Spiritual Forum

Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness - http://tinyurl.com/ltqrbcs

Here, I’d like to examine what some of our well-known spiritual teachers have said about fear. Fear’s obviously one of the biggest hindrances on the enlightenment path, and if we let it, it’ll stop us from doing anything helpful or significant while we’re on earth.

Most of you know by this point that we’ll have to transcend fear altogether if we want to thrive, and until we uproot and transcend this difficult obstacle once and for all, it’ll continue to influence us. Even if its influence is small and subtle, it can hinder us exponentially.

From my experience, I think the best thing we can do is not to all-out avoid or suppress fear, but it explore it if it arises. If we have a moment of fear in our mind, we can ask ourselves why we’re feeling the way we are; really explore the feeling in an effort to transcend it.

We obviously don’t want to let it negatively influence us or keep us from enjoying our lives, and the more we give in to it, the more it’ll hold us back until we’re ready to transcend it. Like everything else that challenges us, fear isn’t meant to take us under – in a sense, it’s meant to help us soar.

It provides the adversity we require to overcome challenges and excel despite any difficulties we face, and for this reason, it’s helpful. We still need to transcend it, however, and we can only do this with a proper level of love in our hearts and willingness in our minds.

Krishnamurti tells us that fear’s created from our attempts to mentally explore or decipher the unknown.

“Fear is not an abstraction; it exists only in relationship to something. Fear does not exist of itself; it exists as a word, but it is felt only in contact with something else.

“The known, past experience, is trying to absorb what it calls the inner solitude; but it cannot experience it, for it does not know what it is; it knows the term, but not what is behind the term.

“The unknown cannot be experienced. You may think or speculate about the unknown, or be afraid of it; but thought cannot comprehend it, for thought is the outcome of the known, of experience. As thought cannot know the unknown, it is afraid of it. There will be fear as long as thought desires to experience, to understand the unknown.” (1)

Attempting to escape reality by mentally embracing the unknown can lead to fear and unhappiness, he advises.

“… If you listen rightly, the truth of all this will be seen, and then truth will be the only action. Whatever thought does with regard to inner solitude is an escape, an avoidance of what is. In avoiding what is, thought creates its own conditioning which prevents the experiencing of the new, the unknown.

“Fear is the only response of thought to the unknown; thought may call it by different terms, but still it is fear. Just see that thought cannot operate upon the unknown, upon what is behind the term, ‘inner solitude.’ Only then does what is unfold itself, and it is inexhaustible.” (2)

In another passage, he affirms that fear and resistance are created out of our ceaseless (and fruitless) attempts to label and understand that which can’t be mentally grasped.

“The known looking at the unknown brings about fear; it is this activity that causes fear. … So your fear is really not of the inner solitude, but the past is afraid of something it does not know, has not experienced. The past wants to absorb the new, make of it an experience. But can the past, which is you, experience the new, the unknown?

“The known can experience only that which is of itself, it can never experience the new, the unknown. By giving the unknown a name, by calling it inner solitude, you have only recognized it verbally, and the word is taking the place of experiencing; for the word is the screen of fear.

“The term ‘inner solitude’ is covering the fact, the what is, and the very word is creating fear.” (3)

In order to experience the unknown without any fear or resistance, I think we should purely and organically seek it without any labels, definitions or mental hindrances. All of these things can create fear, and releasing any mental tension or pressure in regards to understanding spirit will help us grasp it in a real and pure way.

If we try too hard to define the greater spiritual experiences we’re starting to open up to, our perception of them will be skewered. We’ll dance with illusion every time we attempt to define the unknown, and only when we can give up any attempts to mentally define it will we experience it to its purest degree.

The mainstream scientists of our day certainly wouldn’t like the unknown, because the paradigm so many of them are bound to is one of physically studying and mentally explaining everything in existence and proclaiming that which can’t be studied to be nonexistent.

They’ll learn the truth in due time, and hopefully, they’ll learn as a result of the influence of the conscious public, who’ll continue to actively raise awareness of spirit and the importance of releasing our mental judgments and expectations.

Footnotes:

1. J. Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living. Second Series. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1967; c1958, 9-10.
2. Loc. cit.
3. Ibid., 9.

Concluded in Part 2 tomorrow.