What is fear?
Again, humanity has put up with fear.
Has never been able to solve fear.
Never.
There are various forms of fears;
you may have your own particular form of fear:
fear of death, fear of gods, fear of your wife, fear of your husband,
fear of the politicians, god knows how many fears humanity has
– the devil, and so on.
What is fear?
Not the mere experience of fear in its multiple forms,
but actually, the reality, the actuality of fear.
How is it brought about?
Why has man, woman,
humanity and each one accepted fear as a way of life?
As you accept violence as the way of life; violence in the television,
violence of war, violence of your daily life.
Why do we accept violence?
The ultimate violence is to go into organized killing,
which is called war.
Is not fear related to violence?
So in inquiring into fear, the actual truth of fear,
not the idea of fear – you understand the difference?
The idea of fear is different from the actuality of fear; right? Right.
So what is fear? How has it come about?
What is the relationship of fear to time, to thought?
Fear – one may be frightened of tomorrow, or many tomorrows;
fear of death, the ultimate fear;
fear of what has happened before, in the past;
fear of what is actually going on now.
So we must inquire together
– please, the speaker keeps on repeating, together;
otherwise it’s no fun talking to myself.
Is fear brought about by time?
Someone has done something in the past, hurt you, and the past is time.
The future is time.
The present is time.
So we are asking, is time a central factor of fear?
Fear has many many branches, many leaves,
but it’s no good trimming the branches;
we are asking, what is the root of fear?
Not the multiple forms of fear, because fear is fear.
Out of fear you have invented gods, saviours.
If you have absolutely no fear psychologically,
then there is tremendous relief, a great sense of freedom.
You have dropped all the burdens of life.
So we must inquire very seriously,
closely, hesitantly, into this question:
is time a factor? Obviously.
Have a good job now, I may lose it tomorrow, I’m frightened.
And I may be married, I am frightened.
When there is fear there is jealousy, anxiety, hatred, violence.
So time is a factor of fear.
Please listen to the end of it, don’t say, how am I to stop time,
that’s not the problem.
That’s a rather absurd question to ask.
Time is a factor and thought is a factor:
thinking about what has happened, what might happen; thinking.
Is thinking a factor in fear?
Has thinking brought about fear?
As one sees time has brought fear, right? Time.
Not only time by the clock, but psychological time, the inward time:
I am going to be; I am not good, but I will be.
I will get rid of my violence, which is again the future.
Or, I have been violent, but I won’t be.
All that implies time.