“When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful future and the past and future become one. We cannot love when we feel fear…. When we release the fearful past and forgive everyone, we will experience total love and oneness with all.” ― Gerald G. Jampolsky
EDITOR’S NOTE:
I found this little book called “Love is Letting Go of Fear” a while back in a resale store. (Although I shouldn’t say I found it, since I have this belief that books actually find us.) I read this little book in a short time, but the impression it has left on me was grand. It was written many years ago (two years after I was born), but its wisdom stands strong even today and should be spread possibly more than ever. The book is barely a hundred pages long, with cute illustrations throughout and was written in a very easy-to-read language by Gerald G. Jampolsky. The message is really simple: Our very essence is love; love is letting go of fear; and in order to experience peace of mind, we have to let go of our preoccupation with the past and the future.
In theory, this sounds simple enough. But as we all know, in practice, it may not always be that easy. That’s where this little book comes in – as a reminder, or perhaps a guide to help us let go and to get through the challenging situations. Given that our individual stories all stand to differ: we all crave inner peace, but often feel that our worries, fears, and pains are somehow justified. We feel that our situation is unique and we have the ‘right’ to feel angry, frustrated, disappointed, or guilty. And perhaps that’s even true. But with the single goal of achieving peace of mind, we can learn (more so choose) to let go of these negative emotions and remove “the blocks to our awareness of Love’s presence”.
According to the book, what we experience in our lives is our state of mind projected outward. When we find ourselves feeling angry, depressed, irritated, sick, and unable to forgive, we are “responding to fear”. When we are not experiencing joy in our lives, we are forgetting our focus on the single goal of inner peace. When we are more concerned about getting rather than giving, we are losing our essential, loving nature. When we are trapped in our memories from the past and anticipations of the future, we are living in fear. “By consistently choosing Love rather than fear, we can experience a personal transformation which enables us to be more naturally loving to ourselves and others. In this way we can begin to recognize and experience the Love and joy that unites us.”
10 INSIGHTS TO LIVE BY Based on the book “Love is Letting Go of Fear” by Gerald G. Jampolsky
- Love is our “true reality”, our natural state of being. We are Love.
- Achieving peace of mind is our single goal.
- Forgiveness is our single function and our way to achieve peace of mind.
- Through forgiveness, we can learn not to judge others and to see everyone, including ourselves, as guiltless.
- We don’t have to expect other people to change for us in order to experience inner peace.
- We can let go of fear when we stop judging and stop projecting the past into the future, and live only in the now.
- We can learn to accept direction from our inner voice — our guide to profound knowing and universal wisdom.
- After our inner voice gives us direction, it will also provide the means to accomplishing whatever is necessary.
- We do have a choice in determining what we ‘allow in’ – what we perceive and the feelings we experience.
- Through retraining the mind, we can learn to use “positive active imagination” or visualization. This can help us to develop positive, loving images in our minds.
SOURCE OF INSPIRATION:
Love is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald G. Jampolsky