Let's imagine that as I'm talking here, all of a sudden, right outside of the window, all of a sudden a big lion comes up and, "Whoow," right up against the glass! Most, if not all, of you will probably become afraid. Why? Why, because it is outside! Isn't this bizarre, the lion is out there, can't get through the glass, we are staying in here, we are here nice and safe, and there is this lion out there. But fear is going to come. Why?
The mind is thinking of something else compared to reality of the moment. Reality of the moment is you are just sitting here. Reality of the moment is your eyes see a lion out there. Reality of the moment is that you are safe here, the lion is safe out there. The lion knows you are not going to bite it. But our mind starts thinking about something else. Our mind puts a big story around that sight. And the story is, "Oh, my god, gosh, it's going to eat me!" And all of a sudden, it just takes off with stories, stories, stories. It's not real. Fear comes from thinking about things that aren't the reality of the moment.
When I was a little kid I was scared of heights. I wasn't just scared of heights, I was petrified of heights. One day, while visiting New York City, my mother dropped me and my two older brothers off to see the Statue of Liberty. Now, I assume most of you haven't been there, but the Statue of Liberty is very tall. And the bottom square part that she stands on is already about three or four storeys tall, I'm not sure. Then the body is another or so twenty storeys, and then you can go up to the head, stand there and look out there. And it used to be in the old days that you could go way up to the flame, which is even higher.
So I was as excited as my two brothers, and we said we would go up there. We got up to the bottom of the first skirt where this box area is and I looked over the wall - fear like nothing - I went right against the building. I was only about ten years old, and in order to look over the wall, my oldest brother had to pick me up to look over. So, you know, it's just as tall as I am. There was no way I was going anywhere, there was no way I would fall, but it scared me totally. I was stuck and leaned against the building. My brothers wanted to go up, but I wasn't going to go. I stayed there for half an hour waiting for them to go up and come down. Scared, petrified, I couldn't move, even though I was totally safe.
I was scared of heights until I was an adult. By practicing mindfulness of the body, plus other practices like this, doing Yoga and other forms of physical exercises and being aware, I was able to lose my fear of heights.
I was able to lose it by knowing where I was, instead of thinking about what might happen. And one of the nicest days I've had in my life was painting a roof of a three storey building by myself with nobody home. It was a farmhouse , five miles away from anybody else and I am on the roof by myself painting. On the steepest part of the roof, I held on and I looked over the edge. I thought to myself, "Seeing, seeing", the ground is down there and I am up here. I was a Buddhist at the time and I was just so happy that I could do that. That I could let go of my fear, that I didn't have fear that I was going to fall.
Very interesting: Fear is thinking about something else that might happen in the future. The minute we return to reality of this moment, "What is this moment?", then the fear can go away.