Fear: Understanding and Accepting the Insecurities of Life

by Osho

It is better not to look in. Go on looking out.” At least it keeps you fooled, it keeps the illusion intact that “I am.”

You don’t look in, that is your only hope: “Who knows? Maybe it is there.” But if you look, your intuitive feeling says it is not there.

This false ego, which you have created by not looking in, by continuously looking out, is the root cause of fear.

The ego gives you the fear that one day you may have to die. You go on deceiving yourself that death happens only to others, and in a way you are right: Some neighbor dies, some acquaintance dies, some friend dies, your wife dies, your mother dies—it always happens to somebody else, never to you.

Just watch all your acts, all your beliefs, and find out whether they are based in reality, in experience, or based in fear. Anything based in fear has to be dropped immediately, without a second thought. It is your armor.

The only courage is to live life totally, there is no other courage.

Death is impotent if you are ready to live it, death is very powerful if you are afraid.

Unlived life gives power to death. A totally lived life takes all power from death. Death is not.

There is no need to try to destroy anything because nothing can be destroyed in the first place.

If you start living in the moment, fear disappears. Fear comes through desire. So basically, desire creates fear.

Fear is always about something in the future. Fear never exists in the present moment.

you know that 97 percent of people die in a bed? That is the most dangerous place! Avoid it as much as you can; never go to bed because 97 percent of people die there. Even traveling by airplane is not so dangerous; it is more dangerous to be in bed. And remember, more people die in the night … so, keep trembling!

We have a tremendous capacity to adjust to the fact, but we have no capacity to adjust to the future.

The type of protection you are asking for cannot be given by the universe because you don’t know what you are asking. You are asking for death.

LIVE DANGEROUSLY.

Freedom has no name. There are not many types of freedom; freedom is one. Have you ever watched? Truth is one. Lies can be millions. You can lie in a million ways; you cannot say the truth in a million ways. Truth is simple, one way is enough. Love is one; laws are millions. Freedom is one; prisons are many.

Their God is nothing but fear,

Life exists in challenges, life exists in crises, life needs insecurity. It grows in the soil of insecurity. Whenever you are insecure, you will find yourself more alive, more alert. That’s why so many rich people become dull: A kind of stupidity and a kind of stupor surrounds them.

Intelligence is needed when there is challenge, intelligence is provoked by challenge.

So because of the fear of death we strive for security, for a bank balance, for insurance, for marriage, for a settled life, for a home. We become part of a country, we join a political party, we join a church—we become Hindus, Christians, Mohammedans. These are all ways to find security. These are all ways to find someplace to belong to—a country, a church.

And because of this fear politicians and priests go on exploiting you. If you are not in any fear, no politic...

The promise keeps people in bondage.

As the ego dies it allows space for your authentic being to blossom.

They are calling it self-realization, but they really mean ego-realization.

Everybody’s life, more or less, is governed by fear, because there are only two ways to live life. Either it can be governed by love, or it can be governed by fear. Ordinarily, unless you have learned to love, it is governed by fear.

Fear is just a symptom, it is not a disease. There is no cure for it; there is no need. So it is just a symptom, and it is very useful because it shows you that you should not waste your life any longer. It simply says to you to love more.

So I will not talk about fear. I will help you to love more—and fear disappears as a consequence. If you start working directly on fear you strengthen it, because your whole attention will be focused on it. It is as if somebody is trying to destroy darkness, and becomes focused, obsessed, with how to destroy darkness. You cannot destroy darkness because it is not there in the first place. Note the fact that darkness is there—and then start working on how to bring in light.

When two lovers’ bodies penetrate each other there is a physical orgasm, when two minds penetrate each other there is a psychological orgasm, and when two spirits penetrate each other there is a spiritual orgasm.

If in your life there is no love, then you will become afraid. Then there will be fear everywhere because everywhere there are enemies, no friends, and the whole existence seems to be alien; you seem to be accidental, not rooted, not at home.

So

fear. Be afraid of fear and never be afraid of anything else, because fear cripples.

It is just the mind, and the mind is nothing but all the conditionings that have been given to you by others.

The mind cannot erase its programs automatically. The mind only knows how to be programmed; it has no capacity to deprogram itself. That is one of the most fundamental

The mind is always orthodox because it lives through programs. It wants you to do only that which you have already been doing, because you are efficient in doing it, clever. It is safer, you know how to do it.

beware! The mind says, “Follow the old program—just live the way you have lived up to now.

The mind wants to avoid errors, and life does not want to avoid errors. It wants to go through them so that much more can be learned—because we learn only by trial and error.

When fear arises, it is simply indicative that something is going against the program that you have been carrying up to now. You have come into a situation where you will have to start

Whenever fear arises, that means you are somewhere near the block that has to be broken—just there, somewhere near the door. Knock hard and enter there. Be a fool and enter. Don’t try to be clever—be a fool, and much is possible.

So be soft, be tender, be delicate, be afraid, but never be hindered by it and don’t repress it. Accept the limitations, the human limitations, but still go on working beyond them. That’s how one grows.

So first, drop the idea of dropping fear. Second, accept it; it is part of you. And third, watch it, observe it; try to understand why it is there and what it is. If you do these three things

The only security possible is to start enjoying insecurity. That looks paradoxical, but all that is true in life is always paradoxical.

You cannot breathe in if you stop breathing out. You cannot live if you stop dying.

Wisdom comes through suffering and wisdom comes through acceptance.

Nobody can rob us, and all that can be robbed is not worthwhile, so why fear, why suspect, why doubt? These are the real robbers—doubt, suspicion, fear. They destroy your very possibility of celebration.