Fear of Sickness

[Rilles]

I sometimes think about how fragile the human body is and how its so easy to get sick and such, but today I got very freaked out, I was sitting on an airplane and the passenger next to me started having convulsions (diabetic) and he had to have a bunch of nurses and stuff around him to bring him back to conciousness. I havent been able to get my mind off how scary it was... My main question is, is there any way to accept the fragility of ourselves and how would you go about doing that, how can we accept that death could take us at any moment, thanks!

[cirkussmile]

When we fear sickness we fear that it will take away something or hurt.

This makes us vulnerable and that is exactly where life begins to shine. Vulnerability is the biggest strength we can have and if we take it forward and shine it on fear, the fear has to go. 

Vulnerability heals the darkness

[Rilles]

@cirkussmile Thanks for the reply! I'll contemplate that

[molosku]

@Rilles feel you man. I have been thinkin about my own death pretty often for some time now, and somehow Im convinced I WILL die because of some horrible, agonizing accident/disease.

The human body is so amazing, running so many things simultaneously and always failing and recovering with 0 awareness or input by "you". Random thought I was discussing a few days ago with someone:

Imagine if you went to a bunch of engineers and told them "Heyy, could you design and build a robot that is like 60% fluid, can perform all the physical and athletic tasks that a human can, and it must be able to gather resources from its surroundings in order to build a clone of itself inside itself,  that then grows once its ready and it must be able to do the same things it parent is capable of?" 

Those requirements are bafflingly ridiculous alone, but they were just a few from the endless amount of functions your body does by itself. 

Respect your body, it's way beyond just being a temple, because a temple is a pretty straight forward structure. 

Edited April 6, 2018 by molosku

[shamaanitar]

If you were to get ill and you would be in panic then this just would be the path to enlightenment as your thoughts of your death would be something inescapable. What is there to be afraid of really? 

If you want to die in peace, live in peace and accept the fact that you might not die in peace. 

 

I was very sick as a teenager but because I hadn’t even heard of such a thing as enlightenment, I was just angry. I was never told : you could die of this although it was the case. If I would have, I would have come through to the same conclusion as I have now. Death is birth, birth is death. 

[Rilles]

Thanks! These are similar conclusions I've come to, it seems acceptance is the only way even though it's hella scary but I guess that comes with the program "its not a bug, its a feature!" as Leo would put it

[Markus]

@Rilles As long as you are identified with the body, there can't really be complete peace with that, I think. Relative peace, I'm sure people can give you many tips.

Edited April 7, 2018 by Markus

[eputkonen]

On 4/6/2018 at 3:45 AM, Rilles said:

I sometimes think about how fragile the human body is and how its so easy to get sick and such, but today I got very freaked out, I was sitting on an airplane and the passenger next to me started having convulsions (diabetic) and he had to have a bunch of nurses and stuff around him to bring him back to conciousness. I havent been able to get my mind off how scary it was... My main question is, is there any way to accept the fragility of ourselves and how would you go about doing that, how can we accept that death could take us at any moment, thanks!

Sickness (the potential of it) and death are certainties of life.  Will denying or resisting reality and certainty of life help in any way?  Or will it simply cause suffering?  Or might it actually bring about sickness and death - like a self fulfilling prophecy?

You see...stress and anxiety hinder and diminish the immune system...so it is very possible to make yourself sick or even die by excessively worrying about sickness and death.  At a minimum, you are just making yourself miserable and suffer by worrying about it.   There is no point in fearing sickness or death.  Why worry about the inevitable?  Your body will once again become sick in this life...your body will die.  You need to investigate this for yourself.  If you deeply and profoundly see the futility of this fear...and potential harm you are doing to yourself with it...then you may cease doing that to yourself.  How miserable would you be if you feared the daylight...would that fear stop the dawn from coming?  Just accept it...it will come when it comes...there is nothing you can really do about it.

You could also inquire...are you this body/mind.  It is only when you deny the fragility of the body/mind and identify with the body/mind that we fear its demise.  It is the fragility of the body/mind...not ourselves.  Death does not take us...it takes the body/mind.  What you really are was never born...you are the Unborn.  Until this is realized, there may always be a fear of death.

[Rilles]

@eputkonen That was profound... thank you for your reply, ill be sure to do more self-inquiry in the future.