FEAR
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I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
Great post Aum, it sheds a little light on what fear 'is.'
Fear can be thought of as an ally. When we hesitate to take a step forward, one should remind their self that you have been presented with something that must be conquered. Certainly, you could step backwards and attempt to avoid it. But the second you feel that pit in your belly, the one thing you do know is that one day you are going to have to face it.
And when you do, well, it never seems as bad as you thought it would be
That could just be my own overactive imagination...
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I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
@Uni_Verse said
"Great post Aum, it sheds a little light on what fear 'is.'
Fear can be thought of as an ally. When we hesitate to take a step forward, one should remind their self that you have been presented with something that must be conquered. Certainly, you could step backwards and attempt to avoid it. But the second you feel that pit in your belly, the one thing you do know is that one day you are going to have to face it.
And when you do, well, it never seems as bad as you thought it would be
That could just be my own overactive imagination..."
Thanks.
Fear is certainly useful in an evolutionary sense. That sympathetic nervous system sure is useful in fight or flight situations. The thing is that most of us are not confronted with these situations 99.999% of our life and so that kind of unconscious reactive fear is useless (except in those rare cases).
Also, the introspection of fear is probably one of the most efficacious tools. Remain cool & impersonal and investigate your fears. What are you most afraid of? Losing your identity? Losing your life? Losing your family?
Getting married? These can all be contemplated with a level-head to much benefit: we often have irrational fears that can be dispersed with a little concentrated investigation.IAO131
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I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
@Aum418 said
"to discard oneself of temporal attachments and to see oneself as the supreme Self of Hadit or Atman who is one with Nuit or Brahman."
You said you must be "one with" Nuit. I am not trying to be a pain here, but today I have been having lots of thoughts about Oneness and Love, etc. So, my honest question is this: How can you be one WITH something? If you are truly ONE then there is no WITH. You are either one or you are separate from, or somehow connected but not completely united.
D
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I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
@DavidH said
" How can you be one WITH something? If you are truly ONE then there is no WITH. You are either one or you are separate from, or somehow connected but not completely united."
You are trying to read to much into what is just a grammatical convention. The word "one" is an adjective, and adjectives in English cannot take direct objects; so the complement of an adjective has to be embedded in a prepositional phrase. Choice of preposition is partly arbitrary; the adjective "one" happens to take "with". There's no deep significance to that. (I can be a pain with the best of them.)
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I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
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I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
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I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
" How can you be one WITH something? If you are truly ONE then there is no WITH. You are either one or you are separate from, or somehow connected but not completely united. "
Because language is misleading. You are right. There is no 'you' let alone 'with' in Unity/Nothingness.
"How infinite is the distance form This to That! Yet All is
Here and Now. Nor is there any there or Then; for all
that is, what is it but a manifestation, that is, a part,
that is, a falsehood, of THAT which is not?
Yet THAT which is not neither is nor is not That which is!
Identity is perfect; therefore the Law of Identity is but a lie.
For there is no subject, and there is no predicate; nor is
there the contradictory of either of these things."
-Liber 333: Book of Lies, ch.11@418Hadi said
"I just wanted to add this: Christian Scientists have an anagram for fear:
False Evidence Apparently Real. I can't elaborate on that, but anybody here who knows some CS should understand it.93/93
418Hadit"
Isnt that Gary Busey's acronym (not anagram)?
IAO131
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I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
I think there is fear you can ignore, and then there is common sense you shouldn't. Sometimes the test is to trust yourself and your "instincts" or knowledge. Fear can be a hindrance. So can blind faith. I recently made a mistake by deluding myself and "believeing" or having trust where i shouldn't. MY fear or sense would have served me better.
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I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
fear has always been a big obstacle in my life. but here is my two cents on taking care of it.
fear is from either thinking of the past, or more commonly imaginining something that has not happened yet. in the present there is no fear. there is just this. if you can master your mind, you can conquer fear.
dunno how much this helps, but i had to say it. -
I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David
Fear is a natural evolved response, and needs to be conquered because the animal mind will respond to certain stimuli, or lack of stimuli, by panicking.
When I teach basic meditation I explain that it is not "natural", as many Newage teachers insist. For most of our evolutionary history we have been surrounded by predators, and sitting in an asana for an hour letting your mind go blank and not responding to external stimuli, such as noise, was a good way to get killed. The animal mind will try to attract your attention to the assumed possibility, even inevitability, that because you've been like this for so long there is bound to be something about to eat you.
Fear is a sign that things are going right, and initiation without fear doesn't work IMHO. Conquest of fear is indeed the beginning of wisdom, though from memory Russell didn't think much of Crowley. -
I was hoping to start a thread on Fear. Where does it come from, how does it hinder us in initiation as well as normal life, how can we deal with it, etc.
I went to a seminar once (it was on financing and business). They talked for an hour about how they were going to make us break an arrow with our throat, and how it might impale us, etc. They made everyone sign a release waver and talked about past injuries, etc. They built up the fear for an hour and then said to leave if you won't sign the release. Some people left, the remaining ones were obvious scared. I was the first one to volunteer...the arrow holder put the arrow up to my throat and I walked forward as directed, easily breaking the arrow. Some people put it up to the throat and then gave up when they felt the slightest pressure.
Basically, the practice was to show that everyone has fear but the successful ones ACT IN SPITE OF FEAR while the others let fear stop them from acting.
How can we work on Fear on our path?
And what is fear? One definition I heard was that fear is simply the anticipation of pain.
David