One thing I understand about fear is that it is always tied up with the future. It is not actually this moment, it is tied up with a future possibility. If a bear comes charging at you and you get afraid, what causes the fear? Does the bear cause the fear? No, the bear does not cause the fear. Do your eyes - seeing the bear - do your eyes cause the fear? No, your eyes do not cause the fear. Your thoughts about the bear are causing the fear. The bear itself and the eye contact do not create the fear, but your mental formations around your contacts cause the fear. Now to see the bear coming and to realize, "I better run inside the house", fine, that is wisdom, that is being careful, that is very important out of compassion for yourself, but if you have fear at the same time, that might cause emotional problems so that you don't actually run inside the house as fast as you can.
I'll give you a very good example about this: Take the Tsunami that occurred in Thailand, we know of six students who were involved in the Tsunami. One of them was on the beach in Phuket, saw the Tsunami coming, and as the expression goes, was scared out of their wits. They couldn't move, they were frozen. They saw it and they were so scared that they couldn't move. People had to grab them and drag them away from the waters edge to save their life. That is a clear example when fear gets in the way. At the moment that this person had eye contact with the Tsunami, they were just standing there, no problem, everyone else was running away, yet they were over come by fear. Had their mind been able to think clearly and be aware with no fear, they would have been able to run away, but the fear was so much of a future possible event that they couldn't even run. So to realize fear is caught up in the future.
During the Great Depression of the Unites States, the president said a little saying that was so important and so famous, that it was taught to us as kids. When the United States people were getting afraid, he said, "The only thing to fear is fear itself." The student who was getting afraid on the beach - yes, it was the fear that we should be afraid of, not the Tsunami. We should be afraid to become afraid, in the sense of the words. So to realize fear gets in the way with clear thinking, that fear is always tied up with a future event, that if you are mindful in a moment of any important stressful event, watch over the fear, keep it out of the way, that is very important. It is one important way to work with fear.