Litany against fear.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. F.H.
Who is I? Yes members of POEM and uncarded members of the grammar police I used that construction deliberately. Think about it.
Am I the construct of a mystical supernatural universe? Am I a being made out of nothingness by the lonely whim of a supreme being?
Or am I the current result of a series of natural accidents achieved solely so that a gamete and a zygote can me and begin the biomechanical process of creating another gamete, zygote or both? Am I the process of natural selection, selections made by the survival on countless generations of previous biomechanics machines where the only criteria for survival and reproduction is Does it work ? and Does something else work better? Endless generations of the combination of successful gametes and zygotes with random changes induced by the inability to reproduce perfectly the previous generation tested in a real world field of battle with the winners living to reproduce and have offspring that live to reproduce themselves becoming ever more sophisticated until one day and early version of I am born?
Millions of generations of biomechanics machines that can hunt and feed and reproduce. That can find shelter from a hostile environment, that can find a mate to reproduce with, the only goal another successful cycle? Until. Until one day the ever increasing complexity of this biomechanics machine, the ever demanding ever increasing need for reaction to the environment and its threats, the need to react to heat and cold, wet and dry, hungry and sated results in awareness? The I is born and successfully reproduced?
Knowing that at some point I will end? With self awareness comes the knowledge that there is and end to life.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. And when it has gone past me I will turn to see fear’s path.