Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through The Storm

by Thich Nhat Hanh

We fear that this moment will end, that we won’t get what we need, that we will lose what we love, or that we will not be safe.

We try to hold tight to the things we care about—our positions, our property, our loved ones.

We are very afraid of being powerless. But we have the power to look deeply at our fears, and then fear cannot control us.

If I had acted out of fear, he would have shot me out of his fear.

We all experience fear, but if we can look deeply into our fear, we will be able to free ourselves from its grip and touch joy. 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. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

When we understand that we are more than our physical bodies, that we didn’t come from nothingness and will not disappear into nothingness, we are liberated from fear.

In China and Vietnam we call the womb the palace of the child.

You felt cold and hunger for the first time. Sounds were too loud; lights were too bright. 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.

Our desire to have a partner is, in part, a continuation of our desire for someone to take care of us.

We think, “I need this person to take care of me, or I will not survive.”

If you’re afraid of what other people might think of you, it comes from that same place. You’re afraid that if others think negatively about you, they won’t accept you and you’ll be left all alone, in danger.

Meditation can include visualization. If you were to draw a picture of yourself with these many umbilical cords, you would discover that there are not only five or ten, but maybe hundreds or thousands of them, and you are linked to them all.

In this food I see clearly the presence of the entire universe supporting my existence.

“Dear little child, I am your adult self. I would like to tell you that we are no longer a baby, helpless and vulnerable. We have strong hands and strong feet; we can very well defend ourselves. So there is no reason why we have to continue to be fearful anymore.”

We revisit the past, reviewing it and watching the films of the past. But if we revisit these memories without mindfulness or awareness, every time we watch those images we suffer again.

Mindfulness reminds us that it is possible to be in the here and now. It reminds us that the present moment is always available to us; we don’t have to live events that happened long ago.

And the future you constantly worry about is nothing other than a projection of fear and desire from the past.

We can look at the moment as it is, a fresh moment, and leave the past for a time when we can look at it compassionately.

“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.”

“My dear friend, you are on safe ground. Everything is okay now. Why do you continue to suffer? Don’t go back to the past. It’s only a ghost; it’s unreal.” And whenever we recognize that these are only movies and pictures, not reality, we are free. That is the practice of mindfulness.

OUR ORIGINAL FEAR isn’t just from our own birth and childhood; the fear we feel comes from both our own and our ancestors’ original fear.

Understanding, when it comes, helps us release our fear, our anger, our hate, and so on. Love can only be born on the ground of understanding.

Your spiritual ancestors are in you because what you are by nature and what you are by nurture cannot be separated.

Dear ancestors, I am you, with all your strengths and weaknesses. I see you have negative and positive seeds. I understand that you have been lucky and that good seeds like kindness, compassion, and fearlessness were watered in you. I also understand that if you were not lucky and negative seeds like fear, greed, and jealousy were watered in you, then the positive seeds did not have a chance to grow.

I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape growing old. I am of the nature to have ill health. I cannot escape having ill health. I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape death. All that is dear to me, and everyone I love, are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them. I inherit the results of my acts of body, speech, and mind. My actions are my continuation.

But most of us aren’t making good use of our ability to take good care of others and ourselves.

If we are attached to obtaining more and more wealth, fame, power, and sex, we lose our freedom.

Invite your fear into consciousness, and smile through it; every time you smile through your fear, it will lose some of its strength. If you try to run away from your pain, there is no way out. Only by looking deeply into the nature of your fear can you find the way out.

Using diversions like television, computer games, alcohol, and drugs, we try to ignore the realities of aging, illness, death, and the impermanence of the things we cherish.

“My dear fear, come up here so I can embrace you for a while. It is my nature to die; I cannot escape death.”

When I woke up, I had a very strong feeling that I had never lost my mother. The sense that my mother was still with me was very clear. I understood then that the idea of having lost my mother was just that: an idea. It was obvious in that moment that my mother was still alive in me and always would be.

“It is possible to live happily in the present moment. It is the only moment we have.”

“The wave comes from water and will return to water.” In reality, there is no coming and going. The wave is always water; it doesn’t “come from” water, and it doesn’t go anywhere.

When we are in touch with our no-birth, no-death nature, we have no fear.

“Rien ne se crée, rien ne se perd” (Nothing is created, nothing is lost).

They shot Martin Luther King Jr. But these people are still among us today. They continue to exist in many forms. Their spirit goes on.

Taking the form of a sheet of paper is only its new manifestation; it’s not really a birth. So the nature of the sheet of paper is no-birth and no-death.

When you drink your cup of tea with mindfulness and concentration, you understand that the cloud is right there in your tea, very close. You have never lost your beloved. She has just changed forms.

We should live every day like people who have just been rescued from dying on the moon.

“The miracle is not to walk on water or fire. The miracle is to walk on the earth.”

“The past no longer is, the future is not yet here; there is only one moment in which life is available, and that is the present moment.”

Nonfear is the ultimate joy.

All of us have seeds of happiness inside us, and in those difficult moments when we’re sick or dying, there should be a friend sitting with us to help us touch those seeds. Otherwise seeds of fear, regret, or despair can easily sprout into big formations that overwhelm us.

“My dear friends, my dear disciples, don’t take refuge in anything outside of you. In every one of us there is a very safe island we can go to. Every time you go home to that island with mindful breathing, you create a space of relaxation, concentration, and insight. If you dwell on that island in yourself with your mindful breathing, you are safe. That is a place where you can take refuge whenever you feel fearful, uncertain, or confused.”

But sometimes an emotion or feeling comes up that prevents us from enjoying what’s happening in the here and now.

Don’t be violent toward your anger, your fear, and your worries. The practice is simply to recognize them. Continue to practice mindful breathing and mindful walking; then, with the energy generated by your practice, you can recognize intense feelings, smile to them, and embrace them tenderly.

This is the practice of nonviolence with your worries, fear, and anger. If you get angry with your anger, it is multiplied ten times.

Now you can enjoy the beautiful sunrise and allow yourself to be nourished by the wonders of life around you as well as inside you.

With practice, you can release the tension and reduce the pain in your body, and you can recognize painful feelings inside, know how to embrace them, and release the tension in your feelings, bringing relief. You can create a feeling of joy and happiness whenever you want.