Unexpected Freedom

Unexpected Freedomsee is how much I’m caught in the fear of not getting what I’mdesiring. If we live freely with our feelings of wanting anddesiring and wishing, if we live seeing clearly, knowingaccurately, then the fear of not getting what we want is justthat, it’s just so, it’s not a problem. But when we grasp at thedesire to get, we also grasp at the fear of not getting, even ifwe don’t see it. We wonder where so much of our fear comesfrom. Why is it that more extravagant people, people wholive more opulently, have more fear? Because they followdesire more. Fear and desire go together. As we work onbeing true with one, we discover a more true relationshipwith the other. If we want to be free from excessive desiresthen we need to look at how we feel about fear. When we feelafraid, we receive the fear into awareness. If it’s really strongfear, which it can be at times; if it’s terror even, or panic, atleast let’s try and remember to inhibit the tendency to saythis is wrong. We’re not saying that it’s right; we’re not tryingto feel good about it. But we’re bringing into relief thosevoices within us that are saying that it’s wrong to feel afraid.It’s not wrong to feel afraid, it’s not right to feel afraid. Whenwe feel fear we want to feel it fully, freely, without judgement.We are neither for nor against fear.As we open into a broader quality of awareness, and weare able to receive our experience of fear into that awareness,we can study it clearly. We can study it deeply, in our ownway, not through reading books or merely through thinkingabout fear. Thinking doesn’t do us any good at all when wereally feel afraid. We can listen, feel, observe the whole bodymindcontraction that we experience as fear.Fear is not a thing; it’s an activity. Fear is the activity ofconstricting and contracting the heart energy. When we arechallenged with some dangerous physical situation, theblood vessels in our body constrict and contract, we tense,86