November 12th
What is fear? Not, what am I afraid of, for we can always search endlessly for reasons. But what is fear, fear that feels physical, that interferes so deeply in our lives? Mostly we operate out of fear, which causes the tension in our bodies, and we are not really aware of that fear, that conditioning operating in our lives, not aware of its effect in everything we do. We feel it or resist it, but we don't usually face it. We try to escape from the fear, try to find a reason why there is any uncomfortableness, try to change what we are into what we think we should be. We create a separation within ourselves in an effort to escape the pain. To escape is our habit. What we want is freedom, but in escape there is no freedom.
We try to run away from fear as if it is separate from ourselves. What would happen if we embrace fear, actually observe that we are fear, that that is our inheritance? Face it rather than run away from it. Freedom comes only in moments of seeing our efforts to escape. When we respond out of fear, can we observe we are that unconscious response, that it is neither our fault or our parents' or society's fault, but rather a fact of our existence? When we accept that, what happens then?