As we all emerge from the initial impact of Covid-19 on our lives, there is perhaps one emotion which prevails, and it is not welcome – fear.

There is arguably much to fear in this ‘new normal’ – we must be afraid of getting too close to others, many of us fear for our working lives, many of us fear the consequences of losing our livelihoods, and it would be natural to fear that our hopes and aspirations have no future, from that long-promised holiday to being able to afford higher education. Perhaps more than most of us have ever known, we are living in challenging times, particularly how we see our futures.

Kendo would not point out all the foregoing – which most of us would rather push out of our minds – unless he had something to offer which could be of help, and that would be the words of the Healing Buddha, Yakushi Nyorai, who simply said, “Fear Not”.

To our western ears this sounds like little more than a platitude, a warm and fuzzy phrase to help us feel a little better for a few moments, but there’s actually a great deal more to those words when they’re considered in a Buddhist context.

One of the greatest gifts from meditation is to switch off the thinking mind and escape from the whirl of unanswerable questions it seeming willingly hoards; in reality it’s only doing its job by raising awareness of matters which clearly need consideration, but the wisest next step is to seek answers beyond the limitations of reductionism and reason alone – and they are to be found in the intuitive self. This is an equally powerful gift from meditation: the opening of the self to the wisdom of our own intuitive selves.

Even from a rationalistic western perspective, this makes sense. Accepting that the mind alone can’t give us all the answers is not to diminish it, but to give it its place as a team player. You, too, are part of that team – you have the power to choose to deal with fear by bringing your inyuitive resources to bear upon it, because once your intuition has has given you some brilliant new guidance, you’ll need to work with your mind to make it happen.

The foregoing illuminates what is arguably the fourth member of your team – hope. That hope springs from the wise interpretation of Yakushi Nyorai’s words, and it is a force to be reckoned with because you give it life and power by seeking wise counsel from your intuitive self. Such hope can be immensely powerful as a balm for our worries – perhaps that balm is what’s in the Healing Buddha’s medicine pot!

So, Kendo would reiterate the words of Yakushi Nyorai and likewise counsel, ‘Fear Not’. Fear and worry are arguably the same thing, and once you acknowledge that they’ve done their job by alerting you to something that needs intuitive guidance, you have the power to turn that negative emotion into a positive outlook and well-reasoned plans. Thus, Kendo wants you to know that in these challenging times, you don’t need to be disempowered by fear and worry, but can instead be empowered by taking the wise step of seeking guidance from your own intuition; if you put your ‘team’ to work, you’ll be the best you can be, which will benefit you, your family, and your entire society.

Stay safe, meditate, and always be positive!