Exploration of Fear in the Pāli Canonical Texts: Contextualizing the Pandemic of Fear

Human relations with fear are complex as, on the one hand, fear drives human pursuit in a mode of self-preservation; on the other hand, fear is a suffering characteristic of incapacitating human action. This paper explores the concept of fear in the Pāli Nikāyas to contextualize the early Buddhist understanding of fear. Our conceptual engagement with this textual tradition is not philological. Instead, we expose the phenomenon of fear in the context of the doctrinal framework of the Four Noble Truths. We argue that fear, according to this tradition, is ultimately conditioned by craving and grasping the wrong identity-view. In discussing the last noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of fear, we mainly deal with the philosophical exposition of the right view by engaging with the conceptual innovations of anattā, paṭiccasamuppāda, and suññatā. By situating the Buddhist philosophical stance in the modern context, we contend that the general Buddhist tendency to avoid the two extremes of permanence and annihilation has the potential to offer peculiar evaluative and normative content for critically engaging with contemporary social realities beyond merely being a cultural heuristic tool. From the exposition and interpretation of the critical potential in the philosophical predisposition of the Middle Path, we bring out the collective manifestation of fear in the Indian context that quickly escalated from “fear of the pandemic” to “the pandemic of fear.” We contend that our collective fear continues to exhibit in our obsessive grasping onto the identity view of the nation, expressed as the national self. This paper critiques such obsession from the Buddhistic critical and cultural context as a mistaken, dangerous, and myopic view compromising plurality and the ethics of compassion (karuṇā) and loving-kindness (mettā).