I am in Udaipur filming here, and surrounded by great stories of the Rana’s and the courageous warriors of Mewar. Fascinating stories that make me wonder what true courage really is ? Does true courage need an enemy to provoke it ? Does honor need something dishonorable to fight against to bring it the fore ?
We often do courageous things driven by passion, by desire for change, or in the service of others. Gandhi ji had the courage to lay his life down for freedom. People make courageous films. But in each case there is an assumption of an opposing force. Is that something that is inherent in establishing courage ?
To me courage is the ability to live. Courage is the ability to be quite ordinary and yet be content, and not see life as a huge burden. Ambition or what we call drive is often driven by innate anger, which can turn completely negative.
But beyond all that true courage is the ability to be comfortable with the unknown and welcome it as the natural order of the universe. It is not just the acceptance of death, but also the acceptance of control as the great illusion. True courage is the ability live in the moment fearlessly and with immense love with no opposing force.
Beautifully said!
“Courage is the ability to be quite ordinary and yet be content.”
Indeed, though sometimes it makes me think a few thoughts of the like of Lao Tze as given below:
“In mind how like I am to the fool. I am all in the maze. The common people
are brightly intelligent; I alone seem to be in the dark…All men have something that they can do; I alone am good for nothing. I alone differ from other people, but I glory in my nursing mother (Tao).”
Though again it is also true that I also glory in my own discovered universal evolutionary scheme of things.
Harb
Winning ourselves – The Best Courage.
Beautiful words of wisdom.
Brilliantly put Shekhar!
it may seem weird, but I always had fear of the known not the unknown…
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I always believed the unknown is better than the known
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always opened my arms to the horizons, asking nature, to give me something that was not possible…not felt…and it would come
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even till date, I feel the force of the unknown surround me, and I smile that beauty is yet to come forth
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it will
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it will
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Even if Im a dreamer…so be it…
hugzzz
To me courage is the ability to live. Courage is the ability to be quite ordinary and yet be content, and not see life as a huge burden. Ambition or what we call drive is often driven by innate anger, which can turn completely negative.
I so needed that….and what timing 🙂
Thank you.
DQ, the known is often an illusion. hy be afraid of that which is not ? shekhar
#6, well said Shekhar.
A relevant paragraph from my book, the main theme of which is to get freedom (ultimately from four basic forces of which the whole phenomenal world is made up of). The paragraph here says that the thing which we have known we have won freedom from and that means we are no longer afraid of it.
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“Purpose-wise, these ideas (of freedom from forces – H), in a way, incorporate the mystics’ notions of freedom, moksha, nirvana; philosophers’ notions of ‘will to power,’ of ‘condemned to be free’ (i.e., ultimately power over forces, freedom from forces); psychologists’ notions of man’s longing for the ‘oceanic feeling,’ of his longing for the security of the womb (longing for ultimate Oneness, for Mosc); scientists’ notions of acquiring knowledge (‘Knowledge is our destiny’ – J.Bronowski, in The Ascent of Man) which in an indirect way also amounts ultimately to the same endeavor – that of freedom, for, a thing known is a thing from which one has won his freedom.”
Harb
Yeh BHOG bhee ek tapasya hai..
Tum tyaag ke maa`ro… kya jaano ?
Sansaar se bhaa`gey phir`te ho !
Bhag`waan ko tum kya paa`oge ?
You have touched a very delicate thought. To be content and happy with what you have. To share what you have… and keep “greed” and “jealousy” at a bay. That struggle of keeping greed/ jealousy away is called “muja-hida”… its a consistent and continuous struggle… 24×7. Its inward looking… where you are the accused., the lawyer and also the judge… and you begin to check your own self. This way, one becomes detached with one’s own self. I-me-myself., get diluted (if not totally melt).
I have a translation I want you to read.
The other side of courage, so to speak.
Accepted at pratilipi.in, but they haven’t updated in some time so I don’t know.
Courage is the ability to face your true self! in true sense its a state where one has to be and then is COMPLETELY inactive!
Well said Shekhar.
Courage is indeed to accept what is – this moment.That is all.
Fear is an emotion that our bodies need in order to preserve themselves. Our bodies are extremely capable of adpating to the unknown.We need not pursue being fearless.As an emotion it has its place.It springs up in defence against attack, disease and any threat to bodily well being.
It gets messy when we let fear meddle with the other culprit – our desires, which are always linked with an imagined future state of being.Fear then gets attached with the whole concept of living life as we imagine it should be or hang onto what we imagine it is.Courage is truly unshackling this fear with our idea of living life. It is an unnecessary burden.We fear ‘being in fear’.
Gandhi as we get to see through his autobiography, learns not to ‘focus’ on his fears. He unlearns fear by experimenting with pain bodily as well as psychologically, tests himself against odds and discovers its impermanent nature.What remains as a result of this constant unlearning are his actions which to us seem born from courage and to him from conviction of, what is – the truth.
“To me courage is the ability to live. Courage is the ability to be quite ordinary and yet be content, and not see life as a huge burden. Ambition or what we call drive is often driven by innate anger, which can turn completely negative.
But beyond all that true courage is the ability to be comfortable with the unknown and welcome it as the natural order of the universe. It is not just the acceptance of death, but also the acceptance of control as the great illusion. True courage is the ability live in the moment fearlessly and with immense love with no opposing force.”
WOW
WOW
This is the most lucidly and clearly expressed thing about what life is all about that i have read in a ….since forever!
Just simply blew my mind away!
thanks Shekhar
“But beyond all that true courage is the ability to be comfortable with the unknown and welcome it as the natural order of the universe. ”
Insightful. And it touches a raw nerve. For if this is a yardstick to measure courage, I am the biggest the coward in the world. You are right, it is important to accept that there will be an element of surprise in your life and one should quit trying to predict everything and seeking a comfort zone in the realm of the known.
This is a very very valuable nugget. Thank you.
Adversity does not build character, but reveals it, as they say (or words to that effect).
So, I would suppose that courage and honour are innate, but are revealed when faced with an enemy or dishonour.
Aap ne sahi kaha Shekhar,
par fir kahi
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we are born in reality and live in illusions and die in a journey of illusions in real
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what we never felt but imagined is yet illusions
what we touched and let go or it passed away as time is constant so is change, then too we say illusion
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jo ho nahi sakta wo bhi illusion, jo ho jaata hai wo bhi kahi illusion
baas ek sachai ‘hum sab’ hi hai
‘we within ourselves’
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fir baath ati hai courage ki
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‘Courage is the ability to be quite ordinary and yet be content’
the ability to be oridinary is no courage it is the result of profound wisdom, that comes with much loss, pain, partly perception. somewhere we give all emotions a name ‘Courage’ who knows what was the price of this courage or there was no other tag left to give to it…hence courage…
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fir ek baath aur ati hai…..ye say….’yet be content’
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like time and change is constant so is the growth of mind constant, each second our minds are racing growing experiencing, thinking, conditioning etc
content hona kahi possible nahi….content ho gayei tho stagnate ho jayengei, stagnate ho gayei tho illusive death….death before death….
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then why life?
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how do ye tame the life within?
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why does this life burst within?
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life ko kaise rokei? how do you stop life?
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How?
Great thoughts. When men with such thoughts make a movie , we mortals get to enjoy emotional and visual delights like – Masoom, Bandit Queen and Elizabeth.
Hats off to your work Sir.
Aap ne sahi kaha Shekhar,
par fir kahi
.
.
we are born in reality and live in illusions and die in a journey of illusions in real
what we never felt but imagined is yet illusions
what we touched and let go or it passed away as time is constant so is change, then too we say illusion
jo ho nahi sakta wo bhi illusion, jo ho jaata hai wo bhi kahi illusion
baas ek sachai ‘hum sab’ hi hai
‘we within ourselves’
.
.
fir baath ati hai courage ki
.
.
‘Courage is the ability to be quite ordinary and yet be content’
the ability to be oridinary is no courage it is the result of profound wisdom, that comes with much loss, pain, partly perception. somewhere we give all emotions a name ‘Courage’ who knows what was the price of this courage or there was no other tag left to give to it…hence courage…
.
.
fir ek baath aur ati hai…..ye say….’yet be content’
.
.
like time and change is constant so is the growth of mind constant, each second our minds are racing growing experiencing, thinking, conditioning etc
content hona kahi possible nahi….content ho gayei tho stagnate ho jayengei, stagnate ho gayei tho illusive death….death before death….
.
.
then why life?
.
.
how do ye tame the life within?
.
.
why does this life burst within?
.
.
life ko kaise rokei? how do you stop life?
.
.
How?
True courage is facing danger at the risk of losing life.
In my opinion, true courage is facing danger at the risk of losing life.