Overcoming Fear by Recollecting the Buddha: His Role in Early Buddhist Texts
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Overcoming Fear by Recollecting the Buddha: His Role in Early Buddhist Texts Bhikkhu Anālayo 1 Accepted: 30 September 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The employment of mindfulness in a traditional setting includes the practice of recollection, which can serve to counter fear. In the early discourses, the role of the Buddha as the object of such recollection is not to embody some kind of cosmic principle, as has recently been suggested by Eviatar Shulman. Instead, the inspiration to be gained from recollecting the Buddha springs in particular from his having become totally free from defilements and teaching others how to do the same. Keywords anussati . anusmṛti . Fear . The nature of the Buddha . paritta . Protective texts . Recollection of the Buddha . The role of the Buddha
The early Buddhist discourses provide various perspectives on the topic of fear (Brekke 1999; Giustarini 2012; Weerasinghe 1997). One way of facing fear with mindfulness relates to the four postures of walking, standing, sitting, and lying down (Anālayo 2020b). The task is simply to remain with awareness in whichever of these four postures one happens to be when fear arises, rather than reacting in one way or another. This illustrates a type of attitude that is indeed salient in mindfulness training in general, namely the ability to remain aware of what happens without immediately reacting to it. Another dimension of the employment of mindfulness in the early discourses relates to the practice of recollection (Anālayo 2020a). In addition to the Buddha himself, the practice of recollection described in the early discourses can take up the following objects: the teaching (Dharma) of the Buddha, the community of his noble disciples, one’s own accomplishment in morality, one’s own accomplishment in generosity, one’s own accomplishment in qualities shared with celestial beings.
* Bhikkhu Anālayo
1
Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, 149 Lockwood Road, Barre, MA 01005, USA
When employed as a way to counter fear, the task of such recollection is not so much about directing mindfulness toward the experience of fear itself. Instead, reminding oneself of a source of inspiration, such as the Buddha, is what serves to counter fear. This apparent potential brings up the question of what the Buddha stood for in early Buddhist thought. Whereas the potential reassurance of recollecting one’s own accomplishment in morality, generosity, or other qualities probably does not require much comment; the potential of the same practice in relation to the Buddha depends very much on the associations he calls up in the mind of the practitioner. Disciples of the Buddha can in principle be expected to be able to relate to the other objects of recollection, listed above, from within their personal sphere of experience. Practicing disciples would have had at least some exposure to the Buddha’s teaching, probably have at least heard of other disciples considered to be noble ones, and would be acquainted
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