Q: Following Kundalini awakening, I am often acutely aware of frequent fear-arousing messages, which arise as “warnings” seemingly conveying that the organism’s life is literally being threatened. These “warnings” spontaneously arise throughout the day and night as sudden, deeply physical impulses, which could be labeled as “fear,” with no apparent connection to any content of conscious thought.  After hearing you mention the reptilian brain, could it be that these primitive types of warning messages have always been generated within, but simply not noticed until awakening has been shining the light of Awareness upon them?  Or, could it be that the nervous system is simply ridding itself of accumulated vasanas?[1]  Can you shed light on this phenomena?

 

 

 

First of all, I want to reassure you that that fear upon awakening — that fear as you said earlier in the question, “arising as ‘warnings,’ as fear-arousing messages of being threatened” — it is like a scenario, it is like a script.  It is like, “Okay, we are going to make a movie, and we have already been given a script.” That is what happens in most cases — you have to be absolutely sure about it.  It is almost a symptomatic behavior of that structure, of that set-up, which is about to undergo qualitative changes — radically — radically altering changes.  That fear of course, is a self-preserving mechanism.

 

You wrote further in your question, “Is that due to the impulses from the reptilian part of the brain?”  I could only say, “Where else can it come from?”  Of course it will always come from that part which wants to very strongly keep in check all of this immuno-functioning physiological processes, that literally root and contract Consciousness to this bodily living organism.

 

So that fear is universal; that fear is existential, universal, and also very predictable.  I don’t know anyone who had no fear of this kind; I know that some were braver than others, but in classical examples and clinical examples that I have been exposed to, I can see that almost as the pattern.  I must say awakening has to be real, so you must have experienced a real awakening, because sometimes people feel “blissy,” people feel elated, “Oh, wonderful.”

 

That is different, that is lovely, that is wonderful, but it is definitely that the process is on the expansion, and there is something going on.  However, that doesn’t necessarily bring in the element of fear or threat, because there is nothing being threatened.  The element of fear arises only when awakening is deep enough to literally — as you said very, very, very intuitively — you said that, “When awareness itself sheds light” onto the very core of existential fear that we have.  What are the existential fears?

 

Existential fear is that, “This organism is all that I have; this organism is my entire life.”  In the primitive form it has to have that, because that literally reassures that the gene can be passed on — and on and on.  If I don’t care about this organism, then I am constantly in danger of it perishing in the environment — and I am talking about those thousands and thousands of years back, so it has to be that element.  However, with the awakening Consciousness suddenly realizes that, “I am not bound by this organism; I am not bound by anything, because I am just pure Awareness.”  Just suddenly coming out of that, it sheds light, and literally stumbles on that structure where that immunological functioning and all of these inherited responses are now being brought to the surface — and of course that fear arises.

 

The fear is, “Oh!  What is going to happen to me?”  It doesn’t have to be on the mental level, and I totally see that it is not happening on a mental level.  Your question very clearly states that, “It is unacknowledged, subconscious fear,” because it is coming from the subconscious — deep from the subconscious.  It comes deep from that level where Consciousness has been blind to Itself for a while; dormant to Itself is maybe a better way of putting it.  How to deal with that?

That awareness itself — awareness of that fear arising — implements it and is accompanied by simply witnessing it, and is already diminishing its power.  I remind you of that over and over, that there is no need to fight that fear.  You may say that some of us might have another attitude; some have a bold attitude, “Okay, tear me apart!”  Apparently Ramakrishna Paramahamsa[2] threw himself at the altar of Kali,[3] and in anger demanded self-realization; he demanded it, he literally expressed himself in that manner that, “Now — or bust!  You reveal Yourself to me now — whatever is the cost!”  Sometimes this works, but we cannot muster that unless it is part of our character — part of our apparent personality, you see?

 

You have to work with your own limitations, so just maybe breathe with that — breathe with that; simply bring your attention to that breath which is absolutely — absolutely not at all — attached to the body.  You see, that freedom of the breath — the very meaning of the Hamsa,[4] the very meaning of that Soham[5] meditation based on breath, is precisely because that breath is the breath of life, right?  The reason that I am saying that, is that I know you are aware of what I am talking about.   Although it empowers the organism, it empowers this embodied Consciousness, breath itself is unattached.  Breath comes and goes, but it is not attached to anything, any sensations; simply universal prana flows in and flows out, flows in and flows out.  You are that breath, you are that Consciousness, in the form of that pranic flow.

 

Let’s go into the area of taking things for granted, and maybe making a leap of faith.  People who have undergone the near-death experience, they have reported precisely that — how the breath was carrying them to this corridor of light, and there was no fear — absolutely no fear.  Fear can only be at the level of the junction where that vital functioning breaks down that connection of the vitality — that physical vitality, that raw vitality of the organism. However, as soon as Awareness — which is all that there is — enters that subtler domain, then all of this fear just drops, and it usually does.  Even in the awakening itself, if you have enough courage to say to that fear, “Yeah, I’m here — what’s up?  I am not afraid because I am that Consciousness.”  That fear has no power, because it doesn’t even have a reality to support that fear.  It all happens in awareness — you see it all happens in awareness — everything is lit up by that same power of self-awareness.

 

This very fear arises because what is being threatened is the status quo —and rightly so.  Of course it is threatened, and of course at that point we feel, “What is going to happen to me?” because prior to that, everything was resting in the basket of our limited awareness of just this identification with this body-mind organism. We literally lived in the glory of that — and suddenly that is being threatened — brought to question.  What do we do with that?

 

Do we remain in that, “Yes, I would prefer to stay within the confinements, within the contracted state of awareness?”  It doesn’t even matter what we want for ourselves; if the power of awakening is strong enough, it will carry on, and that fear would have to be faced squarely — sooner or later.  So my only suggestion here, is to literally witness it face on, like with an attitude even, “Okay, here I am!  What?  What?”  Face it with an attitude of complete courage — and see what happens — amazing things usually happen.

 

As a footnote — I want to just mention that this also connects us, and that also connects us to the question before yours — from an Ayurvedic perspective every emotion and every feeling is also connected to a certain dosha.  It couldn’t be otherwise, because it is that metaphysical concept that interpenetrates absolutely everything.  Even our tears — we think we cry with the same tears, but no — there are tears of vata, tears of pitta, and tears of kapha, and they all taste different, and they all come from a different part of the eye.  In the same way, every emotion is different.

 

Fear is the emotion that is associated with vata.  Fear is colored by the state of vata, just like anger is an expression of pitta, right?  Or depression or sadness is an expression of kapha, but anxiety and fear are vata — so this is just a footnote so that you understand.  It is connected to what we spoke of earlier; it is not the main note, but it is just a footnote — and you know what to do with that.  You know where to take that.

 

                                                                                                      ~ Igor Kufayev, Online Darshan transcribed Q&A, Costa Rica, August 23, 2014

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