Problems are the product of fear

English novelist Rudyard Kipling says, “Of all the lies in the word, the fearsome lies are your fear.”

No power in the world can defeat you; you only defeat yourself and your fear defeats you, which you bring up yourself.

But the question is: why does fear arise?

In fact, the mind controls all the functions of human body. If you take the mind out of your body, your body is just a static and insensitive object. Your body is like clay in the hands of the potter, your mind, which can make whatever it wants out of it. The clay does not tell the potter what shape to mold it into. In the same way, your head, heart, stomach and lungs don’t know what to do. They do their work according to the decision of the mind. All the organs of your body do not have any intelligence; they only react to the command of the mind.

That is, the human body is nothing, but the mind. That is, as the thinking will be, so will be the person and so will be his action. Everything in a man’s life is decided in his mind. Victory or defeat, misery or prosperity, strength or weakness, health or sickness, happiness or sadness — all are first made in your mind.

As William Shakespeare said, “There is no existence of any good or evil, only thinking makes something good or bad.” That’s why Socrates also insisted: think, only think. If you are facing problems, you will be surprised to know that you are the only one responsible for all these problems because all these problems are the product of your fear. Remember that problems do not exist, it is the fear that gives birth to problems. All the sins, disasters, problems, diseases and feelings of deprivation in the world are caused by fear as fear is like a lion wandering in the forest in search of its prey.

Every experience of our life is the result of our mental attitude. We can only do what we think to do. We can only be what we think to be and only achieve what we want to achieve. Everything we are or what we have depends on our thinking. We can never describe what is not in our mind. Aladdin could never have got anything from the giant if he had not been clear in his mind about what things he wanted the giant to bring him. Our mind is also one giant and our thinking is Aladdin.

Philosophers say modern people do not know how to control thinking i.e. how can we control any thoughts that comes to our mind because thoughts easily make a person its victim? And they grip us so much that it becomes very difficult for us to have an escape. An important guideline of practical psychology is that you must have the power to overcome negative thinking and this power comes from practical action. Life begins when you master the art of eliminating inconclusive and negative thinking on the spot. When we understand this, we have no fear of any kind.

Let me state an old story here: once upon a time many creatures of the earth were talking about a very dark place and suddenly the sun heard them. They were saying that it is such a dark place that fears comes from there. The sun went to find the place that all those creatures were referring to. It searched everywhere, but could not find a single black spot. It came back and told all the creatures that there was no dark place. When the sun of wisdom shines on the darkness of our lives, we realise that there is no dark place in the world or any power other than goodness. When it is said that heaven is in our own hands, it means that we have the power to do all kinds of goodness and refrain from evil.

How can I improve my situation? This is the question that comes to the mind every day and haunts us again and again. Let’s read American poet Berton Barley’s poem, Opportunity, before finding the answer to this question: “For the best verse hasn’t been rhymed yet, the best house hasn’t been planned, the highest peak hasn’t been climbed yet, the mightiest rivers aren’t spanned, don’t worry and fret, faint hearted, the chances have just begun, for the best jobs haven’t been started, the best work hasn’t been done.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2023.

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