A Thousand Names For Joy

We can only be afraid of what we believe we are – whatever there is in ourselves that we haven’t met with understanding.  If I thought you might see me as boring, for example – it would frighten me, because I haven’t questioned that thought.  So it’s not people who frighten me, it’s me that frightens me.  That’s my job, to frighten me, until I investigate this fear for myself.  The worst that can happen is that I think you think about me what I think about myself.  So I am sitting in a pool of me.

Byron Katie with Stephen Mitchell
“A Thousand Names For Joy”