Question: What is the root of human fear?
Answer: Fear is the main egoistic property that comes from a desire for pleasure that is terrified of remaining empty; this is the basis of all fears.
Question: In our world, there are hundreds of kinds of fears. It appears in my egoism, which responds to any external influences. What is man afraid of, what does he fear?
Answer: A person is afraid of the defeat of his “self,” and of suffering.
Question: How does fear influence a person?
Answer: Fear influences the desire for pleasure and depresses him so much that it awakens a sensation of fear, anxiety, and thoughts like, “I will not be able to enjoy anything, but will just suffer all the time. I will only feel the emptiness, darkness.”
At the root of fear there is the lack of feeling the Creator [1], feeling the Light that would fill my desire, but for some reason still has not been fulfilled. My empty desire feels fear. This means that fear is a feeling that I lack the fulfillment I deserve.
Question: Is a Kabbalist who discovers the Creator not afraid of anything?
Answer: Of course! On the contrary, he is absolutely confident in all being completely filled.
Question: Is fear synonymous with a sensation of awe [2]?
Answer: Awe is something different. It is a state in which I want to attract the characteristic of fear to myself, and summon it by myself in order to rise to the next level.
Question: How can one struggle with fear? Suppose that the Creator sends me all kinds of fears, what must I do? Take an antidepressant?
Answer: An antidepressant is suppression. When fear takes over a person, first and foremost, one needs to imagine that “There is none else beside Him” (Deuteronomy 4:35). There is an excellent article on this subject in the book Shamati ,#138, “About Fear that Sometimes Comes Upon a Person.” In the article, it is written that a person should imagine that there are no forces of Tuma’a (impurity) in our world and he must only demand that the Creator reveal this to him.
Question: Will this not lead him to inaction?
Answer: This is the action. We have no need for any other actions other than the action of discovering the Creator.
[193374]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/1/16
Related Material:
Does Fear Exist In Spirituality? [3]
Fear And Trembling [4]
Turning Fear Into Advancement [5]