FEARLESSNESS and the BUDDHA

To be fearless is important in life. It is a truly high state of being when we are free from fear, a place of immense peace and confidence. However, it is no easy feat to be truly fearless. And one could argue that many perceived sensse of fearlessness are often just an ability to counter balanced fear with courage and resolve. This, in that there may be fear, but an individual does not allow fear to gain the upper hand, to dictate action. If we are taking a courageous step in life, we will often find that we can nourish fearlessness before the step. We can take a step from a fearless place. But the process of taking a truly courageous step often brings fear to the degree that we are challenging our self, and to the degree of the risk involved. Great changes in life often require that we risk everything, put everything on the table. In fact, there are few, if any people, who have realized any great success that have not put everything on the table at some point. People who walk true spiritual paths, it is all spiritual by the way, also put everything on the table. They leave everything behind and the risk is immense. There is no gaurantee of the outcome like any other challenging path. I had a high school teacher who confessed that he wanted to become Jesus. He literally went out to the desert and sat in the heat for days. Bitter and unenlightened, he returned with sore knees, sunburn and completely disillusioned. Disappointing outcome of a great risk? Sounds like he set off with an unrealistic vision and life took him to school. Fearlessness will never disguise foolishness, which is part of the process of self evolution. We cannot be afraid to be revealed as the fool. This is inevitable.

So yes, we need to get past our fears in life in order to understand what is on the other side of them. Sometimes we are right about what we believe to be something to be afraid of. More often we find out our fears were simply hiding a reward and the proper path to that reward. Getting past fears takes us on a path. Getting past a fear is not the reward in itself. We still have plenty of work to do on the other side of fear, and this is what can make the process of facing fear easier. Maybe. Our Buddha nature knows this. The other side of our fear is just another path. Another form of journey. Our Buddha nature always seeks the wisest journey for us. This is not a perfect, suffering-free, or challengeless journey, just one that reflects our wisdom and understanding of our wisest expression.

In this discussion of fearlessness, one could say there is a sort of "soft" fearlessness and a sort of "hard" fearlessness. The latter one could be likened to a soldier heading into battle. It is not a right or wrong thing here. It is just the fearlessness that suits the situation. The fearlessness of the Buddha is not a fighting fearlessness. It cannot be, because the end game is not a fight. The Buddha is not preparing to fight. Thay are preparing to know. To understand. To receive wisdom. And so our soft fearlessness is more like calmly walking through a doorway to the unknown with eyes open. ready to challenge our perceptions of life. Of course, the closer we get to the door, the more likely we are going find our fears and that can penetrate even in the wisest person in the most profound way, because fear is ultimately a test of our resolve. And just because we are wise and clear minded, that does not mean that life cannot test our resolve to the degree it chooses to.

The more we know life, often by testing our fears, the more we see the circles of life. And this is what makes us truly fearless. Experiences. Fearlessness leads us to truth and truth is bittersweet. In this we can let go of any notion that any fear we overcome will get us out of the bittersweet nature of life. Fear feeds on romanticism. We can romanticize what is on the other side of our fear. Fear loves this because it knows we will be disappointed and then the fear wins. I told you so! So, we must allow that which is on the other side of our fear to be simply what it is. It is a discovery process.

Sometimes when we embrace our fear it feels as if we are using it. This is a subtle lesson as there is a wise way of using fear as a sort of slingshot. Like one end of a magnet we are "using" to push in the other direction we need to go, one not fueled by fear. This is a form of wisdom if we follow the path of using our fear to overcome fear, to leave th efear behind. We are not using the fear in regards to others. Casting our fears on others, makingthem responsible for such fear. Not always easy, as it is part of our inherent nature to cast what is unresolved on those around us. This is reflected in all the political mess we see going on. Everyone is afraid of the future. Not able to find wisdom, we cast our fears on democrats or republicans. It is our unresolved understanding, not anyone elses.

The reality is that we are rarely fearless people. It is often a luxury to sit in a truly fearless place. Put a "fearless" someone in a dramatic situation and suddenly the seemimgly fearless are not so fearless. While I don't like to speak too much to enlightenment, because it is such a lofty goal, the enlightened mind is fearless because it knows there is suffering and death. It is escaping nothing. Time collapses to the enlightened mind. When time collapses, life and death stand next to each other at all times as do joy and suffering. In this place there is nothing to fear. But it is the greatest challenge to arrive in such a place for a lengthy stay. To do so one needs to truly purge themselves of their deepest fears, a process sends the mind and body into madness. Fearlessness is on the other side of madness, but many people under estimate this challenge and find themselves stuck in madness, which is why I say never seeke enlightenement. Let it come to you in your time. We will find in life that fear and insanity are much like brothers and sisters. That is we must go through the insanity that is nourished by our fear and know that there is another side to this. Our default is to identify with insanity, but this is the trick of our fear. The noise of fear is often that we owe it something and that we are safe in its arms.

To the Buddha nothing is truly "safe" and that is okay. Things are either wise or blind to a given thing, but nothing is safe. A Buddha is not safe, just free from fear. A Buddha does not walk in front of a hungry lion nor throw itself from a cliff. They are not blinded by fearlessness. The eg- driven mind sees fearlessness as a sort of immortality. An ability to deny its vulnerability, a fear of vulnerability, which is ironic when such a person usually sees themself as fearless when they are a product of fear. So, how we deal with fear is perhaps the most pivotal step in what forges us as people, as if I needed to tell you that.

In the end, fearlessness is not forged by itself. It is forged through its counterforce of fear. We evolve when we tire of things that bring us suffering. And what is more tiring than living a life in fear? Wisdom is always on the other side of fear. That wisdom is not up to us to define. Wisdom is every bit as humbing as it is inspiring. So don=t be afraid. Fear or no fear, life will reveal all of its bittersweet secrets to us in time, whether you like it or not.

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