I’m Aware Of Fear That Is Almost Continually In Me, with Eckhart Tolle

I am aware of fear that is almost continual in me. My parents were Holocaust survivors. And in spite of my awareness of the anxiety and fear, it does not seem to lessen. Lessen. I know you talk about in any given moment there is never a problem, but when you are terrified all the time, there is a problem because you are afraid. This happens to be here. And of course it is connected to what we have just been saying. Now, this is somebody here who a lot of the time is in a state of fear or anxiety. It could be related to something in his past or his parents or perhaps other generations, to what to do. You can't get rid of being terrified, being in a state of fear most of the time. What you can do is not to allow the fear to rise up into your mind and control your thought processes, because then that would be a normal thing. When you are identified, the emotion that's there rises into your mind and then it causes you to think thoughts that correspond to the emotion. Fearful thoughts in this case. And then you would get a vicious circle building up between the emotion of fear, the thoughts you think, which are fearful thoughts, which give more energy to the emotion. So the more fearful thoughts you think, the more it perpetuates the fear that you feel. So to cut, to sever the link between the emotion that you feel and your thought processes, what you do is, and this is not pleasant, but it's possible. You place your attention on the emotion you feel it. It's unpleasant, but it's not going to kill you. A child will probably not be able to do that. If it's intense. It might have to escape into some dissociation or whatever, possibly. But an adult fear is not going to kill you. It might kill you if you allow it to rise into your mind. Because you might even commit suicide if you can't stand this anymore. But it will not kill you in itself. So feel it. And then you shine the light of awareness on it. And you may have to do that a lot. And at first it's not pleasant, but it's a burning up of the old emotion. And the only way to get rid of it is to accept it as it is right now. If you want to get rid of it, you can't. But that complete acceptance of what is, is actually the doorway through it. It's the transformation it. And if it's extreme, that can become your main meditation in life and that will become your main teacher and that will bring about your transformation. In some people's lives, there is one huge disability, one Huge source of suffering or pain that it could be a physical disability. It could be a city situation like being in prison. It could be an emotion like that that you carry inside that doesn't need to go, doesn't want to go away. So in certain people's lives, there is one major thing that seems to color your entire life and make your effect your. Your entire life. And seemingly makes it impossible for you to ever be free or happy or joyful. But if that one thing, if you surrender to it, allow it to be. And make it as a continuous spiritual practice, you need nothing else. That one thing will transform you if you surrender to it. And there will come a point when you are grateful that you had to go through that, because it will have taken you. It will be the greatest spiritual teacher. So there was, I believe, if I remember correctly, even Epictetus, that philosopher, who said, it's not the situation that makes you unhappy, it's the thought that makes you unhappy. If I remember correctly, he was also crippled. He couldn't walk properly, and he was a slave until he became freed. So it's often humans who have one major disability or some huge, huge difficulty in life, and that becomes their catalyst for spiritual transformation. If they can surrender to it, allow it to be acceptance. I call it acceptance of the seemingly unacceptable. Stephen Hawking's case, for example. I don't know to what extent he awakened spiritually, but he accepted the unacceptable. And so certain miracles happened. He survived. Nobody would have thought it possible. And his life became fruitful. On one level at least. Acceptance of the unacceptable is a great source of grace in this world. It's just a miracle, but it's an arduous. It can be an arduous process, especially for this questioner here, who is here. It may take a while. You have to endure it and be with it and surrender to it a lot of the time. And that's your meditation. You don't need transcendental meditation. Your pain, your fear is enough. Be with it, allow it to be there. And gradually you will notice the transformation. That's the alchemy of transformation, the alchemy of suffering into the old meaning of alchemy is base metal. There comes this guy who experiments in a chemical kitchen, and he transforms base metal into gold. So there have been, in medieval times, there was a lot of interest in alchemy. So that would be the material level of alchemy, but on a spiritual level, alchemy is the transformation of suffering into consciousness. And that only happens if you bring surrender to the suffering. This is how the reason why in India, for example, you have holy men, or also, I suppose, holy women who inflict the most incredible suffering on themselves for years. There is a man who stands on one leg continuously. He even sleeps on one leg. Or you might sleep on the famous example on a bed of nails. Can't think of other examples. But it's incredible. And the idea behind it is voluntarily embrace suffering so that it brings about a transformation of consciousness by surrendering to it. I would not recommend that that is the way for you to go. Life has enough. What life gives you is just right for you. And enough. And some of you might say more than enough. Ra.