Osho - How to deal with fear

The sources of fear

Fear mainly stems from over-identification with external things. When a person feels too much dependence on something or someone, he fears his loss. It can be a relationship, a job, a financial situation or anything else that the person considers essential to their existence. He is afraid that if something changes in the current situation, he will not be able to cope. The fear of change creates a constant feeling of uncertainty that manifests itself in fear. Man is strongly attached to external things and builds his identity around them, instead of being rooted within himself. He forgets that he came into the world alone, lives his life alone, and even when he leaves the world he will be alone. No matter how close others are to him, in the end he is a separate entity. But the identification with external things obscures this basic understanding, and creates dependence and fear of the inevitable change.

The illusion of fear

However, this fear is an illusion resulting from a lack of understanding of reality. Changes are an integral part of life. Every moment is new and brings with it new possibilities. Things come and go, people enter and leave our lives, situations are constantly changing. There is nothing fixed or stable that can be held on to forever. A person living in fear tries to preserve the existing and struggles with change, but it is a futile struggle.

Even if he invests all his strength in this, life will continue to change against his will. The problem is not the change itself, but the resistance to it. When a person understands that change is natural and inevitable, he can let go of clinging and flow with life. He reveals that he has inner strength to deal with any situation. Human history shows that man is endowed with an extraordinary ability to adapt, perhaps equaled only by that of the Terran. Humans live in extremely diverse conditions and manage to thrive in them.

Throughout the ages they have experienced extreme situations of wars, famine, plagues and natural disasters, but always found a way to move on. Also on a personal level, most people have gone through very different life situations over the years, but managed to adapt to them. If so, the fear of change is baseless, because a person always has the resources to deal with it.

Contemplation of death

Sometimes there is a fear of the most extreme possibility – the end of the world. Many people are afraid of what would happen if the entire universe ceased to exist. They worry about how they can handle such a situation. But this fear is also the root of the problem, not the solution. Because if the world comes to an end, man will also end with it. He will not be left alone to face the destruction. Everything will just stop, including his ads. It will actually be the absolute freedom from all fear. There will be nothing left to fear. Therefore, even the worst possibility is not a real reason to fear. Death, whether of the individual or of the entire universe, is inevitable in any case. We live now, and that’s what counts. The future is gone and may never be. If a person understands this, he can let go of fear and enjoy his life while it lasts. He lives in the present instead of worrying about what may or may not happen tomorrow.

A fear-based mind

The source of fear lies in the internal structure of the human brain. The brain is made up of thought and cognitive processes that are inherently immaterial. It is full of ideas, beliefs, memories and images that have no physical reality. All this mental content is ultimately empty and hollow. The mind knows this on a deep level, so it lives in constant fear of discovering the truth about its true nature.

He is afraid that one day man will wake up and realize that everything he believed in is not true. This will be the end of the mind as we know it. Therefore the mind struggles with all its might against the expansion of awareness. He wants to preserve the existing situation where man identifies with his thoughts and sees them as the ultimate reality. Anything that threatens to challenge this identification, such as meditation or spiritual study, arouses the mind’s fierce resistance. He sees them as an enemy to be fought or avoided. So fear has a solid foundation from the mind’s point of view, even if it is not overtly aware of it.

the way to freedom

But from the point of view of man himself, there is no real reason to fear the fading of the mind. On the contrary, this is the true freedom he longs for. The mind is a prison that prevents the person from experiencing the unmediated reality, free from interpretation and judgment. It traps the person in an endless thought net, which makes him live in an illusory world. When the mind disappears, man gets to see life for the first time as it is.

He realizes that he was free to begin with, but let his mind convince him otherwise. The awakening of awareness allows him to get out of the imaginary prison and stop living in fear. It is the rebirth of man from the ashes of the mind. He discovers the real treasure – the pure awareness that does not depend on anything external. This is the natural state of man, which has always existed beneath the thought noise. Now he can enjoy the inner peace and live peacefully even when the world around him is bustling.

realization of the ads

A life without awareness leads to indescribable suffering. Man is condemned to live in constant fear, both of the changes that life calls for and of the death that awaits at its end. He is surrounded by terror from all sides, unable to free himself from it. Any attempt to avoid it only strengthens it and adds more layers to it. A person has no real way to deal with fear as long as he is immersed in it. He may live an entire life in the shadow of fear without tasting the taste of freedom even for a moment. Only at the time of his death he may get a glimpse of the truth, but then it may be too late. But man is not helpless. At any given moment the potential for awakening is within him, waiting for him to discover it. The power to break free from the grip of fear is with him all the time, but he has to claim it again and again. It is the personal responsibility of each person to realize their awareness and live in light. If he is willing to make awakening his priority, the way will open for him. The choice is always in his hands – to continue living in fear or to march towards freedom. Every moment is a new opportunity to be reborn into the light of awareness.