Dhamma Talks - Panic :: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

Panic: is the primal urge to run and hide in the face of imminent danger. It is a sudden fear which dominates or replaces thinking.

When people panic, they often allow their emotions such as fear rather than logic to dictate their actions. This can be obstructive to their progress in life.

Fear can be caused by a number of factors. It is the result of perception which has been sparked off by what has just come into contact with our senses. In the presence of fear, our reactions will be primitive based on instinct rather than one of intellect based on wisdom.

While the Buddha was residing in Jetavana temple in the city of Savatthi he told a story to his disciples, pointing to how one should not be alarmed or panic from just hearsay.

The story, detailed in the Dudadubhaya Jataka went as follows:

There once was a forest full of palm trees. Within the forest, there lived many animals. One day a rabbit was resting peacefully under a palm tree after he had just feasted on some grass. As he was starting to nod off, a thought came to him; What if the Earth were to collapse; where could I possibly go? At that very moment, a gust of wind swept through the trees and caused a coconut to fall from above and landed right beside him. The rabbit got such a fright and thought it was an earthquake. So he shouted at the top of his lugs “Earth quakes, Earth quakes”, and ran as fast as his legs would carry him to which direction he did not care. As soon as the other animals who were standing nearby heard his screams, they too got a fright and shouted “Earth Quake, Earth Quake!” and scattered away in all directions. Word of the earthquake spread like wild fire and soon the animals were all shouting “Earth Quake, Earth Quake”. Eventually the situations build up to a great big stampede.

A lion (who was indeed the Bhodisattava; the Buddha to be) was walking in the vicinity and when he saw the stampede, he stopped them and asked, “What is happening here, why is there a stampede?” They replied, “There is an earthquake and if we stay here, we are all going to die! If you don’t want to die, then we suggest you come with us!” And off they went running in the direction towards a cliff face.

In seeing the danger the Lion chased them to a halt and said, “Hold on a second, who saw the Earthquake?” All the animal stopped and looked at each other, after a while one of them said “We don’t really know. We just heard that there was one”. Then another animal shouted out “The elephants saw it”. And so the Lion turned to ask the elephants. “No, we didn’t see it, we heard it from the tigers”, the elephants replied. The same question went out to each of the species in turn until eventually it was put forward to the rabbits.

The one rabbit who claimed that he was indeed the one who saw the earthquake agreed to show the lion the exact spot where he saw the earthquake, on the condition that the whole group of animals were to go with him because he was that frightened.

When they all got to the spot under the palm tree, the Lion walked all around and took a good look at the area. He came across a few scattered coconuts lying on the ground and realised what had happened. He explained his theory to all the animals and assured them that there had been no earthquake and that all the farce was caused by a falling coconut.

In being made to see sense, all the animals calmed themselves down and slowly but surely disbanded back to their homes.

When the Buddha finished telling the monks this story, the said the following verse:

The Buddha: “details are not known to fools, they are in a haste to believe in hearsay. The wise on the other hand will investigate with their own eyes and are not in any haste to believe without evidence”.

In the world today, many things exists that can invoke fear. One must remember the rabbit in the story and avoid being victims of our own fear and false understanding. We must have wit and remember to investigate before making any conclusions.