Discovering Courage-Courage Is The Bridge

One of my favorite all time movies is “Ghost Dog” starring the great actor Forest Whitaker. It introduced me to one of my seminal texts, “The Hagakure '' which is a medieval guide for the Samurai. One scene in the movie finds Whitaker walking down a New York street where he meets the actor and rapper Rza in which the line is spoken, “Always see everything.” This is the essence of courage. 

Courage is the key to happiness, and it comes in seeing the whole, and relating to the whole. Fear masquerading as faith sees what it wants to see. It ignores what it does not want to be, our faults and weaknesses, and those of leaders and public figures we would support. We ignore parts of the story that do not fit our narrative and create a fragmented view of reality that becomes the essence of ignorance. 

Ignorance is not only not knowing, but a willful not knowing that would cheat its way to victory. Greatness is the courage to deal with what is to the best of our ability. Courage does not have tunnel vision. It connects us to wholeness. 

This courage is the bridge to happiness because it is the road to true authenticity. We can only truly be happy in the light of courage. In it we find our intuition. The ability to notice subtly in the midst of intensity is self mastery. 

To see the world with a true eye is to find our selflessness.  It is the courage to be truly who we are, rather than playing a role. We become responsive, truly present. It is not black and white. Seeing the whole is the integrity of courage.