Lesson 240
Fear is not justified in any form.
Fear is deception. It attests that you have seen yourself as you could never be, and therefore look upon a world which is impossible. Not one thing in this world is true. It does not matter what the form in which it may appear. It witnesses but to your own illusions of yourself. Let us not be deceived today. We are the Sons of God. There is no fear in us, for we are each a part of Love Itself.
How foolish are our fears! Would You allow Your Son to suffer? Give us faith today to recognize Your Son, and set him free. Let us forgive him in Your Name, that we may understand his holiness, and feel the love for him which is Your Own as well.
Journal
I still feel fear sometimes, but I know that I am not my feelings. Feelings come and feelings go because they are not eternal and therefore, they are not real. The ego mind argues that some fear is justified. It argues that it makes sense to be afraid of certain things like fire or in my case heights. But that is not true. It pays to be cautious, perhaps, but fear is not needed or justified.
Ultimately, there is nothing happening in this world that is eternal and therefore nothing that is real. All of the fear that occurs in the mind is about the image of the separate self and that is not me so I have nothing to fear. Should I be afraid of what people think of me? The me we are talking about is the image of a separated self and why should I care what people think about that image. It is here for a while and then it is gone. I am that in which it shows up and I am that which witnesses it but is unaffected by it. I cannot be harmed by anyone’s opinion.
Even the loss of the body image is not a loss to me. It has a short run anyway and I am eternal. Maybe I will choose another or maybe I will not want or need this world again. Who knows? But how could an eternal being be affected by the loss of a temporary illusion of a body. When this happens, it is because I have forgotten who I am. Sometimes there is a feeling of fear that doesn’t seem to be connected to anything in particular. That is just the ego awareness of unconscious guilt I think and it can be disregarded as equally unreal.
There is no justification for fear so when it shows up in my mind, I treat it as the temporary aberration it is. I look at it, ask the Holy Spirit if there is anything for me to know about this feeling, I let it be and soon it passes on through as do all temporary illusions. If I get hooked by a fear thought, I might have to talk myself through the moment, and sometimes I have to call on spiritual help for the strength and fortitude to remember the truth, but I notice these days that fear no longer rules me. I forgive my belief in it and release it, usually sooner rather than later, but always eventually.
Regina’s Tips
Two days ago we noticed that our decisions are based on who we think we are. Fear is a decision. Whenever we are afraid, it is because we have decided to believe fearful thoughts in the mind. We have decided those thoughts are true, and this decision is based on who we think we are.
Look at some fearful situations. You may look at current fears or fearful situations that you remember. What is the identification that is the basis of the fear?
My Thoughts
Regina goes on to give some examples, like feeling rejectable. She asks us to look at that idea and to ask ourselves if nothing in the world is true could I be rejectable? Is this idea with me always or is it just a passing idea or feeling? I am not a passing idea so rejection cannot be me. If someone were unclear about the idea of how there could be nothing to fear and why that is, it might be helpful to read her tip in full. Here is the link. https://awakening-together.org/tips-regina-lesson-240/
Past Entries
Here is another opportunity to practice uncompromising dedication to this work. Fear is not justified in any form. The only two forms of fear that I am tempted to believe in are the fear of losing a child, and the fear of heights. I am willing to release both now, because I will not compromise my Awakening by holding onto fear.
My favorite words here are these. Let us not be deceived today. We are the Sons of God. There is no fear in us, for we are each a part of Love Itself. This is the statement I am going to write on my hand today, in my Daytimer, on a sticky note or two to place in strategic places. I will carry this thought with me today to support me as I devote myself to Awakening, but mainly because it makes my heart sing!
2016
Reading this, I realize that in the past when I found it hard to believe that I have nothing to fear, it was because I kept thinking of me as Myron, living in a scary world. Here is what has changed. First, I still think of myself as Myron sometimes, but also I know I am not that. I am truly one of God’s Sons and Myron is an illusory thought within the sleeping mind of His Son. What I am is perfectly safe and untouched by anything that happens in the dream of Myron. This has become more of a fact than a hope, so when I hear that we are the Sons of God and there is no fear in us, I believe it. Now I just work toward letting go of the idea that I am something else as well. I seem to slip in and out of awareness of who I am, never really settling into my Self, but never completely losing sight of it.
It is funny because the chief block to this awareness of Self is the fear of what happens to Myron in the dream. But as I stop asking the ego what each situation means, and start asking Holy Spirit instead, even the dream loses a lot of its fearful impact, and I begin to see that I am causing the fear by how I think about what is happening. I am my own worst enemy in this dream. I ask to see things differently and my perception of it changes and I realize I had nothing to fear from the situation to begin with. Disentangling myself from this confusion of dreams within dreams and who the dreamer is and who the observer is, seems to be taking a while, but it is happening.
Here is something I wrote some years ago. I include it because I think it is helpful to me to read again and perhaps helpful to others. We all have special relationships and those relationships are inherently fearful.
Overcoming Fear Through Relinquishing the Special Relationship
I set an intention to allow fear thoughts to come up for healing as I was ready to look at them with the Holy Spirit, and certainly, that has been happening. It has been lovely as I go through this process. It is not always easy but I feel very supported. Yesterday I had a more difficult fear belief surface, which was triggered by one of my children. Special relationships tend to feel complicated to me because there are so many fear elements in them and of course because I mistakenly think of them as vital to my survival.
Is there any special relationship so rich in forgiveness opportunities as the relationships we have with our children? This lesson comes at a very opportune time since in September I am going to be conducting a workshop on enlightened parenting. Any lessons I learn now will find a place in that workshop. I firmly believe in recycling my lessons!
One of my children said something to me that seemed so selfish and self-centered that I could hardly believe I had heard it. It also seemed like a direct attack on me. I felt like someone had just knocked me over and I was having trouble getting my breath. I felt the fear go through me like a shock of adrenaline. I fumbled for words because while in ego distress there was no opening for Holy Spirit to give me His and this adds to the upset.
There followed guilt as I began to consider what he had said. I felt the parent’s guilt of having made a really bad mistake as I raised this child. I spoiled him and now I had to see the results. Later, I felt anger and resentment; the “how could he” syndrome. But as the lesson says, there is no justification for fear and this applies to its different forms, such as anger and resentment.
I had been working on fear, and I had set the intention of releasing fear in all its forms as I was made aware of them, and I was as ready as I was likely to be. So as all these emotions washed over me, I was still aware of the need to heal. I immediately asked the Holy Spirit to help me with this. I asked Him to look with me and to help me to see a different way of looking at it. It took awhile, and I was like a diver having to rise from a great depth in stages so I wouldn’t get the bends.
At first, all I could do with it was ask for help. His simple statement brought up so much deeply buried fear that I felt stunned by it and could not sort it out. Slowly I was able to see what the anger and resentment in him were masking. I saw that he was in unacknowledged fear that he was trying to project out of himself. As I began to realize what was going on with him, I was able to step out of myself and see him with compassion.
I was no longer looking at him as my enemy but as my brother with whom I shared the purpose of awakening. He was no longer another person competing with me for the dab of happiness available in this world. I was no longer even singling him out as my son who owed me something but was now seeing him as another aspect of myself working in perfect harmony with me to return us home.
Then I looked at my own feelings. I saw that he was mirroring for me my fears of failing as a mother, and of being unloved. I recognized the nature of the special relationship we had bargained for and saw that my anger stemmed from the thought that he had broken that agreement. I was supposed to spoil him, adore him, and give him all my attention and he was supposed to forever be my special child who loved and admired and respected me. As I looked at it closely, I could see where his anger came from. I had broken the unspoken agreement first when I began to gently push him from the nest. It must have been quite a shock to see a change in his most significant special relationship to date.
I asked the Holy Spirit to help me loosen the binds that tie in a way that would be gentle and loving to both of us, and that would help each of us understand the nature of the special relationship. No special relationship, regardless of how loving it seems, will ever be without elements of fear and loss because it is based on separation. Even our special relationships with our children, which seem so necessary and so loving, will end in chaos and guilt and fear if we do not accept healing and allow the Holy Spirit to transform them into holy relationships.
I still feel a twinge of fear at the thought of giving up the special relationship I have with this child. The ego mind sees this as loss of a magnitude that is hard to seriously consider. It would have me find a way to restore the balance in the relationship, to return it to the way it has always been. And of course, if I give up this special relationship, what about the others? Will their loss quickly follow? The ego is frightened of life without its primary bargains and wonders how it will exist without them.
Me: Holy Spirit, I am willing to believe that I am wrong to side with the ego; that is to see special relationships as necessary and good. I am willing to see relationships differently. I am willing to walk through this fear to get to the other side, and I am willing to believe that what You offer me in the place of the special relationship will be better than what I cling to now. The ego keeps saying I had a good thing and I should go back to what I know works, but I don’t believe those lies anymore. It does not work and I am not going to live in denial about that anymore.
Holy Spirit: Dear one, letting go of your special relationships is not painful; it is only the decision to let go that seems to bring you pain, and that is true only until you decide it is not. Do not be concerned about how to be in a holy relationship with your precious son. The holy relationship is the reflection of the only true relationship, and what is true flows naturally as you remove the impediments to its flow. Do not think of the loss of your special relationships as a sacrifice. God never asks for sacrifice and I assure you that you lose nothing in its relinquishment. I further assure you that the holy relationship is joyful and loving without the elements of fear and guilt that are part of every special relationship. Within the holy relationship, you are free.
We thank you for being willing to walk through your fear in trust that We would be there with you and that the walk would bring you to peace. As more layers of the fear surface, continue to look at them with Me. In this way, you will see that fear is a lie. It is a cloud, it is even less substantial than a cloud, and it cannot impede the Son of God, nor affect His Son in any way. Do not decide that it can, for it is this decision that binds you to the world.