Osho on Fear

Fear With so much to be fearful of these days; global warming, financial crises, and now the refugee crisis, it’s a good time to look at fear – is it real? Is there an alternative? “You will have to drop fear. And if it is a question of choosing between the inner feeling and the fear, choose the inner feeling. Don’t choose the fear. So many people have chosen their religion out of fear, so they live in a limbo. They are neither religious nor worldly. They live in indecision. “Fear is not going to help. Fear always means the fear of the unknown. Fear always means the fear of death. Fear always means the fear of being lost, but if you really want to be alive, you have to accept the possibility of being lost. You have to accept the insecurity of the unknown, the discomfort and the inconvenience of the unfamiliar, the strange. "That is the price one has to pay for the blessing that follows it, and nothing can be achieved without paying for it. You have to pay for it: otherwise you will remain fear-paralyzed. Your whole life will be lost.” Osho, Yoga: The Science of Living, Talk #4 But fear is natural, isn’t it? “I know fear is natural! But don’t get caught by it. Leave it aside. Move in spite of it. Always remember: the difference between a courageous man and a coward is not that the courageous man has no fear and the coward has fear – no. That is not the difference. Both have fear! In the same proportion. Then where is the difference? The difference is that the courageous man goes in spite of the fear, and the coward stops because of the fear. Both have fears!” Osho, Walk Without Feet, Fly Without Wings and Think Without Mind, Talk #4 The bank’s about to foreclose and I just lost my job – and I’m scared…. “If you can find a courageous man who has no fear, then how will you call him courageous? He will be a machine, not a man. Only machines don’t have fear. But

you don’t call machines courageous. How can you call a machine courageous? Courage simply means that something is happening in spite of the fear. The fear is there, the trembling is there, but it is not stopping you, you are not being blocked by it. You use it as a stepping-stone. Shaking, trembling, but still you go into the unknown.” Osho, Walk Without Feet, Fly Without Wings and Think Without Mind, Talk #4 Shaking and trembling in my boots, and then I get angry with myself for being a wimp! “Life should be surrounded by love, not by fear. It is fear that creates anger. It is fear that ultimately creates violence. Have you watched? Fear is only a feminine form of anger and anger is a masculine form of fear. Fear is a passive form of anger and anger is an active form of fear. So you can change fear into anger very easily, and anger into fear – very easily. “I say, ‘You just try!’ And it becomes a revelation even to them. If they can beat the pillow in real, hot anger, immediately fear disappears, because the same energy turns and becomes active.” Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 4, Talk #7 So just get out there and get on with it, right? “Courage will kill you as much as fear, but fear will simply kill you without giving you a new life. Courage will give you a new life. Choose courage – always choose courage.” Osho, Walk Without Feet, Fly Without Wings and Think Without Mind, Talk #4

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