Fear
"Go towards the Darkness and illuminate it with Knowing"
Introduction
Defining Fear
Fear is an emotion that most of us would have experienced when we are faced with a dangerous or life-threatening situation in front of us or when such situations are imagined in the mind.
The emotions of fear can sometimes make the heart pound and the legs wobble. It certainly is an emotion that can shake every cell in the body.
Most of us would usually only recognize the state of fear when it's intense, for instance, when we can feel the sensations of doom and gloom piercing through our soul: in the moments as one is about to bungee jump, ask someone out, present a speech in front of an audience, answer a question in class, and so forth. In these moments, the body's physiological response to fear, such as sweating, tensing up, heart-pounding, can make it clear that fear has arrived.
However, when the fear is experienced in its more subtle form, i.e. in times when one is talking to their friends, watching tv, making a decision in life, planning a trip, trying new food, thinking about the future, meeting new people, and so forth, one can easily miss it.
Realize that in every moment, our fears are lurking deep within, just waiting for the right moment to come out and greet us. In this article, we will go towards it instead and explore what it really is so that one can be fully understand it and learn the ways of liberating themselves completely from it.
Fear In Depth
Everyone will have different fears. Some people have a fear of travelling whilst some don't. Some people can get frightened by the appearance of a clown whilst some enjoy their presence. Some can be so afraid of public speaking that they avoid it all their life, but some may pursue a career in public speaking because that's their passion.
So, it's not really the things that are in front of us that is somehow magically throwing the emotions of doom and gloom into our minds, but rather, these emotions of fear spawn from the perception we have towards our life experiences.
Thus if one wishes to know why some experiences can seem so scary to them, one must look inwards to understand more about their minds, to question why one's perception has twisted what could otherwise be an ordinary fine day to the experience of armageddon.
The practice of meditation can help one greatly to understand more about their fears as the practice will help one to turn their attention inwards to find the deeper cause rather than to blame the people, the outer situations and experiences as the cause for one's fears.
Confusion Between Fears And Desires
Through practising meditation, one will be able to know the relationship they have with their fears deeper because one will learn more about their emotions through observing them rise and fall in their sittings. One will gradually realize that fear is essentially an emotion, a reaction that one is generating within towards an outer experience. And eventually one will realize that what one fears most is not so much the experience of what's happening outside oneself, but the experience of the negative reactions—that can range from subtly mild to painfully traumatic—that are happening inside of oneself.
So, when you fear a particular experience, it doesn't necessarily mean that your heart wants you to avoid that experience. You may simply want to avoid the negative emotions that the fears can bring up within. So, if you fear public speaking, it may not be that you don't like the experience; you may simply be hating the reactions that are happening within. Another example, if you fear talking to someone you like, it won't mean that you don't want to be with them, but the fears can make you feel that way.
By becoming aware of of how our fears can make us fall into the illusion of disliking something when we may like it can be help us to clear the confusions of the mind, allowing us to know our desires and dreams clearer.
Fears can be completely released
It's important to make efforts to know how our minds work because the less we know, the more mysterious the suffering states of mind can appear to be as they can often pop in and out of existence like indecisive quantum particles.
The more you know how fears are created in the mind, the more you will realize that fears can be released. Yes, it can be completely released so that you don't have to experience them again, even in their subtler states. But such a journey of transforming the mind will take time and effort; it will be journey of gradual progress.
Realize that transforming the mind will take time because transforming the way of how one perceives their experiences won't be easy. The way one perceives their world will always be tied to their belief system, and there can be so many deeply-rooted beliefs that are generating the fears that it can take a great of time for one to discover and transform them.
So, if you have a fear of public speaking. Realize that you can transform it completely if you make efforts to. If you have a fear of bungee jumping, it can be transformed too so that you can fearlessly jump into an abyss no matter how deep it is.
And for you to accelerate your journey of transforming your fears, you will need to release the beliefs that are holding you back from releasing your fears, for instance, you may believe deep down inside that your fears cannot be released or that it's necessary to have them to survive in life. Releasing these blockages will help you to make more progress on your journey of addressing your fears.
Fears are unnecessary!
With that said, let us look at the journey of exploring and transforming the fears within.
Importance
Importance Of Addressing Fears
It can take great courage for one to face their fears. So, let us explore the negative impacts fear can have on the quality of our experiences so that we can develop more motivation to address it.
Fears are the limiters of our potential; it brings limitations to our ability to fully express and be ourselves. The more one releases their fears, the more they will realize just how their fears have been limiting their potential.
Without getting to know our fears, the fears will continue to be there. And these days, the mind can be so fearful that it can scarcely have moments without it.
When was the last time you enjoyed a day without fears of being judged, of the future, of failing, of talking to people?
Fears can tremendously drain the mind by compelling one to imagine and run through all the worst scenarios that can happen.
The darkness that fear can bring to one's mind can dissuade one from chasing their passions and dreams. One's fears can thus make one's life journey stagnant, by compelling one to repeat their life patterns rather than to try something new and exciting.
The negative impacts that fear can have on one's physical and mental wellbeing are too many to list. If one wishes to know more, one can explore various articles on the different fearful states of the mind on the catalyst section of the website.
Path Of Creator
Fear In Relation To The Path Of Creator
Let us explore how fear is created at the seed level of the mind through our attachment to Negative Ideas
From Chapter 5 - Discovering The Sufferings - we have learnt that all forms of sufferings will always recede back to Negative Ideas.
Negative Ideas are ideas which promote Self-Rejection. The following are some examples of Negative Ideas:
"It is not ok to fail."
"It is not be vulnerable"
"It is not ok to be embarassed"
The experience of fear can be said to be the experience of Negative Ideas in a moment when what we reject inside could come out into the light. For instance, when one has become attached to the Negative Ideas mentioned previously, the Negative Ideas will make one fear failure, vulnerability, being embarassed in the moments when these ideas could manifest into life.
Fear can also be understood an attachment: the desire that something must not happen. The more one is attached to their Negative Ideas, the deeper the attachment, and the deeper the suffering experience.
Life experiences can trigger these Negative Ideas to surface from the mind. And when they do, suffering reactions will happen at all levels of The Self.
The more one explores oneself to uncover these Negative Ideas, the more one will understand the origins of their fears. The more one can release the layers of mystery that is shrouding their fears, the more one will feel less powerless and more in control.
On the journey of transforming one's fears, one can begin by making efforts to discover them. Realize that life experiences are precious because they can bring out what's hiding in the dark within out into the light for us to explore and study. Thus, by simply trying new experiences in life, one can discover much about their fears, and with time, discover the beliefs, the negative ideas from which they originate.
The practice of Stilling the mind through meditation will help one to gain the courage to go towards the darkness because facing one's fears wont' be an easy task. Practices such as Yoga can also help tremendously one's journey to face their fears.
Realize that running from our fears will only sustain the fear because in doing so, we are turning away from the opportunity to understand what they really are. Getting to know more about one's fears can also be transformative.
Thus, the best practice is to always go towards your fears if you wish to transform and release them. But, without a Still Mind, one can end up reacting in the same way as before, sustaining old habit patterns. That is why the practice of meditation and yoga is highly encouraged if one wishes to take the deeper journey of addressing their fears.
Within, are countless negative ideas waiting to be discovered. There may be some people out there that believe that they don't have any fears. But it may simply be that they have not encountered the right life experiences to bring it out.
But, why would one want to go through all the trouble in facing and transforming their fears?
Usually, the answer is only truly realized after one releases their fears. It's then one will realize just how the fears has been holding one back from living life to the fullest and how one' happiness has been consumed by the darkness within.
Thus, there may be little motivation as one begins their journey of transforming their fears because it will require one to experience more fears, pains, and discomfort. But as one works through their fears bit by bit, the happiness and freedom they gain will add more impetus to the momentum of one's journey, making it easier for one to put the hard work in as time goes on.
Transforming The Fears
As fears originate from the Negative Ideas we have created in the mind, to release it, we have to go on a journey of transforming the Negative Ideas to Potentiating Ideas—to Ideas that promote Self-Acceptance instead of Self-Rejection.
Realize that fear is simply a state of rejecting something. Thus, if one truly wants to address it, one will learn to accept what one cannot accept. The more one can accept all there is in life and all that is possible, the more one's fears will be transformed and released.
For instance, if one can accept failing, then one will no longer fear it from manifesting.
If one can accept oneself for being stupid, one will fear less about how stupid they can appear in front of people.
If one can accept what one cannot accept about bungee jumping, one will no longer fear bungee jumping.
So the journey of transforming the fears within will be about accepting what we cannot accept. But that journey will require one to develop Self-Knowing because having insight into what one is rejecting can help one to address their fears more directly by knowing what one needs to truly accept. On the journey of Self-Knowing, the practice of meditation can be tremendously helpful because in any given fearful experience many Negative Ideas can be triggered, which can make one confused about what one is really fearing. But when there is stillness, what's happening in the mind will be easier to understand.
Self-Knowing will naturally arise drop by drop as one practices meditation every day. And if one wishes to accelerate the Self-Knowing, one can go towards what one fears to bring it out more. Going towards what one fears can also be truly transformative because it can bring one to realize that the "worst-case scenarios" imagined by one's fears are actually not that bad, which can help one to transform their beliefs / perception about what they are fearing.
Thus, the more one explores their fears and understand what they really are, the more the mind will become transformed because our imagination of the worst will gradually be superceeded by the Truth of Reality.
The destination is towards releasing all one's fears through learning to accept all there is—learning to accept all parts of oneself, others, and the world—so that one live their Truest Selves, which is of Infinite Potential.
Know and Transform The Self!
Reading articles helps with understanding, but to transform the mind, one realizes the truth from experience.
For such an enlightening journey, the Self-Transformation Course has everything you will ever need!
