Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery by Trungpa Chogyam

Author:Trungpa, Chogyam [Trungpa, Chogyam]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Published: 2010-09-14T03:00:00+00:00

13

Making Friends with Fear

WE ARE DISCUSSING HOW to benefit others by joining heaven and earth, while fulfilling our own wishes and developing a perfect notion of warriorship. Because you are a warrior, fulfilling your wishes arises in the context of not harming others, not taking advantage of others, and not causing suffering to oneself or others. We have already talked about the basic virtue or decency of warriorship that arises from fearlessness and how that allows you to appreciate the world around you. We have also discussed the possibility of waking up our basic instinct toward unconditional goodness. Such goodness is neither good nor bad in the conventional sense. It is based on reawakening your own basic nature.

The expression of basic goodness is our next topic. This principle is known in Tibetan as Ashe (pronounced ah-SHAY). A means “first” or “primordial.” She means “stroke” and also “life strength.” So Ashe is the primordial stroke or strength of life. It can also mean “power” or “storehouse of power.” Such power is not the gift of any external agents. It is reawakened power that exists naturally. Fire has power of its own. Wind has power of its own. Earth has power of its own. Space has power of its own. Such power has neither beginning nor end, and such power exists in you, individually, inseparable from basic goodness.

Sometimes the Ashe is referred to as a razor knife. Basic goodness can’t be too naive. It has its own strength, which is the quality of cutting through unnecessary neurosis. If you’re bringing up a child and you love that child, sometimes you have to be sharp with him or her. Sometimes you say yes and sometimes you say no. On the whole, your purpose is to be good to your child. Similarly, the Ashe principle manifests basic goodness through its strength and the power of cutting through. This allows us to be clear, precise, and boundless in our vision.

The strength of basic goodness allows us to remain good, as we are, in the face of attacks of all kinds against this goodness. One of the greatest examples of the strength of basic goodness is the experience of the Buddha at the time of his enlightenment. At the very moment of his enlightenment, many evil forces attacked the Buddha, but he remained pure and in a state of tranquillity. A is that fundamental basic openness, that imperturbable and peaceful space. That is joined with the stroke or force of she. So Ashe altogether is the powerful existence arising out of basic goodness.

The Ashe principle has both relative and absolute aspects. Relative Ashe is connected with the fundamental principle of fearlessness. As we know, in order to understand fearlessness, one has to understand fear itself. Fear is a trembling, shaky feeling. Fundamentally, it is the fear of nonexistence.

Sometimes fear expresses itself in complete cowardice. When you are afraid, you may want to jump into somebody’s lap or even hide in a pile of garbage, because at least that is reassuringly warm and smelly.

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