Spiritual Healing 4-Guest Blog by Dr Ferda Kaleagasioglu, Turkey

Evolution: Acting with no fear

“First say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do”  Epictatus

Franz Kafka, in “A report to an Academy – Ein Bericht für eine Academia” tells the story of an ape that has transformed into a human after being captured in a jungle and was brought to Europe. The ape presents to the Academy, how he learned to act like a human throughout many trainings. His only goal in this evolutionary journey was to gain his freedom in order not to live in a cage. The mystery of his success resides in his reply when he’s asked to explain how he achieved this incredible transformation into another species. “I needed a way out, and for no other reason” 

We have no way out. Evolution requires hard work on “Self.”

As a foetus, we feel safe in the womb. As a baby, we are protected and our needs are satisfied by our parents. As a child, we curiously start interacting with the environment to the extent we feel safe. We experience delights as well as boredoms. We savor these delights as long as we are not restricted and we dare to do. Our choices, in other words our tools for evolution, will continue boldly, till we hit the boundaries of other people, including even our parents. At this point, we learn “fear.” We either chose to obey other peoples’ preferences, to be accepted or not to be threatened by them, or we still demand what we desire, in spite of other peoples’ objections. Throughout these experiences, we learn to establish a balance between our gratification of our desires and compliance with the rules. As a result, we develop many defense mechanisms against challenges which defy our reaching to attractions.

Defense mechanisms form our masks. But we cannot evolve if we don’t tear off our masks. Spiritual evolution does not mean wearing masks which help to protect the frightened inner child from worldly challenges. Spiritual evolution is not possible by evading action. On the contrary, intentional effort is mandatory for spiritual evolution.

Maslow says “We grow forward when the delights of growth and anxieties of safety are greater than the anxieties of growth and the delights of safety.” In other words, when we are within the borders of safety, there is no growth unfortunately.

We must pursue the stages for evolution with no fear. Then, we must be aware of our fears. What are you afraid of?

Fear of failure or fear of success?
Fear of being rejected or fear of being accepted?
Fear of unknown or fear of knowledge?
Fear of being alone or fear of being in a relation?

Therefore we must be bold enough to recognize our fears. Unless we are able to defeat our fears, we cannot step forward. Mawlânâ Jalâl al-Dîn al-Rûmî says only we can harm ourselves the most, as in his following lines (*):

On Your Own

What man does to himself
cannot be done by any mortal.
This double crossing ambition can be neither grown by jealous ill will,
nor by wine nor poppy.
What man does to himself ,
can’t be done by typhoon, thunderstorm, rocks and mountains.

What man does to himself
cannot be done by any mortal.
Man cannot handle himself,
if a true friend does not hold his hand.
What man does to himself,
tipsy can’t do, drunkard can’t do,
tomb robber can’t do.

Let’s listen carefully to Mawlânâ’ s admonitions: Let’s chose love, self-confidence and hope, instead of fear and despair. Attaining self-knowledge as well as understanding and healing our fears without any judging and blaming, will open our hearts so that we will become aware of our innate gifts. Realizing our innate gifts brings the responsibility to present them to the outer world, to enrich and exhilarate the lives of other people.

Act with no fear,
Open your heart,
And always remain with love,
Ferda Kaleagasioglu

Brief Profile

Ferda Kaleagasioglu is a doctor of medicine. She worked as an academician at Istanbul University and then at various senior executive positions at multinational pharmaceutical companies. Her current fields of interest are integrative medicine, quantum physics, consciousness and spiritual healing. Her medical approach is “Primum non nocere”.

References
1.    Maslow, A.H. Toward a Psychology of Being. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982.
2.    Mevlana Şiirleri (http://www.antoloji.com/mevlana-celaleddin-rumi/ve http://www.semazen.net/index.php )
3.    Yeniterzi, E. Mevlâna’nın Kişisel Değişim ve Gelişime Dair Düşünceleri Journal of Rumi Studies, 2007, 2: 13–28.
(*) Translation by the author

Turkish version of this series can be read from July 2011 onwards in the Journal of "Spirit and Matter” published monthly by Foundation for Spreading the Knowledge to Unify Humanity (BILYAY) at http://www.bilyay.org.tr