Fearlessness: For some people, overcoming the fear of life will literally take them their whole lives, and when they're laid on their deathbed, it's not fear that they feel, it's just regret. I just hope that I have enough time on this planet for me to be able to sit on my deathbed and know that I've had my fill!

According to Tolle, in the power of now, which I haven't actually finished, fear is a result of identifying with your false sense of self, or your mind made self, or your ego, and the stronger that identification, the stronger the feeling of fear. The more identified you are with this perception that you have of yourself, through past life experiences and cultural beliefs, etc, the more insecure you are, because you feel that anything that contradicts with this mind made sense of self is actually a serious threat to your well being, and lets face it, life throws all sorts of contradictions with our beliefs at us. A good example is when you approach a girl, and your feeling pretty pimp because you've been approaching all night, and she totally blows you out for no particular reason in front of everyone in the club. Your head starts to fuck with you and you completely lose your state and spend the rest of the night telling yourself that you can't be arsed approaching cos you're tired, or too pissed or whatever. Your ego has taken such a battering that you feel like you're never going to be able to approach another girl again, and that you're gonna spend the rest of your life wanking off to porn!! Well, the truth is that you're no different to how you were before the blow out. You've still got the same skills, the same charm and the same confidence, except this big pimp image that you had of yourself a couple of mins before has been shattered, and now you have an image of yourself curled up in a corner shivering and sobbing.

So, the less that you identify with this mind made self, the less you have to loose, right? The more you let go of who you think you are, and what you think you are capable of doing, or not doing, then the more flexible you are gonna be. You will take situations like this with a pinch of salt because there is no one to put the blame on, if that makes sense. Obviously you cannot completely let go of your sense of self, but just be aware that you do not need to identify strongly with any image that you have of yourself. Think of yourself as a tree. The stillness that you can observe in a tree when you look at it, is the idea behind non conceptual thinking. A tree is alive and has great presence, yet it is still and silent. If you can imagine your mind as a tree, then maybe you will see what Tolle is getting at.

Also, as Tolle points out, almost all fear, anxiety, dread, worry,etc, is a result of projecting your mind into the future, and has nothing to do with any concrete or immediate danger. So when you walk up to a set and open, and you feel like you'd rather be swimming in a pool of sharks, it's because your thinking too much about what might happen, rather than actually what is happening. You're picturing yourself getting blown out and laughed at, when you should be fully present in the moment and enjoying yourself and listening to what people are saying to you. There is a constant anxiety gap because your mind is in the future, whilst you are physically in the present moment.

I know that there's a load more to be said on this subject, and I kind of feel like I haven't done it justice here really, but if you're really interested in this then I would definitely recommend reading the book.