Fearlessness and compassion are opposite sides of the same coin. When you contemplate what sets apart the fearless hero or heroine, whose lives are the epitome of compassion, you will see this clearly.
I love the words of the late Chögyam Trungpa on this subject:
Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart. You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willing to share your heart with others.
Take a look at the fearlessness and compassion of Albert Schweitzer and Mother Theresa. They are proof that when compassion becomes intensified, fear is not an issue. Schweitzer’s compassion was aroused when he saw a statue depicting a dejected African slave. He moved from his comfortable life in Europe to set up a missionary hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon, treating thousands for leprosy and sleeping sicknenss. Would that be a scary proposition for someone who didn’t have compassion? Undoubtedly.
What about Mother Theresa? Imagine riding on a train in India, sick with tuberculosis, on your way for treatment of this disease, and getting what she called a “call within a call” to minister to the sick and poor in the slums of Calcutta, while living amongst them. Without compassion coursing through your veins, that would be terrifying. It’s as terrifying as running into a burning building, but spontaneous and natural if your spouse or child is trapped inside the building. To Mother Theresa, all the poor were her children, trapped inside the slums. To Albert Schweitzer, it was as if he saw his own children in bondage as slaves.
Compassion is love transformed from selfish interests to selflessness. For instance, most people, if they saw a family member begging on the streets, would stop and offer food, clothes, and a bed. But how many people would do that for a stranger? Mother Theresa once said that when she looked at the poor in the gutters of Calcutta, she saw Jesus in all of his hideous disguises.
Meher Baba explained it succinctly: “Fear means no love.” And that is easy to understand if you realize that fear is focused on the self; love is focused on other than self. When the focus of love and compassion is of sufficient strength, there is no room for fear in one’s consciousness.
With this understanding, you can use fear as a barometer of your motivation in life. For example, you have volunteered to deliver a speech to an organization. If you are speaking in an effort, like Chögyam Trungpa suggested, to share your heart with others, there will be no fear. But if your concern is primarily on what the audience will think of you, then you will experience fear.
Don’t be hard on yourself if you feel fear. That is, don’t label yourself as selfish. Use the feeling of fear to know yourself better, to understand your motivations in life. Contemplation of who you are and the purpose of your life will help this fear evaporate like puddles under the light of the mid-day summer sun.
If, on the other hand, you can feel the compassion in your heart, you want to nourish it. Fan the flames of love. For in its light, the darkness of fear has no existence. Fearlessness and compassion will be your reality, like it has been for all eternity for the great heroes of humanity.
