Facing Fear

'WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH?' IS A QUESTION EVERYONE ASKS AT SOME POINT IN THEIR LIVES. ALL THE GREAT RELIGIONS AND WORLD PHILOSOPHIES HAVE ARISEN TO ANSWER THIS ONE QUESTION. AND BELIEF SYSTEMS HAVE EVOLVED AROUND THE POSTULATED ANSWERS.

This chakra is located approximately two inches above the muladhara chakra and two inches below the manipuraka chakra. The energy in this chakra shrinks through fear, especially the fear of death and flowers through facing our fears and by accepting the fear of death.

All of our fears are actually manifestations of the fear of death. If we can look at and embrace our fears and totally accept them, they will no longer have power over our lives.

For example, if we have a fear of spiders or snakes, we can meditate on them: actually look closely at a spider, even if just in our imagination. Bringing the mental picture of the spider close and allowing the fear to come up instead of running away from it, is the key to getting over the fear. In fact, we are likely to notice the beauty in the insect and begin to wonder what it was that we were afraid of in the first place.

There are five major categories of fears: fear of loss of name and reputation and outer world things, loss of love of family members, loss of physical health, loss of mental stability and health, and finally, the fear of the unknown and of death itself. It is essential to face each one of these fears in order to have freedom from them. The only way to reach enlightenment is to go through the fear of death itself and then the energy from the swadhishtana chakrawill be free.

Go through the exercise of imagining your own death and allowing the feelings of fear associated with this experience to arise. There are a number of masters who became enlightened through this process. Only when one has conquered the fear of death is one truly able to live.

The fear of death, in fact, arises from our conviction that we have not lived our lives fully, that we have not accomplished what we have come on earth to accomplish. When we live totally, with awareness, we will be ready to let go when the time comes. We can also say 'goodbye' to people and situations that no longer serve us, without regret or guilt.

We need to understand some deep truths about life: When we face death, it will not be there as the terrifying thing that we think it is; it is loving and giving. The second thing is that death is our greatest teacher ever. Lastly, death is the thing that can give us the ultimate gift of enlightenment! Death is never a discontinuity. It is continuity in some other form, or simply liberation, that's all.

Most of our fears in handling fearful situations come from resisting the experiencing of fear in the first place. Once we can look our fears in the face, they will start to evaporate. Then the energy that is locked up in the chakra will be available to us and we will have the confidence to embrace life and live it fully. Then there is no need to depend on societal prestige and identity because you will have deep inner fulfillment and dignity to support you.

....................................... Understanding Fear

Everyone experiences fear, no one can claim to be fearless. One can learn to handle fear without fear, that's all. If anyone professes to be fearless, be very clear that they

have not analyzed deeply the subject of fear and the human response to it. Don't start thinking that they are superhumans and you are a lesser mortal.

All your fears are nothing but the fear of your fears. If you shake off your fears and allow your intelligence to surface, you will find that your fears are just shadows of objects that don't exist.

When you consciously work on this, you will understand that what you call fear is nothing but your response or reaction to an incident or thought. Depending on how you respond, you can claim that you did not have fear or had fear. And, with more and more awareness, you can respond towards fear without fear!

If you just look at the mirror everyday and tell yourself that today is the last day in your life, you will stop procrastinating. You need not tell yourself this all your life; just a month will do. Automatically, you will start living your life without procrastination. Not only that, your fears about losing your prestige, fear of embarrassment, pride, and expectations will all dissolve, because you will know that you have nothing to lose. Y

With regard to fear of loss of prestige, just live with unconditional love for everyone and everything around you. Feel deep love for anyone and anything that comes your way. If you live this way, automatically prestige will come in search of you. People will respect you for your quality and not for your quantity. And with this kind of prestige, there is no fear of losing it; you don't have to guard it all the time, you are simply liberated from such fears. Y

We are afraid to look at our fears; that is the whole problem. So we delude ourselves in comfort zones and keep carrying on. Never fear to look. The moment you fear to look, you are only creating more fear because it becomes more unknown to you. Just look into the fear and accept that you are in fear. Automatically, the fear will dissolve. If you start facing your fears one after another with awareness, somewhere down the line, intelligence will replace fear and you will have less and less of the fear emotion in you. So, simply accept the fear, and look into it with awareness. Y

Drop your fears about your property. Everything belongs to Existence. You are a temporary possessor of it, that's all. If you can understand this at a deep level, you will not allow yourself to be consumed by fear for your property. Y

The only way to get out of your fears is to visualize them and go through them as a reality with the power of your visualization. Sit by yourself and imagine that your fears are happening to you. In your imagination, confront them with deep awareness Y

and calmness. If you suffer in the process of visualization, it is alright. Don't suppress it or punish it. If your body shakes with fear, let it. Just co-operate with your intelligence and allow yourself to flow with it. Anything when lived out completely will have no effect over you. All your fears are simply fear of your fears, that's all!

Fear strokes are short spikes of fear. They just come and go in a few seconds' time. For example, you may be walking on the road. Suddenly you see a rope and think it

is a snake. You experience a sudden rise of fear, which subsides in just a few seconds because by that time, you realize it is only a rope. This is a fear stroke.

It is like this: there is always a current of fear in us. At times, it rises to a peak, that's all. These fear strokes can happen with great intensity although they are for a short duration of time. Fear strokes weaken the immune system. They release depression-inducing chemicals and even accelerate our ageing process. They can even cause a heart attack or make our hair turn white.

On an average, everyone has about 6 fear strokes a day consciously or unconsciously. Conscious fear strokes are to do with things like the telephone ringing well past midnight, or while in the car, a motorist suddenly swerving to your side or when you are watching a horror movie and someone taps you on your shoulder; so many things like this.

You get fear strokes in your dreams also, but you forget them when you wake up. Fear strokes are like shaking the roots of a plant. It is very dangerous for the system.

Daily Awareness Practices

At the time of the fear stroke, you will not have any time to go into awareness; you don't have time to chant any God's name and go through the stroke because it is Y

just a spike. But after the fear stroke, you can very well analyze the stroke and get a deeper imprint of the understanding of your fears. This will help in dissolving the whole idea of fear.

The intensity and frequency of fear strokes can be greatly reduced by reducing the intensity and the depth of the regular fear that is in us. Only from this regular fear, the fear strokes arise. If deeper understanding and clarity can reduce the regular fear, the fear strokes will also reduce. Practicing the fear meditation will greatly help. Y

(A young girl shares her experience of overcoming her fear of spiders):

I remember how the Master made me overcome my fear of spiders! While in our discussions one day, I jumped up when I saw a spider and He laughed at me for Y '

it. He told me to meditate on the spider every time I saw one. I followed this meticulously and every time I saw one, I looked at it with awareness and concentration. Slowly I started wondering why I was scared of it after all!'

It is only a question of bringing awareness into our fears. You will then wonder what it was that caused the fear in you!

When you conquer the fear of death, you conquer death itself, because death is just one more imaginary experience! Our fear makes us imagine death to be more frightening than it actually is. We wear glasses of fear, which don't allow us to see reality.

When you experience death psychologically, you release the energy that has been locked in the swadhishtana due to death-fear and the swadhishtana opens. When the swadhishtana opens, the whole quality of life changes.

You may ask why you need to know about dying consciously. Only when you know about death can you live with the right understanding of life. Otherwise, you will not live life the right way.

When you can accept death as just a continuity in another form, your capacity to enjoy life is increased. Your whole body relaxes, your consciousness expands, your living capacity expands. Whether you accept it or not, every moment of your life, the fear of death lingers in the subconscious mind. By understanding death and fear of death, your life will turn out to be rich, not wealthy may be, but rich. Richness is what is really important in life.

When we understand the depths, the secrets and mystery of death, we understand the secrets of life. We need to solve death and see it as a mere continuity in a different form. Otherwise, we will miss life itself. If we understand that death is nothing but continuity in another form, we will not fear death. And when we stop fearing death, we will know to what extent we have been missing life.

If you deeply analyze the fear of death, you will come to know that people are afraid to die because unconsciously, they feel that they should have been somewhere higher up than where they are now. They feel they have not reached their actual place in life and so they are not ready to leave.

Actually, if you deeply analyze your fears, all of our fears are fear of death only. They manifest themselves in different ways, that's all.

Daily Awareness Practices

Unless death becomes a conscious experience, the fear of it will never leave you. Repeatedly listening to these words will help; develop a conviction about them; try to see how your minor and major fears are actually related to the fear of dying. Bring some clarity into all your day-to-day fears; see how interrelated all your fears are; bring awareness into your fears; then you will steadily evolve and come closer to the truth.

Never fear to look at fear. The moment you fear to look, you are only creating more fear because it becomes more unknown to you. Just look into the fear and accept that you are in fear. Automatically, the fear will dissolve. If you start facing your fears one after another with awareness, somewhere down the line, intelligence will replace fear and you will have less and less of the fear emotion in you.

The Nirbhaya Dhyana is a meditation technique taken from Vedanta. This meditation gives an out-of-body experience, which is actually the death experience. When done regularly, each time the cosmic energy which is the darkness present everywhere, continues to empower and energize your body and mind. It also strengthens the swadhishtana chakra.

All our fears are related to the fear of death. We conceive of death as something dark and fearful. Actually, darkness is nourishing. The darkness in your mother's womb nurtured you. You lived, ate, drank in darkness. If you go to sleep and get up in the morning, you feel rejuvenated because of the darkness.

Darkness is rejuvenating life energy. It enables us to connect with the very roots of our existence, giving us the courage, confidence and feeling that we are being taken care of.

Soft music can greatly enhance your experience of this meditation. Sit comfortably on the floor. Those who cannot sit on the floor may sit on a chair. The head, neck and spine should all be in a straight line.

Close your eyes. Breathe deeply. Visualize that you are walking into a dense forest. You are walking into the densest part of the forest.

Visualize that you enter a deep, dark cave. You cannot see anything with your eyes. You sit down in the dark cave. You cannot see your own body. Except for your own feeling of being there, you have no other identification. How much ever you try, you are not able to see. In the deep darkness, you can only sense by touch that you are there. You are born from darkness that was in your mother's womb and you dissolve into the same loving, compassionate darkness.

Breathe in deeply the utter darkness that surrounds you everywhere. Breathe in deeply the darkness that has made your identity disappear. Slowly, very slowly, experience your body merging with the darkness.

Step 5 (Duration: 5 minutes): Slowly, very slowly, experience your body becoming the darkness.

With your whole body, breathe in the darkness. With every cell of your body, breathe in the darkness deeply. Begin to feel yourself. Start to feel your whole body with all your senses. Move your body very slowly in the sitting position. Get up and move out of the cave. You are coming out of the dense forest.

The swadhishtana chakra is located approximately two inches above the muladhara chakra and two inches below the manipuraka chakra. The energy in this chakra is blocked by fear, especially the fear of death, and made to flower through facing our fears and by accepting the fear of death.

All of our fears are actually manifestations of the fear of death. If we can look at and embrace our fears and totally accept them, they will no longer have power over our lives.

In the diagram alongside, the fears have been depicted inside an inverted funnel. We have five major categories of fears: fear of loss of name and reputation and outer world things, loss of love or family members, loss of physical health, loss of mental stability and health, and finally, the fear of the unknown and of death itself. It is essential to face each one of these fears in order to have freedom from them. It is impossible to get around the fear of death in order to reach the ultimate state of enlightenment. The only way is to go through the fear of death itself and then the energy locked in the swadhishtana chakra will be free.

Go through the exercise of imagining your own death and allowing the feelings of fear associated with this experience to come to the fore. There are a number of masters who became enlightened through this process. Only when one has conquered the fear of death, is one truly able to live.

The fear of death, in fact, arises from our conviction that we have not lived our lives fully: that we have not accomplished what we have come on earth to accomplish. When we live totally, with awareness, we will be ready to let go when the time comes. We can also say 'goodbye' to people and situations which no longer serve us without regret or guilt.

Most of our fears in handling fearful situations come from resisting the experiencing of fear in the first place. Once we can look our fears in the face, they will start to evaporate. Then the energy that is locked up in the chakra will be available to us and we will know the experience of clarity and true love. We will have the confidence to embrace life and live it fully.