The Secret To Courage Is Not What You Think | Lao Tzu

Courage is this mysterious force inside us that motivates us to do the things we need or want to do. But what is it? Today I talk about courage from a unique perspective inspired by a powerful quote by Lao Tzu that will help you to understand courage in new way.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Peacekeeper Project.

My name is Ben.

Now today I want to talk about courage by reflecting on a powerful quote by Lao Tzu.

Now one of the things I love to do is reflect and go deeper into great quotes by teachers,

Mystics,

Saints,

Scientists,

Or successful people.

Because they capture something really powerful in just a few words.

Sometimes more than a few words but in today's example literally a few words.

Now of course there's many ways to understand courage.

There's many ways,

Many avenues to cultivate it and connect with it.

But today I'm just going to look at it from one perspective,

One avenue.

And it's importantly one that you can verify for yourself from your own life experiences.

Alright,

So what are these wise words by Lao Tzu?

He said,

From caring comes courage.

Think about that.

When we really care for someone or something it gives us the courage to act.

Say for example a parent who deeply cares for their child.

They would stand up for them,

Defend them.

They would do whatever they need to do to find a solution to maybe a sickness or an illness that a doctor hasn't identified yet.

They would do the research and find what needs to be found.

Or it can be family,

It could be friends.

But think of someone that you care for,

Someone you love.

When you genuinely care for them,

If they need something,

If you need to do something,

You have the courage to do it.

Or maybe because you deeply care for someone,

You can have the courage to have that difficult conversation or to give some feedback or honest reflection.

Now what's fascinating about examples like this is that it changes how we see courage.

Because from this perspective,

Courage is not something we cultivate,

It naturally flows from our caring.

Can you recognize this?

Have you had experiences like this?

Can you feel it?

Because within the caring,

Within the love,

There is courage.

And courage is not separate from the love or the caring.

It's embedded within it.

Now,

Think about that.

Feel it.

Because that really changes the way that we think about courage.

It simplifies it.

It's embedded within our caring and our love.

That's a different way to think about it.

Now something else that's worth reflecting on,

And I'll put it to you in a question.

Is our degree of courage in any circumstance relative to how much we care?

Now I'm not going to answer that for you here.

I'm going to leave that for you to reflect on in your own time.

But now it's not only about caring for people.

It can also be the way we care for a particular belief or a personal value.

For example,

Maybe you have a personal value of truth.

That's really important to you.

You care about it.

And so maybe you put that towards maybe fighting corruption.

Maybe you're a researcher and you're researching a particular topic and you find all the information,

All the data from all aspects,

No judgement,

No bias.

You're searching for truth and that's what you do.

You put it towards that.

And then maybe you're going to speak up.

You're going to share that even though you know it's not popular.

And you might be ridiculed,

Shamed or even attacked on the media or social media.

But you care about truth.

So you do it.

You might even lose friends.

But you do it because you care about it.

You have the courage to do it.

And as the expression goes,

You know that truth is the truth even if no one believes it.

So this caring for our personal values helps to carry our actions.

But now it's not always about standing up for something.

Sometimes it's just about doing what we need to do even though it might make us uncomfortable.

Maybe it's about overcoming our fears and insecurities so we can follow our purpose in life.

For me personally,

The reason I teach things like meditation,

Mindfulness,

Emotional intelligence,

The reason I created the PeaceKeeper project and videos like this is because I care.

I care about you.

I care about the future of humanity.

I know that if we want to create a more peaceful and connected world,

Then it starts inside each one of us.

Because if we can't find peace inside,

We're never going to create it out in the world.

So for me,

If I didn't care about these things,

I could quite happily live a pretty quiet life.

As an introvert,

Getting up and talking in front of people for courses,

Workshops,

Videos like this is not a natural calling for me.

Growing up,

I would never have imagined,

I had no inclination to want to get up and talk in front of anyone.

But here I am,

Doing it.

But it's because I care.

But when I reflect on that,

It's not so much that I would feel courage,

It's more that something is greater flowing through me.

This caring,

This knowing that what I share does help people's lives.

It helps them improve their life and then that ripples out into the lives of others,

Into humanity.

So this caring is powerful and it really does highlight that courage is embedded in caring.

Now there's one more important piece to this,

Because you might be thinking to yourself,

Well,

I care about this or I care about that,

But I haven't had the courage to do anything,

Haven't acted yet.

This is important because there is more to this and we need to make a slight refinement here.

Because it's more than how much we care,

It's about how much we connect to that caring.

And by this I just mean how much we allow ourselves to feel the thing we care about,

Feel the caring.

Because if our mind is distracted,

If our attention is being taken elsewhere,

If we're worrying about what's going to happen if we do that thing,

Then we don't connect to that caring and it's that connecting to it,

The feeling of it that fuels our actions,

That supports us.

Because remember,

The courage is embedded in the caring.

So if there is something in your life that you do care about but you haven't taken action on it yet or done anything yet,

Then just take some time to reflect and maybe ask yourself,

How much do you actually allow yourself to feel the thing you care about?

What thoughts come up,

What emotions come up when you try to feel it?

No judgment,

Just feel it.

And you might notice that it's only in some areas of your life,

Other areas it's okay,

But one particular area it's much more challenging.

Again,

No judgment,

Just notice it.

This is a path of self-discovery,

Self-inquiry,

Building self-awareness.

But the amazing thing here is that the more you reflect,

The more you can prove this principle for yourself.

Now this is really important because this is not about just taking my word for this or anyone else's.

Even Lao Tzu,

As incredible as he might have been,

The power really comes from knowing this in yourself,

Realizing it inside you internally.

So it's powerful to really take time to reflect back on your life and acknowledge that the times when you had courage were times when you cared,

When you cared about something.

So reflect back and realize how present the feeling of care was during those times.

Now of course there are different reasons why you might have had courage in different times,

But this is about just focusing on one particular aspect,

The aspect of care and how courage is embedded in it.

So really take time to reflect and prove this principle for yourself.

You've already done it many times,

It's in you.

This courage embedded in your caring.

Alright,

So let me know in the comments below,

Did this video make sense?

Was it helpful?

What realizations did you have?

Alright,

I'm going to leave this here.

Thank you for being here,

I really appreciate your presence.

And until the next time,

Quiet your mind and live from your heart.

Reviews

Amazing, id never considered the link between courage and care!! Thank you

Thank you, we all need courage in these dark political times!