On 'Responding' with Fear, or with Spirit

I came of age during the turbulent 1960’s. It was a time of great social change where we went through the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, civil rights protests that were then about equal treatment of all citizens instead of reversed preference for some. And then there was the war in Vietnam. One of the overused phrases of the time was, “you’re either part of the solution, or you’re part of the problem.” There’s great truth in these words, but not much understanding.

I’ve never been a volatile or “turbulent” personality type. At least, not in this life. While I’m passionate about life, love, and liberty, it’s not something I’m inclined to kill or maim for, mainly because I don’t think it’s necessary, today. I can’t speak to other eras and places, but today, we know each other too well to continue entertaining monolithic, totalitarian fantasies. More and more, the “enemy” is our homie. How do you reconcile that? 

Yet, it’s sometimes easy to feel guilty if you’re not angrily pained, and doing something about a social injustice or issue. Over time I’ve come to realize that choosing to be calm when it appears that our life is at risk, is not a sign of passivity. It’s real courage that gives all a chance to extend the drama. On the other hand, leaders who impetuously send our sons and daughters in harm’s way to do battle with someone else’s son’s and to kill their daughters, does not demonstrate enlightened patriotism, but instead, dumb foolhardiness.

The question is how do we respond when our last buttons of emotion have been pushed. We equate “responsiveness” with “doing” something dramatic, often showing our enemies our superiority — intelligence, fire power, moral position, etc. — “over” them. It shows me how little we know about the human spirit. It is also evident to me that true responsiveness to the challenges of life is not about “doing” any of that. It’s about being.

“Doing” something and being something aren’t mutually exclusive expressions, but they are different. We can do both. The salient question is are we in harmony with our actions? Or are we taking an action that someone else has told us we must take? If so, we are in conflict with our spirit, as well as with “the enemy.” The real one that must be paid attention to is the one you can’t see, except by looking in the mirror (which most people don’t believe).

Please note that spirit will always prevail, so it behooves us to know and follow its guidance.  

We can “do” without being in harmonic resonance with our actions, and we can be in full harmonic resonance with our conscience (spirit), and in all appearances, “do” nothing. Which state would you say is the more powerful?

When we act, but are in conflict with spirit, we diminish the actual power available to us. Although I was (and am) for equal treatment under the law, I was not (and am not) part of the “black power” movement. I am not for “black empowerment.” I am for human empowerment, which comes through spiritual resonance and the  enlightenment it brings.

I am for awareness and acceptance of the inherent and innate power of our spirit. Not one of us “left home” without it, but many of us act as though we don’t know that we have it. Or we think “we” have it (or don’t), and someone else doesn’t (or does).

Such people are easy to recognize; they’re angry, envious, and resentful at those who appear to have power, status, and wealth, when they don’t. Or they’re afraid of the masses that would take their “good life” away. Their resentment or fear appears to be justifiable, but have you ever seen anyone take an action, no matter how stupid, they didn’t try to justify? How ’bout the ones who justify getting someone else to strap bombs to their waists and blow themselves and innocent people up? As appalling as it is, it’s no worse than putting someone in a “safe” bunker and having them send “smart bombs” to kill innocent people. These are the actions of people who share the same mindset… or sphere of consciousness. Because they have justified the “rightness” of their actions in their mind doesn’t mean the act isn’t twisted. It doesn’t set well with one’s spirit, irrespective of one’s “faith.”

Every human being possesses the power of spirit; bar none. You cannot be part of this reality and not have an amazing power at your beck and call. However, you can think that no such power exists and barring money, looks, or some other factor, you are powerless. As a consequence, you’ll use your power to mask it. Thinking ourselves powerless simply makes it a non-factor in our lives, or even available to others, often to be used against us… or so it will appear to us.

If you think you’re powerless, it seems plausible when someone says that you may have to “fight” to show it, right? It seems plausible when someone says that you have to take someone else, who is “powerful,” down a few notches, right? It makes sense to think that you have to be twice as good as the next guy, just to be acknowledged as an “equal.”

I’m not making this up. This is a sphere of thought that has many adherents. But it’s all a mind game that we play with ourselves. When we do, we’re the losers, because we believe someone must be losing if “they” are winning. So we make ourselves sick. We keep ourselves penniless (I’ve done it, but getting over the habit). We play a perpetual game of “catchup,” never stopping to enjoy the moment. We chase the ghosts of someone else’s rhetoric, living down to what we’ve come to expect from each other, and demand of ourselves.

Welcome to “modern” dualistic thinking. This mind game is the stuff that the grand illusion is made of, and an example of as yet unmanifest self-discovery.

Fear is the realm of powerlessness, the domicile of darkness and confusion, guilt and enmity. It’s where we are our most unbecoming selves. Every human knows fear. What every human doesn’t know yet, is that fear is only a self-adorned mask, a facade we look through that distorts our perception of the world around us. The good news is that we can put the mask down. It is then that we can begin to appreciate our true potential when we walk this earth in harmonic resonance with spirit.

In this sense, fear will have become our catalyst; our womb of creativity, as we align with spirit to transform it with passion in the pursuit of our highest visions, dreams, and aspirations.

When we see someone who is still in fear, the worst thing we can do is fear them. It’s best to understand where they are if we’ve gained our own liberation. If not, then see them as our opportunity to forgive, and be the human spirit that yearns expression through our heart. It is the fountain of compassion that, as it flows from us, makes the spread of peace possible.

It’s now the 21st century. It’s time to know who we are; spirits having a human experience. The kernel of readiness lives within each of us, to germinate in the rightness of our season. For all the doom and gloom that garners so many headlines, let us celebrate how far we’ve traveled in consciousness, in such a short time.

Irrespective of appearances today, road ahead is toward greater light.

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