Reflections On The Tao: Fear
Life can be lived, but truly cannot be survived.
This must be accepted for life to be well lived.
One does not survive any moment. One lives every moment. This is the great misunderstanding. Clinging to life, we loose life. This is not the way.
Living mastered by one’s own fear is not truly living, but merely surviving.
Fear is a primal survival drive which is supposed to serve the preservation of life, but when we loose control of the emotion it can do the opposite. When the emotion controls us for more than a quickly passing moment it turns living into mere survival.
Survival alone is pointless. Survival is neither graceful, nor beautiful. A life must be worthwhile to be worth preserving, and so life must be lived and not merely survived. Life can be lived, but truly cannot be survived. A life dominated by fear is not worth living. Life must be spent. Life cannot be saved. Life can be spent well. Life cannot be both saved and spent. Survival is saving life, but is not living life.
If fear permeates our lives we spend our lives trying to survive, and we fail because nobody survives life.
If fear does not permeate our lives we spend our lives living, and we succeed in living because living is not surviving.
