by Tony Samara

We can look anywhere and find a vast range of issues that people are going through around the world and this seems to be a common experience for all of humanity. How can we begin to address any of them?

I believe that the major problem in the world is fear. Our lives are dictated by lacks and limitations which are based on fears such as the fear of not having, of not having enough, of being alone, of not being accepted, of not being good enough, or of not living up to our or someone else's expectations. It can go on forever. There are thousands and thousands of fears and they take up a lot of energy, and by energy I mean physical energy. A lot of it – far beyond what we realise. They also take up a lot of emotional energy, a lot of mental time and they dictate many of our actions.

I read that people in Japan committed suicide because of the economic crisis. In such a scenario, their reality changes so much and the fear becomes so immense that they don't know how to cope with it. It becomes too much for them and they can't see that perhaps there is a gateway to an immense change, to a realisation of something that couldn't happen without that change.
To be fearless is an amazing sense of freedom. It doesn't mean you are perfect but it is a freedom whereby you can make choices that are not dictated from the sense of having to do something because you are afraid of the consequences of not doing it. I find that children are fearless. They are more creative, more open and more able to adapt to situations very quickly than we are and they enjoy those changes much more than most people.



Being fearless is being open, creative and joyful. When you are able to be free in that sense, I think you open your mind to a creative knowledge and to a wisdom that goes beyond what we can see. I notice that people find things that they never thought of come forth and help them in a way that is very powerful. I have known people who have lost their jobs and I have worked with business people in that kind of situation – so I know that there has been a crisis, for sure, and a painful one.

Yet, they have told me that they would never have changed that experience because it has shown them something totally different. It made them reassess their values and their priorities in a way that allowed them to do something that they wouldn't have done before because things were going in a way that was somehow too comfortable.

It pushed them to the edge, and I think that is what letting go of fear is. It is going to the limits of what you feel comfortable with so that you can really look at what is out there and be open to those things that you discover. Most people find that they especially have fears when they begin to move forward, because there is usually something amazing behind.

Once you know that you are fearful, afraid, or panicking, the first step is to not be so serious. When crisis hits and fear overwhelms them, most people tend to spend a lot of time trying to resolve the problem using the old programs in the mind to try to resolve it. They spend their time thinking and talking to friends, in a way that is useful for a little while, but doesn't actually address the problem.

This is why, for me, the first step is to move beyond the fear by raising the energy inside of your body, and a very simple way of doing that is to move the body. Rather than sitting down, I would suggest you take up some interesting exercise like walking, dancing or anything that makes your body move, because that actually moves things inside of your mind.
Breathe. Breathe deeply into your belly. Breathe so that you can be open enough to see that perhaps there is more than just that old program that is coming up, and be open. Watch the signs around you. Watch interesting synchronicities, things that tell you to perhaps move into a direction that seems totally crazy. Even when your friends say, "Are you sure you can do this?", follow your gut intuition and stay with it and even if it fails once or twice or three times, keep going.


I find that when you totally trust a new situation, people come your way. This is what business people have told me. They have said they've met people who have helped them to start something that they've always wanted to do. People help, situations arise and things fall into place.

It has happened to me many, many times to a point now that I don't even worry about it. I just trust. I know. Things work out. But it is not the hippie sort of, "Let's just wait and see what happens". You have to actually take those steps. You have to take action in the real sense and not fear failing, which can be difficult, especially when you might just have failed in other people's opinion or when people criticise what you're doing.

Fear to me is not negative. It is actually like anger – it is a communication that has a deeper message. Once we let go of the superficial, there is a deeper message that you can understand and this message is that you are pure consciousness.

Even in moments where we suffer from fear, in moments where we are drowning in the space where love doesn't exist, when we have a really hard day, there is a part of us underneath – the essence – that remembers what it's like to be full of love. That remembrance takes us further than the space that forgets what love is. This is why we are here on Earth, to experience this love, this consciousness, and connect to the essence of who we are.

Tony Samara, author of 'Shaman's Wisdom', 'From the Heart', 'Different Yet the Same', and 'Deeper than Words', was born in England, grew up in Egypt and Norway, where he discovered Zen Buddhist philosophy. This led him to Mt Baldy Zen Center in California, where he learned the spiritual teachings of Kyozan Joshu Sasaki. He has also lived with shamanic communities around the globe. Now people from all over the world visit Tony for spiritual guidance. His main countries of activity are in Europe, yet, with assistance of the internet, he is attracting a global audience through frequent online interviews.

His function is as a spiritual teacher who encourages all to lead their lives actively in a noble way in order to realise the evolution of human consciousness. Tony Samara is a mirror of what is possible, a shining reminder of the continuous possibility of being human.
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Tony Samara Humanitarian Alliance
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Tony Samara's new book, 'Deeper than Words', available now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-3pm3WkZj0