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SOURCES OF FEAR
discounted. Then everything is limited and known; there is nothing limitless and unknown. While practising preksha meditation, we enter into a state of mind in which we are capable of concentrating on an object without any interruption, in which constant attention is possible. This cannot be a subject of psychological experimentation, nor of reason. Until the doctrine of Leshya (perception of psychic colours) is clearly understood, no thorough understanding of the theory of constantly wavering attention is possible. Feelings change and every change of feeling is accompanied by a change in thinking. It might be possible to mark one's thought, but the feeling behind it goes unobserved. Thought has no independent entity of its own. All thoughts derive from feeling, and dissolve with a change in feeling.
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There are three orders - the order of thought (the conscious mind), the order of attitude (the subconscious) and the order of instinct (the unconscious mind), The three are intimately connected. Instinct gives rise to attitude, and attitude gives rise to thought. If we make an effort to steady our attitudes, tejoleshya, padamleshya and shuklaleshya become stabilised and as a consequence, thought becomes steady. Rather we should say that thought comes to an end. For thought by its nature is fickle, it can never be steady. Thought moves rapidly. Where there is constant movement, there can be no steadfastness. So constantly moving thought can never be steady. Steady thought is a contradiction in terms - steadiness and thought do not go together. Thought is ever restless, the mind is never tranquil. It is the function of the mind to wander, to be in constant movement. Such is the nature of thought. We, therefore, cannot make it steady; thought can never be stable. But it can come to an end. There are two distinct states: either there is thought or there is no thought. When there is right perception, there is no thought; thought comes to an end. This state, when thought is totally absent, comes into being when there is right perception. In this state, all fear naturally ends.
There is only one way of getting rid of fear- the purification of attitude; the cleansing of the heart of all impurities. When the passions are sublimated, the heart becomes innocent and pure and fear then dissolves.
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