This is absolutely the way it is. A Zen Master who used to visit the university I attended wrote this in a book with a forward by his friend DT Suzuki, the famous Zen author who introduced Zen to the West. The forward was the last thing Suzuki penned before he died. The book, A Flower Does Not Talk. Zen Master, Zenkei Shibayama Roshi was the head master at the Nanzenji monastery in Kyoto, the traditional leading Rinzai Zen temple in Kyoto. And I had this experience directly myself. The most powerful experience of my life. The fear of death is the last thing to go. The ego is afraid of it's own demise. If you can get beyond that, see through it and let it go, and also move beyond the iron bars of knowing which traps the mind, then you are completely Free.
while you're predicting the future ...do you want to give all of us a synopsis for the rest of this weeks trading?
I think lots of us have periods of "awakening" as you call it at different times and at different levels. But letting go of the fear of death through either surrender to a higher power through faith and not just belief, or just seeing that there's no one who dies, other than the body, (which can be aided by meditation) is the big one. This opens our awareness to the way it all really is. And frees us of the prison created by ego. You realize (and this will be controversial to some - but it's okay ) that God is Love and as Carole King said in her song, "Only love is real, everything else illusion" and we're part of that and that nothing really bad and lasting can ever happen to you in the biggest picture.
This is pretty good thread. 1. Presently, what is your single biggest fear in life? It need not be limited to the trading arena. Not finding that one woman who gets me, you know the one where you can watch paint dry and have an incredible time, you now the one who just smiles at you and you damn happy to be alive. 2. How, and to what extent, do you think this fear has either helped or hindered you? Hmmmm has made me think of how fortunately I have my life financially and women really have life much tougher than men, much more bullshit from childhood they not overall have overcome, but that makes them be able to put up with men more as most men, including me, have more kid in me than being adult, no fun in adult only pain. 3. If you have found that, on balance, your fear has hindered you, what steps do you think you would need to take in order to overcome that fear? Well, as age goes by, I have become more reluctant to say what I do for a living, some of us didn't learn first time around to be careful and start trusts so as to limit loss/risk, just like trading, HAAAAA So being more careful this way, has allowed me to seek easier. Only trouble is women in their 50s, well, lot more adult kids who don't work or have drug problems, so you go lower and there are other problems. 4. If you are not presently taking these steps, what prevents you from doing so? (If, indeed, you have found that your fear serves as a hindrance. Finding a good lawyer, LOL we live in such a world where you have to be so careful of where you step, but you can't let it take over your world, otherwise you bottle yourself up, start thinking the flies on the wall are small cameras, LOL.
It is So I'm sitting here reflecting / introspecting - what is my single biggest fear Dying - no..., fact is I am going to die - and though I don't in any small way like that prospect - absolutely nothing I can do about it Failing - I've failed before - I will survive Losing my Family - either through abandonment..., or accident/ injury/ illness Abandonment - we are all free will individuals - if I act an ass I deserved to be left Accident / injury / illness - no sense wasting time fearing that which I have no control over Being alone - I can be in a room full of people and be alone - conversely - I can be completely by myself..., and be perfectly content Getting old - well..., it beats the hell out of dying Some debilitating accident..., injury..., illness - I'd end my life..., my Family knows this..., and though reluctantly supports - supports none the less Yup..., this last is (has to be) my single biggest fear -> (Read "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo) A worse living hell - I can not fathom RN