the ending of fear

What is there to fear? Losing what we have accumulated through time? Our thoughts, memories, items, status, possessions, all temporal things. There is only one fact- impermanence. Do not take my word as authority, go into it yourself. Form has a habit of coming, being, and going. It seems in the West this fact is viewed as a morbid thing- we are conditioned to believe this process is really “loss”. Can one lose something that is inherently transient and never truly owned? Ourselves, striving for continuity, constantly trying to reach some state of happiness by pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Such a game is childish and hopeless. When our most cherished ideals and beliefs turn to ash, there is nowhere to look externally for comfort. We may find a new idea to cling to that provides us with a temporary raft from the crashing waves, but if we could observe the whole ocean at once, not sentimentally but as it is, there would be no need for rafts, and love could shine through. We do not usually take this route though. We search for a new explanation, a quote, an ideal, to maintain the irresolute ego.

So what is the root of fear?

Separation between the observer and observed. Duality creates conflict through the perception of opposing opposites. When “me” the observer, is experiencing the word “fear” the illusion is created. Am I making myself clear? Perhaps not. Without the word, then there is just the feeling of fear. There is no thought that “I” am experiencing fear. In fact, one becomes the fear but is no longer a victim of it. Here, they can observe it fully, not as a separate entity, but as the process itself free of interpretive lenses. From this knowledge of the Self is possible, and the end of fear along with it.

Art by Thomas Moran