I bought this book in a physical hardcover and audiobook in Dec 2021.
Fear is an extremely powerful tool in meditation.
I set frequent reminders to refer to this book and use these meditations.
Fear is a feeling, part of the five aggregates of clinging.
Favorite quotes
I will cultivate openness, nondiscrimination, and nonattachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself and in the world.
Excerpt From
Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm
Thich Nhat Hanh
I laser etched my thankga on the covers
A timeless path for living fearlessly.
A powerful and practical guide to overcoming our debilitating uncertainties and personal terrors by Vietnamese Buddhist Zen Master, poet, scholar, peace activist, and one of the foremost spiritual leaders in the world – Thich Nhat Hanh.
Fear has countless faces: from the fear of failure to worries about everyday life, from financial or environmental uncertainties to the universal despair we all experience when faced by the loss of a friend or loved one. Even when surrounded by all the conditions for happiness, life can feel incomplete when fear keeps us focused on the past and worried about the future. While we all experience fear, it is possible to learn how to avoid having our lives shaped and driven by it.
In these pages, Thich Nhat Hanh, a gifted teacher who was once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King Jr., explores the origins of our fears, illuminating a path to finding peace and freedom from anxiety and offering powerful tools to help us eradicate it from our lives.
Meditations
mindful processes mantras and breathing exercises
What is Nirvana
how to meditate daily on the five remembrances
The idea is using mindfulness to dissolve all fears
These can be used as a mantra or along with the steps of breathing
- I’ve arrived
- I’m home
Five mindful trainings
I like how Thich combines the breath with a gradual approach to hard problems like the loss of a loved one to cultivating love even for your enemies
Many analogies are used like water and waves, the sky and storms, our mind as a collection of seeds we have to cultivate the wholesome seeds watering them several times a day as habit and let go of afflicting seeds so they can rest rest as needed
mindful breathing exercises
- Breathing in…
- Breathing out…
- …I’m aware of my mind
- …the mental formation fear
- …make my mind happy
- …concentrate my mind
- …liberate my mind
- …I observe the impermanent nature of all Dharmas
- …I observe the impermanent nature of all Dharmas
- …I observe the disappearance of desire
- …I observe cessation (of notions)
- …I observe letting go
An analogy for this is viewing these aggregates as flowering rivers as a mediator meaning you’re sitting on the bank versus falling in the rivers being swept away
Releasing fear from the body and feelings
related: five aggregates of clinging
Body
- I breath in, I know this is an in breath…
- breathing in, I follow the in breath all the way through from beginning to end…
- breathing in, I’m aware of the whole body…
- breathing in I’m aware of pain or tension… breathing out I release the pain or tension…
Feelings
- breathing in I feel joy, breathing out I know joy is there
- same as above with hapiness
- breathing in, I know there is a painful feeling, breathing out I calm the painful feeling
- breathing in, I calm my mental formations…
Concentration means you keep the insight alive for a long time. It’s not just a flash; that’s not enough to liberate you. So in your daily life, you keep that insight of nonself, of emptiness, of impermanence alive. When you see a person, a bird, a tree, or a rock, you see its nature of emptiness.
Excerpt From
Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm
Thich Nhat Hanh.