I was listening to a spiritual podcast recently and the speaker stated that transcending both fear and hope was the path to enlightenment. There are many paths to understanding our existence in this reality and in time they all lead to the same place. However, this particular speaker seemed to miss the mark.
Transcending fear is something I have covered many times. Fear in all its forms will create obstacles to a deeper understanding of who you are. The reason this is true is because fear is the opposite of your True Self.
So, yes, transcend fear. You are an eternal being. You are a part of the Creator herself. As such, you cannot be harmed. No matter what parade of horrors you might imagine, nothing can harm your True Self. Once you know this to be true at your core, fear will cease to exist. Test this as many times as necessary for you to understand this absolute truth. Create the worst scenario you can imagine within this reality and then apply the Truth of who you are. Any reason to fear? I know I am being simplistic, but the Truth is simple. Once you fully understand and accept that you are a part of the Creator, fear cannot survive.
The more difficult question is how to transcend hope. I don’t believe you can because hope carries with it fear and is, therefore, nothing more than an extension of fear. How so you may ask? To hope suggests that there is an outcome or a situation in the future that you do not want and you “hope” that the outcome will change. This means at some level you are fearful of that outcome which you “hope” does not happen. To compound the situation, hope also implies that you have no control over the situation. So, hope sets up an undesirable outcome in the future that you have no control over. Hopeless would be more like it.
Hope illustrates the fear of a future event. At its core, it is the same as fear, both deal with potential future events. Without fear, there is no need for hope and it dissolves as well. Moving past fear allows you to focus on the present. Both fear and hope are emotions of the “future”, emotions dealing with what might happen.
Now is all that is. Stay in the present, in the now and you have no need for the illusions of hope or fear. The obstacle to enlightenment, to knowing one’s self, is trying to leave the present and live in the future. We all do it. We all want a glimpse of what might be around the corner, and in doing so we fail to embrace the present.
Live in the now, for the now. You will have no need for fear. You will have no need for hope. That is where you will find your way Home.
Now we are doing yoga…
Namaste
Blair is the co-owner of Yoga Daily in Mt. Pleasant, SC. [https://yogadailymountpleasant.com] He is a certified yoga instructor, recovering lawyer and a spiritual student. The content of this blog is what Blair considers to be universal truths that span all dogma and religion and it is offered to you in Love and Light. Check out Yoga Dude [https://yogadailymountpleasant.com/the-yoga-dude/] for additional blog entries. You can contact Blair at blair@yogadailymountpleasant.com. Yoga is but one path to the knowing that we are all One. Please take what resonates with you and leave the rest without judgment or offense.