There's no doubting the emotional unpleasantness of fear. Yet equally certain is its conditioned potentiality. We don't fear what is past, nor even the current moment. What we fear is always something that might occur. Fear needs a future.
The unfortunate irony is that we suffer now for something that may, or may not occur at some point later. What's the point? Why choose needlessly preemptive pain that, in fact, forestalls nothing?
To reinforce the sense of self, without the guilt.
Fear unequivocally demonstrates the reality of me while simultaneously suggesting the source of suffering lies beyond the me.
The object of our fear is always something external - our physical body, the well-being of others, or the state of our surrounding world. Fear gives us righteous selfhood.
The maxim of this misplaced identity could be summed up as: "I suffer, but it's not my fault."
A deep-seated belief in the seeming actuality of existence leads to the experience of duality. We perceive an objective world without awareness of its choice. Yet it's this desire for distinction, the will to self, that projects such a fantasied physicality. Carrying with it the inevitable weightiness of guilt and a primordial fear of its undoing.
In desperate attempts to assuage such awfulness we attribute them to sources beyond intentioned choice. Thus giving birth to all emotion as sworn protectorate of our elected I. Hence the fear.
Yet there is a way out. Fear needs a future.
All emotions are predicated on past or future. But unconditional peace lies in the eternal presence of now. In such a state we reside in what A Course in Miracles describes as "perfect stillness, beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt, sublimely certain that you are at home."
Learning how to enter this timeless realm of infinite bliss is the most helpful practice we can undertake.
Join me in Thursday's class where we'll explore the deliberate nature of fear and steps we can take to undo its specter and experience more serenity. I look forward to seeing you then.