The doors of perception of life and the dealings, discernment and developments of life in most of its vital aspects

via the body, mind, spirit, society, culture etc seem to move on the five important two way hinges namely love, sex, money, fear and death.

Not necessarily in that order or necessarily exclusively. They may overlap one another or operate together or in different combinations and sometimes one or more of these may be so strongly interlinked that they even lose their original identity.

But it would be better if we remember the fact that they are two way hinges that allow you to peep into life and the so called mysteries of life and also help life to understand and perceive the world outside that influences and is influenced by life.

So these two way hinges acquire their significance based on the situations, contexts in which they allow the door to open either way.

But as they do open the doors of perception of life we can neither deny nor defy the importance of any nor can we try to avoid any of these

At the same time these five hinges manifest in myriads of ways based on various factors of impacts, influences, situations, contexts, circumstances etc on different persons and things and in turn their own influences and impacts on many things and persons in different situations, contexts, circumstances etc.

The manifestations being varied and their impacts and influences varying depending on the individual, the subjective element too adds to the multiplicity and plurality of functions, forms, factors etc of these five hinges.

Thats why however much the saints, seers, philosophers, religionists, theosophists, scientists, psychologist and many other well meaning souls have tried to grasp their meaning and/or meanings in multiple ways starting from studying them in their micro details in various contexts and also tried to have a complete and overall perception of them at a macro level, have not been able to come up with any clear cut fit- all -situations simple definition for any one of these five hinges.

The very nature of multiple manifestations and myriads of contexts in which they occur, all these five hinges elude any single, exclusive, universally applicable, simplistic definition.

No wonder that these five hinges as concepts, ideas and aspects of life have acquired such a load of carapace of connotations that the so called original denotations of the very words have been totally hidden or to be more precise have almost disappeared.

Every philosopher, psychologist, scientist etc tries his/her level best to rationalize and to vindicate his or her own pet definition of what these five hinges mean based on his/her own modes of perception and presents his /her own concepts, hypothesis, idea of what they mean and based on that they also propound theories of denying these five hinges, doing away with them, dealing with them , defying them, controlling them, delving deep into them etc based on what outcome they want out of these.

To top it all, the irony is majority of the ordinary folks and the youth who prefer to live on others interpretations of lifes vital aspects, not only perceive these hinges but also debate and defend their perception based on what theories, hypothesis, ideas, definitions they picked up on how a particular hinge works.

In life when actually encountered, these hinges move depending upon the perception, either smoothly allowing the doors of perception to life to open or getting struck up and not allowing the doors to open at all, or letting the doors open partially not enough to enter into perceiving life in its totality, or allowing the doors of perception to open with great friction created by the hinges that by the time the doors open to perceive life the physical and mental life is at its end.

So the undeniable fact is that all these hinges are relative, subjective, acquiring their value and definition based on their specific manifestation in any particular context, situation or circumstance which influence or impact them to manifest and which these hinges in turn influence or impact in varying degrees.

Therefore, anyone venturing to define or describe philosophically any of these five hinges runs the risk of inviting not only severe criticism but is also likely to be ridiculed for his lack of vision to present a comprehensive and complete description of what these hinges are.

However, this has never prevented the saints, philosophers, religious leaders, scientists, sociologists, psychologist and many other wise souls from giving their own definitions and developing theories, many of which have helped human race to better understand these hinges

I have also decided to take one particular hinge, namely FEAR in order to explore, to enjoy and try to explain its many facets as experienced by me and many others in various contexts.

When we take up a subject of this great importance and relevance, naturally we encounter an inundation of materials available ranging from the trivial to the very thoughtful;

from superficially churned out academic theories to seriously philosophically propounded concepts;

from those based on prejudices to profound perceptions;

from those based on actual experience to patronizing didacticism;

from those definitions influenced by religious institutions to those imbued with personal romanticism and so on.

We cannot afford to ignore any of them as each has something to offer and there is always no harm in referring to existing literature in exploring any subject as sometimes they may not only vindicate our experience but may also enthuse and enhance our own endeavor to better explore and expound further the subject of study.

They may compliment our understanding and collaborate with us intellectually and emotionally.

It is all the more tempting to refer to them when they are available at a mouse click away unlike the olden times when we had to visit many libraries and patiently read through, sometimes reference works without index or dig deep into our memory cells and pull up the relevant stored stuff.

Now let us get down to explore fear.

What is fear?

Or to be more precise what are all considered as fear?

What are the types of fear?

Is it [fear] an essential part of life?

Are we born with it [fear] or do we acquire it?

Can we get rid of it [fear] totally? If so how?

What are the things that influence and instill fear?

What are the things that fear impacts and influences?

Is fear a fantasy or a fact?

Can we tackle it [fear] with mere theories and concepts however great or good they may be?

Is it [fear] good or bad?

Is fear only negative or is there something positive about it?

Is it [fear] dangerous to society and religion or is it essential for the very survival of both society and religion?

Should we give importance to it [fear] or ignore it?

And a hoard of many other relevant and also not so relevant questions, queries and doubts have to be answered if we are to understand the multiple facets of this hinge [fear].

Fear, like the other two way hinges, being a product of multiple manifestations of varying degrees of intensities, impact and influence includes a very wide range of emotions.

from a mere aversion, unhappiness, dissatisfaction, disappointment, disgust etc to life benumbing mortal dread stifling and strangulating our body, mind and spirit;

It [fear], therefore, includes silly phobias as well as sane signals of precaution necessary for safe survival and smooth social life involving group cohesion, encouragement of cooperation and discouragement of cheating etc;

It [fear] includes senseless self torturing modes of behavior to development of practical life saving skills.