Fear of the unknown

We have talked about awareness in the last few posts and hopefully at least glimpsed the importance of it. How critical is awareness? How do we act when we realize its importance? How deeply do we understand the significance of being aware and living with awareness?

We talked about the danger of words in the last post. I hope we are not falling in that same trap with the word 'awareness'. Some people identify too much with the concept of awareness. Or maybe they identify with their identification with awareness? For them awareness has become a buzzword - they are more caught up with the word and have lost the real understanding behind the word.

People are afraid of the present moment. They actually like the chattering mind, the busy mind. That way they can live their whole life in their mind, in their words, and in their thoughts without ever having to deal with reality, without actually being alive. That is because we are afraid of what we might encounter if we wake up. We are perfectly content in our make believe world which seems so real to us because that is the only reality we have ever known. There is comfort in the familiar and we would rather be comfortable than take the risk of the unknown reality that comes with being alive! That is the life we live.

If we understand the significance of being aware, then we will not let this fear be an obstacle to being alive. Let us not be afraid of fear itself but embrace the unknown which is part of life. Let us not fear the unknown which we awake to when awareness strikes because that is the very definition of being alive!