting with the master. When it is granted, he asks the master if he knows the secret to life. The master nods. “Please, tell me,” the soldier says. “I am going off to war and I do not know if I will survive.”

The master replies simply, “Pay attention.”

Pay attention. Don’t panic. Stay in this moment, here and now. Go deep into the heart.

It’s important to know that Buddhism teachers that Pain is not the same as Suffering. Pain is an experience like many we have. Joy. Loss. Excitement. Grief.

SUFFERING is a reaction to pain. Pain is something we experience. Suffering is something we do. We suffer when we run away from pain and don’t allow ourselves to feel the pain. That doesn’t mean we go looking for pain. But once something has happened, running away from it only causes suffering. Instead, we become attached to the pain even as we are running away from it rather than allowing ourselves to experience it and move through it. We suffer because the more we run away from it, the more we suffer in anticipation that it might catch up with us. And it will, because what we are running from is something that has already happened, we just won’t accept it. This is the reason why Kubler-Ross’s famous stages of grief begins with denial. Our first response to loss is often denial even in the face of staggering facts to the contrary.

So, when the master replies, “Pay attention,” the master is not saying, “Don’t worry about the meaning of life when you have arrows flying through the air.” The master is saying, stay present to what is happening. Or as the Taoist puts it, “Go deep in the heart.” Accept your present condition and embrace it.

Now, I can hear some of you thinking, “Embrace the pain?! That sounds like you’re telling us to give up when things are bad! What kind of advice is that?”

So, let me pause to say something about acceptance versus giving up. Let’s say, you are being chased by a tiger. And the tiger catches you. Giving up is when you just lay motionless and allow yourself to become lunch. Acceptance is when you accept that the tiger has caught you and you stop flailing your legs in a running motion because you have accepted that you are no longer running from the tiger but have been caught by the tiger. Having accepted that your present condition is that the tiger has caught you, you can turn your energy toward fighting the tiger. Similarly, if you have had a painful experience, a loss in your life, a tragedy, or simply a change, you must first accept that it has happened, allow yourself to experience the grief of that moment, rather than denying what has already occurred, so that you can move forward.

To panic is to assume that you can control the uncontrollable present condition. That you can change the fact that the tiger has caught you. Or to assume that, if you could, that would be the solution to all your problems. You can’t change what has happened, you can only effect what will happen next. And even then, you can only control you. You can’t get rid of all the tigers and you can’t change that the tiger caught up with you. You can only effect whether or not the tiger keeps you in his grasp.

In today’s terms, the CoViD virus is here. The tiger has caught us. Panic has been the prevailing theme. Panic that leads to toilet paper hoarding and panic that leads to denial and paralysis. We can’t call a do over and replay the last few weeks. Me must pay attention to the present moment. What are our resources and what can we do now?

When I was 17, I was graduating from high school and preparing to leave home. My younger sister, Tamara, gave me a letter. In it, she acknowledged the change that was taking place in our family. She spoke of all the other changes that we, as siblings who are only 18 months apart, had experienced together. She compared all of those changes in the past to doors that had closed behind her that she had only accepted when she turned around to go back through them and found that they were locked. “This time,” she wrote, “I see the door that is about to close. And I’m going to take the key and lock that door myself. Because I know that, even though, I cannot go backwards through that door, I will always be able to unlock it and look in on all the memories we have there.” There was grief in her letter to be sure. But there was also acceptance. And with that acceptance came a renewed sense of control, an ability to respond to the present condition rather than deny it. And one of those conditions, for me, was an ability to see my “little sister” in a new light, with a wisdom that I hadn’t noticed before.

When you are caught by a tiger, you are caught in a moment of time that is solely life or death. There are instantaneous decisions that must be made to get out of the grasp of the tiger. But most situations in life are a blend of urgency and presence. It is as if we were caught by the tiger and could simultaneously appreciate the view of the blue sky above us while beginning to enact a creative means of escape. THAT is the time we are living in today. Some of these changes, while unexpected and unwelcome, are also bringing us opportunities. I am getting to spend a quantity and quality of time with my children that was unavailable to me when I was dropping them off at school each morning. And that is just ONE thing I am staying present to in this time of unexpected upheaval.

To all of us going through enormous change, whether the traditional anticipated rites of passage or the sudden global change, I say, “Don’t panic.” We are facing a “pan-demic” and it is going to require a “pan-inspirational” response, a creative response that requires wisdom from across the globe. 

As the Christians, Jews, and Native Americans teach us, we are blessed with an abundance of resources and creativity and the skills to use them wisely. As the Taoists and Buddhists teach us, it is important to accept what has already happened, go deep in the heart, embrace the moment, and grieve the losses inherent in it. As a good Taoist might say, “Go with the flow.” And then use the resources you have at your disposal to make the most of your present condition. Pay attention to all of life’s precious moments, the bitter and the sweet. Allow yourself to be inspired to seek out solutions to our current conditions. 

While the doctors and scientists are seeking a solution in their strength, what is the creative response to be found among YOUR strengths? If we panic, we miss out on the experience of life – its joys and its pains and its inspiration. It’s too great an adventure to spend any part of it in panic. 

Choose to be blessed by staying present and finding your creative strength.