Choice

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind killer.

Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

When fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

-Frank Herbert, The Bene Gesserit litany against fear

I have shared this before, but I find I need to be reminded of it myself rather often.  It comes from a fictional universe complete with a fictional religion, yet it rings with a certain truth that could very well be Hebrew, Christian, Islamic or Buddhist.  Perhaps it is a sort of synthesis of wisdom that Herbert was free to express as a maker of worlds, but it is true, fear is the mind killer.

The liturgical process of the Bene Gesserit reminds me of the many instances that Jesus confronted the fear that his disciples had. His approach was not to avoid their fear, or even his own, but to come at it head on, and to encourage them to do the same. This process is found often in the writings of the mystics as they confront the "dark nights of the soul," and such things. The idea that our fears can be avoided is the path to a very bad place.

Notice that the invocation: "I must not fear," is quickly revealed to be a futile attempt.  The path then is not avoidance of fear, but rather the facing of fear, allowing it to happen and then observing its passage, noting what it really was, and the effect that it had. The end result is learning, and growth.

It seems we are being sold an awful lot of fear these days, on the eve of an election it seems particularly vitriolic.  I am trying to see what it is I can learn from the passing of fear, because it will pass, as surely as the day turns into night, but there will be more to come.  I would like it if I could help people see the nothing that lies in the wake of their fears, but alas, we cannot live other people's struggles for them.  For instance, I cannot bring myself to be afraid of the Honduran Caravan of refugees.  To me those poor people are victims of poverty and violence who, should they make it to our borders, should be received with grace and proper documentation.  But many people appear to fear differently than me, yet I cannot learn much from their fear, because I face something rather different.

What I fear is the loss of democracy that could come from the fear of others. In essence, I fear the toxic effect that fear has on those who allow fear to be a killer of the mind, who will not face it, let it pass and see the nothing in its wake.  Ben Franklin is often quoted or paraphrased, "Those who would sacrifice liberty for security probably deserve neither."  As with many of Franklin's sayings, there is a slightly apocryphal feel to this one, but since I started with a fictional religious incantation, I guess I can keep rolling that way. It calls us to look at what courage really is, courage is not lack of fear, it is the willingness to face it.  We all must deal with the balance of whether to be open to others, or whether to try and seek the greatest possible insulation from others. It may be true that the safest of all possible worlds would be the one where liberty and justice for all is not just confined to our ideas and ideals, but is always a practical guideline. 

Fear will always work against both liberty and justice.  Beware those who sell you fear and even those who try and give it away, they are not trustworthy. 

You cannot really expect to be free from fear, but you have a choice on how to deal with it.  I commend the Bene Gesserit methodology, let it come, let it go, look at the nothingness that is left and consider what that tells you about yourself.