Fear

All of us are afraid of one or the other thing. We fear having diseases, pain, accidents, and disputes. We also fear losing money, jobs, family members, reputation, and positions. All of us have one or more fears. These fears drive our lives and are the cause behind most of the crucial decisions of our lives. For example, we are afraid of diseases and therefore do exercises, walk, etc a part of our daily routine. We fear disputes and therefore try to run away from bullies and unreasonable people. We fear loss of job and therefore try to adjust to many of the demands of the employer that prima facie appear to be unreasonable. We fear loss of money and therefore remain cautious about our investments. We also fear the loss of family members and relatives and that makes us adjust to their unreasonable demands many a time. We also fear loss of reputation and therefore do many things even if we are not comfortable or fully convinced about certain things.

We are generally busy managing our fears for almost the whole of our lives. For example, we do not give sufficient time for exercise and try to make up the fear by taking medical insurance, earning money, and having contacts at the hospital. We do not want to face bullies and unreasonable people and therefore try to avoid them. At times, we try to counter the bullying and unreasonableness by being aggressive. We try to develop contacts and enhance the skills to enhance our employability to handle the fear of loss of the job. We diversify our investments to manage the loss of the investments. We invest in many thick relationships in order to handle the fear of loss of close relatives and friends. We invest a lot in the social validation of our reputation.

In the process of managing these fears, we form many complex neural connections that result in new fears. These new fears are connected to the fundamental fears either directly or indirectly. However, sometimes we lose awareness of those connections. For example, we have the fear of losing the comforts of life and therefore we start accumulating money to ensure a continuous supply of these comforts and in the process get so obsessed with the money that we forget the basic purpose of money and stop spending the money for the present-day comfort. We all make many such decisions in our lives that sound quite stupid to a neutral person.

A careful examination would reveal that the more we run away from fears or try to manage them, the stronger they become. We try to earn money to handle the fear of falling ill, and loss of money becomes a bigger fear. We try to get particular positions to handle our fear of being ridiculed and the fear of losing the position becomes our biggest fear. We try to manage these positions by having a godfather and the fear of losing the godfather becomes our biggest fear. 

In sum and substance, the moment we center the decisions of our life around fear, whether by running away from the fear, managing it, or handling it aggressively, the fear is going to get a stronger grip on us. The reason is very simple. Each such fear has an underlying sensation in our body that we do not like. We develop a dislike for such a sensation. Each effort to allay fear or manage the fear is an effort to avoid such a sensation. However, the more we try to avoid such a sensation, the stronger the dislike becomes. Each effort to get a good position strengthens the fear of being ridiculed. The moment we get a good position, the pleasure from such a position makes the pain of being ridiculed more unbearable. Each time we lose such a position, we experience the fear of being ridiculed with a greater force. Each remark from the people pierces our hearts like a sharp arrow. 

Probably, the only way out is to confront the fear to observe what fear really is. When we observe the fear face to face, we get to become aware of its reality. We stop living in the false stories that our mind makes in order to avoid or manage the fear. As we face the fear upfront, we start developing the endurance to tackle more of it. The center of our life also starts shifting from fear to faith. External fragility starts giving way to internal strength. The unity underlying the disjointed existence starts being more visible. We start becoming conscious of the huge existence beyond this body. Death starts revealing its true meaning. 

It's not easy. Definitely not. But life is a precious gift of God to enable us to face our fears. To look beyond these fears. To leave aside the mental stories and hallucinations to enter the world of consciousness. A world where the forms are just emerging from the consciousness and merging back into the consciousness millions of times a second. For the whole of our lives, we have been busy making efforts to preserve, protect, and promote the forms, such an experience appears to be an imagination. However, for those who have ever experienced the temporariness of the forms even for a moment, sooner or later, these forms start losing their charm. An inner voice slowly takes over the existence giving the courage to say no to slavery of the forms and to experience the true nature of self.