Only Fear Dies is about the real possibility that we can free ourselves of unhappiness, which is another way of talking about enlightenment. This potential for freedom is the heart of all the work of the author, Australian spiritual master, Barry Long. And this is one of the most important of his books. Long describes in his inimitable and vivid way how unhappiness seizes hold of us from birth, how it forms our personalities, dominates our history, is manipulated by the media and chases us to death and beyond. The root of unhappiness is fear - but the good news is that in the conscious or divine life, fear dies. In 'dying for life' we realize at last that only fear dies. Written 15 years before Eckhart Tolle's world best-seller 'The Power of Now', Barry Long's book covers similar ground and has been hugely influential.
Barry Long (1926-2003) was a writer and spiritual teacher with an original and challenging way of communicating age-old truths.
Born and raised in Australia he started out as a junior journalist and became the youngest-ever editor of a Sydney Sunday tabloid, somewhat prophetically called 'Truth'. At that time spiritual truth was far from his mind, but in his early 30s, the ambitious and successful family man began to question all his values. For some years his inner pain and suffering increased. Eventually, in 1965, he fled Australia and went to India. After many adventures, alone in the Himalayas he experienced what he called a 'mystic death', or the realization of immortality. This was the real beginning of his journey towards 'the unfathomable mystery of God or Life and that other divine mystery of true love between man and woman'.
He wrote of his insights and realizations and for thirty years gave talks and seminars in many countries. He inspired and guided many thousands of men and women without wanting to create a big organization or attract personal fame. He was concerned with the individual, not society. He taught that the way to truth and the reality of love is through direct experience, not belief or imagination; and that freedom comes from taking responsibility for one's own life. He was fulfilled by the prospect that one day someone might hear the truth from him and be able to live it. Evidently very many did. His legacy may be seen in their lives and in the work of some of those he inspired, including other teachers, notably Eckhart Tolle.
