Just when we thought it was safe to go back on an airplane, or down into the subways, or travel abroad, fear is back in America big-time. The government raised its "alert" status to orange, and people began stockpiling emergency supplies. The media continued its nightly litanies of what we should and should not be afraid of, and millions tuned in gladiator-like "reality" shows in an effort to avoid reality.
It's not just terrorism that has us spooked. The economy is a major worry. In February 2003, U.S.        consumer confidence is at a 10-year low; unemployment is higher than it's been since 1994. In the world at large, security and economic concerns are joined by fears of war, ethnic conflicts, famine, sickness,          environmental disasters, and more.
Clearly, dealing with fear is a major spiritual challenge of our time. Considering all the mentions of this     potent emotion in spiritual texts, it has always been so.

Every thing on Earth and in the heavens has Being because - animated or not - all forms are an expression of one great
Intelligent, Creative Energy. Even a common rock has
Being of a sort. Similarly, all manner of Beings - from rocks to roses - to you and I - all unique expressions of this One Great Energy - possess a
nature.

The natural forces acting upon it determine the nature of a rock. Both the rock's nature - and its destiny - is predetermined. Its Being is without choice. One day it will be dust.
Neither does the rose, dressed so delicately in its fragrant
velveteen petals, have a choice as to its nature. An individual rose can't choose not to have thorns, or attract bees. Its   
nature is a fixed expression of its Being.
But human nature, your nature, is not fixed. It can be
transformed.