INTRODUCTION
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All our fears are actually fear of death but under various disguises. Every single fear is related to the fear of death, but in a roundabout way. Because it is roundabout, we don't see it as fear of death. Without fear, the word death itself loses the meaning that we have been associating with it.
Fears are only the ultimate fear of death, and that your self is immortal, that it is only your body which perishes,
WHICH TYPE OF
FEAR DO YOU HAVE?
We can categorize all our fears into five major categories:
- The first is fear of losing our wealth, our comfort, name and fame, prestige, and other outer world things.
- The second is the fear of losing our health and parts of our body through some accident or disease; the fears concerned with our physical health.
WHICH TYPE OF
FEAR DO YOU HAVE?
- The third is the fear of losing our mental health, our mental stability
- The fourth is the fear of losing our loved ones, or their love.
5. The fifth is the fear of the
unknown: fear of God, fear of
ghosts and fear of death itself
Actually, if you deeply analyze
our fears, all the five categories
of fear are related to the fear of
death. They manifest themselves
in different ways, that's all.
Swadhisthana Chakra/ Navel Center
Closed = Fear
Opened = Courage to face fear
Element = Water (jal)
FEAR IS IN THE SWADISHTHANA
We wear glasses of greed and
fear, which do not allow us
to see reality. When you
experience death
psychologically, you release
the energy that has been
locked in the fear energy
center called the
Swadishtana chakra in your
body, which is located
between the mooladhara and
the Manipuraka (navel
center). When this energy
center is activated, the whole
quality of your life changes.
Swadishtana means 'where
your being is established' –
from swa which means 'self'
and adhishthana which means
'established'. This chakra is
locked by fear, especially the
fear of death and it can be
made to flower by facing fear;
by facing death itself.
A SMALL STORY
the Greek philosopher: Socrates
was killed by being forced to
drink the juice of the poisonous
herb called hemlock. Just before
he drank the poison, one of his
disciples asked him, 'Master, are
you not afraid of dying? You
appear to be so calm.' Socrates
replied, 'Why should I be? I
know that only two things can
happen after death. Either I will
continue to exist, in some other
form or name, or I will cease to
exist after death. In the first case,
there is nothing to worry about.
In the second case, who will
remain to worry? So either way,
there is nothing to fear!
Socrates was fearless of death
purely because he had a clear
understanding of death and its
consequences. Death is always
looked upon as a 'discontinuity'
and that is why people suffer
when they see death
HOW TO GO BEYOND THE FEAR OF DEATH?
Though we know from the moment of birth that our life will culminate in death, we never try to visualize it. We never try to actualize the possibility; we never try to welcome it. At least once if you go through it with consciousness, you will lose your fear for it automatically. When you conquer the fear of death, you conquer death itself, because death is just one more imagination! Just like how our greed makes us imagine the world to be more beautiful than it actually is, here our fear makes us imagine death to be more frightening than it actually is
Unless death becomes a
conscious experience, the
fear will never leave you. But
you can do one thing.
Repeatedly listen to these
words. 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
WHY DO PEOPLE FEAR DEATH?
The main reason why people fear
death is, they have not lived
their lives totally. They are afraid
because they feel desperate that
they have not lived life enough.
They feel this way because
throughout their lives they have
lived in memories of the past, in
the anxieties of the future, for
the sake of others, never in the
present.
HOW DO YOU LIVE LIFE TOTALLY?
Try to live with more clarity,
that's all. Make the other
people see sense in whatever
they try to impose upon you.
With clarity, you will be able
to identify what your own
desires are, what others have
imposed on you and what
desires you have borrowed
from others. The first set of
desires alone need to be
fulfilled without any harm to
any person or property. The
other two need to be
dropped with the help of
clarity
HOW DO YOU LIVE LIFE TOTALLY?
If you live this way, you will no more be fulfilling others' desires and you will be no more living others' lives. You will live your own life, and experience fulfillment, and you will be ready to die when the time comes. You will have no lurking confusion and fear of death.
A SMALL STORY
Once a Zen monk was ordered
by the king to be put to death.
He was supposed to be killed the
next day. The monk remained
calm and silent. One of his
disciples, shocked by the monk's
calmness, asked him, 'Do you
realize you have only 24 hours to
live? Are you not afraid?' The
monk replied calmly, 'I have
lived, and therefore I have no
fear of dying.'
If you look deep inside, you will
realize that most of us are not
afraid of dying, but we are afraid
that we haven't lived our lives
enough. We are afraid that we
have lived a pseudo life. We feel
a deep unexplainable regret
about the whole thing. We feel
we have not lived as we wanted
to live. We don't feel fulfilled –
and there starts the fear of death
HOW TO GO BEYOND FEAR?
When you start loving
beyond names and forms,
you are not losing anything,
you are only losing what you
are not; the illusion which
you need to lose. What you
have gained is reality. So just
have faith and don't fear
when you find yourself
merging with the whole.
HOW TO GO BEYOND FEAR?
Understand: Fear is always
imprisoning, while love is always
liberating. But unless society instills
fear into you, you will not listen to
it and so it instills fear in you
through all possible means –
through insecurity, rules,
regulations, worship etc.
DO YOU SUFFER FROM THE FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN?
Fear of the unknown is nothing
but the fear that we have of
darkness, of ghosts and spirits, of
God and finally of our own
death
Never fear to look. The moment
you fear to look, you are only
creating more fear because it
becomes more unknown to you.
When we talk about fear of the
unknown, fear of spirits and
ghosts is very common. There is
no need to fear them at all. Just
understand that spirits and ghosts
are much less powerful than we
are. We give them much more
power than they naturally would
have and let them control our
fears. There starts the problem..
Understand: Fear is always
imprisoning, while love is
always liberating. But unless
society instills fear into you,
you will not listen to it and
so it instills fear in you
through all possible means –
through insecurity, rules,
regulations,
WHAT DOES FEAR OF
DARKNESS MEAN?
Fear of darkness is also fear of
the unknown. Fear of darkness is
nothing but the fear of death.
The same garden in your house,
which you walk in at daytime,
will you walk in at nighttime?
No! You are afraid! Why? You
know the boundaries of your
garden well, yet why are you
afraid? You are afraid not
because of your garden but
because of the darkness
FEAR ARISES AFTER SUNSET
by the time it becomes "Sandhya"
evening sunset, the Swadishtana will
become active asking for rest and
feeling insecure. That is why
evening time literally brings life, to
fear patterns. that is why you should
only do completion and fall asleep.
evening when the fear
starts raising be active, do
something very creative and active,
like working, doing some action,
some voluntary services or some
puja, or some chanting, some Homa.
HOW TO GO BEYOND THE
FEAR OF CHANGE?
If your cognition is established in
the truth 'change' happens in life
continuously then you are in the
most stable place on the Planet
Earth. Because the effects of the
change happen inside your inner
space that makes you afraid of
change. The effects of change
inside you makes you afraid. The
fear of incompletions you need
to go through during every
change puts you in a space that
you are afraid of even change!
But without change, it is not just
that you are going to be happy
with your life. Peace brings
boredom!
WHAT CAUSES FEAR?
The state of fear can be born in
you only when you are
inauthentic. Every time
inauthenticity is allowed to live
in you, it leaves powerful fear in
you.
Inauthenticity makes postponing,
procrastination as a pattern in
you. Postponing as a pattern in
you.
Inauthenticity starts in you. The
first symptom of inauthentic is
postponing.
FEAR iS THE CAUSE
FOR PHOBiA
Never instill fear in your child!
Let him be free; let him climb
and fall a few times. If you
constantly discourage the child,
it can lead to various phobias
like height phobia, darkness
phobia, which can later turn into
fear of climbing, of making new
decisions etc. Just follow these
simple things, it is enough
UNDERSTANDING
HOW TO DEAL
WITH FEAR.
INTRODUCTION
Introduce the kids to
the topic dealing
with fear; give them
multiple clues so that
they can guess the
topic by themselves.
GOALS:
To make the kids
understand fear,
and how it affects
us.
CLICK:
To make the kids
understand fear,
and how it affects
us.
ABOUT THE TOPIC:
Fear is a deeper dimension of worry. Fear becomes only possible when we have negative thoughts. We cannot have anything like happy fear. Anger and pain is related to fear. Fear can even destroy life. It is possible to face fear without fear. A person who we call courageous s not one without fear but one has learnt to face fear without fear. Fear is not good or bad. Fear is life energy which exists in us. Fear is a form of energy inside us.
That is why it cannot be
destroyed. 'Fight or flight
response'. Whenever you are
facing a survival threat, you will
see your fear rising and the
adrenaline release happening in
your body.
That adrenaline release gives you
so much of energy that you can
almost fly. We call it the 'fight
or flight' response either you
face the fear and fight or you run
away. Whenever our adrenal
gland is working it shuts down
the other systems. Pure fear
helps in survival and it is
spontaneous. Fear is the fight
between in oneself verses the
negative idea about the future.
When fear is not
directed towards any
particular event or
object in general it
becomes a contraction
and an unknown black
hole. It is not the object
we fear about it is only
the idea about the
object which makes us
afraid. When we change
our idea to a positive
one, we can avoid fear.
ART OF THE DAY
ART OF THE DAY:
DRAWING IONELINESS
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Paper, sketch pen or pencil.
PROCEDURE Give each child the materials and ask the children to imagine loneliness. Encourage the children to depict loneliness in the pictorial format. Each one is given a turn to express what they have drawn about loneliness. Ask them to visualize a scary thing and depict it in funny fashion.
Interpretation: Loneliness creates fear in us but when we understand that it is only a thought in the mind we can overcome fear. When we understand the whole cosmos is with us we will never feel alone. When we believe the cosmos takes care of us we will never feel fear.
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:
CHALK SCRIbBLING - FEAR
MATERIALS NEEDED: Colored chalk, White paper or floor surface.
PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION: We are going to remove fear from our lives and hearts.
ACTIVITY: Use the chalk to scribble furiously on the floor. If they take their hand off from the floor remove the chalk. The idea is to scribble in one go with all their fear and energy until the whole piece of chalk is gone into dust. After the children finish ask them how they feel. It is like a stress reliever, it leaves them feeling empty and free of fear.
DiMENSiONS OF FEAR
UNDERSTANDING THE DIMENSIONS OF FEAR
INTRODUCTION
Review the previous
day's topic and talk
about fear strokes,
and about
overcoming fears..
GOALS:
Make the kids
aware of fear
strokes, and how
to overcome fear.
CLICK:
Fear leads to anger.
ABOUT THE TOPIC:
FEAR LEADS TO ANGER:
When we have anger we lose the power in ourselves and we fail to understand that we have a problem. By being aware of the fact that everything is uspicious we can overcome anger. Fear is the passive form of the energy while anger is he active expression. It is said that we undergo ix to twelve fear strokes very day and night, both in dreams and also in wakefulness. Fear strokes originate from unconsciousness
When they are viewed with
awareness and consciousness,
they can be substantially reduced.
You must understand it is OK to
fail, to lose something learn
from that to be more aware.
What are fear strokes?
For example: you are walking in
the garden in the dark, and you
see a coil of rope. You start
shivering, imagining it to be
snake. That sudden shock you
get before realizing it is just a
rope not a snake is what is called
a fear stroke. A fear stroke is like
shaking a rose plant from its
roots. Every fear can be used as a
door to enlightenment.
If you are experiencing
too many fears in your
life and if you know the
right technique all
those fears can become
doors and you can be
liberated. Otherwise all
the fears are like walls.
All you need to do is,
every time you feel fear,
do not lose confidence.
If you are courageous
enough to face the fear,
it can lead you to
liberation.
Fear strokes are short
spikes of fear. Fear strokes
weaken the immune
system.They release
depression — inducing
chemicals and even
accelerate our ageing
process. Fear can be
changed to fearlessness
and intelligence out of
pure awareness
Anything suppressed
only takes up another
form. It doesn't set
uprooted totally. So
suppression is not the
way to overcome fear.
Awareness is the way.
In fact if you suppress
fear, you are missing
the chance of
overcoming it. Having
fear is natural. But
connecting the fear to
an object is societal.
ART OF THE DAY
ART OF THE DAY:
SCARY PICTURE DRAWING OR COLORING.
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Color crayons, scary picture
PROCEDURE Give each child a scary picture and ask them to color the picture with different color crayons
Interpretation: Let them visualize the scary thing and ask them how they feel , what is going on in them. Where do they feel the fear in their body?
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:
PAPER CHAIN LINKING THOUGHTS
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Strips of paper, stapler, colored pencils
PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION:
Gather the materials together.
DISCUSSION:
We have many thoughts that are so different and unrelated. Sometimes, our thoughts go together, but when you stop to analyze your thoughts, you will see how bizarre they really are.
You will be thinking. "Oh, I am feeling so sad and lonely, I wish I had a new toy to play with, wish I had this thing or that, look at that dog crossing the street with bone in his mouth". We can stop and write down what thoughts are in our head, and instead do something constructive, instead of wasting our time as it is of no help to anybody
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:
PAPER CHAIN LINKING THOUGHTS
ACTIVITY: Give each person strips of paper and have them write down immediate thoughts that come to mind, we are always thinking! Take the thoughts and attach them together,linking them up to form a chain.
