EMBRACE TENDERNESS, DISSOLVE FEAR
If we can develop fearlessness in the face of the inner critic, the internal voices, the unresolved emotions, the fragility of the body, and in the face of increasing intensity in the world, we are getting somewhere true.
But fearlessness is not the absence of fear. It’s our capacity to meet fear from a deeper place. It’s our capacity for fear to become the doorway to equanimity. It’s not easy, for fear may have a visceral quality that becomes a kind of primal driver. But most fear is imagined and has no reality to it.
The reason I love to talk of kindness, tenderness and compassion, particularly to ourselves, is because they are in many ways the antidote to the poison of fear. When tenderness and kindness are fully embraced, fear dissolves. They cannot easily co-exist.
Fear hardens us, tenderness softens us. It cannot be forced, only opened to. Fear is a 'hate' affair, but tenderness is a love affair. Become fearless, my friend—embrace tenderness, and soften all this hardness.
This quote from Chogyam Trumpa, who has spoken about fear a lot, is very pertinent:
"Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others.”
Some poems from this week.
Courage on the path Is an overlooked and neglected quality Yet without this inner resolve We cannot face our fears And remove the veils of perception. -------------------- Come to no conclusion Be open and live from the unknown Conclusions are the end, they close the door They are a kind of death They are a wrap up That says, ‘Now I know,’ But you don’t know That’s why I say Live from the unknown And be endlessly open. --------------------- And eventually You find your way back To a home you never left And an ineffable peace That is untouched by the Phenomena of the world Arises as if by itself It is not spiritual, you realize, Or super human But utterly natural And very simple. ----------------------- There is a world inside this one Its language is beauty To talk to that world You must learn to become intimate And speak in a different way, The way of the heart The way of tenderness And grace. ---------------------- If you can see some beauty in everything Even in the horror and suffering If you can breathe softly and openly Even when your heart is broken And you can keep a small part of yourself Free enough for love’s light to shine in You have already been touched by grace. ----------------------- Take heart Oh fearful one The world is But a metaphor To the soul It’s only real To the dreamer It breaks us open With its suffering So we can realize That which is Unbreakable. --------------------- Everything is a doorway to love For the one who is willing To leave themselves At the threshold. --------------------- Seek only this; a spiritual realization That falls into the subtle energy body That filters into the emotions That shows up in every and all relationships That becomes a living reality Truly it must become all of you Blood, bone and being. --------------------- The tree doesn't decide to drop the fruit Any more than the fruit decides to drop Both are guided by an unseen intelligence Don't rush your search. ---------------------- To be touched by grace Is to know that love Is the essence Of our human existence And to live that knowing In all circumstances.
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