A most beautiful description of “FEAR” from the wisdom of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche shared in class on February 26, 2022:
“…At each moment, we have the choice between confronting our fear and running away from it. The openness of basic goodness and its nakedness are frightening. In this context, fear does not mean being scared of something in particular that may or may not happen, such as thunderstorms or spiders. Instead, it stands for a kind of anxiety, a sense of basic inadequacy that darkens everything we do. The threat in such fear lies nowhere; it is completely indeterminate.
Fear itself is not an obstacle. It is a sign of contact with the brilliance of the opening. But its denial, being “afraid of fear,” shuts the door of our heart. By thus running away, we manipulate our experience and turn away from ourselves. There are countless strategies that can be used to take our minds off things and amuse ourselves, but this only succeeds in chasing away all those fleeting moments of presence that strip us naked.
The fear of fear that Chogyam Trungpa described is a matter of wrapping our hearts, in the hope of finding security, under layers of protection that make us less and less sensitive.”