Dennis Merritt Jones: The Anatomy of Fear
"Driven by fear, people run for security to mountains and forests, to sacred spots and shrines. But none of these can be a safe refuge, because they cannot free the mind from fear." ~ The Dhammapada
Have you heard this acronym for F.E.A.R.?: False Evidence Appearing Real. Well, I have another one for you: Forget Everything And Run. Isn’t that what we often do when a fear thought appears in our mind, triggering our emotions? We turn from the fear and run as fast as we can. Sometimes we numb the fear with drugs, alcohol, food, and other such diversions, when what we really need to do is turn and meet our fears head on. In his book The Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav states, “When fear ceases to scare you, it cannot stay.” We might best understand the anatomy of fear by first dissecting it and seeing it for what it is and what it is not.
Where does fear originate? At first, it might appear that fear comes from the very thing we are fearing, be it a threat of physical harm, a scary prognosis from a doctor, or so on. The reality is, fear can’t come from outside of us--fear is a feeling that wells up inside us as a reaction to an outer stimulus that comes from a concern about the loss of something. The stimulus could be the fear of losing a job, a reputation, a material possession, or _________ (fill in the blank). It might even be a fear of the ultimate loss: a loss of the life of a loved one or even our own. In fact, we could say that all fear is attached to the death or the demise of something or someone we don’t want to lose.
Perhaps that to which we cling the most tightly, fearing the most of losing is what causes the greatest pain and suffering. If there is one thing I have learned as I followed my own spiritual path is that we come into this life without any possessions and, irrespective of who or what we may be fearfully hanging on to, we can’t take it or them with us when we leave. Their is great wisdom to be found in poet Don Blanding’s words when he wrote,“Because there is no desire to possess, there is no fear of losing -- we live in an anticipation of life, not in dread of death.”
Much of our fear originates in our mind because, try as we may, we can’t control tomorrow. As we spiritually evolve we automatically loosen our grasp (death-grip) on that which we want most to possess or control and, as a result, the fear attached to its loss dissolves as well. Even our worst fears can be mitigated by our awareness of our oneness with the Source of all life, all good. Fear is the offspring of the imagined belief that somehow we could possibly be separated from our Source, which is an impossibility.
Fear is a great messenger to get our attention and can even serve us well in certain circumstances but it has no life of its own other than that which we choose to give it. As we call forth the awareness of Infinite Presence as our sole Source, we in turn take back all the power we have bestowed on that fear. When fear ceases to scare us, we can then watch it disappear into the nothingness from which it came. Fear knocked at the door and faith answered...no one was there.
Peace, Dennis
P.S. For those of you who read "Science of Mind" Magazine, I will have a featured article in the February issue titled, "Mindful Living - The Art of Remembering to Remember." I hope you'll take time to read the article!
*** Please feel free to forward this to those you care about ***
* Join Dennis at his annual Mindfulness & Meditation Retreat on April 10th!
* A new Sacred Journey to Thailand with Dennis scheduled for November 2010
* To subscribe free to Dennis’ weekly MindfulPurpose eMessage
GO TO:
Copyright 2010 ~ New Reality Press ~ All rights reserved
Have you heard this acronym for F.E.A.R.?: False Evidence Appearing Real. Well, I have another one for you: Forget Everything And Run. Isn’t that what we often do when a fear thought appears in our mind, triggering our emotions? We turn from the fear and run as fast as we can. Sometimes we numb the fear with drugs, alcohol, food, and other such diversions, when what we really need to do is turn and meet our fears head on. In his book The Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav states, “When fear ceases to scare you, it cannot stay.” We might best understand the anatomy of fear by first dissecting it and seeing it for what it is and what it is not.
Where does fear originate? At first, it might appear that fear comes from the very thing we are fearing, be it a threat of physical harm, a scary prognosis from a doctor, or so on. The reality is, fear can’t come from outside of us--fear is a feeling that wells up inside us as a reaction to an outer stimulus that comes from a concern about the loss of something. The stimulus could be the fear of losing a job, a reputation, a material possession, or _________ (fill in the blank). It might even be a fear of the ultimate loss: a loss of the life of a loved one or even our own. In fact, we could say that all fear is attached to the death or the demise of something or someone we don’t want to lose.
Perhaps that to which we cling the most tightly, fearing the most of losing is what causes the greatest pain and suffering. If there is one thing I have learned as I followed my own spiritual path is that we come into this life without any possessions and, irrespective of who or what we may be fearfully hanging on to, we can’t take it or them with us when we leave. Their is great wisdom to be found in poet Don Blanding’s words when he wrote,“Because there is no desire to possess, there is no fear of losing -- we live in an anticipation of life, not in dread of death.”
Much of our fear originates in our mind because, try as we may, we can’t control tomorrow. As we spiritually evolve we automatically loosen our grasp (death-grip) on that which we want most to possess or control and, as a result, the fear attached to its loss dissolves as well. Even our worst fears can be mitigated by our awareness of our oneness with the Source of all life, all good. Fear is the offspring of the imagined belief that somehow we could possibly be separated from our Source, which is an impossibility.
Fear is a great messenger to get our attention and can even serve us well in certain circumstances but it has no life of its own other than that which we choose to give it. As we call forth the awareness of Infinite Presence as our sole Source, we in turn take back all the power we have bestowed on that fear. When fear ceases to scare us, we can then watch it disappear into the nothingness from which it came. Fear knocked at the door and faith answered...no one was there.
Peace, Dennis
P.S. For those of you who read "Science of Mind" Magazine, I will have a featured article in the February issue titled, "Mindful Living - The Art of Remembering to Remember." I hope you'll take time to read the article!
*** Please feel free to forward this to those you care about ***
* Join Dennis at his annual Mindfulness & Meditation Retreat on April 10th!
* A new Sacred Journey to Thailand with Dennis scheduled for November 2010
* To subscribe free to Dennis’ weekly MindfulPurpose eMessage
GO TO:
Copyright 2010 ~ New Reality Press ~ All rights reserved
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