In Buddhism, they teach you to stay open to fear.
In order to practice what he preached, the Buddha sat under
a Bodhi tree for forty nine days watching hour upon hour of horror movies, and reading
classic horror stories, until finally he emerged from the darkness into
enlightenment.
I wasn’t there, but I think that’s how it went.
Because Buddhism, like horror stories, is all about staying
open to the unexpected.
Horror is a willing submission to the unknown. Buddhism
tells you to approach life without any preconceptions. Both are a seduction to which we surrender. We go into them selflessly – without self – learning
we do not survive this world by controlling it, but better by adapting to how
we naturally ebb and flow with it.
Consider it like this. In Buddhism we sit in meditation – our eyes
open, our mind training to not label every little sound, smell or vision. In the
next room we hear something bump, or some long-drawn creak. Do we listen to it,
open to absorbing that sound without understanding it? Or in pursuit of mundane
comfort do we label the sound – it’s the wood floor settling or a door closing.
Do we name it in order not to hear it for what it is? Just an explained sound
in the night.
With horror, we sit lonely in the dark – perhaps a candle
lit, our minds empty (oh, so Buddhist) – as we wait for the unexpected to crawl
up our skin. When we enjoy a good horror, we naturally surrender all reason and
thought to our imaginations. That’s a Buddhist concept.
Because imagination is where we face the unspoken. The hidden secrets and yearnings of our
souls.
In his article “Saved from Freezing”, Norman Fischer writes
it better. And this is a lesson for all
creators of horror to consider. “Imagination
confronts desire directly, in all its discomfort and intensity, deepening the
world right where we are. Fantasy and
reality are opposing forces, but imagination and reality are not in opposition:
Imagination goes toward reality, shapes and evokes it.”
