A demon feeding on fear is disarmed by fearless compassion.

Evidence

The demon, who fed on fear, found there was no fear here to feed on — only a vast, unshakeable calm, and a genuine compassion that included even a monster. It raged and threatened, but the monk’s peace did not waver, and the demon’s roars fell into emptiness like stones into a deep, still lake. Slowly, the demon’s fury drained away, baffled and then strangely soothed by the first being who had ever met it without terror or hatred. In some tellings the demon is calmed and becomes a protector of that road; in others it simply slinks away, its power broken. The Burmese tell it to teach the Buddhist truth that fear and hatred feed evil, while calm, fearlessness, and compassion can disarm even a monster — that the deepest strength is the peace that nothing outside can shake. — , A Year of World Stories, 13299

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A person can simultaneously feel mortal fear and detached, buoyant calm — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 436; The cannibal Muslim monster expressed Christian fear of bodily corruption

Broader Connections

• The cannibal Muslim monster expressed Christian fear of bodily corruption #exemplifies (0.80)
• A person can simultaneously feel mortal fear and detached, buoyant calm #expands (0.70) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 436