Buddha - Conquer Fear, Become Free

ABOUT
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In this video, I talk about the Buddha, Buddhism, freedom, fear, and how to conquer it.

In The Dhammapada, the Buddha says that a wise person is beyond fear and, as a result, is truly free, and I explored this idea more deeply through a dialogue. I was interested in the complete elimination of fear from the mind, and here’s where I’ve arrived.

Fear is a barrier that prevents the mind from learning, and the source of fear is our desire to protect ourselves from pain. But we can’t protect ourselves from pain. Our protection lies in the hands of Fate. Fate trades by a contract, and it’s possible to learn this contract and lessen the amount of pain we receive in life. But to completely eliminate fear from the mind, two things have to be true: when Fate does give us pain, it’s necessary and bearable. And only when fear vanishes are we able to be free, uncontrolled by anyone. But as long as fear exists in the mind, there’s always a tyrant trying to control us.

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NOTES
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(1) Videos are just my opinion, for entertainment and informational purposes. Just some things to think about—not advice.

(2) Some of the links in the description are affiliate links which I get a kickback from—at no extra cost to you. Eg - any Amazon links.

[FreedominThought]

Thanks for watching! And thanks to Shortform for sponsoring it and making it possible.

[wonseoklee]

Pain is unavoidable, but we can avoid suffering, because the suffering is a product of our own mind not from outside. Buddha says ‘You can’t avoid the first arrow (pain), but can avoid the second arrow (suffering). If we believe there’s always a way to overcome suffering - fear of suffering can be eliminated. Fear of pain still remains anyway, it is somewhat necessary actually.

[TheDhammaHub]

It is not just fear that the Buddha conquered, it is his _susceptibility to any kind of future fear_ - he was completely free indeed

[moonchroom]

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” Frank Herbert- Dune

[FelineGoode]

Here's what I understood: "Sh*t happens, and you're gonna be okay :)"
Thanks, super helpful!

[anonangel]

“If you fear something, you’re controlled by that thing.” This sentence changed my life truthfully. It got trapped in my head and always pops up when my anxiety creeps up on me. It helped me take back my power and show up even if I’m scared. Very relieving and quite exciting.

[adimehmedicevic]

I've always been telling myself: "If I can't control negative things, why should I bother thinking about them now?"
Think about things you can control and things that will surely happen.

[jasmannyc]

I was going through a mental breakdown yesterday. I mostly consider myself a mentally strong person, I can’t explain how perfect your posts’ timing was. It helped me realize that fear doesn’t have to control me, and the whole thing about a tyrant being behind the sword hits home, I don’t wanna be controlled by fear. Thank you for the presentation! And for taking the time to make this content, you literally changed my life!

[saigovind]

I got few takeaways from this
1- Be in the mindset of "come what may, I can handle it"
2-Why has a problem come to you? because only you can handle it.
The next time your mind worries you with fear of the future, tell it "If it comes to me, I can very well handle it"
No pain, trouble, problem or challenge is thrown at you which you cannot handle or manage.

[PutingPinoy]

As a fellow lover of wisdom, your channel is severely underrated! The concepts you explore on this channel would truly help heal the world and lead one to greater success in all aspects of life.

[joelunruh]

"There is no fear in love, perfect love drives out fear. Fear has to do with punishment, he who fears has not been made perfect in love."

[janicestevenson]

"I will not follow fear within the world. Humanity is governed by waves of fear that draw people here and there, waves of fear that dominate their actions, their thinking, their conclusions, their beliefs and their assumptions. Do not follow the waves of fear that move across the world. Allow yourself to observe the world from this point of stillness and certainty. In this way, you will be able to contribute to the world and not be its victim only. You are here to give, not to judge, and in stillness you are without judgment upon the world. Recognize, then, the waves of fear, but do not let them touch you, for in Knowledge they cannot touch you because Knowledge is beyond all fear." (Steps to Knowledge, Marshall Vian Summers)

[amccaffrey]

“Pain is necessary and bearable.” So POWERFUL. This statement explains everything. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. Once we truly understand this, we can be free. My takeaway- that the goal is not to try to avoid pain, rather try to embrace it and learn from it… if we can manage to do this, all suffering will dissolve.
Thank you for sharing this enlightening content. 🙏🏼

[DEERCRACKERLOVER]

As a guy who came from a harsh Family, i catch the pain than running away from it, because of that i learned how to be fearless of everything and more able to understand other people's perspective openly

[jonathansimmons]

Wow. Pain is necessary and bearable. And I can accept that. I feel so much freedom in that inner standing and realization

[tsheringzd]

Everything we go through is temporary so is our human body. This is why fear or desire shouldn't be given importance if we want to conquer our own fate but be friends with it instead ✨

[courage]

Thank you for this video. In keeping with Buddha’s teaching, I would say that your conclusion makes sense to me in this way:
1) The first noble truth, also called the truth of suffering, which is life/existence is suffering because all things are impermanent, isn’t exactly the same as pain being necessary per se, but one can interpret this as “if one exists then one necessarily has to experience pain and dissatisfaction”
2) the third noble truth, aka the truth of the cessation of suffering, says that there is an end to pain and dissatisfaction, so in a way, all pain is ultimately bearable because there is an end to it; we gain wisdom about our relationship with suffering, and how we can let go and gain freedom from it, then ultimately fear will not dominate us...but easier said than done! 😊🙏

[Tonywizart]

So basically, fear will always give you pain, however, by letting yourself bear that pain, you gain knowledge, the more you learn, the more you can avoid suffering, thus attaining freedom. Fear blinds us from taking action and staying in our comfort zone. It’s an illusion that stagnates our growth.

[noelkinz]

For years I have lived in fear.

A crippling fear of loosing control, specially of myself. A fear of loosing everything that felt important to me like my reputation, my desired accomplishments or even my loved ones. But with time I have discovered that importance and fear off loss is an illusion of the mind that is trying to control everything, because of past negative experience.

Is like the mind is always trying to prepare you for the worst outcome, so it projects you in negative scenarios or makes you remember past events that made you feel in a certain way, so you become obsess on finding the solution to your negative emotions ironically bringing those emotions back to you because you are not letting go of them.

you don't trust source energy, you deny a higher power that can restore you, just like when you get a cut in you skin that heals with time you are not letting time heal you, instead you are going against the flow of time that can only manifest as now. you need to let go of the energy that you are holding in your body so what you want can be manifested.

But the mind. The mind is tricky. it creates tension. not that tension is all bad tension can be exciting if used wisely by applying focused and constructive thinking but there most be a balanced, between the being and the doing of things.

If the mind were to be a magician, fear of loosing control is its greatest illusion yet, because there is no control in trying but in letting go, that is were true control lives.

just like this words that flow through me and around me. like a winded spirit that have just escaped the prison of resistance, this are words of time.

Why? why have I waited son long for this freedom? perhaps. perhaps it is time what determines everything. for this I go just like the wind of this words and leave with the burning question till i meet again with myself in the future. _ Noelkinz

[eponymoususer]

It’s important to consider that fear is not just in the mind- it’s in the body. Humans are hard-wired with specific parts of the brain and endocrine system to produce fear as a survival tool.

When the brain perceives a threat, it triggers a hormone response- essentially drugging you with hormones that make instant, energetic reactions possible. This is the reason a 70 year old woman can lift a car off of a baby. This is how people are able to run for their lives.

Perhaps attachment to the idea of life is a problem. We are hard-wired to survive, but we are also emotionally attached to the idea.

Considering the body’s determination to survive, fear is very useful if you’re living in constantly in situations that are immediately dangerous to your physical body.

Unfortunately, our brains do a poor job of differentiating between immediate physical threat and prolonged emotional threat. Fear causes suffering when one encounters prolonged emotional fear.

Fear in those situations can best be reduced to the intensity of a phone notification. It’s your body telling you your perception has encountered threat.

I believe you can negotiate with fear. That you can use the body’s natural expression of fear best by making decisions about its intensity. Think of your fear as an internal person. Their job is to ring an alarm bell when they perceive threat, then dump the adrenaline cocktail if they consider it a threat to survival. You can negotiate what qualifies as a threat. You can show your fear when it is useful and when it is reaching past its usefulness, causing suffering.

It also pays to mention that having experienced fear creates connection by developing the ability to experience compassion for others who suffer from it.

I think fear and anger are as biologically unavoidable as having blood or a liver. I think when we try to amputate parts of ourselves, we become less healthy. Perhaps an approach of acceptance, boundaries, and negotiation would cause less suffering.

Please feel free to argue this point, as I’m exploring and would appreciate others’ perspectives.