By Steve K.

In a spiritual sense, it’s often suggested that love is the opposite of fear. When considering the characteristics of these two states of being, I can see the truth in this point of view.

However, I would suggest that this viewpoint relates to unhealthy or neurotic fear, rather than ‘in-the-moment’ instinctual fear, which is natural and surely necessary. The type of fear I’ll be referring to is mainly born of our past experiences, trauma, and social conditioning. It’s the insecure ego that lacks self-love and emotional security. It’s resentful from the past, isolated and defensive in the present, and pessimistic about the future.

Fear of this kind dwells inwardly upon the self and disconnects from others. It isolates and causes a sense of loneliness by blocking healthy, intimate, and loving relationships. As fear is often informed by past hurts and trauma, it is typically defensive and lacking in trust in the present, as well as pessimistic and controlling regarding the future.

This type of fear keeps a person stuck and from living their life to the full. It feels like the victim of circumstances, is often demanding and blaming of others, and fails to take responsibility for life and its problems. This fear is a negative sickness that poisons the soul.

The Nature of Love

Love, generally speaking, seems to be the complete opposite of fear. It is open-hearted, vulnerable, and extends outward towards others. Love connects and builds intimacy. It’s unselfish and lives in the present moment. Love feels secure and joyful, and is trusting of life and in people. Love takes responsibility, lives wholeheartedly, and is a positive state of being. It nurtures the spirit.

What is love? Is it just an extension of our evolved survival, sexual, and social instinct—our limbic system, with its neurochemistry creating the feelings that urge us to bond, reproduce, and take care of one another?

This is the physical mechanism of love—the channel through which it flows—but I would suggest that love seems more than the sum of its parts. Deterministic science cannot explain our conscious experience of love; with its ineffable quality, consciousness can’t be explained by reducing it to its component parts. Additionally, the evolutionist’s view doesn’t adequately explain the different types of love, where the survival and sexual motive appear to be absent.

The spiritual view of love suggests it is synonymous with God (whatever that means to you), or a transcendent power within nature. Love is seen as the essence and guiding force of our true self or being. It drives us towards growth and self-actualization. Love is often understood as a healing force working through people—that loving relationships are why we are here.

It is also commonly believed, by some spiritually centred people, that only love and fear are at the core of our nature—that we are either coming from a state of love or from a state of fear. As opposites, they cannot be experienced together, and so, by practicing love, we drive out our fear.

The practice of love brings us serenity, feelings that are good, and a peaceful state of mind. By letting go of our resentments, our demands, and expectations, we free ourselves from the conflict and mental distress that they cause. Love is accepting of self and others; it’s forgiving and unconditional in nature.

A Loving Mind

The book Love Is Letting Go of Fear by Gerald G. Jampolsky places great importance on our mental outlook in choosing love over fear. He suggests that we can choose to forgive and let go of our demands, expectations, and blame—where others and life are concerned.

This outlook takes great faith and practice. We must be willing to believe in the healing power of love and its ability to transform our lives for the better. We can let go of our past, stop worrying about and projecting our future, by just living in the here and now. We can practice trusting in our intuitive wisdom rather than reasoning with a fearful ego mind.

In terms of our philosophy of life, we have a choice in how we view the world and our experiences in it. The psychologist and philosopher William James advocated pragmatism in relation to our spiritual beliefs. Believing in the transformational power of love is a positive and beneficial thing that we can choose to do for ourselves. Belief in… and practice of… love over fear—this is our choice.

A core principle of Jampolsky’s book is that what we give in love to others, we receive in equal measure. By giving love without demands, we expand the love within us. This is how the power of love eradicates our fear: by loving others, we feel loved ourselves; what we give, we also receive; what we teach, we also learn.

Human healing and spiritual growth are to be found in the practice of love and in letting go of fear.

1. ‘Where Does Love Come From?’  Professor Brian Goodwin.

2. ‘Love is Letting Go of Fear’, 3rd edition, by Gerald G. Jampolsky. 

3. Pragmatism, William James.