Questioner: How does one tackle the dormant seed of fear within one? You have talked of fear several times, but it is neither possible to face fear nor to uproot it. Is it that there is another factor that operates to dissolve it? Can one do anything about it?
Krishnamurti: The questioner asks if there is another factor that will dissolve, uproot the very root of fear. Can we go into it together and investigate a very serious and complex problem? This fear has been with humanity since time immemorial, and apparently they have not solved it. We carry, day after day until we almost die, this burden of fear. Can that fear be totally uprooted?
The questioner says, one has tried several different ways but somehow it doesn’t disappear. Is there another factor that will help to uproot it?
Can we look at our fear, not only our physical fears but those of loss, of insecurity, the fear of losing one’s children, that sense of insecurity when there is divorce; the fear of not achieving something? There are various forms of fear. Fear of not being loved, fear of loneliness, fear of what happens after death, fear of heaven and hell—you know all that kind of stuff. One is frightened of so many things. Now can we, each one of us, consciously, sensitively be aware of our own fear? Do we know our own fear? It may be losing a job, not having money, death, and so on. Can we look at it first, not to try to dissolve it, or conquer it, or go beyond it, but just to observe it? Consciously observe the fears, or one fear, that one has? And there are dormant fears that are deep-rooted, unconscious, way down in the recesses of one’s mind. Can those dormant fears be awakened and looked at now? Or must they appear only in a crisis, in a shock, in certain strong challenges? Can one awaken the whole structure of fear? Not only the conscious fears but also the fears that have collected in the unconscious, shadowy recesses of one’s brain? Can we do that?
First, can we look at our fear? And how do we look at it? How do we face it? Suppose I am frightened that I cannot be saved except by some divine person. There is a deep-rooted fear of two thousand years. I am not even observing that fear. It is part of my tradition, part of my conditioning that I can’t do anything, but that somebody else, an outside agency, is going to help me, save me. Save me; I don’t know from what, but it doesn’t matter! And that is part of one’s fear. And of course there is the fear of death. That is the ultimate fear. Can I observe a particular fear that I have, and not guide it, shape it, overcome it, try to rationalize it? Can I look at it? And how do I observe it? Do I observe it as an outsider looking in, or do I observe it as part of me? Fear is not separate from my consciousness, something outside of me. Fear is part of me. Obviously. So can I observe that fear without the division of the observer and the observed?
Can I observe fear without the division that thought has created between fear and the entity that says, ‘I must face fear’? Just observe fear without that division? Is that possible? You see, our conditioning, our training, our education, our religious ambitions, all point out that the two are separate—the me is different from that which is not me. We never recognize or accept the fact that violence is not separate from us. I think that may be one of the factors why we are not able to be free of fear, because we are always operating on fear. We are always saying to ourselves, ‘I must get rid of it’, ‘What am I to do with it?’ All the rationalization, inquiries, as though fear is something separate from the inquirer, from the person who inquires into fear.
So can we observe fear without that division? That is, the word fear is not fear. And also see whether the word creates the fear—like the word Communist to many people is a frightening word. So can we look at that thing called fear without the word, and also find out if the word is creating the fear?
Then is there another factor, which is not mere observation, but bringing, or having, energy that will dissipate that fear, having such tremendous energy that fear doesn’t exist. You understand? Is fear a matter of lack of energy, lack of attention? And if it is a lack of energy, how does one come naturally to have this tremendous vitality, energy, that pushes fear away altogether?
Energy may be the factor that will have no sense of fear. You see, most of us dissipate our energy in constant occupation with something or other: if you are a housewife, a businessman, a scientist, a careerist, you are always occupied. And such occupation may be, and is, I think, a dissipation of energy. Like the man who is perpetually occupied about meditation, perpetually occupied with whether there is God. You know, various forms of occupation. Is not such occupation, worry, concern, a waste of energy? If one is afraid and says, ‘I must not be afraid, what am I to do?’ and so on, it is another kind of occupation. It is only a mind that is free from occupation of any kind that has tremendous energy. That may be one of the factors that may dissipate fear.