I was reading one of Swami Vivekanand's lecture on Vedanta (Complete Works Vol. 3 -- Lectures from Colombo to Almora). He talks about the powers within us, the Advaita philosophy of tat tvam asi. During this, he says something like (I do not remember the exact words) ...we are brave, we are the One, the all-encompassing, the all-suffering... On one hand he says that we are The One and hence are not bound by anything, on the other hand he says that we are also the "all-suffering".
This post is not to debate the sanctity or validity of Advaita. The point in my mind is whether a courageous person needs to be all-suffering?
This is a very interesting point and something deep inside me totally agrees to this... suffering is not easy... one needs a lot of courage and determination to suffer and come out of it... Success always passes through the path of suffering in one form or the other... It does require humongous courage to endure suffering...
Thus bravery is not brashness, it is not arrogance... it is actually highlighted by the tenacity of an individual to endure the harshest... Each person has different ways of fighting... Everyone may not rise violently against it. In fact, violence may not be a possible option in most situations... but the fact the he/she maintains their balance through the thick of it all makes them brave and courageous...
Running away is another option.... but we all know that it is harder to endure suffering than to get out and run away... (Again the question arises, how to define limits to suffering before giving up? Or is there any limit at all? -- Will take this up some other time...)
It definitely requires courage to suffer....
"A champion should have both will and skill. But the will should be stronger than the skill"
- Mohammad Ali
