Releasing Fear

We often ask, why is there suffering in this world?  The short answer is that we've forgotten our true selves.  We've let our ego take over and the ego has invoked fear, and in turn suffering, into our lives.  

The yoga practice of meditation and of pranayama, or breathing techniques, are powerful tools for releasing us from fear and guiding us towards a life of love, compassion, and peace. It is also, as the Bhagavad Gita reminds us, a release from suffering and a means towards happiness:

“In calmness,

the cessation of all

one’s suffering occurs.

Indeed, for one whose

thought has been calmed,

discernment is quickly established.

 There is no discernment for one

who is not absorbed in yoga;

and for one not absorbed in yoga,

there is no meditative state;

 And for one who has

no meditative state,

there is no peace-

for one who is not peaceful,

from where is happiness to come?”

(2.64-66)

When quieted, as through meditation, the ego is threatened because it is in this silence that we find our true light – that divine light that we all share and which is the Truth about our real selves.  The ego cannot work against this Truth and will be diminished if the Truth becomes known.  It therefore invokes fear as an attempt to prevent you from entering this state.  Quieting the ego and finding stillness in the mind takes practice. Meditation is a time to practice being in this space of “no-mind”.  When we can enter into this state of stillness, we release fear and find peace.  And with peace, compassion, love, and forgiveness come naturally. 

In meditation, we look inward. Asanas and pranayama assist us in this inward journey but it is in meditation where we become aware of the Self within, the true Self.  This is where we discover that everything we need to be whole does already exists within us. The unveiling of this knowledge can be frightening or even painful at times. Feeling compassion, for everyone, all the time, for instance, brings one tremendous joy. But it can also bring great pain. To feel another’s suffering is to feel your own, and this frightens us. We so often fear our own pain, our own vulnerability.  But when, as yoga teaches us, and as we come to know through mediation, we recognize and honor the Divine Spirit within us, we know we have nothing to fear because fear cannot reach the Divine and therefore it cannot reach us.