I think I'm fascinated by fear. My own fear. The fear I see in others. It's a deep-rooted thing, fear -- like love. They both go deep. Maybe they both grow out of the same seed way down inside us. They're both deep and vast. I know that.
Fear comes out of my sense that I stop at my skin. There's me, and then there's everything and everyone else -- all that isn’t me. My goal is to keep myself alive in this universe of everything else. And if I fail, I die. I cease to be. I disappear.
That's what fear teaches.
Love reminds me that even though I'm separate, I'm not separate. Love wears away the walls I build to protect myself from The Other, no matter how thick I make them.
Love is an odd dance partner for fear, but they do balance one another out -- at least here among what Lao-tzu called the ten thousand things.
Here's something else I've learned: Fear is useless in battling fear. Fighting fear with fear only creates more fear. The way to overcome fear is to pour love on it.
You are right--I must have been "seeing" ahead in my comment on an earlier post! Fear dissipates in the presence of love, like morning fog kissed by the sun.
ReplyDeleteGalen:
ReplyDeleteTold you. But go ahead and read ahead if you like. (Still not sure how you're doing that, though.)
Like minds, like thoughts, I guess...
I'm sure I'll end up writing this in a post one of these days, but I'll put it here just in case I forget. For me, salvation isn't about heaven or hell. Salvation is about freedom from fear. (This I know from up-close, personal experience.) And just as with those whose salvation concerns heaven and hell, Love is the source of my salvation from fear, too.
When I let it be, that is.
Thanks for reading and writing. I appreciate your thoughtful comments.
H. K.