Sometimes people find that being tender and raw is threatening and seemingly exhausting. Openness seems demanding and energy consuming, so they prefer to cover up their tender heart. Vulnerability can sometimes make you nervous. It is uncomfortable to feel so real, so you want to numb yourself. You look for some kind of anaesthetic, anything that will provide you with entertainment. Then you can forget the discomfort of reality. People don’t want to live with their basic rawness for even fifteen minutes…For the warrior, fearlessness is the opposite of that approach. Fearlessness is a question of learning how to be. Be there all along: that is the message. That is quite challenging in what we call the setting-sun world, the world of neurotic comfort where we use everything to fill up the space.

Chögyam Trungpa

from the book Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery

Read a random quote or see all quotes by Chögyam Trungpa.

Further quotes from the book Smile at Fear:

• We Have to Be Honest With Ourselves
• Facing yourself
• An autumn leaf
• Using our intellect to understand life
• Goodness is always there
• Bravery
• Joyful to be here
• Gentleness toward ourselves
• Facing ourselves
• We are fundamentally awake
• Cultivating mindfulness
• Becoming the breathing
• Ego finds a name for itself
• Indigestion in the mind
• The strength of fearlessness
• The warrior is also an artist
• The warrior approach
• Just looking at fear
• Joining fear and uncertainty with genuine confidence