our physical existence perhaps.

So, is risking one's life for something proof of a belief in God? Not necessarily. During the depression folks were committing suicide because they lost their fortunes. They were Intentionally losing their lives, because they felt life was too painful without money. So people will probably risk their lives for the sake of money and a variety of other things which they value more than their own p

Courage, what is it? Everyone wants it, but nobody seems to know for sure what the word means. To me, a definition of courage without a spiritual basis is useless. My guru was certainly the most courageous person I have ever known. He dedicated his entire life to his ideology and proved that he was ready to sacrifice his physical existence at any moment for that ideology. From my observations he seemed to be without fear. Furthermore, his writings provided insight into the very meaning of the word courage that was astounding. It seemed he considered fear to be a fundamental block to spiritual progress and warned seekers against "worshiping" their fate out of fear. "A man must be bold. He must boldly face all troubles, all reactions to past actions!" is but one small example of his take on the importance of moral courage.

Normally, we think of bravery as something involving confrontations with other people or at least some emergency that pops up suddenly and separates the "men from the boys", but my guru used the concept in reference to facing day to day events large and small, in stark contrast to being subjugated by them. Why would we worship fate? For the same reason that primitive people worshiped volcanoes; fear.

I remember an old song with the line: "As we lick the boots of death out of fear..." Ultimately what do we fear? Death, pain and related unpleasantries, disease, poverty... So, I suppose the courageous are more willing to face these things than most. Are the courageous free from fear? Or are they just willing to undergo fear for the sake of some greater ideal? And what ideal might that be which could inspire them to face the ultimate loss, physical death? Something more substantial than our physical existence perhaps.

So, is risking one's life for something proof of a belief in God? Not necessarily. During the depression folks were committing suicide because they lost their fortunes. They were Intentionally losing their lives, because they felt life was too painful without money. So people will probably risk their lives for the sake of money and a variety of other things which they value more than their own ph

ore, his writings provided insight into the very meaning of the word courage that was astounding. It seemed he considered fear to be a fundamental block to spiritual progress and warned seekers against "worshiping" their fate out of fear. "A man must be bold. He must boldly face all troubles, all reactions to past actions!" is but one small example of his take on the importance of moral courage.

Normally, we think of bravery as something involving confrontations with other people or at least some emergency that pops up suddenly and separates the "men from the boys", but my guru used the concept in reference to facing day to day events large and small, in stark contrast to being subjugated by them. Why would we worship fate? For the same reason that primitive people worshiped volcanoes; fear.

I remember an old song with the line: "As we lick the boots of death out of fear..." Ultimately what do we fear? Death, pain and related unpleasantries, disease, poverty... So, I suppose the courageous are more willing to face these things than most. Are the courageous free from fear? Or are they just willing to undergo fear for the sake of some greater ideal? And what ideal might that be which could inspire them to face the ultimate loss, physical death? Something more substantial than our physical existence perhaps.

So, is risking one's life for something proof of a belief in God? Not necessarily. During the depression folks were committing suicide because they lost their fortunes. They were Intentionally losing their lives, because they felt life was too painful without money. So people will probably risk their lives for the sake of money and a variety of other things which they value more than their own p

something involving confrontations with other people or at least some emergency that pops up suddenly and separates the "men from the boys", but my guru used the concept in reference to facing day to day events large and small, in stark contrast to being subjugated by them. Why would we worship fate? For the same reason that primitive people worshiped volcanoes; fear.

I remember an old song with the line: "As we lick the boots of death out of fear..." Ultimately what do we fear? Death, pain and related unpleasantries, disease, poverty... So, I suppose the courageous are more willing to face these things than most. Are the courageous free from fear? Or are they just willing to undergo fear for the sake of some greater ideal? And what ideal might that be which could inspire them to face the ultimate loss, physical death? Something more substantial than our physical existence perhaps.

So, is risking one's life for something proof of a belief in God? Not necessarily. During the depression folks were committing suicide because they lost their fortunes. They were Intentionally losing their lives, because they felt life was too painful without money. So people will probably risk their lives for the sake of money and a variety of other things which they value more than their own p

of death out of fear..." Ultimately what do we fear? Death, pain and related unpleasantries, disease, poverty... So, I suppose the courageous are more willing to face these things than most. Are the courageous free from fear? Or are they just willing to undergo fear for the sake of some greater ideal? And what ideal might that be which could inspire them to face the ultimate loss, physical death? Something more substantial than our physical existence perhaps.

So, is risking one's life for something proof of a belief in God? Not necessarily. During the depression folks were committing suicide because they lost their fortunes. They were Intentionally losing their lives, because they felt life was too painful without money. So people will probably risk their lives for the sake of money and a variety of other things which they value more than their own p

our physical existence perhaps.

So, is risking one's life for something proof of a belief in God? Not necessarily. During the depression folks were committing suicide because they lost their fortunes. They were Intentionally losing their lives, because they felt life was too painful without money. So people will probably risk their lives for the sake of money and a variety of other things which they value more than their own physical existence: money, romantic partners, friends, family. Not only that but we often hear of folks killing themselves not over loss, but out of aversion to something in their lives, or something soon to come: disfiguration, incapacity of some sort, public humiliation, painful disease. So, there are apparently lots of things that people fear more than death; lot's of stuff folks don't want to do, or have done to them to the point they will face almost certain death.

So, suffice it to say that courage is tough to nail down. It's got to be something strong enough to help us to face things even worse than death!

Myself, I try to live by certain ideals. I believe there is a God, a benevolent entity that created this universe we live in, and one who maintains contact with his creation in a way that has profound importance to us. A way that invites us to participate in a practical process whereby we achieve personal joy and fulfillment on the one hand and the ability to provide great benefit to our fellows on the other hand. OK, so that is what I do. I am involved in this relationship with God project, and that largely dictates my daily activities.

Most of those activities are very pleasant, but if it were all that easy, we would be bumping into enlightened beings at every corner, and that is hardly the case in my neighborhood anyway. So, many of these activities (let's call them 'yoga' in the larger sense of the word) require discipline... AND I would go so far as to say many of them require what I would call courage. So maybe we are talking about some sort of stuff that is variably referred to as discipline, will power, hutzpah, guts, courage etc etc. Where does discipline end and courage begin? Proba