re: "the Objects of My Fears..."

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 "...seeing that none of the objects of my fears contained in

 themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far as the mind is

affected by them...."

-Spinoza

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Stuart asked, regarding the citation above:

> What is the exact content of this recognition? That there are no
> human values independently of how things affect us individually and
> collectively? He refers to the fearfulness with which he responds
> to these objects. Which objects or events are objects that are
> normally feared? What is the precise significance of the
> qualification "except as the mind is affected by them....?" What
> else would anyone fear other than the painful or negative effects
> external events would have on one's experience? What alternative
> point of view is he actually ruling out here with this
> qualification? It is clear that the antidote would be an experience
> that is not sporadic (continuous) nor of partial value (supreme)
> nor is it finite (unending). Does the third characteristic imply
> transcendence of some sort? At first reading this seems an almost
> childish quest since the goal, the antidote to the vanity and
> futility of things, seems so escapist and fanciful. At first blush,
> even if not sheer fantasy, it certainly seems improbable that it
> could be attained.

In the sense that a child may be simple, the quest is to be made simple
and to live as such, integrating experience into this overarching simplicity
that is The Real.

I think Spinoza agrees that few attain his aims.  At the very end of
the Ethics, he makes it clear that even finding a Way to progress
toward such lofty goals is improbable.  Even so, some of us, seeing
that "all is vanity" as it says in Ecclesiastes (which Spinoza knew well
I expect) and that there are "flashes" of this ecstatic and eternal being,
find nothing so enthralling as endeavoring to come to our own under-
standing of this Wisdom that seems to exist in one form or another in
almost all human cultures.  Spinoza is uniquely Western, not to diminish
the influence of Maimonides, Crescas et. al, but Spinoza attempts a
scientific approach to his subjects, even though their exists an enigma
about the "true idea conceived only through intuition" which seems
doubtful of being studied rationally, with detachment.  More about
this later.

I have the same questions about "the exact content of this
recognition." The best I can do so far is to observe, moment to
moment, for examples within the content of my own thoughts/feelings,
and to realize it when I don't fully understand why I have them,
although I could "explain," or the "explanation" may even be quite
"obvious." They are there, these fears. To say simply, "I don't know,"
is that not a simple idea?  I think we can leave aside for now
fears such as an imminent shark bite, or a close brush with a car collision.
I have imaginary fears, and these are what I am interested in for now,
often concerning things over which I have no control. Do you have
any fears which you realize are useless, either because they are
completely imaginary, or you can't do anything about them, or both?
These fit the bill for me, for openers at least. They are aspects of "me," and 
to understand me,myself, I, is to know a thing-in-itself-the philosopher's
stone, if you will.  Understanding the root of conditioning is something
utterly beyond merely analyzing an experience.  It is seeing "underneath"
all the complexity, as if viewing a great building from beneath the foundation,
which would seem to hide its footprint from all light.  But, underneath, it is
full of Light, regardless of what has sprung up, be it grand cathedral or some
cardboard hovel in the riverbottom where the homeless dwell.  Spinoza, we
will find, states that to really understand a thing, we must understand its 
cause, rather than observing its effects and then inferring the cause.  He
would say, "Where there's fire, there's smoke."  But we get ahead of ourselves,
as this will come out later in the treatise.

I can offer examples of a fear, like the degeneration of my spine.  From a
cosmic standpoint, its condition is just a fact, a material state of affairs.  For me,
subjectively, I fear it may pain me today, or get worse.  But do I say my spine
is something " bad" in itself?  The worry and fear affecting my mind accomplishes 
nothing unless I pay heed to how I get treatment, exercise and so on. That much
is very obvious.  But where does fear come from originally? Aside from the physical
pain, the fear breaks down into material action and psychological action.
This latter action involves meditation upon the marvel of self-preservation.
This desire to be, to persist in being, is something we are imbued with in every moment. 
The imagination works with this desire in highly complex ways.  But the intuition
of the immanent cause of the body lies beyond time, pain and degeneration.

The thing is to observe these fears in the moment, as they are
operative in us, as us. Then we have intimate acquaintance with
them. And then, perhaps, if we realize that an internal verbal
description, explaining to ourselves why we have the fear, or telling
ourselves that the fears are stupid, because we can't do anything
about them, etc., is by no means the same as understanding the fear
to the very root in our essence...we may be touched directly by the
conatus, even before it descends to an object of desire…What I mean
is, when we meditate upon the fear, so as to separate it from how I
imagine it may affect me, I may get in contact with what Spinoza calls
"Providence" in the Short Treatise.  If I can dwell with what the fear means
for me alone, I may see that it tends toward my self-preservation existentially.
In turn, this "desire to be" is kind of a DNA which I share with the totality of
all that IS.  That Being never goes away, it is the essence of Eternity, nothing to do
with time and the "before and after the body," as we imagine it.  Vis a vis this eternal 
creation, there is nothing good or bad, there is only perfection.  Vis a vis my own nature, 
I wish for it to be as much the image of this creator as possible.  For this, we must find 
a place in ourselves which is consciously conscious of our union with our Creator, and to 
acquiesce unto that Eternal Truth.  This is our freedom, our ultimate bliss.  We may rest there,
and our soul is nourished, prepared for the next round of experiences.  There will be
fears again, and again.  But even physical pain can be eluded in this timeless shelter, if only for 
a certain period.  We gather great energy there, to see the objects of our fears, and to see them
as they are, rather than considering how we are affected by them.  Or, we may observe how we are 
affected by the idea of them so as to discover how real these notions we have of other things are.  
How real is the content of my consciousness, or is it all imagination?  If we observe with
sufficient clarity and lack of bias, we may discover that all consciousness is One, the the Observer
and the Observed are One.  With this knowledge, we may inquire into the mind with much
greater objectivity.