All human emotions can be traced to either fear or love. Fear is the absence of love. Love is the absence of fear. I realize that this concept is a difficult one to follow for some. Whenever we feel fear we are either afraid of not getting what we desire or we are afraid of losing something that we already have. Knowing your emotions is a good practice for all.
You may say that hate is the opposite of love. Hate is simply fear. Let’s talk about fear. Fear is the reason for all crimes. Fear drives humankind to kill each other and themselves. Fear is what drives the teenager to ruthless degradation of their fellow classmates. Fear is what drives a spouse to unfaithfulness. Fear can cause a mother to abandon her children. Fear can cause a father to beat his children. Yes, fear is necessary at some point for the survival of a human being. We are given fear so that we may survive. Fear can be a gift. So now you may ask, “How can fear be a gift?”. It is fear that causes a mother to be protective of her defenseless children. It is fear that causes people to obey necessary laws within a civilization. It is fear that instructs us not to jump off that cliff.
Why do we get caught up in fear instead of love? Why do we become so afraid? We are creatures of consistency. We find comfort in knowing what is going to happen in our lives from day to day most of the time. Many of us stay in the same home for our adult lives, go to the same place of worship, eat the same rotation of meals, have the same friends, and go to bed at the same time each day. We fear what we do not know or understand. We get our variety from eating in a restaurant, watching something new at the movies/or television, going on a vacation, or exploring other knowledge through all sorts of media. Anything that asks us to change or even explore the possibility of change can cause fear.
A perfect scenario of this very problem reads like this:
There is a man with a father who was an accountant. His father had a respectable accounting firm and was reasonably financially sound. The son grew up with his father’s expectation that he too would grow up to take his place in the business along side of his father. The son went to school and did well. One day the son saw an animal that was hurt and decided to help the animal. The son managed to nurse this animal back to health. It was then that the son decided that he wanted to grow up to be a veterinarian. The son told the father about his dream and the father commenced to instilling fear into the child. The father told the son that he would have to attend school for many years to do that and the father told the son that he would have to have perfect grades to do this. The son believed from then on that he was not worthy of the task. The father did this to the son because he wanted the son to do his will. The father’s own fear was passed to the child. The father was presented with an opportunity for change and fear of the unknown created the same fear in the child. And as with all forms of fear, the son passed the same to his own son.
Changing requires the courage to let go of unreasonable fears and examining your instilled patterns. Making those changes is necessary for growth and contribution. Humanity is not perfect and we don’t have to be. What we do need to do is improve on the person that we are so that we can find that ultimate joy and happiness in our lives.
Now a word about love. There are many great prophets and sages in our world today. There are an incredible amount of writings from the same. There are so many in fact that it would be a wonderful challenge for someone to have read ALL of them. We are able to pick and choose which ones interest us the most. They are the ones that we usually identify with in some way. If it is love that you want to know about then it simply boils down to this. Tolerance is the least amount of love you can give to another human being. Selfless service is the best showing of love you can give to society. What exactly do we mean by these two things?
Just once, do something good for someone BECAUSE. You know that guy standing on the corner begging for money? Give him some money just because. You do not have to have a reason and you do not have to justify this to anyone! Now…don’t tell anyone what you did…EVER. Giving that guy some money isn’t about you. It is about LOVE. You know that soldier that you see in the store? Don’t just thank him for his service. Take the next step and find your favorite charity that supports our veterans and anonymously donate and….don’t tell anyone…EVER. Charity is not about feeling good about ourselves. Charity is about love for our fellow humans. The only way to experience true love is to be able to let go of our own selfish needs and experience fulfilling the needs of our fellows. By doing this you will have found a joy and happiness that you could have never imagined.
Fear or Love. Which will it be for you? Living in fear will help you to survive. Living in love will help you to thrive!
