Courtesy of Caravan of Dreams.
Why is there this urge to identify, to be attached? Why is one human being attached to another? Does not attachment breed fear, fear of losing what one is attached to? Being attached, you may become jealous, frightened, anxious, which are obvious phenomena. You are attached because of your own insufficiency, loneliness. And so out of your own insufficiency, loneliness, a sense of lacking, you cling to another. So is attachment love? Where there is attachment there must be exploitation. And we use that word love to cover up all this. And is love jealousy? None of these things exist as attachment when you have understood that that emptiness in yourself can never be filled by something else. You have to look at it. You have to not escape from it, observe it totally. […] In attachment there is fear, there is anxiety, there is hate, all the conflicts in relationship; and where there is conflict can there be love?
J. Krishnamurti in Ojai, California (April 17, 1976) (Thank you, predatorywaspobserver)
Fearlessness is extending ourselves beyond a limited view. The Heart Sutra, an essential teaching given by the Buddha, talks about going beyond. “Gone beyond” or gate in Sanskrit, is what we might call the basic no. The sutra says there is no eye, no ear, no sound, no smell — none of those things. When you experience egolessness, the solidity of your life and your perception falls apart. That could be very desolate or it could be very inspiring, in terms of shunyata, the Buddhist understanding of emptiness. Very simply, it is basic no. It is a real expression of fearlessness.
From Chogyam Trungpa, “Overcoming Doubt” in Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery, page 55. (from Shambhala Publications)
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The Fear and Wonder of Being Open to the Unknown « Metta Refuge
Thank you, sharanam:
“The unknown is frightening as long as there is the sense of self. When we face the unknown and abandon selfhood, then the unknown changes from being frightening to being mysterious, full of wonder. The mind is left in a state of wonderment, rather than terror. This is the transmutation that frees, it liberates, it is our path.”
- Ajahn Amaro
From the talk “Emptiness and Pure Awareness” given at Chithurst, U.K., during the winter retreat, February 1991 (follow the link to read more, it’s well worth it…)
Thank you metta refuge.
If you give up both victory and defeat, you sleep at night without fear.
from the Dhammapada.
Why are we not more alive? The answer is one word: fear. One thing is at the root of everything that distorts or destroys life–and that is fear. We are simply afraid to be alive. Why are we afraid to be alive? Because to be alive means giving ourselves, and when we really give ourselves, we never know what’s going to happen to us. As long as we keep everything nicely under control, everything purpose-directed, everything in hand, there’s no danger, but no life either.
Steindl-Rast, D. (2008). Common sense spirituality. New York: Crossroad Publ. Co., p.33. From Waking Up
Outside the trees dragged their leaves like nets through the depths of the air; the sound of water was in the room and through the waves came the voices of birds singing. Every power poured its treasures on his head, and his hand lay there on the back of the sofa, as he had seen his hand lie when he was bathing, floating, on the top of the waves, while far away on the shore he heard dogs barking and barking far away. Fear no more, says the heart in the body; fear no more.
