Facing fear

“The thing that is hidden within, if you bring it forth will save you. The thing that is hidden within you do not bring it forth will destroy you.” Thomas Aquinas

What is the meaning of these words?

The thing that is hidden is that which has the most power over us. What is it? Many of us feel as if we are in the grasp of an invisible force, which is guiding our path and forcing us into directions that leave us wondering what is going on. We make decisions that cause us to wonder why did I do that? We see our friends and loved ones who, to us seem strong and powerful fall into destructive behavior and relationships and we ask ourselves why?

One of my favorite reads, Yann Martel’s, Man Booker Prize winning, Life of Pi, which is a painfully humorous sometimes, intense novel about a boy named Piscine Molitar Patel. In India, Piscine, tired of his name being mispronounced Pissing took it upon himself to rename himself Pi. Pi was shipwrecked on a lifeboat during a trip with his family and the contents of a zoo, from India to Canada. He found himself accompanied on the lifeboat by some flies, cockroaches, a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. The story played out until Pi found himself alone with Richard Parker. He was faced with his own fear of death, a death that involves being eaten by the Bengal tiger. He was in a desperate place and yet as his need to survive came up strong and activated his fear, he learned to train and use his fear for his survival.

The question that I feel we should ask ourselves is “What am I afraid of?” How do we handle our fear?

Each of us is afraid of something. The spiritual leaders who are trying to manipulate the world into peace, are they afraid of the consequences of war? The political leaders who are afraid to say no! What are you afraid will happen when you exercise that right to be true to yourself? We are looking outside of ourselves at all times trying to effect change in the environment around us. Why? I feel that it is necessary for us to go within and reconcile the struggle with ourselves and our fear.

This is a passage from Yann Martel’s, The Life of Pi, Random House, ISBN 0-676-97377-9. Page 178, Chapter 56.

I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary… it goes to your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind always… fear next turns fully to your body, which is always aware that something terrible is going on… Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There you’ve defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you.

The matter is difficult to put into words. For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: It seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it. So you must fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because if you don’t if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.

At this time in our lives on the planet, everything that we hold dear is under attack. We are not too sure what to do. We desire change, radical change from the status quo of dependency and limitation. We want peace and abundance in our lives but are afraid of the consequences of reaching this state. We can attain this but there is always a price for everything. Within this polarized existence, balance must always be maintained. We are aware that in nature there is always balance. In an old growth forest, in order for new life to exist, fire must burn away the old so that the new life has a chance of survival. This keeps balance in tact in our natural environment.

The new, requires the transformation of the old to exist, otherwise everything perishes. Our world as we know it is falling apart, there is overpopulation, poverty, violence, lack and limitation on the planet. These situations have come about because we have been afraid to fight for our right to be ourselves. We have hidden away from our own nature by trying to live in “love and light”. “Love and light” exists always. This state is what we are. We deny the painful, sad abusive parts of ourselves and this is the part of our nature, which is the fire of destruction in our lives and the planet. I feel that it is time that we go back to basics and look at ourselves by step into the dark aspect of ourselves so that peace, real peace can exist in our lives and on the planet.

Peace cannot exist, without there being peace within. It is not about “self-talk” it is about self-realization and self-expression. It is time that we give voice to the shadow side of our nature, bringing it out into the light so that it can release it’s hold upon us.

Each time I ask what can I do to effect change on the planet? The voice of my inner guidance replies “Find peace within, respect all aspects of yourself and you will see peace on your planet.” I am grateful to my guides and inner teachers for their continuous support and blunt guidance.

Please look within and create peace so that peace can exist on the planet.