We said what is: the desire for security and power. That’s the second layer underneath the desire to understand or to learn. So then there is a third, deeper, layer which lies beneath the desire for security and power: which is fear. The human brain is a very old brain, deeply embedded with fear, determined to survive at all costs, animalistic and aggressive. So fear runs through all the brain cells. Right? Otherwise, I am not quite sure what we are talking about; if the brain is already a free brain, then change is unnecessary. To see fear is one thing; whereas to understand fear may itself be part of fear because there is then a split between the fear and the one who seeks to understand it.
Now, you may say that there is a similar split when we talk of seeing fear. That depends entirely on how we look at fear. So can we go on into this together?
There is no “going into” if an inquiry is labeled as a “split”. This self-referring paradoxical tactic will make any claim or invitation to “go into” meaningless, and perhaps a game.
Psychological fear is a disturbance. If there is an attempt to ‘move away’ from it, to escape from it, there is the duality of the ‘mover away’ and the thing / image / thought. that is creating the ‘fear’. If there is no moving away reaction, but a ‘staying’, the image / thought is seen for what it is and that revelation dissipates it. So why does thought try to make me afraid? Why does it bring up ‘fearful’ images? Who is it trying to frighten?
It not us ‘fools’ that ‘have’ the insight…we are the object of it. It is our “delusion” of being a separate being apart from what is felt, seen, etc. that is revealed by the ‘insight’ (the seeing into) that is the “liberation”…As seen here.
Is fear separate from me? That is the first question. This is not a tactical move; it is just common sense to find out. If it is separate then I can do something about it, act upon it, understand and control it as I would control a wild animal. Or there is only fear, not me and fear. So which is it?
Let’s see if i can narrow down the issue and give it another shot. We can use a simple term like ‘psychological functions’ to include the whole array of processing and responses of the brain. Which include things like learning, knowledge, insight, conditioning, etc. These are also called cortical functions as they are from the newly formed cortical regions of the brain as most of us know. In light of this information has anyone understood and is able to articulate what k is talking about?
Being a me is all about being a center that likes and dislikes, categorises between good and bad.
To fear or to be attracted to, is the movement of the self.
I am fear, I am attraction. If there is no me, there is no fear.
OK, but in a moment of fear, don’t we feel that ‘I’ can act upon the fear? I must be separate from something to act upon it right? And we DO feel we can do something…we attempt to do something…analyze or inquire into it. Or we escape from the pain of it. WE say that ‘it’s too painful and I can’t face it’ and we move away…turn on the TV or take a drink. What makes fear so painful? I’m questioning myself. As a child I was incredibly afraid of punishment…not necessarily physical punishment, but perhaps abandonment. When the very young child feels the anger or extreme disapproval…the condemnation…from a parent…he may very well feel he may be abandoned. and the pain of such a possibility is overwhelming. Why else is fear such a huge issue for man? Desire is not a concern for any of us…the pursuit of pleasure…but fear is a major issue. It’s a like a plague upon mankind. The root is thought…often unconscious. And these thoughts are often creating immense pain. And from this pain, we escape…or attempt to escape.
If it were not, it would be useless. Fear that is not scary, is not fear. Non-scary fear has been left by the wayside of evolution.
Acting on fear - ie. running away or finding solutions is the movement of fear. We are under its total domination because it is ourselves.
Although yes, it feels like two separate things : the feeling (fear) and the entity that feels (self) - and so the entity acts according to its feelings. In the action is the union of subject and object (zen word salad, sorry)
In the action is the union of subject (me) and object (environment/you/emotions/non-me) - thus the importance of our actions - each action reconditions the whole of reality. Thus the important bit of each action is not the intended/futur goal, but rather to do no harm in this moment - that each action should be free of the the self (free of the past) - and thus not be a reaction that furthers our conditioning (of fear, of separation, of the past struggling to become the futur) but rather a movement of love, of compassion.
Then shall we look directly at what K said about this subject, before we go any further into this? Shall we pull out two or three examples of what he said on the issue? Then it may help to get things a little clearer.
Wait a minute, let’s find out what we all mean by the word ‘fear’. In a moment of danger I act. There is no gap between the perception of the threat and the action to save myself. The body acts immediately to save itself. The feeling that I can act upon the danger only comes in later. It is this feeling that breeds fear because it is all about the memory of what has happened yesterday and the idea of what may happen tomorrow. So fear does not exist without time.
Hmmmm… how the heck did you get somehow from self/memory/projection acting to ‘each action should be free of the self’? and ‘a movement of love, of compassion’?
This is clear. Yet, there is the fact of these memories…often unconscious breeding immense fear. This is where we are, no? What can be done in a moment of immense fear when the impulse to run is strong? Or the impulse to analyze…to eliminate the fear?
Realise that this is just the movement of conditioning - its only goal/effect is the continuation and strengthening of that very conditioning. Is further strengthening and continuation of that conditioning what you really want? Is that the overriding factor?
If so, then run.
