Need stood out this morning as the driving force behind those birds, us, and every creature in between. If youâve read this book, you know fear and need are the fundamental principles underlying many of my observations. In the case of Homo sapiens, need + thought = desire and fear + thought = worry. Those two, need and fear, are the driving forces directing the actions of all living things. Thus, this morningâs âinsightâ is not very surprising. While need and fear are the common denominators between all life, fear is fundamental. Fear is the primary life force within all living creatures. Fear drives survival. Accordingly, need itself is only a manifestation of underlying fear.
Fear spans the full spectrum of experience, from âyinâ to âyangâ, so to speak. For example, one can be fearful of being noticed by people, and one can be fearful of not being noticed by people. Many of the manifestations of primal fear are subtle and too difficult to discern. Thus, fear is really an inadequate word to pin on this fundamental force of nature. For one thing, âfearâ has a lot of cultural baggage tied to the word and so it easily misleads. Perhaps chapter 40 puts forward the deeper meaning Iâm attempting to convey by the word âfearâ.
Having is born in nothing suggests how need arises out of fear. So it helps to think of this as need â something, born, having and fear â nothing, death, loss. Entropy (i.e., the natural tendency of things to lose order) also helps encapsulate fear. You could say fear is the innate sense of entropy within all creatures, i.e., entropy threatens lifeâs survival.
On the surface, it appears that need and fear are two discrete entitiesâneed attracts; fear repels. And they are, yet one is also the mother of the other, just as nothing is the source of something. Think: Nothingness gave birth to the Big Bang. Such re-purposing exemplifies how nature is profoundly efficient and wastes nothing, not even nothing.
One difficulty we have in comprehending this is because our brain evolved to perceive reality in a mostly linear, black and white way. There is no survival advantage in perceiving the deeper entangled nature of reality. Chapter 1 suggests this unity of oppositesâneed and fear, These two are the same coming out, yet differ in name. The same, meaning dark and mysterious.
Fight or flight
Fear fuels lifeâs actions and results in either fight or flight. Think: Nature abhors a vacuum. Less clear is exactly what determines in which direction fear pushesâfight or flight. An innate sense of survival must play a role. Perhaps the promise of imminent and beneficial gain pushes me to fight. Here, a fear of missing the gain sways me. Conversely, the promise of imminent and serious loss pulls me to flight. Here, a fear of loosing what I have sways me. Pleasure and pain also support this analysis. Generally, imminent gain is pleasurable and pleasures attract me (fight). On the other hand, imminent loss is painful and pain repels me (flight).
When an impending pleasure for something, for having, is strongest, the underlying fear pulls me into fight. Fight also fuels a will to live, grit and anger. You could say these are offshoots of need. On the other hand, when impending pain, loss, and death is strongest, fear pushes me into flight, and I naturally try to escape.
Now, if in flight, Iâm cornered, thereâs a good chance flight will turn into fightâneed often tinged with anger. On the other hand, when escape is impossible and all hope is lost, submission overtakes me and I retreat into total nothingness. Is this a factor in suicide? And, doesnât a flip flopping back and forth between fight and flight sound like a manic-depressive syndrome?
At this point, you may wonder if Iâm saying we are continually either in a fight or a flight mode. Yes we are, but in very roundabout ways. For example, on the surface, cooperation and traits such as kindness that support cooperation donât appear to be either one. However, scratch the surface and I see this: Entropy is the foremost threat to survival of life. The sense of fear is biologyâs way of fighting entropy. Grouping togetherâcooperatingâis a social species tactic for fighting entropy. Thus, in this case, cooperation and kindness are part of the fight mode, not between members of the group, but between the group and possible external threats.
As you see, this fear based fight vs. flight dynamic is subtler and more involved than the basic outline I offer here. Various factors feed back and forth at different levels. Suffice it to say; merely being mindful of these life forces at work below the surface deepens perspective significantly. It helps see life from 40,000 feet, as they say.
Sustaining a âproper sense of aweâ
Fear embraces us all⌠ALL life. Therefore, a deep awareness of the universality of fear is the thread that deepens my sense of connection to all life. There is also a practical benefit when I heed chapter 72âs warning: When the people donât fear power, normally great power arrives. D.C. Lau put this a little more poetically, When the people lack a proper sense of awe, then some awful visitation will descend upon them.
One impediment to sustaining a âproper sense of aweâ is my innate ignorance of lifeâs bottom line (see How the Hoodwink Hooks, p.100). In addition, fear induces thinking apes like us to compound this blindness by seeking scapegoats, rationalizations, validations, and solutions. All are dead ends eventually, and rob me of a deeper sense of natureâs sober reality.
Buddha offers a bottom line
There are a few things I hold dear in my attempt to sustain a âproper sense of aweâ. Especially helpful are Buddhaâs Four Truths, particularly the fourth one, âThere is salvation for him whose self disappears before truth, whose will is bent on what he ought to do, whose sole desire is the performance of his dutyâ.
Duty is what in my heart of hearts feels to be my life purpose, what gives life meaning, and what action facilitates that meaning and purpose.
Desire is primarily the fusion of need + thought. Innate fear drives the need side of desire which puts need outside my control. Thought is the only feasible gateway I have to influence desire, albeit just barely. Only when emotion is calm, can thought focus on how I truly want my life to play out, long-term. This shapes my duty and helps me launch practical ways for carrying it out. Now, all that remains is remembering what I truly want.
A practical breakthrough occurred when I realized that I truly never regretted doing my duty, and conversely, that I often regretted not doing it. Then it became only a simple matter of remembering that fact. Now, my near constant awareness of that alone is usually enough for me to follow without exception.
Note here how closely Buddhaâs Fourth Truth aligns with chapter 3âs, Doing without doing, following without exception rules. âDoing without doingâ is innate action, the kind of âdutyâ all animals perform. Only humans imagine clever desirous scenarios that promise a favorable future free of charge, so to speak. Following without exception occurs when my sole desire is the performance of my duty. When my will is bent on what I ought to do, I am most in accord with my innate nature. (See Buddhaâs Truths Pertain To All Life, p.545).
Diligence is the secret sauce of life
If doing my duty feels more pleasurable than not doing it, I canât help but fight to do it. Conversely, when doing my duty feels to be more of a loss than a gain, I canât bring myself to do it. Flight from my duty is inevitable.
Deprived of the pleasure of doing my duty, my need of sensory pleasures begins filling the nothingness. Here, the pleasures I pursue are merely fleeting sensory experiences. Naturally, this is fine, but a little goes a long way. Without the duty-derived pleasures in life, life becomes less meaningful, less balanced and thus less enjoyable.
Buddhaâs final words are enlightening, âAll things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligenceâ. Diligence is a key word here. To me, diligence feels like a balanced form of will, grit, and anger. In contrast, pursuing sensory pleasures feels like fleeing from languor (a.k.a., a need for stimuli) that requires no diligence, and so impart little, if any, life meaning⌠let alone salvation.
Note here that Iâm just referring to circumstances of civilization. In the wild, nature forces balance on animals by always requiring them to earn their benefits through diligent effort. On the other hand, the underlying, albeit natural, aim of civilization is to maximize benefit and minimize cost. Any animal, given such ability would do the same. We can and we do, and so unwittingly upsets our natural balance, which leads to the troubles we witness throughout society.
There is no conquering fear
When I remember that fear (sense of entropy, loss, failure, death) is at play in everything I do, I know that fear is at play in every living creature as well. Then I know there is no âconquering fearâ. Fear works both sides of lifeâs equation⌠fear spawns both courage and cowardice.
Itâs worth noting that all beliefâfrom âcrazyâ conspiracy and flat-earth stories to mainstream religious and political storiesâarises from fear born mostly from a sense of disconnection. Weâre all just trying to return âhomeâ, to belong, and belief promises that. In addition, our disease often makes matters worse. You could say that humanity is stumblingâevolvingâthrough life coping with a disease that it doesnât even know it has⌠yet anyway.
The benefit of knowing all this helps greatly in dealing with others (or myself) when the offshoots of fearâneed, anger, worryâoverride reason. By recognizing the source of intense emotion, any resulting drama has a harder time drawing me into its game⌠as long as I remember to keep at least one eye on reality.
Additionally, knowing there is no escape, futile quests to gain fleeting advantages begin to fade away. This helps liberate me from most of lifeâs second-guessing, hypocrisies, and double standards. Without such baggage, life becomes simpler and more universal (see You are Immortal! p.391), with all its pleasure and pain going along for the ride, so to speak. Surrendering to reality allows me to feel natural and nearly return to my original self. Then it becomes more likely that doing without doing, following without exception rules.
When all is said and done
At this point, I feel Iâve said it all; only the doingâor the doing without doingâ remains. In other words, this isnât a matter of just understanding and moving on. As always, âAction speaks louder than wordsâ. That is a challenge when it comes to Taoist thought. No specific physical action applies here. For this, a constant motion of knowing is the action chapter 52 suggestsâŚ
I find diligently recalling the role fear plays in every aspect of life is a way of returning to observe the origin. This is especially helpful when I open the exchange, help its affairs. The ensuing emotions always tilt me off balance. The more fearâs primal role stays on the âtip of my tongue mindâ, the more likely I can use the light, and again return to clarity. Iâve found nothing better serves as practicing the constant. Chapter 63 points out an indispensable step in practicing this âŚ
The easy and small here are a mind that is alive to itself. Obviously, this is only true before emotion overwhelms awareness, which causes great difficulty as a result. Clearly, preventative maintenanceâconstant vigilanceâis essential. If I diligently keep the barn door closed, the horses stay put. However, perfect vigilance isnât the point, even if it were possible. Just being alive to this as much as feasible usually enables me to extinguish the emotional flames before they become an inferno.
Of course, the word fear quickly becomes a useless abstraction. I actually look out for the numerous offspring of fear, i.e., desire apropos gain, comfort, pleasure, hope, success, life, and other positive âstuffâ, and worry apropos loss, discomfort, pain, despair, failure, death, and other negative âstuffâ. Each side tips me off balance. Chapter 13 puts this more broadlyâŚ
Why say treasure and trouble seem like a body?
I, as a result, have great suffering; this means I have a body,
Come the time I have no body, I have what trouble?
Hence, regarding the body as precious supports all under heaven,
Seems worthy of trust for all under heaven.
Taking care in use of the body supports all under heaven
Seems worthy of holding in the palm of the hand, all under heaven.
Noticing any of the numerous offspring occur and then linking them back to fear helps me put space between thought and the emotion that drive thought and action. This is similar to the saying, âCount to 10 before reactingâ. Putting distance between these helps avoid being drawn into any emotion driven narrativeâthe disease, i.e., Realizing I donât know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.
One last hitch that plagues us all is procrastination. âIâll start laterâ, we say. Saying that is actually saying, âI donât need it enough to start nowâ. Not much can be done about that, other than wait⌠until itâs too late? I solve this somewhat by seriously asking myself, âIf not now, when?â Happily, when I reliably and concurrently sense that fear drives all biology, nearly rising beyond oneself comes within reach.
Now if this isn’t enough on the subject of fear, see Final Thoughts for my “final” take on this subject… until I notice something deeper, that is possible to put into words that is.