World of Fear: Introduction
The natural motion of life flows silently, in ease, simplicity and inner knowing. What we call “the mind” is actually a limited faculty of our interpreting self, filtering the world solely through the dimension of thoughts and concepts. To a large extent, we conduct ourselves based only on that which we can grasp through this dimension.
This is not to say that everything which emerges from the mind is necessarily dangerous, complicated or complex. While it’s true that most of it is, especially the way we use it, it is also a dimension in which beauty, compassion, sharing, love and friendship can be found. In fact, the ability of my mind to interpret and contemplate is the very reason why I am able to even comprehend that I am not my mind. The very existence of such a thought allows me to distinguish between what is true and what is not. It allows me to listen to wisdom, to identify it and to know it. The awakened mind is that which agrees to surrender and be obedient. It allows me to submit to knowledge.
The mind is not the enemy. It is in fact the very tool with which I am able to see the confusion and awaken from it. Our very existence as “owners of a mind” is what allows us to truly see.
The importance of thinking and its impact on our physical life has long been known. It is a system of survival through which we form thought patterns that serve us and affect every aspect of our lives – but that in effect run our lives as long as we continue to follow it blindly and identify with it absolutely.
This system is what we call “the mind”. Its job is to protect us on a physical level. It ensures that both our body and our soul are kept safe, even if at the price of the most important ingredient of our being: The spirit. The mind sounds continuous ן alerts and analyzes the situation – past, present and future. It warns, deters, prevents, compares, draws conclusions, divides and separates – all while our true and natural voice, that part of our eternal and endless consciousness, is forgotten, abandoned beneath the heavy weight of the mind, as if cowering underneath it, either because of its endless noise or because of the lies and deception that come with it.
The “world of fear”, as we refer to it in this book, is the world as the mind creates it. It is the logic employed by people as they attempt to comprehend the world, give it meaning and make order; as they try to understand how things work and how they should conduct themselves. The world of fear is a world created by the mind in its attempt to give people a false sense of security and make them complacent.