Fear and Hate

In the American Heritage Dictionary, fear is described as: “A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.”

Almost every negative response can be brought back to the common denominator of fear “whether the treat is real or imagined.” This feeling of fear is mostly an assumption of danger that the mind concocts in an effort to protect us. How many times have you been alone in the dark and perceived some shadow as a threat, but upon further scrutiny realize that it’s only a shadow? There are many instances in each of our lives like this. These momentary fears are resolved through the acquisition of knowledge.

Knowledge and understanding are the keys to releasing us from all of the erroneous fears that cloud our minds and block progression and spiritual growth. Acquiring knowledge and understanding is the path to releasing us from fear.

Almost every negative response can be brought back to the common denominator of fear. Fear is the opposite of Love. Fear is the cause for hate, failure, dissatisfaction, and a bevy of other human emotions. Therefore it is not hate that is the opposite of love, but fear.

It could also be said that Love is the creator of courage, success, satisfaction and many positive emotions and victories. Therefore, it is not courage that is the opposite of fear, but love.

Given this premise, it is easy to see why our lives are filled with error upon error in our choices for living our lives. If we look very closely, we can probably see why we might be dissatisfied with our lives and the people around us.

Thomas Becket in T.S.Elliot's Murder in the Cathedral says: "The last tempation is the greatest treason, doing the right deeds for the wrong reasons." My interpretation of this is that we do the 'right deeds'not from the goodness in us, but from fear, guilt or desire for personal gain. Fear and guilt walk hand in hand thru our psyche. We try to pave the road to heaven with our good deeds for fear of going to hell and heaven being the reward. Often we do negative things and later try to make amends out of guilt as a means of waylaying that fear of reprisal. Why is this the 'greatest treason?' When we don't do things from the goodness in us, we short change ourselves from creating the positive energy that those good deeds bring about. The greed that is powered by fear of doing without or having less, makes us less generous of ourselves and our goods. Not only this, but it also makes us take more than we need and hoard it like a squirrel before winter.

It is not a choice or decision made in the heart, but one made in the mind where we learn to respond in a specific way to certain stimuli. If we think about deviating from these set guidelines, we become uncomfortable; therefore we take the easier path and do what is the comfortable thing to do. Even if that comfortable thing is the wrong thing. If we have been taught fear of persons, places or things, we keep those in our minds all our lives, even though we may not have had fear causing experiences and have only been taught to fear these things. If you believe in the reasons for your fear, even if no more than what you have been told, than that fear is as real as if you had experienced the trauma to cause it.