Buddhism on Anxiety and Fear
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2018
- What does early Buddhism have to say about our fears and anxieties? We will look at some passages from the early texts and their commentaries to get insights into one particular practice that can help to alleviate anxiety and gain confidence.
Check out my Patreon page at / dougsseculardharma
Suttas mentioned:
Metta Sutta (Snp. 1.8): suttacentral.net/snp1.8/en/mills
Snakes (AN 4.67): suttacentral.net/an4.67/en/su...
A Spear (SN 20.5): suttacentral.net/sn20.5/en/su...
Other resources:
Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Suttanipata: amzn.to/2xMCfFE
Dan Mace's video: • Falling off a 10 Story...
Andy Olendzki: "A Wish of Loving Kindness" www.accesstoinsight.org/tipit...
Dhammapada Verse 40 and commentary: www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/...
Thanks to Patrons:
Matthew Smith
Kathy Voldstad
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Please visit the Secular Buddhist Association webpage!
secularbuddhism.org/
Disclaimer: any Amazon links are affiliate links where I will earn a very small commission on purchases you make, at no additional cost to you. This goes a tiny way towards defraying the costs of making these videos. Thank you!
Mr. Doug,
This is certainly the most insightful presentation I have ever experienced. You did more for my recovery than any other person or medicine during my struggle.
Thanks.
Feank
That's wonderful to hear Frank! Thanks for the message. 🙏😊
Gotta come back to this video every now and then to remind myself that my perception of the world is influenced by my state of mind. Thanks Doug, you're doing this community a great service.
Love that K. L., my pleasure!
Thank you for the nice explanations. I like the way you quoted couple of suttas in the early text. It is because people can go to those suttas and read more. I like spiritual teachers to have a such base then they are not going to create their own ideas rather develop their mind based on primary teachings, which is the exact way the Buddha taught.
Thank you Bhante for your kind words. I quote early suttas as much as I can since I find their message very wise and not well known, at least in many countries. In the information box below the video I also put links to online versions of the suttas when I can find them, so as you say people can read them for themselves if they want, and look for more. 🙏
Anxiety (fear) and anger are my issues. Meditation (concentration) works on both of these.
Great, glad to hear!
you're so good at teaching/explaining things. it's amazing! thank you :)
You're very welcome! Great name, love Wodehouse BTW. 😄
Thanks Doug
You're very welcome Michael!
Thank you for making these
My pleasure!
Such an awesome discussion!
Thanks SmileBot, hope it is useful for you. 🙂
Loving kindness is a bit more difficult to practice than maintaining a basic state of awareness
Yes, it can be a difficult practice.
Excellent video. Dan Mace's video was very good as well. The reason why I said that I don't really practice loving kindness and that I don't really find it useful is because I do it naturally. Everyone who knows me tells me that I'm one of the kindest and most compassionate people that they know. That being said, I think that certain aspects of loving kindness would be beneficial to dealing with anxiety. The part that I struggle with the most is kindness to myself. I'm a perfectionist to a fault and I'm often very hard on myself. I believe that's one of the main causes of my anxiety if not the main cause. When I practice mindfulness or vipassana I'm in the present moment. I'm not constantly beating myself up over the mistakes that I made in the past and worrying about the mistakes that I could make in the future. I definitely think that loving kindness can be useful for me, but I might have to modify the practice to suit my needs. Thank you for the great video as always.
Great to hear Afanasi. Yes, I’m also very hard on myself so I can understand that syndrome and how it leads to anxiety. Loving kindness practice can be very useful but it takes time and effort. 🙂
How are you modifying the practice?
@@DougsDharma Right now I don't consciously practice loving kindness at all because I didn't find it useful, but this video gave me the idea to start practicing it again. Instead of focusing directing loving kindness outward to other people and beings (which I do naturally) I could modify it and focus more on directing loving kindness to myself.
Yes this is how Buddhaghosa suggests we practice it, by starting with ourselves.
Loving kindness is within, not how others perceive you. It really has to be achieved within. And, of course, it has to start within oneself....extending loving kindness to yourself. I then will naturally flow to others.
wonderful video.. I wish everyone can see and hear and practice.
Thanks Endo C! 🙏🙂
This is very interesting. I am doing “family system” work to try to reduce my anxiety. And the work mainly seems to be about talking to the parts of yourself that feel this anxiety. I have found the most success in elevating these parts anxieties by providing them with loving kindness within my mind - shinning a light and openness towards them. Cool that what I have found useful was a suggestion from Buddhism. I find Buddhism and how my mind works are so in-tune. … side note: I ordered your book and am waiting for it to arrive! Excited!
Hey great to hear, Michelle. Thanks!
Fantastic description, brings me back to childhood fears -- the dark, the basement, ghosts, etc.
Thanks urckrecords, yes a lot of these fears reach back deep into childhood!
I see Metta practice as an antidote to anxiety (angst), "May I be at ease..." German - Angst "fear"
Yes exactly urckrecords. “Angst” is a great word for it.
Extraordinary video as always! I'm still on my path to finding/figuring out myself through spiritual growth as well as dealing with my pitfalls, such as low self esteem and anxiety and fear. Finding Buddhism, and specially Secular Buddhism, has greatly helped me in both journeys, which I find astonishing, coming from an atheist background! Your videos have been of immense value in this quest of mine and I would like to take the opportunity to deeply thank you for your work!
On that note, would you consider approaching the issue of depression from a Buddhist perspective, much in the same way you were wonderfully able to do in this video? I think that both can be deeply interlinked issues and so maybe depression deserves its own video as well.
In any case, thank you for your time and effort once again!
You're very welcome AndrewShadows, I'm very glad to hear the videos have been useful to you! As you note, depression is related to anxiety and fear, so this video *could* be seen as related to depression as well. I'm not sure that early Buddhism dealt with depression as such though, but I'll definitely keep thinking and looking! 🙏
Thank you very much my dear teacher. This topic is really useful to me, you helped me a lot, this is the third time I'm hearing and for sure I'll do it several times more. Lotus for you. Evangelina Cortes.
You're very welcome Evangelina! Glad you are still finding them useful. 🙏
Doug thank you this is so helpful. I'm working on Khanti, or patience and this supports it well, as does the Equanimity, tying it all in 🙏🏻🌟
Yes, absolutely! Best on your journey, FP. 🙏
Chant Metta Sutta everyday ,will helps
Yes, metta practice makes a big difference!
Loving kindness meditation is the bomb! I wish I started lkm earlier. I started out with breath meditation for a couple of years and then started deepening my practice with longer sessions and different forms of meditation. Lkm benefits occur almost immediately and increase quickly with the more hours you do it. If you are a neurotic type then your meditation practice should have lkm as a priority, because it increases positive emotions. It literally makes you more capable of feeling positive emotions. Besides that it makes you a more empathic person. Attention meditation is also good because it calms the stress response but it doesnt increase positive emotions as much as lkm.
Yes zero, I think so too, it's a very powerful meditation! I think it benefits most from being done along with mindfulness, just so we can retain touch with our more difficult side and don't fall into spiritual bypassing.
Very studious
🙏
Very sorry to have missed the word ‘entered’, as in ‘entered the Olympics and broken a few world records. ‘
It should be noted that several psychotherapy theories/programs have incorporated some aspects of Buddhist meditation and philosophy to an extensive or even primary degree. Mindfulness based therapy is obvious. ACT(acceptance commitment therapy) i THINK is influenced by Buddhism but idk if it's explicitly.and dbt is explicitly based heavily on Buddhism and incorporates the mindfulness component, and actually has other parts that are similar to metta.
The fact the Buddha actually discovered what would thousands of years later make its way into the scientific approaches for mental disorder thousands of miles away is sorta cool at least
Yes indeed Nick, he was ahead of his time in his understanding of human psychology.
Very challenging to practice loving kindness and realistic assessment of present situation in current societal conditions, even though we are told things are still safer than has been true in the past.
Yes it's definitely not an easy practice. But it can be helpful.
@@DougsDharma Agree, progress not perfection! Thanks 🙏
Wonderful video. I would like to see a video about how important it is to work hard and not waste time. At the same time deal with negative feelings like fear and anxiety.
Thanks MrSimp! I'll put it on the list. 🙂
I have another video on confronting laziness and apathy that might answer some of those questions. Let me know! czcams.com/video/8zx9vSQH7KI/video.html
Doug's Secular Dharma also helps to incorporate about focus and meditative practice.
My dream is to give my best without going through the range of emotions.
Doug,
1. Is there any way to prove, empirically ,the existence and efficacy of Karma ?
2. How come no monk or nun has ever, not for self-aggrandisement but to validate and propagate the teachings of the Buddha, the Olympics and break a few world records with the 6 miraculous powers that the Buddha averred buddhists would come to command ?
If you mean whether there is any way to prove empirically the rebirth-associated karmic effects, then not to my knowledge. As to other, more everyday karmic effects, we see them in how people respond to other people all the time. As to your second question, indeed. This is why I am a secular practitioner and leave aside questions of supernatural effects. There is actually a half-million-dollar prize now for anyone who can demonstrate such effects under controlled conditions.
Can you post the Dan Mace link? Thanx.
If you hover your mouse over the upper right corner of the video you’ll see an “i” icon. If you click that icon and scroll down to the last video you’ll find it there.
Doug's Secular Dharma I didn’t see the icon on my iPad. Thanx
I mean hover your cursor! In an iPad just try your finger, click on the video and on the “i”. It should work. If not let me know and I can locate the video for you. 🙂
Doug has outside vids! 👍🏾
Yes, I've done fewer of them recently because the noise can get in the way! 😄
I have really bad anxiety surrounding work. Every time i get a job it comes to my first day and i just can't face it because the anxiety is so bad. I have tried following my breath and although this helps initially it isn't long before i am faced with the same battle. Listening to what you have said in this video has helped, but i am having some trouble understand how to apply loving kindness to work and a working environment. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated! :)
Well, one way to apply lovingkindness to work is just to repeat the phrases to yourself, directing them to people with whom you work, or just broadly to the entire work environment. (The room or building). The expert on lovingkindness practice is Sharon Salzberg, and she also has a recent book out on Real Happiness at Work. I haven't read it but it might be one you would find worthwhile.
@@DougsDharma Thanks so much! I will try this and definitely look that book up!
My friend this might be your personality.Think positive and dont believe in this cult stories.
😁🇯🇵🤣
Hi Dough, I always have phobia to fly after an incident on a plane. I always wonder what I can do to conquear fear? I feel fine but I know I will still have fear when I go on a plane...is that my bad karma causing this?
Fear of flying is normal for many of us. If it's very bad, you may want to consider talking with a doctor or psychologist, there are techniques to deal with it. Otherwise the practices in the video may be helpful.
@@DougsDharma Thank you for your time to reply me. I will seek advise from a friend who is a doctor. Metta to you!
So if your suffering with anxiety check this link out in the top hand corner!
😄 I hope it's helpful!
I’m sorry but I can’t find the Dan mace link
It's been awhile so I'm not sure which link this is, where is it in the video?
@@DougsDharma it’s right at the end. Thanks!
@@kylekornbau935 Oh yes it's in a card, I've now included a link in the show notes as well. You can find it here: czcams.com/video/xzH65aU1q0g/video.html
@@DougsDharma thanks!
... and what is your view about rainbow body ?
What is the rainbow body?
@@DougsDharma please check father tiso . he check this. Make investigation. Its in dzogdzen when dead body desolf
Mine is not low grade.
Sorry to hear! 🙏