“Fear arises out of ignorance, the lack of right knowledge or truth.”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

18 June 2024

“Fear arises out of ignorance, the lack of right knowledge or truth.”

Layman:  Do you have any thoughts about how people can deal with fear?

Than Ajaan: Fear arises out of ignorance, the lack of right knowledge or truth. We are afraid to lose things and afraid to lose our body because we are ignorant of the truth of those things and our body. We don’t see the impermanent nature of things or the body. We don’t see that everything arises and ceases, with nothing remaining the same or remaining forever. We also don’t know who we are. This is the real problem.

Our delusion makes us think that the body is ourselves when in fact the body is just another vehicle, like a car that we use to take us from place to place. We are the driver, but the problem is we don’t know that we are just the driver. Instead we think we are the car. The driver doesn’t die with the car. The mind doesn’t die with the body.

If you meditate, you will see. If you can enter total calm, you come to realise that there is this separate entity which is the mind. When you meditate and the mind becomes totally concentrated, you will temporarily let go of the body. The body will disappear from the mind’s perception, leaving the mind by itself. Then you will know that this is the mind without the body.

Once you know this, you are no longer afraid of death, no longer afraid of losing anything. It’s delusion that makes you think that you will lose everything when everything in the first place never belonged to you. Everything belongs to the earth. We have come and use the body to acquire things, but when the body has to die, you lose everything.

Life is just like going to the movies. While we watch a movie there will be this and that, but when it’s over, we have got nothing. We leave the movie theatre with nothing. The earth is like a stage or movie screen. The mind just comes and uses the body as an instrument to experience this movie. Once the body that we used to experience the movie no longer exists, we have to leave the movie theatre, go to a different theatre, and get a new body.

So know the truth is that we are not the body, that everything we have here does not belong to us and is only a temporary possession. Once you have the right attitude, the right knowledge, then you can adjust your attitude accordingly. You don’t own the sun, right? So you don’t get mad when the sun sets. You don’t feel bad about the sun setting, because you know the sun doesn’t belong to you. It is the same thing with the body and everything that you have here.

Your delusion makes you think that everything belongs to you, including your body, so when you lose it, you think that you are losing everything. You think that you disappear with the body, but that is not the case. Because when you meditate, you don’t have to use the body.

Once the mind has entered calm, it separates from the body, and it actually becomes a lot happier than when having a body. The body is really a burden that you have to carry. Like an automobile it gives benefits, but it also comes with costs. You have to pay for it. You have to take care of it; you have to buy gas. You have to clean it; you have to fix it when it needs repairs.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

Youtube: Dhamma in English
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi_BnRZmNgECsJGS31F495g