Transcending fear means to be the ultimate rebel, because without fear we can depart from all the precepts of our culture and function in the world solely from the core of our life’s intention.

If we do not feel fear, or do not allow fear to guide us, then our whole focus in life shifts. One could posit that that would result in pandemonium, because people would just do whatever they want and that we need fear to keep the order – fear of failure, fear of being an outcast, fear of the legal system, fear of being alone, fear of not having enough money, and so on. Yet, fear has never been very good at delivering us to the kinds of lives we truly want to have, such as being not just in pleasure, but in happiness, being healthy and vibrant, having harmonious relationships, and expressing our creativity and doing what we love as a vocation.

In fact, draconian laws rarely scare people from committing them. Many criminals love the excitement of it. We know that eating junk food on a regular basis leads to bad health, but does that stop people from eating junk food? We know that holding resentments brings us sickness in our relationships, yet we still hold them. We know that doing the work we truly love will bring us fulfillment in life, yet we consistently find ourselves doing what we feel we must for the sake of livelihood.

Marianne Williamson famously wrote, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.” I think her quote speaks to the ultimate fear, that if we chose to transcend fear we will have to truly be who we are, without the brakes on, without the caveats, and without equivocation.

It also means we will become the ultimate rebel, because without fear we’re no longer beholden to social precepts or the designs for living that we’ve been taught to believe in. It doesn’t mean we run amuck harming people, rather it means we are free to truly accept and love all who we come in contact with. It means we are free to be ourselves as fully expressive beings.

The “we need fear” school of thought presupposes that people are naturally base and that we need societal precepts to keep us within the boundaries of acceptable behavior. Yet conduct that brings harm to others could be considered to be rooted in fear – that to control, to limit others, to oppress, and to harm is based in a need to overpower and control. If we have truly transcended fear then we need not control or overpower others. In this sense, transcending fear could be considered the ultimate loving act. In other words, transcending fear means to be the ultimate rebel, and to be the ultimate rebel means to be the most loving person we can be.

Pretty subversive, don’t you think?