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February 6 - April 8, 2024
But for many of us, even when we are most joyful, there is fear behind our joy.
The only way to ease our fear and be truly happy is to acknowledge our fear and look deeply at its source. Instead of trying to escape from our fear, we can invite it up to our awareness and look at it clearly and deeply.
But we have the power to look deeply at our fears, and then fear cannot control us.
I was safe, because I had enough lucidity and calm.
If we don’t acknowledge and look deeply at our own fears, we can draw dangers and accidents to us.
Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future.
If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay.
The first part of looking at our fear is just inviting it into our awareness without judgment. We just acknowledge gently that it is there. This brings a lot of relief already. Then, once our fear has calmed down, we can embrace it tenderly and look deeply into its roots, its sources.
For the first time, you felt afraid. This is original fear.
We were born, and with that birth, our fear was born along with the desire to survive. This is original desire.
If we practice looking deeply, we see that this fear is the result of that original fear from the time we were newborns, helpless and unable to do anything for ourselves.
Our desire to have a partner is, in part, a continuation of our desire for someone to take care of us.
“alone I can’t make it; I have to have somebody.”
You’re afraid that if others think negatively about you, they won’t accept you and you’ll be left all alone, in danger.
have today is a continuation of original fear and desire.
Looking in this way, even if no one else is sitting down with us to share that meal, we know that our community, our ancestors, Mother Nature, and the whole cosmos are right there, with us and inside us in every moment.
“Listen to me. I am your adult self. You are no longer a helpless child; we have grown up into an adult already. We have enough intelligence to protect ourselves, to survive by ourselves. We don’t need someone to take care of us anymore.”
And the future you constantly worry about is nothing other than a projection of fear and desire from the past.
Much of the fear, anxiety, and anguish that we experience is there because the inner child has not been liberated.
“Come with me, dear one. We have grown up. We no longer need to be afraid. We are no longer vulnerable. We are no longer fragile. We don’t have to be afraid anymore.”
And whenever we recognize that these are only movies and pictures, not reality, we are free.
“Breathing in, I see myself as a five-year-old child. Breathing out, I smile to that five-year-old child.”
“Breathing in, I know that anxiety is in me. Breathing out, I smile to my anxiety.”
If you get angry with your anger, it is multiplied ten times.
Belly Breathing There are several simple methods for taking care of our strong emotions. One is “belly breathing,” breathing from the abdomen. When we are caught in a strong emotion like fear or anger, our practice is to bring our attention down to the abdomen. To stay on the level of the intellect is not safe. Strong emotions are like a storm, and to stand in the middle of a storm is very dangerous. Yet that’s what most of us do when we get upset; we stay out in the storm of our feelings, and they overwhelm us. Instead, we have to ground ourselves by bringing our attention downward. We focus
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We are so much more than our emotions.
Many of us spend a lot of our time acting out of fear of the past or the present, and in doing that, we affect each other and the larger society. We create a culture of fear. When fear comes up and we’re upset and worried, the first thing we need to do is acknowledge that fear. We can recognize and embrace it rather than acting it out. All around us people are afraid and acting out of fear. In the midst of all this fear, we all long for peace and security.
In our society, there is so much fear, suffering, violence, despair, and confusion. But there is also, at the same time, the beautiful blue sky.
Don’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed by despair. You can make good use of every minute and every hour of your daily life.
The United States of America has a very powerful military and the most advanced weapons in the world, but the American people don’t feel safe. They feel very afraid and vulnerable. So there must be something else—a way to take genuine refuge, so that we can really feel safe. We have to learn to build safety with our in-breath and our out-breath. We have to learn to build safety with our steps, with our way of acting and reacting, with our words and our efforts to build communication.
Safety is not an individual matter. Helping the other person feel safe is the best guarantee for your safety.
Your country won’t be safe if you don’t do anything to help other countries feel safe with you.
It’s so clear that police, armed forces, and even massive firepower can’t guarantee us real safety.
“Dear friend, I am aware that you want to live in safety. I too want to live in safety, so why don’t we work together?”
Since the so-called war on terror began, we have spent billions of dollars but have only created more violence, hate, and fear.
“Dear one, I am here for you.”
“Darling, I know you are there, and I am so happy.”
“Darling, I know you’re suffering. That’s why I am here for you.”
“Dear one, I am suffering; please help.”
We know we are part of the sangha river, we are not isolated drops of water, and we will make it to the ocean together.
The bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, also called Quan Yin, has a great capacity for listening with compassion and true presence. Quan Yin is the bodhisattva who can listen and understand the sounds of the world, the cries of suffering.
if we can transform our own suffering, we’ll be able to help transform the suffering in the world.
