Fear – Jewel Heart

FEAR

In this session, you will be listening to an unedited audio recording of teachings given by Gelek Rimpoche on December 10, 1991 at Jewel Heart Ann Arbor.

Tuesday evening weekly teachings in Ann Arbor were a tradition that continued for many years. Rimpoche’s topic in this session is fear.

Setting the context for talking about fear as being within the first category, or from the point of view, of dealing with the difficulties and sufferings an individual encounters in life, Rimpoche reminds us that we are looking at Buddha’s teachings from a simple and personal practice oriented perspective.

Rimpoche then dives headlong into our relationship with fear – with how it can paralyze us; or it can compel us into negative emotions: or it can serve to develop a positive action that bravely faces the fear and ultimately de-mystifies it, reducing it to the nothing that it, in reality, is.

With rich and lively ghost stories from his younger days in Tibet, Rimpoche emphasizes the balance between a useful fear and a harmful one and later entertains questions about the relationship between fear and anger. Discussing the productive fear that moves us to seek proper refuge, Rimpoche points out that the best protection from fear is the wisdom that cuts through ignorance – the root of our fear – by understanding the nature of reality. He also adds that with love and compassion we will discover the next best protection to wisdom, and that at the minimum level to approach our fears, we can move with caution.