Perhaps the next greatest mystery is the shift we may (or may not) undergo, from fearful (egocentric) self-concern to (allocentric, ecocentric) openness & loving curiosity about birth, all aspects of life, including death. Clearly this qualitative shift requires serious maturation in the form of self-compassion, self-acceptance, and acceptance of all manner of life's difficulties, complexities & apparent paradoxes (Culliford's or Fowler's 5th or 6th stage: http://www.johnlovas.com/2018/10/nurturing-nonpartisan-human-maturation.html or http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/11/fowlers-six-stages-of-faith.html)
As kids, we may well have been exposed to the idea that there was a ghost or boogeyman under our bed. For a while, it's natural to avoid looking under the bed. Fear, avoidance, 'negativity bias' etc are powerful protective evolutionary forces at work in all of us. But some, perhaps most of us, get up the courage to face our greatest fear at the time, and look under our bed! Massive relief - we survive AND feel pretty damned brave for having successfully completed our first 'hero's journey.'
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." Marie Curie
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." Marcus Aurelius
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." Joseph Campbell
"I was born
when all I once feared
I could love.” Rabia Basri
No comments:
Post a Comment