"Finding a way to free yourself from explanations and cast yourself into the winds that blow hither and yon, not as an expression of surrender but as one of openness and courage, requires reconsidering the vantage point from which you view your own world. Contrary to what we might think, our will alone does not direct our life. Whatever does is some kind of mystery. The course of our life is determined by coincidence and chance as much as it is by what we think, feel, and hope for. What directs this course seems to be unknowable. Acknowledging this mystery is the very first step in fearlessness. When you make the moment-to-moment effort to detach from your ideas about what is going on and why so-and-so is doing thus-and-such, you let in a breath of fresh air. When you stop telling yourself new and better stories about the meaning of your life and allow yourself to not know, to let things unfold as they will: this is an opening to fearlessness. Instead of being crafted from scraps of perception and history, understanding presents itself to you as a whole. The moment you take your attention off your mind-chatter, you can hear the greater wisdom speaking to you through sudden inspiration, abrupt insight, and the ability to recognize patterns of activity or behavior. It takes courage to listen in this way.
"We pay a very high price for holding on to our fears. Over and over, we alienate those we care about, and we don't know why. We create situations that are bound to disappoint. We lose out on opportunities because we're afraid of giving up the security of the status quo. We hold on to long-lost images of ourselves because they make us feel young, important, or affirmed. Most of all, we never get to figure out who we really are and what life is meant to be. In the grip of fear, our day-to-day experiences are held in an endless loop of self-recrimination, frustration, and confusion. When you live in fear, you never get to know the precious being that you are, and you're the only one who can ever do so. At the end of your life, the possibilities for your soul's expression in this lifetime die with you. This is too high a price to pay.
"The place to start is by exploring your fears and touching base with their unique qualities and flavors through the practice of meditation. By sitting down, taking a deep breath, and having a good, long look at yourself, you can figure out where exactly to intercede in your thought processes to stop fear before it overwhelms you. You have the perfect laboratory for this exploration and for converting the energies of fear to fearlessness. The best path imaginable, the perfect one for you, is your everyday life, exactly as it is."
