Overcoming fear
-1. Due to mindfulness of the body.
This is said in MN119. In this sutta mindfulness of the body is explained. It consists of (in short): 1. Breath-meditation; 2. awareness of the four postures (awareness of walking, standing, sitting, lying down); 3; doing everything with full awareness, such as eating with attention, urinating, extending limbs, all kind of acts; 4. Reviewing the body parts and there foulness; 5. Contemplating the elements of the body; 6. Contemplating the decay of the body in nine phases of decomposition, realising our own body is of the same nature.. 7. Abiding in the four jhana’s.
When this mindfulness of the body has been repeatedly practised, developed, cultivated, used as a vehicle, used as a basis, established, consolidated, and well undertaken, these ten benefits may be expected. What ten? These are listed in the sutta. One of them (ii) is:
– “One becomes a conqueror of fear and dread, and fear and dread do not conquer oneself; one abides overcoming fear and dread whenever they arise. (MN119)
-2. Ending sakkaya ditthi.
I personally think this is the key.
This is treated in SN22.7. The mechanism, in my own words ofcourse, is that due to sakkaya ditthi we are in a negative way obsessed with changes in what we feel, perceive, experience. We are afraid of changes. Changes are normal, a fact of life, but in a psychological sense it is very hard to endure, i find.
For example, the body changes, from relative young to old, from strong to weak, from healthy to sick. And all this change comes with much worry, much fear, feelings of unsafety, anxiety.
I think the main cause is sakkaya ditthi. We are identified with this body. This is one kind of sakkaya ditthi (i am this body). So when the body changes and it becomes old and sick this becomes something very personal and dramatic. This dramatising effect is, i belief, due to sakkaya ditthi. Sakkaya ditthi makes everything so personal.
Change becomes a drama while change is just a fact of life. When sakkaya ditthi ends all those changes in what we feel, experience, perceive do not make us worry anymore.
-3. contemplating the qualities of the three gems, the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. (SN11.3)
Siebe