Fear … is the threshold guardian that protects you from entering a place that holds dangers too terrible for your current level of strength. Appropriate fear is like that threshold guardian. If the fear is so great that you cannot deal with it, you have to pull back and begin to build your strength first. You say with the Zen master, “This being the case how can I proceed?” Our fears point to where our work lies.
If less fear means more love, where does this love come from?
All fears have been learned. There are a few that are inborn such as the fear of loud noises and the fear of being dropped. Where does the love come from if the fear comes from conditioning? The love must come from unconditionality. The unconditionality inside us is our true self. This is our basic aliveness, the liveliness that makes us want to face what faces us! When fear sits on aliveness we hold an unintegrated excitement. The aliveness is the cathedral and the fear is the gargoyle sitting on it and seemingly holding it down. Love bursts out of aliveness, fear suppresses the aliveness. Maslow said: “The voice of the divine in us counterpoised not by the voice of the devil but by the voice of fear.
Courage means heart.
Courage is how love lets in
What fear rules out
Emerging From The Dark Night 
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