What causes someone to face a fear?

[thenondualtankie]

Let's say I'm afraid of spiders. What would propel me to actually face my fear of spiders?

One thing I'm confused about facing your deepest fears is that they're literally your fucking deepest fears. What I mean is that even if I managed to conceptually convince myself that I'm going to face such a fear, I may well not be embodying any real desire to face that fear. Because it's such a deep fear, I feel that you would need an immense source of determination to actually be able to face the fear.

My question is as follows: where does this determination come from?

[Crane Bahnsteik]

Suffering. Eventually the suffering becomes so immeasurable that you rather face the fear and die than not face it at all and keep suffering.

[Terell Kirby]

2 hours ago, thenondualtankie said:

Let's say I'm afraid of spiders. What would propel me to actually face my fear of spiders?

You gotta first admit to that you are indeed afraid of spiders. Sounds like you have done that.

Then you gotta explore that fear, with two questions 1. where does it come from? 2. Is it legitimate?

If it turns out not to be legitimate, then you can proceed facing it. I would say the percentage of legitimate vs. ill-legitimate fears in the average human is 50/50.

[Moksha]

Welcome to the forum, @thenondualtankie ? As I see it, we are only willing to face our fears when the alternative is even worse. From the spiritual perspective, this is actually the purpose of suffering. The monkey mind has tremendous centrifugal force. It holds our attention captive, and we break free, realizing our true nature as Consciousness, by seeing the suffering that it creates.

[Batman]

You can gain motivation by clearly seeing that fear is an illusion generated by the false self (aka your character). You relate to some aspect of your experience in a fearful way because the false self is funneling the survival drive toward it's integrity. Thus you see the fear for what it is, and the object of fear for what it is. This usually requires serious contemplation or Enlightenment regarding who you are.

But there are a lot more relative ways to overcome fear. You can gradually desensitize your reactivity by exposing your false self to the stimuli that causes the fear in a gradual process. This allows the false self to expand slowly without much resistance (like pilling of a bandage slowly). You can also decide to just confront the fear face on and commit to that. You can meditate to learn watching your mind, and you can use substances that inhibit fear.

[Cathal]

@Crane Bahnsteik like this

for me i see everything as a projection of my mind, if i am afraid of something then i'm afraid of a part of me, when i don't deal with the fear it becomes neglect and then i experience the consequence as some kind of suffering

so why abuse myself because of an illusion? fear only is present because of imagination. a pain in your past is constantly imagined into the future,

to what degree you are aware of yourself will determine how identified you are with your thought and the degree of which you face fears or avoid fears. so honestly, i say fuck that shit with trying to single out your deepest fears. work on developing awareness, and you will be VERY HAPPY you get to face your fears, you will be so thirsty for growth that you will put yourself consciously into situations where fear will arise so you can let go of the 'I' that has imprisoned you

[BipolarGrowth]

Ayahuasca did it for me, and this was a way worse fear than spiders for you I’d be willing to wager. 

[Breakingthewall]

My parents were very fearful and since I was a child I saw something clear: fear is slavery. courage is freedom. I always found it fascinating to watch movies where people were killed, tortured, to see how they were faced with something so unimaginable. Courage always seemed to me something mythical, brilliant, wonderful, so I always tried to face fear, and I keep trying, if you don't, you end up being a slave

[Zeroguy]

Feeling  THIS   more. All this Love. 

Love is the oposite of fear. There can't be any fear. Fear is an illusion Love is real. 

Edited November 16, 2021 by Zeroguy