We all have experienced fear. What is the definition of fear? Lack of love. We want to protect ourselves. Out of that need to protect, we create fear.
What is love? In ancient eastern traditions, true love is described as seeing the Self, God or the Divine, in all. This is a beautiful state to aspire towards, but the truth is we live in this world, we have our memories of hurtful moments and we want to protect ourselves. We create separation – “us and them” – and there goes the world.
How do we access that feeling of love that unites us all? How do we practice it?
It all starts with looking at our mind. Here is an example: at times we all find ourselves feeling dislike and disgust towards something or someone. When you see a person that you have had a negative experience with in the past at a distance – what’s happening in your mind at that moment? Usually we start justifying our dislike and our mind starts pulling memories of the difficulties we experienced.
Pay attention to your mind and how you create that story. Try to unwind it. Can you say to yourself, “I’m going to practice love?” You don’t have to do anything outwardly or try to start fixing things with that person. Fix it in your mind first. It’s a very safe place to practice. Look at the emotions that arise and, instead of justifying them, try to turn your thoughts in a different direction.
Fear, lust, greed, jealousy, hatred – these emotions have so much energy trapped inside them. The usual tendency is to keep investing more and more energy into that negative emotion. Actually those experiences provide a wonderful opportunity to practice. In your own quiet moments, just stop, pause your breath, recollect yourself fully, and in your mind, approach the situation or that relationship and try to unwind it.
It’s not going to change the world. It’s not going to fix that relationship immediately. But at least your mind is not creating and building the story. It may take some time, but ultimately, change does happen – and new possibilities and a deeper understanding and appreciation enter in. We spend so much energy trapped in anything that we have an aversion to. Can we try to embrace those things, even for a moment?
It’s breaking the habit of the mind. It’s not easy. It doesn’t give you immediate joy or satisfaction in the beginning because it’s unfamiliar. But real spiritual practice is unfamiliar. We are always walking on new ground and turning the energy of unfamiliar territory into a familiar and pleasant territory.
Living in fear is a miserable state to be in. But we can free ourselves from it by taking a little time to pull back, and in our own quiet and safe space, taking time to look at what is really happening inside.
Take one fear and work with it. Feel it. And then let the love from your heart come in. The mind will go to the past and its sense of entitlement. When that happens, if you try to unwind the negative thoughts, piece by piece, you will discover another strength that you already have.
Love is a very powerful medicine. With a little patience, perseverance, continuity, and a little practice every day, we will be able to move further and further away from fear and find that love within ourselves.
