Overcoming Fear

Usually one finds something when one is not looking for it.  That's why research grants don't usually work.  They merely confirm what one already wants to believe -- and every other finding is discounted and dismissed -- because that is not what is being observed and measured -- and that is not what they are funded for.  So even if the results are even more astounding than what they are being paid to confirm, they cannot be distracted -- even if it is far more valuable and significant.  That is not how the system works -- and many will smugly point this out -- as though they know better, and pride themselves in their sophistication.

Meanwhile, great truths elude them -- because they know only the the minutia.  And so they live in constant fear of ever finding out the truth of any matter -- because that would distract them from their job -- which is to be paid not to think for themselves, but only to think what somebody else would like them to think.  That is what they are getting paid for.

So arriving at that point in life in which they actually think for themselves -- and find out the truth of anything, is their greatest fear -- for which they never dare to go beyond.  That is the frontier and limits of their thinking -- especially in the old world view, that prevents them from ever discovering the new -- which is the "unthinkable."  They never think to go "there."  That is off-limits -- until first one, and then another, proves that it is not the fear it was thought to be -- and a whole new world is discovered, and created.

Of course there are many things we need to avoid -- but fear is this conditioned response to anything, and not just those things that are truly bad for us.  It can also be a fear of that which is actually good for us -- such as thinking for ourselves, when a self-selected few think they should do the thinking for everybody else.  That disempowers everybody else -- and eventually disables them. 

It begins with the most basic fear of life -- that of starving to death, which many learn to avoid every moment of their lives -- that then becomes their great undoing, particularly in the new world of abundance and virtually unlimited plenty.  The worst off, are convinced that the objective and purpose of life, is to overconsume as much as humanly possible -- unaware that humanity did not evolve under those conditions, that now become extremely problematical -- taken to extremes and excess.  It is rightfully observed to be "mindless" consumption -- for the conditioned fear of never having enough -- when that has ceased to be the reality.

Then the most extreme overuses (abuses), are what we recognize as compulsive disorders, or addictions.  One simply can't help themselves -- whether that is eating, drinking, exploiting, competing, cheating -- when it is not necessary, and have become counterproductive and damaging.  So the first thing, is to become "mindful" of what one is doing -- and what one is not doing -- in its most basic simplicity.

That is the power of fasting -- or not eating anything, for as long as possible.  Nothing is as effective at focusing one's attention than simply not eating for as long as possible -- totally voluntarily.  That is the wisdom of the ages.  Then the mind is fully focused and in tune with the body -- and from that integration, one can act with effectiveness.  Of course, forcing it on another, is always a violence -- but the self-enforcement of such a practice, is the cultivation of the discipline to accomplish anything else.  That is the very embodiment of the delayed gratification necessary to achieve great things.

Those unconditioned in this way, are the failures of every culture and societies -- demanding immediate gratification no matter what the circumstances and consequences.  In this manner, they must consume all they can, at every moment possible, and know nothing else, no other possibilities -- because it is not of their will, and voluntary exercise.  Those are the troubling crimes of these times -- when people felt they had no choice, no other way they could have been.

Something very fundamental and basic was missing from their earliest years.  That critical lesson was not always getting what they wanted, every time they wanted it -- without fail.  Such conditioning is the ultimate failure -- and that's why the self-imposed practice and exercise of not consuming all one can, is a basic lesson one must practice and exercise all one's life.  Often, one must do what is right, even when there is no immediate pay-off -- because the real pay-off, is in knowing that one still can exercise mindful and willful action -- especially when nobody else is around to validate it.  It is just who you are -- and the person one is.  That's all that matters.