Our Deepest fear is to shine

"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. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are we not to be? You are a child of God- your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Marianne Williamson



In German:
"Unsere tiefste Angst ist nicht, dass wir unzureichend sind. Unsere tiefste Angst ist, dass wir über alle Maße stark sind. Es ist unser Licht, nicht die Dunkelheit, welches uns am meisten Angst macht. Wir fragen uns, wer bin ich, um glänzend, wunderschön, begabt und fabelhaft zu sein?
Sogar wer sind wir nicht? Du bist ein Kind Gottes- deine geringe Spielweise dient der Welt nicht. Es gibt nichts erleuchtendes über das Schrumpfen, damit andere Leute sich in deiner Nähe nicht unsicher fühlen. Wir wurden geboren, um die Herrlichkeit Gottes, die in uns liegt, zu offenbaren. Sie ist nicht nur in manchen von uns, sie ist in jedem.
Und wenn wir unser eigenes Licht leuchten lassen, geben wir ohne es zu merken Menschen die Erlaubnis das selbe zu tun. Wenn wir von unserer eigenen Angst befreit sind, befreit unsere Gegenwart automatisch andere."

Marianne Williamson

Mastering the Self by Shoghi Effendi

Conquering yourself

Inspiering, Conquer yourserlf, Conquer your Lower Nature
and master the self.
So that you are the one who decides where to go.


“Shoghi Effendi was a very remarkable young man, and of course
he just worshipped ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. And when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá passed
away, the whole world became dark for him. All light had gone
out. When he returned to the Holy Land, he had in mind, from the
things which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had said to him—and I am now telling
you what he said—he said ‘I had in mind that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would
give me the honor of . . . calling together the great conclave which
would elect the Universal House of Justice. And I thought in His
Will and Testament that that was probably what He was instructing
be done.’
“‘But,’ he said, ‘instead of that I found that I was appointed the
Guardian of the Cause of God. . . . I didn’t want to be the Guardian
of the Cause. [In the] first place, I didn’t think that I was worthy.
Next place, I didn’t want to face these responsibilities. . . . I didn’t
want to be the Guardian. I knew what it meant. I knew that my life
as a human being was over.’ He said ‘I didn’t want it and I didn’t
want to face it.’
“‘So . . . remember I left the Holy Land, and I went up into the
mountains of Switzerland, and I fought with myself until I conquered
myself. Then I came back and I turned myself over to God
and I was the Guardian.’ ‘Now,’ he said, ‘every Bahá’í in the
world, every person in the world has to do exactly that same thing.
Whether you are a Hand of the Cause, whether you are a Knight of
Bahá’u’lláh, whether you are a member of a National Assembly,
whether you are a teacher, whether you are a pioneer, whether you
are an administrator, regardless of what you are, whatever you are
doing in the Cause, every Bahá’í must fight with himself and conquer
himself. And when he has conquered himself, then he becomes a
true instrument for the service of the Cause of God—and not until
that. And he will not achieve as great a success until he has done it.
And this is what every Bahá’í in the world should know.’
“And this is one of the main things I want you to get out of this
talk tonight and bear out of this talk: the Guardian’s instructions
that every individual must fight with himself, must conquer himself,
must overcome his lower nature, must overcome himself, and turn
himself over to God so that the Holy Spirit can function through
you. And when the Holy Spirit functions through you then you will
gain victory after victory. Because the Holy Spirit is the creative
aspect of God and it cannot do other than win victories and make
successes for the Cause.”
—from a talk given by Hand of the Cause of God Leroy Ioas, In the Days of the Guardian