Fearless Intelligence (eBook)

The Extraordinary Wisdom of Awareness

Michael Benner (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2018 | 1. Auflage
162 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-5439-4250-7 (ISBN)

Infos

Anxiety, stress, worry, apprehension, and nervousness are just different names for fear - indications of unawareness, ignorance, and confusion, whether dangerous or not. The antidote to fear is knowledge and understanding. This book, 'Fearless Intelligence,' shows readers how to develop self-awareness in calm, relaxed states, transforming fear, anger, and heartache into insight and understanding. When we ignore or deny our fear, it grows worse. But by relaxing, facing, and exploring our fear and heartache, it is redeemed to peace, love, and understanding. 'The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.' - Joseph Campbell

---

Fear is a doorway to understanding yourself better. By becoming more self-aware, you can find the personal wisdom concealed by your heartache and anxiety. "e;Fearless Intelligence"e; leads readers toward this expanded awareness - the insight and understanding that become apparent in peaceful, loving states of mind. "e;Fearless Intelligence"e; gives you the personal skills needed to develop self-awareness, self-worth, and self-realization. Plus, it includes social skills to enhance empathy, compassion, respect, and trust of others. The best parts of you are hidden where you're most afraid to look. Break free of fear and become the authentic, incomparable person you were born to be.

Textauszug

CHAPTER 2 —
WHAT IS AWARENESS?

Everyone is born with some degree of innate intelligence.
Knowledge must be taught and experienced.
Wisdom is a product of self-awareness.

Wisdom is the supreme intelligence — the awareness of being aware that overshadows all feeling, experience, thought, knowledge and behavior. As Fearless Intelligence, wisdom is also the exalted Awareness of Love as the essential Life Force (prana, chi, mana, orenda).

In this age of expanding computer intelligence and robotics, machines will get better at thinking and learning, but without self-awareness, they will never be wise. Smartphones and other high-tech gadgets process information and store knowledge, but cannot understand why. They are incapable of discerning the motives behind their programs and cannot imagine intuitive insight, a conscience, emotional feelings, empathy or compassion — vital qualities of conscious, self-aware beings.

The grand secrets of existence are not restricted to the mountaintop, the sky or some remote corner of the Cosmos. The wisdom of awareness is everywhere, illuminating and animating All Things — as above, so below; around us, within us, closer than our own breath. Without awareness, nothing exists.

We cannot reason our way to wisdom. As Awareness, wisdom is intuitive and comprehensive. The erudite virtues of wisdom are more dependent upon self-awareness than knowledge of the world.

Fortunately, wisdom can be cultivated by a fearless will to explore everything we do not understand about our self. To be most effective, we must practice this contemplation in quiet, tranquil states, devoid of tension, anxiety, confusion, overthinking and emotional drama.

Our understanding of self as a universal, yet unique being influences everything we know. We are One Awareness, eternal and infinite, exploring individuality in time and space. Those who do not understand themselves as inimitable individuals tend to be anxious, self-centered, defensive and insecure. Rather than recognize their emotional feelings as personal responses, they view themselves as victims and blame others for the way they feel.

How Do You Feel?

The subjectivity of self is revealed by our emotional feelings, for mental thoughts are principally objective and dispassionate. Understanding our self and our connection to all other life forms requires high levels of self-awareness and emotional intelligence.

Do not ignore, deny or resist emotions that hurt or frighten you. Embrace them and plumb their depths. As you discover the gift of wisdom they represent, you will also become free of fear and heartache. This is Fearless Intelligence — the path of wisdom.

Typically, we are much less aware of our emotions than our thoughts. Unconscious fear and heartache can hijack intention and drive behavior without the moderation of reasoning. By developing self-awareness, we can observe, identify and understand the subtlest feelings with equanimity.

Escalating stimulus often confuses and frightens us, which promotes frantic thoughts, hysterical feelings and impulsive behavior. Expanded self-awareness allows us to witness and regulate our thoughts and feelings, letting us affirm those we regard as appropriate while rejecting those we do not. As a result, we are better able to replace reflexive reactions with deliberate initiatives.

If all insects were to disappear from Earth, the ecosystem would collapse, and every other living creature would soon die. However, if humans disappeared, the ecosystem would flourish — suggesting we are not only unnecessary but an existential threat.

Human corruption is caused by a single misperception. We believe each of us is a detached, isolated and autonomous being. Insects cooperate, while humans compete. The growth of self-awareness leads to the enlightened recognition that we are not the separated ego-self. The true self is an integrated subdivision of a single, cohesive Life, expressing in multiple, diverse forms.

Ultimately, the extraordinary wisdom of Awareness replaces the struggles and miseries of living with a clear understanding that we are components of One Life. Despite appearances, we are not separate from anything. We are interdependent fragments of a single Universe. We may see ourselves as differentiated droplets, but in fact, we are the ocean. There’s only One of us here, and truly, nothing to fear.

The Components of Wisdom

Psychologists working with the Max Planck Institutes developed a model of wisdom in the late 1980s, which they summarized as “expertise in the fundamental pragmatics of life.” Known as the Berlin Wisdom Project, their study identified five basic qualities of wisdom:

1. Rich factual knowledge of human nature and the physical universe in which we live,

2. Rich procedural knowledge about human judgment in problem-solving and decision-making,

3. Lifespan contextualism, which refers to the ability to see life’s big pictures, how their relationships change and interact,

4. Relativism, which is a recognition of the merits of varying values, goals and priorities, and…

5. Uncertainty, meaning the awareness and anticipation of what remains unknown.

Since then, other writers on the subject have suggested additional wisdom traits, including emotional management, humility, empathy, compassion, honesty and authenticity. For our purposes, Fearless Intelligence views wisdom as five types of awareness:

1. Consciousness — awareness of the perceptions that pass through the mind; the elevated point-of-view provided by observing how our thoughts and feelings lead to particular behaviors, relationships, circumstances and events.

2. Intuition — awareness of spontaneous insights and comprehension of transpersonal, spiritual intelligence.

3. Conscience — awareness of the values, ethics and motives that stand above mental intelligence.

4. Synergy — awareness of the interdependence, harmony and unity of all things in the human, animal, plant and mineral kingdoms.

5. Mysteries — awareness of what is not known and which may never be understood. Western philosophers call this philosophical humility or Socratic ignorance. In Buddhist philosophy, it’s found in the aspiration to develop Beginner’s mind, sometimes called Don’t-know mind. There is always more to be understood than we can imagine.

Fearless Intelligence is a calm, peaceful and still level of equanimity. It features the realization that we can redeem all fear and ignorance with elevated self-awareness, for Awareness (Love) is the ultimate Reality.

While people may have their own sense of the meaning of life, our common purpose is to evolve — not to merely adapt, but to grow, improve and advance, unfolding our most Divine qualities. We naturally become wiser and more loving over time. Yet we can accelerate the expansion of that self-awareness by persistently replacing fear and ignorance with love and understanding. And by helping others do the same, we conspire with the Universal Longing to realize our ultimate potential.

Fearlessness is not a destination or level of attainment, but rather a progressive unfoldment of Loving Awareness. Ironically, fear has an essential role to play when not repressed, ignored or denied. Even the tiniest bit of anxiety or heartache signals an opportunity to learn about our uniqueness and personal role in the Grand Intention of the Cosmos.

Fear Degrades Self-awareness

Compared to the rest of the world, most Americans enjoy great material prosperity, yet they remain unfulfilled. The Internet connects us to the world, yet our alienation and loneliness persist. We have access to more information than we can imagine but know little about ourselves. We’re awake, but unaware because our greatest fear is uncovering who we may be. Just as the wheel and electricity existed before they were discovered, self-awareness is the Essence of Being, though few people have yet to realize it.

As both a cause and a result of ignorance, fear pulls at our hearts and minds. It is the brain’s appeal for more information, and thus uncovers opportunities to develop peace, love and wisdom.

It’s a mistake to portray human fear with animal references like chicken, scaredy-cat, sheepish, timid as a mouse, spineless as a jellyfish, deer in the headlights, playing possum or burying your head in the sand like an ostrich. No creature in the animal kingdom, feral or domesticated, becomes frightened as easily as humans.

Like other animals, humans fear the mere appearance of danger — real or imagined. However, the human tendency to ruminate upon thoughts and feelings promotes exaggerated fears of everything misunderstood or unknown.

Everyone is afraid at different times, to varying degrees and often for no discernable reason, because all fear is fear of the unknown. Fear does not signal danger. It has evolved to alert us to confusion, ignorance and unawareness, whether dangerous or not.

The negative thoughts and hurtful feelings fostered by fear, anxiety and stress are edifying symptoms of whatever we do not understand....

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.7.2018
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Psychologie
• ISBN-10: 1-5439-4250-4 / 1543942504
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5439-4250-7 / 9781543942507