Fear universally involves the felt potential for suffering: physical, mental, spiritual. The reason we are afraid of death is not necessarily because it’s the end or the unknown, rather we imagine it will cause us to suffer. No felt potential for suffering, no fear. As long as you are subject to suffering, fear will be a part of your life. Freedom from fear requires freedom from suffering. Can suffering (and fear along with it) end?
Just to be clear about what we are stating : is it the afterlife that is scary, or the pain and disability that might accompany the process of dying?
All the above. Any unpleasant feelings arising with the thought of death.
That was the message that K tried to get across: there is no such thing as ‘dying’. Thought has made it the opposite of ‘living’. “Thought is fear “ he said. Thought created the thinker who is afraid. You are not the thinker, you are the world. The house is burning and freedom is essential.
Freedom from fear is not contingent on the end of suffering, but on the understanding of fear itself. How it arises, how it projects, and how thought sustains it.
Suffering may continue as long as we exist, but can we observe fear without resistance or escape? This inquiry is where freedom begins.
To see clearly, we must observe that fear and suffering are not the same. Fear is the movement of thought imagining future pain or loss, whereas suffering is what is already present.
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I think it’s a mistake to believe fear and suffering are independent of each other. I think they rise in tandem and are as intertwined as thought and feeling. I doubt understanding fear while projection of future suffering is still going on will truly end that fear. But this is all very theoretical for me.
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The only way I can imagine fear ending while suffering goes on is where there is absolutely no resistance to the suffering. Millions of years evolution guarantees this is nigh unto impossible. The fact for just about every living being is fear and suffering.
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The connection between fear and suffering is indeed deeply intertwined, as you point out. However, perhaps it’s worth asking: is it the suffering itself that sustains fear, or is it the mind’s resistance to suffering? Isn’t the desire to avoid, escape, or resolve suffering, what gives fear its energy?
Doesn’t this assumption itself form part of the resistance? There is no value in questioning if you already have locked in your answer.
Evolution has conditioned us, yes, but does that conditioning fully determine the present moment? Obviously, it does not.
When suffering is met without resistance (not accepted as a conclusion, but observed without the movement of avoidance) what does that bring about to our relationship with fear?
This is not theoretical but something that we can directly observe in our own lives. Inquiry begins when we see what is without trying to solve, escape, or analyze it. Let’s not look for an answer, response, or conclusion but stay with was is.
Fear arises from resisting.
Resisting arises from desire.
Desire arises from attachment.
Attachment arises from misunderstanding.
By misunderstanding I mean not seeing the true nature of impermanence, the self, interconnectedness, life/death.
Misunderstanding is the root. I see us here in the forum as working to correct our misunderstanding.
Important themes, but perhaps we could slow down and examine the statements more carefully. Each link in the chain, fear, resistance, desire, attachment, misunderstanding, carries conclusions that seem to require deeper investigation.
For example, is fear truly the result of resisting? Or is fear itself the resistance? And what is desire? Does it arise solely from attachment, or is it a movement of thought projecting toward an image of fulfillment?
You also speak of misunderstanding as the root cause. But is it to be seen as it arises? Can we observe these movements without immediately framing them in a chain of causes and effects, which is itself a construct of thought?
Perhaps the real question here is whether thought, which seeks to categorize and conclude, can step back entirely so that these movements are seen freshly as they unfold.
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- Resisting to what?
- Desire to what?
- Attachment to what?
- Misunderstanding what?
Resisting to what?
The feelings and images arising from thinking about potential future suffering.
Desire to what?
Desire for there to be no suffering, just happiness, contentment, safety.
Attachment to what?
These desires for no suffering.
Misunderstanding what?
How things truly exist.
Please feel free to find flaws in this, I just kind of tossed it out, it might be way off!
did you mean, rick, anticipation of suffering instead of felt potential for suffering ? Because potential for suffering is always there but you feel it when you fear that the suffering is almost about to begin ? Just clarifying your words for me… what did you mean by felt potential ?
toni, by the phrase ‘felt potential’ I mean it’s felt not just thought, and that what is felt is the potential for suffering to occur in the future, not the certainty. Anticipation probably does the job better!
Yes.
What is the next question? Which is bound to be much more interesting…
Anything actual has an end; it is only ideas which don’t. Either way, suffering is finished either as a fact or as a concept.
In the beginning was the Word …
That’s a bit ridiculous, isn’t it? “In the beginning was the Word.” Not just the statement itself is ridiculous but any use of the statement to explain away fear and suffering. Probably it means you have never suffered; or it has always been suffering at one remove from you. So let’s work it out together. The last time you suffered was when?
These statements are similar:
actual has an end; it is only ideas which don’t
In the beginning was the Word …
I shared this hoping it would resonate. I was not explaining away anything.
So our actual suffering has come to a complete end. Then what is our next question?
My suffering is alive and well and churning away enthusiastically.