Is there fear without the word ‘fear’?

“Fear is one of the greatest problems in life. A mind that is caught in fear lives in confusion, in conflict, and therefore must be violent, distorted, and aggressive. It dare not move away from its own patterns of thinking, and this breeds hypocrisy. Until we are free from fear, we may climb the highest mountain, invent every kind of God, but we will remain in darkness.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, On Fear 

Words have power, we must use them wisely. At the same time, we are so caught up in words itself that we move away from actuality - do we fail to distinguish between a particular word and the true feelings it brings up?

In one of the lectures, Jiddu Krishnamurti delves deeper into one of the most important aspect of being human - Fear - fear of death, fear of losing someone, losing your job, fear of not being intellectual or fear of any kind. He raises such an important and profound thought that it made me think. 

Does the word ‘fear’ create fear within us, or does fear exist without the word itself? We are so caught up with words, their symbols and meanings, but can we separate the word itself from the actual feeling?

Sometimes the word ‘fear’ creates the feeling of fear within us instantly, without the word there might be no feeling, or if there is a feeling - what is it? When the mind labels a particular sensation, we have already created the response based on our conditioning. Conditioning is extremely deep-rooted, we live our life based on the information we have been fed in our early childhood.

When I pondered over this thought - something freed up within me, even if it was for a moment (we are all work in-progress). My response to fear is based on conditioning, and if I don’t use the word ‘fear’ and simply observe the feeling as a movement of thought, it does feel liberating.  

Let’s ponder over these thoughts by Krishnamurti and we would love to hear what comes up for you.

Till then, I would like to highlight some interesting articles on using fear to our advantage -

Hugging the Hurricane: Creativity Begins When Fear is Baptized by Flow

Becoming Fluent in the Language of Fear

5 Ways to Turn the Tables on Fear

What is Fear Really Trying to Tell Us

7 Ways Today’s Society Feeds You Fear