Uncovering Buddha’s 4th Fold

Fear

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.

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.

Playfulness

Seriousness is sickness, it is not a device. It leads to death, not to eternal life. Life is playfulness, fun, because the whole existence is a tremendous circus. It is all fun ― all the colors of the flowers, so many beautiful animals, birds, clouds, and for no purpose; they don´t serve any purpose. There is no goal to life. Life is a play unto itself. It is sheer abundance of energy, overflowing energy ― existence goes on expanding.

No God has created it, because whenever something is created there is purpose. Whenever something is created there is a motive, and when somebody creates it, the created can never be anything other than a machine. Existence has no use as such, it remains eternal, an eternal play of energies in millions of forms.

Fun is the most sacred word, far more sacred than prayer. It is the only word that can give you a sense of playfulness, can make you again a child. You can start running after butterflies, searching for seashells on the beach, colored stones.

By transcending Fear and living the quality of Playfulness, Buddha’s fourth fold, Right Communication will be revealed to you.