Fear is not Real

When I sit back and observe how people act, what they say and how they respond in different situations there is a common denominator.  The thing that overwhelmingly motivates people, above all others, is fear.

The problem with acting out of fear is that it causes people to make stupid decisions, say hurtful things and overreact.  This thread runs through family life, through religion, through science and through politics.

As a quick example, I have not heard or read one single statement from anyone that indicates they are going to vote for a President simply because they agree with what the candidate says or does.

Sure, there are folks that like some of the candidates' messages, but overwhelmingly people vote against the "other" guy and not "for" the one they want.

When is the last time you saw a campaign ad that said "Here are the things to look forward to when X is President"?  More than likely the ones you've seen concentrate either on all the bad things the other guy has done, or what terrible things will happen if he is elected.

In politics acting out of fear is just plain ignorance.  In society, more particularly religion, acting out of fear is dangerous.  Nobody will likely die if you vote for the wrong candidate, choose the wrong flatware pattern or fail to pay the cable bill.  However, one stupid ignorant insensitive bigoted remark can create repercussions that echo around the world.

Take the example of the asshat preacher in Florida who announced an event where he would burn the Quran.  People DIED as a result of that ignorance.

Consider the example of the millions of people who have died as a result of ignorance on the part of the "big three" religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).  In each of these faiths the hardcore fundamentalists use fear to incite the less-fundamentalist.

They use a tactic of complete denial that all three are monotheistic, all three worship the same God and all three have an amazing similarity in their teachings.  They incite fear by creating fictional characters of false gods, grotesque demons and places of eternal torment that will destroy a person if they even dare to question the tenets of their religion.

I don't claim to know everything that these three religions teach, but I do know the important things that are common across all three.

Judaism gave us monotheism and Abrahamic law.  It introduced the concept of a benevolent Creator and, unfortunately, the irrational concept that He loves us AND/OR hates us.

Christianity gave us a great Teacher who tried very hard to explain that the ONLY important thing to do in life is to love.  Period.  It also gave us centuries of  "followers" who introduced their own egotistical requirements that somehow completely nullify the ONE commandment of the Teacher.

Islam is perhaps the most interesting, and most misunderstood, of the three.  Christian fundamentalists hate Muslims.  Most Christian fundamentalists have never MET a Muslim, much less understand their religion.  All they know is that some brown guys keep trying to kill Americans, who are perfect, and are thus evil.

I believe that most people who wind up reading this know very little about Islam.  I think it's important for context to spend a little more time describing the principles of Islam, if only to give the reader something new to consider.

Principles of Islam

• There is one God and He is called Allah.  (In the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic, the name of God was Elah.  Ironic that Jesus pronounced the name of God the same way Arabic Muslims do.)
• Everything in earth and heaven glorify God.  He is the First and the Last.  He is wise and knows all things.
• God only has to say a thing and it exists.  He knows the secrets in all your hearts.
• God created the angels.  Gabriel is one of the angels in Islam.
• God sent a great messenger, called Jesus, who was born of Mary, who was a virgin to reveal His will that we all love each other.
• God revealed guidance through written scriptures.
• God sent prophets and messengers.  Some of their names were Adam, Nuh, Abraham, Isaiah, Muhammed.
• God gives man free will to obey or disobey.
• Life on earth is a preparation for life after death.  Good conduct results in a life in Paradise.
• God ordains every person who has a certain amount of property to give a percentage (money, crops, belongings) to the poor.  This soothes the poor's feelings, satisfies their needs and strengthens the bonds of love.

Are their Muslims who misuse Islam to induce fear?  Yes.  Are their Christians who use Christianity to induce fear? Yes.  Ironically in both cases the overriding command from God is to love one another.

The one thing that that bothers me more than misunderstanding is active refusal of understanding.  Christians, in particular, have become entrenched in a doctrine that was created by man, distorted by man, manipulated by man and used as a tool to control the minds of others.

The worst part is that because these mistaken beliefs are force-fed to Christians their entire lives (by MEN, not God) they become so fearful that they won't even question them.  

Even if questioned or challenged a person gets wrapped up in a never-ending intolerant war where both parties use tiny quotes from a document that has been patched together over the course of 6000 years, translated, mistranslated, altered and compiled into a giant contradictory library with thousands of different versions.

How ridiculous is it that the majority of people killed from the beginning of "civilization" have occurred out of fear and hate of one group toward another because both groups use erroneous documents (that are surprisingly similar) to invoke make believe beings and punishments.

The most fundamentalist folks are also the most vocal.  They are also the most stubborn and closed-minded. They won't even consider the history or context of the hate and fear they preach.

And, despite the vast majority of the world's population declaring a belief in a loving and benevolent God, very few will ever turn inward to their own gifts and tools that have been given to them by God.

Discernment, or the process of figuring out what is true and not true, is a gift given to every single person.  Another gift is free will.  Another is love.

Discernment is available free-of-charge to every person in the world.  Actually using it inevitably leads to the conclusion that there is nothing to fear in life.  It also leads to the conclusion that YOU cannot "save" your neighbor by scaring them, or hating them or fearing them.  You will never truly understand the meaning of your life until you burn away every ounce of fear, of judgment, of hate and of condescension.

It's like shoveling all the world's beliefs and religions into a giant screen and shaking it until all the bits that don't match and don't matter fall through and all that is left is what is TRUE, and RIGHT and IMPORTANT.

If you look at these few remaining ideas you will see the things that are common in the hearts of every 'good' person and their religion.  THAT is how you discern the Truth.

When I shoveled all that dirt and trash into my own screen I found out a few powerful and amazing things.  I also found out that all that crap like fear, hate, wealth, ego....  all that fell through like dust and was blown away.

Here is the Truth:

• God exists.
• God has only love for us.
• God's will is that we love each other without condition.
• God gives us free will to make mistakes and forgive the mistakes of others.
• People consist of a physical body and a spiritual consciousness.
• The body is NOT the person.  The spirit is the person.
• The spirit cannot be killed.  It is eternal.
• We all existed before we were born and continue to exist after the body dies.
• The purpose of our brief physical existence is to learn to love.
• Because we have free will and never 'die' the concepts of hate and fear are illusions.
• Because we never 'die' there is no way for any person to truly 'control' another without their consent.
• The after-life is not a place of punishment.  It is a place without time, without hate and without pain.

There is much more but these are things which, for me, go beyond belief, or knowledge or "faith".

You will never know if a book is truth, or a person's words are truth or even if what you think and feel is truth.  There is only one way to absolute truth and that is experiencing it.

Unfortunately that is also why another person can never 'give' you the truth.  Not me, not a preacher, not a make-believe "demon"...  You have to EXPERIENCE it yourself.

The first thing to realize is that as you sit there reading the computer screen you are nothing more than a sack of chemicals and meat.  "You" are not there.  You experience the world through this meat-puppet, but it is not YOU and this world is not your home.

The second thing is to ignore every idea that has come from another person or a book or video or whatever. It is only through looking inside and really thinking about how you are spending your life and what you believe that you will find the Truth.

It is realizing that using fear or hate or bullying another person to believe what you do serves no purpose whatsoever.  You might be able to scare people who are weak or insecure, but you will soon discover that there are those of us who fear nothing.  Religions and governments hate people like us because we realize that you can't "kill" us and you can't "punish" us.

It is also realizing that anything you do in life, including charity and love, are worthless if you are doing them because you are afraid of hell.  True character is revealed by performing acts of charity and love, not because you are scared of hell, but because choose to do them out of pure selflessness.

Finally, it's realizing that if someone truly loves you, your beliefs are irrelevant.  True love is indifferent and not conditional.  

That also means realizing that God loves you (and all of us) unconditionally.  He doesn't care one way or another what you 'think' you believe.  God doesn't care what religion you belong to.  He doesn't care if you don't believe in Him.  His existence and his love are not dependent on whatever ideas or beliefs your pudding brain thinks up.  

Just because I don't believe in gravity has no effect on its existence.

In order to get out of whatever fear is driving you, it is crucial to realize that fear is only an illusion.  Fear is something you create yourself.  Anytime you fear something it is your reaction, not the action of someone else, that causes fear.  People don't CAUSE your feelings.  Whether you realize it or not you can choose to be afraid, hurt, sad or angry in every single situation in life.  Fear and anger and sadness exist only inside your mind.  

I hope, of course, that people like this message.  I am not naive enough to think that some won't be angry or offended by it.  All I ask is, even if this makes you angry, you must realize that it is your own mind that created the anger or the hurt feelings.  It is not my intent to offend you, but I can't control how you react.  

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."