When I'm frightened, I think a 'bad' thing is going to happen in the future.
By 'bad', I mean an event that I believe will cause me unacceptable negative emotion.
99% of the negative emotion I have ever felt has been entirely self-generated by comparing my perception of reality to how I think it should be and finding it wanting.
When I let go of the plan and cheerfully and courageously accept reality as it is, 99% of the negative emotion goes, and I discover I no longer object to the remaining 1%, seeing it, as I do, as just one colour in the pallet of emotional colours available.
To fear therefore means to conceive of a future I shall judge as unacceptable in the light of my plan for the future and to anticipate how much I will suffer because the universe will not comply.
To fear is therefore to envision a future without God, but with me attempting (and failing) to usurp God.
This is why self-reliance has failed me.
God-reliance is the only alternative: the wholehearted, cheerful, courageous acceptance of the future and the seeking only of my place within that picture, as an intelligent agent of the creative force behind the universe.
By 'bad', I mean an event that I believe will cause me unacceptable negative emotion.
99% of the negative emotion I have ever felt has been entirely self-generated by comparing my perception of reality to how I think it should be and finding it wanting.
When I let go of the plan and cheerfully and courageously accept reality as it is, 99% of the negative emotion goes, and I discover I no longer object to the remaining 1%, seeing it, as I do, as just one colour in the pallet of emotional colours available.
To fear therefore means to conceive of a future I shall judge as unacceptable in the light of my plan for the future and to anticipate how much I will suffer because the universe will not comply.
To fear is therefore to envision a future without God, but with me attempting (and failing) to usurp God.
This is why self-reliance has failed me.
God-reliance is the only alternative: the wholehearted, cheerful, courageous acceptance of the future and the seeking only of my place within that picture, as an intelligent agent of the creative force behind the universe.