Kindness

March 26, 2012

Good Morning,

The Tibetan Buddhist master, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche addressed fear in many of his teachings throughout his life. He said that in order to experience fearlessness it is necessary to experience fear and that the essence or cowardice is not acknowledging the reality of fear. Fearlessness results from going beyond fear. It is not a reduction of fear. The disciplines of asana, meditation, physical exercise provide us with a means to work with things like fear so that they don’t overwhelm us or dominate us.

Fearlessness isn’t being absent of fear. Fearlessness is not shutting down in the presence of fear. It is the willingness to face fear head on and experience all aspects of fear on the spot. It is acknowledging the quivery qualities, the not wanting to be present, the desire to distract and cover over, the sadness or anger. All of this becomes the feast for the warrior. All this becomes part of the path and an opportunity to deepen one’s experience of mind as well as an opportunity to cultivate compassion.

You feel fear and you soften to yourself. You let it penetrate your being with kindness and acceptance. There is no rejecting of any aspect of your experience. You accept it all as it is without trying to make it anything other than what it is.

Remember that is the essence of kindness. Rejecting or bypassing one’s experience is a form of self aggression.

The willingness to look at our experiences and show up for our self and others on the spot is the essence of fearlessness and warriorship.

Explore/Practice/Apply

It seems that so often we are reactive so that we don’t even know what caused us to react. These reactions can be subtle or more obvious. Notice all the little anxieties that come up during the course of the day. These are subtle manifestations of fear. Watch your tendencies to react and instead see if you can get curious and drop the story line and be with the experience.