Yogi: These few weeks I have been living in a state of fear – it is extremely painful and my mind is really agitated.
I tried to bring it into feeling it in the body. Sometimes I managed to do that, but then my mind always jumped back to the thoughts that used the fear. How do I practice with that?
Sayadaw: All of us have fear – it just comes in different ways and different triggers gives us fear. What exactly is it and how does this fear work?
If you see the identification ‘I’m afraid’, you can see that it feels more fearful. If you can separate it, you can see the difference between ‘this is fear’ and ‘I’m afraid’. That helps.
Is there always this fear, moment to moment? Have you noticed it?
Yogi: There are short times when there is less fear.
Sayadaw: Fear is also conditioned – it is there because certain conditions are present. If those conditions aren’t present, fear couldn’t be present.
If you see fear for what it is, that it is not mine, that it is conditioned, then you won’t fear fear so much anymore.