Question

Yesterday Steve talked about antidotes for certain hindrances, for example, Compassion/Lovingkindness for anger. With regard to fear/worry, the antidotes that I thought of were death, reflection on one's good past Kamma, and the Triple Gem, are there any more that you can think of?

Answer

Well, I think I covered some of this a bit before when I talked about fear, in that there are lots of techniques that can help you with fear. Start looking at the different techniques. Thinking of fear and worry, what's one of your biggest fears and worries? Obscurity, not getting fame, right? You don't want to be obscure when you go to work, you want to be on the top of the ladder. You want to be the one that does everything. OK, so there's the fear of being obscure. Sympathetic Joy! Can we be happy that someone else has made it to the top of the ladder? Get rid of our fear and worry that we want to get to the top of the ladder. Sympathetic Joy, how many people think that Sympathetic Joy's an antidote for fear? But it can be, in the sense of being afraid that we're going to be obscure. So when you start looking at each technique, look for yourself, I don't think I have to answer this more. Look for yourself, look at the technique, and see for yourself whether you can find something, some type of fear, physical or mental, especially regarding the eight worldly conditions, and whether it would actually be an antidote for it.

Our apologies if there are any errors in the above text. If anything seems to be wrong or confusing in any way, please feel free to contact the teachers for further clarification.