Litany against Fear

Have you read DUNE? If you haven't, stop reading this and start reading that, is required reading for all humans. ;)

I was reminded this week again of the Litany against Fear that appears in the book,

"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."

The piece was probably inspired by a line in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”

Fear can only be suffered, we have to go through it and not around it to come out stronger on the other side.

'Face your fear', is not just a trite platitude.

Pierre