所有恐惧的根源——恐惧和焦虑的过程

原作者：
来源The Root of All Fears – A Process for Fear and Anxiety
译者星星小鱼儿

The Root of All Fears – A Process for Fear and Anxiety

所有恐惧的根源——分析恐惧和焦虑的过程

They say the root of all fears is the fear of death itself. I’ve heard this over and over again from spiritual teachers over the years. Other teachers talk about something different, a variation – that we are ultimately afraid of being nothing, of being no-one. Perhaps there is no difference between the two.

都说所有恐惧的根源是对死亡的恐惧。在过去无数年中，这种说法我从精神导师那儿听了一遍一遍又一遍。其他老师说的虽然不同，但都是大同小异——我们最害怕的就是一无所有，一无是处。也许这两种说法根本就是一致的。

What is the point of this teaching, you might wonder. So what? What does this have to do with me? I thought the same thing too, all those years. Now I realise that understanding this, and processing it out, will loosen any fear you might be struggling with – even if it’s everyday nervousness and shyness. But before we discuss that, let’s try something quickly.

也许你会想，那这种精神布道又有什么意义啊？那又怎样？这和我又有什么关系？我也考虑过同样的问题，考虑了好多好多年。现在我意识到，理解恐惧的根源是对死亡的恐惧这一点，并把这点分析通透，会让你在面对的恐惧的时候不再那么害怕，——哪怕是每天都会面对的紧张和害羞。但是在我们讨论这个分析过程之前，让我们先迅速试一下另一个事儿。

And Then What?

那又怎么样呢？

In Transcending the Levels of Consciousness, David Hawkins describes a technique called “and then what?” It’s quite simple – we begin with a fear, even a seemingly small and innocent one. Let’s imagine that I meet a girl I am very interested in, and I would like to ask her out on a date. I’m feeling nervous – which many would say is a “normal” response. But if we look at it closely, we can see some quite irrational fears driving it.

在《超越意识层面》这本书中，大卫霍金斯讲了“那又怎么样呢？”这种方法。这其实很简单——我们恐惧都有个原因，哪怕是一个看起来特别小特别不起眼的原因。咱们来想象一下，假如我遇到了一个很喜欢的女孩子，我很想约她出去。我就觉得很紧张——很多人没准觉得这是“正常”的反应。但是如果我们仔细研究一下，就能发现“紧张”是由一些毫无理性的恐惧驱使的。

“I’m afraid of being rejected.”

“我害怕被拒绝。”

And then what?

如果被拒绝又怎样呢？

“Then I’ll be embarrassed.”

“我会害羞。”

And then what?

害羞又怎么样呢？

“Then I’m a loser.”

“那就证明我是个窝囊废。”

And then what?

那又怎么样呢？

And on it goes. If we continue down this line of inquiry, most of the time we will end up with the ultimate fears: dying, being nothing, or being nobody.

你还可以继续问下去。如果我们一直问到底，通常情况下我们会以终极恐惧结束：死亡，一无所有，或一无是处。

It is helpful to process out each level of fear that comes up. This is simply a riding out of the emotion itself. Focus on the physical sensations, the raw fear in your body. What does it feel like? For me, fear feels like clammy skin, tingling, a chill down the spine, and sometimes nausea. And so I welcome them completely, breathing into it, asking for more. This normally clears up the fear completely, but if any remain, I let go of it. (This process is covered in detail in Welcoming and Releasing Our Emotions.)

如果分析出每层害怕的理由，就会对我们克服恐惧有所帮助。这简单来说就是跳脱出感性层面，专注于理性感觉，也就是你身体里最原始的恐惧。这到底是一种什么感觉呢？对我来说，恐惧感就好像又湿又粘的皮肤，刺痛，一阵凉意从脑后沿着脊柱穿过，有时还会觉得恶心。然后我会全部接受这些感觉，调整呼吸，然后希求更多这样的感觉。通常这么做会让恐惧感跑得一干二净，但如果这种感觉再回来，我就随它去了。（这个过程的更多细节你可以在《接受和释放我们的感情》一书中读到。）

The Fear Of Dying

对死亡的恐惧

This process is different for everybody, but in general, the complete processing out of fear isn’t something that is completed in hours. A while ago, I went through a phase where I was hit with fears of every disease in the world. Every cough was lung cancer; every running nose was AIDS; every itch was some exotic skin-eating virus that no doctor has ever heard of. Even worse, I had daily macabre fantasies of being operated on while I was still conscious, and watching my skin and organs being ripped apart. It took many weeks of inner work to loosen up these fears, but still they weren’t fully gone.

这个过程对每个人来讲都不同，但总体来说，完全排除恐惧的过程并不是几小时就能完成的。前一阵，我一直处在这么一个阶段，就是恐惧世界上所有的疾病。咳嗽一下就觉得是肺癌；流一下鼻涕就觉得是艾滋病；哪儿痒痒了就觉得是某种医生都没听说过的吃皮肤的新型病毒。更糟糕的是，我每天都会有种超恐怖的幻想，就是在我还清醒的时候就被开刀了，然后眼睁睁地看着我的皮肤和内脏一点点被刀子拉开。我花了好多个礼拜用这种内心放松法来排除这些恐惧，可是它们还是没完全被排除掉。

Then, a few weeks ago, I saw someone pass away in front of me. I have seen dead bodies before, but that was the first time I personally saw the transition from life to death. I won’t go into details, and I will leave out all the parts unrelated to this post because it is not my story to tell – it is not someone I knew well. But as I watched, somewhere in the back of my head, I realised something: is that all dying is?

然后，几周后，我目睹了某人在我眼前离开人世。我以前看见过尸体，但那是第一次我亲眼看见生命消逝的过程。我不会多写细节，也不会写任何和本帖无关的情况，本来这也不是我要讲的重点——那个人也不是我的熟人。但是看着生命消逝，我朦朦胧胧地意识到一些事情：这么着就是死了？

In other words, what have I been afraid of all this time? Physical pain? The sadness? The panic? Most of us have been through worse throughout the course of our lives. It didn’t seem that scary. Over the next few weeks, as I thought about what I saw, the old saying seemed true: the only thing we have to fear is fear itself

换句话说，我这一直以来害怕的到底是什么呀？身体上的疼痛？悲伤？恐慌？我们的一生中肯定经历过比这更糟糕的事情，也没那么可怕嘛。之后的几周，我在思考这些事的时候，渐渐发现有句古话似乎还真说对了：我们唯一恐惧的就是恐惧本身。

As this realisation began to sink in, my surface fears began to fade away by themselves. And it is only when they are gone that I saw how much they had run my life. There are so many things we are afraid of – disease, accidents, old age, natural disasters – that we are almost used to having this undercurrent of dread in our lives.

随着对这个认识地不断加深，我的那些表面上的恐惧就都自己消失了。等这些恐惧都不见了，我才发现它们对我生活的影响到底有多大。世界上有太多我们害怕的事情——疾病，事故，年纪渐老，自然灾害——这些事情会合成了一股暗流，让我们一生都在担心害怕。

The House of Cards

纸牌搭起来的房子

When we process out the root of all these fears, the subtle pressure they put on us is gone. It starts to fall apart like a house of cards. It doesn’t meant that I go out and start being suicidal, or start taking crazy risks. I don’t start driving while I’m drunk, for example – I still don’t want to crash. But the motivation behind safe driving just feels different. There is a relaxation, a decrease in pressure, and a corresponding increase in playfulness.

当我们分析出所有这些恐惧的根源时，恐惧带来的微妙压力就随之离开了，就好像用纸牌搭起来的房子一样，一碰就全倒了。但这不意味着我开始变得有自杀倾向，或者开始偏激的疯狂冒险，不爱护生命。举个例子，我一定不会酒后开车——我依然不想出车祸。但是安全驾驶的动力变得不一样了。我会感觉更放松，压力急剧下降，随之而来的是玩乐感的增长。

I’ve found this to be a freeing exploration, and I hope it will help someone. As with every other exploration or technique, please make safety and respect for everyone your top priority. This is a post dealing with a potentially complicated subject, with lots of possible misinterpretations. I can’t cover all the bases, so if there is anything that you are unsure about, or anything that makes you uncomfortable, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to address it.

我发现这就好像是自由的大探究，我希望我的这个帖子可以帮助到一些人。和所有其他探究或技术一样，我尊重每个人的感觉。这是个讨论潜在复杂课题的帖子，可能还有很多误解。我不可能写得面面俱到，所以如果你发现有不确定的地方或者让你觉得不舒服的地方，请留个言，我会尽力解答。

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