“Nothing is what we thought. Emptiness is not what we thought. Neither is mindfulness or fear. Compassion – not what we thought. Love. Buddha nature. Courage These are code words for things we don’t know in our minds but any of us could experience them. These are words that point to what life is when we let things fall apart and let ourselves be nailed to the present moment.”
Fear is a natural reaction when we move closer to the truth.
No one tells us to stop running away from fear. It’s sometimes close and sometimes far, but it is always there lurking somewhere in the background. Fear can even come very close but the only advice we are ever given is to sweeten it up, smooth it over, take a pill or distract ourselves but by all means make it go away.
The intimacy of fear can never be predicted but the certainty of fear is always present.
It could be as small as the fear of a spider. We may look at the spider in the eyes and have all the emotions of fear, anger, gloom, etc. overwhelm us in the moment, but that moment too passes and before you know it, the spider has vanished (moved along). Such is fear; fear, it comes and it will look at you straight in the eye until you are scared silly. Sometimes the fear is too close and we become too familiar with it. It is a bit after that when the fear subsides.
However, sometimes we are cornered and we have no place to run. There’s nowhere to hide and no way to make fear look ‘pretty’. Fear introduces us to courage – the ability to look at what we fear in the eye with great strength. Being intimate with fear is just the beginning for us to encounter our bravery and ability to act heroically. It is the ability to be a coward that makes us so heroic!
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” ― Nelson Mandela
“Courage to me is doing something daring, no matter how afraid, insecure, intimidated, alone, unworthy, incapable, ridiculed or whatever other paralyzing emotion you might feel. Courage is taking action….no matter what. So you’re afraid? Be afraid. Be scared silly to the point you’re trembling and nauseous, but do it anyway!” ― Richelle E. Goodrich
