Experiencing our painful financial scam reminded us of the wisdom of an ancient teaching from the Buddhist spiritual tradition – the “eight worldly concerns”.
The eight worldly concerns classify the attachments and aversions that yoke us to life in this world – the cycle of suffering. They are the four hopes and corresponding four fears, which we cycle through endlessly – until, that is, we discover an authentic spiritual path (which will include freeing us from the eight worldly concerns).
1 & 2: Happiness vs. Suffering
Once we have happiness, fear arises, for we are afraid to lose it. When suffering arises, no amount of wishful thinking makes it go away. The more we hope for it to be otherwise, the more pain we feel.
3 & 4: Fame vs. Insignificance
We are obsessed with fame and afraid of our own insignificance. When it dawns on us how hard we need to work to be seen as someone special, our fear of insignificance is only magnified.
5 & 6: Praise vs. Blame
We need to be pumped up constantly or we begin to have doubts about our worth. When we are not searching for praise, we are busy trying to cover up our mistakes so we don’t get caught.
7 & 8: Gain vs. Loss
Just as we are about to congratulate ourselves on our success, the bottom falls out. Over and over, things are hopeful one moment and the next they are not, and in either case we are anxious.
Source: Based on Lion’s Roar Staff. “What Are the Eight Worldly Concerns?” 2016. See https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhism-by-the-numbers-the-eight-worldly-concerns/
These eight styles of hope and fear are further explained as follows:
The eight worldly concerns (or preoccupations) are an endless cycle of hope and fear that dominates our lives from day to day and moment to moment, from beginning to end: hope for happiness and fear of suffering; hope for fame and fear of insignificance; hope for praise and fear of blame; and hope for gain and fear of loss. Basically, we spend our lives trying to hold on to some things and get rid of others in an endless and stressful struggle.
You could ask, what’s wrong with preferring happiness to sadness or praise to blame? Isn’t the pursuit of happiness what it’s all about? Isn’t it obvious that gain is better than loss? But it is one thing to recognize what we would like to attract and what we would prefer to get rid of, and quite another to be obsessed with getting our way and terrified of things going wrong.
The problem is that hope is joined at the hip with its partner, fear. We can’t have one without the other. When we are caught in this hope–fear cycle, our attitude is always tense and even our most satisfying experiences are bounded by paranoia.
Happiness vs. Suffering
In the first style of hope and fear, we look at things in terms of happiness versus suffering, pleasure versus pain. We hope for happiness, but once we have it, fear arises, for we are afraid to lose it. Out of that fear we cling to pleasure so hard that the pleasure itself becomes a form of pain. And when suffering arises, no amount of wishful thinking makes it go away. The more we hope for it to be otherwise, the more pain we feel.
Fame vs. Insignificance
In the second style of hope and fear, we are obsessed with fame and afraid of our own insignificance. We scramble our way to the top, hungry for confirmation, and when it is not forthcoming we get turned off and huffy. Then when it dawns on us how hard we need to work to be seen as someone special, our fear of insignificance is magnified. Behind our façade of fame, we suffer from a kind of inner desolation and hollowness.
Praise vs. Blame
With the third style, we are obsessed with praise and fearful of blame. We need to be pumped up constantly or we begin to have doubts about our worth. When we are not searching for praise, we are busy trying to cover up our mistakes so we don’t get caught. But there is never enough praise to satisfy us, and we are never free from the threat of being found wanting. Only if we are perfect can we count on continual praise, but although we struggle for perfection, we can never attain it. The slightest little mistake is all it takes to re-trigger our fear.
Gain vs. Loss
Finally, with the fourth style we are obsessed with gain and loss. We invest in situations with high hopes, and we expect that if things have been improving, they will continue to do so. That quality of hope is so seductive that we forget how easily situations can turn on us. But just as we are about to congratulate ourselves on our success, the bottom falls out, and fear once again holds sway. Our hope falls apart and we are afraid that things will keep going downhill forever. Over and over, things are hopeful one moment and the next they are not, and in either case we are anxious.
These cycles of hope and fear occupy our minds and capture our energy. No matter what is happening to us, we think it could be better, or at least different. No matter who we are, we think we could be better, or at least different. Nothing is ever good enough and we can never relax.
Source: Based on Lief, Judy. “The Middle Way of Stress”. Lion’s Roar Magazine. See https://www.lionsroar.com/the-middle-way-of-stress-september-2012/
In summary, we need to catch ourselves being led by or preoccupied with the “eight worldly concerns”. They can unwittingly become obsessions where our actions are governed by attachment and aversion:
- hope for happiness and fear of suffering
- hope for fame and fear of insignificance
- hope for praise and fear of blame
- hope for gain and fear of loss
The financial scam reminded and taught us that we have to break free from having our lives dominated by the endless cycle of hope and fear.
How true to life these eight worldly preoccupations can be! In relation to our financial loss through the scam, our spirits plummeted because of the scam – the loss experienced. We were content and happy before the loss – while our finances were secure and being added to through our pensions and some dividends from money we had invested.
We realized that we cannot allow our attitudes and feelings to be buffeted about and be continually up and down like the stock market by changing external events, many of which are inconsequential in the long-run – that is, to be going up and down with our emotions like a yo-yo, and when events are going our way, we’re up, and when things happen that we don’t like, we’re down (sometimes several times even in a day)!
Of course, this is not to negate the seriousness of the scam crime we had fallen prey to as victims – and for which responsible action had to be taken, such as informing law enforcement officers.
Over a period of time, we finally reached a level of acceptance and equanimity where we recognized that gain and loss are a natural part of life – we “win some and lose some” as a dear older friend once shared with us.
Alexander and Eva Peck