Words of A Wise Man : On facing fears

[Saketh Rajan]

Here is a tale from a wise monk from India.

The story goes like this...

Once when I was in Varanasi, I was passing through a place where there
was a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. It
was in the grounds where there were many monkeys. The monkeys of
Varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes surly. They now took it
into their heads not to allow me to pass through their street, so they
howled and shrieked and clutched at my feet as I passed. As they
pressed closer, I began to run, but the faster I ran, the faster came
the monkeys and they began to bite at me. It seemed impossible to
escape, but just then I met a stranger who called out to me, "Face the
brutes." I turned and faced the monkeys, and they fell back and
finally fled.

That is a lesson for all life — face the terrible, face it boldly.
Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to
flee before them. If we are ever to gain freedom, it must be by
conquering nature, never by running away. Cowards never win victories.
We have to fight fear and troubles and ignorance if we expect them to
flee before us.

Let us all face our fears boldly and vanquish them.

[J&J]

Hi Saketh,

Love the story. I've read every post in this group. I believe you
created it and were looking towards the spiritual end for a solution,
if I have that right. I've been going with this for 16 years and
started with medicine and doctors and such and found no relief. I
started looking into many things thereafter, including yoga,
meditation, buddhism, etc. Yoga and meditation made the problem more
tense, yet I got personal benefits from both. I feel the problem is
beyond a body chemistry issue, but body chemistry does play a role.
What I'm into now, well let's just say it's out there, but I too have
experienced finding my way into places I would have never otherwise
gone were it not for this problem.

J&J

[Desira Norman]

Great story...I did this at wk to a degree. People would not look at me, talk to me or anything. We had a meeting and at the meeting everyone was asked to tell 1 thing we think our co-workers would want to change about us. It wasn't completely Direct, but they all knew what I was talking about. I said I was easily distracted but I still have a good heart that I don't show often enough. I felt that was the best word choice for the situation. The next few days, completely different at wk. I didn't feel all the daggers, those who would avoid me actually started talking to me again, accountability has always been a big thing for myself. I felt I did that to some degree. It felt good. So maybe this will be a big turning point for me. I don't know I still don't push it and still will keep to myself for the most part, but I will always wear a  smile like I always do and be respectful of their opinions no matter how much they can hurt.

Much Love to Everyone,
D

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From: Saketh Rajan <saket...@gmail.com>
To: can't look into other people's eyes <cant-look-into-o...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 11:54 AM
Subject: Words of A Wise Man : On facing fears