Friday, December 18, 2009

Scared Buddha, Calm Buddha

This morning, fear was back again. This time, however, I had Gil's words, to guide me. "Be a scared Buddha" . . . And so I was, scared Buddha, amidst passing interferences, from  insisting, controlling mind. Breath, as my friend, bringing awareness back to reality of now, over and over. Fear. Fear. Fear . . . Until all of a sudden, towards the end of sitting, no fear. Only breath, and deep calmness.

The mind thinks it needs to work harder than it needs to. I am realizing more and more, the power of simply being present to what is. Interpretation is best left to psychotherapy, and even there, not always.

4 comments:

  1. Yes! Just offer yourself to the biggest monster - put your head right into his mouth!

    ReplyDelete
  2. When fear appears for me and I get that feeling in the bottom of my stomach that makes me want to run, I ask myself... "What is it that you are expecting?" And then I sit and explore that sensation... hunt it... and then if possible see if I can breath enough into the moment to thaw it a little.

    In closing, I once heard a friend say that FEAR was (F)alse (E)vidence (A)ppearing (R)eal. It was only after he said that, that I realized I was fighting ghosts... projections of mind and somehow a feeling of being inadequate in the situation. Once confidence within myself arose, my fears naturally dissolved.

    Unifying Heart and Mind,

    ~Seiho

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you Seiho. That is wise advice. I find there are many kinds of fear. 'Real' fear, anticipatory fear, primal, existential fear . . . The latter one is what I have been struggling with lately. Of course, like any other phenomenon, more opportunity for practice. :)

    ReplyDelete