True Fearlessness

[upanishad]

Hello all,

 

I am wondering, how does one become truly fearless?

 

Are there set practices or meditation techniques that will completely take away fear, so that one is no longer capable of experiencing what fear feels like?

 

Can the practice of metta, loving-kindness and compassion, lead to fearlessness? Along the lines of the idea that "there is no fear in love, perfect love drives out fear"?

 

Does koan practice lead to fearlessness?

 

Experiencing the jhanas lead to fearlessness?

 

Zhan zhuang practice lead to fearlessness?

 

Finally, are there drugs or psychedelics known to eradicate fear from an individual?

[Marblehead]

I would recommend against trying to generalize our fears and trying to eliminate them.

 

Better, I think is to understatnd our fears and if we determine they are in the way of our living our life to the fullest and if so work on controlling or eliminating each one individually.

[blackstar212]

Fear is forseeing a negative potential as an outcome. Accept and release.

[Karl]

True fear is the loss, or inability to gain a value deemed necessary to a person. The primary value of ones own life under threat of extinction is the root of all fear. Therefore to end fear one must be unafraid of death. That can be done in two ways. The first is that your current life is so unbearable that extinction is preferable-one fears life more than death. The second is to evade reality, which isn't really fearlessness.

 

However, many people are not experiencing true fear, they fear that they don't fit in, or that people don't like them, that they aren't pretty enough, they aren't rich enough, that they will be shunned and rejected. This is irrational fear. To overcome this false fear and to do this in full conscious awareness is to become the hero you were potentially born to be.

[oak]

There's a place in us where there's no fear. I usually get there with walking meditation.

[Karl]

There's a place in us where there's no fear. I usually get there with walking meditation.

Try walking down the centre of a busy highway and see if anything kicks off ;-)

[Andrei]

Fear is always fear of the unknown. To know something needs to face the fear and experience that something. Then based on the experience you learn a lesson, but just one experience is not sufficient, you need to build a database of experiences to find trends, causes and effects. Now you start to know, and based on this knowledge you can control the outcome of experiences.

 

All our fears are programs encoded in our DNA from our ancestors experiences which are our instincts. Somebody may say the fears are engrames in our souls from previous lives, but in my opinion the DNA model is much more realistic. All fears are mechanisms designed to keep you alive, to survive. For example fear of not being included in a group comes from the dificulty of survival in wilderness alone, so the fear of loneliness is ultimately also a fear of death. But true fearlessness, there is no such a thing unless you invent a religion. People invent stories about afterlife, immortality, reincarnation, elightment, oneness, nonduality, universal consciousness etc. Just because of their own fear of death. So this is the solution, just build an imaginary world with lots of meanings and the fear of death will be gone.

[Taomeow]

Fearlessness is real only for the invincible.  Everyone else who feels or acts fearless is either engaged in counterphobic acting-out (aka repression and denial), or is too numb and/or dumb and/or unimaginative to comprehend the danger, or -- best case scenario -- has courage.  Of all traits in a vulnerable, non-invincible human being, I value courage the highest.  Courage is doing what you know is right when doing it puts you in danger, knowing and feeling and owning your fear and yet overcoming it for the sake of something bigger than your safety.  Courage has nothing to do with recklessness, and the fearless can't be courageous, because...  see the beginning of this paragraph.   

 

My favorite Castaneda quote: "A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance.  Going to knowledge and going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and those who make this mistake may not live to regret it."  (Quoting form memory, and of course what it says about "man" applies to "woman" as well.)

Edited October 9, 2016 by Taomeow

[Karl]

Fearlessness is real only for the invincible.  Everyone else who feels or acts fearless is either engaged in counterphobic acting-out (aka repression and denial), or is too numb and/or dumb and/or unimaginative to comprehend the danger, or -- best case scenario -- has courage.  Of all traits in a vulnerable, non-invincible human being, I value courage the highest.  Courage is doing what you know is right when doing it puts you in danger, knowing and feeling and owning your fear and yet overcoming it for the sake of something bigger than your safety.  Courage has nothing to do with recklessness, and the fearless can't be courageous, because...  see the beginning of this paragraph.   

 

My favorite Castaneda quote: "A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance.  Going to knowledge and going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and those who make this mistake may not live to regret it."  (Quoting form memory, and of course what it says about "man" applies to "woman" as well.)

Moral courage :-)

[Taomeow]

[3bob]

mind will be in fear of some kind or at some level until it fully accepts its place as servant to indomitable Spirit.

[Uroboros]

Fearlessness is real only for the invincible.  Everyone else who feels or acts fearless is either engaged in counterphobic acting-out (aka repression and denial), or is too numb and/or dumb and/or unimaginative to comprehend the danger, or -- best case scenario -- has courage.  Of all traits in a vulnerable, non-invincible human being, I value courage the highest.  Courage is doing what you know is right when doing it puts you in danger, knowing and feeling and owning your fear and yet overcoming it for the sake of something bigger than your safety.  Courage has nothing to do with recklessness, and the fearless can't be courageous, because...  see the beginning of this paragraph.   

 

My favorite Castaneda quote: "A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance.  Going to knowledge and going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and those who make this mistake may not live to regret it."  (Quoting form memory, and of course what it says about "man" applies to "woman" as well.)

 

In the vein of this, I remember reading about the old greek difference between boldness and courage. The bold are reckless, stupid, fearless. They act without caution and thought. The bold are not to be admired.

 

The courageous feel fear and are not stupid enough to think they are invincible. They are ones who cultivate virtue, right action in the right way at the right time. Courage is thoughtful, it is intent-full. There is even caution inherent in it as one does no want to give way to boldness and stupidity.

[Taomeow]

In the vein of this, I remember reading about the old greek difference between boldness and courage. The bold are reckless, stupid, fearless. They act without caution and thought. The bold are not to be admired.

 

The courageous feel fear and are not stupid enough to think they are invincible. They are ones who cultivate virtue, right action in the right way at the right time. Courage is thoughtful, it is intent-full. There is even caution inherent in it as one does no want to give way to boldness and stupidity.

 

 

Nice.    Taoists also discourage recklessness and exposing oneself to unnecessary danger -- in fact a bold, devil-may-care attitude is frowned upon.  And Laozi has this to say describing the ideal ancient sages and masters:

 

Watchful, like someone crossing a winter stream.

Alert, like someone aware of danger.

Courteous, like visiting guests.

Yielding, like ice about to melt.

 

Which of course does not make them cowardly.  Just wise. 

[3bob]

true power is not owned by the one it flows through, and neither is the related fearlessness that comes with such power.

[blue eyed snake]

true power is not owned by the one it flows through, and neither is the related fearlessness that comes with such power.

 

thank you, very concise

[3bob]

although it could be added that in a sense an alignment to truth is owned by such rare beings since they have gone beyond the point of possible inner falling or of being turned to anything less...

Edited October 9, 2016 by 3bob

[silent thunder]

reminded again, how grateful I am for this place...

thanks to all who contribute... it's deeply appreciated!

[neti neti]

True fear is the loss, or inability to gain a value deemed necessary to a person. The primary value of ones own life under threat of extinction is the root of all fear. Therefore to end fear one must be unafraid of death. That can be done in two ways. The first is that your current life is so unbearable that extinction is preferable-one fears life more than death. The second is to evade reality, which isn't really fearlessness.

 

I'll offer a third way to "conquer" fear of death: The firm conviction/realization that the body is not oneself, which in turn renders any felt need to engage in battle as futile. All fears are eliminated once exposed for the illusions they are.

 

While it may be confused as the evasion of reality, it is actually the evasion of delusion which exposes a false reality one is enticed to become immersed in.

Edited October 9, 2016 by neti neti

[Karl]

I'll offer a third way to "conquer" fear of death: The firm conviction/realization that the body is not oneself, which in turn renders any felt need to engage in battle as futile. All fears are eliminated when exposed for the illusions they are.

 

While it may be confused as the evasion of reality, it is actually the evasion of delusion which exposes a false reality one is enticed to become immersed in.

That's why Jihadhists blow themselves up. 40 Virgins. Still, not one of them has returned to tell the world of their progress. It's also interesting that those that spread this rot of delusional reality have no basis at all on which to prove it, neither do those acolytes often experiment with their lives in order to show that they have the conviction. Hmmmm I wonder why that is ? Could it be that they don't believe the rot they like to spout ?

[neti neti]

That's why Jihadhists blow themselves up. 40 Virgins. Still, not one of them has returned to tell the world of their progress. It's also interesting that those that spread this rot of delusional reality have no basis at all on which to prove it, neither do those acolytes often experiment with their lives in order to show that they have the conviction. Hmmmm I wonder why that is ? Could it be that they don't believe the rot they like to spout ?

 

Well I surely can't speak for extremists on either end of the perceived spectrums many become so engrossed with.

[blue eyed snake]

That's why Jihadhists blow themselves up. 40 Virgins. Still, not one of them has returned to tell the world of their progress. It's also interesting that those that spread this rot of delusional reality have no basis at all on which to prove it, neither do those acolytes often experiment with their lives in order to show that they have the conviction. Hmmmm I wonder why that is ? Could it be that they don't believe the rot they like to spout ?

 

me thinks you're stepping out of bounds here,

this is insulting language

Edited October 9, 2016 by blue eyed snake

[Karl]

me thinks you're stepping out of bounds here,

this is insulting language

It's not insulting language it's a condemnation of their arguments. Try removing the emotion from the argument BES. Insulting language would then be any criticism of any idea. I'm not, neither is anyone else, forced to offer a beautiful rhetorical argument in rebuttal. We can say it's rot, rubbish, silliness. Edited October 9, 2016 by Karl

[blue eyed snake]

It's not insulting language it's a condemnation of their arguments. Try removing the emotion from the argument BES. Insulting language would then be any criticism of any idea. I'm not, neither is anyone else, forced to offer a beautiful rhetorical argument in rebuttal. We can say it's rot, rubbish, silliness.

 

nope, and btw, i'm not emotional about it, that's your idea...

 

I'll mirror it for you,

 

when i would say that your rhetoric's about objective thinking are equal to spouting rot 

you might not feel too happy about that, it's insulting language instead of just making your point and, agreeing not to agree, going further to another topic.

 

the conviction that we just live in this body and go on after this body dies is one that is shared by many people, you're taking as example the jihadists and then you go on using offensive language. Thereby insulting all Hindus and Buddhists, to name just a few... That's not how we go along here on the bums, therefore I just politely warned you that you're stepping out of bounds

 

and when spoken about it you try to wiggle out of it...

 

sort of sad really... small boy behaviour

[blue eyed snake]

although it could be added that in a sense an alignment to truth is owned by such rare beings since they have gone beyond the point of possible inner falling or of being turned to anything less...

 

me thinks they've worked hard enough for it to own a little of it, yep

[3bob]

for another string but there is Krishna and Arjuna on the battle field....