From Buddhism: Fear

Fear arises from one’s conscience which is the result of the known. Knowledge is having ideas of things and persons. People have fear of losing things and persons next and dear to them. Fear exists so long as there is accumulating of the known. The common variety of fear comes through identification. So long as one it conscious of the ‘ego’ there is the continuance of fear. The Buddha says there is a more basic type of anxiety due to our deep rooted attachment to the ego. These emerge from the nature of the basic human conditions. Something while being pleasant is tied up with anxiety, as one is afraid to lose it. Buddha traces this predilection of ‘anxious man’ to grasp the basic truth of egolessness, which is the key to understand any form of anxiety. The belief in ‘I’ and ‘Mine”, though it gives a superficial feeling of security is the cause of fear and worry. In the highest form of courage, fear still persists as an element; there is at least the consciousness of the transitoriness of everything that is worldly and therefore the anticipation of danger.

Fear is one of the many emotions arising in the minds of any living being, both in the human and the animal worlds. An emotion occurs generally, when an object is considered as something attractive or repulsive. The general tendency is that people while impelling themselves towards the suitable objects, move away from the harmful objects through fear. This specific emotion of fear has been discussed by the Buddha on very many occasions.

There are various types of situations which cause fear. Fear is often caused by strong desires such as endearment, affection, attachment, lust and craving. To those people whose minds are devoid of such desires fear does not occur, strong desires and attachment to either persons or things cause fear. The desire for power, lust, jealousy and pride are intimately related to the emergence of fear. In the Bhayabherava Sutta the Buddha says that purely objective conditions can cause fear in a recluse who has gone to the forest. Such a recluse whose heart is filled with desire and longing, who is restless, witless and driveling becomes frightened at the rustling of leaves, by wind or a breaking of a twig by an animal. According to the Buddha, fear arises in those people whose minds are full of lust, ill-will and foolishness. In the Dussila Sutta of the Sotapatti Samyutta venerable Ananda declares to Anathapindika that terror, trembling and fear of death, as to what may be hereafter, come upon the uneducated when they think of their disloyalty to the Buddha, Dharmma and Sangha.

The emotion of fear appears to be utilized in Buddhism both as a deterrent force as well as stimulating one. In the psycho-ethical sphere, taking up feat as – deterrent…the Anguttara Nikaya refers to four kind of fears; fear of self-reproach where one blames oneself for committing an evil; fear of others reproach where one having committed an evil would fear that others would speak about it and he would feel uncomfortable in the company of others; fear of the stick where he sees the punishment given to the others by the king and he would dread the idea of himself being punished in the same manner.

The fourth kind of fear is the fear of degradation in the life after, of being born in the miserable existences after death. In this context these fears lead a person to abandon the practice of evil conduct in body, speech and thought and to develop the practice of good conduct. These different types of fear create in a man a lively sense of moral dread and shame which prevents a person from taking to an evil life and creates a basic of personal and social responsibility and a civic sense, for this sense shame and fear could be referred to as virtues, which regulate the mental order in the world. Dread and shame is a positive and a healthy sense which must be cultivated and developed by everyone, because one who lacks in these positive emotions lacks conscience. When a person’s conscientiousness and fear of blame are lacking, the control of senses, moral practice , right concentration, knowledge and vision, aversion, dispassion and detachment have no basic of growth and development. The stimulant aspect of fear is well explained by the Buddha in the following manner; “The bhikkhu who delights to heedfulness and is fully aware of the dangers of heedlessness, advances like fire burning all fetters great and small.”

According to the Buddhist commentarial literature the term “bhikkhu’ has been defined as one who sees fear in the chains of births and deaths. Cultivating faith in the Triad and having gained right concentration by following the noble-eighteen path these bhikkhus attain arahantship at which stage they shun all fear and hence they are called ‘akutobhaya’ (with no fear from anywhere). The Buddhas and the Pacceka Buddhas also belong to the same category. They have gained full confidence in themselves and thereby have shunned all the fears in the cycle of birth and death. In the Buddhist Nikayas Buddha is referred to as the dispeller of the dread, panic and fear. Absence of fear is the hallmark of a fully developed character. The Buddhas and the arahants are described as being abhayappatta, khemappatta and vesarajjappatta.

Fear has the nature of creating diverse psychological problems in an individual. This could sometimes drive a person mad. An overdose of fear, if instilled into a person, could be disastrous and would change his entire character. As apt example could be brought out from Buddhist literature where let alone the laymen even bhikkhus have gives up their entire career, because of too much fear. While preaching the Aggikkhandhopama Sutta to the bhikkhus, at the sight of a blazing fire the Buddha declared to them, that it were better for a man to take shelter in, embrace and lie down upon the raging flames than to live in the guise of a bhikkhu enjoying the alms of the faithful while being guilty of evil conduct. It is said that while this sutta was being preached sixty monks vomited hot blood, sixty left the Order in difference and sixty others became arahants. This is a clear instance where enlarged vision of fear, while acting as stimulant on one group of persons had crippling and deadening effect on another.

Fear of birth and death are two other forms of fear which are being often discussed in the Buddhist books. The fear of death is in the nature of psychological pain and this has been discussed even by the western scholars who are mere moral philosophers. According to Olson ‘Although death may be precipitated by painful disease, death itself is perfectly painless loss of consciousness, no more to be feared than falling asleep. Death terrorize us not because we fear it as painful, but we are unwilling to lose consciousness permanently.” The idea of concentration on death which is a favorite topic of meditation in Buddhism, is quite akin to the idea expressed by Senaca of the Stoics who says “to overcome the fear of death, we must think of it constantly. The important thing is to think of it in the proper manner.” Heidegger and Sartre like most existentialists urge us to cultivate the awareness of death as a means of heightening our sense.

According to the former the awareness of death confers upon a man, a sense of his own individuality. In Buddhism, the conscious and willful awareness of death serves as a stimulant and promoter of the ethical life. In the awareness of death, get through your activities in life as though your head were ablaze’, says the Samyutta Nikaya.

Fear could be both advantages and disadvantages in one’s life. It has been proclaimed by the Buddha, that whosoever does not transgress the Dhamma overcoming lust, ill-will, fear and foolishness, his fame would become perfect and full. If on the other hand, he were to transgress the Dhamma his fame would be destroyed. It is mentioned in the Dhammapada that a person does not become learned merely because he talks too much. But he who is secure, without hate and fear is called learned. Buddha has declared that whosoever follows the Dhamma, does no evil, who has no desire, ill-will and fear is reborn in heaven while the one who is the opposite is born in hell. Those who see fear in what is not to be feared and see no fear in the fearsome embrace false views and go to miserable existences.

The Buddha is said to have admonished his followers as to the ways and means of getting rid of fear. He says in the Dhajagga Sutta should any fear arises in the mind of a monk he should recall to mind the excellences of the Buddha, of the Dhamma or the Sangha and peace would come to him. Further he says he whose mind is not soaked (by lust), he who is not afflicted (by hatred), he who has transcended both good and evil, for such a vigilant one there is no fear. The Buddha’s advice to his followers was that, if we are keen to get rid of fear we must cut down the forest (of the passions) from which arises fear.

Although the utterances of the Buddha were ‘be ye an island of refuge unto yourselves O bhikkhus and do not take refuge in others’, the average Buddhist immersed in worldly life, sought refuge to outside agencies, sometimes to overcome various fears which constantly assailed him. It is mentioned in the Dhammapada ‘men driven by fear go to many a refuge, to mountains and to forests, to sacred trees and shrines.’

The Buddhist monks who were eager to cater to their needs started chanting the benedictory verses. The very meaning of this term, protection or ward-rune make it obvious that people always live in fear. A layman invites the bhikkhus by saying “May you chant the benedictory verses, so that it would bring us fortune and dispel all our fears.”

In the course of chanting these verses the bhikkhus say “May all fears be overcome and may there be no danger, but long life”. One of these verses reveals that people were even afraid of evil and inauspicious things such as unpleasant cries of birds, bad planetary combinations, bad dreams etc. and these fears they believed could be destroyed by the power of the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.

Fear on the whole is destructive to the individual and it paralyzes activity and debases the quality of thought. All strain, doubts, hesitation, worry mental and to some extent physical fatigue, fall away when the thought of ‘self’ has been banished. The result would be, that it would increase not only the happiness, but also the efficiency, courage and confidence of the individual.