What Chuck Does

Affliction - Fear

My old boss used to say that the world ran on fear and greed. In uncomfortable situations, I can see how fear is a strong driver. A couple weeks ago while surfing in Malibu, I pulled aggro from a short-boarder who surfed into me (and my board) as I was paddling over his wave. He called me some expletives after I had apologized (even though it was his fault) and during his rant, I concluded this might end up in a physical altercation and prepared for a fight.

At the time however, I didn’t feel like fighting. He was a bigger guy and chances were I’d sustain more injury in a fight. Although I had had enough of his bullshit, faulty logic and self-righteous attitude, I didn’t think it was worth fighting over. Ultimately, I feared he would start a fight with me and I’d be forced to fight back. So I waited and waited. Luckily for both of us, nothing happened.

Thinking back on that situation I realize that if I hadn’t “feared” I could have tried other tactics for defusing the situation. I could made him laugh or surprised him with something random during his rant. Instead, because I feared for my own safety I mentally and physically prepared for a fight. So I said nothing and basically waited. I was paralyzed from trying something new and in retrospect that was more dangerous.

Which brings me to the issue; “living without fear”. Fear comes in many different shapes and sizes. There are fears that govern our lives that are subtle and subconscious. Then there are fears that are in your face and highly engaging. The part of your brain that registers fear is also responsible for the fight-or-flight response. Fear has been programmed into our brains by evolution for our survival. That said, most modern-day situations inappropriately trigger the fight-or-flight response and get us into more trouble than we’d be in without such responses. Situations such as verbal arguments and road-rage are remnants of “legacy programming” that still surfaces from time to time, but usually doing more harm than good. Thus the first step to living an evolved life is updating the archaic wiring.

This act first requires us to recognize and acknowledge what disturbs us but is not truly “threatening”. For example, the guy that just cut you off might piss you off but your existence does not require that you run him off the road. Cultivating this awareness curbs the instances of inappropriate reactions. This requires a lot of attention and patience and the end goal is that you become better at matching the proper evolutionary responses to the situation.

This however still does not resolve the issue with fear. The mindful individual above still fears and will respond appropriately if a situation presents itself as one that requires such attention. He or she will still fear in a potential physical altercation. Living without fear requires a much higher level of awareness and enlightenment. To live without fear, you must not have anything to lose. To not have anything to lose is to not possess anything that can be “lost”. Only when you give up everything that you fear to lose, will you discover those things that can not be taken away. These are the things I call “truths” although I am not sure what they are. I imagine they are things like love, respect, and compassion. And when you discover these “truths”, you will be fulfilled and no longer cling to the false deities we as a society worship on a daily basis. Things such as money, power and fame.

Unfortunately I don’t have a roadmap for attaining the fearless kind of enlightenment. While it sounds like I am preaching, I merely suggest that there is a greater state of living than we’re accustomed to, one that might be the most liberating living experience known to man. The awareness of such a way of life is the first step. Whether you ever get there is up to you. Speaking for myself, it’s something that I can only hope to achieve sometime well into my life after I have conquered my own demons.