The Nature of Fear and Pain

The electric fence

Imagine a dog wearing a shock collar. It learns the boundaries of the yard not by seeing a wall, but by feeling a shock when it strays too far.

Fear and pain are the shock collar of the mind.

They are not signals of actual danger. They are signals that you have reached the edge of your conditioning. You have stepped outside the zone of the Identity.

Fear as a compass

We are taught to avoid fear. We treat it as a sign to stop.

For the seeker, fear is a compass. It points directly to the next necessary step.

If you fear public speaking, it means your Identity is trapped within the boundary of "Private Person." To expand, you must walk through the fear. The fear is simply the sensation of the old self stretching and tearing.

Pain as resistance

Psychological pain is the sensation of a lie being challenged.

When someone insults you and it hurts, the pain is not coming from their words. It is coming from your resistance to the idea that you might be flawed. The pain is the sound of your ego trying to hold itself together.

If you had no image to protect, there would be nothing to hurt.

The mistake

The mistake is to believe the sensation. You feel the shock, and you retreat back to safety. You shrink your life to fit inside the fence.

The work is to feel the shock and keep walking. You must prove to your nervous system that the fence is an illusion. You walk through the fire until you realize it cannot burn you.

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