FACING FEAR

It is vanity, or pride if you will, which is the true enemy of the Secret Self. For with consciousness centered in the surface self, with the vanity that self-centeredness brings, an opaque veil is drawn over all spiritual perception, and man lives isolated from the wellsprings of his being. He may struggle through life many years in this summer attacking his problems and pursuing his goals with the persistent energy of an enterprising fly, but eventually he must be brought up short by the realization that he simply is ineffectual and he had best find a new blueprint of thought and action or give up the ghost altogether. One ant alone does not topple a rubber tree plant. Only the concerted effort and teamwork of thousands of ants make this feat possible; and the energy and effort of one human being is nothing by itself, but is everything when it proceeds from the source of all energy, for then it is attuned to the tides and forces of the cosmos, becomes in a manner an irresistible force, a kind of infallible action.

Success stories often are fictions concocted by the human desire to achieve supremacy over circumstance. Most people fit into a kind of equation. They react a certain way when confronted with certain circumstances, and therefore must act a certain way always when confronted with those same circumstances. For example, suppose a man is afraid of groups of people when he is unacquainted with them and expected to circulate amongst them and communicate. If early in life he gives in to his fear and avoids new groups, such behavior becomes a habit and one that he eventually finds impossible to break. Therefore, all through his life, when confronted with a strange social situation, he will avoid it through one pretense or another, simply because he has built up a habit of acceding to fear. He is absolutely predictive in each circumstance of this type, and he is predictive because he is not free, because he is a slave to his fears. He has become an automaton led around by the nose, a victim of circumstances because he is not master of his feelings. He tends to regard circumstance itself as the evil, says, “People in groups are uninteresting. They bore me.” They don’t bore him at all; they scare hell out of him; so much so that he avoids them at all costs, leaves a large blank in a portion of his psyche and is completely frustrated in this area of his growth. And it is his own fault. He simply cannot bring himself to muster the courage necessary to face his fear

 We must not be soft with ourselves no matter what our goals or positions. All things fare best when they are constantly tested by opposition. The sturdiest grass is that which must grow through concrete. The coddled lawn burns clean away at first exposure to sun or wind. If we have an aching muscle we must learn to exercise it, not to rest it, and we will find the muscle soon healed. If our psyche is closing us in, cutting us off from life and growth and expansion, then we must learn to test and use and expand that psyche. If we do not, the psyche will atrophy, cut off completely all normal ties with life. Still, to be human is to be weak, is to be subject to sin and suffering and error, and as long as we live we never truly overcome any of these; but as long as we live we must try, for we truly live only when we try. What we finally have to learn is that we cannot expect an ultimate or even a satisfying victory over our infirmities when we meet them one by one, but only when we have found a way of assembling all on the same field of battle for one final showdown. What results then must be a complete step forward in our evolution as human beings, for no one is ever defeated who gathers courage to face his assembled weaknesses. 
“How is this possible?” someone may ask. “How does one gather all his weaknesses in one spot and overcome them?” It is not simple or even apparent. In isolated areas, yes. If you have a tendency to be afraid of new situations, then you can build up confidence about them by forcing yourself to enter into them. Sooner or later you are bound to meet each new situation calmly, if not, eagerly, for the general condition of newness has become familiar. This exercise of will power, however, while it will tend to give you courage in every aspect of your life simply because you have met fear in one area and defeated it, nevertheless will not overcome a tendency to be lazy, for example, or untruthful, or disloyal, or even to eat too much. As a matter of fact, it can readily be seen that his helter-skelter treatment of the unwhole psyche is much like a man trying to plug a series of leaks in a dike with his fingers. Eventually all ten fingers will be occupied, and still the new leaks come.