Embodied asked: “Can a good, well-sinked understanding of Tilakhanna help to overcome fear..?”
Fear is two kinds:
1. Fear of losing things in this life, fear of getting sick, losing loved ones, of ghosts, of bad dreams, etc etc. What we can call “mundane fears”.
2. But one should fear most is the possible birth in the apayas. Such a suffering will not be limited to a mere 100 years.
To give a brief answer:
1. Fear of mundane things can be reduced/eliminated by the mundane eitghtfold path.
2. Fear of possible rebirth in the apayas may not be truly comprehensible until that mundane path is cultivated and most of the “mundane fears are understood to be relatively insignificant” compared to the more serious one. Then one starts on eliminating those more significant fears.
In order to work on the more serious fears, one needs to have a relatively calm mindset that is attained via the mundane path. A good indication is when one does not see terrible dreams anymore, for example, and have a general sense of calmness.
As I mentioned just today under another topic (“Is circumambulation a mere rite or ritual?“), “sila, samadhi, panna” or the mundane path leads to the second more important stage of “panna, sila, samadhi”, as discussed in the post, “Sīla, Samādhi, Pannā to Pannā, sīla, Samādhi“.
– As, discussed there, “sila” will have a deeper meaning in the second stage; that is an unbreakable “sila” (called the “Ariyakanta sila”) that comes with the comprehension of Tilakkhana.
All fears are eliminated only at the Arahant stage. It is only an Arahant that is not afraid of even death. In fact, an Arahant is said to be looking forward to the day when all sufferings experienced with this human body ends, and to enter the permanent Nibbana.