No Fear of Oneself
Question
- How can we be unafraid of our own experiences?
Audio
Key Points
- The experience of fully being is one of not being afraid of our own experiences but has a gutsiness, an okayness in just being. With this fearless sanity as a ground, we can be more open and free within our experiences, whether they come from inside or from the outside.
- Because we know our monsters through handshake practice and that these monsters or patterns are limited in number, we can develop grounded confidence in our lives. It’s not like there is an infinite number of monsters. We eventually can see our particular patterns as clearly as naming the types of fruit on our dinner plate. This quality of profoundly knowing and freeing these patterns nurtures essence love. With essence love developed, we can begin to act for the benefit of others authentically.
- It is important not to keep filling up and reinforcing the hollow and needy parts of ourselves. They will transform with practice.
- The energy that was focused on inner self-healing now healthily shifts to the world. We can now share our light and love. This shift is the beginning of healthy human being activity.
- Young children must experience this light and love for the world to change positively.
- Our experiences of depression, anxiety, and addiction will change with this practice.
- If we can’t feel essence love, we often look outside ourselves to fill up the hollowness within us. This looking is always facing in the wrong direction. Doing this, we can get stuck in endless thinking and not feeling our feelings.
- Underneath all this thinking, we sense some fear, and we don’t know what to do. This feeling is what needs to open up with our practice.
- Feelings will often have no access to shape our lives, decisions, and thoughts. When we drop the thinking-judging mind that is mixed with hope and fear, it allows us to notice and be aware. Through this practice, we can re-connect with our essence love, our birthright.
Exercises
- Make time to feel the movement of energies between inward self-healing and when it shifts to essence love. Become familiar with feeling how they change in your experience, with different people and situations. When we naturally turn outwards to others with light and love, how does it feel? When we are defensive or self-cherishing, what happens energetically?
- One hallmark of fully being is fearlessness rooted in self-knowledge. Explore how fully knowing and feeling our experience involves an intelligent kind of guts. Rest in this open quality that is fearless and knowing, no matter what the experience may be.
- Out of your essence love and loving-kindness find ways to help others. Practice being with others fully while remaining in touch with your spark of essence love and fearlessness. Have middle way contacts with others: on the inside is essence love, and the expression is loving-kindness felt by others.
- Throughout the day, tune into the thinking-judging mind and see how hope and fear may be present or unconsciously driving our thinking patterns. Practice dropping this, once seen, and rest in awareness. Make gaps in the thinking-judging process throughout the day, releasing its habitual power.
Daily Contemplations
- Feel free, gutsy and okay
- Share light and love
- Monsters are few, not many
- Save some time: look in the right direction
- Drop hope and fear
- Just be aware, notice