Fear sustains the illusion

A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2008 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

When we learn to live our heart and learn to place our limits and boundaries to channel our growth as opposed to sustaining the enculturated ego, then our fears will be the main obstacle that sustains the illusion of us becoming who we really are. As we live our heart, our intuitive guidance will take us into those new, unknown experiences to awaken our consciousness, so there will always be fears associated with the unknown. But we can’t fear that which we don’t know.

We cannot fear the unknown because we have no idea what to fear because it is unknown. All we can do is extrapolate and project our the past experiences with the unknown to what we may experience in the future unknown. In this regard, all fears are, a project of past experiences onto the future. All our fears are of the past and are only sustaining the illusion of our past identity. Fear is what makes us what we are. We tend to live our life to avoid fears and, in most cases, it is as simple as the fear of having to do something we prefer not to do. We fear not living our life in pleasure and that we will live our life doing the mundane - like spending our life taking out the garbage or cutting the grass. Fear at its core is just not being able to live the way we want.

Additionally, as we create our life there is chaos of creation inherent to the creative process. The experience of this chaos can be frightening and cause us to experience a creative madness. The madness we can experience comes when this realization begins to be seen and we are not yet capable of living the life our creative spirit wants us to live. When this occurs, our heart pulls us in one way and our fears another. It is our fear that prevents us from recreating ourselves and living the life desired by our creative spirit, thus causing a madness that can be experienced as a verity of ways. More often than not, it is experiences as a pain, anxiety, an inner longing or some other discomfort. Normally, rather then explore the gift in the pain or discomfort we feel in transforming our lives we seek to numb, suppresses, or find an external remedy for the pain rather than looking at the root as to why we experience the discomfort with life that we do. In this regard, fear sustains the illusion as to who we are rather than claiming our birthright and true identity and living our truth.

However, we look at it, fear keeps us in the cage of our own making. Rather than our creative spirit being free to express itself, fear of our past injuries and how our free creative expression was thwarted keeps us in a cage of our own making. We think we are protecting our creative spirit when in fact we are keeping it in a cage.

We don’t normally realize it, but we tend to live our life and define our life by pursuing what we enjoy or find pleasurable. We are not open to the spontaneity of the moment for fear it may ask us to do what we don’t enjoy, so we try and control and make things go the way we want and make the outcomes predictable, preferably in our favor, rather than to live in that spontaneity. It can be said mind create an illusion that keeps us from seeing the truth that is. Rather than seeing and experiencing the truth of what is as it is, we seek to construct what is to give us pleasure.

In any moment, the future can bring something pleasurable or something not pleasurable, something dangerous or an opportunity. In actuality, each moment is related to death and dying - death to the past and dying to what was - to be open and free to embrace the next moment. When we see an impasse we tend to think of something needing to die or a hardship, so we become reluctant to move forward. Or, the we think the next moment may be unpleasant and we need to go in a different direction. But that projected future is an illusion. It is an illusion to think that since this moment is pleasurable, the next moment will also be pleasurable and I should want to move forward.

Being open to the moment - a story

The normal man or woman sees everything as a blessing or a curse. A spiritual warrior sees everything as a challenge. The challenge to enjoy the pleasant moment and being free to release it when it passes and the challenge to endure and not resist or oppose the non-pleasurable, moving with it into the future. We really don’t know if the next instant will be pleasurable or non-pleasurable, so there is no use in fearing and worrying about the future. All we can really do is be of the moment, free to move with whatever arises.

There is an old story about a Chinese farmer who had a son and a horse that addresses this issue quite nicely. One day the farmer’s horse ran away and all the neighbors were trying to commiserate with the farmer on how unfortunate a circumstance it was that his horse ran away. The old farmer just said, "Could be good, could be bad." The next day the horse came home with four mares following it. All the neighbors were rejoicing at the farmer’s unexpected wealth, whereas the farmer said, "Could be good, could be bad." The next day the farmer’s son, while trying to ride one of the new mares was kicked and his leg was broken. All the neighbors began to again commiserate with such an unfortunate circumstance. The old farmer replied, "Could be good, could be bad." The next day the commanding general of the local army came into the village and took all the young able bodied men. They were all drafted into the army and marched off to fight the war, except, of course, the farmer’s son, who had a broken leg. Rejoicing with obvious mixed feelings about the farmer’s son being the only son remaining in the village, villagers congratulated the farmer on his good fortune. The farmer of course replied "could be good, could be bad." So it is with us, we really don’t know what that next moment will bring. An event seemingly bad can turn out to be good and events seemingly good can turn out to be bad. All we can really do is learn to enjoy the moment, releasing it to the past and being open to the future.

A call to adventure - the hero’s journey

When we are faced with fears, we have a range of options, from trying to avoid the fear to walking directly into it. When we act in a self-directed fashion, we engage the heroic journey which is told again and again in many different versions. The heroic journey provides us a context for the adventure. Although each fear is different and each challenge is different, the overall context is the same.

First, there is a call to the adventure, a fear to be faced, a challenge to be overcome. There is the need to leave that which is known to journey into that which is unknown. Second, we need to find our path. We need to call upon our courage to choose to stand for what we believe and listen to their internal wisdom and walk into that fear. As we face our fear, we are faced with the road of trial in overcoming that fear. This is the third stage of the hero’s journey and is marked by the individual having to prove themselves, in that they can stand in their own beliefs and understanding despite the trials and tribulations that may be presented and endured. The fourth phase of the journey is being between two worlds. We have left the past where our fear kept us captive and we have not yet fully come to live in the new broader, less limited world without our fear. In this phase we may still be a little disoriented, and are only regaining balance, as the load we are carrying in life has shifted without the burden of this fear. The final phase of the journey is the return. Bringing back into our life the awareness that we are no longer controlled by the fear but free to live as we choose. It is living in new found life to continue to go beyond our limits and boundaries incorporating what we have learned into our awareness and understanding.

Understanding fear and how we create

Fear in any form is an impediment to the free flow of the universe and limits and restricts our ability to maneuver in life. In addition to limiting options, fears and worrying about fears drain significant emotional energy that otherwise could be available to manifest our desires and intentions. There are many different kinds of fears and one cannot possibly address all the types and all the potential circumstances. Additionally, we are not concerned with providing particular solutions to resolving our fears, but are only interested in providing a few key general principles that can be useful in learning to live the heart.

In dealing with our fears, one of the first things we need to do is to look at the fear and understand if that fear has the potential to cause real harm or injury and, if it does, see how we can mitigate the potential effects. Frequently, because the fear exists, we don’t really look at the fear, but shy away with out giving it even a cursory overview. This is why it is so essential to face the fear at all levels. Some fears when they are brought into our focus and awareness can be mitigated, and sometimes even removed just by looking at them. For example, as we have said before, if you need to look over the edge of a cliff and fear you will fall off, you only need to tie yourself to a rope that is firmly secured and the fear has been mitigated. Now, if you are also afraid of heights, well, that is another fear appearing in conjunction with the fear of falling and the rope will do little to mitigate the fear of heights. However, in focusing on the fear and coming to the realization that there may actually be two fears related to the same issue - standing on the edge of a cliff - one can begin to resolve each of them with the appropriate methodologies. However, the fear must be faced in order to even begin to characterize it.

In living our heart as reflected in the intention for our life, many of the fears are not quite as dramatic as physically falling of a cliff, but psychologically the equivalent may be presented. The fears related to living the intention for our life may in fact be related to a required death of some type. Physical death may be required for a few who need to have the life experience of facing death with the reality that death could be the end result, but few are required to do so. Most are not required to die because to live the intention for our life because it is rather difficult to have experiences on the physical plane if your body dies. It is very unlikely we will ever be asked to physically put our life on the line for the intention for our life. In fact, the opposite is quite true. Our intuitive guidance will do everything it can to give you exactly what we need to be able to live the intention for our life. It is just that what we are given may not be what we want. What we are given may involve the death of the enculturated ego or the death of significant attachments that we have in our life. However, if we need help, our intuitive guidance will pull to us exactly what we need including bringing into our life the professional experts, counselors, or friends to help us to get through our fears. The universe wants us to live the intention for our life. We only need to set the intention with our current mind to do so.

In addition to fears limiting our options, we stated that fears and worrying about fears will drain significant emotional energy that otherwise could be available to manifest our intention. We need to remember that energy goes where our attention goes. We will create the circumstance that causes our fears to manifest because when we worry, we focus our attention on the fear, pumping emotional energy into them causing them to manifest.

We need to remember how we create our experiences. Intent leads to thought, to word and to the deed or the intent leads to ideas, to action, to form. Humans are not normally capable of a consciously divided attention. We can only put our conscious attention on one thing at a time. Although our thoughts may jump between several different thoughts in very quick succession, we consciously hold only one thought at a time. If we continually worry about something, our mind cannot think of anything else and we are continually pumping energy into that worry. The positive aspect about this single mindedness is that, if we choose a thought to hold, as in a meditation with a mantra or affirmation, we cannot be worrying and energizing our fears.

This, in fact, is a key way that we lose our personal power. We occupy our mind with negative or non-constructive thoughts like worry or self-pity and our emotional creative life energy is then diverted from constructive creation into the focus to manifest our worry or self pity. Now, while our conscious mind is worrying and putting our focus and attention on that which we really don’t want, our subconscious mind is following the direction provided by the focus and attention of the conscious mind and takes these thoughts, be they "good" or "bad," and begins to manifest them. By not being in touch with our thinking and mindful of our thoughts, we continually pump energy into that which we don’t want because we continue to focus and worry about it. When we are unaware and unmindful we are unknowingly using the creative process to create those very things that we do not want. This is why it is essential to become mindful and remove all worry, doubt and self-pity, because they rob us of our creative energy and create that which we do not want.

Since we are dealing with fears, there will be some pain somewhere, sometime. It is a very rare individual who doesn’t hold on to something, somewhere, such that they do not manifest pain in their life. We must remember that all things come from the Source and everything that happens is of the Source. There are really no obstacles and fears because they are only part of the plan for human physical experience. Just because we personally don’t like something does not mean that creator/Creator is not behind it. It is our problem if we don’t like it, not the creator’s/Creator’s problem. We are here to live in and move within our individual mystery and not necessarily to understand or solve the mystery. However, we must also point out, that does not mean we will not be granted understanding of the mystery at some point in our evolution if we ask for it.

There appear to be three key things that tend to keep people confined and that prevents them from living their life with a passion and enthusiasm for life. They are: sustaining the enculturated ego and the fear of the death of the enculturated ego; desires not based on the needs of the heart and not making free conscious choices relative to the heart; and fear. Normally we must to get past all three, otherwise our life is driven by one or more of the three. Although we create three things for ease of discussion, in reality, they all reduce to one and it is fear and nothing else. It is fear that sustains the illusion. Fears are the limits and boundaries that keep us from living in that world of no limits and boundaries. Fear keeps us from that world where we live with the spontaneity of the child, with the magical, mystical and mysterious. If we have no fears, we have no limits or boundaries. However, to get there the individual fears need to be removed or transcended. Or, better said than transcending fears is to simply out grow them as our awareness expands as we out grow our clothes from childhood as we move into adulthood.

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