Are We Without Fear Yet?
Becoming Unhindered and Being Mostly Fearless - Reducing Stress and Illness
In one of the most influential Buddhist texts, The Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra, we’re told that when we are free from hindrances we have no fear. What are hindrances? Whatever provides resistance, delay, or obstruction to something or someone. An impediment, obstacle, barrier, limitation, a complication. There are more similar words at Oxford Dictionary. But hopefully you get the point.
Hindrances catch us up in an imagined or real obstacles keeping us from what we “want.” But we know that, from The Four Noble Truths, wants are the root of desires. We grasp tightly to many wants hoping they will make us feel like life is secure and permanent. Unchanging. Stable. When we lose what we have, or don’t get what we want, we have feelings of sadness, regret, and perceptions that hinder us. That’s not all. Along with not getting what we want or losing what we have, when someone or something threatens our sense of unchanging stability—blocks our perceived happiness—we can become afraid. And that can contribute to greed, anger, and delusion, brought on by more self-focusing, the very aspects of living we address in our practice of Zazen and Zen Buddhism.
Please do understand that there are absolutely many hindrances, but it’s the response we have internally and externally that contributes to or detracts from fear. How do you respond? Do you tense up? Retaliate? Blame? Try to ignore it? Find yourself in “flight or fight” survival mode? While all of these are possible responses to events and perceptions that appear to be problematic, there are a few ways we can help ourselves and others through hindrances and their related fear mongering. It’s important to do this because fear causes unwanted stress which can exacerbate illnesses like cancer. People who are more at risk of stress related illnesses include those in BIPOC groups or those living at lower income levels. The same is true for LGBTQ+ people.
I offer here practices we may use to remain free from or reducing hindrances, not becoming bitter, so that we have less fear, and an open heart.
Fewer Hindrances, Less Fear
First, remember that everything in this life changes. Nothing is permanent and what’s causing any hindrance right now will morph. Therefore try to see it clearly. If you can do something to skillfully minimize of or remove the source of the fear, for the benefit of all, then do it by all means, but still see it as impermanent. Sometimes it’s simply changing your point of view, or staying away from conversations and situations that make you feel stress or devalued. Taking action is another method, directly or indirectly. You might volunteer for a cause you care about, or read to children or seniors, or visit cancer patients. Just what you can do. This gets us out of ourselves and into helping others, removing the focus on the fear.
Second, please meditate daily, and there’s benefit to meditating more than once a day. No, not compulsively or addictively! But your calmness will permeate the entire world you inhabit. Sitting Zazen, the Buddhist practice of seated meditation, is known for dedicating the practice to benefit others. As part of that vow, you can recite the Loving Kindness Meditation. Also, reading and practicing the Forgiveness Meditation helps with allowing us to see clearly how others, and we ourselves, need forgiveness, and how we are connected. Human beings are deluded, clouded with all kinds of interpretations of phenomena that cause conditions and suffering! Additionally, if you’re inclined, practice a form of meditation call Tonglen. This is inhaling suffering while exhaling peace and healing, taking it on so that the environment can be bettered. Everyone is suffering, and this practice brings this home so that we know we aren’t separate from each other!
Third, remember that everything is dependently arising: All that is going on at home or out in your neighborhood and larger world, everywhere, arrises from causes and conditions: This happens because of that decision or act, maybe from a while or centuries ago or from just earlier today. Try to see things as if they’re a river flowing, with deep groves that have been paved as a result of actions taken or not taken by so many people it’s hard to pinpoint the beginning. When you can take an appropriate action, with skillful means, of course do take it. But doing as best as you can to create little harm with your thoughts, words, and behaviors.
Fourth, watch your mind. Try to see when it invites you onto rollercoasters, which cause you to be stressed, hindered, and full of fear. Repeat a phrase when your mind wanders—to painful memory sores, mental escapes into daydreams, or when it wants to read the news compulsively—to push it off that well-trod and beaten path. I’m not saying ignore the news, but do verify the truth of it when you read it! The Buddhist Bodhisattva Vows, Refuges and Precepts are full of repeatable passages to help steer the mind from destructive do-loops. Remember your feet and where they are placed, what you are doing today, right here in your life. Get grounded, touch the Earth (or the floor) with your hands, and maybe even with your forehead! You can make that a dance if you like.
Don’t ignore it if you find that you are totally stressed out and full of fear, get help from people who are qualified to help you see your mind, and still practice minimizing hindrances.
Finding peace and being without hindrance is a definite way to live, with self, and others, together. May all beings be free and safe from harm and realize their true nature.
Carla Stalling Walter, PhD
visit www.cswalter.org
Here are some authors offering ways to be true to your life during the New Year.