Light of Reason – Fearlessness
Extract – Vol 5 – Feb 1st 1904 – No. 2
* Note: The original text has been slightly updated to modern English
A necessary tool for the seeker of Truth is that of Fearlessness, and the development of this quality is in exact ratio with the growth of spiritual enlightenment.
Fear is not without a cause, and that cause is ignorance, and until the cause is removed, the effect will remain.
From ignorance proceed confused thoughts, false beliefs, and selfishness; and fear is the dark shadow of these wrong conditions of mind. Whilst an opaque body intercepts the rays of the sun there will be a shadow cast, and so long as there are wrong conditions of heart and mind, the rays of the Light of Truth will be obscured in the mind, and the shadow of fear will be thrown upon the pathway of life.
The way to be rid of fear is to remove the conditions which create it. So long as we remain is ignorant, superstitious, or selfish, we cannot escape fear. We fear because we do not understand. This is seen even in the ordinary occurrences of life. An eclipse of the sun or moon strikes terror into the heart of the barbarian, regarding it as an omen that the displeasure of the gods are about to be visited. But the civilised ones know the nature of an eclipse and the method of its occurrence, and it is impossible fore them to fear it. Again, how often a strange noice will terrify a whole household, but immediately the cause of the noise is discovered, fear turns to laughter.
The same law prevails in the moral realm. People fear failure, disease, death, annihilation, the anger of God or gods, and contamination and injury from their companions, because they are ignorant to the moral causes; because they are totally in the dark concerning the Law of ethical causation. Where there is fear there is darkness of mind, lack of knowledge, and some form of selfishness… Therefore, when confronted with fear, we should search within ourselves for the cause which gives rise to this fear with a view to removing it.
All selfishness is ignorance, is Egyptian darkness. Impurity is ignorance; covetousness is ignorance; slander is ignorance; envy is ignorance; dishonesty is ignorance; lying and deception are ignorance; where so-ever these conditions of mind are, confusion, superstition, and the slavery of fear prevail.
Living in the darkness of these wrong conditions of mind, we institute innumerable false beliefs to account for our sufferings, and create illusions which become still further sources of fear, and give, reactively, added intensity to selfishness and hatred, and the dividing of populations and nations.
All of our sufferings are self-originated, and their cause subsists in the violated law of our being.
The fears are self-generated, and spring from within and the sin-darkened mind will find no escape.
The minds of the impure are shadowed by three fears, – the fear of disease, the fear of consequences, and the fear of death.
The minds of the covetous are shadowed by three fears,- the fear of loss, the fear of violence, and the fear of destitution.
The minds of the dishonest are shadowed by three fears,- the fear of the law, the fear of exposure, and fear for the safety of reputation.
Those who would slay fear, let them slay ignorance and sin, and as they succeed in conquering self and harmonising their minds with truth – the dark shadow of fear will pass away, and they will find that in all the universe there is absolutely nothing to fear; that all the dark evils they feared had no substantial existence, but were merely the exaggerated reflections of their own selfish thoughts.
Fearlessness cannot be possessed until purity of heart and high moral rectitude are attained. What has the pure individual, the sincere soul, the one of rectitude to fear?
What have they to fear who have nothing to conceal, who would not shrink from having their most private thoughts exposed? There is but one way, then, to dispel fear, and that is to obtain purity of heart and sterling rectitude of mind. Let studied breathings, bodily postures, and wordy affirmations be avoided as vain and profitless.
Humanity can become fearless only by becoming pure.