General Discussions

Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that causes total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone passed, I will turn my inner eye to see its path. Where the fear is gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

I must not fear.

Fear is the unavoidable collision of nature and mind. The turmoil of ice held to the flame.

Fear is the mind-killer.

To fear life is to shrink from life. It is nothing short of the death of wonder. We must remember that no matter where we step in the dark we are all naked and alone. And wonder makes a far better cloak than fear.

Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration.

To face fear is to accept risk. In cowering from life we surrender and shrink from opportunity. Fear is the darkness of a deep cave and hope is the candle we hold against that darkness. When courage atrophies our candle dims, and the darkness creeps ever closer. To risk nothing is to lose everything. To squander even that small space illuminated by hope can only lead to despair and anguish.

I will face my fear.

As we star into the abyss, there are always eyes to meet our gaze. Some lonely, some hostile, some malicious and vast, beyond reckoning or sanity. Whatever forces feed these eyes, they do not cause us fear. They only reflect it. Fear come from an empty space in all of us, a wound that must be tended, or it will fester and consume us.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

Some can only face the darkness with torches and sword, barreling toward it like cavalry loosed upon the world before us. This is a kind of courage, but it also another kind of fear. In attempting to destroy that which plagues us, troubles us most deeply, we too often destroy ourselves. This zealotry, packed into a box called bravery or honor, is a reckless exercise of courage. It is pulling a cancer from your belly with your bare hands, heedless of the carnage that comes with it.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

There is another kind of courage, not sung in songs or lauded by those who would label themselves brave. It is a quiet variant, as light as smo0ke and as shapeless as water. Those who posses it can use it for very little. This type of courage has barely the strength to set down a bottle, or stay a hand from straying to knife, or rope or gun. It can loose a clenched fist, but not strike a blow. It can slow a thundering heart when to panic would be to die. This is a courage to be cultivated by all of us, whatever else may dwell within our hearts.

Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing.

A hole, once dug, will fill in time. Only after we have braced ourselves against the dark can we see this. Do we let the world decide what we shall carry in our hearts and risk fear clawing it's way back into us? Or do we fill it with our mind, our convictions and our strengths, our hopes and dreams, resolve to protect and cherish this space...even if only to keep it open in hopes another will share it.

Only I will remain.

Even in company we are alone. even the anchor of home can cast us into utter isolation. When we are at our best we have the furthest to fall and the impact is never soft. We are alone bur for the sparkles in the distance, the stray light of torches miles or worlds away. Others may only ever offer us a hand, never a torch. For we are all alone, from birth to death and every instant in between. And we must all find our own way through the darkness.

Original quote is from the Dune trilogy.