Liberation And Peace By Overcoming Fear Of The Unknown

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my dearest friends. Blessings for each one of you. Blessed be your every effort in the direction of self-development, of liberation, and of self-realization.

One of the fundamental human predicaments is man's struggle to overcome the duality between life and death. All other problems, difficulties, fears, and the tensions that man has to contend with derive from this basic predicament. Whether this manifests as the direct fear of death, as the fear of aging, or as the fear of the unknown in any form, it is always a manifestation of the same nucleus: the fear of the passing of time.

In order to assuage these fears man has resorted to philosophical, spiritual, and religious concepts. But as long as he creates and adopts concepts, even if they are a result of the true experience of one individual who attempts to pass it on, then the real tension will not be relieved. The only way to truly overcome this hardship is to delve into the first unknown that man fears so much -- which finally leads to overcoming the great duality -- and that is his own psyche. This sounds simpler than it really is. To explore the unknown corners of one's own mind is by no means just a question of either/or. There are many who ardently pursue a path of self-exploration, yet they shy away from certain facets of their innermost selves. The resulting tension and disturbance is then glibly explained away by outer reasons. They may be "on the Path," they may have made considerable progress, and they may even have resolved certain facets of their inner conflicts, yet vast areas of their psyche remain unknown.

To the degree that you are unaware of what goes on in you, to that degree you must fear the passing of time, you must fear the great unknown. When one is young, then these fears may be assuaged. For one may not be aware that they exist, except in times of jeopardy. But sooner or later every human being must be confronted with the more direct fear of death. I emphasize once again: man fulfills himself, his life, and his dormant potentials to the degree that he knows himself. And to that degree he does not fear death, but he experiences it as an organic development. Then the unknown can no longer be a threat.

This path of self-discovery represents a great struggle. The areas of escape, even within the framework of this Path, are too varied to enumerate. Only your unwavering truthfulness with yourself and your determined will to see, to evaluate, to comprehend, to connect, and to unify will finally yield more and more results in this respect.

One of the great keys in overcoming the fear of death is to overcome the fear of letting go of the barriers which separate you from the opposite sex. As long as these barriers exist, then the fear of death must exist in equal proportion. There is a very direct connection between the fear of one's own unconscious, the fear of love with the opposite sex, and the fear of death. The connection between the first two is beginning to dawn on you, but the third part of the triad may still be a novel idea. However, once you experience this connection yourself -- as a result of your efforts of self-understanding -- then it will cease to be an arresting theory. You will know the truth of these words.

If you truly understand the contents of the last lecture, then you will see that self-fulfillment depends on fulfilling yourself either as a man or as a woman. You cannot possibly fulfill yourself without overcoming the barrier that exists between yourself and the opposite sex, thus truly becoming a man or a woman. There are also other aspects of self-fulfillment, or the lack of it. Man may be unaware of certain potentials which he possesses: of his talents, of his strength, of the vastness of his mind, of the creativeness of his spirit. But none of these aspects can truly unfold in their inherent splendor unless man truly becomes a man and woman truly becomes a woman. If the barrier to union with a mate remains, then self-realization can only be a partial and conditional one. For, this barrier indicates a barrier to areas within the self that one shies away from exploring and understanding. It indicates a resistance to fully grown selfhood and an insistence on the artificial infanthood. This nurtured parasitical state prevents liberation and the overcoming of fear, which is a product of duality.

When all resistance to the unknown areas in oneself has vanished, and therefore when one no longer fears oneself, then one cannot possibly fear either other human beings or the opposite sex. A great inner freedom and trust, born out of objective realism, removes the tight grip that stands in the way of letting oneself go into the state of being. When man fulfills himself, then there no longer is a barrier; then there no longer is a holding on in fear of the unknown, in distrust of the self and of the other. It is this same holding on that prevents man from entering into the cosmic stream of timelessness -- which he experiences in the highest bliss of union with a mate and which he experiences in the highest bliss in what man calls death.

Death has many facets. For him who is afraid, and who therefore holds on tightly to the little self, death may be experienced as fearful seclusion and separateness. But for him who is not afraid to live fully, who is eager to reach out and to no longer preserve the little self, then death is the glory that union on this earth can be, and even more so. Therefore, the struggle of self-realization must mean: First, removal of the barrier between your consciousness and the hidden areas of your psyche. These hidden areas are not always covered up, unconscious. In other words, they may appear to be out of sight, but they are often right in front of your eyes, if only you choose to look at them. Second, removal of the barrier between you and your countepart, whoever he or she may be at any given phase. Third, removal of the barrier that exists between you and the cosmic stream. Wherever this stream carries you, you will see that it is right, that it is functional at this stage of your being, that it is organic. But man -- in his fear of himself and of the other, and therefore of the stream of being -- does not trust the passing of time. He holds on with his little self and he wants to determine with his little self. Thus he creates a wall of clouds between his higher consciousness and his momentary awareness.

A long time ago I discussed that the three basic major hindrances are pride, selfwill and fear. I tried to show you how all the faults, all the problems, all the confusions, all the distortions, all the conflicts, and all the misconceptions derive from pride, from selfwill, and from fear, at least in one form or another. It is this same triad which constitutes the barrier to the three facets of self-realization that I just discussed. Let us consider this more closely.

Pride is the barrier between the consciousness and what exists in the unconscious mind. Pride bars the way because you may not like what you find. It may not be flattering and therefore not compatible with your idealized self image. Even if the result of the finding proves not to be derogatory, you fear that it might be. The importance of being looked upon with admiration makes you adopt the standards and the values of those whose approval you seek. This creates a block of pride, a wall, a cloud which hinders insight.

Selfwill bars the way in your apprehension that what you will find may force you to do something that your little self is not inclined to do: perhaps to give up an old way of life and to assume a new way of life that often seems unwelcome merely because it is new, and therefore unfamiliar. Selfwill wants the little ego to be in control. Therefore, it must cling to the known.

Fear bars the way in that both pride and selfwill indicate a lack of trust, believing that the final reality is not to be trusted. Cosmic reality -- which is imbedded in your deep unconscious and which exists in the stream of cosmic events -- cannot help but be benign. Therefore, it always brings happiness, fulfillment, and meaningfulness. Distrusting this fact, and therefore holding on to what you know -- in the belief that you might fare better than by taking the chance of entering the unknown -- creates a wall of fear. It is this fear that blocks full self-recognition.

The triad of pride, of selfwill, and of fear manifests in creating the barrier between the self and losing the self in love to a mate. Whether man or woman, you fear the apparent helplessness, and therefore the shame, of being given up to a force of experience greater than your little self. Love between the sexes is a humbling experience. Therefore, it is the enemy of pride. Your pride wants to direct and to control. It does not want to be given up to any force, even if this force is most desirable; even though you, and everyone else, go through life desiring this experience while, at the same time, you block it and then you try to find ways toward a compromise between both contradictory drives of your soul. The force driving you into this experience is great indeed, for it derives from your innermost nature. The second drive -- deriving from your pride, from your selfwill, and from your fear -- pushes you into the opposite direction. Selfwill is opposed to the experience because it wants all the control and therefore it cannot give itself up. It erroneously seems to you that only by obeying, and therefore being governed by, the little self are you safe. You are under the misapprehension that giving yourself up to this force is equal to heedless greed, to unreasonableness, and to unrealism. This is not true. Realism, objectivity, the ability to relinquish, and a fearless willingness to enter the great experience are not only compatible but actually interdependent. You block the experience in the fear of losing your dignity -- therefore your pride, your selfhood, and your selfwill. In reality true dignity and true selfhood can be gained only by giving up both your pride and your selfwill.

The fear of losing one's safety and one's very life is not so different from the fear that blocks the blissful experience of self-forgetfulness in union with a mate. Some of you may have occasionally sensed the similarity.

The triad of pride, of selfwill, and of fear applies to one's attitude to the love experience with a mate, only much more so. Dying means giving up the final self-direction. And this, strange as it may seem, appears humiliating. In order to avoid the humbling truth that the little self is not all-powerful, man holds on to it in pride and in selfwill, thereby creating ever stronger waves of fear.

In order to overcome this erroneous duality -- particularly the conflict between giving up the self and full possession of the self -- I would like to say what may sound like a paradox. You have found yourself on such a Path of self-realization in order to become capable of giving yourself up in union with the other sex and in death. But you cannot succesfully give up that which you have not yet found. For you cannot let go of something you have never really possessed. And only when you can give it up freely will you gain selfhood.

The following question may now arise. If death, or dying, or the state of dying, or of being dead, can be such a blissful experience, then why is the perception of it so darkened? Why does the instinct toward it not exist, as does, for example, the strong instinct toward losing oneself in love? Why must it be blocked off from the help of the instinctual drives, therefore necessitating such hard work to overcome the barrier? You may ask, "why is it that we, on this earth, have to battle against this great unknown?" At first glance, such questions seem justified and logical. But when you take a closer look, then you will understand that it must be as it is. You see, it would be too confusing if it were possible to wish for death merely because your life is unfulfilled -- hence painful -- and therefore you cannot cope with it. In this ignorant and blind state -- of being in a state of the fear of life and therefore being unable to cope with the issues of life -- you would escape too easily into death, even though in this case death would not provide you a different experience than life does -- for both are intrinsically the same. It is in order to avoid such a destructive escape that the life instinct must be strong and able to operate as long as death remains an unknown factor. No words will remove this fear of the unknown, so that your life instinct will prevent you from choosing death out of a negative, destructive motivation. In other words, because you cannot cope with what you have now. This strengthens the stamina to try again and again, until finally life is mastered through self-realization and through the removal of fears as a result of understanding the self, and hence the universe. In this endeavor, the inner understanding finally dawns that death is not to be feared -- and that it is feared in exact proportion to the fear of living and to the fear of loving. Hence the sharp differentiation between life and death -- in other words, its illusory duality -- begins to dwindle. The true understanding of these words can come only when life is no longer a threat, and therefore no longer needs to be fled. Then your life instinct will no longer have to be an opposing factor to your death instinct. They will be one and the same. Then you will neither need to rush ahead nor will you need to hold back.

If you look at your soul movements regarding the passing of time and your conscious and unconscious attitude toward life and toward death, then you will find that they are identical and that both are identical to your innermost -- though hidden -- attitude toward love, regardless of your conscious healthy desires in this respect. You will find that your fear of the unknown plays a role in all of them. You will find that you constantly fluctuate between holding back time in fear -- in a cramped motion -- and rushing ahead because you cannot stand the moment. Very rarely are you in harmony with the cosmic stream of your particular life manifestation -- your individuality. This is what being in peace with yourself, being in harmony with God, really means: not holding back and not rushing forward, but dissolving in the life stream, in full possession of yourself, and yet without any fear of giving up self-possession. This is the great experience that man is blessed and privileged to have when finding his mate. And this will ultimately be the experience he encounters when going into a new form of consciousness.

The key to all this can lies in the process of self-discovery -- of going through the many levels and areas which you still shy away from. When you avoid parts of yourself, then you cannot help but project outwardly -- onto others and into life outside -- what seems like a terrifying self-confrontation. Hence this projection cannot yield peace and liberation, regardless of the precarious temporary satisfaction it appears to give you. You always find reasons and excuses in order to hedge what badly needs to be tackled. This applies to practically all of my friends. But all of you are also making progress. I want you to know that each little step in the right direction must finally dissolve the clouds, the barriers between you and this higher consciousness which is that timeless stream. This Consciousness furnishes you with wisdom, with truth, and with the rightness that you need for your everyday life. Some of you have occasionally tapped this source, and therefore you have eperienced it, only to lose it again. When you have made contact with this inner source of peace and truth -- the highest bliss of the state of being, and yet of lively, active experience, and the rightness of all the answers that you precisely, not vaguely, seek -- then you will comprehend the significance of the creation. See the sun, around which all the other planets revolve, while it remains constant in its bright light, even though it is often covered by clouds. The clouds are your pride, your selfwill, your fear, your ignorance, and either your stemming against the wave of time or your hurrying ahead of it. But in those moments when you perceive your truth -- be they ever so mundane, apparently insignificant in terms of cosmic development -- then the clouds disperse and the warm sun of your higher consciousness regenerates you with strength, with well-being, with joyfulness, and with peace. This sun within yourself is ready to constantly warm you and to enliven you. But you, my dearest ones, must overcome much more. Then all the pride, all the selfwill, and all the fear will fall away from you. To say that it already has will not make it so. If you were free from these faults, then many of your reactions, many of your feelings, many of your expressions, and the effect that you have on others and that others have on you would be drastically different.

This is not an easy topic to understand. It needs more than trying to understand it with your mind, which in itself will accomplish little. It needs the deeper understanding of your being. But this can come only when you look at the feelings that keep you from happiness at this moment, in the now. If you look at your desires, at your fears, at your needs, at your apprehensions, and at your reactions -- either right or wrong -- at this moment, then you will find yourself in the eternal Now. In it you can live fearlessly with a rightful confidence in the unknown. You do not have to become perfect. You are perfect in a sense when you can calmly face, acknowledge, and come to terms with your present imperfections in full understanding.

By no longer struggling against the self -- thus shedding your pride and your pretense, while being willing to change, thus shedding your selfwill -- your fear of self, your fear of others, your fear of life, your fear of love, and your fear of dying will all evaporate like ice in the sun.

Are there any questions now regarding this topic?

QUESTION: What about a person who does not fear death for himself, but just for people he loves? In other words, if the fear of death exists for other people?

ANSWER: This may be a projection. It may also be a reversal from the fear of life. If one fears life, then certain people may represent the security that one feels lacking in oneself. By the loss of others one may fear loneliness, or the lack of either actual or irrational protection. Because these personal fears are not faced -- perhaps blocked by the shame that one may not be really mourning so much in love, but rather in self-concern -- then the fear becomes increasingly gnawing, persistent, and disturbing. By having the courage to look at all these possible emotions -- after having overcome the initial reluctance to do so -- the fear of death and the fear of others will diminish, the bitter, frightening aspect of it will disappear, and then one can look at the causes of one's own helplessness. It is always a relief to attach the fear -- or any other negative emotion -- where it really belongs, rather than experiencing it in a displacement.

It is essential to find out why one fears life so much that one has to cling to others. In other words, why does one not use one's inborn faculties so as to live life fully and therefore no longer fear either life or death? If you fear life, then you must also fear death, whether you consciously experience the latter in incidents when your life either is or seems endangered, or whether you do so in fearing the loss of others. The fear of coping with life can manifest as the fear of the loss of loved ones. And so can the fear of losing one's own life. If this is still a remote factual reality, then the approaching death of others triggers the reminder that one day this will come to the self, too. But this fear is still so hazy that one experiences it only through the other person. Only when an actual self-confrontation occurs can one really gauge whether or not one is afraid of dying.

This projection applies both to the fear of living alone and to the fear of one's own death. And both these facets indicate the same thing, as you can now judge from the contents of this lecture.

All of this would have to be investigated. Where there exists a fear of life, a fear of confronting certain problems, there you will be disturbed by the fear of death in one form or another. Often the real root -- in what respect there is the fear of self and the fear of life -- cannot be recognized at once. It may manifest by symptoms only. Therefore, one has to look for these symptoms and investigate them for their significance. For example, one's attitude to this Pathwork, both professed and factual; one's attitude to the opposite sex, both professed and actual; one's reactions to current life circumstances. All of this has to be looked at with a penetrating spirit of truthfulness. When you can determine a fear of -- or, to use a more psychological term, a resistance to -- your innermost self, then you can be sure that the fear of death must exist in equal measure. And also a fear of loving. That is, of letting go of yourself in this great experience. Find it, see it in yourself, and you will have conquered a great deal.

Of course, these words are directed to everyone.

It is also important to note that man is often misled in this respect because in his fantasy life these fears do not exist. When speaking about the fear of loving -- of self-surrender -- then he may deny the existence of this fear because he is acutely aware of the fact that he ardently desires this fulfillment, and he experiences it without inhibition in fantasy. Then he believes that there are outer reasons responsible for his not actually realizing his fantasy life, reasons which have nothing to do with him. But if he cannot realize his fantasy life, then there must be the opposite current in him which prevents the experience due to fear. To find it, to lift it out of hiding, is very important. It is a vast step forward, compared to the belief that one is free from obstructions, while in reality they continue to exist underground.

Through this lecture I have given you various avenues by which you can explore the actual state of your soul regarding life, love, and death. I showed you that the conscious conviction and the conscious feeling may be only one side, while the other side has to be be made conscious in order to unify it with the current it opposes. I showed you the various symptoms by which this hidden opposite current can be determined. This is of the greatest importance and it may often lead out of a bottleneck in this work.

QUESTION: Wouldn't a fear of being left also account for the fear of losing dear ones?

ANSWER: Yes, this is what I said at first. When the insecurity, the fear of having to confront life alone -- hence the fear of life in its pure form -- is broken down and analyzed, then it will be found that where there is the fear of life there must also be the fear of love and the fear of death. In other words, where there is one of these fears, then the other two must exist as well. When you establish this link within yourself, then you are bound to experience growth, liberation, strength, and confidence. It cannot be otherwise.

We shall enter into this topic more extensively when we come to the discussion of it. The next time we shall discuss two lectures together. May you all participate as actively as possible, with general theoretical questions, as well as with personal and practical questions and examples, as the subjects apply to you individually. This will be for your benefit.

Blessings for each one of you. Do not despair, my friends, when you sense the barriers that I discussed in this lecture. The awareness of their existence removes them; ignorance of their existence does not. Please realize and understand this important truth. Make it your own by testing it and you will rejoice. Be blessed in this awareness, each one of you. Be in peace, be in yourself, and therefore in God.

April 3, 1964