On Fear

[Webimpulse]

Namaste all,

While reading more news about Hurricane Sandy (bad idea for someone with my level of anxiety, I know ), more specifically an article on how news of such supposedly Apocalyptic weather riles anxiety (this is news?), I realized something about Western society/civilization...and this realization is another reason I can add to my tally about why I want to embrace Hinduism.

Western society lives on fear. Obviously there are politicians who want you to fear the consequences for voting for the other guy. Warmongers who want you to fear others, period. Corporations that want you to fear what will happen if you don't buy their product.

But even those who are fighting for making the inhabitants of Western society into better people are still reliant on fear. Repent your sins because you should fear what others will do to you if you don't. Fear the environment and nature because of what you consume. Fear everything because you hurt everything.

Living in Western society relies on fear. Even fighting this fear relies on you being afraid.

Is there any wonder I turned Eastward towards India for the solution to my self-esteem problems? It seems like Sanatana Dharma is the only philosophy which says fear is bad. That hating myself and fearing what I do is bad.

When both the good guys and the bad guys rely on fear, the problem isn't whose side you're on. It's the method both sides use. And me, well, I say screw that (pardon the vulgarity). I'm going Hindu.

[Eastern Mind]

Western society lives on fear. I'm going Hindu.

Vannakkam Webimpulse. Yes indeed. I cut to the chase for you. Fear is such an overwhelming sense in the west. Death itself, and the entire insurance industry are two more strong examples. When this is the basis for an entire society, bad things happen on a planetary level, such as the arms race. Best wishes in getting rid of it on a personal level.

Aum Namasivaya

[Jodhaa]

Namaste,

Fear is an enormous problem in the West. We are quite literally worrying ourselves to death. Fear and Worry are the two obstacles that I have asked God to help me with every day. Each day I get stronger, and the anxiety passes faster/is less severe - but living in the west makes it difficult because the fear mongering is all around. While it sounds terrible, I avoid reading and watching the news almost entirely for this reason. I think the focus in news is all about the bad things that are happening. Yes, there are terrible things going on in the world and some of it we need to be aware of, but why not focus of the goodness too?

Whenever there's a positive news story depicted it's like a breath of fresh air. I think, ''Yes, more of this. We need more of this!"

Peace!

[Jainarayan]

Namaste.

I was wondering if anyone would bring up Hurricane Sandy and the fear it would inevitably engender. Personally I found it an annoying inconvenience (OK, I'm shallow ). Fear runs rampant; consider the runs on supermarkets and grocery stores for toilet paper during a disaster. I went for bagged ice to keep food cold in the refrigerator; in the store there was a line for the coffee counter, with one person getting nasty about having to wait for a cup of coffee! People were afraid they would not get their coffee. This is especially so for those of us who live in areas that are not ordinarily prone to storms of this magnitude. Oh yes we have had nor'easters and humdinger snowstorms, but this was a record-breaker. I am dead center in NJ at the shore, seven miles in from the ocean, and about 70 miles north of Atlantic City, which could have been rightly renamed Atlantis City.

I'm no superhero or have any special "in" with God, but I was not fearful. And no one has more anxiety than me; I've been clinically diagnosed with general anxiety disorder. However, things have happened in the past couple of years that have strengthened my faith, and confidence that God will help and protect, and dispel my anxieties. This time was no different. The worst that happened was that I lost electricity for almost 50 hours, and parts of my six-foot high wooden fence slammed down into my neighbors' yard. I cannot speak as to why others were so tragically affected by this nightmare.

As to why I feel confident and not fearful, it was further bolstered by the help I got in removing my fence from my neighbor's yard, uprighting it and flipping up an incline into my own yard. Mind you, I had surgery 5 weeks ago for a severely torn rotator cuff, and three lumbar microdiscectomies almost two years ago. I had no idea how I would do it, but only that it had to be done, and somehow I knew it would be. Who helped me? It was no one of this world, not anyone that can be seen with human eyes.

It was Lord Hanuman, who has been my patron in all my former athletic and physical pursuits. How can one person, using one arm and minus three lumbar discs managed to drag, lift and flip two eight foot wide, six foot high wooden fence panels without help? Without getting hurt, mind you. I cannot help but believe that Lord Hanuman was right there helping me lift those fence sections and flip them, if not doing most of the work Himself.

Faith in God, faith in God, faith in God, and faith in God. Even US President FDR said "we have nothing to fear but fear itself". Fear is a crippler and a faith-killer.

[Jainarayan]

Namaste.

...living in the west makes it difficult because the fear mongering is all around.

Even after the examples of bravery shown after 9/11, we're still a species of wimps because we're taught to be afraid.

[Jodhaa]

Namaste.



Even after the examples of bravery shown after 9/11, we're still a species of wimps because we're

taught to be afraid.

Even with Sandy, there are a few newsfeeds reporting stories of people coming together to help each other - offering water, power and a dry place to sleep. People need to see these more often because it shows that there is another way to react to tragedy - a more productive and humane way that makes the situation easier for everyone.

Giving up one's fear to god - that's what I have to do. I have to say, "God, I am not strong enough to cope with this fear, so I'm giving up the results of what happens to you. What happens will happen." As soon as I mentally let go of the reigns, a peace floods my system and I know that even if everything isn't going to be good, it's all going to be fine in the end. I imagine myself in Lakshmi's embrace, or behind Durga on the back of her Tiger. I ask Devi to save me from myself!


Peace!

[Jainarayan]

Even with Sandy, there are a few newsfeeds reporting stories of people coming together to help each other - offering water, power and a dry place to sleep. People need to see these more often because it shows that there is another way to react to tragedy - a more productive and humane way that makes the situation easier for everyone.

Unfortunately tragedy gets high news ratings. There is a gawking and rubbernecking factor. I don't know why we (humans) are prone to it, but we are. I don't see why the positive reports should be any less newsworthy than the gory ones.

Giving up one's fear to god - that's what I have to do. I have to say, "God, I am not strong enough to cope with this fear, so I'm giving up the results of what happens to you. What happens will happen." As soon as I mentally let go of the reigns, a peace floods my system and I know that even if everything isn't going to be good, it's all going to be fine in the end. I imagine myself in Lakshmi's embrace, or behind Durga on the back of her Tiger. I ask Devi to save me from myself!

I don't mean to give the impression that that it's an easy thing to do, nor that I've achieved some sort of enlightenment; I certainly haven't. There are times I start to panic, but then I give myself a "Gibbs headslap"



and try to remember that being faithless is a slap in the face to God.

[Arjuni]

Namast�,

My thinking about this is that death has become a sanitized and isolated phenomenon in the West, where the witnessing and handling of death is restricted to specialists, and many urban-dwellers are insulated from natural processes. Western culture considers death a horrifying and traumatic event from which people need shielding; paradoxically, this mystery and separation help to create a great terror of death (which is the most profound fear, and ultimately that to which all other fears lead).

WIth that in mind, "rubbernecking" becomes more understandable. Folks peering around police tape aren't looking for dented bumpers or smashed windows; they're scouring the ground for chalk outlines and covered human forms. They are naturally curious to witness something they have never seen, to confront their fears, to look at their own mortality. Likewise, there is a morbid fascination with the reporting upon such events.

Fear of death, pain, and tragedy is also logical, to my thinking, because Western people mostly follow the Abrahamic religions. These teach that God is unknowable, must be trusted on faith, and gives only one chance to the soul before judgment. A follower of this faith would naturally fear dying before having lived that single lifetime to the fullest, and before attaining the devotion and repentance that would protect the soul from destruction or torment. Hinduism is far kinder, in allowing us to directly experience the Divine, and to know, rather than just hope, that we are not alone.

But these are just my thoughts.

[BimalaDMC]

Fear of death, pain, and tragedy is also logical, to my thinking, because Western people mostly follow the Abrahamic religions. These teach that God is unknowable, must be trusted on faith, and gives only one chance to the soul before judgment. A follower of this faith would naturally fear dying before having lived that single lifetime to the fullest, and before attaining the devotion and repentance that would protect the soul from destruction or torment. Hinduism is far kinder, in allowing us to directly experience the Divine, and to know, rather than just hope, that we are not alone.

But these are just my thoughts.

I agree with this. It is natural for humans to fear what is unknown, and because these religions generally teach that God and the afterlife are unknowable, this becomes a major source of anxiety and fear.

Also, I find the various Shanti mantras, said 108 times with a mala, help with anxiety and fear.

[ShivaFan]

Namaste

I found this an interesting subject about fear, so I looked for any polls on the question "What do you fear?"

I did find several such polls, and since this was a search conducted using English, and based on the regional response of these polls, you could say they are reflective of "Western fears". Actually, no, to be more specific, "Fear in America"

This wasn't from any single poll, but looking at a whole bunch of polls and then noting the pattern. For example, if the response was spiders, I put it under bugs along with bees or scorpians. The Obama thing came up a lot. Death was number one, but I lumped End of The World with death. Things like "gaining 40 pounds" I lumped with being called fat. Things like " my business failing" , " giving a speech at a meeting" or "flunking my law exam" under fear of failure. Oddly, fear of dolls coming alive and doing evil was also high on the list but not the top ten.

For what it's worth here is what I found to be the top ten responses as of November 4, 2012 in America:

WHAT DO YOU FEAR?

Death
Failure
Bugs
Being called fat
Losing my cellphone
My pc, laptop or iPad blows up
Muslim terrorists
Obama gets re-elected
Aliens from outer space
My own government

... Make of it as you will.

My personal fear(s)? That Satay will ban me from the HDF. That, and my fear that a Canadian relative will come to California and end up getting mugged or worse because Canadians are too nice to survive with street smarts in many cases.

Om Namah Sivaya