Life is PurposelessFreedomResponsibilityCourageIndividualityBe AuthenticLove is CoolSex LifeCreativityRichness

 Courage : The Joy of Living Dangerously 

- Courage is a love affair with the unknown -

"The only courage is to live life totally;

there is no other courage." 

- Osho, "Tao - The Three Treasures, Vol 3, #2"

“You cannot be truthful if you are not courageous.

You cannot be loving if you are not courageous.

You cannot be trusting if you are not courageous.

You cannot inquire into reality if you are not courageous.

Hence, courage comes first and everything else follows.”

- Osho, “Eighty Four Thousand Poems, #17”

"Fearlessness is very necessary in the search for truth."

-Osho, “Revolution in Education, #4”

 The courage to discover one’s authentic self. 

What is the most essential factor in the search for truth?

I say courage: the courage to discover one’s authentic self. To know oneself as one is, is the most essential thing. It is very difficult, but without it there can be no understanding of the truth.

What greater hardship is there than coming to know oneself, without any veil, in utter nakedness? But this is the price one has to pay to attain to truth. Only from there does the longing for truth begin in man.

Being true to the self is in itself a manifestation of an intense thirst for truth. How can one who ties himself to the shore of falsehood row his boat across the sea of truth? The shore of falsehood will have to be left behind. That very shore is an obstacle in the journey toward truth. That very shore is the bondage. True, there is safety on that shore and it is that desire for safety which is the stronghold of falsehood.

In our journey toward truth there should be no love of safety. Furthermore, there must be the unshakeable courage to venture out into the unknown. He who does not possess the courage to be unsafe cannot discover the unknown. Without accepting the challenge of being unsafe, no one can throw off his false masks and disguises, nor can he be free from the convictions that he has adopted for safety’s sake.

Is it not for the sake of safety that we present ourselves not as we are? Aren’t all these deceptions merely our strategies for feeling safe? And what of our civilizations and cultures? The proud person appears humble, the greedy one dresses up like a renunciate, the exploiter indulges in charity, the killer promotes the rhetoric of peace, and minds filled with hatred speak the language of love.

This self-deception is very easy. When has acting in dramas ever been difficult? In the marketplace of sophistication, attractive toys have always been sold at bargain rates. But remember: a bargain, which on the face of it seems cheap, proves very costly in the long run, because he who hides himself behind such toys gets further and further away from reality. An unbridgeable gulf is created between reality and the person, because his identity is always afraid of losing its cover. He goes on and on hiding himself beneath more and more covers and masks.

Falsehood does not come alone; it is flanked by its armies which come to protect it. Such is the web of self-deception and fear that surrounds us that it becomes impossible to lift our eyes to that which is beyond us. And how can a person who suffers from the fear of losing his particular false mask gather enough strength to uncover the truth? Such strength is found only through having the courage to discard these self-deceptions. A fearful mind is the enemy of seeing the truth.

Who then is the real friend in this situation? Fearlessness is the friend, and fearlessness of mind is gained only by one who can lay bare the truth about himself and can therefore become free from fear. If you continually mask the truth about yourself, fear keeps increasing and the inner being becomes powerless. But if you uncover yourself and look, then fear is drowned in the light of that understanding and you discover new and different sources of energy.

It is this that I call courage: the power to uncover the self and to acknowledge it. This is courage – and it is unavoidable in the attainment of truth. This is the first step toward godliness.

There is a very interesting story…

A young man reached the dwelling of the rishi Haridrumat Gautam. He wanted to know the truth. He had a desire to know the brahman, the ultimate. He placed his head at the feet of the rishi and said, “Oh master, I have come in search of truth. Be generous to me and teach me the knowledge of brahman; I am blind and I want light.”

The name of that young man was Satyakama.

The rishi asked him, “My son, what is your lineage? Who is your father? What is his name?”

This young man had no knowledge of his father, nor did he know his lineage.

He went to his mother, asked her, and then returned. He repeated to the rishi what his mother had told him.

He said, “Oh master, I do not know my lineage. Nor do I know my father. My mother also does not know who my father is. When I asked her, she said that in her youth she was associating with many respectable people and used to do whatsoever pleased them. She does not know from whom I have descended. The name of my mother is Jabali. Therefore I am Satyakama Jabal. This is what she has asked me to tell you.”

Haridrumat was very much moved by the simple truthfulness of the story. He embraced the young man and said, “My dear son, you are definitely a brahmin. So much trust in the truth is the very essence of a brahmin. You will also certainly be able to discover brahman, because the truth will come knocking at the doors of one who has the courage to face the truth about himself.”

- Osho, “The Earthen Lamps, No.7”

 Courage means going into 

 the Unknown in spite of all the Fears. 
 

Question :

Osho,

What is Courage?

Courage means going into the unknown in spite of all the fears. Courage does not mean fearlessness. Fearlessness happens if you go on being courageous and more courageous. That is the ultimate experience of courage — fearlessness; that is the fragrance when the courage has become absolute. But in the beginning there is not much difference between the coward and the courageous person. The only difference is, the coward listens to his fears and follows them, and the courageous person puts them aside and goes ahead. The courageous person goes into the unknown in spite of all the fears. He knows the fears, the fears are there.

When you go into the uncharted sea, like Columbus did, there is fear, immense fear, because one never knows what is going to happen and you are leaving the shore of safety. You were perfectly okay, in a way; only one thing was missing — adventure. Going into the unknown gives you a thrill. The heart starts pulsating again; again you are alive, fully alive. Every fiber of your being is alive because you have accepted the challenge of the unknown.

To accept the challenge of the unknown in spite of all fears, is courage. The fears are there, but if you go on accepting the challenge again and again, slowly slowly those fears disappear. The experience of the joy that the unknown brings, the great ecstasy that starts happening with the unknown, makes you strong enough, gives you a certain integrity, makes your intelligence sharp. For the first time you start feeling that life is not just a boredom but an adventure. Then slowly slowly fears disappear; then you are always seeking and searching for some adventure.

But basically courage is risking the known for the unknown, the familiar for the unfamiliar, the comfortable for the uncomfortable arduous pilgrimage to some unknown destination. One never knows whether one will be able to make it or not. It is gambling, but only the gamblers know what life is.

- Osho, “Come, Come, Yet Again Come, #4”

 Religion is possible only through Courage 

Religion is possible only through courage, but usually the cowardly become religious. The temples, the churches, the mosques, are full of cowards. Their God is nothing but a projection of their fear; their prayer is nothing but a demand for protection. It is a kind of bribe. Their praise of God is not true: either they are praying because of fear or because of greed. And fear and greed are two aspects of the same coin; they are not basically different.

Hence the earth has remained irreligious in spite of so many religious people. In fact, ninety-nine percent of people are religious – somebody is a Hindu and somebody is a Christian and somebody is a Mohammedan – but religion does not exist anywhere. It has not yet found the right ground, a foothold, for itself.

And the reason is: the religion can arise only out of courage. It arises out of adventure. It is an inquiry into existence. The fearful cannot inquire. He needs consolation – and lies are very confirmative and consolative. He does not care about truth, because who knows? – truth may shatter his dreams.

He may not be able to bear it. He accumulates beautiful lies around himself. He goes on decorating those lies, he goes on repeating those lies. And when you repeat constantly a certain lie it starts looking like the truth. Repetition is a way of auto-hypnosis. So the people who are thought to be religious are not religious but only auto-hypnotized.

Sannyas is a totally different endeavor. We are trying to inquire into truth. We are not believers; we are seekers. We are not in search of a comfortable philosophy of life. Our search is for the truth and we are ready to sacrifice everything for it. Our inquiry is Socratic.

And great courage is certainly needed to go into the unknown, to risk the known. But out of courage joy arises, because out of courage you become more alive. And joy is nothing but a shadow of aliveness; and sadness is a shadow of deadness.

- Osho, "Snap Your Fingers, Slap Your Face and Wake Up!, #7"

 Always choose Courage 

there will be great chaos with it -- I will bring chaos in you -- but that is the only way stars are born: out of chaos. I will bring great upheavals in your being, I will uproot you from where you are, because that is the only way to transform, to transplant you onto higher plenitudes of being. And there are higher and higher plenitudes, there is no end to it. This is an eternal pilgrimage.

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!

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.

To be a sannyasin is to choose courage.

Both possibilities exist in every human being! fear and courage. All will depend on which you choose between the two. Never choose fear. It cripples. It paralyzes. It destroys you without giving you a chance of resurrection. Courage will ALSO destroy you, but that destruction is very creative -- it will give you rebirth.

Fear and courage, both destroy -- but fear simply destroys. The seed simply goes rotten. When you sow the seed of courage in the soil, then too it dies -- but it doesn't go rotten. It dies... it dies into a new phenomenon. A sprout comes up.

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.

Arduous it is, but it is adventurous too. Difficult it is, uncomfortable, inconvenient it is, but it brings great ecstasies too. One has to pay the price for those ecstasies.

- Osho, "Walk Without Feet, Fly Without Wings and Think Without Mind, #4"

 Courage to know the reality in the self. 

Question :

What is the most essential factor in search of truth?

I said: ”Courage – courage to know the reality in the self. To know oneself as one is, is most essential. That is very difficult. But without that there is no understanding of the truth. What else is the greater penance than knowing oneself without cover and in nakedness? But that is the price one has to pay for attainment of truth. From that only commences the desire of man for truth. Being true to the self itself is the manifestation of the intense thirst for truth. How can he, who binds himself to the shore of falsehood, row his boat across the sea of truth?

The shore of falsehood will have to be given up. That shore itself is an obstacle to travel to the truth. That shore itself is the bondage. True, there is safety on that shore and the very desire for safety is the fort of falsehood. In our travel to the truth there should be no love for safety. On the other hand, there should be the unbeatable courage to discover the unknown. He who does not possess the courage to be unsafe, cannot discover the unknown. Without accepting the challenge of being unsafe, no one can either throw off the artificial covers nor can he be free from those convictions which he has put on for safety.

Is it not for the sake of safety that we appear what we are not? Are not all these deceptions merely our plans for safety? What are all these civilizations and cultures of ours?The proud looks like the humble; the greedy looks like the renouncer; the exploiter indulges in gifts; a killer has taken up the cover of non-violence; and the minds filled with hatred talk the language of love. This self-deception is very easy. When has acting in dramas been difficult? Then, in the market of culture, the good looking toys have always been sold at cheap rates; but may it be remembered that a bargain which is cheap on the surface proves very costly in the long run, because he who hides himself among the toys gets away and away from the truth.

Between truth and himself an unbridgeable gulf is created, because his soul is always afraid of loosing its cover. Then he goes on hiding himself: covers over covers and masks on masks. Falsehood does not come alone, its armies come with it for its protection. Such a net of falsehood and fear spreads out that it becomes impossible to lift our eyes above it. And how can a person, who suffers from the fear of losing his own artificial masks, muster strength to uncover the vessel containing the truth? That power is gained only by the courage to uncover himself.

A fearful mind is the enemy of the vision of truth. Who is the friend in that direction? Fearlessness is the friend; and fearlessness of mind is gained only by him who himself can lay bare the truth about himself and becomes free from fear. Fear keeps on increasing by covering the self and the soul becomes powerless. But if you uncover yourself and see, then fear gets drowned in the light of that knowledge and you discover new and several sources of power. It is this that I call courage; the power to uncover the self and to know it is courage. That is unavoidable for the attainment of truth. That is the first step towards Brahma.

- Osho, “The Earthen Lamps, No 7”

 Without Courage there is no Religion 

I told you in the morning about fearlessness. The more a man is fearful, the less he will be able to reach close to the navel center. The more a man is fearless, the more he will reach close to the navel.

So in educating children it is my essential understanding that one should never tell a child, even by mistake, that because it is dark outside he shouldn't go there. You do not know that you are harming his navel center forever. Wherever there is darkness, tell the children to go there certainly; tell them that the darkness is calling them. If the river is flooded, then do not tell the children not to enter it - because you do not know that the child who dares to enter a flooded river is developing his navel center. The navel center of a child who does not enter the river becomes weak and feeble.

If children want to climb mountains then let them. If children want to climb trees, let them. Wherever they can experience adventure and fearlessness, let them go there. Even if a few thousand children of a race die each year while climbing a mountain or entering a river or climbing a tree, it does not matter at all. Because if all the children of a whole race become filled with fear and become empty of fearlessness, then although the whole race may seem to be alive, it is actually dead.

In our country this misfortune has happened. We talk a lot about religion but we know nothing about courage. We do not know that without courage there is no religion whatsoever because without courage the central element of life remains undeveloped. One needs courage - so much courage that one is able to stand and face death. Our race talks so much about religion but our fear of death has no limit! Actually, the contrary should be the case - people who know the soul, recognize the soul, should not be afraid of death at all because death does not exist. But we talk very much about the soul yet we are very afraid of death, limitlessly afraid.

Perhaps we talk about the soul because we are afraid of death! By talking about the soul we get some consolation that we will not die, that the soul is immortal. Perhaps we talk because of the fear - the reality seems to be something like this. Fearlessness should develop. Immense fearlessness should develop. So, whenever there are opportunities in life to face danger, they should be welcomed.

Somebody once asked Nietzsche, "How can one develop one's personality?" He gave a very peculiar maxim, one which you could not have expected. He said, "Live dangerously! Live dangerously if you want to develop your personality." But we think that the more we live in security the better we will be - there is a bank balance, a house, policemen and military people are there, there is no fear.... We can have a quiet life in all this. We do not realize that in making these arrangements and these comforts, we have almost become dead. There is no point in living anymore because the only meaning of life is to live dangerously. There is no other meaning to living. Corpses are absolutely secure because now they cannot even die. Now nobody can kill them. Their graves are absolutely safe.

[....]

We think that the absence of fear is fearlessness; this is a mistake. Fearlessness is not the absence of fear. In the presence of fear, fearlessness is a totally different thing which happens within. It is not the absence of fear. Fearlessness is the total presence of fear, with the courage to face it. But this does not develop in our lives.

This is my suggestion to you - by praying in the temples you will not reach closer to the divine. But when the adventures of life and fearlessness are inviting you, when dangers are calling you, if you go, you will certainly reach closer to the divine. In dangers, in insecurity, the center which is hidden within you, which is sleeping, awakens and becomes alert. In danger, in insecurity, the center feels a challenge - and in this situation the center of the navel can develop.

In the old days sannyasins accepted this very insecurity. They left the home, but not because the home was wrong.... Later stupid people started thinking that sannyasins left the home because it was wrong, that they left their wives and children because they were a bondage. This idea is wrong.

The sannyasin wanted to drop security. He wanted to enter the state of insecurity, where there was no support, no friends, no acquaintances, no one to be called one's own. Wherever there might be sickness, death, dangers, no money - he wanted to enter such a state of insecurity. So the one who chose insecurity was a sannyasin.

But later on sannyasins created a good security, better than the people living in the society. A person living in the society has to earn his living but a sannyasin does not. He is even more secure. He simply receives it. He gets clothes, he gets houses, he does not have to live without anything. The only difference is that he does not even have to earn it. The difficulty and insecurity of earning money is also finished. Someone else manages it for them, someone or other makes the arrangements for them. So a sannyasin became a person tied to a peg. That is why a sannyasin cannot be courageous. A sannyasin seems to be a person without any strength in this world. He cannot show even a little courage.

One sannyasin says, "I am a Jaina." One sannyasin says, "I am a Hindu." One sannyasin says, "I am a Mohammedan." Can a sannyasin be a Hindu, a Jaina or a Mohammedan? A sannyasin belongs to everybody. But there is a fear in saying, "I belong to everybody," because to say that may mean that the sannyasin belongs to no one. Then those who give him food, who make houses for him, may no longer be friendly to him. They will say, "You do not belong to us. You belong to everybody, so you can go to everybody. We will make arrangements for you only if you are Jaina monk," or, "We will make arrangements for you if you are a Mohammedan monk. We are Mohammedans, so we will make arrangements only for Mohammedan monks." So the monk says, "I am a Mohammedan,"

or he says, "I am a Hindu." This is a search for security. This is a search for a new house. They have left the old house, now they want a new house. So these days the situation is such that those who are clever, who want a good house, do not make a house at all - they simply become sannyasins!

They say to others, "You are not wise. You make your own house, you commit sins and maybe you will go to hell." And they get these people to build a house for them, they live in it, they enjoy the thoughts of going to heaven, they earn virtue - and they escape from all the troubles of life. So sannyasins have created a security of their own.

But basically the meaning of a sannyasin is a longing to live in danger. Basically it means that there is no shelter, no companion, no certainty about tomorrow.

Christ was walking past a garden. He said to his friends, "Do you see these flowers which have blossomed in the garden? They do not know whether the sun will rise tomorrow or not. They do not know whether they will get water or not, but today they have blossomed in their joy." Man alone makes arrangements today for tomorrow, and then he makes arrangements for the day after tomorrow. There are people who make arrangements for how their grave should be built. Those who think they are wise create the memorials for their dead bodies to be kept in before their death.

We all make arrangements and we completely forget that when a person makes arrangements for tomorrow, he kills this day while making those arrangements. Then tomorrow again he will make arrangements for the next day and he kills that day also. Everyday he will make arrangements for the following day and goes on killing the present day.

And there is nothing else except the present day.

Tomorrow never comes. Whenever it comes, it is today. He kills today for tomorrow! This is the nature of a mind looking for security: it kills today for tomorrow. It sacrifices the present for the future. And the future never comes. Tomorrow never comes. In the end he finds that his whole life has slipped out of his hands.

The person who dares to live today and does not even bother about tomorrow, is living in danger - because tomorrow there may be danger. There is no certainty about anything. It is possible that the wife who is loving today may not be loving tomorrow. The husband who is loving today may not be loving tomorrow. There is no certainty about tomorrow. Today there is money, tomorrow there may be no money; today there are clothes, tomorrow there may be no clothes.... In the person who totally accepts this insecurity about tomorrow, and waits for tomorrow, faces whatever tomorrow brings, a center starts developing which I call the navel center. Within him a power, an energy, a potency arises. Within him a base arises like a pillar of courage on which his life can grow.

So, on the physical level, breathing is needed and on the psychological level, courage is needed.

These two things are basically necessary for the development of the navel center. If there is something else or if you have some questions in your mind relating to this, I will talk to you about it tonight. But first before this present session is over, I must tell you one more thing.

Seven or eight hundred years ago in Japan they tried to create a different type of person - they called him a samurai. He was a monk and also a warrior. This is very strange - because what is the relation between a monk and a warrior? The temples in Japan are very strange. In these temples, where they teach meditation, they also teach jujitsu and judo and the arts of wrestling, swordsmanship and archery. If we were to go there and see, we would be surprised! What is the need to use a sword in a meditation temple? And teaching judo, jujitsu and wrestling - what relation do they have with meditation? In front of meditation temples there are symbols of swords! It is a very strange affair.

But there was a reason. The meditators in Japan slowly came to realize that if there is no possibility in a seeker's life of developing courage and strength, then only the brain will exist in that seeker. His other deeper centers do not develop. He can only become a scholar, he cannot become a saint. He can become a so-called knowledgeable person. He can know the Gita, the Koran, the Bible, and the Upanishads, he can memorize them like a parrot, this is possible - but he has no experience of life.

So a meditator was taught how to use a sword and an arrow.

Recently one of my friends returned from Japan. Someone there gave him a statue. He was very much troubled by it. He could not understand what kind of statue it was. When he returned, he came to me with the statue and said, "Somebody has presented me with this statue, so I have brought it here, but I have been wondering again and again what kind of a statue it is. What is its meaning?"

It was a statue of a samurai warrior. I told him, "You cannot understand because for thousands of years we have created a wrong understanding."

The statue is of a warrior with a naked sword in his hand. The side of the face on the same side as the hand with the sword, is shining with the reflection of the sword. His face on that side looks like the face of Arjuna may have done. In his other hand there is a lamp, and the light of the lamp is falling on the other side of his face. His face on that side looks like the face of Buddha may have done or of Mahavira or of Christ. There is a sword in one hand and a lamp in the other hand. We cannot understand it because there should be either a sword in the hand or a lamp. How can there be both things in the hands of one man?

So my friend was not able to understand anything. He said to me, "I am very much puzzled. What is it all about?"

I told him that the lamp can only exist in the hand of a person who also has a shining sword in his other hand. With him it is not a question of using the sword; only weak people, fearful people, use the sword. A person whose whole life becomes like a sword, does not use it. There is no need for him to use it because his whole life is a sword. So do not think that if a person has a sword in his hands that he will use it, that he will hurt or kill somebody. A person only kills when he is afraid of being killed himself - otherwise no one will kill. A violent person is really only a fearful person. In reality a sword can only be held in the hands of a non-violent person. In fact, when a person himself becomes a sword, only then can he be non-violent, otherwise not.

The lamp of peace only benefits a man in whose being a sword of courage has been born, in whose being a sword of energy, of strength, has been born.

So on one hand the personality should be filled with total strength, and on the other hand with total peace - only then can an integrated personality, a total being, arise.

Up to now there have been two kinds of situations in the world. Either people have kept lamps in their hands and have become absolutely weak - if somebody blows out their lamp, they cannot even stop him or ask why he is blowing out the lamp. They will think that if this fellow goes away then they will light the lamp again, and if he does not go away then they will remain in darkness - anyway there is no problem so why take the trouble to resist? So on one hand, in one situation, there are people who have the lamp in their hands but have no strength to protect it....

India has become one of those weak countries. It has become a weak country because we did not develop the real centers of our life-energy. We simply stayed with the brain and memorized the Gita, and the Upanishads, and the sayings of Mahavira, and went on commenting upon them. The master and disciple went on sitting and talking about thousands of useless things which have no concern with life. Our whole country, our whole race, has become weak, without any strength. It has become impotent.

.... and on the other hand there are people who simply stopped caring about the lamp and took up the sword and started using it. Then, because they do not have a lamp, they cannot see who they are killing in the darkness. They don't know whether they are killing their own people or others. So they just go on killing and if someone starts talking about lighting the lamp, they say, "Stop talking nonsense. During the time we are lighting the lamp, we could be using the sword. Also one more sword could be made with the metal with which we will make the lamp, so why waste all that oil, all that metal? Life is all about using the sword." The people in the West are using their swords in darkness; the people in the East are sitting there with a lamp but without a sword. And both are crying. The whole world is crying. A right man has not been created. The right man is a living sword and also a lamp of peace. I only call somebody a religious man if both of these things have arisen in him.

- Osho, "The Inner Journey, #2"

 Osho on Courage 

“Courage means going into the unknown in spite of all the fears. Courage does not mean fearlessness. Fearlessness happens if you go on being courageous and more courageous. That is the ultimate experience of courage—fearlessness: That is the fragrance when the courage has become absolute.”

- Osho, "Come, Come, Yet Again Come, #4"

“You cannot be truthful if you are not courageous. You cannot be loving if you are not courageous. You cannot be trusting if you are not courageous. You cannot inquire into reality if you are not courageous. Hence, courage comes first and everything else follows.”

- Osho, “Eighty Four Thousand Poems, #17”

“The word ‘Courage’ is very interesting. It comes from the Latin root COR, which means ‘Heart.’ So to be courageous means to live with the heart. And weaklings, only weaklings, live with the head; afraid, they create a security of logic around themselves. Fearful, they close every window and door with theology, concepts, words, theories - and inside those closed doors and windows, they hide.”

- Osho, “The Grass Grows By Itself, #8”

“Basically courage is risking the known for the unknown, the familiar for the unfamiliar, the comfortable for the uncomfortable, arduous pilgrimage to some unknown destination. One never knows whether one will be able to make it or not. It is gambling, but only the gamblers know what life is.”

- Osho, "Come, Come, Yet Again Come, #4"

“Everybody is afraid - has to be. Life is such that one has to be. And people who become fearless, become fearless not by becoming brave - because a brave man has only repressed his fear; he’s not really fearless. A man becomes fearless by accepting his fears. It is not a question of bravery. It is simply seeing into the facts of life and realizing that these fears are natural. One accepts them!”

- Osho, “Get Out of Your Own Way, #11”

“Nothing can be secure, because a secure life will be worse than death. Nothing is certain. Life is full of uncertainties, full of surprises - that is its beauty! You can never come to a moment when you can say, ‘Now I am certain.’ When you say you are certain, you simply declare your death. Life goes on moving with a thousand and one uncertainties. That’s its freedom. Don’t call it insecurity.”

- Osho, “A Sudden Clash of Thunder, #6”

“Insecurity is an intrinsic part of life - and good that it is so, because it makes life a freedom, it makes life a continuous surprise. One never knows what is going to happen. It keeps you continuously in wonder. Don’t call it uncertainty - call it wonder. Don’t call it insecurity - call it freedom.”

- Osho, "A Sudden Clash of Thunder, #6"

“Courage means going into the unknown in spite of all the fears. Courage does not mean fearlessness. Fearlessness happens if you go on being courageous and more courageous. That is the ultimate experience of courage - fearlessness: That is the fragrance when the courage has become absolute.”

- Osho, "Come, Come, Yet Again Come, #4"

“All that is beautiful and all that is good and all that is divine can be felt only by the inner sense. Stop being influenced by people’s opinions. Rather, start looking in... allow your inner sense to say things to you. Trust it. If you trust it, it will grow. If you trust it, you will feed it, it will become stronger.”

- Osho, “The Perfect Master, Vol 2, #10”

“The way of the heart is the way of courage. It is to live in insecurity; it is to live in love, and trust; it is to move in the unknown. It is leaving the past and allowing the future to be. Courage is to move on dangerous paths. Life is dangerous, and only cowards can avoid the danger - but then, they are already dead. A person who is alive, really alive, vitally alive, will always move into the unknown.”

- Osho, “The Grass Grows By Itself, #8”

“So the whole art for the new humanity will consist in the secret of listening to the heart consciously, alertly, attentively. And follow it, go wherever it takes you. Yes, sometimes it will take you into dangers - but remember, those dangers are needed to make you ripe. Sometimes it will take you astray - but remember again, those goings astray are part of growth. Many times you will fall - rise up again, because this is how one gathers strength, by falling and rising again. This is how one becomes integrated.”

- Osho, “The Book of Wisdom, #11”

“Meet people, mix with people, with as many people as possible, because each person expresses a different facet of God. Learn from people. Don’t be afraid, this existence is not your enemy. This existence mothers you, this existence is ready to support you in every possible way. Trust, and you will start feeling a new upsurge of energy in you. That energy is love. That energy wants to bless the whole existence, because in that energy one feels blessed. And when you feel blessed, what else can you do except bless the whole existence?”

- Osho, “The Guest, #6”

“That is one of the problems: people have been taught never to do anything wrong, and then they become so hesitant, so fearful, so frightened of doing wrong, that they become stuck. They cannot move, something wrong may happen. So they become like rocks, they lose all movement. Commit as many mistakes as possible, remembering only one thing: don’t commit the same mistake again. And you will be growing.”

- Osho, “The Book of Wisdom, #11”

“To grow to your destiny needs great courage, it needs fearlessness. People who are full of fear cannot move beyond the known. The known gives a kind of comfort, security, safety because it is known. One is perfectly aware, one knows how to deal with it. One can remain almost asleep and go on dealing with it - there is no need to be awake; that’s the convenience with the known.”

- Osho, "The Tongue-Tip Taste of Tao, #18"

“There are two types of living: one fear-oriented, one love-oriented. Fear-oriented living can never lead you into deep relationship. You remain afraid, and the other cannot be allowed, cannot be allowed to penetrate you to your very core. To an extent you allow the other, but then the wall comes up and everything stops. The love-oriented person is one who is not afraid of the future, one who is not afraid of the result and the consequence, who lives here and now. Don’t be bothered about the result; that is the fear-oriented mind. Don’t think about what will happen out of it. Just be here and act totally. Don’t calculate. A fear-oriented man is always calculating, planning, safeguarding. His whole life is lost in this way.”

- Osho, "My Way: The Way of the White Clouds, #7"

“The more fearless a person is, the less mind he uses. The more fearful a person, the more he uses the mind.”

- Osho, "The Great Nothing, #19"

“You were born as a no-mind. Let this sink into your heart as deeply as possible because through that, a door opens. If you were born as a no-mind, then the mind is just a social product. It is nothing natural, it is cultivated. It has been put together on top of you. Deep down you are still free, you can get out of it. One can never get out of nature, but one can get out of the artificial any moment one decides to.”

- Osho, "The First Principle, #3"

“The young child is free of fear; children are born without any fear. If the society can help and support them to remain without fear, can help them to climb the trees and the mountains and swim the oceans and the rivers—if the society can help them in every possible way to become adventurers, adventurers of the unknown, and if the society can create a great inquiry instead of giving them dead beliefs - then the children will turn into great lovers, lovers of life. And that is true religion. There is no higher religion than love.”

- Osho, "The Guest, #6"

“Fear is nothing but absence of love. Do something with love, forget about fear. If you love well, fear disappears. If you love deeply, fear is not found.”

- Osho, "Tao: The Three Treasures, Vol 4, #2"

“Drop all fears and love more - and love unconditionally. Don’t think that you are doing something for the other when you love; you are doing something for yourself. When you love it is beneficial to you. So don’t wait; don’t say that when others love, you will love - that is not the point at all. Be selfish. Love is selfish. Love people - you will be fulfilled through it, you will be getting more and more blessedness through it. And when love goes deeper, fear disappears; love is the light, fear is darkness.”

- Osho, "Tao - The Three Treasures, Vol 4, #2"

“You cannot bring the new in your life; the new comes. You can either accept it or reject it. If you reject it you remain a stone, closed and dead. If you receive it you become a flower, you start opening... and in that opening is celebration.”

- Osho, "The Diamond Sutra, #4"

“They say all that is old is not gold. I say, even if all that is old is gold, forget about it. Choose the new - gold or no gold, it doesn’t matter. What matters is your choice: your choice to learn, your choice to experience, your choice to go into the dark. Slowly slowly your courage will start functioning. And sharpness of intelligence is not something separate from courage, it is almost one organic whole.”

- Osho, "From Misery to Enlightenment, #9"

“Boredom simply means that the way you are living is wrong; hence it can become a great event, the understanding that, ‘I am bored and something has to be done, some transformation is needed.’”

- Osho, "The Goose is Out, #9"

“Why does one feel bored? One feels bored because one has been living in dead patterns given to you by others. Renounce those patterns, come out of those patterns! Start living on your own.”

- Osho, "The Goose is Out, #9"

“When I say live dangerously, I mean don’t live the life of ordinary respectability - that you are a mayor in a town, or a member of the corporation. This is not life. Or you are a minister, or you have a good profession and are earning well and money goes on accumulating in the bank and everything is going perfectly well. When everything is going perfectly well, simply see it - you are dying and nothing is happening. People may respect you, and when you die a great procession will follow you. Good, that’s all, and in the newspapers your pictures will be published and there will be editorials, and then people will forget about you. And you lived your whole life only for these things?”

- Osho, "The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 2, #4"

“Have you ever gone climbing the mountains? The higher the climb, the fresher you feel, the younger you feel. The greater the danger of falling, the bigger the abyss by the side, the more alive you are... between life and death, when you are just hanging between life and death. There is no boredom, then there is no dust of the past, no desire for the future. Then the present moment is very sharp, like a flame. It is enough—you live in the here and now.”

- Osho, "The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 2, #4"

“Those who are courageous, they go headlong. They search all opportunities of danger. Their life philosophy is not that of insurance companies. Their life philosophy is that of a mountain climber, a glider, a surfer. And not only in the outside seas they surf; they surf in their innermost seas. And not only on the outside they climb Alps and Himalayas; they seek inner peaks.”

- Osho, "The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 2, #4"

“To me, to be blissful is the greatest courage. To be miserable is very cowardly. In fact to be miserable, nothing is needed. Any coward can do it, any fool can do it. Everybody is capable of being miserable, but to be blissful, great courage is needed - it is an uphill task.”

- Osho, "The Buddha Disease, #27"

“Meditation should be an inner shelter, an inner shrine. Whenever you feel that the world is too much for you, you can move into your shrine. You can have a bath in your inner being. You can rejuvenate yourself. You can come out resurrected; again alive, fresh, young, renewed… to live, to be. But you should also be capable of loving people and facing problems, because a silence that is impotent and cannot face problems is not much of a silence, is not worth much.”

- Osho, "Get Out of Your Own Way, #11"

“Life is not a problem. To look at it as a problem is to take a wrong step. It is a mystery to be lived, loved, experienced.”

- Osho, "The Art of Dying, #8"

“Looking at a flower, become the flower, dance around the flower, sing a song. the wind is cool and crisp, the sun is warm, and the flower is in its prime. The flower is dancing in the wind, rejoicing, singing a song, singing alleluia. Participate with it! Drop indifference, objectivity, detachment. Drop all your scientific attitudes. Become a little more fluid, more melting, more merging. Let the flower speak to your heart, let the flower enter your being. Invite him - he is a guest! And then you will have some taste of mystery.”

- Osho, "The Goose is Out, #8"

“Only at the moment of death do they recognize the fact that they have not lived. Life has simply passed as if a dream, and death has come. Now there is no more time to live - death is knocking on the door. And when there was time to live, you were doing a thousand and one foolish things, wasting your time rather than living it.”

- Osho, "From Misery to Enlightenment, #9"

 Osho on Fear 

Do Not Move Because of Fear

“Don’t move the way fear makes you move. Move the way joy makes you move – not out of fear, because all so-called religions are based on fear. Their God is nothing but fear, and their heaven and hell are nothing but projections of fear and greed. Rumi’s statement is very revolutionary: ‘Do not move because of fear.’ All the religions say to people, ‘Fear God!’…

“You all have been living out of fear. Your relationships are out of fear. Fear is so overwhelming – like a dark cloud covering your life – that you say things which you don’t want to say, but fear makes you say them. You do things which you do not want to do, but fear makes you do them. A little intelligence is enough to see.”

Osho, Om Shantih Shantih Shantih: The Soundless Sound, Peace Peace Peace, #11

Fear Is the Antithesis of Freedom

“Everybody you have come in contact with has been imposing fear on you, because fear is the antithesis of freedom. The more fear you have in you, the less is the possibility of freedom. The more fear is there, the less is the possibility of rebellion.

“The society, the church, the state, all want everybody to be in a state of constant fear: fear of the known, fear of the unknown, fear of death, fear of hell, fear of missing heaven, fear of not making your name in the world, fear of just being a nobody. Everybody around you from the very birth is creating fear. No child is born with fear. Every child is born with freedom, doubt, rebellion, individuality, innocence – all great qualities. But he is helpless, dependent.

“But when you are grown up, you can see – you can try to peel the onion layer by layer – how fears have been created in you, how gullible you have been, how people have exploited your innocence. The priest had no knowledge of God, yet he deceived you and pretended that he knows God. He had no idea of heaven and hell, yet he forced you to be afraid of hell, to be ambitious for heaven. He created greed, he created fear. He himself was a victim of other people. Now you can look back: your father was not aware what he was teaching, what he was telling to you.”

Osho, The Last Testament, Vol. 3, Talk #23

Whenever You See Some Fear, Do Just the Opposite

“Don’t follow your fear instinct, because that is going to make you a coward. It degrades your humanity. It is a humiliation imposed by yourself. Whenever you see some fear, go against it! A simple criterion: whenever you see there is fear, go against it and you will be always moving, growing, expanding, coming closer to the moment when ego simply drops – because its whole functioning is through fear. And the absence of the ego is enlightenment; it is not something plus.

“Just a simple principle: remember, anything that makes you afraid, fearful, is a clear indication of what you have to do. You have to do just the opposite. You are not to become a follower of fear, you have to fight your fear. The moment you decide to fight your fear, you are on the way towards enlightenment.”

Osho, From the False to the Truth, Talk #26

Fear Is a Passive Form of Anger

“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. It was inactive, then it was fear. Fear is the root cause of hate, anger, violence.”

Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 4, Talk #7

Fear Is Intelligence But It Can Become Abnormal

“Fear is natural, guilt is a creation of the priests. Guilt is man-made. Fear is in-built, and it is very essential. Without fear you will not be able to survive at all. Fear is normal. It is because of fear that you will not put your hand in the fire. It is because of fear that you will walk to the right or to the left, whatsoever is the law of the country. It is because of fear that you will avoid poison. It is because of fear that when the truck driver sounds his horn, you run out of the way.

“If the child has no fear there is no possibility that he will ever survive. His fear is a life-protective measure. But because of this natural tendency to protect oneself…and nothing is wrong in it – you have the right to protect yourself. You have such a precious life to protect, and fear simply helps you. Fear is intelligence. Only idiots don’t have fear, imbeciles don’t have fear; hence you have to protect the idiots, otherwise they will burn themselves or they will jump out of a building, or they will go into the sea without knowing how to swim or they can eat a snake…or anything they can do!

“Fear is intelligence – so when you see a snake crossing the path, you jump out of the way. It is not cowardly, it is simply intelligent. But there are two possibilities…

"Fear can become abnormal, it can become pathological. Then you are afraid of things of which there is no need to be afraid – although you can find arguments even for your abnormal fear. For example, somebody is afraid of going inside a house. Logically you cannot prove that he is wrong. He says, 'What is the guarantee that the house will not fall?'

"Now, houses are known to fall so this house can also fall. People have been crushed by houses falling. Nobody can give an absolute guarantee that this house is not going to fall – an earthquake can happen…anything is possible! Another man is afraid – he cannot travel because there are train accidents. Somebody else is afraid – he cannot go into a car, there are car accidents. And somebody else is afraid of an airplane…

"Fear can become abnormal, then it is pathology. And because of this possibility, priests have used it, politicians have used it. All kinds of oppressors have used it. They make it pathological, and then it becomes very simple to exploit you. The priest makes you afraid of hell. Just look in the scriptures – with what joy they depict all the tortures, with really great relish.”

Osho, The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 2, Talk #2

When the Fear Is There, You Are Fear

“Don’t say, ‘I am feeling fear.’ That is a wrong way of saying it. Don’t say, ‘I am afraid.’ That also is a wrong way of saying it. Simply say, ‘I am fear. In this moment I am fear.’ Don’t create any division.

“When you say, ‘I am feeling fear’ you are keeping yourself separate from the feeling. You are there somewhere far away, and the feeling is around you. This is the basic disunity. Say, ‘I am fear.’ And watch – that’s actually the case! When the fear is there, you are fear.”

Osho, Unio Mystica, Vol. 1, Talk #8

Choose Courage

“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!

“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.

“Both possibilities exist in every human being! Fear and courage. All will depend on which you choose between the two. Never choose fear. It cripples. It paralyzes. It destroys you without giving you a chance of resurrection. Courage will also destroy you, but that destruction is very creative – it will give you rebirth.

“Fear and courage, both destroy – but fear simply destroys. The seed simply goes rotten. When you sow the seed of courage in the soil, then too it dies – but it doesn’t go rotten. It dies…it dies into a new phenomenon. A sprout comes up.

“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

Fear Is a By-Product of Desire

“What is fear? First: fear is always around some desire. You want to become a famous man, the most famous man in the world – then there is fear. What if you cannot make it? – fear comes. Now fear comes as a by-product of desire: you want to become the richest man in the world. What if you don’t succeed? You start trembling; fear comes. You possess a woman: you are afraid that tomorrow you may not be able to possess, she may go to somebody else. She is still alive, she can go. Only dead women won’t go; she is still alive. You can possess only a corpse – then there is no fear, the corpse will be there. You can possess furniture, then there is no fear.

“But when you try to possess a human being fear comes. Who knows, yesterday she was not yours, today she is yours…Who knows – tomorrow she will be somebody else’s. Fear arises. Fear is arising out of the desire to possess, it is a by-product; because you want to possess, hence fear. If you don’t want to possess, then there is no fear. If you don’t have a desire that you would like to be this and that in the future, then there is no fear. If you don’t want to go to heaven then there is no fear, then the priest cannot make you afraid. If you don’t want to go anywhere then nobody can make you afraid.

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

Osho, The Heart Sutra, Talk #4

The Idea of Ego Creates the Fear of Death

“You are afraid to die? Buddha says: You cannot die, because in the first place, you are not. How can you die? Look into your being, go deep into it. See, who is there to die? – and you will not find any ego there. Then there is no possibility of death. Only the idea of ego creates the fear of death. When there is no ego there is no death. You are utter silence, deathlessness, eternity – not as you, but as an open sky, uncontaminated by any idea of 'I', of self – unbounded, undefined. Then there is no fear.

“Fear comes because there are other things. You will have to look into those things, and looking into them will start changing things. So please don’t ask how it can be mastered or killed. It is not to be mastered, it is not to be killed. It cannot be mastered and it cannot be killed; it can only be understood. Let understanding be your only law.”

Osho, The Heart Sutra, Talk #4

Allow the Fear

“Fear has a beauty of its own, a delicacy and a sensitivity of its own. In fact it is a very subtle aliveness. The word is negative, but the feeling itself is very positive. Only alive processes can be afraid; a dead thing has no fear. Fear is part of being alive, part of being delicate, part of being fragile.

“So allow the fear. Tremble with it, let it shake your foundations – and enjoy it as a deep experience of stirring. Don’t take any attitude about fear. In fact, don’t call it fear; the moment you have called it fear you have taken an attitude. You have already condemned it; you have already said that it is wrong, that it should not be there. You are already on guard, already escaping, running away. In a very subtle way you have broken yourself away from it. So don’t call it fear. This is one of the most essential things – to stop calling things names. Just watch the feeling of it, the way it is.

"Allow it, and don’t give it a label – remain ignorant. Ignorance is a tremendously meditative state. Insist on being ignorant, and don’t allow the mind to manipulate. Don’t allow the mind to use language and words, labels and categories, because it has a whole process. One thing is associated with another, and it goes on and on and on.

“Just simply look – don’t call it fear. Become afraid and tremble – that is beautiful. Hide in a corner, go under a blanket and tremble. Do what an animal will do if he is afraid. What will a small child do if he is afraid? He will cry. Or a primitive man – what will he do? He will kneel down and pray to a god out of fear.”

Osho, Above All, Don’t Wobble, Talk #4

Fear Is One of the Doors from Where One Enters Into One’s Being

“If you allow fear to take possession of you, your hair will stand on end. Then for the first time you will know what a beautiful phenomenon fear is. In that turmoil, in that cyclone, you will come to know that there is still a point somewhere within you which is absolutely untouched. And if fear cannot touch it, then death cannot touch it. There is darkness and fear all around, with just a small center absolutely transcendental to it. Not that you try to be transcendental – you simply allow the fear to totally take possession – but suddenly you become aware of the contrast.

“So if fear or anger or sadness, or anything whatsoever happens, allow it. Close the doors and be in it, relax in it. Just behave like a small child who has not been trained to label things, who simply lives feelings and has no thoughts about them.

“Fear is one of the doors from where one enters into one’s being. It is one of the most repressed things. The whole of humanity, all the world over, can be divided into two types: one is sex-repressive, the other is death-repressive. Either a society suppresses death or it suppresses sex. Whenever a society expresses sex, becomes unafraid of it, untabooed, uninhibited about it, it immediately starts to suppress death – immediately, because death is the polar opposite. So if you allow sex, death has to be repressed. If you repress sex then there is no fear of death, you can allow it.”

Osho, Above All, Don’t Wobble, Talk #4

Fear Always Means the Fear of the Unknown

“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

Fear Is Just an Absence of Love

Osho,

My life seems to be governed by fear. Can you help me?

“I will help, that’s why I am here! 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.

“Without love, fear is bound to be there. It is just an absence of love. It has nothing positive in it; it is just absence of love. But if you can love, fear disappears. In the moment of love there is not even death. There is only one thing in life that conquers death and that is love. All fear is concerned with death – and only love can conquer death.

“So one thing I would like to say to you is, don’t pay too much attention to fear because it becomes an autohypnosis. If you go on repeating that you live by fear, your life is governed by fear, you are dominated by fear – and fear, fear, fear – then you are helping it. Take note of it: that your life is governed by fear – finished! It simply shows that love has not yet become so powerful that fear disappears. 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.”

Osho, Hammer on the Rock, Talk #19

Become Simply Aware

“You come to a point where you know that you are afraid, and you come to understand, ‘Because of this fear, love cannot happen to me. So, okay, what can I do?’ The fear is there, so only one thing will happen – I will not pretend love. Or, I will say to my beloved or my lover that it is because of fear that I am clinging to you. Deep down I am afraid. I will become frank about it; I will not deceive anyone, nor myself. I will not pretend that this is love. I will say this is simply fear. Because of fear, I cling to you. Because of fear, I go to the temple, or to the church, and pray. Because of fear, I remember God. But then I know that this is not prayer, this is not love, this is only fear. I am fear, so whatsoever I do, it is there. I will accept this truth.’

“A miracle happens when you accept a truth. The very acceptance changes you. When you know that there is fear in your being and you cannot do anything about it, what can you do? All that you can do is pretend, and pretensions can go to the very extreme, to the other extreme…

“You can create the opposite, but this is not going to change anything. You can pretend that you are not afraid – that makes no change again. The only transformation that can happen is that you become simply aware that ‘I am fear’. My whole being is trembling, and whatsoever I do is because of the fear.’ You have become true to yourself.”

Osho, The Book of Secrets, Talk #60

Try To Understand What Fear Is

“The question is not of getting rid of anything; the question is only of understanding. Understand fear, what it is, and don’t try to get rid of it, because the moment you start trying to get rid of anything, you are not ready to understand it – because the mind which thinks to get rid of is already closed. It is not open to understand, it is not sympathetic. It cannot contemplate quietly; it has already decided. Now the fear has become the evil, the sin, so get rid of it. Don’t try to get rid of anything.

“Try to understand what fear is. And if you have fear, then accept it. It is there. Don’t try to hide it. Don’t try to create the opposite. If you have fear, then you have fear. Accept it as part of your being. If you can accept it, it has disappeared already. Through acceptance, fear disappears; through denial, fear increases.”

Osho, The Book of Secrets, Talk #60