William S.

It’s time to step up and harness your anger. They say ignorance is bliss, but it’s not. Willful ignorance is killing us. It is killing us violently, relentlessly, and without mercy. Conscious growth is not for the person who believes that the fault lies with someone else and is seeking to shift the blame. Conscious growth is not for the person that wants to hide out and avoid making change. Conscious growth is not for the person who believes that they already know all the answers.

Almost every religion, spiritual practice, philosophy and person grapples with fear. The most repeated phrase in the Bible is “Be not afraid.” The ancient Greeks spoke of phobos, panic and terror. It is natural to feel fear, the Stoics believed, but it cannot rule you. Courage, then, is the ability to rise above fear, to do what’s right, to do what’s needed, to do what is true. And so it rests at the heart of the works of Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, and CS Lewis, alongside temperance, justice, and wisdom.