Copyright 2006 Patti Henry

No fear is the ultimate joy.
Once you have mastered the insight of no fear,
you are free.

--Thich Nhat Hanh

This is one of my favorite meditations that is so full of wisdom. It’s true: Fear is what keeps us from being free. Fear is what limits us and sometimes even cripples us. Fear is what keep us trapped.

Now, I’m not talking about the fear that keeps us alive. This fear puts us on immediate adrenalin hyper-alert when we turn the corner and find ourselves face to face with a mountain lion. This fear keeps us from standing on the very edge of the Grand Canyon on a windy day. This fear keeps us mute when someone is pointing a gun at our head and yelling, “Shut up!” This fear is our friend and keeps us alive.

But we’re not often faced with a mountain lion or a gun to our heads. Most of life where fear creeps in and stops us is just life. Ordinary life. No life or death threat. And yet we are paralyzed by the fear as if it had two hands squeezing around our neck. As if our very existence was being threatened.

How strange.

I marvel at the complexity of our brains. That we can perceive a life and death threat when there isn’t one.

Mastering the insight of no fear means overriding this illusion. Simply put, we have our reasoning self and our emotional self, or our head and our heart. When fear stops us even though there is no real threat, our emotional self, in a very concentrated form, is in charge. In order to get to no fear, we have to engage our reasoning self as well. The emotional self takes over automatically; the reasoning self must be called forth.

So, when fear is rushing in like flood waters, we need to stop the panic, check in with ourselves, and look around to see if it’s just the bathtub overflowing and all we need to do is turn off the spigot. I heard a wonderful story about a woman who, after grocery shopping, packed all of her groceries into the back seat of her car. She then climbed behind the wheel, heard a loud gunshot, and was struck in the back of her neck. She lay flailed across the steering wheel, unmoving. A passerby going into the store saw her there and made a mental note to take action if she were in the same position when he finished his shopping. Sure enough, 30 minutes later, she was. He cautiously approached the woman asking if she were all right to which she replied, “No, I’ve been shot in the neck.” The passerby came closer and looked at the back of her neck. She had indeed been shot: by a can of biscuits from the backseat that had exploded in the heat. Right in the middle of her neck was a plump, raw biscuit.

The point is that sometimes our fear is nothing more than a plump, raw biscuit. An illusion of something terrible happening. Our reasoning selves need to be called forth to more clearly look at the facts: no pain in my neck, no glass breakage from a bullet going through, no trickling of blood. Hmmm…maybe there’s another explanation. Let me reach my hand up and feel my neck. Whoa! A biscuit! And the fear goes away.

Our imaginations are brilliant with all the awful “what ifs” we can come up with. My eleven year old only yesterday had two baby teeth removed by an oral surgeon. It seemed their roots had wrapped around the roots of the new permanent teeth coming in on the sides of each of them. On the five minute drive to the surgeon’s:

What if he slips and cuts off my lip?
What if he really slips and cuts off my nose?
What if he punctures the vein in my tongue and I bleed to death?
Or drown in the blood?

Our imaginations will absolutely take over if we let them and we’ll be trapped by our fears. I asked my son, “Think of ALL the people you know. Everyone at school, everyone at church, everyone in the neighborhood, all of our relatives, all of our friends. Has any of those things EVER happened to anyone you know?” Then, “Think of ALL the newscasts you’ve seen, all the movies you’ve seen, all the autobiographies you’ve read, all the books you’ve read – have you ever heard of such things EVER happening to ANYONE before?” He had to admit, no, he hadn’t. I could feel his anxiety level dropping. Reason. Using reason to keep our fear in check.

We all do it. I can’t get married because… I can’t get divorced because… I can’t change jobs because… I can’t ask that person out because… I can’t move because… I can’t travel because… I can’t write a book, draw a painting, sing a song, tell a joke because… Because of fear.

So what if you let go of the fear? And called forth your reasoning self? What would living no fear look like?

No fear means I am not afraid to be fully alive. I am not afraid of being all I can be. I am not afraid of my emotions. I am not afraid of being afraid. I am not afraid of making a mistake. I am not afraid of succeeding. I am not afraid to say out loud who I am. I am not afraid of the truth. I am not afraid to really, really try-- and fail. I’m not afraid of the unknown. I’m not afraid of saying no – or yes. I’m not afraid of conflict. I’m not afraid of giving or receiving love. I’m not afraid of making a fool out of myself. I am not afraid of being honest. I’m not afraid of money. I’m not afraid to soar. I’m not afraid of change. I’m not afraid of death. I’m not afraid of life.

May you master the insight of no fear – and live free.

~Patti