אות - פב

Concerning fears and terrors: a person fears and is frightened most of the time by various things, or by people who cannot harm him at all. And the matter appears to be that only at the very end — when the person departs and lies upon the ground with his feet toward the door (162) — then he will have true composure of mind and will look at himself and see the truth: that all the fears and terrors he had from certain people who stood against him were all foolishness and vanity. And in vain he had fears and terrors from them — for what can a man do to him? And similarly regarding desires: then he will see clearly how in vain he consumed his days in vanity and in such foolishness and confusions — and who compelled him to this etc.? For only then will he see the truth clearly and completely. And in truth there is something deeper here. For there is something within the person from which he fears and is terrified by the various fears that come upon him. And even though he knows clearly in his mind that that thing he fears from cannot harm him at all — even so he has a very great fear of it, because that thing which is within the person — he is frightened of it. As we see that there are many people who are great cowards who have foolish fears. And they themselves know that this thing is nothing at all — and even so they are very frightened. And similarly we see that when one frightens a person from behind — coming upon him suddenly from behind with a startling sound of fear — he is immediately very frightened before the matter begins to enter his mind at all. For he still knows nothing at all, since they came upon him suddenly from behind. And even so he is immediately frightened before the mind has begun to know anything of the fear. And since the matter of the fear has not yet begun to enter the mind at all — how is it relevant to be frightened? But in truth the essence of the fear of a person is: there is something within the person from which he is frightened. And similarly regarding desires — it is the very same. For even though the person knows that this desire is foolishness and vanity, even so there is something within the person that desires the desire. Even though the person knows it is complete vanity. And therefore certainly if a person settles himself very well, he can easily remove from himself all the fears and terrors, and similarly all the desires — since he knows that in truth they are nothing, only that there is something within him from which he fears and which he desires. Therefore he can easily break and remove everything. For the human being has free choice, and he can easily accustom his mind to remove from himself that thing from which all his fears and all his desires come as mentioned above. 162. RAK: See Gesher HaChaim.