Check In With Your Body: A Buddhist Way of Looking at Fear
Do you ever lie awake worrying about tomorrow, next month, or years down the road?
Will the presentation go well tomorrow?
Will the deal with that client close next month?
Will there be enough saved for retirement in ten years?
When these worries take hold, your heart races and your mind spins, yet you can never quite pin down where in your body the anxiety actually lives.
Venerable Beopsang offers a simple practice you can try right now.
The next time anxiety rises, close your eyes and search for exactly where it sits, somewhere in your head, somewhere in your chest.
But when you actually go looking, you won't find a solid lump or a fixed thing called anxiety waiting there.
Why is that?
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| Photo by the author |
Why Fear Has No Substance
When fear shows up, you feel it in your body, unmistakably. Sometimes your hands and feet go numb. Sometimes your heart pounds so hard you can feel it in your throat.
The core of this practice is simple: see the gap between what your body actually feels and the story your mind builds around it.
A physical sensation isn't inherently "fear" or "anxiety" — it’s just raw energy passing through, rising and falling on its own.
A racing heart, a sudden flush of heat, or a tightness in the chest are merely physical signals. But the moment these sensations appear, our thinking mind steps in, slaps a label on them, and decides, I am terrified.
Follow Ven. Beopsang's instructions and close your eyes, then actually go searching for the fear or anxiety.
You won't find anything solid or clumped together. Instead, you'll notice breath moving in and out, faint tremors, sensations shifting and dissolving moment by moment.
Look closely enough and you'll see that emotion isn't a fixed thing at all.
It's a process, arising and passing depending on conditions.
The trouble starts the moment we grab onto it as though it were something solid and real.
What Does It Mean to Watch a Feeling?
Here the teaching poses an interesting question. If you search for anxiety or fear through this kind of observation and can't find it as a fixed thing, then what exactly is doing the knowing? What is it that recognizes fear can't be found?
Not many people think this far. But take a moment right now and consider it. Who, or what, knows that the fear cannot be found?
This is where awareness comes in, Ven. Beopsang says.
We usually treat our thoughts and emotions as though they were who we are. When anger rises, we become an angry person. When anxiety rises, we become an anxious person.
But anger and anxiety arise and then pass away. And somehow, we're able to notice that arising and passing. We're able to watch it happen.
When anger comes up, we can simply notice, anger has arisen. We can watch the anger as it comes and goes.
A similar story is told about Bodhidharma and his student Huike.
Huike, troubled and unable to find peace of mind, asked his teacher to calm his mind for him. Bodhidharma answered, "Bring me your mind, and I will calm it." Huike searched and searched but could not find his mind anywhere. Bodhidharma replied, "There. I have already calmed it for you."
This story points to something similar to what we saw earlier when we looked for fear but could not find it as a fixed thing.
A Small Experiment You Can Try Today
Knowing something in theory and confirming it in your own body are two entirely different things.
Here's how you can apply the practice Ven. Beopsang offered to a live audience, adapted for everyday life.
The next time anxiety or fear rises in you, pause whatever you're doing and close your eyes. Move slowly through your head, your neck, your chest, your stomach, quietly observing where and how that anxious sensation shows up.
You may not find a clear location or a solid shape anywhere. Instead, you'll notice the movement of your breath, subtle sensations shifting from one moment to the next. Don't stop at doing this once. Try it every single time anxiety arises.
Do this enough, and you'll come to understand that fear and anxiety have no fixed substance at all.
They're simply processes that arise and pass depending on conditions. As long as we don't grab hold of them, they can simply flow on, naturally.
What It Means to Keep Some Distance From Your Feelings
Seeing an emotion as it truly is means neither pulling it closer nor pushing it away. It means simply recognizing that it has arisen, and watching.
This is entirely different from forcing an emotion down or trying to erase it.
Life has a way of bringing the same worries back again and again. Anxiety about the future, worry over relationships, fear of failure, we chew on these every day, yet how often do we actually stop and observe the feeling itself?
Our minds keep spinning stories, and as we follow those stories, the same emotions keep resurfacing. Sometimes we even catch ourselves enjoying the story, holding onto it a little longer than we need to.
Try watching your thoughts, emotions, and sensations without pulling them in or pushing them away. You may begin to notice how they arise and pass on their own.
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| Photo by the author |
What You Actually Need Is the Habit of Checking
The next time anxiety shows up, try what Ven. Beopsang suggests. Close your eyes and look for it directly.
Keep practicing this kind of observation, and little by little, your relationship with anxiety and fear will start to shift.
Instead of struggling to make an emotion disappear, you begin to understand what it is by watching it directly, and this can help you loosen your grip on it.
When anxiety arises, you can simply notice, ah, anxiety has come up, and watch it. What matters is that you don't resist it or try to force it away.
The same goes for anger. Rather than turning that anger directly on the person in front of you, notice it first: ah, anger has arisen, and watch it. What matters, again, is not rejecting it or trying to erase it. This is the whole point.
Anxiety will still show up in your life. But instead of grabbing onto it or shoving it away, simply watching it arise and pass can, little by little, change the way you live with it.
Deepen Your Mindful Journey
If today’s reflection gave you a moment of clarity, feel free to explore these related readings.
[Is That Anger Really “Me”? What Buddhism Means by Non-Self]
[Why Doesn't Happiness Last? The Buddhist Explanation of Suffering]
Listen to the Original Dharma Talk
If you would like to experience Ven. Beopsang’s guided meditation on finding fear, please watch the video below from 1:04:06 to 1:10:40.
Listening directly to his spoken voice allows the practice of inner observation to settle much more deeply into your heart.
"May all living beings be healthy, happy, and prosperous. May they be safe, secure, and free from all dangers and enemies."
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