If you have fear, you have fear- why make a problem out of it? Then you know that you have fear, just as you have two hands. Why create a problem out of it- as if you have only one nose, not two? Why create a problem out of it? Fear is there: accept it, note it. Accept it, don't bother about it. What will happen? Suddenly you will feel it has disappeared. And this is the inner alchemy -- a problem disappears if you accept it, and a problem grows more and more complex if you create any conflict with it. Yes, suffering is there, and suddenly fear comes- accept it. It is there and nothing can be done about it. And when I say nothing can be done about it, don't think that I am talking about pessimism to you. When I say nothing can be done about it I am giving you the key to solve it.
Suffering is there. It is part of life and part of growth; nothing is bad in it. Suffering becomes evil only when it is simply destructive and not creative at all; suffering becomes bad only when you suffer and nothing is gained out of it. But I am telling you the divine can be gained through suffering; then it becomes creative. Darkness is beautiful if the dawn is coming out of it soon; darkness is dangerous if it is endless, leads to no dawn, simply continues and continues and you go on moving in a rut, in a vicious circle. This is what is happening to you. Just to escape from one suffering you create another; then to escape from another, another. And this goes on and on and all those sufferings which you have not lived are waiting for you. You have escaped but you escape from one suffering to another, because a mind which was creating a suffering will create another. So you can escape from this suffering to that, but suffering will be there because your mind is the creative force.
Accept the suffering and pass through it; don't escape. This is a totally different dimension to work in. Suffering is there: encounter it, go through it. Fear will be there, accept it. You will tremble, so tremble. Why create a facade that you don't tremble, that you are not afraid? If you are a coward, accept it.
Everyone is a coward. People you call brave are just facades. Deep down they are as cowardly as anyone else, rather, more cowardly because just to hide that cowardliness they have created a bravery around them, and sometimes they act in such a way that everyone knows they are not cowards. Their bravery is just a screen. How can man be brave- because death is there. How can man be brave- because man is just a leaf in the winds. How can the leaf help not to tremble? When the wind blows the leaf will tremble. But you never say to the leaf, "You are a coward." You only say that the leaf is alive. So when you tremble and fear takes grip of you, you are a leaf in the wind. Beautiful- why create a problem out of it? But society has created problems out of everything.
-Rajneesh
