Pain and Fear

On one hand, there’s discomfort, which tells me something’s wrong, or isn’t fully healed. On the other, there’s fear the discomfort will grow worse, or won’t end. But fear is a self-fulfilling prophecy. What I fear is intensified and prolonged by my fear. If I fear long enough, I will fear until my death. And if my fear is the fear of death, I will die fearing that. In this light, I can see there’s no difference between the fear of pain, physical or psychological, and the fear of death. Therefore, all of my fear is the fear of death. I look into my pain, and see it is so. If I don’t fear death, what is there left to fear?

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