Deshi:  Sensei, you have talked about Fear being related to our attachment to ego.  Are there any other kinds of Fears?

Sensei:  There are others that are related to that which you speak, others that are so unique in very particular ways that they can warrant their own type of self-reflection.  In this sense, there are others.

Deshi:  What kinds are these?  Can you give me an example of one such type?

Sensei:  There is the fear that comes to us from that gap that exists between our self-identity, our rational mind, and our moral mind - when the three are discordant with each other.  In a way, this kind of fear is a mask we wear over our irrational or immoral self.  It allows us to maintain a given self-identity without seeing such maintenance as irrational or immoral.  No longer irrational or immoral, with this mask, we can see ourselves as merely being "cautious" or "preventative."

Deshi:  What is an example of this kind of fear?

Sensei:  They are all connected, if only indirectly, to our bigotries, and so they are always tied to ignorance.  There is our society’s fear of men rearing children, which is connected to a prejudice we have against women in the workforce.  There is our society’s fear of communicative diseases, which is related to our prejudice against strangers.  There is our society’s fear of being spontaneously attacked while in the inner city, which is related to our prejudice against men of color.  Underneath all of this, what allows us to live with the irrationality of men being unable to rear children, of women being unable to lead in the workforce, of disease waiting around every corner, or of men of color living only to attack others, is an immorality by which men are negated in their emotional content, women are diminished to their biology, strangers are noted as dangerous, and by which we deny that for women and children it is more likely that a male from their family is likely to inflict bodily harm against them than a man from outside of their family. 

Deshi:  How do we relate to this type of fear in our training?

Sensei:  In the same way as we do any other kind of fear - by cultivating fearlessness in ourselves through a reconciliation with our attachment to self.

Deshi:  So why then do you make a distinction between this fear and other types of fear or fear in general?

Sensei:  The reconciliation of a fear that holds at its center an obvious selfishness is a process that is supported by the culture at large.  The reconciliation of a fear that masks our irrational and immoral self in a garb of "precaution" is a process that culture will do everything in its power to halt.  On paper, the two may appear the same.  In practice, they are worlds apart and they will for sure feel that way when you proceed with your reconciliation of both.