Buddhism and Fear of the Unknown
Fear of the unknown is not a reliable guide to life. It comes from ignorance and leads to hatred. So, in fact, it’s probably one of the major challenges in life and one of the best reasons for the existence of religion, so that not so much is unknown if we all agree to a certain set of rules, given a certain set of circumstances. Many people hate the word ‘religion’, though, recounting all the wars fought in its name, without counting all the wars prevented in the same name. The problem is getting everyone enrolled in the same program.
Religion should make us all family, and that means in a good way. That’s the idea, anyway, limited only by the fact that people often don’t get along well with their families, either, and that’s gospel, unfortunately. The point is that fear is no way to live, and if we conquered nature to the extent that we no longer must be scared of it, then it’s doubly ironic that the substitute of migratory trails in rugged bush and brush in exchange for settled life in standalone cities would bring far worse circumstances from our own species, in circumstances far removed from logic.
Fast forward to the present day, and it would seem that we’ve conquered Nature and cities, too, but the reality is far different from that apparent truth. Because the fact is that the fear never lay in the realm of Nature or cities, either, but in our own hearts and our own cravings for things that we have no right to, as explained in the Buddha’s second Noble Truth, that craving is at the core of our suffering, and that is the result of a glitch in our hearts and our minds, same thing, really, which perceives lack as endemic, when nothing could be further from the truth, We have all that we need. We just need time and space and compassion and grace, not God’s but our own.
streaming consciousness... 
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