--Psalm 138
Inspiring Teachers
So you think I'm courageous?" she asked.
"Yes, I do."
"Perhaps I am. But that's because I've had some inspiring teachers. I'll tell you about one of them. Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at Stanford Hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liza who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her five-year-old brother who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, 'Yes, I'll do it if it will save Liza.'
"As the transfusion progressed, he lay in a bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, 'Will I start to die right away?'
"Being young, the boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give her all his blood. Yes, I've learned courage," she added, "because I've had inspiring teachers."
-Dan Millman, quoted in Sacred Moments, Daily Meditations on the Virtues by Linda Kavelin Popov, ©1996
Courage
Strive as much as ye can to turn wholly toward the Kingdom, that ye may acquire innate courage and ideal power."Love's glory is not a small thing," Jalal'u'din Rumi tells us. Do I have the courage and enlightenment to pay the full price that Life can call upon me to serve up? To do so, I must leave the security of the known behind, and embrace risk with both arms. Doubt and darkness lay before me, and the next step will take me into an experience that I may not be fully prepared for, but I just go for it. When I exercise courage to do this, it is with a total acceptance of the consequences of living and dying. What or whom do I love so much that I am willing to just go for it? I cannot escape the fear of having to make such a choice, I can only transform that fear into an intimate companion to accompany me on such an adventure.--Ábdu'l-Bahá
There are risks I cannot afford to take, and there are risks I cannot afford not to take. Each day presents me with a variety of each. It takes courage to decide what risks are acceptable. One of the simplest, but most often overlooked, acts of courage is forgiveness. The Qur'an considers forgiveness an "exercise of courageous will and resolution" in the conduct of one's affairs. Sound advice, eh? Courage also takes the form of compassion. I can stay cloistered in my own little world, and care little for the affairs of others, as long as it doesn't directly involve me, and I will risk little. Or, I can reach out to others and offer a strong and steady arm, and an understanding heart. There are so many risks associated with opening one's self up in the ways of charity or compassion, and often the rewards are not concrete or measurable, but their value is intrinsically immense.
Integrity, as I understand it, requires values such as honesty, responsibility, service, and honoring the spirit within others, and these values to be deeply embedded in me, providing the basic framework for human relationships and decision making. An individual with integrity has reached a point which the Quakers call "the clearness," a deep sense of internal rightness with a belief system built of inner truths. An individual with integrity does not stand back passively in the face of starvation and pain, and the quality of that individual's life is understood in terms of the quality of life in the community. Courage becomes the foundation of my integrity. Courage gives me the strength to take risks, and the wisdom to be humble about it. Many heroes will reply, when asked, that they consider what they have done nothing special, and yet many onlookers stood by while the hero took action. Does that mean that one must be a hero to have integrity? Of course not. But those who have integrity are heroes, to be sure.
Making courageous choices leads to authentic power, Ábdu'l-Bahá's "ideal power." This is a power that loves life in all its forms, a power that does not judge what it encounters, and a power that perceives meaningfulness and purpose in the smallest details upon the Earth. Courage engages me joyfully and intimately with the world, and makes life rich and full. It helps me to align my thoughts, acts and emotions with the highest part of myself, and fills me with enthusiasm, purpose and meaning. It takes courage to rise up from my mistakes, to admit uncertainty and ignorance about making the right moves in my life, and to risk falling on my face. It takes courage to forsake worldly prudence for a different, humbler kind of truth. While the experts tell me how to eat, drink, sleep, love, work, and relate, all this advice is merely a defense against doing something foolish - it takes courage to admit that I am not all-knowing and clever.
It is not that I want too much, but that I refuse to settle for too little in my life. Nevertheless, I don't always have to understand myself, know the world that I am living in, or relate to others properly and effectively. I don't always have to be growing. It does take courage to live up to those ideals on a daily basis, however. Constantly being at work on improving myself can diminish my perspective. Making a few mistakes along the way can be beneficial. Having courage to make decisions that turn out to be foolish (but educational!) illustrates that a certain amount of ineffectiveness and cloudy ignorance are necessary for a full, if not terribly intelligent, life. Anyone whose motives and actions spring from the heart rather than from the head is intimately acquainted with that brand of courage.
Courage is necessary to insure that the changes I choose to make in my life are for the good, and courage is necessary to accept, and take some good from, the changes that come into my life which are beyond my control. Courage is especially necessary to initiate needed changes in myself. Courage to choose the higher path requires me to face up to my obligations, to take responsibility for myself and my actions, and the results of my actions. It takes a great amount of courage to do the right thing in the face of a society that has lost its respect and value for doing the "right thing." Where physical courage can make you a hero, moral courage could make you unpopular. The world does not like being reminded of its duties. Real courage can get you persecuted unto death.
Courage is not simply another virtue, it is the true form each and every virtue takes when put into practice in my life.
Michael
email: Michael@N-Spire.com
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