By and large all fear is tied into aversion. It's all part of aversion. Working with aversions of any nature can actually contribute to helping you let go of fear. Something like a mosquito bite, something like the fear of death, and we've also got working with unpleasant physical sensations. I happen to know that through the past, many people, even if they sat in our retreats many, many times, one person who had done I believe ten retreats, wrote a note the day after the unpleasant physical sensation talk, saying "Steve I've heard that talk now ten times, and you know what, I've never really tried it yet. I think maybe I'll try it this time."
We know that a lot of old students don't work with pain, just like this person had not for a long time. They're afraid to even test the technique. If you haven't tested it enough, give it a go! Give it a better go. You're going to find that fear of lots of little things in particular will drop, because it's not so big. It's not such a big thing. Especially regarding insects.
Fear of death is bigger, and that's where the eight worldly dhammas come in, to reflect more on the eight worldly dhammas. We tend to identify ourselves with a "me," who is something. If we can let go more of that identification, and be comfortable with loss, be comfortable with pain, be comfortable with blame and obscurity, then we can actually work with the fear of death more, because we're not going to worry that we become obscure. People often think they'll become obscure when they die. We're not going to be worried so much, because we're going to be used to being obscure.
We're not going to worry so much about pain, because we know it's going to be impermanent. It may not be easy, some people die with lots and lots of pain. Stories, if you have never read any in the newspapers, people who have been beaten for four hours before they died. One 14/15 year old girl was beaten by two friends for four hours. She didn't die after they beat her up, so they burnt her alive. OK, torture, physical pain. Someone else who has cancer goes for many months and has tons of pain. If we work with smaller amounts of pain, work with any types of physical pain that we have, we use it when we know it's basically safe, that's going to help us later, if we need it.
Working with the eight worldly dhammas as to obscurity is very important, as I just mentioned. To be comfortable with being nothing. Most people don't feel comfortable being nothing, most people want to be something. They want to have fame. They want other people to acknowledge them. They want to live, they want to be something. Can we be more comfortable in not caring whether we're alive or dead? Praise and blame? Can we be comfortable with blame, and feel that it's okay, just something to learn from? "It's not really me they're attacking."
Regarding the eight worldly dhammas, the center point is that there is a "me" who's being attacked. Or a "me" who's gaining something. If we can more and more relax so we don't really need that stuff, we don't need praise, we don't really need fame, gain and pleasure and we don't worry if the other four come anymore, if we can relax around all these issues, then the more mentally we're ready for death; to just go "poof' and be gone, if that's going to be the case; or go "poof" and get reborn in a new body, if that's the case.