Fear Begets Fear: Tame the Beast Within

Story: Zen Master, Host and Earthquake (Source: Google Baba)

A Zen Master and a few friends had gathered and they were eating and talking when suddenly there was an earthquake.

The building that they were sitting in was a seven-story building, and they were on the seventh story so life was in danger. Everybody tried to escape. The host, running by, looked to see what had happened to the master. He was there with not even a ripple of anxiety on his face.

With closed eyes, he was sitting on his chair as he had been sitting before.

The host felt a little guilty, he felt a little cowardly; it did not look good that a guest was sitting there and the host was running away. The other twenty guests had already gone down the stairs but he stopped himself although he was trembling with fear, and he sat down by the side of the master.

The earthquake came and went, and the master opened his eyes and started his conversation which because of the earthquake he had to stop. He continued again in exactly the same sentence – as if the earthquake had not happened at all.

The host was now in no mood to listen or understand because his whole being was so troubled and he was so afraid. Even though the earthquake had gone, the fear was still there. He said: Now don’t say anything because I will not be able to grasp it, I’m not myself anymore. The earthquake has disturbed me too much.

But there is one question I would like to ask. All the other guests had escaped, I was also on the stairs, almost running, when suddenly I remembered you. Seeing you sitting here with closed eyes, sitting so undisturbed, so unperturbed, I felt a little cowardly – I am the host, I should not run. So, I came back and I have been sitting by your side. I would like to ask one question. We all tried to escape. What happened to you? What do you say about the earthquake?

The master said: I also escaped, but you escaped outwardly, I escaped inwardly.

Your escape is useless because wherever you are going there too is an earthquake, so it is meaningless, it makes no sense. You may reach the sixth story or the fifth or the fourth, but there too is an earthquake.

I escaped to a point within me where no earthquake ever reaches, cannot reach. I entered my centre. You can remain in the world and out of it because you are always in touch with your centre.

Moral of the Story:

The person who has attained his inner centre can pass through a stream, but the water never touches his feet. It is not to say that the water never touches his feet – the water will touch them – it is to say something about the world within, the beyond within. Nothing touches it, everything remains outside on the periphery, and the centre remains untouched, pure, innocent and virgin.

Meaning of ‘Fear Begets Fear’:

Fear is generally considered to be a negative word as it denotes our disability to face a situation. In our day-to-day lives, we face different situations wherein we are not sure of doing something correctly. It could be as simple as

• How to drive a scooter or a car
• How to propose to our friend
• How to ask for some help
• How to speak in front of a group of people

These are all easy and mundane things in our lives and we can realise its potency when we successfully do it. But till that time, they remain the toughest things in our lives. The more time we spend, pondering over it, the more fearful, we feel. At times, we spend our entire lifetime but we could not find the answer to a simple question that,

• Why I could not drive a vehicle.
• Why I could not marry someone I liked?
• Why I could not complete my studies as I could not muster enough strength to ask for help.
• Why I could not achieve what I deserved only because I feared speaking in front of people.

But the thing that we fear most is DEATH. Although we all know one day, we will certainly leave this body. Anyone and everyone who is born will die one day but still, we fear it the MOST.

In Mahabharat, Dharmaraj Yudhister had a profound, powerful and passionate Q&A with Yaksha. One of the questions was about death.

Question by Yaksha: What is truly amazing in this world?
Answer by Yudhister: The most amazing thing is, though humans are mortal, everybody goes about their life as if they are going to be here forever.   

Why it is Important to Manage Fear?

The fear impacts our efficiency (input to output or productivity). It reduces our capability to deliver to our best capacity. Many times, we may have observed that,

• When we come out from the examination hall, we question ourselves for the silly mistakes that we have made.
• When we completed our keynote session, we analysed that we missed one important paragraph which could have motivated/emotionalized the audience to the next level.
• We had strained our relationship with a best friend due to the fear of feeling marginalized!

In the majority of cases, the fear is artificial, we create something innocuous in our mind and start believing something which does not exist.

Jesus commanded “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul,” “But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Assuming that whatever we are fearing comes true, if being fearful makes us strong or weak? When we are fearful about something and continue to remain in that state,

• our energy level goes down,
• our conviction about resolving it reduces and,
• we feel more helpless than resourceful.

How to Effectively Manage Fear?

In his 1937 classic book, “Think and Grow Rich”, Napolean Hill stated about the ‘unholy trio’ of Fear, Indecision and Doubt, which works together to sabotage our dreams and aspirations.

The only thing that we need to FEAR is Fear itself. The first and foremost thing is to accept the fact that ‘Yes, I am feeling fearful’. Once we accept what is happening to us, it means that we have diagnosed the problem. For any Doctor, the most important part of the treatment is diagnosis. Once a disease is identified, modern science provides many possible solutions to deal with it.

The problem is never the Fear but the root cause of any Fear. When we identify the seed germination of the fear, we can start working on it. In the majority of the cases, the fear is non-existent (like fear of a barking dog!) and wherever it exists, it is a consequence of ‘attachment to a particular result’.

The more we focus on our efforts, the more we will focus on what best we can deliver, the more we focus on how we can do anything with honesty and commitment; the more we will feel confident about ourselves. Even if we fail, we will always know that we have delivered our best.