Love Over Fear
Ever since I was a child, I have had a huge fear of snakes. I’m from mid-Wales, we weren’t exactly over-run with serpents, but the fear didn’t arise from reality. Instead it came from a book my grandfather had – an old fabric bound hardback encyclopaedia that had a chapter on snakes. The photographs of fangs sinking into skin were enough to give me a phobia so bad that I couldn’t even watch snakes on the TV.
Two years ago I came across a documentary on the Discovery channel called Do Not Attempt. It features the magician David Blaine travelling around the world attempting extreme feats of endurance, magic, and death-defying stunts. The episode I watched featured King Cobras.
I’m not sure why I watched it. Usually I’d run a mile, but something drew me to it. The premise of the show as this – David Blaine had to learn how to kiss a King Cobra on the head. No mean feat – the bite of a King Cobra is likely to kill and if not kill, then cause severe breakdown of the systems of the body.
The program was filled with the usual shocks and scares right up until the man teaching Blaine – an Indonesian called Fiitz – explained how it was done, at which point the show became something completely different. A lesson not just in yoga but in life.
What Blaine had to do was connect to the snake via his heart. If he could forge a heart-based connection with the Cobra it would submit. Suddenly, for me at least, snakes became something else. The ability to use a heart-centred approach in the face of something so deadly. You either love me and establish trust, or I kill you.
The idea of working with the heart in face of death fascinated me. To be able to love and overcome fear, means to tap into the heart completely, to be vulnerable and to trust that this reptile, when he bows his head, will not suddenly rear up and strike.
It’s the ultimate act of love – you, to all intents and purposes, are my nemesis, my demise, and in the face of that I have to love you, show no fear, see past my reactions and be present in love. The whole idea fascinated me. It’s the ultimate meditation. To be so still and in the moment, that all that exists is the heart, focus, and softness.
Kundalini energy is always represented as a coiled snake, living at the base of the spine, dormant. It’s our potential, our chance to be extraordinary and live our soul’s purpose. For that to happen we need to work through our issues and learn to balance distraction and agitation, and lethargy, so we sit in the centre, mindful, peaceful and in a state of perpetual love. In Kundalini, when we have worked though our issues, overcome our fears and distractions and hang-ups, balanced our energy, and mastered ourselves, the dormant snake rises up and rewards us with our soul’s purpose.
In the case of David Blaine, once he had achieved mastery, the snake bowed its head, and he could kiss its hood.
And we can think of life like that. Anytime we feel threatened or challenged, we are invited to avoid reaction and instead choose measured action. To approach the situation with compassion and love and rise above our base instincts. To face down even the most challenging, frightening situations ultimately with our heart not our head, and to kiss the snake and gain its reward, mastery.
