spirituality 03.pdf

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spirituality - lesson 3: fear

'the scream' by edvard munch, 1893

what is this fear? why are you, why is anybody, afraid? is it based on not wantingto be hurt? or is it that one wants complete security, and not being able to find it -this sense of complete safety, of protection, physically, emotionally,psychologically - one becomes terribly anxious about living?

fear is a survival mechanism, an animal instinct that helps us stay away from

trouble. there are, of course, real dangers that exist and that one should avoid -standing in the middle of a road with heavy traffic for example. fear is a projectionof a perceived risk in our mind.

fears are not just related to physical reality but also include more abstractworries.I have read this recently in psychology magazine:

top 10 fears (in north america)

1. ARACHNOPHOBIA: fear of spiders2. SOCIOPHOBIA: fear of people or social situations3. AEROPHOBIA: fear of flying4. AGORAPHOBIA: fear of open spaces5. CLAUSTROPHOBIA: fear of confined spaces6. METOPHOBIA: fear of vomiting


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7. ACROPHOBIA: fear of heights8. CANCERPHOBIA: fear of cancer9. BRONTOPHOBIA: fear of thunder and lightning10. NECROPHOBIA: fear of death

followed by 3 of the most common and enigmatic phobias of mankind:ATHAZAGORAPHOBIA: fear of being forgotten,ATYCHIPHOBIA:fear of failure

METATHESIOPHOBIA: fear of changes.

the irony of fear is that the mindset we believe is saving us from risk can actuallyhold us back from living: this happens where fear acts as a way of protecting usfrom suffering. if these fear projections are not kept in check they can becomeexaggerated and seriously reduce our active participation in life.

everyone has the capacity to fear, however the object of fear is something that islearnt. this is why one person can hand-glide over the grand canyon and anotherperson can't even look at pictures of the grand canyon.

how we learn to identify objects of fear varies. as a child we are taught certainthings from our parents: 'don't talk to strangers', 'don't touch that, it's dirty, youdon't know where it has been', ... and so on. some things are learnt throughexperience, say a barking dog that scares you when you were young or asecondary experience, for example watching the film 'jaws'.

anet leigh in alfred hitchcock's film 'psycho' , 1960


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some of the strongest influencers of fear continue to feed us throughout ourlifetime. they can be an incredible force to the extent of engineering massmanipulation. from religions creating apprehension of 'judgment day' to keeppeople adhering to doctrine to governments controlling social movements,throughout history fear has been one of the most powerful facilitators of socialcontrol. it is the very fact that fear can override reason and logic which makessuch a compelling tool. a few of the illustrations in this lesson are posters createdduring periods of war. notice that instead of creating messages of reassurance

they use fearto get the public to adhere to guidelines.

comic book fear byeric rose

mass media / mass fearsocial control only works where people give up self-control and responsibility.however, eventually the cultivation of anxiety and distrust increases a society'swillingness to tolerate limitations to our freedom of movement. today it is themodern media, and those who work within it, who have the ability to define socialsituations in ways that have undesirable social consequences. these can beattributed to a few different sources. firstly, the distortion of public understandingof crime and other related social problems creates exaggerated fearfulnesswithin a society. this has its benefits for those in governmental control, namely

mass cooperation with laws and policing. examples can range from the effects ofextreme dictatorism and threat of death to worrying that if you don't pay taxesyou will receive a fine.

fear makes money.
http://www.erikrose.com/http://www.erikrose.com/http://www.erikrose.com/http://www.erikrose.com/


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lots of people benefit (i.e. profit) from the marketing of fear and there are wholeindustries built upon it. security services, defense equipment and insurance areall but a few of the thriving business which are dependant on a certain degree offear in society. fear makes us buy irrationally, paying the odds for contraptionsand solutions to save us from impending risk. fear of aging leads us to buywrinkle cream, fear of illness leads us to buy endless vitamins and supplements.and so corporations feed into and off public paranoia. 'trust brand x' (aka fear theother brands) is a common trick in the marketing book. branding is practically

built on the breeding of distrust in other brands and the anxiety cultivated byquestioning loyalty. to remain safely in a cocoon is not the solution in evading theperpetual scaremongering pervading society. to live in denial is give up thecontrol we have on circumstances that directly affect our life.

reality and delusionbuddhism categorizes fear in two ways - healthy and unhealthy. unhealthy fearsare referred to as 'delusions', and define a distorted way of looking at yourselfand your environment. if person has a fear of sharks and lives no where near ashark's habitat, this an irrational fear that is not healthy, just as fearing old age orbeing taken ill by a cold. these kind of fears paralyze any remaining free will

when control is already taken out of our hands.

there is not much we can do about getting old or dying therefore there is notmuch point in fearing it. you may however, fear for living an uneventful, wastedlife; there is something you can change about this, there is the ability to beproactive. this is what in buddhism is referred to as a healthy fear, one that ismotivational and encourages an individual to pursue skill and control in their life.

the belief is that if one is in control of themselves then there should be little needfor fear. to remove unhealthy fears one can ecognize vulnerability and then find away to avert the danger by removing the actual causes of all fear and, in buddhistterminology, remove unskilled actions motivated by fear.

the apprehension of a present or future danger must be evaluated through thecorrect filters as reason can be clouded by external influences that proliferatesociety and cover up reality. trusting in nature and the natural course of eventscan help with this. if we dont see when we are behaving against the laws ofnature, we can only rely on pain to alert us. maybe it is this pain that is at the rootof fear. a poisonous spider is not likely to bite unless being provoked / attacked.the fear of spiders can therefore be eradicated by the acknowledgment thatunless one actively attacks a spider they are unlikely to receive any reaction thatcould be scary or life threatening. simply trusting yourself in a situation that couldbe risky and believing that you have the self control to keep you safe will be the

soundest way of overcoming a fear.


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ack nicholson and shelley duval in stanley kubrick's film 'the shining', 1980

no one has 'no fear'

someone you may perceive to be fearless has just learnt to control unnecessaryfear and their reactions to it. now why is there fear? you have been hurt, haven'tyou? and out of that hurt you do all kinds of things. we resist a great deal, wedon't want to be disturbed; out of that feeling of hurt we cling to something whichwe hope will protect us. therefore we become aggressive towards anything thatattacks what we are holding on to for protection. do you only fear of physicalpain? or is it more a psychological fear of danger, of uncertainty, of being hurtagain? or of not being able to find total, complete security? is it fear of beingdominated, and yet we are dominated? so what is it that you are frightened of?are you aware of your fear?

you might say I am not frightened of yesterday or of today, but I am frightened ofwhat might happen tomorrow, in the future. tomorrow may be twenty-four hoursaway or a year, but I am frightened of that... fear of the unknown? or is it the fearof letting go of the known? the future is the result of all the expectations one hasbecause of the past. why should one be afraid of the unknown, when you knownothing about it? please enquire into it.

fear of letting go the things I have gathered - my property, my wife, my children,my name, my books, my furniture, my capacities - to let go the things that I know,that I have experienced: is that the fear? I might get ill, I might lose a job, a dozenthings might happen to me, I may go insane, lose all the things which I have

stored up. there might be an atomic war, there might be an ice age - I amfrightened of all that. now please enquire, how are you going to deal with it? byliving in the present!

I think about tomorrow, and the past has given me a sense of security; thoughthere may have been a great many uncertainties in the past, on the whole I havesurvived. up to now I am fairly safe, but tomorrow is very uncertain and I amfrightened. can I know anything except the past? the moment I say I know it isalready the past. when I say I know my friend, I know her in terms of the past. inthe past there is certainty and in the future there is uncertainty. so I want to drawthe future into the past so that I will be completely safe. we explain it, we give

cause, we think we understand it, and yet at the end of it we are frightened. Iwant to go behind all that and find out why fear exists at all. thought says,knowledge is my security.


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maybe the living system needs to think about tomorrow, this is a fundamentalrule of life: if needs some sort of prediction. thought is necessary to protectphysical survival. that is part of our life, that is what we are doing all the time.human thought replaces instinct. the weather is hot, I must plan to buy sometrousers that will be cool. that means planning for tomorrow. I have to understandwhat is to live now. I don't understand what it is to live now, nor have I understod

what it is to live in the past, therefore I want to live in the future, which I don'tknow, as I don't know what the present is. so I am asking, can I live completely,wholly, today?

spirituality 03.pdf

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