This Chinese lion represented
Fearlessness (Abhayam)
for me. A mighty beast, king of the jungle, with his right paw resting on a pineapple-like
ball perhaps symbolising the world – majestically rising up to the heavens while
keeping the earth, the material plane, firmly in place below. Fear is a
response to a “perceived” threat, and that’s very well put. But there’s the
rub. Who is “perceiving” and “why”? According to Gandhi, “Fearlessness is the
first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral.” More prosaically,
Roosevelt said “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” But let’s not take
that as an excuse for fear. Right understanding of oneself and the world brings
acceptance of what is, and “what is” is what is, and all fear of “what
is” is misunderstanding and ignorance. And note that the first of the Virtues
is a negative, ab-hayam, “not fearful”, which is more than merely being
“brave” or “courageous” in the sense of acting although fear is present… But I
didn’t start with that. I had to start with normal fears, and I analysed what,
if any, fears I still harboured. I think I’m lucky to have been born and raised
with animals and nature, so despite one angry nest of yellow-jackets and 67
stings on my body as a boy, I overcame a possible trauma. Snakes and reptiles?
Insects, cockroaches? No. Ghosts, ghouls, vampires, demons? No. In my 20s I
gave up those fears. Flying, risk, adventure, lifts, high places? No. Death? I
use this sometimes during meditation to remember I’m alive, so acceptance is
the good word for it. Pain, disease, suffering? Acceptance. Fear of the
unknown? Ah, maybe there’s something to fear. While contemplating this on a
walk, I realised I had a fear I needed to address. It was using – even to
myself – the word “God”, since it is so often abused. Having been brought up in
an atheistic tradition hadn’t helped, so I decided to do away with my past
conditioning and accept that if used rightly, it was OK to use this term of
address for the unknown… For more “fear” things, I’m sure there’ll be an
in-depth article on the blog soon…
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