The situation in the world is rapidly changing, and it seems that we are moving from crisis to crisis. Many things that we relied upon for our living and survival until a few years ago are suddenly not so certain anymore: our job, our business, our health, our food, and even our life. The perspective of losing even one of them causes fear to arise in the mind. Seeing our loved ones and also society as a whole going through a similar experience, contributes strongly to the fear. 

When fear arises to the mind we can’t access our reasoning mind, and our critical thinking is out of the window. Fear can paralyze us and we don’t know what to do. On the physical level, fear can make us literally sick. Once fear has been triggered in our mind, it is very hard or even impossible to turn it off.  

According to the Buddha, to make an end to our suffering, including our fear, we need to develop our wisdom mind based on knowledge. The more we understand our mind and the fears that arise within our mind, the less fear can control us.

Over the course of 3 weeks, we will discuss what fear is, and how it influences the mind. Once we have a good understanding about this, we’ll talk about what methods we can find in Buddhism to lessen our fear.