Fear and Buddhism

A great article by Rev. Zesho Susan O'Connell about fear, its effects and causes, and the Buddhist answer has given me much insight. She reminds us that the Buddha saw fear as at the base of all sentient beings inner suffering, and is fed by our resisting impermanence:

So how does this align with the Buddhist teaching of offering fearlessness to others? What exactly is fear? What is fearlessness? According to the Abhidharma-Kosa, fear is an unwholesome state of infatuation. Another definition is: thinking vividly about what we don't want to happen in the future or dwelling on an unhappy past event. Fear is a mental attempt to control a negative outcome. And I would add that, to me, "worry" is the shark fin of fear. 

It seems to me that all beings - especially myself - suffer from this delusional way of thinking: it is almost part of the definition of "sentient being." However, as the Buddha taught, there is a way of dealing with suffering - in this case, caused by fear.

In order to overcome our delusions around fear we need to practice both calming and insight: samatha and vipassana.
Samatha is practiced in the Zen tradition as "radical acceptance"...Radical acceptance is supported by vipassana: the insight into and confidence in adaptability.
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Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard says that "worry is a misuse of he imagination." In his essay on fearlessness he proposes the several ways to constructively use this very same imagination in insightful and adaptive ways: accept the facts with realism; know that we can always do better, that we can limit the damage, find an alternative, and rebuild what has been destroyed; take the current situation as the starting point; know how to rapidly identify the positive in adversity; be free of regret. All of this can be easily discerned against the background of a serene mind.