“You possibly can plan for 100 years. However you don’t know what’s going to occur the following second.” ~Tibetan proverb
Some days it looks 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 decisions, handle issues now so the long run received’t unravel later. However beneath that effort is one thing tougher to face: I really feel helpless. I can’t management what’s coming, and that terrifies me.
Possibly you’ve felt this too—that rigidity between doing all your finest and nonetheless fearing it’s not sufficient. Fear turns into a behavior, such as you’re rehearsing dangerous outcomes in your head simply in case they occur.
That’s the place I discovered myself once I turned to Buddhist teachings—not for consolation precisely, however for a special relationship with uncertainty.
What Buddhism Taught Me Concerning the Future
One of many first issues I discovered is that Buddhism doesn’t inform us to cease caring in regards to the future. It teaches us to cease residing in it.
The Buddha spoke of struggling as arising from two core causes: craving (wanting issues to go a sure means) and aversion (pushing away what we don’t need). After I spin into fear or attempt to predict all the things, I’m doing each—I’m greedy for management and resisting what I worry.
However the future is at all times unsure. That’s the half I don’t wish to admit. I used to consider that if I assumed laborious sufficient, deliberate fastidiously sufficient, I might outmaneuver threat. However I’ve discovered that fear isn’t preparation—it’s simply struggling upfront. It doesn’t shield me. It solely pulls me out of the life I’m really residing.
The Actual Battle: Planning vs. Presence
Right here’s the actual rigidity I battle with—and possibly you do too: I consider within the energy of presence. However I additionally know I have to plan.
As a filmmaker, planning isn’t optionally available. 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 shedding path. In that means, planning is a part of my artwork.
So once 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 the 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 challenge felt blessed. Emanuel was keen. I used to be hopeful. The plan was strong.
It felt like all the things was lastly coming collectively.
However over time I’ve discovered one thing the laborious means: typically, once I really feel euphoric a couple of plan, it’s additionally a sign—a refined warning that life might need one thing else in thoughts.
Certain sufficient, Emanuel died unexpectedly just some months earlier than I used to be scheduled to start filming. Identical to that, the movie I had meticulously envisioned, constructed help 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 wish to abandon the deeper spirit of the challenge. 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 the 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 typically. 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 track begins.
We don’t should abandon planning. We simply have to create space for improvisation.
That is how I’ve come to know the Buddhist path in a sensible world: Planning is critical. However clinging is optionally available.
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
Lately, when worry in regards to the future rises, I pause. I breathe. I ask myself: Am I making an attempt to regulate 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 duty. However I now not fake I can outthink uncertainty. I attempt to meet it with curiosity, flexibility, and a bit kindness towards myself.
Typically I quietly repeat:
Might I be secure. Might I meet no matter comes with braveness and care. Might I belief this second.
That doesn’t clear up all the things. 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 following proper step, and nonetheless depart house 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 development. He’s the creator 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.
