Problems Bared, Essays on Buddhism

23
others which do not brook contradiction even though investigation
is honoured at least by name.
But to become really aware of the meaning and the origin of insecurity,
there should be no fear preventing the mind getting freed
from its own net of habits and traditions, imitations and conformations.
Virtue, which becomes habitual, or which is imitative, is not
virtue in the sense of strength, but is merely accumulative; it is a
sign of weakness, of fear, of desire, and hence no virtue at all.
As long as there is fear, the mind is clouded and torn between
opposites. As long as one is afraid to step out, afraid of consequences,
afraid of insecurity and the unknown, one is already lost
and nothing can be achieved. Life never comes to the aid of those
who merely yield to some demand out of fear. But if one really
wants to do something, if one has such a strong inner urge that
one must act, one will do it irrespective of consequences. One may
have to go hungry, one may have to struggle to get through, and
finally one may not even succeed. But that is not the main thing.
Achievement is only a product. The main thing is to have acted
without fear as a worthwhile human being, without having reduced
one’s life to a mere copy from a text-book or a standard pattern.
The moment one ventures out a miracle takes place within; one is
reborn as a free individual. The result may not be what was expected,
the game may not be the safe play as anticipated; but in
the very gamble there is the freshness of an eager mind, the vital
urge of enquiry, the zest of living, whereas in security there is the
likelihood of being smothered by fear, the dullness of society, the
tameness of death.
Out of a desire for security is born a discipline which is fear
suppressed, and which makes of life one constant struggle to conform
our actions, to adjust our feelings and ideas according to the dictates
of the state or the religion, of the society or the party. All we want is
to belong, which is in reality but a sense of frustration. To belong, to
arrive, to achieve is to be dead, for there all action has ceased. But to