B. Interview - About fear and meditation
· With this pilgrimage you would also like to send a signal against the fear that gripped many people during the corona pandemic. Does that mean you didn't take people's fears seriously?
o Oh, let's leave the subject. The trenches are so deep already.
· But wouldn't it be irresponsible if we didn't protect ourselves against viruses, disease, and death? The same goes for you!
o Of course I don't want to get sick unnecessarily and I don't feel like dying yet. And of course a virus is serious business. But depending on how healthy and stable your own body is, a virus will update the immune system in a meaningful way. It is also natural that you lie flat for a few days and do not feel well at all. However, if I have not yet reached the last phase of my life and if the immune system is still weak or untrained one should change a few things in everyday life as quickly as possible. In any case: a situation that has been pushed up like the corona pandemic is also an invitation for fearful people to deal positively with the ”last things” in life. Because if we survived the pandemic this time: We will not get out of this life alive. "... Say goodbye and be healed ..." writes Hermann Hesse in the “poem of stages”. A healing thought so that I can enjoy my life more relaxed.
· An Islamic proverb reads "Trust Allah and tie up your camel."
o Yes, you can see it that way. But regarding to the power of fear, I will now be “sharp”: In the first year of the Corona crisis, from May to September 2020 to be precise, according to statistics from the RKI (gov. Institut of infectious diseases) and the Federal Statistical Office, approx. 270 times more people in Germany died of cardiovascular diseases than of the Corona virus. The special thing about this statistic: Approx. 40 times more people died of psychological or behavioural phenomena than of the Corona virus. I can show you the statistics. Whatever the evaluation tells you: It shows me that 40 times more people have died from different forms of fear.
· That doesn't sound nice. One should not suffer and spoil the joy of life with thoughts of dying.
o But there are realities in our existence! Or should we always discreetly sweep suffering, pain and death under the rug? Instead of trying to run away from the inevitable things, we can learn to deal with suffering with confidence. Our body will die for sure. Also our superficial Ego. So, let's learn and deal with it constructively.
· Can you share something useful coming from your meditation experiences?
o Hm, I'm on my way. Therefore, the following cannot apply to everyone - they are my personal insights so far. The basic key word is to "observe" physical and mental things in me like for e.g. fears: Simply observe thoughts and feelings arising in the head and perceive the appropriate body reactions. "Focused concentration" is important, which is trained, e.g., by long-lasting observation of natural breathing. Perceiving comfortable and uncomfortable sensations with sharpened concentration, we should stay in a non-reacting attitude. This is seen as a fine art: neither to evaluate our inner observations nor to divide them into good & bad and also not to stick labels of wanted & unwanted. As soon as we divide what we have observed into assessment categories, the problems begin. Because if we react and evaluate pure observation, pleasant or uncomfortable states automatically are formed in our thinking. This causes signals to be sent into our body that ... let me say "knots" are created. Knots of aversion, e.g. “I don't want this state!”, But also knots of desire, e.g. “This state should stay that way.” - If you manage to look at things without evaluating, deeper experiences of existence open up that are very beautiful and true and good. It is probably the case that there is a superficial Ego in us that is the product of upbringing and thousands of own and adopted evaluations. And there is a deeper SELF in which one can no longer evaluate, but finds oneself in timeless, wonderful states. - Once you have begun to have such deeper experiences, you gradually get a feeling that this deeper self is our true nature. When the superficial EGO dies, our truer selves can fully develop. One will be able to see dying as a process of transformation into something truer.
· That is not easy.
o O yes. It seems that people make life unnecessarily difficult for themselves at all times. When Adam & Eve (in the Bible) ate the apple from the tree of knowledge, they were able to say what they like and what they don't. But with that they had lost their paradisiacal state. I would like to be able to give my apple back and no longer live my life by always evaluating everything; but only to observe what unfolds within me and to discover the eternal depth.
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