Lesson 48: There is nothing to fear.
Today’s lesson makes me laugh – or it makes my ego laugh anyway – manically, in fact. My ego tells me there is absolutely everything to fear in this bodily realm: death, taxes, homelessness, illness, bill collectors, rejection, loneliness, unworthiness, depression. The ego has an endless list of fears it can parade in front of our mind’s eye in every moment of our existence.
I call this the “Yeah, but …” parade, because every time I say, “There’s nothing to fear,” my ego sends a float by emblazoned with “Yeah, but …” what about this or that? What about the fear that you’ll never be able to afford to retire? What about the fear that your bank account will be wiped out by one big, or even one little illness? What about the fear that your government will go fascist and you sat on your butt and typed out thoughts about a spiritual book?
The “Yeah, but …” parade is frightening, and it’s meant to be, because as long as I remain in fear, then the ego has me firmly in its clutches. The ego’s parade tells me stories about how I’ve been done wrong in the past and how those wrongs will continue into the future if I don’t trust it’s plans and take refuge in its “strength” to protect me.
In Chapter 6 of the text, A Course in Miracles says, “The ego always speaks first. It is capricious and does not mean its maker well.” We are its maker. Our belief in separation keeps it alive and running our lives. It seeks to keep us in fear so we will remain safely within its sphere of influence.
Here’s the good news the Course offers us though: “the ego is afraid of you.”
The ego likes to mask its fear, the Course says, by asking us tired existentialist question about who we are and what our worth really is in this world. It has no intention of letting us find the answers to those questions. Only the Holy can answer those questions, and the good news there is, the Holy will always answer.
In Chapter 6 of the text we read: “Hear, then, the one answer of the Holy Spirit to all the questions the ego raises: You are a child of God, a priceless part of God’s Realm, which He created as part of Him. Nothing else exists and only this is real. You have chosen a sleep in which you have had bad dreams, but the sleep is not real and God calls you to awake. There will be nothing left of your dream when you hear Him, because you will awaken.”
It’s natural to be afraid of bad dreams – and the Course says this is what we’re experiencing – a nightmare of our own making. It doesn’t have to be that way. When we are in fear, it is a sign, this lesson says, that we haven’t learned the previous lesson and are still relying on our own strength to get through this world.
Today’s lesson is an invitation to begin withdrawing our confidence in the ego’s false assurances of safety in this bodily world and put our faith in God, which is the sole source of our strength now and for eternity.
As the poet Hafiz writes:
“These candles, our bodies, see how they burn.
“How many hours will they last – days, months, years?
“Look at the warmth and comfort we can give
to each other or to anything that comes close.
“One of the components of lasting art is a spirit
flame within the created
“that can ignite inspiration and hope, and survive
time’s ways.”