“Life is,” as Helen Keller said, “either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” It is not fear as such but the avoidance of fear that makes your life “nothing at all.” Fear is a state of excitation that heightens alertness, sensitivity, and awareness. Fear, in itself and by itself, is not a problem. Not only is it not a problem but also it guides you to a proper solution. If you can fully and completely be with fear, be present to fear, and experience fear, then fear will guide you in life when combined with intelligence and awareness and therefore become a source of wisdom. The problem is not fear but the avoidance of fear, the habitual patterns of avoiding the experience of fear. The humans are collectively conditioned to avoid fear and thereby become unable to fully and completely experience fear. If fully experienced, the state of excitation that fear is, becomes a state of excitement; but so long as you avoid fear, it will haunt you—for an incomplete experience accumulates its momentum and karmically recurs in order to complete itself. Through the avoidance of fear, fear itself becomes the primary object of fear. Thus people become overly and unnecessarily controlling of themselves and others and of their life conditions so that they ensure to ensure that they do not need to experience fear. People try to create life conditions where they can believe that they are ‘in control’ of their life conditions so as not to face situations involving fear. However, being alive necessarily entails experiencing fear. If you appreciate life, then appreciate the wisdom inherent in life, including fear. By avoiding fear, you deny an essential aspect of life wherein adventure, excitement, learning, and growth await. By avoiding fear, you deaden your self and sterilize your life. By avoiding fear, you become overly (and pathetically) controlling of yourself and others—you become, as it were, your own ‘politburo’ of your own ‘regime’ whose domain and dominance you are constantly preoccupied with extending and expanding. Courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of fear. To develop courage, to master fear, requires that you appreciate fear as an expression of life’s innate wisdom, that you listen to its guidance with heightened awareness, and that you decide, choose, and act in accordance with the guidance provided by fear-as-excitation with intelligence. Courage is normal and healthy, and it is a condition for living a joyful life of excitement and fulfillment. Avoidance of fear makes you fearful; availing to fear makes you courageous.
Posted on: Tue, 20 May 2014 17:51:19 +0000
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