Can this thing called fear be ended immediately?
"Can this thing called fear be ended immediately?"
This is part of a set of questions or koans that was given to me some years ago, (see previous post on koans here). We had a brief discussion about it this morning at meditation. It's a complicated subject, and not much time, therefore it wasn't discussed in as much detail as it warrants. But good to think about - I really like it for vipassana - and this will be part of my 'weekly ponder'.
According to Vedic philosophy, the Root of Fear is Time. Time is the movement of thought, and our movement of thought is our perception of time. Through understanding the root of fear (the movement of time) it is possible to end fear immediately.
It takes a little bending of the mind.
"A mind that is frightened... can never see the truth"
--- Krishnamurti
My understanding of it is this: The root of fear is the movement of thought, i.e. time. In other words, our fears exist in linear time. None of our fears exist in the present moment, in the "now". All our fears (translate: fearfulness, anxieties, problems) exist in the past or in the future. If we meditate and stay in the present, quietly observing the nature of our mind, we notice our fears do not exist, or at least not in the way we believe them to exist. We recognise that our problems are not as concrete as we believe.
Krishnamurti talks about fear, and he says: There are many forms of fear; physical as well as psychological. When we talk about deeper, psychological fears, we usually refer to fears in relationships, uncertainty about or fear of the future or the past, fears of not knowing, fear of death, or of loneliness. How do we observe that kind of psychological fear?
Is it a fear that is remembered, recalled and then looked at? Or is it a fear you have had not time to observe, so it's still there? Or is the mind unwilling to look at this fear altogether? Many of us don't know how to sit with fear, how to observe it, so we either run away from it, or we try to analyse it, hoping in that way it will dissipate.
We observe fear in one of two ways: either the observation takes place after it has happened - which is usually the case for most of us - or we observe fear as it arises.
If we observe it after the fact, we are no longer observing fear, but recalling it, and recognising the response we call fear. You had that fear previously, your memory has stored it, and when it arises, we recognise it. So we are not observing but recognising, through the process of memory, and naming it. But, as Krishnamurti says: "the word is not the thing, right? And recognition itself doesn't free the mind of fear, it only strengthens the fear."
It is possible to observe the fear as it arises. How do we observe that fear? There are two factors that take place when we observe fear as it arises. One is that you are different from that fear, and the other is that we can operate it, or control it. That is generally how we observe.
But is observing fear as it arises enough to stop the fear immediately?
According to Krishnamurti, we need to recognise and understand the root of fear in order to end it immediately. But do we understand the root of fear? Because, he says, if we find the root of fear, then the unconscious and the conscious fears can be understood.
The Root of Fear is Time.
It is the carrying over of time that brings fear. I read an explanation on a website, and the explanation was quoted:
"The past, present, and future are all properties of consciousness. The past is recollection, memory. Future is anticipation. The present is awareness. Therefore, time is the movement of thought. Both past and future are born in the imagination; only the present, which is awareness, is real and eternal. It is. It is the potentiality for space-time, matter, and energy. It is an eternal field of possibilities experiencing itself as object forces whether they be light, heat, electricity, magnetism, or gravity. These forces are neither in the past nor in the future. They just are.” – Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
Krishnamurti explains it a little differently, but essentially the concept is the same: Thought, which is time, is the root of fear. The root of fear is time. Time, being a movement of the past, modified [by our minds] in the present, and going on into the future. This whole movement in our minds, that is the cause of fear.
He mentions in one of his lectures: "There is no actual fear now. Please understand this carefully", he says. "Fear is of tomorrow. Or fear is of something that has happened in the past." Therefore, according to Krishnamurti: "It is totally, completely possible that [psychological] fear can end if you apply what is being said."
If there is no actual fear now, then we can stop fear immediately through staying in the present, i.e. Mindfulness. Through not being attached to the fear in the past or the future, we pull it out at the root, so to speak.
Some questions I am pondering now:
Is yesterday the root of fear?
Is tomorrow the root of fear?
If the past is part of us, can we live without yesterday?
If we can't live without yesterday, if yesterday is part of us, can we live without fear?
Can we really live without the idea of tomorrow?
Can we completely pull fear out at the root?
Is it possible to substitute 'fear' in this with another negative in this context, such as anger, anxiety or sadness?
A yogi comments on the internet:
If thought is time, if I think more, will I have more time? And if I meditate and I don't think at all, will time not exist? :)
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