Notes by Meghnaa Vasudev

The first virtue we are learning about this year is fearlessness. To become fearless we must first understand fear.

We discussed what fear causes: insecurity, inability to focus, irrational thinking. 

We also anonymously shared our greatest fears. People shared: fear of change, failing, disappointing their parents or themselves and fear of the unknown. We discovered that many of us share the same fears and that the more we sit with our fears alone, the more irrational our thinking becomes. 

3 fundamental fears that everyone has:

• Fear of Sorrow: Fearing the loss of something (friends, opportunities, objects, virtues, etc.)
• Fear of the Unknown: Fearing that our future will be filled with sorrow or failure.
• Fear of death: When we identify with the body, mind and intellect, we think it is the source of our happiness and so we are afraid that when we die we will lose this happiness. Also, if we don’t understand or know where we (our consciousness) goes after death, we are also left fearing the unknown. 

What causes these fundamental fears?

“Where there is attachment, there is loss.” 

It is the notion of attachment and the loss of what we are attached to that causes these fears. It is also through actions that we develop fear. We are fearless when we do what we are supposed to do and not what we aren’t because it is fear that causes us to choose to do the wrong thing.

3 P’s in Becoming Fearless:

• Possess less: Want less by being more grateful and keeping a gratitude journal.
• Plan more: “Plan out your work, work out your plan.” Keep a planner and use it.
• Perform right action: Look after your responsibilities and don’t do what you shouldn’t be doing. Engage in self development and associate yourself with the wise by attending balvihar, satsang and reading biographies of wise people.

This week’s RAW: Wear the same clothes to school two days in a row.