The Unknown Land

smcculley
Mar 13, 2024
3 min read

The Unknown Land

Chief feature is chief buffer. Chief buffer is also chief negative emotion. For some, fear is the feature that submerges self-remembering. Fear has its roots in feelings of insecurity and powerlessness. It usually manifests as timidity in action and exaggerated concern about possibly harmful or dangerous consequences. All of us are subject to all the features, some types, however, are more prone to this mechanicality. Fear in the instinctive center is different than fear in the emotional center. I’m afraid of poisonous snakes. But why am I afraid to ask someone to pass the salt?

Fear is called by different names; worry, anxiety, concern, unease or more extremely, angst, dread, and so on and so forth. Observations will show that all these names or descriptions are the lower self trying to camouflage different degrees of the same state.

When encountering difficulties ranging from mild irritations to extreme circumstances, fear has two choices; fight or flight. Often, they both manifest as bluster. The saying ‘His bark is worse than his bite’ is usually a good indicator that whoever is ‘barking’ is expressing fear. At the other end of this spectrum is a tentativeness fueled by the fear of failure. Not pushing the credit card firmly into the card reader due to fear of breaking something - which usually ends in the reader not reading the magnetic stripe or chip. One time, while living in upstate New York, three of us used to commute into the city by car. At the toll booth, tokens or coins were tossed into a collection basket as we slowly drove past the collection point. We took turns tossing in the coins. It was a bit fun that livened up a monotonous journey. The distance between the car window and the basket was probably less than two feet. That particular morning, we gave the coin throw to our dear marshal friend who became so afraid that he would miss the basket, that in his anxiety-driven haste he threw the coin as if pitching a baseball and completely missed the basket. And not by a little.

Fear also encompasses doubt. The lower self doubts the veracity of a school, the possibility of self-remembering, or the existence of higher centers. By doubting our ability to remember ourselves, we miss our golden opportunities. Even so, in schools there are other students who have traversed this particular inner-landscape and provide the necessary help for others overcome this feature.

Walt Whitman must have had his share of fears, uncertainty and doubts but knew them for the imposters they are. His poem Darest Thou Now O Soul beautifully captures this.

DAREST thou now O soul,

Walk out with me toward the unknown region,

Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?

No map there, nor guide,

Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,

Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.

I know it not O soul,

Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us,

All waits undream'd of in that region, that inaccessible land.

Till when the ties loosen,

All but the ties eternal, Time and Space,

Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds bounding us.