All fear is the same - the fear of not surviving. It is like a computer program that we all have from birth. All desires are the same as fear – desire is a fear, expressed in a positive kind of way. If I want to be powerful, this means that I am afraid of being weak. If I want to be in control, this means that I am afraid of losing control.
Fear and desire come from the same space. I only use the mind when I'm afraid. All desires express fear. Everything we do with the mind is an expression of fear – it works from the original program: the fear of not surviving, the desire to survive. A desire represents a fear – a fear leads to desire. So every time I have a desire, I can ask: “What am I afraid of?”
The mind (which is a defense system) can be compared to an army. An army exists because of fear: the fear of losing a war, which is the desire to win. On a day when everything goes badly in a war, one feels depressed. On a day when everything goes well, one feels good. Thus feelings are just battle reports.
Any attempt to get information – the intelligence branch – is part of the defense system. All thoughts are part of this defense system, gathering data on potential enemies and useful allies.
When a mystic says “Drop thoughts”, he means that thoughts are not necessary for survival. Needs are so simple to meet. The mind is a worry machine. Every time it moves (i.e. when I think), I am worried – about survival. Behind all emotions is fear. Happiness means “I'm not so afraid right now.”
The only thing to do in response to the original fear was to contract, to be tense. So tension is fear. Complete relaxation implies that there is no fear, which means that there are then no thoughts; this leads to directly to enlightenment.
Let it be the four-year-old in you that does the thinking, the worrying, the fearing, and let it be there and accept it and remember that it is worried about survival. There is no need to fight it, no need to try to stop it – in fact, this is counterproductive. Just bring it up to date with reality.
You don't even have to know what it is afraid of– remind it that it is afraid of not surviving and that survival is no longer a problem. Just relax….!
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