Fear and Conquering Fear

[PureInsight.org] There are many reasons for a person to feel fear.

A man feels fear when he is forced to part with fame, wealth and the objects of his emotional attachments, since he is very reluctant to lose these things. A man feels fear when he is about to do something truly immoral and knows that it will result in severe consequences. A man feels fear when someone he has hurt in the past comes and demands compensation. A man with an unwavering memory of the old wound will feel fear when he is about to suffer the same kind of injury…

Fear arises from an attachment to selfishness and self. We feel fear because we think of what might happen to us, and even treat "fear" as a part of ourselves. On the other hand, courage arises when we think of others' welfare and safety and forget about ourselves.

Fame, wealth and objects of emotional attachments are transient in nature. Everything in life has been pre-destined, so why don't we try to eliminate these attachments to fame, wealth and the objects of our sentimentality, and make our life meaningful by trying to attain the eternal realm of an enlightened being?

It is a true and fair principle of the universe that kindness will be rewarded with kindness and evil will be met with evil. Those of us who already abide by this principle should cherish our life more, and be kinder to others. Why don't we try to build a pure, righteous thought and focus on how to rectify or improve ourselves on the path of cultivation? Thus we wouldn't need to be haunted by our fear of continued tribulations for bad deeds done in our past.

If we have taken a wrong path and made mistakes, rather than developing a fear of erring again and hesitating to go forward on our paths of Fa-rectification cultivation, we should try our best to correct our mistakes and temper ourselves so we can be more mature. Once we learn how to do things well, there will naturally be no need for us to feel that we are going to get hurt again.

It is not right for a cultivator to fear, but it is equally wrong to go to the extreme just to prove that he isn't afraid. Let me make an analogy. A small child usually does not know fear. If a small child put his hand in the fire and burns himself, he is likely to fear fire. He/she will in the future have the sense to keep a safe distance from it in order to prevent the same injury and pain. But no one will encourage the child to put his hand into the fire again to eliminate his fear to fire or to prove that the child no longer fears fire. After being burned once, the child has learned the nature of fire and will learn to "use" fire instead of becoming its victim. From now on, he will learn how to master fire for his use and learn how to put out fire anytime he wants to. Thus, this child has truly overcome his fear of fire.

When a problem occurs in our cultivation, sometimes we fail to seek inward to truly resolve the problem. Instead, we try to prove that we are not afraid of the problem by continuing to push things forward. Consequently, the same problem occurs again and causes damage to fellow practitioners and Dafa. In this scenario, the so-called "fearless" is actually being irrational and unwise.

Teacher has taught us the principle of kindness will be rewarded with kindness and the evil will be met by the evil and we should use it to measure ourselves as well instead of just using it to caution others. I think that when a practitioner often claims or tries to show that he has no fear at all, it is precisely because he is afraid that he has fear or is afraid that other practitioners will say that he has fear. He thinks that he can't reach consummation if he doesn't eliminate his fear, or he cares too much about how other practitioners think of him. That is a deeper level of fear, originating from an attachment to selfishness and self. When we do things, the results will the best when we approach things with compassion and righteous thoughts and maintain a pure state of mind. We shouldn't do a certain thing in a certain way to prove that we have no fear. We shouldn't avoid doing a certain thing in a certain way because we have fear either. What we do or don't do should be based on the requirements of Fa-rectification and evaluated by Dafa.

We need to be responsible to ourselves, to fellow practitioners, and to Dafa. We should do the things that we are supposed to do in an upright and open manner. When we genuinely have no fear, we no longer need to worry about how we can make ourselves to feel no fear. Once we attain the realm of selflessness and altruism, we will naturally transcend all factors that make one fear and become truly fearless.

This is my personal understanding and for your consideration only.

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2004/4/12/26652.html