In Power vs. Force, David Hawkins’ “Map of Consciousness” compares high vibration and low vibration feelings, behavior and emotions in human experience. High vibrations of “enlightenment” and “peace” are at the very top of the map; “shame” and “humiliation” are at the bottom.
Many of us have experienced these feelings and everything in between, depending on our life conditions. In that same Map, we should note that Dr. Hawkins’ dividing line between high and low is somewhere around “courage.”
Courage is called on in the face of fear. For most of us in daily living, that fear can be of what people will think, fear of losing some ego-based ground in a competition, fear of somehow being exposed or betrayed.
We all have courage, whether we know it or not. We come to know it when we stand up for someone being persecuted, or say “yes” when everyone else is saying “no.” We know our courage when we stand alone in an aggressive mob and say “we know better” and then act on that better knowing. We only need to watch the evening news to see a dozen examples of courage being exercised or denied. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s taking action despite fear.
As Joan Borysenko tells us in her March 3 Pocketful of Miracles entry, “We do not have to learn courage, for it is part of who we already are. We have only to unlearn fear.”
