What We Fear Most
Posted: Monday, January 11, 2010
by e
Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation
It's not surprising that most people don't know the answer to this question, because although the answer is obvious, the obvious is many times looked past just as we never see a clear lens but only what is beyond it.
And no, it isn't death that we fear most. We have rationalized that fear into eternal life with our religions, so death is not the most feared. As a matter of fact, most people, if you ask them if they fear death, will say, "No,"
Perhaps what we fear most is losing everything that we own, or a separation from someone close, someone who we depend upon for our happiness, support, companionship. However, these are but a distraction from what we really fear.
Maybe our greatest fear is losing our health. Will we come down with a serious disease that incapacitates us and empties our bank account? But like the other above fears, we have not yet gotten to the bottom of our real fear yet.
And then there are the annoying petty fears in the form of worry with which we entertain ourselves constantly. Money, relatives, jobs, world tensions, whether an asteroid is going to wipe us out or an alien abduct us. But none of these even approach our greatest fear. Actually, since these lesser fears keep the mind busy and distracted from our greatest fear, they are no more than convenient escapes.
All of the above fears, including the fear of death, are mere interludes for the mind; hideouts in which the mind can rest. For our minds desperately seek any and all escapes from its real fear, which is truth.
Not the truth that we make up in our minds or hear about, or the truth of our particular religion which varies depending upon which holy book we read. No, this truth applies to everything and every being in the universe; it is unassailable.
This unquestionable truth has a way of destroying our illusions - all of them. And since our entire existence is based on illusion, truth basically destroys us, or what we believe "us" to be.
It's as if we are running from some terrible monster. We can feel its foul breath on the back of our necks and hear its claws gripping the dirt right behind us. If we slow down or make the slightest stumble, we know that we will be torn to pieces and devoured.
When we start to become bored, the monster is not far away. So we run to the movies or call a friend, write our book or start our business; anything to stay ahead of our most dreaded fear, this unassailable truth.
So what is truth? Have you ever thought about it instead of just accepting what some book or priest says? Since it is the basis of our most dreaded fear, wouldn't you want to get familiar with it, because if you could beat this root fear, all the little fears would disappear along with it.
We might begin by understanding what is false, because if we eliminate the false, all that would be left is the truth which we now fear. It then follows logically that since the false keeps us from seeing the truth, which again is our primal fear, we will continue to propagate the false and lie to ourselves to stave off this fear, this truth, and in doing so we fall under the illusion that we are somehow safe.
So we use illusions to create a bigger illusion. This is what is meant by living in ignorance and not seeing clearly, not seeing with insight.
So our fear of truth goes underground. Buried in all our false delusions which we promote to placate the monster and keep it at bay. This terrible fear, this terrible truth.
And what is this truth? What is it that can be so terrible? The terrible truth is that we are empty . We are nothing. Zilch, zero, nada.
Emptiness of being blows away all of our fondest hopes and dreams. It pulls the rug out from everything that we built up over a lifetime - our identity, our plans, our religions, our relationships - everything. Emptiness leaves us naked and lying bare with nothing.
But if this is the truth, why does it sting so much instead of hugging us in a light and love fantasy? It can't. Because then it would not be the truth; it would be an illusion. The truth frees you. Illusion entraps you.
Experience and the pursuit of experience runs away from truth. Stillness, silence, and emptiness embraces it. The idea of "me" and "mine" is merely bondage, an attempt to escape truth's sting. Seeing through "me" and "mine" and the illusion of a separate self begins to free.
Emptiness, that most feared of all things from the perspective of a conditioned, deluded mind is anything but fearful in reality. Emptiness is the lion that guards the gateway to freedom. Non can enter without getting past this guard. No mind can realize this unfathomable and unimaginable freedom before first confronting this lion.
Without understanding the potential of this emptiness, without taming the lion at the door to eternity, we remain locked in our pathetic world of everything that we now hold dear. But that which we hold dear, like velvet ribbons around our necks that bind like steel chains, everything that we can think of, everything that we value only shackles us to a material existence fraught with its many horrors that we only see as pleasure through our darkened vision.
So, the next time you begin to feel empty, don't run from it. Face the lion. Remain with the emptiness without running or distracting yourself, and do this for some time.
Face what it is that you fear most.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)"Face what it is that you fear most." Yes e, I believe that is a big problem in our society people are afraid to be themselves. They act out a plot through life to live by rather than being themselves.All the world's a stage! Thanks, David. Being one faced is not easy.
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