Don't be afraid about anything 

 There is nothing to Fear. 

 

 

 

Knowing that you are not, there is nothing to fear.

Knowing that you are the whole, there is nothing to lose.

 

-Osho, "The Zen Manifesto: Freedom From Oneself, #8, Q1"

 

 

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Open your wings, there is nothing to fear, nothing to lose. Just be open to the sun, the stars....

 

Don't be afraid. I am always in favor of danger, and this is dangerous because you are on the very verge of consciousness. This is the time you want to stop, but this is the time I want you to go on, because danger is beautiful, you cannot have too much.

 

-Osho, "Notes of a Madman, #1, Session3"

 

 

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It is dangerous but don't be afraid, I am awake. Don't be cowardly, that is the only hindrance for knowing the truth. One needs to dare to know; one needs to go into danger. You get afraid. You feel that I am going beyond the limits. But don't be afraid, I am already beyond limits.

 

Danger is beautiful. I have known it in many ways. In almost fifty years I have lived five hundred years, because I have dared in many, many directions. Each danger was beautiful, an experience.

 

What is danger? Do you think you know? I do not mean the dictionary sense of the word. Danger is when you are close to death, very close, so close that just a step more and you are finished... but only then you are.

 

When death is so close

being comes to its absolute flowering.

 

I can talk of life and death because they are one, and one can only talk of life if one knows death. A woman is never afraid. When a woman becomes afraid she becomes a lady. I hate ladies; they stink! Especially English ladies, they are the ladiest of all ladies. But who cares at moments of beatitude.... Ashu, never be a lady.

 

I am close to death -- that's the only way to bring me to myself, because death is where life goes on. Danger is beautiful, it is very beautiful. It is right on the heights; one wrong step and you are finished. That's why I love this chair: there are no steps. One can just relax. Death is so close you can touch it... it is tangible, touchable... like a beautiful woman, you would like to touch. Only then you know what is, what is- ness is. That is-ness is called God. It would have been better not to call it God, because the word god has become dirty. Is-ness is better.

 

-Osho, "Notes of a Madman, #1, Session4"

 

 

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There is a constant fear in everybody, in almost everybody, of Really getting high. The fear comes because the moment you get high you cannot remain in your ego. When you get high you cannot remain in your finite, limited world; it starts being shattered. When you invite the infinite and it starts coming -- and it comes like a torrent, a flood, you start feeling 'I will be washed away' -- then you start clinging to the past and stop doors opening.

 

It is the fear of the infinite, it is the fear of god himself -- but the fear will continue unless you look directly into its face. If you want to remain the way you are, then it's okay. Nobody is trying to change you; why should anybody try to change you? If you feel happy the way you are, then this is the way you have to be. If you don't feel happy, take courage. Then you will have to jump, you will have to take the risk... and the risk has to be taken.

 

So just see that these two possibilities are there. You can remain the same; then there is no risk, it is safer. But you remain the same: you are not happy so you remain unhappy, you are miserable so you remain miserable. But there is no risk in it. This alternative has one thing good in it: it is very convenient: no risk, no change, no drastic change of your life style. You are very protected in this way. You have nothing to protect but you are very much protected. You have nothing to live for but life is secure.

 

The other alternative has great potentiality in it, but that potentiality starts with risk. One has to be a gambler and one has to risk all. You cannot just risk partially; it doesn't work. Then you remain in two boats, always ready to jump back whenever things become too much. The old boat has to sink so that there is nowhere to jump. The old bridge has to be broken so that you cannot turn back. It is risky, a gambler's risk. It needs courage, needs youth, a young mind, needs to go into danger, insecurity... but once you start moving, there is great joy, there is great celebration.

 

So these are the two alternatives: with one there is no risk. There is security, but no joy. With the other there is great joy, great possibilities of celebration, but there is risk.

 

Ordinarily we would like to have all the joy with all the security -- and that doesn't happen. That's not the way of life, and nothing can be done about it. That's what we want: we want the impossible. We want security, safety, control, and we want joy, celebration and great adventure. Both things cannot happen together, you cannot have both: they don't come in the same package.

 

This has to be deeply understood... and then one has to choose! And don't go on wavering: if you choose to remain the same, be the same. Then forget all meditations, all groups. If you don't want to be the same, if you are fed up with your misery, then take the jump! And I cannot take the jump for you; you will have to take the jump. I can show you the way but you will have to travel. So make it very clear!

 

Things are very clear really, but how do things continue? Things continue because we go on hoping for the impossible, we go on hoping against all hope. We think there must be some way that we can remain secure and can also enjoy new pastures of life.

 

It has never happened! It is not going to happen because it cannot happen; in the very nature of things it is not possible. Seeing this, one takes a decision... and decision is always good. This indecisiveness is bad, because indecisiveness by and by makes you lousy. You lose sharpness, you lose keenness, you lose clarity, you become more and more cloudy. Much smoke comes around your flame and the flame cannot be seen.

 

Decisiveness brings light. Even if you decide to remain the same, even that will bring light to you; things will be clear. Even if you decide wrongly, then too decision is good. If you decide rightly it is a great blessing, but if you decide wrongly, then too it is better than the indecisive state of mind.

 

Decisiveness is always good; man is born through decisiveness. Remaining wavering, doing things half-heartedly, doing and not doing, just going so far and then turning back, is a sheer wastage of energy. And if you remain This way too long, it becomes your habit. Then it becomes a deep rut in your mind: again and again you do the same thing and the rut goes deeper and deeper and deeper. Stop it! [....]

 

Don't be afraid about anything; there is nothing to fear.

 

-Osho, "The Further Shore, #15"

 

 

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Trust is life. Trust is God. I don't say to people to trust in God. I simply say 'trust', because trust is God.

 

There is nothing to fear because we don't have anything to lose. Nobody can rob us, and all that can be robbed is not worth-while, so why fear, why suspect, why doubt? These are the real robbers -- doubt, suspicion, fear. They destroy your very possibility of celebration.

 

So while on earth, celebrate the earth. While this moment lasts, enjoy it to the very core. Take all the juice that it can give to you and is ready to give to you.

 

Because of fear you miss many things. Because of fear we cannot love, or even if we love it is always half-hearted, it is always so-so. It is always up to a certain extent and not beyond that. We always come to a point beyond which we are afraid, so we are stuck there. We cannot move deep in friendship because of fear. We cannot do prayer because of fear.

 

There are people who go on saying that people do prayer because of fear. That's true; many people pray because of fear. But there is an even greater truth than that and it is that many people don't go the whole way in prayer because of fear. They may start in fear but then they don't go very far. They just remain on the formal, the cliche level. They say some formal prayer to God but they really are not moved, thrilled by it. It is not an ecstasy. They are not mad with it. They don't go headlong. They move very cautiously -- and all caution is based on fear.

 

-Osho, "A Rose is a Rose is a Rose, #1"

 

 

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There will be apprehension and a little fear, but when you go and see that there is nothing to fear and that you can face the world without losing any growth that has happened to you, but on the contrary, the more you face the world, the more growth and maturity comes to you, it will be a centring experience. So it is always good to come and go, come and go. Make it a rhythm so that you don't become attached too much to being here.

 

Otherwise even beneficial things can become harmful. One can become attached too much to a sort of shelter, protection, but that will not give you strength. Strength always comes when you face situations which are hard, are against one, distracting.

 

In the old days people used to move to monasteries and to the Himalayas and to the far away caves and they attained to a certain peace there, but that peace was very very cheap, because whenever they would come back to the plains, in the world, that peace would immediately be shattered. It was too fragile, and they would become afraid of the world. So that is a sort of escape, not growth.

 

My whole insistence is to learn to be alone, but never to get too much attached to your aloneness, so you remain capable of being, relating with others. Learn to meditate but don't move to the extreme so that you become incapable of love. Be silent, peaceful, still, but don't get obsessed by it, otherwise you will not be able to face the world, the marketplace.

 

-Osho, "A Rose is a Rose is a Rose, #28"

 

 

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Certainly freedom will make you afraid of many things. Be alert. Look deeply into anything that makes you afraid. And you will be surprised that if you look deeply into anything that makes you afraid, it will disappear. There is nothing to fear in the world. Then you can rejoice in freedom and the responsibility it brings. Responsibility makes you grow up. You become more and more responsible for every action, for every thought, for every feeling. It makes you crystallized. It takes away all the chains that have been binding you and your psychology. [....]

 

You have exaggerated your fears. Just look at them, and just by your looking at them they will start becoming smaller. You have never looked at them, you have been escaping from them. You have been creating protections against them, rather than looking directly into the eyes of your fear.

 

There is nothing to fear at all; all that is needed is a little more awareness. So whatever your fear is, catch hold of it, look at it minutely, the way a scientist looks at a thing. And you will be surprised, it starts melting like an ice flake. By the time you have looked into its totality, it is gone.

 

And when freedom is there without any fear, it brings such benediction that there are no words to express it.

 

-Osho, "From Bondage to Freedom, #23, Q4"

 

 

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Drop control -- learn uncontrol. Uncontrol means to be natural, to be spontaneous. Uncontrol means to remain unafraid. There is nothing to fear! It is god's world and he is everywhere. We are part of him; there is no need to be afraid. We are like fish in the ocean of god; there is no need to be afraid. But fear has been taught, fear has been given; almost from the first day that a child is born the system is being poisoned. Out of fear arises control.

 

When you control yourself, naturally you will be controlled by others too. You become a slave; then you hanker for somebody to control you. If you find a situation where nobody is to control you, you will be at a loss. That's why the society teaches control: if you start controlling yourself, sooner or later you will be controlled by many people. The politician, the priest, the parent -- a thousand and one bosses are there who will control you. There is a great hierarchy, bosses upon bosses, and they will all control you.

 

Once you learn the trick, you will be controlled your whole life. Then your wife will control you, your children, even your children, will control you. Once you are in a rut you know only one way of being, and that is being controlled. And whenever you are free, you will be at a loss; you will not know what to do now, where to go. You will always need somebody to direct you, somebody to tell you to do this, to go there. This is a great slavery -- and sannyas is a rebellion against all kinds of slaveries.

 

-Osho, "The No Book (No Buddha, No Teaching, No Discipline), #7"

 

 

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In fact then you know that whatsoever you have been calling life was not life. Compared to that your old life looks like death, your old light looks like darkness, your old riches look like poverty. But we have been brought up not to be vulnerable, not to be open, to remain closed-fisted. We are brought up in fear, and fear is the only thing that prevents love; fear is the direct opposite of love. To live in fear is to live a loveless life, and a loveless life cannot taste god.

 

So drop all fears. There is nothing to fear because nothing can be taken away from you. Remember one fundamental law: that which you have really got cannot be taken away, so only the non-essential can be taken away; the essential cannot be taken away. It is part of your innermost existence, it is inseparably one with you. There is no possibility of creating a division between the essential and you. The essential means you -- the essence. That is your real richness, and nobody can rob you of it, not even god; it is impossible to lose it. And that to which you are clinging is bound to be taken away -- if not today then tomorrow, is not tomorrow then the day after tomorrow. And sooner it is taken, the better, because if it is not taken soon then you will be worrying about it; once it is taken the worry is finished. Then there is no more worry because all is gone, so why bother? One can have a good sleep, can rest and relax. God always comes as a death to the ego.

 

-Osho, "Is the Grass Really Greener...?, #22"

 

 

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It is only by going deep into fear that fear disappears; that's the only way. If you are afraid of the dark night, go into it. That's the only way: encounter it. If you are afraid of the cemetery, go to the cemetery in the night and sit there and let all the ghosts torture you! And by the morning you will come home laughing because there are no ghosts -- nothing! But if you never go to the cemetery you will never come to know the fact: there is nothing to fear.

 

Fear is utterly absurd, but people fear. They fear because they don't go into it. And that's what has happened: you were alone and you had to face it. When she is there you remain occupied with her and you go on repressing your fear. It has always been there, it is there in everybody's being, because our whole upbringing is wrong.

 

We are brought up as afraid human beings. From the very beginning we are conditioned to feel fear. This society knows only one way of teaching children and that is punishment and reward, fear and greed; that is its way. If you are doing things as you are told to do you will be rewarded; if you are not doing things as you are told you will be punished. So from the very beginning your life is continuously surrounded by fear. If you don't do this you are afraid to be punished; if you don't do that you are afraid to lose the reward. And finally this whole thing is projected as heaven and hell: hell becomes your fear, and heaven your greed.

 

So when you come to me I have to destroy all these conditionings. And in destroying it all the traumas, all the old wounds again start oozing pus, but that is the only way to clean them. Once they are in the open, in the sun, they heal.

 

Don't be worried!

 

-Osho, "The Tongue-Tip Taste of Tao, #30"

 

 

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You need not compromise, because it is out of fear and greed that one compromises. And you can live in rebellion because there is nothing to lose. You can become a rebellion; there is nothing to fear. Nobody can kill you, you have already done that thing yourself. Nobody can take anything away from you; you have dropped all that which can be taken away from you. Now you are in nothingness, you are a nothingness. Hence the paradoxical phenomenon: that in this nothingness arises a great security, a great safety, a stability -- because there is no more death possible.

 

And with death, time disappears. With death disappear all the problems that are created by death and by time. In the wake of all these disappearances, what is left is a pure sky. This pure sky is samadhi, nirvana. Buddha is talking about this.

 

-Osho, "The Heart Sutra, #3"

 

 

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Don't be afraid, and expose yourself totally, because you can go into a group and still you can remain hiding, holding. Then it is pointless, it is unnecessary torture. You have to open up. This opportunity has to be used. And if you open up you will be surprised that there is nothing to fear.

 

And when the fear disappears you will feel liberated from a great bondage. And when there is no fear, love arises. Absence of fear is love. If there is fear, love cannnot arise.

 

-Osho, "The Madman's Guide to Enlightenment, #13"

 

 

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My approach is totally different. I don't say be afraid -- that is the strategy of the priest, that is his trade secret. I say there is nothing to fear, because God is in you. There is nothing to fear. Live life fearlessly, live each moment as intensely as possible. Intensity has to be remembered.

 

-Osho, "The Book of Wisdom, #14"

 

 

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I don't have anything to lose. That has given me a tremendous freedom to act spontaneously, to act without any fear, to say whatever I want to say -- to be against all the governments of the world, to be against all the religions of the world. And I don't think that even a shadow of fear arises in my heart.

 

On the contrary, the more I hit these idiots the more I rejoice, because according to me they are criminals. According to me they are the greatest calamities that have happened to humanity. There is nothing to fear from these people. There is nothing to be afraid of in the ghosts who are lying in their graves. But everybody is injected with fear from the very beginning, so that his whole blood becomes full of fear. This fearfulness helps all these criminals to dominate you, to destroy you, not to let you live your life of love and blissfulness.

 

-Osho, "Om Mani Padme Hum, #20"