A hairline crack in the idyll

Würzburg, Munich, Reutlingen, Ansbach – some dead, some injured, many scared. Four outbreaks of violence within six days, partly rampage, partly religiously motivated terror, in places not far from where I live. No more do these things only happen to other people, in far off places, where you might go spend your holidays, but here in rural Germany. The news spell it big. TERROR has come to Germany. The idyll has a crack now, if only a hairline crack, undeniably it is there.

It is not fully overt yet, but there is a fear and worry in the eyes of many people. Something I had already noticed, upon my return from India, more fear. Be it in conversations with my wider family, strangers in a bus or café, opening the newspapers[1] or seeing the rise of nationalist parties around Europe[2].

Fear of ‘lazy Greeks’, fear of economic collapse, fear of ‘barbarous Russians’ and another Cold or hot war, fear of losing job and social net, fear of drugs and crime, fear of the Islamification of Europe, fear of ISIS and their terrorism[3], and of course, fear of immigrants. And fear of immigrants is the one that combines them all – “The strangers, the foreigner, the intruders, that bring bombs, violence, disorder and crime, take away jobs, smuggle people and drugs. They have other values, look differently, do not speak the language we speak and do not follow the same customs, and have no interest to be integrated, but merely came here for the wealth and high standard of living.[4]”

I have to admit, however, that I am scared, too, not of terrorists or immigrants but of the fear of others. The fear that leads to withdrawal, hatred and distrust. Nationalism is again rearing its ugly head in Europe, far right parties ride the waves of fear and hatred against the newcomers. I am scared of the reactions of the security ministers, who say, that it was a single perpetrator and that there is no way of protecting ourselves from them, and in the same sentence, in the name of safety sacrifice our liberties, calling for more surveillance and police control, higher walls and fences and closed borders. And scared people might just nod in agreement.

The chance of being hit by an asteroid or choking on my food is higher than that of a terrorist’s bomb finishing me off, not to mention car accidents and diseases related to our lifestyle and legal drugs. However, what I wonder about is not the fact, that we are disproportionally scared about the wrong things, but about what makes us scared at all? Because we probably live in the safest day and age in our recorded history.[5]

A reflection on fear

Clearly, fear is not a good guide. As Samual Taylor Coleridge has said,

“In politics, what begins in fear, usually ends in folly.” and I would like to extend that statement to all of life, not only politics.

Since I had a glimpse of Indian Psychology[6], my approach to fear has changed. Now I try not to be guided by it, instead I apply my curiosity to the objects of and the fear itself, and seek to understand. Clearly there is a squillion objects one could be afraid of, so by looking within and observing its movements, I try to get directly at the very nature and root of fear.

When I perceive an object interpreted as threatening by the mind, it leads to a bodily reaction – a drawing together, a tightness in the solar plexus, a narrowing of the eyes, a cold shiver down the back and an increase in the breathing rate. The object perceived and thus interpreted can both be external as well as internal, so even a thought or memory of something can create this reaction, not being there physically at all.

So fear is always bound to an object and by the pain or threat we expect from it. The particular ‘flavour’ of the object in us is created by the images or memories we connect with it. Thus, thought and its interpretations seems to be the originator of fear, psychological fear that is, not the purely instinctual body fear, that we share with animals, but the one created by experiences, wounds and traumas.

Further I noticed that, fear often leads to violence and hatred, against that which is being feared. Be it the immigrant outside or the aspect of myself within, that I fear, it is ‘bad’ and thus any means are justified to get rid of it. “I am doing the right thing after all, no? Freeing the world of this evil.” Too often fear leads to either sickness or depression, if the choice of dealing with it is suppression, or hatred and violence against oneself or others, and eventually even to war, if we choose retaliation.

Still that does not fully reveal to us, what the root of fear is, so let’s have a look at the Indian tradition. In one of its creation myths it is said that,

Brahman alone was. When He looked around, He got afraid. But how could He be afraid? of what? of whom? He alone was.

So fear is of another; one cannot be afraid of oneself, only of that which is seen as other. That is why immigrants make the best scapegoats for scaremongering, they embody the unknown, intruding and threatening of coming to and for us, that which we as humans are most afraid of. So I am scared, because I see myself essentially different to ‘other’ and with this created gap, I cannot know and protect myself against a potential threat. If it was ‘I’, how could it threaten me?

And that leads me to the third point: When I identify with the small existence of my body, my mind, my life, of course, I am afraid, for it is a dangerous world for small, soft-tissued creatures like humans.  Fear, however, also has the effect of throwing me back into the smallness to be concerned with, the smallness of this existence. Our smallness makes us fearful and fear makes us small, a double bind. Or just another hilariously paradoxical expression of this upside-down, inside-out world. So I look within and my consciousness widens, identifying with something greater, and there is less to no fear, because there is less ‘otherness’. As a dear friend said,

“You have to go within to find the world.”

However, there is another interpretation of the myth still. Best summarized in Søren Kierkegaard’s words,

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.[7]

To clarify it he wants us to imagine an individual standing at the edge of a cliff, being overcome with fear. A twofold fear, one is the fear of falling, the second is the vertigo brought on by the impulse to jump – the fear of realising that I am the only one who can decide to step over or not. The responsibility lies only and alone with me and my free choice of it. Maybe Brahman had a little shiver go down his infinite back, when He looked at his own omnipotence and his freedom to create or not to create, whatever and however he liked – even the most horrendous and terrifying thing.

Purpose of fear

However, it being there, there must be some purpose and use of fear: the immediately apparent one is to protect our life and well-being from dangers; not only that though, but also to protect us from our own freedom – a device of the ethical being in us to keep the most horrendous impulses and emotional tendencies in check – a motivational force, that by the fear of punishment through discomfort and pain, be it physical or psychological, attempts to educate us into descend human beings.

That however, I would perceive as a crossing of the line into the limitations of fear. Educating by fear might lead to short term gains like the subordination of the individual to the demand; in the long term we always pay for it though, guilt ridden or pained individuals make for good slaves but for bad companions, neighbours, friends etc. Also most of the time, the threat calls for a rebellious reaction, which we will make them less likely to freely give to us, that which we need. And even worse is the one that smiles out of fear – a dangerous backstabber or potential cancer patient.

Furthermore, by the creation of enemy images fear limits or blinds our perception and action. As the phrase goes, “it scares us silly”, and instead of perceiving the reality as is, too scared to look at certain corners out of fear, we live in our images and habitual responses created by our traumas and wounds. Taking into account but not being guided by our emotional upheavals, seems a safe advice to give, and to be able to do that we need to face fear. Like in a dream, when we finally, finally turn around to face the demon, that chased us all night, we suddenly realise it just melts away or there was nothing actually there. But it required us to look it straight in the face with a steady gaze.

Facing fear

So finally, I would like to share with you some of the ways, which I have found with a little help of my IP glasses, to face and thus free myself of fear:

• Curiosity, which centres me in the mental, and allows for some healthy detachment.
• Love and empathy, both for within and without, instead of judgement and recoil.
• Enlarging my identification, shifting my consciousness from the problems of my life to a larger frame, which makes them seem tiny, and thus helps me to deal with them more clearly and self-assuredly.
• Seeing and addressing the inherent Go(o)dness in others.
• Communicating my feelings and needs instead of coercing by demand, criticism and blame.
• Sensing the sensations of fear arise and fall away with greatest care and stillness.
• Calling for peace and silence and at times courage to face it.
• Trust in the Divine.

Essentially all of the above mentioned are different doorways to widen consciousness, and get out of the smallness.

A last key one for me has been a gift from the study of IP – a novel view of the world, humbling, positive and assuring. Essentially it is based on the realisation, that I really do not know, where this tiny fragment of the current state of the world fits into the terrestrial evolution[8] and what purpose it might have in it. Out of  personal experience I do know though, that the darkest nights often lead to the most vivid mornings.

It is soothing, because I trust that there is an inherent meaning, and I even feel a slight sense of relief, because it is a possibility of an opening of hearts towards those, who have been living under daily circumstances like that for years – be it Israel and Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq or Pakistan. Now we got a glimpse of it and I have a slight hope, that the understanding and empathy and support might increase for those living or fleeing the war torn and draught stricken areas of the world. It is not to demean or belittle the afflicted terror, but rather an acknowledgement, that I just do not know the workings of the greater scheme, and that is paradoxically freeing.

That helps me individually, now what about the societal level? For one, we can take away the power of terrorism only by no longer fearing it. Because it’s force lies not in how many people it can kill, but how many it can get scared, headless and over-reactive – a society destroying itself from within.

Concerning the fear of immigrants, I would propose an equally simple and cheap way of dealing with it. Next time you pass a ‘suspected’ immigrant on the street, go over and say, “Hello! I would like to get to know you.” Or if that does not come to mind, because you are scared silly, then just go over and say, “I am scared of you.” Most probably the answer will be,”Why, I am scared of you too!”, and already we got brothers in arms.

Uncertain of how else to reduce the collective fear, I work within and attempt to be one fearful person less:

For instance, a crowd is seized by panic. Well, it is always possible that there are one or two persons who resist the panic, who are not touched, are outside it: they can save the situation. This has happened many a time.[9]

Eloquent and insightful he is, and thus, I would like to leave you with Sri Aurobindo and a quote of his, on how fear eventually is overcome:

“We perceive the soul in all bodies to be this one Self or Sachchidananda multiplying itself in individual consciousness. We see also all minds, lives, bodies to be active formations of the same existence in the extended being of the Self. This is the vision of all existences in the Self and of the Self in all existences which is the foundation of perfect internal liberty and perfect joy and peace.

For by this vision, […] there disappears from the individual mentality all jugupsaa, that is to say, all repulsion, shrinking, dislike, fear, hatred and other perversions of feeling which arise from division and personal opposition to other beings or to the objectivities that surround us.” [10]