How can I see my fear more clearly?

Can cowardice and hypocrisy also be beautiful? Can I accept even my cowardice, my hypocrisy, my miserliness and a tendency towards privacy that you yourself have called "idiocy"? And if I accept such tendencies, all of which tend to bottle me up, how will I get free?

See the beauty of fear, see the alchemical work of fear. It is simply trying to prepare you for the situation so that you can accept the challenge. But rather than accepting the challenge, rather than understanding fear, you start rejecting it. You say, "Ashoka, you are such a great man, a great sannyasin, and you are trembling? Remember what Osho used to say, that there is no death, that the soul is immortal. An immortal soul, and trembling? Remember what Krishna said: 'Death cannot destroy you, fire cannot burn you, weapons cannot penetrate you.' Remember! And don't tremble: hold yourself in control!" Now you are creating a contradiction. Your natural process is that of fear, and you are bringing in an unnatural process to contradict fear. You are bringing ideals to interfere in the natural process. There will be pain, because there will be conflict. Don't bother whether the…

Beloved Osho, what to do with fear? I am feeling very tired being led around by it. Can it be mastered or killed? How?

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…

You have said that one who is in fear cannot love, nor can he reach godhood. But how is one to get rid of his fear according to tantra?

Then you are not afraid of fear. It is there, a part of you; nothing can be done about it. You have accepted it. Now you don't pretend, now you don't deceive anyone, nor yourself. The truth is there, and you are not afraid of it. The fear starts disappearing, because a person who is not afraid to accept his fear has become fearless -- that is the deepest fearlessness that is possible. He has not created the opposite, so there is no duality in him. He has accepted the fact. He has become humble before it. He doesn't know what to do -- no one knows -- and nothing can be done, but he has stopped pretending; he has stopped using masks, faces. He has become authentic in his fear. This authenticity, and this fearlessness to accept the truth, changes you. And when you don't pretend, don't create a…

When moments of fear come, what to do?

Why should you ask to do anything? When there is fear -- be afraid! Why create a duality? When moments of fear come -- be fearful, tremble with fear, allow fear to take possession. Why this constant enquiry: WHAT TO DO? Can't you allow life in any way to take possession of you? When love takes possession, what to do? Be loving! Don't do anything, allow love to take possession of you. When fear comes -- tremble, like a leaf in a strong wind. And it will be beautiful. When it has gone you will feel so serene and calm, as when a strong storm passes by everything is left calm and quiet after it. Why be always fighting something? Fear comes -- it is natural, absolutely natural. To think of a man who is without fear is impossible, because he will be dead. Then somebody will be honking the…

Osho, yesterday you told the story of Saint Peter and the three women. Please tell us what happened after that?

Saint Maharaj! Do use a little of your own intelligence. No story is ever told in full, because some trust must also be placed in your imagination—that you, too, can think a bit. You could have figured out for yourself what would happen next. The matter was so clear. My friend, what else could happen! What had to happen is exactly what happened. Saint Peter had barely dealt with those three women when three goddesses arrived. One had a white mouth-cloth tied over her face—she was a Jain nun. The second was a beautiful French model, and the third a Rajneesh sannyasin. Saint Peter first pointed toward the part below the French girl’s waist and asked, “What did you use this for?” Preening, the beauty replied, “I used it to revel with my eight wedded husbands and about a hundred and fifty lovers. I also used it to earn money…