Facing Fears
After the 9/11 disaster various comments were made about fear. Some thought there was no useful or positive aspect about it.
The Course In Miracles is a great book, but so is the Bible and readers of both who have a rigid interpretation of them can go off course.
The Course talks about fear as if it were the devil itself and consequently many of its readers develop a fear of fear and falsely convince themselves that they are only full of love and have no fear.
In the context of the teachings fear is usually associated with guilt or grievances and fear in this regard is indeed unproductive. But there is a positive aspect of fear which can cause us to awaken to a perilous situation and then do something about it. Then when we act in a positive way the fear disappears.
The unknown creates fear, but when the unknown becomes the known fear evaporates as the morning light causes the dark to no longer exist.
In the parable of Decision (see the Immortal) there were four people faced with a choice between two paths. All experienced a fear of the unknown. Two moved ahead and overcame their fears, but the other two were paralyzed with inaction and their fear lingered on and grew in power.
The key here is to not allow ourselves to be paralyzed, but neither should we allow ourselves to suffer the glamour of “being beyond the touch of fear” and end up suppressing it. Suppression and denial merely plants a seed and adds nourishment. One of the most fearful things we can do is to honestly face our fears, acknowledge them and work through them.
There is illusion in the idea that the lack of consciousness of fear leads to perfect love.
Consider this:
The men who hijacked the planes and caused the disaster of 9/11/2001
were virtually fearless. They killed passengers and pilots and then faced death with little or no fear.
On the other hand, the passengers were very much afraid.
Which ones were doing the hateful deed? The terrified passengers? No. It was the fearless terrorists.
Terrorists are often void of recognized fear themselves, but they strike fear in the hearts of people much more loving than themselves.
Boasting about fearlessness does not a loving person make.
While it is true that the perfected disciple is almost fearless, it is also true that many who are both good and evil who do not face their fears live in the illusion of fearlessness, but under the surface are fearful issues that must be faced.
It would have been a good thing if we had allowed some extra fear to wake us to the awful possibility of our vulnerable situation (before 9/11) and taken additional precautions.
A little fear can be a constructive force to wake us to reality. The dismissal and suppression of fear by many in this country today has put the world to sleep concerning the real perils, which we face.
We were more worried about what happens to Gary Condit and Monica Lewinsky than the fate of our nation, the world and generations to come.
I therefore issue a call to awake to the reality of our various dangerous circumstances and act in a positive way.
Most probably this disaster was caused by those who felt they were pleasing God and would go to heaven for giving their lives to destroy their fellow men and women and thus were beyond the normal parameters of logical fear or concern.
The Good, the Blind and the Arrogant
In an e-mail from Sterling I found this quote:
“In the city of God there will be a great thunder. Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb. “The third big war will begin when the big city is burning.” Nostradamus 1654
This is quite an interesting prophecy if it is a true quotation. There is a lot of false data in circulation. For instance there was recently circulated a supposed study on the IQ’s of various presidents showing that Bush had the lowest of the bunch and Clinton had the highest. This was totally made up, obviously by someone who didn’t like Bush.
Even so, there are many references to Nostradamus that are not true. My question is: Are there any Nostradamus buffs in the group? If so can you find this quote?
Some of the falsified quotes from Nostradamus comes from World War II when each side would make up quotes from him indicating victory for their side and destruction for the other.
A reader cooments that three people in disagreement can all be right and cites the parable of the three blind men and the elephant.
Two opposing beliefs can have overlapping elements of agreement but the two actual areas of opposition cannot both be true.
Let us examine the elephant parable.
The first blind man grabs the tail and says the elephant is like a great rope. Was he correct?
No. The elephant is not like a great rope. He was deceived into thinking he had the whole of the elephant in his hands.
The second man grabs an ear and says the elephant is like a great carpet.
Was he correct?
No. The whole of the elephant is not like a great carpet. He was again deceived into thinking he had the whole of the elephant in his hands.
The third man grabs a leg and says the elephant is like a great tree. Again, this man was wrong also.
If the three could open their eyes of vision they would all see they were wrong and deceived because the piece of the elephant they felt was just that, a piece. None of them had much of an idea as to what the whole of the elephant looked like. It is true the three blind men were correct in their view of the pieces, but the three could only be correct if they had said something like: “A piece of the elephant is like a carpet.” The argument was about the whole elephant and thus all three statements were incorrect.
Thus my statement that three opposing teachings or statements cannot all be true stands.
I said: “The unknown creates fear, but when the unknown becomes the known fear evaporates as the morning light causes the dark to no longer exist.”
To this a reader objected, “The unknown does not create fear. The unknown simply IS the unknown.”
Many fear death simply because what happens after death us an “unknown” to them. If they knew for sure there was life and justice after death the fear connected with the unknown would cease. Without the unknown factor most fears would disintegrate; thus the unknown creates the situation inducing the fear. Stating that the fear is caused by how the individual “chooses to relate” to the unknown is like defining what IS, IS.
Those who fear death have not learned how to make a choice to nullify fear. No choice in this matter is even available for them until they evolve to a higher level.
For instance, there are choices available to the Greater Lives that are not even possible for us at our state of evolution.
A reader expresses his opinion that Americans are conceited and the 9/11 disaster teaches us a needed lesson. Just ask anyone from a foreign country as most of them are annoyed at the American feeling of superiority, lack of compassion and arrogance.
As I have been watching television today I have not seen this and after viewing the outpouring of love and concern and soul to soul sharing and helpfulness that is manifest in average Americans helping each other, I would say that one would have to have a jaundiced eye to feel this way.
Everyone I know has considered that catastrophes such as this and worse could happen to us and none of them have conceit and arrogance about our safety as you accuse. What kind of cynical people do you associate with anyway to give you such a view of people, most of whom are good and decent?
One of the problems is that the nightly news, Jerry Springer and the tabloids give the impression that the majority of people are conceited, arrogant, dangerous and to be feared, but in reality the far majority of people in this and other countries are just attempting to follow the rules of life and get along the best they can.
As far as your accusation of Americans being seen as arrogant overseas. I am familiar with this belief, as I have lived overseas with the people for a couple years.
Those who see Americans as arrogant do so largely because they do not understand us and this perception is as much of a fault of Europeans, English and others as it is us. It is even revealed in the handwriting samples I have examined that Americans as a whole are much more outgoing and extrovert than most in other countries. This is often perceived as arrogance whereas it is merely a personality difference. Being outgoing and arrogant are two different things and the various people I got to know overseas realized this when they became associated with a variety of Americans.
Of course, there are some arrogant Americans, but I have seen no more arrogance with us than with people of other nations.
I have found overall that an American will go more out of his way to be friendly than will others go out of their way to be friendly with us. This is a positive characteristic that we do not give ourselves enough credit for.
Speaking of arrogance, a new member, from of India writes this concerning himself:
I am “the only human being present on Mother Earth who is in direct contact with the Creator of all the Universes (the complete Cosmos) … can his visionary powers be questioned!!”
It looks like there are people in India with some arrogance also.
Sept 12, 2001
Copyright by J J Dewey
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