Using Faith To Banish Fear

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." ~ Franklin D Roosevelt

Abully often beat up Ben, who lived in a state of constant fear, defeat and self-loathing.

Ben's teacher encouraged him to read books about heroes and champions. Ben did so, visualizing himself as the heroes he read about, even dreaming about it at night.

One day, when going home he saw the bully waiting for him. Ben panicked and started to run - then, remembering his resolve, he stopped and returned with clenched teeth.

Ben fought with determined ferocity. The surprised bully lost his appetite for the fight — and ran away.

Ben hurt all over, but it was worth it! It was a great day in Ben's life — he'd overcome his life-consuming fear, lack of self-esteem and the defeat in his heart, and had found - self-respect.

He hadn't become physically stronger, but the equation had changed. Actually, the only difference was that a new Ben had emerged from within - one with faith in himself! Because he had taken a stand - in the face of fear - that he would no longer be pushed around, he had transcended his usual self, and emerged an unbeatable winner. His determination that he would run no more, no matter what - had wrought a change from deep within his life.

Man is a mix of opposites. While he has within him a touch of divinity, he also has an equal mix of the not so divine. How much of each is manifested, is a choice he makes from moment to moment, depending upon his life condition. In every aspect of life, too, we find ourselves faced with an array of opposites. One set of opposites that is most meaningful, is faith and fear. Being opposites, they can't co-exist. The degree to which we lack faith - is the degree to which we are vulnerable to fear. Generally, we are a mass of fears - so much so, that it is a wonder that we can get past all of them to accomplish anything. We remain imprisoned by our fears, worries, doubts and anxieties. For instance, we fear being alone, fear people's opinions, the dark, the future, change, failure, rejection, pain, truth, life, death, growing old, etc., etc.

Fear has its genesis in the fact that our faith in whatever belief system we profess, is not unshakable, and that we lack faith - in ourselves, in our purpose in life, and in our ability to move our lives to its fruition. When things start to go wrong and beyond our control, our faith becomes shaky. This allows doubt to begin gnawing at our mind - and, that permits fears to take root in our life. Fear comes from the feeling that we are puny, powerless and helpless. When we belittle ourselves, we experience a total lack of control, and deny the greatness, the power — the divinity we inherently possess.

Failure undermines our self-confidence, and repeated setbacks create a pattern in our lives, leading us to plant seeds of doubt in our own abilities. This handicaps us till we reach the point when we render ourselves incapable of dealing with most of our own issues effectively and satisfactorily. Taken a step further, since everything is psychosomatic, our fearful mind manifests as illness and disease in our body. It's hard to trust someone or something when danger threatens and everything seems to be collapsing around us. Fear comes to us more easily than faith. If fear can banish faith, so too, must faith be able to banish fear. A pendulum swings on both sides. Faith isn't pretending that our problems don't exist, nor is it simply blind optimism. Faith takes us beyond our problems to the hope and strength we need to nurture our lives with.

My mentor, Daisaku Ikeda, teaches, "So long as we are alive, we are bound to experience various fears and worries. These are like clouds that block the light of the sun. Regardless of appearances, the sun rises with the same majesty even when it is raining or windy. So long as the sun of faith in one's heart continues to blaze, one's life will shine with happiness."

Everything has value — even failure! In life, nothing is wasted. Everything has a purpose - a lesson to teach. Fear, too, has its positive aspect. If we didn't fear danger; our lives would be in constant peril. A small child must be taught to fear the traffic on the roads or electrical household gadgets. Fear of accidents makes us cautious in our daily chores. We need not fear fear — we need to respect it, use it, and befriend it.