The dimension of fear can be a huge challenge for most people and can act as the biggest resistance to them aligning with their life-stream. However, like all dimensions in the mind, when one is aligned with this dimension, it allows for a positive, and wholesome, experience of life. Just imagine how your life would be if you did not “feel” the resistance of fear while having access to the intuition/instinct of well-being – it would allow you to move forward into actions that you feel inspired towards, without being held back by grip of fear.
When you are drunk (or high on drugs), you are quite free of the resistance of fear (because your brain is passive) but you lack the wisdom/alacrity of a conscious state of being, hence you may end up doing something unwise, that you regret later, under such an inebriated state – however, it gives you a glimpse of what it feels like to be free of the resistance of fear in your being. What is ideal, of course, is to be free of the resistance of fear, while having access to wisdom/intelligence – this is exactly the place you reach when awareness becomes stable in you.
The stability of awareness dissolves the grip of fear. The only reason we “fear” fear is because we primitively shrink away from it whenever it arises in the mind – this is an unconscious reaction in the being. As you become stable in awareness, you develop the courage/spaciousness, to stop running away from the sensation of fear and you simply open up to it whenever it arises – in simple words you “allow” fear of the mind, without looking for ways to escape it. “Allowing” is by itself an act of love, and hence, what you are doing is bringing love to fear (in an authentic way, with some courage). When you do this, you can soon explore the boundaries of fear, because all the dimensions of the mind have a limit to their intensity, and once you’ve allowed yourself to experience the full intensity of a dimension, you no longer fear it.
Are you imbalanced in the fear dimension?
There are people who are quite fearless in an unconscious way, in that they are “dare devils” without much space of wisdom in their being. You usually find such people living on the edge and mostly living life in an unwise or immature manner. Such people, in one sense, have learnt to suppress their fear dimension so strongly that they become devoid of the positives of this dimensions (which is to provide you with instinct/intuition/wisdom for your well-being).
There are others who constantly push themselves into action, forcing themselves out of their comfort zone, despite the fear (thus ignoring the call of wisdom, in many cases), working through strain, and struggle, to achieve some results which usually just create more dis-harmony in their life – this is just another form of forced suppression of fear. If you are not comfortable with something, it’s an indication that it’s either not right for you or you don’t have the maturity/resources to deal with it right now, your job is to do the inner work of alignment and then move from a place of inspiration/wisdom that arises at the right time, rather than push yourself, immaturely, out of your comfort-zone, which is purely an act of self-violence (which has a strong energy of negativity rather than ease/joy).
Then there are people on the other side, who are held prisoners to the dimension of fear, causing them to life fearful lives, strongly resistant to the movement of their life-stream, hence ending up in stagnation and stuck-up-ness. If you are controlled by fear, it’s not possible for you to really move freely along with the inspiration of your life stream, and thus you miss out on opportunities of positive experiences and you also keep yourself from living your full potential (suppressing your natural expression). Imagine the life of a talented artist who lives in fear of being judged, he/she will constantly shirk away from displaying their art in public out of fear of criticism and hence would never be able to showcase their talent or make progress, thus living a stuck-up life. When you are controlled by fear, you are nothing short of a prisoner who is held behind bars, who cannot come out freely to explore life.
Fear shows up in various expressions, such as – insecurity, possessiveness (imbalance in love dimension), guilt, neediness, fear-based aggressiveness (imbalance in hatred dimension) – as you can see, an imbalance in fear dimension easily spills over as imbalances in other dimensions of your mind. By far, this dimension has the strongest hold on the mind because the mind interprets fear as a direct threat to its survival – a strong imbalance in this dimension, of fear, can suppress all the other dimensions of the mind. When you are unconscious, you are highly likely to be controlled by the irrational fears of the mind which are purely coming from a place of negativity rather than coming from a place of wisdom.
Fearless with wisdom
Awareness is the only way to be free of the grip of fear while ensuring the presence of wisdom. It’s also possible to be free of fear through “suppression”, which is a tendency in an unconscious state of being, but when you do this, you also suppress the wisdom/intuition of this dimension (suppression is possible in many ways, be it through mental techniques or through chemicals) – suppression may seem attractive because it can give you an illusion of immediate relief, but in the long run, suppressive tendencies always lead to a disharmony and imbalance. Awareness is not suppression, awareness is “openness”, a total allowing of what arises – this is the power of awareness in that it brings love to all dimensions in the mind, thus dissolving their negative influence, while retaining their positive aspects.
When you become stable in your awareness, you understand that the dimension of fear is not a big deal at all because you totally “see through” it. You are no longer shirking away from allowing fear to arise, and soon fear loses its “grip” on you while you still retain access to instinct/intuition coming from this dimension – hence you don’t become a reckless dare-devil, rather you become a maturely fearless person who has a free movement in life, living authentically in tune with your natural expression, aligned with the inspirations that arises from within. It’s true that one has to go through some initial discomfort of becoming allowing of fear, it’s like when you stop running away from something and simply let it penetrate you fully, but this act of “surrender” reveals your true power, your invincibility and your spacious nature.
You come to a place of freedom from fear when you pass through fear without holding an armor and shield in front you, you drop all your protection and let yourself be fully penetrated by fear that arises in you – letting go of all techniques and escapist strategies. This innocent surrender makes you see the true nature of fear, and gradually you become so clear in your knowing of this dimension that it totally loses its grip on you. Your mind’s “fear dimension” was never your enemy, you just made it your enemy by shirking away from it – embrace it and see the positive power of this dimension, it brings instinct/wisdom/intuition required for a mature living. When you truly embrace the dimension of fear, it will lose its grip on you, you will no longer feel the “resistance” of fear, but you will have access to its wisdom.
sweet stuff : )
Sen-
How long does it take to be completely aware and thoroughly know the patterns of the mind. Also in the path to awakening is the change going to be drastic? Or more of a small change day by day?
thanks
Robert, the more surrendered you are, the faster this process happens until you reach the other side of it where the momentum of negativity does not have a hold on your being. Usually it can take 6-8 months for the momentum of negativity, of the past, to die away fully when you are in a state of surrender. You will see some intense energy movements sometimes, and sometimes it’s not so intense, towards the end of this phase you will sense a deep stability in your being, which is consistent (what I call inner wholeness).
Thank you I was feeling very intense unpleasant feelings ( almost waves of negativity which I can literally feel passing through my body ) last night before going to bed. Which I previously had no idea what I was and honestly just really scared me
Sen – if our ” goal” In enlightenment is to comPletely disidentify from the mind . Then What is the use of the mind. I am sure it has to have some sort of benefit or positive use
The end result of this process is that you become fully aligned with your mind. The goal of enlightenment is not to “disidentify” from mind, but to “full align” with it. To disidentify from the mind, initially, is just a “phase” that you go through, for a while, so that you can let go of the “past negativity” – it’s like starting with a clean state. After the phase of letting go of negativity, you come back to the mind to fully enjoy it because now you are not impeded by negativity. The purpose/use of mind is to enable a joyful experience of your physical life, it’s the negativity that creates a resistance in your being towards realizing this joy. You can read the post seeking enlightenment – where I talk about what enlightenment really takes you towards – a full aligned with your mind’s natural makeup.
Can you please elaborate on the coming back to the mind? I thought dis identification was the final stage
What’s required is a dis-identification with negativity that’s accumulated in the mind over the years of unconscious living. Once that negativity ebbs away, you feel aligned with the natural make-up of your mind. Your whole physical experience is determined by the state of your mind, if it’s in balance and aligned with its natural make-up, it allows for a harmonious experience of life, on the other hand if its suppressed or imbalanced towards certain dimensions, it leads to an in-congruent and struggle based life. Negativity is the product of suppression, as well imbalance, towards certain dimensions in the mind which causes us to attract an imbalanced reality. The phase of “letting go” of the mind, for a while, allows for this accumulated negativity to die away (this is just a temporary phase). Once this is done, your mind is able to align with its natural expression and thus you live aligned with your life-stream. You can read my recent post – your mind’s core personality, for more insights on what it entails to align with the mind’s natural makeup.
Hi Sen,
I feel and have felt anger towards a family member for sometime now. The way i experience the anger is a physical desire to seek the person and verbally lash out. But i just imagine it, instead of physically going to seek the person and lashing out. Is this resistance to anger? Lashing out or even sharing what i feel in a controlled manner is not productive, as the other person is caught up in his own emotions to hear what I am saying. So when i feel the urge to verbally lash out, i just imagine it and feel the emotion of anger, which turns sometimes to self-pity and at time self-directed anger or even anger at universe for making me go through negative experiences. I sometimes want to lash out at the universe. And then the moment passes and life goes on.
So is what i am doing considered being aware of anger or is it resistance to anger? I really want to work this anger and pain out of my body. To be aware of what is going on – is it a requirement to dedicate 30mins everyday in silence and wait for things to come. Or is it alright to mull over, self talk in the mind, as i go about my housework? These days i do not react to anger, like i did before but just become aware of what i am feeling and feel it internally? is this expression of anger or supression of anger?
Sen i am confused. Please guide me on my journey towards awareness.
thanks
Chetana, Anger is natural in a human mind, and it arises from the dimension of hatred which is hard-wired in all brains. Some brains have a stronger/dominant dimension of hatred which means that brain is more prone to be irritated, frustrated, jealous, critical, impatient, over-competitive and arrogant – these qualities will always be present in the brain’s makeup, the problem arises when you become unconsciously lost in and hence fueling this dimension into imbalance, or you fearfully/guiltily try to suppress it and hence create a disharmony in your energy. You can come to a state of balance as you grow in awareness and are able to bring a conscious allowing to the dimension of hatred, where you are not lost in it neither are you suppressing it. In simple words, allow the brain to expend its energy of hatred, staying as a space of awareness – be sure to not try to block it in any way. The more stability you have in your awareness, the easier it is for you to allow the mind without feeling over-whelmed by its agitation. As you keep allowing this mind its free movement, in this dimension, in the space of your awareness, soon the mind comes to a balance with respect to this dimension. It loses its “intensity” and its momentum of hatred starts dying away, and it finally reaches a point of balance where its movements of hatred are not intense and they don’t disturb your being, neither do they pull you in.
What you are doing is an indication that you are growing in the stability of awareness and hence are becoming less “reactive” and more conscious to allowing it in the mind. With time you will gain ever more stability, to the point where your mind will not even feel any over-whelming intensity, but it will allow you to channel this dimension in a balanced way letting you be more sure-footed, competent and strong, not taking any nonsense from anyone but not being reactive either, just moving from a place of deeper wisdom. Sometimes wisdom dictates that you tell a person to back-off very clearly, and sometimes wisdom requires that you don’t get involved. The more balance you develop in this dimension the more easily you will be able to channel it from a place of wisdom.
The practice of sitting with yourself for 30 minutes, without distraction, is of benefit, initially, because it allows you get to know your mind more deeply and it helps you release suppressed energy. It’s totally fine to allow the brain to mull over things or do self-talk, while it’s about its activities, just allow yourself to be aware of its movements now and then, so that you don’t become fully lost in it. A one point you will gain a deep stability in your awareness and then the mind would hardly be source of disturbance but rather a source of entertainment, where you simply allow it to have its movement. This stability allows for some very positive realities to start taking shape in your life.
Your blogs are a HUGE wealth of insight! Thank you so much for taking the time to write and share them.
I have a question!
If the Law of Attraction says that your thoughts become reality, doesn’t that mean your fears can also manifest into reality as well?
If this is the case, shouldn’t your fears really be something avoided or something to be truly afraid of? What if someone experiences uncontrollable intrusive thoughts that create fear?
When you try to escape fear, your movement is coming from a place of fear – basically you are fearing fear and hence your vibration is inherently rooted in fear – which means that you will be attracting realities that reflect fear. When you stop fearing fear, and are totally open to allowing the fears of the mind, in the space of your awareness, your inherent vibration is fearless (or based in wholeness) and hence you attract a reality that’s rooted in harmony. Moreover, when you are not showering belief on a fear, it does not have the power to influence your reality – it’s your belief/identification with a fear that makes it powerful. When you are staying in a place of open awareness, allowing the fears of the mind, you are not believing them, you are just allowing them – and hence it does not have the power to influence your reality.
Hi Sen-
What is your philosophy on the “magical thinking” form of OCD? Where you belive that your thoughts have consequences in the material world and that you try to avoid this from happening through rituals?
When you are dependent on rituals to heal your life, you are basically living from a place of powerlessness where you have no inner confidence about bringing your own well-being by aligning with your inner wholeness. Alignment is a conscious choice to let go of identification with the negativity of the mind till they are no longer influencing your vibration. If you are dependent on outside techniques or influences to rectify your life, it’s just a state of imprisonment, where you are really not free at all but living in a cage of fear.
Thank you, great article! I have recently realized that I was suppressing my fears. Two weeks ago I have felt fear so strongly and allowed it may be for the first time in my life. I have never felt fear with such intensity before and it came as a suprise for me(I do fear, but most of the times I don’t “feel” my fear). Normally, I used to have an automatic fight or flight response in such situations, but this time i did not run away or fight. I must confess that it happened naturally, without any conscious effort on my side. But I don’t want to suppress my fears anymore, do you have any advice for allowing fear more consciously?
Asli, you can read this post – Reaching a place of total allowing