3 Zen Teachings On Fear

The Zen teachings about fear are also teachings about the ego. The masters of this philosophical discipline say that if the ego had an engine, fear would be its fuel. For them, in reality, you cannot make a great inventory of fears; these are reduced to just three, and relate to our “I”.

From this perspective,  all the fears that human beings feel have two well-defined roots: attachment  and ignorance. Attachment makes us vulnerable because it involves fixing our mind, our emotions, and our desire on something external. Naturally, this involves a first form of fear: that of losing what we are attached to.

Ignorance, on the other hand, immerses us in a state of uncertainty and doubt that facilitates the emergence of fear.  The inability to accurately recognize the risk or danger and understand the path to face it leads us to feel invaded by insecurity and fear.

Zen teachings on fear say that there are three subtypes that arise from these two basic roots. They are as follows.

1. Preserve life, one of the Zen teachings about fear

The first of the Zen teachings on fear says that  the most basic human fear is that of losing one’s life. We basically identify loss of life as loss of body. We are physical beings and this is our most elemental reality. We inhabit our body and the fear of losing it is the fear of ceasing to exist.

This fear is equivalent to the fear of death. However, death is not just the complete completion of our organic functions. There are also, so to speak, other scales of loss  of the body on the way to death. For example, you may lose skills, or youth, or normal bodily functioning or self-image.

Zen teachings on fear say that the fear of losing your life can disappear through the same body. This fear is physical and, if it is extinguished from the body, it also leaves the mind. What must be done is to attend to the bodily sensations of fear. Then breathe into your abdomen, calm your heart rate and relax your muscles.

2. Lose the self

The fear of loss of self is also what might be called the fear of change. We come to believe that we are what we are used to being. The activities we usually do, the spaces we occupy every day, the people we see daily.

We get so used to seeing ourselves in this way that we feel a strong fear if the context changes and we are exposed to the novelty. It is then that  the fear of losing the self arises , of not knowing what to do or how to act. It’s a kind of fear of being diluted, of not being.

Zen teachings on fear insist that this fear can also be eradicated through abdominal breathing exercises. From this perspective, the abdomen is the source of courage. They say that it is from him that the “roar of life” arises, that is, our tranquility and our courage. They advise taking deeper (abdominal) breathing when you feel this kind of fear.

3. Fear of suffering

In general, we call suffering anything that causes extreme stress on the nervous system, producing an unpleasant and agonizing feeling. It involves deficiencies, limitations and frustrations or unfulfilled desires. It can be very intense and, in these cases, it invades us and paralyzes other aspects of our being.

The way to overcome the fear of suffering, according to Zen teachings on fear, is to work on our spiritual growth. When we put ourselves in a perspective in which everything that happens to us is an opportunity to evolve, the fear of suffering gradually disappears. It’s about seeing physical or emotional pain as a passing thing that helps us to be better.

Zen masters say that suffering is a phenomenon that is in the mind. Each person gives a positive or negative meaning to the experiences they live. So it depends on how much you are willing to suffer. Consequently, the fear of suffering increases or decreases.

These Zen teachings on fear remind us that we are the ones who feed the fears or work to block them. The greatest food of fears is the uninformed imagination. Also resistance to changes and natural cycles of life. Finally, there are unavoidable situations – and however much we are afraid, or however much we avoid them, they will always catch up.