Shakespeare’s characters were sometimes real people and sometimes the personification of personality traits. He had the ability to give a characteristic a name and a voice that was unsurpassed. He said: “I your looking glass shall be and reveal to you things that you yourself know not of”.
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar can be called the personification of courage. He said of fear: “We are two lions littered in a day, and I the elder and more terrible. And Caesar shall go forth.” Like all great men, he knew that fear can paralyze and immobilize anyone who would indulge and entertain its presence. He said: “Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.” Anyone with this kind of attitude and the courage to back it up must succeed in life.
Julius Caesar was an epileptic, a condition many would use as an excuse not to succeed. He built a good, useful and robust courage by doing things that were hard to do. He swam the Tiber river everyday when in Rome while others watched from the bank. He took risks when others stood back.
In Shakespeare’s play, Cassius and the other Roman leaders thought they saw Caesar’s ghost after his assassination. Even after his death he remained a force to be reckoned with. One by one they started to commit suicide, driven by their fears and their doubts.
In some way, all failure is suicidal because we bring it about ourselves. The only true failure is failure to learn. As we steadfastly keep the larger purpose of life in mind, namely the evolution of awareness through the exploring of the mysteries of beingness, we become unattached to outcome. Each battle is a battle for perception - we have nothing to prove and everything to learn.
For a life of adventure and risk - a life in which we can make the greatest contribution to the One expressing as the many - we have come to the right place. It is here in this density, where the stakes are high and all new knowledge is gained. The diligence with which we tackle this role as explorers of consciousness depends on our willingness to take risks and to extend the boundaries of our comfort zones.
Many seek the comfort of the familiar and the safety of the known, over-polarizing towards the light. The irony of the situation is that the safety of the known is anything but safe: life is set up to prod stagnation with forced change, which is pain. That which is used to break up the shelter of stagnation and force us into change is anger or rage.
Anything that helps us avoid actively participating in the experiences of life and keeps us from growing through increased perception, attracts the proactive. Any escape from our own negative emotions manifests them in outside circumstances and strengthens them within. We are then either faced with having to increase the avoidance or experience increased emotional outbursts.
Some shelters or ways to avoid having to confront life include drugs, alcohol, work, living vicariously through TV or books and using meditation as an escape into bliss rather than a non-cognitive information gathering technique. Some of these shelters are certainly valid ways to relax, but can become a substitute for vibrant living if used excessively.
The destiny of man is to push the existing limits of what is known; to take risks through developing a strong, useful courage. Within this density, the value of pushing beyond our comfort zones has become obscured. We are taught to think things through and not take unnecessary chances. But to be valiant in exploring the unknown through experience, we have to go beyond where logic or reason can predict the outcome.
That which we have undertaken to solve on behalf of the Infinite has never been solved before during all previous cycles of life. As always when dealing with the unknown, the feelings of our hearts will show the way, even when reason argues otherwise.
It will require passion and trust in the perfection of the greater purpose—much like the ancient mariners that launched their ships on an unpredictable voyage and into uncharted seas. There is no certainty of outcome, only the deep conviction that to plunge forward, with all our hearts is infinitely better than to disengage from life by staying in the safety of the harbor until storms forcefully cast us adrift.
Excerpted from Journey to the Heart of God