And then what?

I thought all you folks would enjoy this great technique from one of Dave’s lectures on how to eliminate fears:

“In surrendering a stack of fears, you can use the technique of “And then what?” You take a fear and say “And then what?”:

I lost my car. And then what?

I won’t have transportation. And then what?

I will lose my job. And then what?

I will have to walk to work. And then what?

There aren’t any jobs like that and I won’t have any money. And then what?

Then I’ll be poor. And then what?

Then I will starve to death.

So at the bottom of every stack of fears is the fear of death, physical death. So once you’ve accepted physical death, then, most of the fears that we have which are focused on the body and loss of possessions and things disappear. You do that by acceptance.”

from “Serenity”, August 2005 lecture, disc 2 and “Book of Slides”