Fear is lack of information. It is ignorance. It is the belief that one has lost control of any given situation or group of situations.

Spirit is brought to a human level, where we attempt to contain it in wants and words. The irony is that spirit has form but is not contained. Spirit is given a body; a body is not given spirit. Spirit is not in awe of the body, nor should the body be in awe of spirit. Spirit, when allowed, works through the body — a cooperative effort, a balance. And if there is a balance, a centering, there is no fear.

I believe the biggest of our shared fears is of losing control. If we are not in control we see ourselves as becoming the subject of unknown forces or circumstances.

It is said our society exists on control. Is it not a wonder we want to keep just a bit for ourselves?! But we are spirit, and spirit does not want to control, nor can it be controlled. If we are spirit then what is there to control? And if we know spirit for what it is, what we are, then what is there to fear? Through knowing our true identity we cease to fear.

Trust and patience feed courage; love enhances it. When we can see spirit within ourselves, then we can not but love. When one loves, one knows, or is learning, true support. If we trust ourselves even a little, we have a safe space within — a space to try out our knowledge, a space that will allow us to fail, to grow. In acknowledging and accepting this space within ourselves we have found our link with the Whole. In the understanding of our own need for such a space we can then extend it outward to others. For the fear around us to dissipate we must allow the fear within us to dissipate. When we can do that, then we’ve created a safe and loving space for others to do it as well.

Deborah M. Doyle
Northampton, Massachusetts

Certainly I can be forgiven for intruding on your complacency if I rifle a little of the Bible at you. As David Spangler pointed out in THE SUN (Issue 58), “It’s often the last place we look.”

It shouldn’t be. There’s some heavy stuff in the good book. It’s jam-packed with truth. Let me quote to you from the Book of Revelation, where the word “gospel,” good news, is mentioned for the last time. That word has taken a lot of abuse, but let’s look at its content in its last setting:

FEAR GOD AND GIVE HIM GLORY:
FOR THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT IS
COME. WORSHIP HIM WHO MADE
THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH, THE
SEA AND THE SPRINGS. . . .

Revelation 14:7

FEAR GOD. Now that takes courage in this age. Everybody does anything he wants in the name of higher consciousness, and honesty, virtue, uprightness, integrity, and developed character get pooh-poohed. Instead, there are dreaming, vacuous Zen-like mottoes, and spiritual flippancy. The New Consciousness is filled with the Old Lies. Mind trips and overly ethereal views of God which make Him a grandfatherly pushover cannot outwit the Creator of the Universe.

The human brain is more complex than every human-devised computer. The human bloodstream is more amazing than any waterway gouged out of Mother Earth by man. If God is not totally pure and honest and upright, then how do the celestial orbs so faithfully fulfill their circuits? How can any astrologer make any prediction without this fundamental harmony and faithfulness of the creation? Look at the great beauty displayed in the flowers, in fish, giraffes, and elephants. Look at the marvelously intricate perfections of the DNA molecule, which for all the talk about gene-splicing and cloning and test-tube-created life the scientists haven’t got a clue in duplicating. We take God’s sperm and put it in a test tube with God’s ovum and then when a conception begins and we place it back in the uterine wall, we think we’re somebody big. This is foolish. Fear God. GIVE HIM GLORY. He created it, you didn’t. That goes for just about everything men try to take credit for. Mother Nature is nothing more than God’s creation. Does the hawk fly by your wisdom?

Will the courage of Hercules or Lancelot buy off the Eyes that mark every breath, every hair on the head?

FOR THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT IS COME. Here’s where courage comes in. How is anyone going to stand before the God whose perfections and power and omnipotence are exhibited openly and baldly in all the created order? If He’s going to judge us, what will we say to Him if we’re filling these bodies He gave us with pollution, even if it’s in the name of solar energy, or mind expansion, or meditation, or macrobiotics, or kabbalistic occultism, or palmistry, or whatever other trip we’re using as a cover for laziness, phoniness, hypocrisy, self-justification, facades, fronts and moral debts? These are worse killers than all of Nixon’s bombs, because those only harm bodies. These others harm souls and spirits.

Jesus said not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s notice. A father like that I can really love; but how will I answer to that Father if I’ve taken some heavy chunks out of my fellow men, my parents, my work partners? How will I stack up in the judgment of the One Who Makes No Mistakes and Puffs Not Up With Pride if I take swipes at politicians, and blame Everybody Else for the guilt I’ve gotten myself into, and continue to keep a haughty attitude to others? If I’ve been cheating, stealing, lying, adulterizing, swelling with some species of spiritual or religious pride that I let place me just a hair above the rest of the desperate, fragile, sheep-like human tribe, how will I ever face the Creator of birds who make nests and feed their young, in His judgment?

I have implied that the answer is COURAGE. Face the judgment with courage. Nonsense. Will the courage of Hercules or Lancelot buy off the Eyes that mark every breath, every hair on the head? That is like thinking that positive thinking can change bad scenes that are really bad. If I just think positively enough, my aunt’s cancer will go away. If I just rustle up enough courage, I’ll be able to face the Holy One and reason things out with Him. Pull the wool over His eyes. Swindle Him with words like all the “successful” businessmen do. Take a long look at one of the Creator’s handiworks and tell me about it.

Here’s the prescription, friend. WORSHIP HIM WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH, THE SEA AND THE SPRINGS OF WATER. Worship Him. When the judgment rolls around just bow down and worship Him. Thank you for the birds, thank you for the wheat and rice, thank you for the gift of life, forgive me for my murders, blunderings, insensitivities, and inhumanity. Instead of getting so high and mighty about who you are, consider the first beatitude:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus, at Matthew 5:3

Have the courage to fear God. Have the courage to walk the narrow, honest way. Have the courage to cash in your (temporarily) prosperous American habits and vices in favor of the everlasting wealth of poverty of spirit. Learn to cook, sew, grow, heal and live the RIGHT way, not the wrong way. Life is real, as Jean Brown tried to tell Ram Dass in THE SUN (Issue 58), and so is human suffering and misery. Often not a result of personal karma either. Just because the Catholic Church is playing bingo, and the Protestant world is developing a television kingdom of talk and more talk spiced with anti-abortion campaigns, doesn’t mean the True and Living Creator has changed. He made His choice to give homo sapiens (sapiens? where?) free will and He’s not an Indian-giver. He just sits back and weeps, with occasional oases of joy when someone down here really gets a true picture of who He is. God is holy. God is love. You need to dedicate all your talents to Him, brethren. Who do you think you are, anyway?

Larry Pahl
Elk Grove, Illinois