Fearing to Attempt

"Our doubts are traitors,   
And make us lose the good
we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt"
Measure for Measure (Act I, Scene iv)

My greatest moments of truth, growth or awakening have always follow a painful and prolonged bout of confusion.

Sometimes the toughest thing we need to do is let go of a past that did not exist and a future that will never be. It is actually quite a challenge to connect fully and unashamedly with everything in the present moment.

This is the "fourth way" the blank space beyond the first way (thinking), the second way (feeling) and the third way (doing). These individual pieces don't make a whole. It is the relationship between these parts that makes us tick.

Perhaps it is not a question of whether the glass is half empty or half fool, but that the glass is dirty and the water has microbes in it that will spill into our stomachs and spell the end of us. Or, as my friend Robert Paterson said today, it is not the thing in front of us that will kill us but the thing we cannot see or expect.

Being positive for the sake of positivity is a delusion. The game of life is played in the space between the known and the absurd.

The challenge is not to be positive or negative but to go beyond this shallow frame and discover the gray's in between. For example, think about someone you absoutley detest, this person makes your skin crawl whenever you are in their presence. Did you konw that there are people who adore and love this person? Now think of someone you absolutely adore, what are the chances that there is someone out there who fears or perhaps even hates this individual.

Beyond these certainties and doubts is the space where we can learn about the people we fear and adorn with love. Attempting to go beyond the boundary of our doubts and certainty is the fourth way. If you don't think you have the time to invest in such an exploration, then try this - let go of what has occured (or not as the case may be) in the past, set yourself free of memory and then abandon any mapping or vain attempt to control a future that does not exist.

Sink into this moment, reach beyond your fear and attempt to connect to something you do not believe exists. This is the fourth way, the door is there if you ever want to open it.

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[JeremyJones]

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.