Sharks, fear, and the moment resistance fell away 

“Fear only survives if we resist what we’re frightened of.” 

Vishrant speaks about fear not as an abstract psychological issue, but as something he learned to meet very early in life, when fear was not theoretical but visceral and immediate. As a child, he was a trained underwater diver, certified to scuba dive by the age of ten, spending long hours in the ocean alongside his father in waters known for sharks. What he experienced when diving was an overwhelming terror of being eaten alive. 

He describes how, at a certain point, he recognised that the fear was restricting him so instead of trying to overcome the fear through force or reassurance, he did something far more radical. He made it okay for the sharks to eat him, and he made it okay to die. In that moment, resistance dropped, and with it the fear itself, not because danger disappeared, but because he stopped fighting the possibility of what he feared most. 

Vishrant often points to this experience as a foundational insight, the realisation that fear only survives through resistance, and that when resistance ends, fear loses its power. The external situation had not changed, the ocean was still the ocean, and sharks were still present, yet internally something had relaxed completely, allowing him to act without panic or contraction. 

What remained was not recklessness or denial, but clarity. By making the feared outcome acceptable, there was no longer anything to defend against, and fear dissolved on its own. This simple but profound insight would later become central to his understanding of openness and its requirement for enlightenment, long before he had any language for it. 

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When fear becomes closure 

“Fear is the enemy of enlightenment.” 

Vishrant explains that fear is not merely an emotional reaction, but a form of closure, a tightening of the body and mind that cuts us off from presence and love. When fear dominates, awareness narrows, the mind contracts, and life is approached defensively rather than openly. This is why, in his words, fear stands directly opposed to enlightenment, not as a moral failing, but as a physiological and psychological state of resistance. 

He offers everyday examples to make this tangible, explaining that fear does not only arise in life threatening situations, but in ordinary concerns such as money, security, or the possibility of failure. When someone is frightened of not paying the mortgage or losing their home, fear is sustained by resisting that possibility internally. The moment that outcome is made acceptable, fear begins to loosen its grip. 

Importantly, he does not suggest passivity or irresponsibility. After making the feared outcome okay, one still acts, pays the bills, looks for solutions, but without feeding the fear. Action arises from clarity rather than panic, and effort is no longer fuelled by resistance. 

This distinction is subtle but essential. Fear is not dissolved by positive thinking or control, but by removing the internal refusal to face what might happen. When resistance ends, fear has nothing to feed on, and the mind can open again. 

Making failure okay 

“When we’re trying to be perfect, we can never be relaxed.” 

Vishrant traces much of adult fear back to early conditioning around success and failure, particularly in educational systems where getting things right becomes synonymous with safety and approval. This conditioning, he explains, keeps people in a constant state of stress, reinforcing fear as a background condition of life. 

As a boy, he learned to make failure okay. Relaxing the fear of failure allowed him to function more effectively and more freely. When failure is unacceptable, the body remains tense, and the mind becomes rigid, constantly guarding against mistakes. When failure is allowed, relaxation becomes possible, and with it, genuine engagement with life. 

He points out that success is not measured by never falling, but by the willingness to get up again without self-blame or contraction. This shift removes the emotional charge around failure and replaces it with resilience and ease. 

In this way, making failure okay becomes another expression of openness, a refusal to close the heart around outcomes, identities, or self-images. What emerges is not carelessness, but a grounded confidence rooted in presence rather than perfection. 

Stepping out of victimhood 

“To be a victim, you have to volunteer.” 

Vishrant speaks candidly about recognising victim mentality in himself as a young man, and seeing clearly that while difficult things happen, suffering is sustained by the choice to interpret life through blame and victimhood. At nineteen, he saw that being a victim was not something imposed from outside, but something internally adopted and maintained. 

He explains that the moment someone positions themselves as a victim, blame naturally follows, and where there is blame, anger soon arises. By withdrawing support for victim oriented thinking altogether, he noticed that much of his anger dissolved as well. 

This perspective does not deny pain or difficulty but distinguishes between events and the internal stance taken toward them. When life is resisted through blame, suffering compounds. When life is accepted as it is, without judgment, the internal environment becomes far more peaceful. 

For Vishrant, stepping out of victimhood was another essential movement toward the heart and higher consciousness, because victim thinking keeps attention locked in stories of injustice, while openness allows direct contact with life as it unfolds. 

Accepting life as it is 

“The moment you don’t accept life as it is, you put yourself in hell.” 

Vishrant emphasises that true acceptance is not resignation, but clarity. Life, he explains, is always unfolding in a particular way, independent of our preferences, and the moment we argue with reality internally, we create suffering for ourselves. This suffering is not caused by the world, but by the refusal to accept what is happening. 

He describes how releasing judgment around good and bad, right and wrong, allowed him to disengage from constant internal conflict. Judgment, he notes, easily feeds victim thinking, pulling attention away from the heart and into mental opposition. 

This does not mean disengagement from life or ethical blindness, but a recognition that fighting reality internally only creates further contraction. Acceptance restores openness, and openness restores connection. 

By meeting life without resistance, even in disagreement or difficulty, the heart remains accessible, and fear loses its central role in shaping experience. 

Trust without naivety 

“Trust in God, but tether your camel.” 

In discussing trust, Vishrant offers a grounded and unsentimental view of human nature. He acknowledges that people are imperfect, prone to self-interest, and capable of betrayal and that expecting otherwise is a form of denial. 

He references an old Sufi saying, trust in God, but tether your camel, to illustrate that openness and discernment can come together. Trust does not mean abandoning intelligence or responsibility, but meeting life without cynicism or illusion. 

By releasing unrealistic expectations of others, disappointment and resentment lose their power. People are allowed to be human, and the heart remains open without becoming naive. 

This balance of openness and grounding reflects the deeper teaching running through all of Vishrant’s sharing, that love is not created by belief or effort, but perceived when resistance and unrealistic demands fall away. 

A quiet invitation into openness 

“Fear has no power when resistance ends.” 

Vishrant invites seekers to begin not by trying to eliminate fear, but by noticing where resistance lives in the body and mind. Each moment of contraction becomes an opportunity to make what is feared acceptable, allowing the nervous system to relax and awareness to open. 

As resistance softens, fear naturally loses its intensity, and life feels less adversarial and more intimate. Challenges still arise, but they are met without the same internal struggle, allowing love and clarity to remain present even in difficulty. 

Sit in Satsang with Vishrant and allow this openness to be supported within the buddha field, through presence and truth. In this shared stillness, the heart learns again what it already knows, that when resistance ends, love is revealed, not as an achievement, but as the natural state beneath fear.