If you
ask me do I live in fear? In some ways, yes, I do and what about you? Because we are
human beings and our reactions and emotions are naturally responding through
our body, speech and mind. We all have them. Some of us know without a
doubt our fears, others, may have to dig deep inside to find them. If you are going to win any
battle, you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never
let the body tells the mind what to do.
In Buddhism, there are negative fears and positive fears and
the
cycle works like this: we react to depression by fearing, fleeing or fighting
it. These reactions cause too much adrenaline to flow, and it is this adrenalin
that causes many negative reactions and emotions symptoms. We are so desperate
to get away from these symptoms that we fear, flee and fight even more, which
in turn produces even more adrenaline, which prolongs symptoms and produces
new, even more alarming ones, which we fear, flee, and fight, and the cycle
continues.
What are the common fears for us?
Financial problems?
Sickness?
Old age?
Death?
Depression?
Family
problems?
Love and relationship problems?
Loneliness?
We have always been struck down with the constant fears that make
us unhappy and paralyze our will and as well, torturing us in every minute when
we think about all these. We attempt to run away from these and we don’t even
want to talk or face it. Who doesn’t right?
Similarly, when someone gives up a bad habit, namely smoking because
they are afraid of developing a deadly disease in their life, this is a positive
fear because the danger is real and there are constructive steps they can take
to avoid it.
We have many fears of terrorism , fear of death, fear of
being separated from people we love, fear of losing control, fear of
commitment, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of losing our job, the
list is never-ending!
Many of our present fears are rooted in what Buddha
identified as “delusions” distorted ways of looking at our self and the world
around us. If we learn to control our mind, and reduce and eventually eradicate
these delusions, the source of all our fear, positive and negative, is
eradicated.
Positive Fear
However, right now we need the positive
fear that arises from taking stock of our present situation so that we can
resolve to do something about it. For instance, there is no point in an alcoholic
being scared of dying of related diseases unless there is something that he or
she can or will stop drinking.
It is true that we are exposed to danger and harm, we are
vulnerable to aging, sickness, and eventually death, all due to our being
trapped in samsara – the state of uncontrolled existence that is a reflection
of our own uncontrolled minds. We are vulnerable to all the mental and physical
pain that arises from an uncontrolled mind-such as the pains that come from the
delusions of attachment, anger, and ignorance.
We can choose to live in denial of this and in that way give
up what control we have, or we can choose to distinguish this susceptibility, distinguish
that we are in danger, and then find a way to avert the danger by removing the
actual causes of all fear.
The delusions and negative, unskillful actions motivated by
those delusions. In this way we gain control, and if we are in control we have
no cause for fear. All Buddha’s teachings are methods to overcome the
delusions, the source of all fears.
A positive fear it serves to
motivate constructive action to avoid a real helplessness situation. We only
need fear as an impulsion until we have removed the causes of our vulnerability
through finding spiritual, inner refuge and gradually training the mind.
There are fears of being
deluded and harmful and non-deluded and positive. These can also be divided
into fear to be anticipated and fear of the inevitable. The key to dealing with
fear is to check which types of fear we have, and to transform our negative
fears of what we can do nothing about into healthy, appropriate fears of what
we can do something about.
We can then use these as the
motivation to develop refuge and to overcome what is really dangerous, and even
eventually to overcome what at present seems inevitable, such as sickness, old
age, and death. Perhaps we are afraid of death. Again, though, as we
are definitely going to die, that fear is not constructive and will lead to
inappropriate responses such as denial or a sense of uselessness or
meaninglessness in our life.
However, although we have to die, we don’t have to
die with an uncontrolled mind. It is therefore wise to transform our fear of
dying into a fear of dying with an uncontrolled mind, the motivation that will
ensure we prepare for a peaceful and controlled death.
Liberation from
Fear
In other words, we cannot
control whether things will go our way or not, but we can learn to control our
own minds, our responses, and our own conduct, and in this way gradually find a
genuine liberation from all fear. It is crucial that we recognize that it is this cycle that
causes fears disturbing physical, mental, emotional and spiritual sensations,
and that by breaking that cycle, we can eventually be free of them.
As with all emotion, the practice
of meditation can stabilize us enough in the midst of fear to help us see more
clearly, and to distinguish a false threat from a genuine threat that needs to
be acted upon. The type of fear meditation can have the most effect on is the
fears that we continually generate in our own minds, the product of our rich
imagination and our desire to control everything, rather than be tossed around
in the risky and stormy world.
Thank
you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps
to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the
world.
Aspiration
For Bodhichitta
For
those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen
May it
arise and not decrease
But
increase further and further.
Nagarjuna's
Dedication of Merit
By this
merit may we obtain omniscience then.
Having
defeated the enemies wrong-doings.
May we
liberate migrators from the ocean of existence.
With
its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.
*Note
I do
not own or infringe any copyright of these pictures.
Pictures
courtesy and credit to the rightful owners.
