The Path to Wisdom in a World full of Fears

Is it ever possible to let go of the identification with the body and mind completely? The body and mind have a strong mechanism to protect their survival. They have the limbic brain that ensures the quickest reaction, for example, when we put our hand on fire. We also have an emotional brain that protects us through the emotions like fear and anger. We have also formed a lot of culture-driven biases in the forms of rights and wrongs.

On the one hand, these defense mechanisms protect us, on the other hand, they make us limited. The more fear we have and the more active these mechanisms are and the greater is the grip of ignorance. With experience, I have seen that in a state of fixation, a person is very convinced of oneself. I found it somewhere on the internet:

It is like a person keeping the security guard to protect himself and slowly becoming a slave of the security guard due to fear. This makes life so limited and meaningless. However, in such a state of mind, re-establishing the connection with the true self is not easy. It is not easy for an alcohol addict to start enjoying the taste of milk. 

It requires a lot of patience. As we live with fear for a long period of time, we start hallucinating. We create a lot of mental stories that are not backed by reality. In such a state, continuous reading of good books helps a lot. We get to know different perspectives of the world from wise authors. These books help us challenge our own culture-induced rights and wrongs. They make us experience the relativity of these rights and wrongs across cultures and we develop the wisdom to understand the contextual background of all the rights and wrongs. That makes us wise. We stop judging people in an absolute sense. We understand that there is a background for each behavior pattern. We learn to differentiate the person from his behavior. 

Discussing matters with good friends also helps a lot. There is a simple logic to that. We can see the fixations of others and not ours. When we discuss matters with our friends, we develop trust over a period of time. With this trust, we allow entry to the friend into our inner world. He can see our fears and insecurities. So far, nobody could have seen these fears and insecurities because we pretend to be strong and happy. We generally feel that if we appear to be weak, the world will crush us. Slowly, we start living a life of falsity wherein we are outwardly very strong and inwardly very weak. When we allow entry to the friend to our inner world, he can see these falsities. Since we have developed that trust in the relationship, he can tell this straight to us. The problem arises when the trust is weak. In that case, showing the mirror appears to be criticism. Sometimes, we are so engrossed with these falsities that in spite of the trust, we do not gather the courage to hold the hand of the friend and come out of the well of fixations to the open sea of freedom.

With continuous efforts in this direction, we slowly develop an agnostic faith in the presence of the divine. This is a very crucial stage. We do not know what the reality is but we also know that what we know is very limited. This gives us the motivation to explore the unknown. We explore the unknown in each moment of our life. What is making the Sun rise and set at a perfect time? Who is making the intake of the food digested inside our body? Who is creating the baby inside the womb of a mother? Who is ensuring a regular supply of oxygen? Who is protecting the Earth each time an asteroid is going to hit the Earth? 

Our attention moves to explore answers to all these questions rather than being fixated on the fears. We want to unravel the mystery of the death. The mystery of re-birth. There are still a lot of fears but reconciliation with reality is quicker. With an understanding of subjectivity, our reactions are milder. We understand the contexts better. We appreciate the imperfections in this world. We become more compassionate. We develop greater gratitude. Most importantly, we start giving rather than demanding all the time. 

This brings a qualitative difference to our life. We get more happiness from the inside as compared to pleasure from the outside events. That makes us less dependent on others. We regain that freedom that gives us time and energy to explore this world further.