Lessons on Fear | Part III

There are many pathways that can move us towards "reclaiming ourselves spiritually, mentally and physically," from so-called "fear" and other negative emotions. I like the greek word "metanoia." One translation for it is "a spiritual change of direction within the mind, to heal itself." In this sense it's to wake up from the dream that some of us have been living under.

As I mentioned yesterday, in most instances, especially if the path is based on (spiritual) principles, it will work and change our lives. The key however is fully giving ourselves to the path, holding nothing in reserve.

Ruiz suggests several things to stop from living in a way which causes us to be a victim. One is to attack each fear "head-by-head" (which he notes is a long and slow process - which does work). The other thing that we must do is to "stop feeding the parasite and all the negative emotions that come with it." It means self-change.

Though I am partial to Zen and have a certain comfort with it, I recognize and value any path that helps to unify our hearts and minds. Below are some examples of various paths that I am familiar with that seem to make sense to me.

The Four Agreements | Miguel Ruiz
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
4. Always Do Your Best

The Eight Fold Path | Siddhāttha Gotama Buddha
1. Upright Understanding
2. Upright Intention
3. Upright Speech
4. Upright Action
5. Upright Livelihood
6. Upright Effort
7. Upright Mindfulness
8. Upright Concentration

The Five Secrets You Must discover Before You Die | John Izzo
1. Be true to yourself
2. Leave no regrets
3. Become love
4. Live the moment
5. Give more than you take

The Twelve Steps of ______________ Anonymous
1. We admitted we were powerless over _________, that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

As mentioned above, the goal is to live the path not just talk about it. Though some like to philosophize about practice, that's not "practice. That is something that points in the direction towards practice. It's a reflection in the mirror. We can benefit from taking what one friend calls "massive action" to change on internal GPS device. I myslef sometimes use the expression that "you can behave yourself into a new way of thinking."

You might have some ideas and solutions of your own. I'd love to heard your comments and suggestions regarding dealing with the fears and other negative emotions that can cloud our life experience.

Namaste'

Jaye Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO