def: The absence of fear.
The only time I am not free is when I am afraid.
When I blame another person or a situation for my fear, I surrender my freedom to them and I become their prisoner.
But whenever I do that, I am confused.
I am the source of my fear. What I’m thinking and believing is the only thing that has ever scared me.
When I stop scaring myself I will be completely free.
Until I do, I am in a cell of my own making, with no walls, no bars, no confinement of any kind except those created in my mind.
Because, prior to my story, I am completely free.
And no one can ever keep me from recognizing the truth of this and returning to freedom.
“But fear is important!” I plead. “Fear alerts me to danger and keeps me safe!”
Yes it does. It alerts me to the danger of my own false story that anything can happen that should not happen. It is there to signal me to this confusion and call me to return to the safety of my fearless true nature: my calm, loving, peaceful mind prior to this story. Because my true nature is the only place I can ever experience true safety.
Fearlessness is the only safety there is. Until I find my way to the belief that I am safe, I will never feel safe. If I can never feel safe, I can never be free. And there is no one who can influence how I feel. I do all of it and then I blame the other guy, or the situation. And it’s my blame that destroys my freedom.
There is no such thing as a fearless warrior. Because without fear, there is no war.
All war is an expression of fear.
True fearlessness is total peace. True peace has no fear in it.
When I am totally at peace, I recognize that the world is for me. And I am peaceful enough to let it serve me, to let things fall right into place in all its surprising unexpected ways. Ways I never imagine possible when I am at war.
Nothing to fear, nothing to fight.
Nothing to fight, no enemy.
No enemy, no separation.
No separation, perfect oneness.
Perfect oneness, perfect peace.
…in me. (the only place I can ever confirm peace or war even exist).
As a culture, (it seems) we are so scared of each other. We’ve learned to surrender our peace of mind to everyone else through the confused notion that each of us is responsible for everyone else’s peace of mind. We tell ourselves that other people cause our pain and then we go to war with them - and they with us, when in actuality we are all causing our own pain and just innocently confused about the source.
I see that it is literally impossible for another person to cause my pain.
I see that it is literally impossible for me to feel pain unless I cause it.
I see that without the thought that pain is possible, I cannot be afraid.
When I am free from fear, I can do anything that is necessary (and choose to do nothing that is not).
When I am truly free, there is nothing I can’t love. There is nothing I can’t be totally connected to. There’s nothing that can stop me from flowing peacefully in the world.
THAT, is my work. And I am the only one who can do it. There is only one person to free in this world. There is only one person I CAN free. And when I free myself, the whole world starts to free up around me.
To be free is to be free from fear.
To be free from fear is to love what is.
To love what is is the entire point of life.
One of my most confining confusions is my fear of death. There is nothing to fear there.
Everything dies and nothing experiences it.
Because death is the end of experience.
I can never experience death. But I can experience dying. And I have total control over that experience. I can suffer or I can live. Those are my choices. I find that when I live in fear I am just giving myself a painful experience of dying. And I go to war with others to save myself from my own self-generated experience. Impossible.
I can just LIVE instead - fearless and peaceful. This is what Jesus called “eternal life.” It has nothing to do with religion. It’s purely practical. It’s just living in the gift of reality. And it’s available to me now. I just take care of my mind and clear up my fear.
When I do that, everything is heaven.
Where I am completely free.