Freedom From Fear
Fear moves through us, but it is not us. This practice is a journey through the layers of self to the deepest foundational truth of our being, where we can look and see the fear held in our minds and our bodies without being overwhlemed or paralyzed by it.
Transcript
Good morning.
Let yourself settle in.
Make sure you're comfortable and your body can relax and your breath can flow freely.
Notice the quality of your breath and without forcing anything just let it get a little deeper.
So you're allowing it to get deeper just by resting your awareness in your breathing.
Notice your mind which is your brain but more than your brain.
Just like your breathing is your lungs but more than your lungs.
Your mind is your brain but more than your brain.
And also not by forcing but just by allowing,
By placing your awareness there,
Allow your mind to soften and deepen in the same way that your breath deepens.
Let your eyes soften and rest.
Feel some space in your joints,
Shoulders,
Knees,
Wrists,
Elbows,
Jaw.
And in this meditation we're going to attend to the experience of fear and worry.
And as we attend to these,
The whole time see if you can keep your joints spacious.
See if you can keep your hands soft and your inner ears soft.
Your throat and your heart,
The muscle of your heart.
These are all places that carry tension.
And if you know a special place in your body that especially carries tension then you can attend to that and I'll keep bringing us back to these places and reminding us to soften them.
Often we associate fear with being afraid of something.
And that's of the mind.
The mind gets attached to an idea.
But long after the mind has stopped thinking about what it's worried about.
Fear stays in our system.
It stays in our body and it stays in our energy body,
The field around us.
And right now we're dealing with a situation where many people are worried much of the time.
And we're reminded to be worried by the news.
And when we go out,
Maybe we feel on edge that we might do the wrong thing and make ourselves vulnerable.
And there's a kind of collective load worry that builds up in the nervous system and in our field.
Maybe even as I'm talking right now you can feel it.
How it affects your breathing.
Softness of your mind.
Lower back,
Upper thighs.
The deep,
Deep belly organs underneath the belly organs.
Right along the front of your spine,
The depth of your core.
Can you go in there into that space and soften just a little?
You can imagine like a river flowing.
And it gets,
Whether by a tree that falls down in a storm or a beaver or a human.
There can be a dam,
You know,
Something that blocks the flow.
Accumulation of debris.
And so when we go into these places that tend to accumulate energies of fear and we just soften them a little bit,
We're releasing some of that so that the energy can flow freely.
And we're attending on the physical level.
Because it's the most gross.
When we soften and release on the physical level it affects the other levels as well.
On the level of the mind we can know that fear is not helpful in this situation.
Attention may be helpful.
Presence may be helpful.
But fear is certainly not helpful.
Worry is not helpful.
In fact,
It's counterproductive.
So we can know that.
But that might not be enough to deal with the level of fear that we're taking in from outside.
And so what can be more helpful than that is to experience fear as something that is enough and around us but not us.
Who is the I that is experiencing the fear?
Who is the I that feels,
That senses?
This I is solid.
I don't mean solid like rigid.
I mean solid like a mountain in a rainstorm.
We look beneath the surface personality who we think we are,
Who we experience ourselves to be.
We look inside and we ask,
Who am I?
Who is it that thinks these thoughts?
Who is it that experiences my sensations?
There's a presence that is unyielding and unharmable.
Vast.
Powerful.
And this presence is also in a constant state of surrender and openness.
The relationship of our inner being with life is one of collaboration.
Our surface interactions are surface interactions with people and with information and with the world around us in every way.
Our inner self is also interfacing with the inner self of all of life.
Our inner self knows its own goodness,
Its own sincerity,
Its own aspiration.
It knows the goodness of the inner being of the Earth and the cosmos.
The inner being can come into a state of resonance with all that is.
The deepest aspect of all that is.
The most fundamental aspect of all that is.
It can come into resonance with them.
And in that place there is no fear.
There is a surrender that is trust.
There is a faith that has nothing to do with ideas.
That's a knowing.
As I say these things,
There may be layers of resistance in you to what I'm saying.
There may be more subtle layers of resistance that are inarticulate.
What I invite you to know is that you have a choice about whether to align yourself to consciousness with the resistance that points in the direction of fear.
Or with openness to an experience of yourself as absolutely unharmable,
Indestructible,
Unchanging,
Peaceful.
And in collaborative resonance with the inner self of the cosmos and of the Earth.
You have a choice.
And the choice,
The possibility,
The options,
It occurs at a deeper place than the mental.
So if we go into our mind and try to sort all this out,
Analyze,
That's part of the choice.
That's the choice to align with the mind as the governing,
The governor of our being.
We can choose to go deeper.
Sometimes we have to be very,
Especially in the face of a great deal of fear coming from outside,
We have to be strong in our choice if we want to stay.
We have to be resolute.
In yoga,
The fundamental layer of reality is called satt,
Truth,
What is.
Everything else is layered upon that.
Satt is endless,
Radiant with consciousness,
Awareness.
And satt is of the nature of ananda,
Joy,
Bliss,
Peace.
The fundamental layer of reality is awareness and is absolute peace,
Comfort and joy.
And everything that resists,
That argues against that experience,
That prevents us from that experience,
That pushes us in another direction,
Is not the fundamental layer of existence.
It's something else.
Resting your awareness in this fundamental truth that is infinite peace.
Attend to your joints,
Jaw,
Shoulders,
Hips,
Wrists,
Elbows,
Finger joints,
Knees,
Ankles,
Toe joints.
Standing in the experience of yourself as fundamentally in complete peace.
Attend to your lungs.
Notice what your lungs look like from this perspective.
Notice what your heart looks like in this perspective.
And your brain,
Your mind.
Notice the totality,
Attend to the totality of your body.
And let it rest on this infinite,
Stable,
Trustworthy foundation.
Your whole body-mind system.
Let it rest on the pedestal of your deeper being.
Let all that resists release flow out.
Let it rest on this infinite,
Stable,
Trustworthy foundation.
Let truth,
Let truth fill your body-mind system.
Fundamental truth,
Fundamental reality.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Let all that opposes truth flow out,
Near and east.
Remember that you have a choice.
You have a choice about whether you align yourself,
Your awareness,
Your consciousness with a fundamental reality of your deeper being or that which resists and denies the fundamental reality of your deeper being.
You have a choice.
In every moment.
This is the nature of faith.
That which is called in Sanskrit,
Shraddha.
It's this choice.
It's the choice of the outer being,
The surface being,
The mind,
That which we experience ourself as to place its trust in our deeper being and the deeper being of the cosmos that surrounds and supports and upholds us of which we're a part.
It's a choice.
We have faith in something,
Because we always make a choice about where we rest ourselves,
Where we rest our awareness.
We can rest it in what we have coming in from outside.
We can rest it in the mind.
Rest it in the emotional body.
We have a choice about where we place our faith.
This is the antidote to fear,
Faith.
I hope that as you transition from this meditation into your day,
Into your life,
That you can stay connected to your deeper being.
Stay connected to the pathway of faith that connects your deeper being to who you experience yourself as,
As you move through life.
Take your time.
Allow your eyes to open.
Thank you for joining me for this morning meditation.
I wish you many blessings.
