Rime Buddhist CenterMonastery & Tibetan Institute of Studies The following is Lama Chuck's monthly column that appeared in the Faith section of the Kansas City Star newspaper on Saturday, August 20, 2005. Other columns: 2005 — Jan
1 | Jan 29 | Feb | March | April | May | July QUESTION: "Will religion help me to overcome fear?" ANSWER: Fear can be classified into healthy and unhealthy types of fear. Healthy fears are those that are a direct threat to our well being and are the type that we can do something about. For example if you encounter a bear in the woods you will feel fear, which is good because the danger is real. Unless you are motivated to move away, the bear may kill you. Likewise unhealthy life styles can threaten our life, but knowing this can also motivate us to makes changes to lessen the threat. Unhealthy fears are the type that we can't do anything about. The Buddha referred to this type of fear as delusion and is the result of an uncontrolled mind. In modern society there are a multitude of things that may frighten us, such as fear of: terrorists, war, of being separated from loved ones, of failure, of rejection - the list is nearly endless! These types of fears we have little control over. From the Buddhist perspective we may not be able to
control everything in our life, but we can learn to control
our own mind. It is through the meditation practice that
we learn to control our own mind. Shantideva said, "Thus,
all fears, and all infinite sufferings arise from the
mind." and " "it is not possible to control
all external events; but if I simply control my mind,
what need is there to control other things?" Your Friend In The Dharma, Lama Chuck Stanford [For more information ]
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