Raj went on to start a business, but his fears wouldn’t leave him. He couldn’t take calculated risks and he lived like a frog in a well. Fear dominated his life and not just ruined his business, but also his wealth and his health. While he was a brilliant and skilled individual, the fear of failure destroyed his opportunity to be a success. He got married and had children. But fear continued to be his best friend. He was afraid that his children were in danger and would often rush to the school to check their wellbeing. One day, when his teenage daughter did not return in the evening, he rushed to her college only to see nobody there. He frantically started calling everybody he could think of—her teachers, her friends, the neighbours, but nobody could trace her. His fear was so intense that he called the police and asked them to start a search. His anxiety heightened and he started calling all the nearby hospitals one by one, checking if anybody with her description had been admitted. Late that evening, a car stopped outside the house and his daughter walked into the house. He was aghast! “Where were you?” he screamed. She smiled and replied, “I told you last week that I had a new Buddhist friend and I will be going for a meditation class for a few hours. That’s why my phone was switched off.” He looked at her sheepishly as he remembered, and his panic dissolved.
Raj is one person whose life was dominated by fear. We all fear, of course. But for some of us, fear blows, and it goes. But for people like Raj, it makes them so paranoid, that they develop a phobia.