What is Stress?

There is a popular subject making the rounds of the intellectual and mental health community, "Stress Management"? A person may ask the question is it at all possible to live completely without stress? And what is stress "actually"? If we want to know the actual truth of what stress is then we must disregard the minds definition of stress and what images are associated with it. If we cling to definition and association then we have limited our understanding to the minds search for relief and escape. Are there kinds of stress or only the "one" psychological imprint of stress? If we cease the activity of associating various types of conflict with the idea of stress then something else may happen. We may realize the whole field of thought that creates conflict and its resulting stress.

The mind is seeking an ideal state of existence, one in which we are constantly trying to free ourselves from worry and anxiety. Therefore the mind is always at various levels of stress. Because we cannot psychologically accept the reality of what is, we stress ourselves into seeking thoughts craving for what should be. The mind that is seeking the imagined, the ideal, is a mind that is caught in the illusion and conflict of self. It is the self that is the creation of thoughts desire for a continuing individuality that has a purpose and a definition. It is this defined individuality that is at the core of stress, indeed, it is the very root of all illusion and conflict. As long as one is centered in the self that is the result of minds craving for permanency and definition, a person will be experiencing various levels of stress. On the one hand there is the reality of "what is" on the other is the ideal, the minds "what should be". If a person stays with what is then there is the possibility of understanding that is the dissipation of all stress, but if one escapes into what should be then there is the conflict of stress and all its associated illnesses.

True understanding is always in the moment. One must stay with the reality of what is so that the mind can break through its illusion and see that thought as the self is the problem. One must realize that fear is self created and its result is the anxiety of stress. A person may realize that there are not kinds of stress, there is only "stress" as the result of minds fear of the reality of the moment. "Fear" is the image not the reality of what is. Image is the known, what was, as a modified projection of what should be. Because one is in fear, there is always the stress of expected consequences. So life is not lived in the moment, life is lived in the fear of a future moment which is the illusion of projected conflict.

Joy, peace and love are only in the moment. Stress in the moment is the result of a mind that is caught in the illusion of self projection, a mind that wants to escape the moment. If one can break through self illusion then there is the possibility of a life lived in complete harmony no matter the circumstances. So there is no such thing as managing stress, there is only escape or acceptance. To manage implies a individuality that is in control and is capable of controlling a psychological event. But the self is the problem so it cannot manage or solve what is the result of its very existence. Understanding the whole dynamic of thoughts creation of the self and the illusion of duality is the beginning of an intelligence that sees into the source of all conflict. So if you try manage stress, you are caught and entrenched it its illusion. But if you understand the origin of stress and its resulting conflict then it will dissipate of its own accord. The mind realizes its own self created illusion and sees perhaps for the first time the true self and realizes a consciousness that is unconditioned.