A Refresher on Choosing Love instead of Fear

(reprinted from 'Hand in Hand')

CHAPTER 9

FROM FEAR TO LOVE

1. The Dynamics of Fear:

          What is the seemingly eternal monster stealthily stalking its prey, ready to pounce and devour its victim? 

            Fear seeps into your awareness like a cold clammy hand inexorably pulling you closer to annihilation.  The gift of fear is death, and death is the torment of isolation, the pain and agony of nothingness.  This is the definition of death that fear would have you believe.  And death becomes yours each time you hold fear close to you, clutching it to your heart defending its right to be a part of you, directing its reflection out into the world to create a virtual reality of hell.

            Fear comes from the belief in nothingness.  Its basic premise is that the ultimate reward will be death, and therefore, no matter how hard you strive toward fulfillment the end result will still be death.  Look closely at the life you lead, your activities, your relationships, your hopes and lastly your fears.  Underlying each thought and underscoring it with blood is fear.  Look closely at the motivations that drive your life - you will see the cold shape of fear pointing the way onward, pressing you forward into most of your activities and relationships.  Would you be pursuing your present romance if it were not for the fear of loneliness?  Would you be relentless in your career focus if it were not for the fear of poverty?

            You have chosen a very strict task master and are paying a very high price for his services.  You are paying with your health, with your sanity, with your happiness.  All this you give and what is your reward? Death.  Each time you choose fear you have closed your eyes to the other Master Who can guide you safely out of your self-imposed hell.  This Guide is Love and Its gentleness, Its peace and Its ever present loyalty is the answer to your safety, fulfillment and health.

            Love is the natural expression of the Universe -- the catalyst for creation and in its unifying energy lies the totality of reality.  In its grandest expression it reaches outward and encompasses the Whole of Life.  In its simplest expression it extends out and encompasses one heart with another. 

Love is unifying,  the opposite of fear.

As you allow love to permeate your life its healing energy will release you from the deadly grip of fear.  Fear is the belief in nothingness, but love is the belief in Everything.

            This is Life. 

                        This is Love.   

           

                                    This is health. 

                                                This is yours!

Have you become totally healed?  It probably doesn’t seem so, but don’t worry:  Your spiritual true Self is safe and sound untouched by any strange and bizarre fantasies you may hold in your mind about being a body engaged in melodramatic tragedies.

            Yet even within this dream world, you can experience joy and peace of mind.  Your dreams of limitation and nightmares of death can be transformed to dreams of life.  And this is all the healing we need be concerned about here -   the shift from fear to love, from anger to peace, from pain to release.

2. The Dynamics of Love:

            As we discussed in the last section focus on fear will bring pain so let us now discuss focusing on love.  Contemplate the logic of the following ideas:

1.  Reality is the natural functioning of  your mind.1

          You try to fathom the depths of your reality and you do so in many ways.  Your reality seems complex and not easily understood.  The essence of your being seems clouded by coverings of emotions and  veiled by actions and reactions prompted by the situations in which you find yourself.  As the path to understanding your reality becomes your only goal you will come to the conclusion that in understanding who and what you are, you will succeed in empowering and healing your mind.

2. Reality brings the knowledge of the oneness of the Universe.

            As you continue your search for your reality, truth begins to dawn again in your consciousness.  Truth is the knowledge that the Universe is total and one.  The internal universe as well as the seemingly external universe are seen as harmonic and integrated.  The one affects the other for they cannot be separated.  As you feel inside so will your outside world reflect this state of mind - the Mirror Principle in action.   The more peaceful your mind becomes, the more healed your world will be. 

3.  Oneness implies complete integration and unity.

            You cannot have separate parts within one.  One by definition means whole and complete.  The Universe, both internal and external, are one.  It cannot be fragmented.  This is the law of the Universe;  it can be forgotten and misperceived but cannot be changed.  Your reality is total and unified.  You could no more separate yourself from the family of life, than God could separate Himself from you, His Child.  Your reality is now seen as a Divine Lineage, complete and all-powerful.

4.  The unifying force of the Universe  is love.

           

            What greater power could there be than love?  In love’s expression lies the healer’s tools.  Love unites and forms the golden network which connects the whole of creation.  Love cements the world together and justifies its reality.  You can experience this adhesive quality whenever another person impacts on your life.  Whether you choose to think poorly or well of this individual your thoughts first affect you, and then reach out to influence the other.  You are inexorably entwined with this other individual - you are now stuck together!  See him through the eyes of love, and peace will prevail.  And where peace reigns healing unfolds and reality discovered.

5.  Love must then be the central focus for your thoughts.

            The light of love blinds you to thoughts of pain and anger.  Its peaceful brightness envelops you in a world so crystal clear and exquisite that your entire being is transformed to light.  You become the light of the world.  Love encompasses the lowly and the high equalizing them into totality.  You become a part of all, and all becomes what you are.   This is the bliss you seek and the freedom from fear for which you have so longingly searched.  The reality of love is reached quickly and effortlessly when peace is the goal.   A miracle of healing takes place - you have become aware of your own reality as it always was, is and will be.

HOW TO FIND PEACE:

            The goal of the unhealed has been fear, and that is what they received.  In order for you to be healed, peace must now become your goal.  The simplicity of this is obscured by the effort you put into making it complex!

            The first step in finding peace is recognizing that you are without it.  Many go through years of agony, never recognizing how very unhappy they are.  They have gotten used to the idea of  anger, fear and pain - it has became a “comfortable friend”.  Once, however, the merest glimmering of peace has entered your life,  complacency begins to crumble.  Something tantalizing has touched you.  You begin the search for peace.  You start looking for a source to fill your growing need.  You look for a peace “pusher”.

             Since you are reading this you must have experienced peace and you are therefore hungry for more. Remember to keep your goal clearly in front, your eye on the prize, leading you onward! At times peace will seem quite near and at other times frustratingly unattainable. But you know peace is what you want and the degree of your desire for this goal will determine how closely you will be near its acquisition. This is truly the only prerequisite for attainment: Your desire will accomplish what you wish. Desire completely and the Universe cannot but meet your request, for you have given a royal command! The more focused you remain on peace the more focused peace will remain within you.

            Holding love in mind is the next important step.  Feelings of loneliness have caused you so much fear and pain.  Focusing on the adhesive super glue of love will dissipate all feelings of aloneness.  Just look around you recognizing that everything you see, everything you think of, everything in your world is a part of you. YOU are everything and everywhere.  How could you ever be alone? 

            In this last step a strange and beautiful shift occurs.  Fear was the agonizing emotion of loneliness and rejection.  Fear was the belief in your unworthiness and immanent punishment.  But love is your focus and fear simply has no reason to hang around.  How enchanting the world becomes - how gentle and safe.  Peace surrounds you and all  you see and experience is joined in your robust health.

FOR PRACTICE:

            Think of yourself as part of one organism.  You are simply focused through one small part of its structure.  You may be just the finger on a giant “Divine Being”.  Your function is to work in conjunction with the hand to lift and manipulate the world. You are  not the heart, or toe or pulmonary system. You have your function to perform as they have theirs.  Because you are a finger you cannot fully understand how the other parts of the organism work, or why they are doing what they do - nor need you understand.  The thinking/directing part of the organism oversees all that.  That is its function. 

            Yes, you are an important, integral part of the whole organism. Without you this Divine Being would be incomplete and limited.  

            Now let us say for the moment that the left toe is not doing its job properly.  Do you get angry with your toe?  Do you punish it and banish it because it has forgotten how to function properly?  Of course not!  You take care of yourself as a whole.  You help the circulatory system, the muscles and skeleton, the nervous system and immune system to perform their own functions, by staying out of their way!                                              

          Remember, in this example you are just a finger.  An important finger true, but it is not your function to pump the heart or build blood cells.  And so when the organism needs you to massage the toe, you can help!  But not until then.

            This is a good example of  being truly helpful by listening to the thinking/directing part of yourself, the Wisdom of the Universe, who knows how and what you can do.  This short-circuits co-dependent rescuing when your efforts would be  intrusive rather than supportive. 

            This is an excellent starting point for meditation, for as you hold the image of yourself as a small, but integral part of a whole you will include the whole Universe into your Self.  You will be responsible for the whole, yet still understand that helpfulness must be guided by Inner Wisdom.  When you allow yourself to be guided to heal, you will discover you are healing your own mind and all Mind is healed with you.