[Reading Record -152] Fear: How to Overcome the Storms of the Heart
Fear of what might happen in the future
Some time ago, my daughter came down to the living room in the evening and grumbled, "I napped too much..."
My daughter is usually quite emotionally stable and rarely gets negative, but she was unusually grumpy at that time. I got the impression that she was somehow frustrated with herself.
Her worry was about how it would affect her test scores at the beginning of the week.
The author of this book, "Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm", Thich Nhat Hanh, was a Vietnamese monk who represented the 20th century. He was a person who spread mindfulness to the world and dedicated himself to the peace movement.
In this book, the author explains that the background to the world's increasing division and endless conflicts is the fear that people hold toward unknown things and others. That fear manifests as "negative karma (actions = thoughts, words, deeds)" such as anger and frustration.
Thinking about it that way, my daughter's frustration (= negative karma) likely came from a "fear of what might happen in the future." The "fear" the author speaks of is not just about big issues like ethnic conflicts, but also something that happens within an individual's heart.
What it means to be "mindful"
Because people are finite beings, they fear death, fear failure, and worry about the future.
On the other hand, because of that fear, we think about studying, work hard, and want to cherish someone. In other words, fear is an emotion that torments people, but at the same time, it is also a driving force that helps people grow.
What Thich Nhat Hanh wanted to convey was not "do not think about the future." The problem is that the heart continues to live in the future.
We imagine events that haven't even happened yet and inflate our anxiety. When that happens, even though the body is in the present, the heart flies off to the future.
That is why he recommends focusing on your breathing and returning to the "here and now". That is what it means to be "Mindful".
Mindful is an English word that means "attentive," "keeping in mind," or "paying attention." It refers to a state of mind where one does not get caught up in regrets of the past or anxieties of the future, but concentrates consciousness on the "here and now" and accepts things as they are objectively.
The commonly used term "Mindfulness" refers to the practice of intentionally creating this mindful state, or the mindful psychological state itself.
Because we are finite, we live in the now
The author teaches that you should not view fear, anger, or dissatisfaction as enemies. This is because those emotions are also a part of the person.
However, people sometimes take wrong actions due to such negative emotions, and that may make life painful. And that suffering creates new fear.
That is because everyone knows that life is finite. If people had infinite time, they could fail and start over as many times as they wanted, but reality is not like that. Therefore,
(while it is necessary to think about the future) if you keep looking only at the future, your fear will continue to grow.
However, the fact that life is finite cannot be changed. That is precisely why we should sometimes
stop, focus on our breathing, and return to this very moment.
Thich Nhat Hanh says the following in this book.
The first step to looking at fear is to bring fear into your awareness without making any judgments. Please gently acknowledge its presence.
Even just doing that will bring a great sense of peace. Once the fear begins to settle, gently embrace it and look deeply into its roots.
Understanding the source of your worries and fears becomes the catalyst for letting them go.
Reference Links
・Amazon: "Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm"
・Wikipedia: "Thich Nhat Hanh"