The Way Of The Samurai

Without Fear or Favor

There is an old joke about a man who went to India and spent allnday, every day swinging a live tiger by the tail around andnaround in a circle above his head.

When a passer-by asked him what he was doing, he said "I'mnkeeping away the lions."

This confused the passer-by, who pointed out that there are verynfew lions left in India.

"You see," said the man, "it's working!"

I have come to the conclusion over the past few months that
99.9% of fear is mere superstition and completely unnecessary.
Although we believe fear is essential in order to motivate usnand to keep us safe, it is in fact a poor substitute forninspiration, knowledge and intuition.nn* The inspiration to live a life you love will carry you longnafter the adrenaline burst from fearing a life you hate hasnbu
ed out.nn*The knowledge of what would happen if you were hit by a car isnmore than enough to get most of us to look both ways before wencross the street, even if we no longer hear our parents' voicesnringing in our ears to 'stay back'.nn*Our intuitive awareness of danger will let us know not to trustnthe smiling stranger even when our love/hate relationship withnfear will try to confuse the issue.

"Fear is not an emotion like sadness or happiness, either ofnwhich might last a long while. It is not a state, like anxiety.
True fear is a survival signal that sounds only in thenpresence of danger."

In other words, unless there is a clear and present danger,nthere is no purpose served by feeling fear. In fact, thencontinual sense of worry and anxiety so many of us live withntends to blind us to any authentic awareness of danger. Likenthe boy who cried wolf, our continual fearful response to ournfantasies about the future interferes with our ability tonrespond to any actual danger.

We can safely live without fear if we are willing to honor threeninner signals:

1. Our no-brainer 'yes' signal
2. Our no-brainer 'no' signal
3. Our 'let's get the heck out of here now and figure out whynlater' signal

So here's the experiment:

For the next week, live as if fear is completely unnecessary.
Don't worry about it if you feel it - a lifetime of conditioningntends not to disappear ove
ight. Just notice when you arenabout to do something if it is coming from fear or 'not-fear',nand if it's from fear, don't do it. Any time you aren't surenwhat to do, ask yourself what you would do if you were notnafraid and do that.

Be kind to yourself along the way - the path of not-fear is notnalways easy, especially at first. But after you've been on itnfor awhile, you may find it difficult to go back to living thenother kind of life.

If that's a scary thought for you, ponder these words of Aung
San Suu Kyi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidentnof Burma who has lived under house arrest for many years:

"Fear is a habit. I am not afraid."nn n