The Illusion Of Fear

"we have nothing to fear but fear itself." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

FDR was only half correct in his statement. "We have NOTHING to Fear" is all he should have said. We can't fear, fear since there is nothing to fear.

Fear seems to be real since we all experience it. We can see the effects on the brain and the body when they are under the duress of fear. Fear is an imagined state of mind which we create based on our beliefs, perspectives, and experiences since there is NOTHING to fear. If there were anything to literally, actively, or definitively fear, all humans would fear the same thing. Let's imagine for a moment that instead of fear being a word it is an actual physical body, a giant ugly black zombie looking creature the size of the Eiffel tower. This physical manifestation of fear mutilates, tortures, and murders anyone who comes near it.

If fear had a physical form and it looked like that, then every human would have a reason to fear it, except for the people who never know of its existence such as uncontacted peoples. Uncontacted peoples are groups of indigenous peoples living without sustained contact with neighboring communities and the world community. You can't be afraid of something that you don't know exists. Ok, giving fear a physical form doesn't make it real. Let us try thinking of fear as just a word with no meaning, clearly a word isn't anything to be afraid of so that doesn't work. 

If there were anything to actually fear, then every human on earth would fear that thing with no exceptions. What are some very common fears among humans? How about death, we can all agree that most of us are afraid of death, but most isn't all. There are those among us who don't fear death, and there are some among us who welcome it with open arms. 

Come to think of it there isn't a single thing that every human on earth is afraid of. We all fear different things, almost as if our personal fears are based on our subjective experience within the world. Got bit by a dog as a child, now you're afraid of dogs. Nearly drowned in the pool once, now you're afraid of the water. Got told that when you die, you go to hell, now you fear death. Thought about all the things you should be afraid of too many times and had a panic attack, now you're afraid of fear. Fear spirals out of control until everything that is around you is coated in fear.

There are those among us who fear nothing, who tell us to not be afraid, who tell us that everything is going to be ok, and who tell us nothing can harm us. We want to believe that fear is real so bad that we will find anything to be afraid of and cling to it like our life depends on it. We then become of afraid of letting go of our clinging to fear. When we are able to work up the courage to look fear in the face and let go of it, we see it disappears. We see it was never there in the first place.  

How do we let go of fear? By facing it head on. Whatever you're afraid of, just face it. Start small if you have to and work up to your bigger fears. Or you can really free yourself by just facing your biggest fear right from the start, then all your other fears will just vanish like a fart in the wind. If you know you can face your biggest fear and nothing will happen, the other fears know they don't stand a snowballs chance in hell. 

Every problem facing humanity, every misery, every catastrophe orchestrated by humans, and every corrupt action come from fear. Ego, jealousy, hatred, pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth, crime, war, bombings, mass shootings, suicide, addiction, self-harm, abuse, rape, judgement, condemnation, racism, sexism, control, etc. etc. etc. all originate from fear. Without the belief in fear all of these things would cease to exist.

There is NOTHING to fear. If there is nothing to fear, how then can fear be real? Fear is only real to those who believe it is. To those who see it for what it is, which is nothing, know what it's like to be free, to be alive, and to be Love. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite. (https://acim.org/acim/en/s/51#1:8 | T-in.1:8)

There is only Love my friend. Love and Peace!

I Am Yours

My soul whispers of your grace.

My heart flutters from your forgiveness.

My stomach endures infinite butterflies within your presence.

The gentle kiss of your breath on my body.

The passion hidden within the heat wave.

The storms that rejuvenate my essence. 

The bitter winter being a simple reminder that your Love is never ending.

For I know my desire for you will only grow with every cold night.

When I come wondering out of the winter into the garden on a beautiful spring day,

there you will be waiting with open arms only to tell me that you never left me.

You were with me when I thought I was all alone and had no one.

You carried me when I didn’t think I had the strength to keep going.

When I was ready to give up and give in, it was you who kept encouraging me.

My breath is yours, take it and return it full of your Love, if it be your will. 

I am forever yours.

The Message

Every religion is different means of the same end. There is only one God, and all religions lead to the same God. All paths lead to the one God. Atheism, science, philosophy, psychology, knowledge, Love, hate, the occult, passions, relationships, math, music, art, nature, self, other etc. etc. etc. All paths lead to God, there is no one true path that is universal for everyone. We each walk our own path and since our path based is based on our personal identity and experience, it's impossible to walk the same path as anyone else. In order for two individuals to have the same path to walk they would have to live identical lives in every way which is just not possible. Even conjoined twins have separate experiences with different perspectives.

Since we all walk separate individual paths, there is no sure-fire way of finding God or attaining enlightenment or reaching nirvana which are different terms for the same experience. There are infinite ways to God and while no two are the same, some of us individuals throughout our history were able to find tools which can be used and help to guide our way and light our path. If we take time to listen to the shepherds and teachers from the past, present, and future we are able to find tools that are universal to all paths. 

Every religious text, self-help book, and guru are giving us the same tools. Religious texts are not books of rules or laws for us to follow despite the fact that there are rules or laws listed in same of them. There is nothing that we need to do. Buddha became enlightened to show us the way and Jesus died for everyone's sins as stated in 1 Corinthians 15:22
"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." Every religious text is a guide to help us live joyous and peaceful lives. Religious texts are also a manual if one so chooses to go all the way and seek out God or enlightenment. Noone has to be part of a religion or bring religion into their lives; it is simply an optional path with optional tools to help with a peaceful life.

Each and every one of us has a choice on how we want to live our lives, we all have the choice to suffer or to be free from suffering, to be joyous and peaceful or angry and discontent. There is no future punishment, the punishment is now, and it is only self-inflicted, there is none other than self. Cause and effect or karma is simultaneous. We create our suffering and experience our suffering simultaneously. Space and time are an illusion and only appear in the realm of individuation, in the realm of self, there is no space or time. 

What are the common tools that are given by religious texts, self-help books, and by gurus? The greatest tool we have at our disposal is Love. Faith, hope, and Love. The greatest of these is Love. Do unto others and you would have done onto you. Love thy neighbor as thyself. Since these phrases often get misinterpreted, we will put everything in simple terms. Don't put anyone or anything above or in front of anyone else, treat everyone equally. Your own self is included in that statement. Treat your own self and all other selves equally. Be kind to all living beings, Love all living beings equally. 

Love God, Love yourself, and Love everyone that you consider "other". That is not meant to be an order from greatest to least but in equality. Love God, Self, and "other" equally. No one is better than you, and you aren't better than anyone else. As long as you believe that you are better than anyone else, there will always be those who are better than you. If humanity is a hierarchy, then who is at the top and who is at the bottom? If you wouldn't want to be at the bottom of the hierarchy, why wish that for anyone else?   

Our true nature is Love. Love is the true nature of all life. Humans forgot this about themselves and spend their lives searching for themselves. Seeking Love everywhere except from within. Thinking money, material possessions, or people can give them Love when they already possess it, they not only possess Love but are the source of Love. Every path leads to the same God, the easiest way is to look within, the tool used for that method is Love. Unconditional, unjudgmental, unwavering Love. 

Love gets misinterpreted, confused, and warped into different meanings. Wars have been fought in the name of Love. People have been killed and tortured in the name of Love. People have been abused in the name of Love. The best definition of Love can be found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: 

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love is warm, safe, and comfortable. Love is not abusive, Love does not harm, Love does not condemn, Love does not judge, Love does not hold grudges, Love is not better than, and Love doesn't have a hierarchy. All are equal within Loves embrace, all are safe within Loves embrace, and all are perfect within Loves embrace.  

If you want to live a happy peaceful life, just practice Love, tolerance, and acceptance. What goes around comes around. We reap what we sow. Karma is a bitch. Treat others how you want to be treated. If you want to feel Loved and accepted do those things to others. If you want to be treated like shit than feel free to treat others like shit. 

The second greatest tool we have at our disposal is to not be afraid. Let go of your fears and trust that everything is exactly as it should be. Although we can all agree that it's pretty hard to not be afraid when you believe that you are. It's hard to not be afraid when we believe we have reasons to be afraid. The easiest way to stop being afraid is to trust. Trust that there is nothing to be afraid of. How do you trust without evidence? You just let go. It is only when we let go that we can see that there was never anything to hold onto to. We were holding onto an illusion. As long as we are grasping, we won't be able to see the illusion. 

Another tool is to ask the question "who am I?" Look deeply at yourself and ask yourself who you are. Get rid of all the parts of you that aren't you and see what remains. Anything that we can accumulate or dispose of can't be we who are. Our thoughts come and go, and we don't seem to have control over them, so our thoughts aren't who we are. Our bodies are accumulated and change from baby to adult and then decompose so that can't be who we are. Our personality changes and evolves so that can't be who we are. Our material possessions obviously aren't who we are. Who are we really? It is up to each and every one of us to find out who we are, if we choose to do so. If you don't care who you are, meaning who you really are, no big deal. Truth is you already know who you really are anyways, you're just hiding from yourself in order to surprise yourself. Love and Peace!

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.

Arthur Conan Doyle

Intuition

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." — Albert Einstein

Intuition is a powerful and useful tool that we all have. Intuition guides us and teaches us. Intuition knows what to do at all times. Intuition can be referred to as inner knowing, inner guide, conscience, sixth sense, or gut feeling. We all have intuition; we all know about it but the majority of us trust our logical brain over our intuition and suffer as a result. Our logical brain doesn't have all the necessary information in order to make an accurate prediction. Our logical brain does it's best to prepare us for events and situations but is ill-equipped to do so. 

Our intuition on the other hand is connected with the entirety of the universe and has all knowledge and information available at all times through our collective unconscious. Our intuition doesn't use logic and therefor seems to go against our logical thinking brain. When we listen to and trust our intuition, we will always know what to do in any given situation. Our intuition is always with us and always ready to guide us.

Many of us of don't trust our intuition. We prefer the perceived safety and comfort of our logic failing to see that our logic often gets us into predicaments. Our intuition will never get us into any predicaments of any kind.

The hard part is learning to not only listen to our own intuition but also to trust it, especially when our logical brain is telling us the opposite. It gets even harder when other people are telling you the opposite, or when it seems like everyone is telling you one thing and your intuition is telling you the opposite. Very often we opt to trust the group instead of our intuition and we are never aware of what we missed out on.

Intuition is our friend, that's not to say that the logical brain is our enemy. Our logical brain is meant to be a tool that is used in harmony along with our intuition. Too often our logical brain is seen as the only tool. Our intuition wants what we want which is to be safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous. Our intuition is a built-in safety system and cannot do any harm to us in anyway.   

Our intuition guides us to be the best version of ourselves, living the best life possible. Our intuition will even help us avoid minor inconveniences and annoyances if we learn to listen to it well enough. If we practice listening to our intuition long enough, we are able to see it is still with us even when we are dreaming in our sleep. Our intuition lets us know when something is going to harm us or cause stress even if we are the ones doing it to ourselves.

A prodigy is simply someone who listens to their intuition. We all have the ability to do anything within the human range of possibilities and we all have access to that ability through our intuition which is why is it often children who are considered prodigies. Children have not yet been led to trust the logical brain over their intuition yet. When they learn to trust the logical brain over their intuition quite often they become an average adult. Only a tiny few become creative adult “geniuses.” If a child prodigy continues to trust their intuition over their logical brain, their lives sore to astronomical heights that were previously thought impossible. 

Noone knows of a way to teach someone how to be a prodigy which is because being a prodigy comes from intuition and no one can teach you how to use your intuition. What we should be doing instead is stop putting logic over intuition and everyone would naturally be a prodigy, simple as that. 

Why are we taught to put so much trust into our logical brain over our intuition? Humans logical brain can't conceive of our intuition since our logical brains use our five senses for the information that it has and because our intuition works outside the boundaries of our five senses, our logical brain can't make sense of it. Therefor our logical brain tells us that it is inaccurate or lacking or just plain non-existent.

When we first start trusting our intuition over our logical brain, we may start to feel like we are going insane. Our entire world can be turned upside down and inside out but as long as we keep trusting our intuition, eventually those feeling will pass, and we will achieve homeostasis. The reason this happens is due to our logical brain using logic against us when we have believed it was being used for us. We trust logic so much that it can be very hard to put our trust into something else over our logic.

Some of us even believe that we are using our intuition when we choose to believe in certain ideologies or faiths when in actuality, we are completely blinded to our intuition all together. Our logic has convinced us that our faith is so real that it is actually coming from our intuition which causes us to completely ignore our intuition altogether. The truth is our intuition may be screaming at us the opposite of what our so-called faith says. This creates an internal conflict on a massive scale.

Our intuition only tells us what to do on a personal level. Our intuition doesn't tell us what someone else should be doing or who someone else should be, that's just ego and our ego resides inside our logical brain. Since the ego resides within the logical brain, it is part of it and therefor can't be trusted as a true source of wisdom. Our intuition will only help and heal and will never harm anyone which applies to every living being. If your intuition is telling you to change, control, or harm another living being, that is not your intuition, that is your ego.

Our intuition leads us to help, heal, guide, comfort, and Love all living beings since it is part of the collective unconscious. Our intuition wants the same for us as it wants for all other life which is for the health and comfort of all. Our logical brain's purpose is individual survival in the physical realm, so it places the survival of itself above all else. That is how the ego arises and gains strength. When intuition comes first, the ego naturally dissolves, intuition conflicts with the desire of the ego since the ego is only self-serving. Love and Peace!

Guilt

Guilt is someone else's idea of who you should be. Why do we feel guilt? We're not being the person we were told we were supposed to be by someone else. If we are authentic and true to our own nature and don't care what others think of us, we are free of guilt.

Religion tells us who we should be and when we don't live up to that ideal, we feel guilt. Our parents create an image of us that they want us to be and we can never live up to that image. Our employers, friends, and partners all tell us who they want us to be. No wonder we feel so much guilt all the time.

We've been led to believe that we need to care what people think of us and that we need to listen to others when they tell us who we need to be. If anyone tells you who you should be, they are trying to control you and are not accepting you for who you are, simple as that. Be you, be who you want to be, and do it unapologetically. Embrace your "flaws" and "imperfections", which are only flaws and imperfections to the people who believe you should be someone other than who you are.

Some may think that guilt comes from doing something "wrong". Who told you that thing was "wrong"? Why do you believe it is "wrong"? Something is only wrong because someone told you so and you believed them. There was also a time when someone told you something was "wrong" but you didn't believe them, therefor you don't view it as wrong. 

Nothing you do is "wrong" and there is nothing "wrong" with you. You don't need to be anyone that you're not, which is impossible anyway. All you can be is yourself. All you can do is your best, even if your best appears to be nothing. If you trust yourself and ignore what others tell you to be, you will be free from guilt.