Hello and welcome to the session.
I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable.
You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
In today's session we're going to be looking at Frank Herbert's Dune series and in particular the litany against fear.
This is a prayer or a mantra or a repetition of sorts that some of the characters in that book use as a response to feelings of fear.
So let's take a look at the litany,
Sit with a contemplation of the words and then we'll talk through the implications and the real-world uses of the litany against fear.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear is gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
And once more.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me and when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear is gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
So in the book this litany against fear is used as a response to scary and fearful events.
As the plot progresses characters will intimately return to this litany as a way to guard and steel themselves against the events that are going on.
But as you could probably feel as I was reading those words to you,
There is a real-world application of this litany.
The first one is to use it as the characters use it.
You feel fear and then you repeat those words to yourself like a mantra or a prayer.
Almost every tradition and religion has a practice of mantra repetition or prayer repetition.
The idea being that you repeat a phrase or a word or a sound over and over again either as a form of prayer,
A form of contemplation,
A form of connection or as a way to ground yourself and well combat hard emotions like fear.
This is one approach that you could take the litany of fear for yourself.
If you notice that something is going on in your life,
A significant event,
Anxiety,
You're feeling overwhelmed,
Someone is saying or doing something that is concerning to you,
You could use this litany of fear as a way to guard yourself,
To steel yourself,
To refocus yourself,
To take actions to move forward,
To not freeze but potentially to fight back.
At least in the modern sense of the word which might be taking actions,
Talking,
Communicating,
Expressing yourself,
Etc.
That's one approach.
But I'd like to dig deeper into this litany.
I want to highlight a couple of things within.
Fear is the mind killer.
That phrase is evocative of deep truth but not just fear.
Deep emotionality in general,
Fear,
Anxiety,
Anger,
Jealousy,
Rage,
Greed,
Lust.
All of these emotions could be considered mind killers in the sense that they take us out of the present moment and they put us into a state of dysregulation.
Fear being a mind killer makes sense because we are no longer in ourselves,
We're no longer sane,
We're no longer able to make the choices we usually make.
If you can,
You might want to take a step back,
A moment of contemplation to observe your mind when there is a small amount of fear or other challenging emotions and just watch what it does,
Watch how it clouds you,
Watch how it overwhelms you.
There's something to be said about how it can take and,
Well,
As the third line of the litany goes,
The little death that brings total obliteration.
If we extend down and read into the litany of fear a little bit more,
I will face my fear,
I'll permit it to pass over me and through me and when it's gone past I'll turn the inner eye to see its path and where the fear has gone there'll be nothing,
Only I remain.
I like this approach,
It's almost suggesting the use of fear,
Or in our case complex emotionality,
As the meditation,
As the focus of mindfulness.
You can use anything as a focus of meditation.
Traditionally we use the breath.
The mind wanders,
You bring it back to the sensations of the breath entering,
Leaving the nose.
But the better you get at mindfulness,
The more you can choose to use other objects as the meditational focus.
Your mind wanders,
You bring it back to the sounds.
Your mind wanders,
You bring it back to something in your visual field,
Or more specifically your mind wanders,
You bring it back to the contents of your consciousness.
The idea being is you see it,
You observe it,
You let it go.
You sit in the nothingness,
Where only you remain.
When it says that last line,
There'll be nothing,
Only I will remain,
That suggests a sitting of peace in consciousness,
Devoid of thought,
Or with at least thought,
Not trapping us,
Being present just like all of the other sensations are,
But not being part of us,
The observer,
Consciousness,
It's all part of that flow,
That play.
So I invite you to sit in contemplation for the litany of fear once more.
I must not fear,
Fear is the mind killer,
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear,
I will permit it to pass over me and through me,
And when it has gone past,
I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear is gone,
There will be nothing,
Only I will remain.
So,
As we come to the end of the session,
I invite you to leave a comment or a question in the classroom.
What is your internal response to the litany against fear?
How does it make you feel,
And how do you plan to use it in your life?
Please leave a comment in the classroom and check out what everyone else is saying,
Because in this way,
They'll become a synergy in which will help to boost and elevate each other's practices.
I'm in the classroom every day and I will be responding to everyone's answers,
So I look forward to seeing you there.
This track was taken from the course Finding Enlightenment Through Fiction.
It's out now via my profile on Insight Dharma,
And I invite you to check it out.
