|
On Fear
Questions and Answers
Ó KFT
What is fear itself? We are generally afraid of something, or of a remembrance
of something that has happened, or of a projection of a reaction into the
future. But the questioner asks; What is the actual nature of fear?
When one is afraid, both physiologically as well as psychologically, is it not
that one has a feeling of danger, a feeling of total isolation called
loneliness, deep, abiding, lasting loneliness? All reactions are to something:
one is afraid of the snake, or one is afraid of the return of the some pain one
has had. So it is either fear of an actual thing or of the remembrance of
something that has happened in the past. But apart from the psychological
reactions which one knows as fear is there fear in itself, not fear of
something? Is there fear per se? Or does one only know fear in relation to
something else? Is there fear per se? Or does one only know fear in relation to
something else? If it is not in relation to something, is it fear? One knows
fear in relation to something, from something, or towards something, but if you
eliminate that, is there actual fear, which you can examine?
The
mind, the brain, need complete security in order to function well, healthily,
sanely. Not finding security in anything, in a relationship, in an idea, in a
belief – an intelligent mind rejects all that – yet it still looks for complete
security. Not finding it, fear comes into being. Is there something totally and
completely secure and certain, not the certainty of beliefs, dogmas, rituals and
ideas, which can all be abolished when new ideas, dogmas and theories replace
them? Putting aside all that, does the mind, the brain, seeking a security that
is intelligible and not finding it, feel deep-rooted fear? So apart from the
ordinary kinds of fear, is the mind creating fear itself, because there is
nothing valid, nothing that is whole? Is that the substance of fear?
Can the mind itself have no fear? Thought – which is part of the function of the
mind and brain – desiring security, has created various illusions, philosophical
and theological. Not finding it there, it either creates something beyond itself
in which it hopes to find total security or the mind itself is so totally
complete that it has no need for fear.
We are not talking of getting rid of fear or suppressing fear; we are asking,
can the mind in itself have no cause or substance or reaction which brings fear?
Can the mind ever be in a state – that word 'state implies static it is not that
– can it ever have a quality where it has no movement teaching out, where it is
completely whole in itself? This implies understanding meditation. Meditation is
not all the nonsense that is going on about it. It is to be free from fear, both
physiological and physiological, otherwise there is no love, there is no
compassion. As long as there is fear, the other cannot take place. To meditate –
not to reach something – is to understand the nature of gear and go beyond it –
which is it find a mind that has no remembrance of something which has caused
fear, so that it is completely whole.
Then there is the other part of this question: Can this looking take pace when
fear is not immediately present?
One can recall fear and the recalling of that fear can be observed. One had fear
in the past and one can summon it; but it is not actually the same because fear
exists a moment after, not at the actual moment; it is a reaction that one calls
fear. But at the actual moment of great danger, at the moment of facing
something that may cause fear, there is no fear, there is nothing. Then there is
a recollection of the past, then the naming of it, and saying, "I am afraid",
with all the tightening of the muscles, the secretion of adrenalin.
One can recall a past fear ands look at it. The observing of that fear is
important because either one puts it outside of oneself or one says, "I am that
fear" – there is not oneself apart from the fear observing it; one is that
reaction. When there is no division between oneself and fear, but only the state
of that reaction, then something entirely new takes place.
|