Face the Fear
I wrote in Fear and Tranquillity that Datta (the three-headed sage of Indian tradition) wanders freely without a care and is at Peace with the world once he has outgrown fear. But we can only outgrow fear if first we are willing to turn our gaze towards it, face it with our eyes wide open.
This concept, one of the 7 Secrets of Shiva, as Devdutt Pattanaik calls it, is not new to the West and reminds me of Susan Jeffers book ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’. Jeffers says fears basically boils down to three levels (1) the story (2) the ego (3) the belief that ‘I can’t handle it’. This reflects the three aspects of attachment Pattanaik speaks of; the story, the ego and our limited concept of us and life.
In the West we try to see beyond the story (looking at the facts), come to understand our inner frame (psychological makeup), and develop our ability to handle anything (re-educating our belief system). This is not so different to the East, although the language and intent is very different. In the East the intention is to recognise the True Self (recognising the story as an illusion), dis-attach (and so dissolve the ego), and surrender to our Higher Self. Indeed, Jeffers talks of the Higher Self towards the end of her book when she writes of Filling the Inner Void
Pattanaik uses Murugan, the son of Shiva, as an illustration of facing the fear. Although in truth, Murugan doesn’t have any fear to face as he is born fearless (pure Shiva without the influence of Shakti; Purusha without Prakriti).
In terms of personality or behavioural profiling, using DISC (a behavioural model, see my book DISCover the Power of You) this is like telling an S person (steadiness) they should behave like a D person (dominant). Thankfully, things aren’t as black and white as this. We are all a mix of personality traits and behaviours. Although they do tend to become fixed into patterns. The job of Yoga and Tantra is to break these patterns and cycles of thought.
This is really the story of Murugan who learns to balance the warrior approach with grace and empathy (an acknowledgement of ‘the human yearning for sanctuary and security’). So, a balancing of D and S personality traits. As we saw in Empathy and Darshan without empathy (in the yogic sense this is the practice of Darshan; seeing with empathy-filled eyes) there is no evolution.
Bringing it all together
Face the Fear tells us that no one can do it for us. We have to come to a place of personal understanding and social discipline (reflecting Patanjali’s Yamas and Niyamas, the first two of his 8 Limbs of Yoga).
It is only by working through the 3 Steps to self-realisation (which are the first three sutras in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra) that we can then be seen and see the True Self, ie, when our circular patterns of thought cease, we transcend our obstacles, and the Ego, and are restored to our original state.
Connect on Twitter / Instagram / Facebook
Message me direct if you are interested in yoga, therapeutic yoga, kundalini tantra yoga, tantra practices, trauma-informed coaching, spiritual coach, gay coach, mindfulness and behavioural coaching, Reiki or stress management robert.pinktantra@gmail.com
See my personal development / personality profiling book DISCover the Power of You published through John Hunt Publishing Ltd, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-78535-591-2
And for those who enjoy historical fiction, stories of underrepresented life’s, see my first novel Fermented Spirits published through Austin Macauley Publishers, 2022. ISBN-13: 978-1398437159