In the 70s, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche wrote about the “fear of non-existence” as a core driver of suffering. That fear is not just mortality but the existential dread that our identity, security, and reference points could dissolve at any moment.

The negative processing of that fear, he posits, drives us towards “Setting-sun energy,” which is summarized:

• An attempt to cover up or avoid that fear through comfort, distraction, or ideological certainty.
• Building a “fortress” of possessions, status, routines, or beliefs so we don’t have to feel the underlying shakiness.
• This avoidance feeds the fear – because any threat to that fortress makes us feel more fragile.

That feels true to me.

If we add to that teaching the idea that social media, and the responses we get from it, provide an image that we use to construct our identities – to build our “self” – we also tend to use social media to create exaggerated selves.

Looking again at the view that this fear is “the existential dread that our identity, security, and reference points could dissolve at any moment” – would not social media serve as an accelerator to both the fear of non-existence and an even more forceful move towards setting-sun energy? It leads to an incessant drive for “more” – more recognition, more status, more wealth (either real or perceived), more tangible evidence of “existence.”

Note that Trungpa also mentions “ideological certainty”. Bold that. Underline that. The global expression of such certainty has been growing, perhaps geometrically, for a few decades and, I fear, the enormity of the pain and suffering that it will lead to is just beginning.

I am reminded of interview I heard with director Guy Ritchie. He talked about how we all use crutches to hold up our image of self, “Crutches create a false personality that relies on reflection (from others) and leaves you constantly in a state of flux and anxiety – you can’t help but be permanently nervous and gagging for stability and control. The narrative we are supporting about who we are is invented and is weak – it doesn’t exist.”

That also feels true. We are all trying to don “the emperor’s new clothes.”

Ritchie continues: “Your brain has an agenda to keep the false self alive (by worrying about things that won’t happen) but it wants to maintain the illusion of authority even though ultimately it has no position of authority.”

How do we escape this self-reinforcing cycle? Chögyam Trungpa has a book on it, Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery, but it’s not a hard recommendation for me. It’s a bit tangled.

Ritchie puts it this way:

“Fear is the ultimate expression of powerlessness. You can give up the crutches – they are idiosyncrasies – but what happens when you release the entire false personality? This is what spiritual epiphany is. That freedom is independence.”

Sophocles wrote: “’Tis one thing to speak much, another well.” Whether I have spoken much or well – let me know in the comments.