Here is my take: our task is to eradicate fear entirely. To the extent that we brace in advance for bad events, to the extent that we fight fights in our minds, we fear. At their hearts, police officers and soldiers are some of the most fearful human beings on the planet. And stupid hippie chicks some of the most fearless.
We KNOW, of course, that bad things happen to people. Christ himself was murdered in a very unpleasant way. If you live life recklessly, bad things become much more likely.
But for my purposes, I want to get what I call “the knife” out of me, by which I mean a defensive posture, a protective posture. I read that Marines are taught to have a plan to kill everyone they meet. This is precisely what I do NOT want, what is in me, now, and which I feel is interfering with penetrating to the emotional and spiritual depths which most interest me, which pull me, tantalize me.
There is a large, large world out there that can only be reached by consciously disarming ourselves, and walking naked and bowed. That is my feeling. I may change my mind, but that is what appears most real to me, now.