What have wisdom traditions taught about fear, and how do people find steadiness when they are afraid?
These passages speak directly about fear as a lived experience: what makes us afraid, where courage comes from, and what it means to walk through hard places without being ruled by dread.
Common Ground
These traditions agree that fear is answered by something steadier than the removal of danger, and they locate that steadiness in different places. Confucius teaches that a person who finds nothing wrong on inward examination has nothing to be anxious about. Epictetus writes that we are disturbed by our views of things rather than by the things themselves, and that courage belongs against death while caution belongs against the fear of it. The Psalms describe walking through the valley of the shadow of death in the company of God, and asking whom there is to fear when the LORD is one's light. The Guru Granth Sahib opens by naming the Creator as without fear and without hatred. For the Confucian and Stoic sources, steadiness comes from inner order and clear seeing; for the Psalms and the Guru Granth Sahib, it rests in relationship with the Divine.
The Master said, "When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there to fear?"
Confucianism - The Analects, Book XII, James Legge, 1893
Read in the libraryMen are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things. Thus death is nothing terrible, else it would have appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion of death, that it is terrible.
Stoicism - The Enchiridion, V, Epictetus, Thomas W. Higginson, 1865
Read in the libraryConfidence (courage) then ought to be employed against death, and caution against the fear of death.
Stoicism - The Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, George Long, 1877
Read in the libraryYea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Christianity - The Bible, King James Version, Psalm 23:4
Read in the libraryThe LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Christianity - The Bible, King James Version, Psalm 27:1
Read in the libraryOne Universal Creator God. The Name Is Truth. Creative Being Personified. No Fear. No Hatred. Image Of The Undying, Beyond Birth, Self-Existent.
Sikhism - Guru Granth Sahib, Section 01 - Jup, Part 001
Read in the libraryDifferent Paths
Confucianism
Confucianism ties fearlessness to integrity: the superior person is free of anxiety and fear because inward examination finds nothing wrong.
Browse Confucianism sourcesStoicism
Stoicism separates the event from the judgment about it: fear lives in our notion of a thing, and courage is trained by correcting that notion.
Browse Stoicism sourcesChristianity
The Psalms answer fear with presence: the hardest valley is walked with a companion, and the one who is light and strength makes the question of fear fall away.
Browse Christianity sourcesSikhism
Sikhism begins with the nature of the Divine itself, without fear and without hatred, and invites the person who meditates on that Name to share in that fearlessness.
Browse Sikhism sourcesSources
All passages are drawn from public domain sources. Read them in full in the library.