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embarrass you, the new situations may take away the very ground from underneath you.
So shyness is never really a problem -- it is just a symptom. But down the ages it has been thought to be a good quality because it protects the ego. We think a shy person is a good person, he is non-aggressive; he is not! His aggression is very subtle. So he keeps aloof, he always keeps at a distance. That distance is just a strategy: if things become too much he can always escape. He never gets involved, he remains on the periphery and pretends 'I am shy, that's why I am not getting into the crowd, not getting into people, not communicating with new people, not relating -- because I am shy.' That shyness is just an explanation, a blanket explanation. It covers many things, but basically and centrally it covers the ego.
Women have been more shy than men because they are very egoistic. But down the ages they have been praised for their shyness, particularly in the East, very much. A shy woman is thought to be a real woman. Mm? she is always looking down, hiding, always withdrawing, never taking any initiative. To the eastern woman, the western woman looks a little unsophisticated, vulgar, seems to be too masculine because she is not shy. But the eastern woman is very egoistic. Her shyness is just a facade, a beautiful mask.
So don't think that shyness is the problem -- it is not. If you really want to look into the problem, look into the ego and you will find it there, the source is there. And once you understand the right cause, things can change easily. One can go on fighting with the symptom and nothing will be changed.
The conscious mind is only one-tenth of the whole mind; nine-tenths of it is the unconscious, and the conscious mind is getting drowned in the unconscious. Hence this feeling. But this is beautiful. The conscious has to get drowned in the unconscious. Once it is drowned in the unconscious you will have a new kind of integration. Then you will not be divided in two compartments, you will become one. But the fear will be there. One feels as if one is getting drowned and has no help and cannot get out.
The unconscious is dark and
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