How to Drop Fear

Fear is the absence of love. And the problem with something that is absent is that you cannot do anything with it directly. Fear is like darkness, which is the absence of light. There is nothing you can do with darkness directly, because it is an absence of something — which leaves you nothing to work with. But you can bring in more light.

Switch on the light. If you want darkness, switch off the light again. You work directly with the light, not with the darkness. The same is true with fear and love. Don’t bother with the fear—focus on love. You can do something with love immediately. Start loving.

Love is born within us, it is an intrinsic quality. We can just start giving love, sharing it, allowing it to flow out of us. As we do that, it grows. Don’t hold back; don’t be miserly with your love. If we don’t use our natural qualities they become blocked, grow stagnant, and wither away. That’s what happens to embittered people—they become frozen by their refusal to share their love.

When we give love, in the very giving we become richer because our love starts radiating outward. And then our fear starts to naturally disappear. It simply cannot exist in the face of so much love.

So it is not a question of dropping fear; it is a question of sharing your love, and then the fear vanishes of its own accord.

 MEDITATION: Start Loving!

 BENEFITS
The more you do this technique, over time you feel the joy in your heart expanding and your fear dissolving.

Become more and more loving, and you become more and more joyful. Don’t worry about whether or not your love is returned; that is not the point. Joy follows love automatically, and fear is dissolved automatically. The beauty of love is that its result, its value, are intrinsic. Love does not depend on the response of another, because it is totally yours.

Choose a person or pet to be loving toward. It makes no difference to whom you are loving—a dog, a tree, a stranger in the grocery store. Smile at people in the street, be more loving toward yourself.