Chapter 17
Eliminating Fears:
Are You Really Scared? Our fears play a significant role in inhibiting us from realizing our full potential in life. We get a good idea and either do not pursue it all the way or we give up at some point because we fear failure, so we fail because we do not even try. There are countless fears in life that the mind has the potential to hold on to including the fear of death.
Through the process of pursuing Enlightenment, you need to eliminate
all fears from the mind including the fear of death. You will also need to train the mind to trust all beings. Eliminating your fears will help you to trust all beings. The best way to eliminate fears is to put the mind into whatever situation it fears to train it that there is nothing to be afraid of. For example, if you fear being alone, the loneliness is the mind experiencing discontentedness, so put the mind in many situations where it is alone until you are content being alone, no longer experiencing loneliness. Go shopping, travel, take walks in the park, or any other countless activities - do them alone. This will train the mind to reside peaceful and content while being alone. Attempting to always have people around you filling your day with constant interactions to avoid loneliness, is not solving the true problem as it is impossible to always have people around you due to The Universal Truth of Impermanence. The true challenge the mind is experiencing is that it is uncomfortable being alone, therefore, train it to be alone so that it will never experience loneliness. Do not avoid being alone by attempting to have constant interactions as this is impossible and does not solve the true problem. If you fear being alone, this could mean you are attached to always being with other people and that is why the mind is discontent. You are attached to being with others. If the mind “craves” being with others, then do just the opposite and train it to be alone. You must eliminate all cravings and desires including the constant craving for being with others.
The pursuit of Enlightenment is an independent journey with guidance from Teachers. You must get comfortable with being alone in your meditation and in daily activities. Eliminating craving/desire/attachment and eliminating the constant craving and desire for “things”, means you will need to be content with just being alone. You will not always be alone because everything is impermanent except for Enlightenment and The Natural Laws of Existence. You will have family, friends, and associates; but to attain Enlightenment, you must be comfortable with being alone and not fear anything. A mind that has no fear of failure, death, loneliness, or other fears is a mind that is independently satisfied and able to function without craving/desire/attachment, which will always and forever bring the mind contentedness. Eliminating mental craving/desire/attachment will eliminate discontentedness of the mind. Another form of fear can cause aversion to people or situations. You may have fear of those people or situations for countless reasons. To develop a stable, steady, and calm mind, you will need to be able to exist in any situation without discontentedness. You must train the mind to be content in any and all situations while protecting your own contentedness. So, if you have aversion to certain people or types of people, put the mind into situations where you encounter those people and types of people, so that the mind will not have any fear and develop loving-kindness and compassion for all beings. If the mind is discontent around other people and craves solitude, (meaning you are attached to solitude), place the mind in situations where you are around people and train the mind to be content in the presence of others. To eliminate fears, you will need to do exactly the opposite of what the mind wants. Giving into the fear through attempting to avoid whatever the mind fears does not actually solve the problem. It is just allowing the mind to avoid what it fears by not encountering the uncomfortable situation, therefore, the mind will continue to retain the fear, holding on to what it wants which produces the discontent feeling of fear, constantly looking out to be on guard ensuring it avoids those situations but never solving the true problem in the mind. If you have fear of specific situations, you will need to get comfortable to exist in those situations. Put the mind in those situations you fear so that the mind accepts that there is nothing to fear, and you can function without discontentedness in that situation.
Because the mind needs gradual training, you may need to do this slowly to allow the mind to slowly adapt to the situation and eliminate the cravings/ desires/attachments that is causing the fear. This way, the mind can then eliminate the discontentedness by overcoming the fear. For example, if you fear going back to a school where you were kicked out due to the administration’s discrimination, which resulted in poor treatment of you and that has left scars in the mind, you must overcome this mental trauma by training the mind. If you have since obtained access to the education through various means available to you to combat the discrimination, you could slowly get the mind comfortable and content with going back to the school to overcome the fear and past trauma. You could drive to the school and park in the parking lot, just exist there and allow the mind to be calm. Meditate in the car, calm the mind, and allow it to adjust. If you would like to step forward that day or in future days of training, next get out of the car and take a walk through the campus. At any time you feel fear or anxiety, do not run in fear. Sit down, breathe, relax, and train the mind to overcome the fear and attain contentedness. Next, make your way into the school buildings and interact with people. Observe the mind with “Right Mindfulness” and at any time you need to just sit, breathe, and calm the mind, do that by applying “Right Effort”. Release the fear and know that this place, its buildings, its people, and anything around you cannot hurt you. Only you can hurt yourself. There is no reason to fear. It is your own cravings/desires/attachments that cause the mind discontentedness. No one and nothing can cause the mind discontentedness. It is the mental clinging to the past experiences that is causing the mind to be discontent (i.e. experience fear). Maintain the mind in the present moment, realize you are doing nothing but breathing, therefore, since you are not causing any harm, no harm will be returned to you. Allow the mind to remain calm and peaceful in the present moment. You can apply this same method of training to other situations you fear as well. Find a way to gradually and slowly, but without being complacent, to always work towards attaining forward progress. Train the mind to feel
comfortable and “satisfied with what is”. Train the mind to be content with all people and all situations. Another example of eliminating fear would be that if the mind was involved in a vehicle accident where it now fears driving or being in a vehicle, you will need to gradually train the mind to let go of this fear. Rather than avoid being in a vehicle or feeling stress, anxiety, or apprehension when it is time to be in a vehicle, the mind can be eased into gradually becoming comfortable to once again travel in a vehicle. An approach you might consider would be to have someone you trust drive you around in a neighborhood or community, where the mind is comfortable, that has small streets with little to no traffic. Let them drive you around a few times allowing the mind to breath comfortably and adjust to being in the car trusting that all will be fine. If anything becomes too overwhelming, just close the eyes and relax. Next, once the mind is comfortable in a few sessions, then have a person you trust drive you onto streets that have a bit more traffic and repeat the process. Then, when ready, you drive on the small streets with little traffic in a neighborhood or community where the mind is comfortable. After multiple sessions of this, move to streets that have more traffic. In this way, the mind can gradually adjust to training session after training session gradually becoming comfortable driving in a vehicle to eliminate the imprint or conditioning of the negative experience it had due to the accident. The mind needs to replace the negative experience it had with several positive experiences, so the mind can see there is nothing to fear. The mind can let go of clinging to the negative experiences and conditioning of mind that it is holding on to, by having positive experiences, learning and being trained that there is nothing to fear. All of this specific training to eliminate fear can be pursued while the
Practitioner is consistently applying Breathing Mindfulness Meditation and
the entire Eight Fold Path, as the mind needs to have ongoing training in these Teachings to help it “let go” of the past negative experiences and conditioning of the mind. Apply this same approach and methodology to any and all fears that exist in the mind gradually training it to be peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy in any and all situations.
You will see that only you can cause the mind discontentedness. No one and nothing can cause the mind discontentedness. You can trust all beings while having discernment, have loving-kindness for all beings, and have compassion for all beings. Empty out anything the mind fears. Eliminate any and all fears that exist in the mind through dedicated training to eliminate cravings/desires/ attachments which will eliminate all fears. You are not really scared. You are just clinging to past or future thoughts - the mental attachment(s) are “causing” the fear, and the mind is discontent due to it holding on to past experiences or anticipating future harm. You understand The Natural Law of Kamma from a previous Chapter. If you are not doing anything unwholesome, nothing will come to hurt you. If you have only wholesome intentions, speech, and actions, the mind can be calm, steady, and peaceful knowing that only wholesome things will come back to you. If you are putting unwholesome intentions, speech, and actions into the world, then that is another reason you have fear. Eliminate any harm you are doing to other beings through making the decision to have only wholesome moral conduct, and no harm will come back to you. By purifying your intentions, speech, actions, and livelihood, this will ensure you are not causing harm so that no harm will come to you, and the mind can be at ease. Knowing that you are not causing harm can allow the mind to reside peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy. Your clinging to all those thoughts and experiences which is causing the fear, will cause the mind discontentedness. So, eliminate the clinging by gradually training the mind, and you will eliminate the fears. Fear is a form of discontentedness of mind and needs to be eliminated 100% for you to attain Enlightenment. Eliminate the mental cravings/desires/ attachments and do no harm then you will eliminate fears, and the mind can reside content. Gradually train the mind to be comfortable in any and all situations. Train the mind to be comfortable with any and all people. Train the mind to be content when alone or in any and all situations, eliminating fear through training the mind to “let go”.
Learning Resources for Further Exploration
Audiobook
(Audiobook) - (Volume 1 - Chapter 17) - Eliminating Fears: Are You Really Scared? (Read & Listen)
Ep. 517 - (Audiobook) - (Volume 1 - Chapter 17) - Eliminating Fears: Are You Really Scared?
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/buddhadailywisdom/episodes/Ep--517---Audiobook---
Volume-1---Chapter-17---Eliminating-Fears-Are-You-Really-Scared-e272uis
Youtube Video(s)
(Group Learning Program) - Chapter 17 - Eliminating Fears: Are Your Really Scared?
https://youtube.com/live/uuVdJC7wFHs
(Group Learning Program) - Guided Loving-kindness Meditation and Student
Questions
https://youtube.com/live/PnvAsVEzKTY
Podcast(s)
Ep. 471 - (Group Learning Program) - Chapter 17 - Eliminating Fears: Are Your Really Scared?
Ep. 472 - (Group Learning Program) - Guided Loving-kindness Meditation and
Student Questions
Quiz
Eliminating Fears: Are You Really Scared?
https://forms.gle/RWUi993vFz74WBnQ6
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