A New Look at Anniversaries

    Buddha did not want his followers to celebrate his birthday after he was gone. This was ostensibly because he was not going to be reborn again, and because finishing life for good was more valued than any birth. He wanted people to think in terms of ending the serial birth and death cycle altogether. So, the admonition not to celebrate his birth makes sense.

   But, there is another way to think about Buddha’s admonition. With attachment, and restricted movement in mind, we might generalize from birthdays to all cyclical celebrations if they harbor static thoughts and images and re-kindle old emotional reactions.

   It may seem excessive to examine annual celebrations as potential targets of change. We are quite fond of them, after all, and they provide both structure to the year and a format of sorts for interacting with loved ones, friends and others. The major ones give us a sense of connectedness with people worldwide. And, they have been part of our cultural experience forever, which gives them a sacred or hallowed aura.

   However, in the spirit of releasing the flow of consciousness at every opportunity, which means identifying all instances where there are strictures in it, we will want to assess how much emotional energy is invested in religious and national holidays, Mother’s and Father’s days, Valentine’s Day, and all similar anniversaries.

   Each one of these celebrations has the potential of focusing consciousness inefficiently, sometimes well in advance of the actual day. Many people prepare for Christmas for months, puzzle over just the right card or gift for Valentine’s and Mother’s Day, and feel a sense of dread if they have no one to celebrate these annual days with and imagine themselves being alone on them. Each of the celebrations tends to carry a pool of images and emotions with them. Sometimes these are manifest in clear memories. Sometimes they are represented by un-identifiable emotions. Regardless, their content is static rather than flowing, and that is the only point.

     Even though we realize that the evolution of consciousness is not entirely linear, we want it to be as uninhibited in its progression as possible. Becoming as aware as we are able to be of our attachments is our way of contributing to the smooth flow of the process. Being true to the process of always moving forward requires that we not encourage the continuation of any forms of behavior that might get in the way.

    Keep in mind that, although we may yearn for the good old days, there really was no such thing as a golden age. That yearning and all nostalgia is our conservative nature at work maintaining the sense of an existing self. Everything Ego hints that we will find there we soon can recognize for its illusory quality once we observe it without reacting in the old ways and decide to bid all of it easy passage.

    Because allowing all energy to flow is in concert with our highest development, no longer being captivated by an anniversary or holiday is more rewarding than any feeling that full engagement in those celebrations can provide. We have been in the practice of looking forward to going backward, after all, which cannot be in the interest of real progress. The feeling of liberation that follows consciously reducing involvement in or exiting old cycles is better than what any celebration can offer.

    Satisfaction in re-cycling through old places is always temporary: the cycle always has to be repeated to keep the feeling of satisfaction fresh. Investing, or more accurately, re-investing energy in these “boosters” or “fixes” that keep that feeling of fulfillment current is inefficient and ultimately a drag on progress. Temporary satisfactions need temporal-based, static consciousness. They are part of what maintains the status quo.

    In the end it is not that we have to obsessively ignore or avoid such things as birth dates and solstice celebrations. Aversion, after all, can be just as energy-wasting as any other form of attachment. We can join in the fun if we do it with the same aim as we have for everything else in our conscious lives, which is to quietly pay attention to any emotional reactions we might have and to gently let them pass.

    If the idea of letting holidays and other anniversary-oriented activities pass without involvement makes you queasy, you may not be ready for that particular piece of work. People do wonder about how they will fill that time if not in celebration. They also feel odd at not joining in with others in what everyone has become used to thinking of as natural and necessary if we are to feel like we belong and to be happy.


    All temporal things pass, and if they are attachments in your consciousness, even though they may provide some feeling of well-being for a while, that will change. It has to, as time is going to pass and they will end. Taking a gently proactive, conscious approach to de-investing emotionally in them will, in the long run, be more likely to provide what you hope to find in the celebratory activities themselves.