It is only when you understand the origins of fear that you will be able to live your life in peace -- and peace is your birthright! (This instruction is given by a Master from Ramala.)
Two Kinds of Fear
I am going to talk to you about something that you have to contend with every minute of the day that you are awake, and that is fear. I wonder if you have ever really considered just how much fear plays a part in your life, indeed, how much of your life is actually governed by fear. Have you ever thought it necessary to investigate what is the cause of fear, whether fear is a necessary or even a desirable emotion?? Finally, have you ever spent time on seeking a way to handle your fears, for it is only when you understand the origins of fear that you will be able to lead your life in peace -- a peace which is your birthright. I am now going to suggest to you that there are in essence two kinds of fear -- physical and pyschological. Let us examine this.
Physical Fear
Physical fear is that which pertains to the body and is closely allied to instinct. Physical fear is concerned only with the present, with what you are actually sensing at any given moment in time. It is, perhaps, best demonstrated in the Animal Kingdom for an animal, whilst being alert to protect itself from danger at all times, does not live in a state of fear. But when an animal is challenged or is frightened in some way then it follows its instincts and either flees or else responds by challenging that which is causing it fear. It can be said that thought or reason plays no part in this action. It is a natural response to the situation in which the animal finds itself. Unlike human beings an animal is not capable of analysing the cause of the fear. It responds instinctively.
Humanity, of course, being in an animalistic body also has its instincts. You can all remember incidents in your own life when you have experienced physical rather than pyschological fear. Perhaps you were walking home on a dark night and were startled by something. Perhaps you were travelling in a plane and were suddenly placed in a life threatening situation. In both cases you were confronted by somehing which, at first, caused you to respond instinctively, but if you were able to analyse what was causing the fear and to understand its origins and how much of a threat it constituted to you, then the fear soon disappeared.
Nevertheless, for a few moments in time you would probably have responded instinctively. Your physical body would also have responded to such a situation by increasing the flow of adrenalin, thus enabling you to do things you would not normally have been able to do, like swim a great distance to avoid drowning or jump a great height into a tree to avoid being attacked by a wild animal. That is the response of the human physical body to such a challenge.
Rational Thinking
For the most part, however, Humanity has tended to replace instinct by thought. This, afterall, is what differentiates the Human Kingdom from the Animal Kingdom. The Animal Kingdom not possessing the ability to think rationally relies solely on instinct, whereas Humanity can analyse and compare, can create mentally and inspirationally, can project itself into both past and future, and can in fact create its own reality. So for the most part Humanity allows thought to over-rule its physical instincts and this characteristic, indeed, is demanded by its evolutionary pattern and cosmic status.
Psychological Fear
Let us now consider the nature of psychological fear. You all know so well your deep psychological fears: fear that your child may die, fear that a loved one will reject you, fear that a husband or wife will desert you, fear of catching a disease, fear that you will lose your wealth or a possession which you prize above all else. Then there are the fears that are associated with time: will I be able to achieve what I want to achieve in the time that I think is available to me, will the world situation in ten years time be so bad that my financial security will be threatened.
But finally, in the world which you live today, where there is so much personal and national conflict, where everyday the papers are full of reports of gory accidents, of murders, of droughts, famines and earthquakes, where human violence and degradation is daily brought to your attention, there is this fear that perhaps such events will happen to you. The net result of all these fears is that a strong desire is created within you as to how to avoid such events, as to how to protect yourself from the world around you. Instinct as a means of protection is, of course, usually ruled out because instinct is not deemed as being adequate enough in the conditions that prevail in the world today.
Past and Future
So it would probably be true to say that most people are concerned mainly with psychological fear. Now I want you to see very clearly that this is not a fear of the moment in which you are living, because if you were challenged in any way at this very second in time you would respond. You would face that challenge. You would not panic or surrender to your "animal" instincts, you would use the rational power of thought to face the challenge. So recognise that psychological thought is concerned solely with the past or the future. It is concerned with the past in that if you have done something of which you are ashamed then you fear that it will be discovered, that past inadequacies will be revealed to humiliate you before your friends today. It is concerned with the future in that because the future is unknown you cannot control it. You do not know what lies in store for you and therefore you fear that you will lose something that you prize even above your own soul being, and that something is usually either a material or a psychological possession.
Part Two follows....
This article is from "The Fantastic Teachings of Ramala".
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