Fear is a very strange emotion. All of us have one or the other fear that drives our lives. Students have a fear of examinations, employees have a fear of being removed from the job, employers have a fear of not being able to make sufficient profit, communities have the fear of losing their identities, nations have the fear of being attacked, and humanity has a fear of extinction. There is no doubt that all these fears are real.
Probably, the foundation of all the fears is the inability to accept change. It is an eternal truth that if somebody or something is born, it will die one day. However, as we age, we develop more and more fixation on what we have. Probably, having lost awareness of "what we are" due to the inner disconnection, we get confused about our identity and in desperation to find our identity, we get fixated on "what we have", and start assuming that to be our true identity. Since "what we have" is quite temporary and will definitely undergo a significant change in our lifetime, we start developing a fear of losing "what we have".
We see the manifestation of fear in different forms. Firstly, there are some, who are born with a silver spoon. They have the money and power as they grow older. They get fixated on the money and powers they have and develop a fear of losing them. Secondly, some do not have all these things, however, they have big dreams of being millionaires and billionaires. They get so fixated on their dreams that any and everything that has an impact on their dreams is life-shattering. That is why such people develop a fear of the possibility of their dreams not turning true. Anything that has a potential impact on their dreams is a cause of fear.
Thirdly, some of us, in fact most of us, create a self-image. We project such an image of ourselves when we interact with society. Some may project being wealthy, others as powerful, intelligent, humble, helpful, generous, and so on. We invest a lot of time and energy in building these images, consciously as well as consciously, to seek validation from society and friends. Probably, self-image becomes so crucial possession because we have a lot of interaction with society, and since society is quite shallow in terms of growth of consciousness, and can not see through the person to appreciate the depth of his being, it is highly influenced by the images. Self-images are like brands. People invest a lot of time and energy in them to get the associated benefits. Since self-images have a lot of falsity, projections, and story-telling associated with them, they are quite fragile. Since we invest quite disproportionately in these images that is the reason why we are so fearful of any loss of these images. Most people get trapped in these images and spend their entire lives building and maintaining these images.
In most of the cases, we have fears due to the three things we believe we have. However, most of these things exist in the domain of thought only. For example our dreams and our self-image. In the case of dreams, we get fixated on our expectations of results despite knowing very well that the result is a combination of various factors other than hard work and intelligence. Since we get fixated on something that is hardly in our hands, and in fact, in most cases, we hardly put in sufficient effort, we are quite afraid that our dreams will be shattered. Similarly, self-image is the outcome of what we project and how society perceives the same. It is quite vulnerable and fragile. When we place so much of a premium on fragile things, there is every reason that we will continue to remain fearful.
Even the physical possessions, that we have, lose their value so soon. We may lose homes due to an earthquake, shares due to a bearish market, bank balance due to a recession, jobs due to the failure of the company, relationships due to misunderstanding, power due to change of the government, and positions due to charges of misconduct. When we put so much of a premium on so many fragile possessions and then remain in a perpetual state of fear.
We remain so occupied with "what we have" or "what we want to have" that we never get time to introspect about "what we are". That is the biggest reason for our misery. Since it is quite difficult to protect "what we have", and we become so fearful of losing our possessions, dreams, and self-image, we lose integrity. We start telling others what we do not believe in, to protect our self-image and dreams. Initially, we are a little hesitant while telling these lies and slowly we become masters in telling lies. Slowly and gradually, as we keep telling lies to others, we start telling lies to ourselves as well. Our unconscious mind says one thing and the conscious mind says something else and we become inauthentic. Lack of integrity and inauthenticities make us fearful and we can never come of these fears unless we confront our inauthenticities and learn to live with integrity. We dare to bear consequences and we speak what we think and drop identification with "what we have or want to have". When inauthenticities drop, that creates a space within ourselves and we can use this space to enquire about our true nature. Once we connect to "what we are", we get to understand the larger purpose of life. We understand that the life of an individual is very precious and we may waste it in surfing the waves like most human beings or dive deeper to unravel the deeper truths of nature and make it meaningful.
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