Portrait of a Saki Monkey

 In Fauna

It takes courage to live. Almost everything in life requires it. Since life is not permanent, everything we do involves a certain level of risk. One might not even know what will happen when one is walking. The courage to take risks is the only thing that allows you to fully experience what life has to offer.

Life is always an irony and a dilemma. When a child separates from the womb, it takes tremendous courage for him to breathe, to embrace life and to open his eyes to uncertainty. Yet fear exists. It exists because of certain threats that might not be conducive to his survival. It acts as a protective mechanism, and yet it deters one from living life to its fullest.

One builds courage through experimentation. He takes little baby steps towards little risks and when he realizes it is not as fatal or as scary as he thinks, he feels more confident in attempting something more challenging. Fear creeps in only when he falls, and usually that fall comes when he least expected it. That one fatal fall might cause him never to try again, then life becomes all about clinging to comfort and security.

The greatest irony is that it takes tremendous courage to build the ego. His whole survival depends on it. His name, his character, his career, his desires, his things, others opinions of him…everything that defines who he is in the world takes courage to forge. Then one day he realizes, the biggest test of his courage comes when it is time to lose it all. It is not a coincidence that the people who fear the most, are the ones that have the most to lose.

How does one deal with this?

One of the greatest challenge in testing one’s strength is in acceptance. It is actually easier to fight than to accept for most people. When people are arguing and fighting, no one wants to lose. They fight in a way like they are receiving an award at the end of the argument. It takes greater strength to accept the “suchness” of the situation. “Suchness” is derived from the sanskrit word Tathata, which is a central concept in Buddha’s teaching. Buddha often referred to himself as the Tathagata, meaning “one who has arrived at suchness”.

The only way to experience peace within oneself is through acceptance of what the moment brings. It is only when one is centered and at ease then can one see things for what it truly is. Only through acceptance can there be absolute liberation.

It is a difficult thing to accept because we have been conditioned to think otherwise. To accept is to give up control and giving up control is a hard thing for most people to do. A child has it easier than an adult. A child accepts the situation and works around it to get what they want. An adult tries to bend the situation into something that it’s not. Therein lies the subtle difference but the results of each action are so drastically different. Children can throw tantrums and forgets about it the next moment, an adult remembers and bear grudges for eternity.

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