Fear and the natural statePosted by simon on January 31st, 2009
It’s not everyday when you get that wonderful rush of Fear. When the adrenaline pulses through the veins and your heart instantly hits overdrive giving your body all it can to hopefully meet whatever situation has evoked such a response. Though physical fear is a blessing, the fear I am more concerned about is a fear of decisions. A state where the mind is locked in a battle that does not elicit the same physical response to Fear. Fear of Decisions locks people into horrible jobs, worse relationships and lives filled with suffering.
People who live in fear of making decisions are generally overwhelmed by the consequences of their decisions. They have a very difficult time being able to take charge of their station in life because they are so concerned with failure. This fear is one that holds people back and divides them. I say fear divides them because there is a part of them that wants change and that wants to move from their current state but there is another part of them that is putting the brakes on this process. We are divided the same way when it comes to societal notions, religious doctrines, our upbringing and our own personal opinions.
Recently I’ve been reading a bit of taoist philosophy as well as greek philosophy, both of which consider nature the best state to be in. If you are in a natural state there is no right or wrong, no societal notions, no doctrines, no opinion, just what should be. It goes on to explain the perfection of the natural state with a story about a centipede who becomes aware of his feet and can no longer walk because of this awareness. The idea of falling out of our natural state because of some new awareness is a common one. If you think about it we are so very different from the children we see running around doing as they please. They are in a natural state given a freedom to explore and experience the world. Parents quickly bend children to their will with the definition of right and wrong and what is acceptable and what is not. I’m not saying parents shouldn’t teach their children about the world and give them guidelines to lead their life. What I am saying is we should each look at our lives and see how we have fallen from our natural state and observe the things that keep us from it.
Our natural state consists of all our base emotions anger, happiness, sadness and on and on. We will naturally get angry when we feel we have been wronged. It’s what we do after we have gone beyond our initial state of anger. Do we feel upset that we got angry, do we try to prevent the anger which in turn results in frustration? When we enter these states we are being unnatural we have upset ourselves because we have not been able to meet some arbitrary goals. Why be upset about something arbitrary? I know that the way I react to situations now is vastly different from the way I would have reacted when I was in the throws of the Catholic religion. I used to let guilt dominate my decision making process. Guilt has it purposes, when we generate suffering for others and we realize we are the cause of the suffering and could have prevented it then it serves it’s purpose. Beyond that I can’t find a valid reason to use guilt other then to control the hearts and minds of others.
There is a mindset that is associated with people who live without fear, they just confront and overcome. I would bet you could find a similar mentality with a child. When they see something shiny that they want, they confront whatever obstacles that are in their way to get to what they want. There is seldom a thought of the consequences or doctrines that their parents may have wanted them to follow. They do what is natural to them which is whatever they want. When we meet adults who live like this we generally admire them for their ability to achieve goals and overcome adversity.
“Silly is you in a natural state, and serious is something you have to do until you can get silly again.” – Mike Myers
“Sin cannot be conceived in a natural state, but only in a civil state, where it is decreed by common consent what is good or bad” – Baruch Spinoza
“Our minds can work for us or against us at any given moment. We can learn to accept and live with the natural psychological laws that govern us, understanding how to flow with life rather than struggle against it. We can return to our natural state of contentment.” – Richard Carlson