I have often read that all fear is born from a fear of death. Some authors have insisted that freedom from a fear of death sets one free from all fear.

I am not totally sure that this assumption is correct. I think perhaps the mother of all fears is being afraid of the unknown, not the fear of actually dying. For most people, the fear of leaving this body is based on not knowing what happens next, if anything survives at all. This is why people are freed from their fear of dying once they truly believe in heaven or in their own eternal nature.

People can overcome a fear of death when they are convinced of heaven or of their own eternal nature, yet they can still struggle with a fear of change. It seems to me that it is a fear of the unknown that fuels all fears.

A friend once said to me: “I am not afraid of dying, I am afraid of suffering before I die.”

“Have you ever really suffered?” I asked.

“No, but I think it would be terrible” he added.

This man was afraid of that which he only imagined. So afraid, in fact, that when he was diagnosed with cancer, he took his own life before beginning chemotherapy. He equated the misery many experience during chemo with suffering and he was determined not to suffer. Clearly, he had no real fear of dying, but the thought of suffering was unbearable to him.

Fear of the unknown creates all types of problems with people:

· It keeps people who hate the circumstances of their lives from trying something new.

· It creates a willingness to accept some things as unalterable without making any real effort to change that which could be changed.

· It encourages people to invalidate and abandon their dreams.

· It keeps people desperately trying to control all aspects of their life to maintain an acceptable status quo, in an effort to avoid change.

Fear, at any level, is a lack of belief in an Ultimate Wisdom behind all of life.

Fear does not exist in the person who has no resistance to what is. Fear only occurs in the individual with a belief that something life offers could be undesirable, dangerous, or painful. Fear is always irrational because it is created and finds its power only in an imagination which is focused on what it does not or cannot know.

Want freedom from all fear? Simply surrender to life. Stop insisting that there is good and bad, and learn to stop resisting that which you think you do not want or need.

Know that life, the Universe itself, is always benevolent.

All that comes blesses me when I have clear eyes to see and an open heart and mind to allow what Is.