fear

 

fear

The expectation of being attacked. The single emotion of the ego, the emotion of separation. Fear is a recoil into separation, away from a perceived source of danger. In contrast, love extends in order to join with a source of happiness. “Everyone draws nigh unto what he loves, and recoils from what he fears” (CE T-13.V.5:4). Fear and love are thus opposites and are the only two emotions. Fear, however, exists only in relation to love. Fear, in fact, is fear of love, as well as lack of love, denial of love, and a call for love (see CE T-12.II.1-4). Rather than being the initial cause of other emotions, fear is the end result of a chain of emotions and contains implicit within it all the emotions of the chain: First, we feel anger, which is expressed in attack. Then we feel guilt, for we interpret our attack as a sin. Then we fear the punishment and death our guilt says we deserve (see CE T-5.VI.5-6:1). Out of our fear, we attack in self-defense, and the chain starts over. Fear is the ego’s goal and its essence. The ego must cause fear to perpetuate itself, yet it must conceal from us how fearful we are (see CE T-11.V.8-12). For when we truly look at our fear, we will decide that the cost of the ego is too great, and will give it up. See fear of God.