Release Stress & Anxiety

Machig Labdrön, born in 1055 in Tibet, is the founder of the practice of "demon feeding", which paved the way for her to become the founder of the Tibetan Buddhist Mahamudrā Chöd lineages.

The method makes it possible to release the negative energies, such as fear, depression or illness, and transform them into positive ones.

Becoming aware of the shadow that weighs on us reduces its destructive power and releases the life energy stored within it. By making friends with what frightens us most and demands energy, we find our deepest wisdom.

For if we deny or fight our demons, we only give them more energy. If, on the other hand, we accept them and give them loving attention, we can dissolve them.

Eastern philosophies have become more accessible in recent years, captivating us with stories and myths that offer us a different perspective on how to deal with our lives.

In this lesson we learn about the legend of Machig Labdrön and the Naga demon as a counterpart to the story about Hercules and the Hydra.

This gives us a first insight into non-violent ways of dealing with problems.

This is the story about feeding instead of fighting, the underlying paradigm of demon feeding for reference:

The saga that is told tells of how, in a state of deep meditation, she begins to swan. Through the temple walls, out into the air and finally up into a tree that stands on the edge of a lake. The tree belongs to the lake and the lake to a fierce naga demon or water spirit.

Nagas are capricious mystical serpentine beings who can cause trouble and illness if disturbed. However, they can also be treasure guardians and protectors when they are favourably disposed.

This naga was so terrifying that the locals dared not even look at the pond, let alone approach it.

Machig Labdrön, however, landed on the tree just above the pond and sat there absorbed in meditation.

This was an outrageous provocation from the demon.

The water spirit regarded the arrival of the young Machig as a direct attack. He approached her threateningly, but she continued to meditate without showing fear.

Others in the village would not even look at the tree, let alone touch it or sit naked on its branches.

Angered by her disrespect for his territory, the Naga gathers an army of wild Nagas who launch an attack on the naked girl sitting in complete serenity in the tree. Instead of fleeing or attacking, Machig instead turns around and offers her body to the Nagas as a food sacrifice to the spirits.

The Nagas' desire to attack fizzles out.

Stunned, the Nagas swear their allegiance and eternal protection to Machig.

Before we do the whole exercise together in one piece, today I will guide you through the second part of the exercise: learn to visualise your demon.

We have already learnt the attunement, where we breathe into and release the physical, emotional and mental tensions.

In this exercise we are already tracking our demons, scanning the body and visualising the shadows.

Now take a moment to decide which problem you would like to work with.

Close your eyes during the exercise.

When you think of the issue you want to address or the demon that has arisen in you today, think if you can remember when this first arose in your life.

And as you think about this, scan your body and notice where in your body you feel it. Feel where in your body is this?

When you think about this subject, this demon, where do you feel it in your body.

Notice where you feel this feeling, this demon, this fear or whatever it is in your body and then bring your attention to that place in your body.

• If this had a colour, what colour would that be?

• What shape does it take in your body?

• What temperature is it?

And then intensify that sensation.

This whole mass that is in your body then moves out of your body and you can make a gesture, move or shake if you want.

It moves out of your body and becomes a personified being in front of you.

I have a few more tips for you:

What helps a lot is if you really stay in the sensation of your body and push what you feel in your body outwards. You stay with the colour, the shape, the texture and the temperature that you feel inside and from that you allow the demon to arise.

And so you allow it to take shape before you, to be personified. And if you think you're just making it up, that's fine. It's okay to invent it in a certain sense. Even our fears and worries are not always tangible.

It's like a dream image, something that emerges from the unconscious that we imagine, so don't worry about it.

Here are the three questions you will ask the demon:

• What do you want?

• What do you really need?

• How do you feel when you get what you really need?

In this lesson we will learn about the psychological aspect of the practice.

In analytical psychology, the shadow is an unconscious and unwanted aspect of the personality with which the conscious ego does not want to identify.

The psychoanalyst C.G Jung wrote: "Everyone carries a shadow and the less it is embodied in the conscious life of the individual, the blacker and denser it is."

Talking to our demons, enables us to release the negative energies, such as fear, depression or illness and transform them into positive ones.

Making the shadow that weighs on us conscious reduces its destructive power and releases the life energy stored in it.

The shadow contains the repressed ego, the denied aspects of ourselves that are incompatible with our personality. It is what we do not want others to know about. He often appears in our dreams and then does things that we would never engage with in consciousness. We often have no idea of the shadow parts of our personality because they elude our consciousness.

Carl Jung says: The brighter the light, the darker the shadow.

And he continues:

"There can unfortunately be no doubt that man is on the whole less good than he imagines or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow within himself, and the less it is embodied in the conscious life of the individual, the blacker and denser it is. In either case, it forms an unconscious ballast that thwarts our best intentions."

When our shadow remains unconscious, it wreaks havoc in our lives. Repressed components do not simply disappear, but function independently of our conscious awareness. In other words, the shadow has the ability to override our conscious ego and take possession of our being by exerting control over our thoughts, emotions and behaviours. When this happens, we can be unconsciously driven into hard times while unaware that these difficult times are self-imposed and not the result of bad luck or fate.

"The psychological rule is that if an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens externally as fate. That is to say, if the individual remains inwardly undivided and does not become conscious of his inner opposition, the world must inevitably carry out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves." (Carl Jung)

The unconscious control that our shadow can exert over us also explains the self-destructive behaviours that so many people struggle with and cannot control, even though they know consciously that it would be better if they did not engage in such actions. Many addicts are driven by their shadow, which explains the inner "war" that exists within them. One moment they tell themselves they will give up their addiction and live a clean life, and the next moment their shadow overrides their conscious self and they enthusiastically seek the next drink, "hit" or sexual gratification. As Robert Louis Stevenson notes in his book The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, man is not one, but in reality two; he has a conscious personality and a shadow, both of which often fight for dominance in his mind.

In this lesson we learn what the Buddhist concept of a demon is.

Demons are not spirits or creatures of the night. The term 'demon' is used as a metaphor for negative emotions such as fear, worry, anger or loneliness.

The idea of the demon is an expression of our thoughts and emotions held in the body-mind complex. When we think about energy movement to transform negative energies into positive ones, the form of the demon, for example, is the form of anger that you hold in your body-mind.

By then feeding it with a different energy, this body of the demon is energetically affected in a positive way, which causes a change in its structure and can allow the anger to dissolve and give you immediate joy and power.

"Modern science has infiltrated our imaginations to an almost unrecognisable degree, but our lives are still full of demons.

What happens in the mind affects the cells in the body and vice versa. A visualisation that brings forth an emotion from the unconscious affects the cells. It is all interconnected. It is a system that is guided by consciousness at all levels. This intelligence, this awareness or presence is what we would call the nature of the spirit.

The demons are energy that is blocked in various ways. So when we work with the power of imagination, we free this blocked energy.

Demons in the sense we use the word are not ghosts, goblins or creatures of the devil. When Machig Labdrön was asked how she would describe demons, she replied, "That which is called a demon is not some big black thing that petrifies everyone who sees it. A demon is anything that hinders the attainment of freedom.... There is no greater demon than the fixation on an ego. So as long as this ego fixation is not cut off, all demons are waiting with open mouths. For this reason, you must exert yourself with a proper method to cut off the demon of ego fixation."

Machig's understanding of demons was remarkably nuanced. She asked, "What is the real evil? What are the real demons? Is not selfishness, whether on a personal or communal level, the real demon?

Before you do the complete exercise for the first time, here is some information about the step after calling the demon that you have already done.

If you feed the demon as Machig Labdrön fed the Nagas, your demon will transform into your "good spirit" or "ally".

What do I do when I can't feel my body?

When the exercise says notice where you are holding this emotion in your body I would encourage you to connect with your body. One way to feel yourself better is to touch the centre of your chest. Close your eyes and notice all the sensations in this area. Become as aware as possible of these sensations. Pinch your arm, keep your eyes closed and become aware of this sensation. Gradually touch different places, identify colours, textures and temperatures for these sensations. Then move on to perceiving sensations without touching your body.

After the visualisation of the demon that we have already practised, we will have to feed it with love. You visualise your body melting into an infinite ocean of nectar and the demon absorbing this nectar through every pore of its body.

As it absorbs the nectar, the demon's appearance changes. His body becomes softer and his colour fades.

He transforms into your ally or we call this one.

One more note for the four questions we ask of our ally.

We ask

How will you help me?

How will you protect me?

What promise do you make to me?

and lastly

How can I find you? or How can I access you.

This last question should allow you to call your ally or good spirit at any time.

This could be through a gesture or by touching a talisman you carry or looking at a particular object that has meaning for you or the ally.

In preparation for the next episode, please find two seats, facing each other, for a conversation. Take two chairs or two cushions between which you can switch back and forth.

Please prepare 2 seats facing each other for this exercise. You will be switching seats.

You will also receive a downloadable MP3 audio file with the entire exercise.

Now that you have experienced the practice yourself, let's look at it more closely and see the connections to the legend of Machig and the Naga demon.

This will help you gain a deeper understanding and improve your practice.

The legend tells of how she begins to float in a state of deep meditation. Through the temple walls, out into the air and finally up into a tree that stands at the edge of a lake that belongs to the Naga, the water spirit.

Machig is naked, unprotected and remains sunk in meditation beside the tree, not intimidated by the threatening demon.

Even as he raises an army of fierce nagas to launch an attack on the naked girl, she remains seated in the tree in complete composure. Instead of fleeing or attacking, Machig instead turns towards them and offers her body as a food sacrifice to the spirits.

The Nagas' desire to attack fizzles out and they pledge their allegiance and eternal protection to Machig.

The exercise follows the saga. First we develop an awakened state of mind and feel in our bodies for physical, emotional and spiritual tensions, which we release through our breath.

Like Machig, we expose ourselves to the demons, then calm the demons and invite them to the feast. In the traditional practice, the kangling is blown 3 times.

In the Tibetan texts it says: In doing so, we imagine how they all hear the invitation, starting from the summit of the existences down to the deepest infernal realms, and flock together in dense crowds, like mist covering a great mountain.

And then we feed the demons. We give what is most precious to us, we let our bodies melt into nectar and give this precious juice to our worst enemy to feast on.

It goes completely against our feelings, against our intuition, to be generous to the beings that cause harm and bring sickness.

In doing so, we give what is most precious, our bodies, our lives.

This dissolution is the deepest core of Buddhism. The dissolution of the ego, the melting away and entering into the great stream.

In love we dissolve. In feeding the demons we give up ourselves, melting into all that our worst demons, our fears, illnesses, negative emotions, hatred and dissatisfaction demand of us.d

We offer what is most precious to those who seem to want to devour us completely.

And we feed them to full satisfaction until everyone gets exactly what they need. So that is the ultimate gift in this practice, that we give others what they think they need until they have everything and then they can finally rest.

In the last lesson, we looked at the connections to the legendary side of Machig Labdrön. Now let's take a look at the historical background. Dampa Sangay gave Machig specific instructions for the practice, which you can see clearly now that you have had your own experience of demon practice.

I would like to show you one more connection.

Machig Labdrön is the founder of the Chöd tradition. Dampa Sangay, the Grand Master from South India, is considered the father of this tradition.

It is said that Dampa came to Tibet specifically to seek Machig.

When asked how it could be most beneficial, Dampa tells Machig, "Confess all your hidden faults! Approach what you find repulsive! Whomever you think you cannot help, help him! Whatever you are attached to, let it go! Go to places that scare you!"

So we are to go where we find it ugly and repulsive. We do this by facing our worst fears and demons.

We are to help those we think we cannot help. And we do that too. We feed our shadows that weigh us down.

We are supposed to let go of whatever we are attached to. Well, and I don't think we're attached to anything as much as we're attached to our body. It is our home. It is what we identify with. And we let go of it.

Our normal behaviour would be to withdraw, to hide from it, to want to get rid of it.

But in this practice we lean into it. We lean into what is frightening. We lean into it and push through it. We actually move through the fear, into a place of fearlessness, not because we weren't afraid, but because we actually went into our fear, met it and met it with compassion and then can let it go. So it's about going into the fear and then moving through it.

By going into what scares us the most and moving through it, we find some peace.

In traditional Tibetan practice, which is also practiced here in Nepal, there are wonderful stories of monks going to the most frightening places. To wild places with dangerous beasts and practiced taming their demons there.

Buddhism is not about "believing", it is a philosophical discipline that everyone can experience.

The Buddha said we should analyse the teachings before we accept them, just as we would analyse the purity and quality of gold before we buy it.

The exercise of demon feeding has 2 beneficial aspects:

First, our demons transform into our allies, releasing energy that we can use to develop our talents.

The second benefit aspect is the deep calm that comes at the end of the exercise, which we can normally only experience from experienced meditation masters.

The Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung said:

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by becoming aware of one's own darkness."

The exercise of talking to and taming our demons has two benefits.

Firstly, it transforms our demons into allies, so that we are no longer subject to inner and outer struggles, but can harness the energy that is bound up in these conflicts.

The second benefit of the exercise is less obvious, but almost more important.

This is the opening in the last step, where we let the demons go and it becomes quiet around us, without music and drums, without chatter, emotional distractions that dominate our daily lives.

In this last step we feel like after hard physical work, completely exhausted, however the exhaustion is not physical but mental.

We simply let ourselves fall in this moment.

It is a state of peace, relaxation and immeasurable vastness.

It is a void, a space that arises between our thoughts.

In this emptiness we rest and even if the open awareness lasts only a few moments, it is the beginning to the realisation of our true being. When we become comfortable with this empty state, we let go of habitual attachment.

Usually our difficulties and thoughts take over so much that we don't experience this state, but when we rest in it, it's like floating in the ocean and letting the waves rock us instead of giving in to our fear of drowning and fighting the water.

If you are too agitated to meditate and you don't have the patience to suppress your feelings and emotions, this is the right time to feed your demons.

So feel free to attach to the end of the demon practice your own meditation practice that you like to practise.

Some meditation teachers advise their students to feed their demons at the beginning of the meditation and to continue with the usual meditation after the fifth step. This can be particularly useful if you want to meditate but are disturbed by your threatening thoughts.

Feeding a demon can remove this blockage and allow the meditation to continue undisturbed.

If you want to achieve a significant improvement in your state of mind, it is advisable to do the exercise more often, daily if possible. This will become easier and faster with time.

If you are in an acute emergency, suffering from an addiction or going through an emotional crisis, I recommend daily practice in any case.

You may encounter several layers of demons, each requiring its own practice sessions.

For example, a pain demon, an aching arm can lead us to an overwork demon, which in turn can lead us to a deep-rooted fear demon of not having or being enough.

Repetition of the demon practice

The holiest mountain in the Himalaya is the Meru

The most sacred massif in the world for Buddhists and Hindus il located remote and hidden on a plateau, like a devotional illusion, isolated behind the balustrade of the High Himalayas. In early Hindu scriptures it is found as the mystical Mount Meru, whose origins go back to the dawn of time. In this incarnation, it rotates like a spindle on the axis of creation, ascending countless miles to the palace of Brahma, the greatest and most distant of the gods, and descending just as deeply into the earth.

Machig Labdrön developed a system, Mahamudra Chod, which takes the teachings of the Buddha as its basis and applies them to direct experiences of negative states of mind and malevolent forces. Machik's unique approach is to invoke and nurture the very demons we fear and hate, and to transform these reactive emotions into love.

According to the beliefs of Tibetan mystics, the physical world perceived by our five senses is only a small part of the whole reality in which we live. All around us there are invisible entities; types of "beings" or "spirits" that we cannot see. These entities exist in parallel, but separate, dimensions or worlds of their own. Yet all these "parallel" realms are part of the same planet. What appears to be a river to us may be a stream of colour and energy in another realm.

A good spirit is one that radiates love from within itself to all others with whom it is connected. And the "higher" the nature of the spirit, the more it is inwardly connected with all sentient beings. An evil spirit, on the other hand, is one that has closed itself up within itself, isolated from the whole, and lives narrowly turned inwards in its own neurosis. The more solid and dark the suffering of this spirit becomes, the more demonic is its nature.

So the demon practice is a subtle blend of the Buddhist path to enlightenment that comes from India and an ancient form of shamanic ritual added by Machig Labdrön. It was the merging of these two streams that led to the actual emergence of the practice used by today's yogis in their desire to attain enlightenment by the shortest route.

It is interesting to note, by the way, that this practice is done in all 5 Tibetan schools or lineages. I mean that most or even all of the other practices are only ever done by one school. Each lineage has its own practices. Only that of Machig Labdrön has been accepted by all schools.

What does this practice have to do with Buddhism if it was not taught by the Buddha himself?

Originally, Mahamudra Chöd was practised by shamanic yoginis - female saints - and not by bhikkhus - Buddhist monks. But the power of this practice was soon recognised as the most direct and rapid path to enlightenment.

In the last episode I gave a brief insight into the shamanic background of the demon practice.

Today I would like to shed some light on the Buddhist parts.

The Demon Practice has long been a way to seek direct and personal experiences of spirit and divinity outside the conventional framework.

In this practice we travel into the night world - the dangerous regions of spirits, demons and the damned, to bless all souls lost for a time on the wheel of existence. The selflessness of the practitioner's compassion, his contact with the spirits of the Otherworld and the transformation of himself into a vehicle of healing, all to gain for a moment true awakening in the final step of the practice.

On the night Prince Siddhartha, the future Buddha, stole out of the palace to seek answers to his spiritual questions, leaving behind his wife, his newborn child and his life as heir to the throne, he was first met by Mara, the outer manifestation of those inner forces that threatened to block his path.

These are doubt and fear.

Siddhartha had reached the top of a mountain and could still see the palace and the windows lit by oil lamps in the moonlight. He had decided to give up his former life and strive for enlightenment, and at that very moment Mara appeared.

Mara hovered in front of him and said, "Do not go any further. You should return to the palace, in seven days you will be world ruler and king over the whole earth!" Prince Siddhartha replied, "Mara, I recognise you.

Being king over this earth is not what I seek.

I seek enlightenment and a way to abolish all suffering,"

By recognising Mara, Siddhartha was able to overcome him. Mara slipped away into the darkness and Siddhartha was able to continue on his path. But Mara appeared to the future Buddha again and again throughout his life, and especially intensely on the night of his enlightenment.

Siddhartha's saying "Mara, I recognise you" aptly reflects how important it is to identify one's own demons.

In the Buddha legend, Mara actually appears as a shadowy male figure.

Later, as Buddhism evolved, inner blockages such as emotional turbulence or pride, which are obstacles to full awakening, were called maras.

Being able to identify our maras, our demons, as they appear is the first step in dealing with them. If we do not recognise them, they come to power unnoticed. Machig Labdrön, who lived a millennium and a half after Buddha, established her own four categories of maras, but they have their origins in those of Buddhism. Her four categories illustrate how the forces that stand in the way of our awakening appear before us.

In this lesson we will learn about the main categories of demons to help us identify them.

• Outer demons

• Inner demons

• Demons of prideful elation

• Demons of self-centredness

It is helpful to look at how Machig Labdrön categorised the different types of demons so that we too can say, "Mara, I recognise you" as soon as our demons appear.

Machig identifies four main categories of demons: outer demons, inner demons, demons of proud elation and demons of self-centredness.

The four categories are not meant to commit us to looking at our demons in any particular order, but are there to give us an overview of how demons can be classified as reactions to external situations such as blame, for example, or as subtle inner stirrings that culminate in the demon of self-centredness, the hidden core of all other demons.

Among these four categories, then, the outer demons are the most obvious. These include illnesses, specific fears, addictive behaviours, relationships and family demons. They all seem to come from the external world. We go a step deeper when we move from the outer demons to the inner demons, because there we deal with the spiritual level. The inner demons of anger, fear. Shame and depressiveness do not need an outer stimulus to appear.

Once we have recognised our outer and inner demons, there is a risk that our spiritual success will go to our heads. Demons of the third category, the demons of prideful elation, are a cautionary reminder of the pitfalls that may await the seeker of success, whether spiritual or worldly. In the pride in one's achievements and in the self-importance that often accompanies it, the demons of prideful elation show themselves.

This applies to monks as well as lay people. Arrogance towards other people but also towards everything else in nature belongs to this category.

Finally, we come to the category of demons related to the origin and very basis of all our experiences in the world. This is the deeply ingrained idea of being somehow separate from what we experience as the "other". This is the source of isolation, alienation and conflict, and without the demon of self-centredness, there would be no other demons at all. And if there were no enemies, what would we be fighting against? When we deal with this demon, we gradually see little pieces of the infinite blue sky flashing through the clouds of daily suffering.

Chöd practice has always had a special attraction for women, perhaps because it was largely founded by the women's saint Machig Labdrön, who was referred to as the 'mother' of Chöd.

Throughout history, women have been the spiritual leaders of the Chöd tradition.

At Shukseb Monastery near Lhasa, more than a hundred Kagyu nuns practise this tradition to this day.

We hide our negative qualities, not only from others but also from ourselves. To this end, we often criticise and condemn others to ensure that our attention does not fall on our own faults and destructive tendencies. We go through life with a false idea of moral superiority, believing that while others act immorally and destructively, we are perfectly virtuous and always in the right.

Particularly interesting is the idea that the shadow contains not only destructive aspects of the personality but also strong, creative and powerful abilities. During our development, certain traits and impulses were disapproved of by our family, peers and educators, usually not out of caring but out of envy, fear, ignorance or jealousy. The tendency to conform to societal expectations also led us to suppress talents, innate abilities and impulses that, if cultivated and developed, could make us more successful individuals.

Thus, it is common today for psychologists to diagnose people who question authority and show signs of strong independence as pathological and label them "anti-authoritarian". People who are overconfident in our society, which is increasingly characterised by collectivity and dependency, are seen by many as a threat. They are lone wolves amid a flock of sheep and are attacked and ridiculed by the flock because of it.

This is just one example of many of how our socialisation into modern society hinders our development. The result is that when our higher energies are bound up, and we are labelled by others and categorised by our conscious ego as negative and evil, our development can be blocked, and life can become a wasteland.

Therefore, for the sake of our personal development, we need to become more aware of our shadow and open our minds to the possibility that we may not be as kind, righteous and moral as we think. We need to consider that there may be unconscious aspects of ourselves that control our behaviour "behind the scenes". We need to look down into our depths and realise that our conscious ego is not always in control, but is often overtaken by the power of our shadow.

The goal of meeting the shadow is to develop a lasting relationship with it, to expand our sense of self by balancing the one-sidedness of our conscious attitudes with our unconscious depths.

When we are in the right relationship with it, the unconscious is not a demonic monster, as Jung points out. "It only becomes dangerous when our conscious attention to it is hopelessly wrong."

A right relationship with the shadow offers us a great gift: it leads us back to our stunted potential.

Although the shadow is an innate part of the human being, the vast majority of us deny its existence.

Since all human beings have a shadow, we differ from others in the extent to which we are aware of it.

If our shadow remains unconscious, it causes great harm in our lives. Repressed parts do not simply disappear, but have an effect independent of our conscious awareness.

The early recognition of the dark aspects that arise is called "direct liberation" in the Buddhist tradition.

If we spend some time with our demons, we recognise them even as they arise and we can say to Buddha: Mara I recognise you!

We learn to perceive their appearance and to recognise when they take hold of us. Then we can liberate the demons while they are still arising, without having to do the demon exercise altogether.

This is the direct liberation. This direct, simple way of releasing demons begins right with the last step of the exercise.

Immediate release is deceptively simple. The prerequisite is that one becomes aware of a demon and then pays direct attention to it.

This is like stopping a sailboat while it is sailing by turning it directly into the wind and letting the sails flutter in the wind like flags.

The wind power passes by without power being transferred to the sail and boat. The source of propulsion is thus neutralised.

Similarly, an emotion no longer develops when we give it our immediate attention.

The technique of immediate release is comparable to fearfully suspecting a monster in the dark until we switch on the light. As soon as it is bright, we see that there is no monster at all.

We drop the light of a demon and it is gone.

Particularly interesting is the idea that the shadow contains not only destructive aspects of the personality, but also strong, creative and powerful abilities.

Integrating our dark side means that we stop rejecting parts of our personality and find ways to bring them into our daily lives. We accept our shadow sides and try to discover the wisdom they contain. Fear becomes an opportunity for courage. Pain is a catalyst for strength and resilience. Aggression is transformed into a warlike passion. This wisdom shapes our actions, our choices and our interactions with others.

One aspect of Buddhism that may seem a little uncomfortable and doesn't quite want to fit into our perception is the high value placed on discipline. The teachings of Machig Labdrön are also meant to remind us to fight our little everyday demons in a disciplined and fierce way, to tackle the pile of unsorted mail, to tackle the mountain of laundry and to put the demons of clutter in their place.

We lean into what is daunting for us. We lean into it and don't push it in front of us, we push through it. We move through the fear, into a place of fearlessness, because we have actually gone into our fear, met it and then can let it go. So we go into the fear and then move through it.

By going into what we fear, what is a horror to us, and moving through it, we find peace.

It is extremely difficult to see the shadow in ourselves, so we rarely do - but we are really good at seeing unwanted shadow characteristics in others. To be honest, we revel in it. We love to highlight unsightly qualities in others.

Seeing in others what we don't want to admit is called "projection".

Although our conscious mind represses our own faults, it still wants to deal with them on a deeper level, so we highlight these faults in others.

Observing your judgement of others is a good way to recognise your demons.

Finally, here is a little story that likes to be told in this context: Mahatma Gandhi literally changed the course of Indian history by feeding his enemy.

He was told of a visit from a British official who threatened to throw him in jail if Gandhi did not give up his subversive activities, as the British called his protest march against the British salt tax.

Gandhi's advisers suggested scattering nails on the road to burst the tyres of the car in which the official would drive up.

"They will do nothing of the sort," Gandhi said. "We will invite him for tea." Dumbfounded, his followers obeyed. When the official arrived, he entered full of pomp.

"Now then, Mr. Gandhi, this so-called salt marching must stop at once. Otherwise I shall be forced to arrest you." "Well," said Gandhi, "let us have tea first."

The Englishman reluctantly agreed. Then, when he had emptied his cup, he said briskly, "Now we must get down to business. About these marches ..."

Gandhi smiled. "Not yet. Have some more tea and biscuits; there are more important things to discuss." And so it went on. The Englishman became increasingly interested in what the Mahatma had to say, drank many more cups of tea and ate many more biscuits until he was completely distracted from his official task and finally came away won over to Gandhi's cause.

Gandhi used the medium of tea, an English ritual implying courtesy and mutual respect, and literally fed this enemy until he became an ally. His tactic of feeding rather than fighting contributed to one of the most extraordinary non-violent revolutions in history.

Thank you very much for your attention and I wish you success in talking to your inner and outer demons.