Inspiring Osho Quote on How to Live Courageously
Osho on Courage
On Mastery of Meditation, Friday is for articles about the Spiritual Blogsphere and the thoughts of other Masters of Meditation. Who better to kick off this new schedule that the great mystic master Osho. I hope you find the following exerpt from Osho (Rajneesh) on courage as inspiring as I did. Enjoy…
Title: Courage – The Joy of Living Dangerously
Author: Osho
Chapter: The Way of the Heart
“The word courage is very interesting. It comes from a Latin root cor, which means ‘heart’. So to be courageous means to live with the heart. And weaklings, only weaklings, live with the head; afraid, they create a security of logic around themselves. Fearful, they close every window and door – with theology, concepts, words, theories – and inside those closed doors and windows, they hide.
The way of the heart is the way of courage. It is to live in insecurity; it is to live in love, and trust; it is to move in the unknown. It is leaving the past and allowing the future to be. Courage is to move on dangerous paths. Life is dangerous, and only cowards can avoid the danger – but then, they are already dead. A person who is alive, really alive, vitally alive, will always move into the unknown. There is danger there, but he will take the risk. The heart is always ready to take the risk, the heart is a gambler. The head is a businessman. The head always calculates – it is cunning. The heart is non-calculating.”
The 3 most important aspects of courage I think to take away from this quote are…
1. Courage is Not Fearlessness: That’s right. Since you are going to be dealing with the unknown and with uncertainly, there is bound to be apprehension. That’s ok. Courage is to move forward despite this fear. So don’t feel like you lack courage simply because you have fear. Look at the fear as an opportunity to exercise your courage muscle. As Osho would put it, embrace uncertainty.
2. Listen to the Heart, Not the Mind: In the article How to Escape Your Suffering: The Blind Man vs. The Cripple I went into this point where your guide ought to be your heart and not your mind. The mind will endlessly battle for security, it will wobble between the pros and cons. The heart, on the other hand, will help you to jump into the great unknown and help you to be true to your passions.
3. Courage Allows you to Live in the Present: This is the essence of courage. To allow the unknown future to take shape and be willing to move out of the mind and into the moment. So instead of trying to manipulate life to avoid uncertainty, simply take an innocent attitude instead. There are no guarantees here that things will go right, there is only danger and mystery, courage means to be willing to go forward nonetheless.
I just read that article on living fearlessly & it was amazing ! A short ,consice ,acurate & highly inspireing article !!! Thanks !
This opened my eyes to seeing that I have recently stepped into my heart because living in my head hurts too much and it just does not feel correct anymore. I love people and care what happens to them. This is where I should be..
The earlier children and exposed to such enlightened thoughts, the better chance they have of breaking out of mediocrity.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. A very inspiring and encouraging thought. I will share it with struggling teen agers. God bless you.
Hey KL,
I see you got the FEEDJIT traffic feed working on your blog…. awesome. I love it and just fyi I have not noticed it add excessive load time yet to my pages.
When it comes to courage, I have not found a better source of inspiration that Osho.
Blessings,
Anmol
I love Osho, and his Zen tarot card Courage is beautiful too – the tiny wildflower poking up between the rocks aiming for the light of the sun. He talks in that card about the seed – how it is safe in the ground within it’s casing yet to find out what it will be, it has to forge through that casing and up through the soil and head for the sun.
This article just adds even more depth – thank you! I’ll be referring it to a few people for sure.
And on an aside – LOVE that live traffic feed in your sidebar, I can see me there! The kiwi flag and all! Where’d you get that and how do I get one?
Much joy,
KL