This series is about exploring the human consciousness. To understand the world one must first understand one’s self. What is the self? What is the structure of the human mind? How do we live and why is there so much conflict within us—and therefore in the world? The reason for asking these questions is to explorer our mind and learn about it’s inner workings. Only by looking at how the mind functions with a clear and innocent mind can we tune into the state of understanding.
This series is about a journey I want to take with you, like we would walk on a spring day in the fields: come with me and let’s see what life is all about…
Today: The Nature of Fear
What is fear? Fear creeps up in us like the shadow of the setting sun. Everyone has felt fear at one point in their lives. And not rarely has the state of fear conquered our lives and our whole being. We are dominated by this underlying current of fear. We are even afraid of being afraid. Why? What is fear? And why have we not found an answer to this in our lives? Why—indeed, has this not been the single most important question we have put forward in our lives? If we want to know the state of mind without fear we have to find an answer to these questions.
So how does one start? How does one look at fear afresh; without the burden of the past? To do this requires a very watchful mind. You have to be aware of your mind, the workings of your mind, how you think and how you function. Because the mind—our thoughts—determine who we are. The thoughts we have are not separate from us who we think we are. Our thoughts are a constant flow of feelings, impressions, judgments, reflections, analyses. It is a flow like a flow of water, like a stream which cannot be stopped. To stop it means to resist the flow of your mind. To do this is to live in struggle and conflict. So this insight is at the very beginning of our journey. To not resist your thoughts and see that your thoughts are the structure of your being is crucial to discovering who you are.
Fear is a state of being afraid about something. Fear does not exist by itself. When you are afraid you are always afraid of something in the future. The future that has not yet come into existence. But our mind is very cunning. It can make the future as real as the book or the pencil in front of you. Then there is no difference between what your mind imagines and what is actually real. The future has not yet come into existence and only the present is. Fear is never in the present, but always in the future. The future that exists in our minds. It is this future which we are afraid of. Maybe it is the fear of seeing someone or the fear of not being able to pay the bills or the deeper fear of dying or becoming sick or disabled.
But there is only one root of fear. Fear is the movement of time. The future which has not yet happened and the past which might turn into a fear of the future—an experience that you are afraid to repeat. And our thoughts can make the future as real as the stone in front of you. Therefore, the thing that you are afraid of feels so real. This realness is not something the mind can distinguish from the actual, the reality as such. In the state of fear the mind is tricking itself—realizing a future which is not real.
But the movement of time is the movement of thoughts. Thinking about the future or the past is a process of thought. Time is thought. Thought is time (psychologically speaking).
If you can see this then you are free of fear. Because in realizing this truth you can see the working of your mind and when you are at all attentive then the movement of fear stops right in its tracks. It does not take you over and does not trigger a mechanical reaction which puts you into the state of fear. If you can see as this happens, then there is a change in your system, in your being.
Therefore seeing is realizing, seeing is being aware, of understanding the nature of fear. The mind has to be attentive to see it. This seeing is something you have to feel with your whole mind and body, in your blood, and in your breath. This insight will set you free of the burden of fear.
TobeTada 2017