Courage

Courage is daring to do what is difficult and dangerous, above all what is right, honorable and noble. Of course people who dare to do wrong, such as sneaking into someone's house or killing an innocent person, are also very bold, but no one wants to praise them with the word courage. That word is reserved for heroes.

A firefighter crosses the flames to find someone trapped. A schoolchild jumps into a river and pulls a friend to the bank. People armed with sticks stop illegal loggers from destroying the forest. A soldier runs and fires at the enemy to draw their guns onto himself so that his comrades can get away. An explorer feels his way into a cave without knowing what lies ahead. An old man hands the loaf of bread he was about to eat to someone hungrier and goes on hungry himself. In life there are many people, situations and circumstances that call for courage. Thanks to the courageous, who dare do what is hard and dangerous, humanity survives and moves forward.

Doing a good deed already shows morality. But doing it in difficult and dangerous conditions shows a very high level of it. Helping someone at possible cost to yourself is a great test.

Two people see a girl fall into a river. One calls for help, and the other jumps in to pull her out. We would say the one who jumped in is courageous, with the stronger good heart. But let us not judge too quickly. The one who did not jump may have a good reason. He cannot swim, and jumping in would only cost a second life for nothing. He is the pillar that many other lives depend on. He is guarding an important state secret, and so on. In short, he must not take the risk for the girl, and can only shout for help. So we make no comparison of morality here. Still, the one who jumped in to save the girl was clearly very brave and had a chivalrous heart.

Someone who acts for a righteous cause, undeterred by difficulty or danger, is called courageous. If the danger is high and the good deed great, everyone will hail them as a hero. So heroes are people with courage who dare to do great righteous deeds in very difficult and dangerous circumstances. Usually such heroes become gods when they die, because their spirit is so strong and steady. If they cling to credit and boast of it, when they return as a human they will be bold and swaggering, a loud person that everyone fears. If they do not cling to credit or boast of it, they become mighty gods in the realm beyond.

A courageous person has great strength of spirit, and so can be unafraid in the face of difficulty and danger. To have that strength, one must gather merit over a long time: diligently doing one small good deed after another, persevering in it, and admiring the heroes who came before. The spirit grows stronger bit by bit. When it is strong enough, courage appears. Only with courage do we dare to act righteously in hard and dangerous conditions.

Faced with a righteous task, we are free to do it or not. If we do it, we gain merit, and the merit brings many good effects with it. For example, we are free to walk away when we see a family weeping in front of their burned-out house, or we can go and ask what happened and find every way to help. Helping them will cost us a lot of effort, money and time. Afterward we have merit that we do not know when we will enjoy, but many good effects follow unexpectedly: we suddenly become smarter and stronger, and shed a bunch of bad friends.

If we choose to pass by and not help, many bad effects also appear unexpectedly: we become less smart, our will gradually weakens, our eyes dim, and whatever we plan is hard to accomplish.

So choose to do righteous deeds little by little, build up abundant merit, and let the virtue of courage appear in our character. Without courage, we still lack the qualities of a human being.