dwai

That Mother doesn’t fear for her children for she IS all her “children”. I would say, She is the very Self of all beings If anything can be ascribed vis-a-vis intent of the Mother, it is Love, not virtue. But this love is not personality/personal love.

I don’t doubt you’ve met such people, but do you really expect anyone to believe that a majority of people go about life eager to die? I can tell you as someone who’s lived on two continents for almost equal amount of time (more than 2 decades each) that I’ve not seen that to be the case. Unless someone is suffering so badly that they can’t handle the pain (in whatever form it might be), seeking to end their life is not a trivial thing people consider. In fact, most modern people try to avoid thinking of death entirely, until it comes and smacks them in the face via some mishap in their close circles or some catastrophic happenstance.

And who was that “I”? I think you are an exception to the norm. Most people in the world are very much afraid of non-existence. That’s why we see all the ego-driven nonsense all around us. Wars, etc etc. who would consider “eternity” as “yucky” if there were no self?

I’m a father, if that counts. The fear for someone, especially an offspring, is also rooted in fear of death. Children are, what is considered the greatest immortality projects, by some thinkers — the logic being, we live through our offspring, and so on. Please don’t consider what I’m writing here as in any way intended to insult or hurt feelings — I’m being pragmatic about the topic.

The biggest fear is that of non-existence. What can be more frightening than that? Everything else is a derivative thereof. Of course it won't drop based on a belief. But it WILL drop based on realization

I am saying that courage that is "cultivated" is not courage at all...it is simply mathematics of benefit and loss. Existence itself IS Courage. Drop the fear of non-existence, and what you are left with is courage

Though there is another thread on the nature of fear, I thought it might be pertinent to add the following here, which then will make the understanding of what courage is, a bit more clear -- And about courage Here's the full document by Swami Sivananda -- https://www.dlshq.org/download/conquest_fear.htm#_Toc407261878

Yes (to be a bit more elaborate -- the generally understood/accepted definition of courage is done in ignorance, and therefore is either incomplete or incorrect). Yes

I would say that Wisdom is understanding/realizing one's true nature. When this happens, fear doesn't arise anymore. All actions occur from a place of equanimity -- and that itself is courage. What must be done, gets done, what must not, does not.

I am suggesting that courage is not a virtue that needs to be cultivated, but it simply requires unmasking by dropping the veil of fear.

Why fear something that is inevitable? Take the right precautions but don’t give in to fear. Neither was Sun Tzu’s birth in his control, nor was his death. So who is more stupid? The one who cowers in fear or one who is not afraid?

Courage is the absence of fear

The difference is in knowing what is Dharma and what is not. Dharma is not the propagation of a religion -- By that token, phenomena like Crusades, Jihad, etc would be against Dharma. Dharma is maintaining the correct way to live, as a society and as an individual. The correct way to live as a society is one which is just which provides certain freedom to its citizens the freedom to choose their personal religion (or none if that is how they wish to live) The freedom to love and live with any partner of their choice The freedom to practice a profession that is appropriate for their temperament and ability the freedom to seek appropriate education Where crime is appropriately dealt with where the citizens live in harmony with nature On the individual front, the person doesn't act contrary to their profession Doctors don't hoard wealth and don't seek disproportionate compensation for their services Warriors don't turn on the innocent and terrorize populations outside the context of a just war/engagement Teachers open-heartedly disseminate their knowledge without seeking disproportionate compensation Everyone in their respective profession doesn't do it to seek compensation disproportionate to the service being offered, and offer services to every citizen irrespective of their social status. These are just a small list I could think off the top of my head. Of course, no society can exactly live up to these standards, but the effort should be ongoing to do so. In the Hindu context, Dharma involves four pillars of human endeavor (called the four purushārthas) -- Dharma - the correct choices to make as an individual Artha - acquisition of enough personal wealth so that they can fuel the ultimate objective, keeping dharma as the guiding light Kama - The healthy fulfillment of sensual experiences, keeping dharma as the guiding light * Moksha - liberation or spiritual enlightenment (this is the ultimate objective) This calls for the following of the four stations of live (called varna ashrama dharma) -- Brahmacharya -- celibacy during formative years of acquiring appropriate knowledge Grihastha -- Life of a householder, contributing to society and producing progeny and imbibing in them a love for dharma and the dharmic way of life Vanaprastha -- After the progeny come of age, the parents must retire to a forest-dwellers life, living amidst nature and studying and contemplating on the next phase of life that needs to start, i.e., towards spiritual empanication Sanyasa -- Renunciation of the samsara (mundane world) and seeking out moksha or liberation.

In Hinduism, there is the general body of Dharma (the right way to live), and there is the concept of svadharma (personal dharma). When one abides by the general dharma and lives by their personal dharma, that is considered good karma. Go against it, and it is considered bad karma. The personal dharma of a warrior is to defend the weak, protect the nation; the personal dharma of a doctor is to heal wherever he/she sees the sick and suffering; the personal dharma of a scholar is to develop his/her intellect and disseminate knowledge without seeking disproportionate compensation and so on. Due to that reason, in the Bhagavad Gita, which is in essence Lord Krishna's teachings to the warrior Arjuna in the midst of a massive battlefield, Arjuna is told to take up arms against even his own relatives in order to uphold dharma. In Hinduism, it is said, "Ahimsa paramo dharma, dharma rakshā tathaiva cha", meaning, "Nonviolence is the greatest dharma, as well as violence if it is for the protection of dharma". When one has truly given up the sense of doership, then they no longer are bound by the rules of karma. And that's why Lord Krishna urges Arjuna to fight without fear of consequences (Karma) by realizing that he is not the doer at all and that he is on the side of dharma. And by that same token, even though the warriors on the other side did not side with the general body of dharma, and fought in the war (losing side), they earned positive karma for living by their personal dharma of being warriors.

Karma literally means "action". Are you sure that the Buddha said anything about the "karma" of actions? Or did he mean something else?

Unless they are grapplers. One buddy of mine is a natural wrestler. We’d spar for fun as teenagers, and every time he would go for a takedown. But you are right, in that, in a real fight, one would use striking instead of pushing. Fajin with short power is what would be applied — but I’m unsure of the ramification as that would likely cause internal damage on the recipient.

I think the biggest misunderstanding people have is that functional taijiquan will look like practice taijiquan, or that taijiquan will follow the conventional mode of engagement. I remember once showing my friend (non-martial artist and skeptic of the highest order) the fajin stuff. And I was knocking him gently into a wall, first with two palms, and then with two index fingers on his chest. He said, it is just "physics...I'm not stable enough and can't get leverage against you". He got into a deep bow and arrow stance, braced, and said, "Push me back while I exert all my strength on you". I said, "why should I use my power on your strength? I will exploit your weakness." And so, with him pushing back at me at my ward-off hand, while I was facing him, I pushed him on the right side and knocked him into a wall. He immediately said, "That's cheating!"

I think it’s important to discern between “reflexive reactions” to potential threatening situations that may cause physical harm to the compulsive fear complex that results in unhealthy analysis-paralysis or chronic depression due to fear. Let me narrate two situations in my own experience. One was from several years ago, when I was cut off by a rude driver and I was still given to road rage. I chased the guy to a stop sign and pulled up next to him and glared angrily. He got out of the car and came up to my door, speaking in an Eastern European accent, threatening to beat me up and “keek my azz” My momentary reaction of anger (triggered by fear caused by the dangerous driving), faded away and I realized if I got down and had it out with the guy, I’d probably hurt him. He might hurt me, but we’d end up embroiled in legal action. So I rolled my window down, looked him in the eye and told him, “if I wanted to, I could beat the snot out of you, but I’m letting it go as I don’t want to go to prison afterwards.” And I drove away...the guy was left standing, mouth agape. The road rage was a combination of my reaction to being almost run off the road and then compulsive fear/ego kicked in to seek retribution. At the point of escalation, my wisdom mind took over and saw me through what could easily have become a sticky situation. Several years later, I was driving with my family to a friend’s home and we got hit by a blizzard. As I drove off the freeway to take a sharp exit to my friend’s home, the road, slippery with the snow resulted in my car spinning out of control. I was probably going at around 35 mph at that point. I relaxed, and let go of any desire to force any outcome, the car spun around 360 degrees and came to rest at the foot of the exit. I got back on the road and drove to my destination. Neither did my heart beat fast, nor did I stiffen up in fear to avoid the situation. I simply relaxed into the thing, and strangely enough, time slowed down, what must’ve happened in a few seconds seemed like several minutes. I do believe that once realization occurs, the compulsive fearfulness simply dissipates. We might still react to a dangerous situation, but there is no adrenal rush and everything slows down as the wisdom mind takes over. The other thing I notice is that the tendency to play out “if this, then that” kind of scenarios in anticipation of danger (which often doesn’t exist), simply disappears.

That is my understanding as well. I remember a story about the head of the Chinese Taiji Association coming to take lessons from my grandmaster in the 90s. I think these are self-proclaimed masters, rather than real "masters" per se. Also, the biggest drawback is the lack of full-contact sparring/fighting in the taijiquan (not sure about other IMA) world. My teacher, who has fought in and won many fights against disparate martial arts stylists in his youth using both kungfu and later taijiquan, tells me (and I'm paraphrasing here), "if you want to fight, you have to practice fighting. Just doing forms and acting mystical will give you a bloody nose and get you knocked out".

What is attachment? Isn’t it a fear of losing something? What is a human being’s greatest fear? Loss of existence, is it not? The veiled mind is always in fear of its demise.

That's a very pertinent question indeed ...to answer that, we must ask "Who is it that dies?"

Fear is essentially the fear of death. All kinds of fear borrows from that underlying knowledge that we are going to die.

I whole-heartedly agree with the above. Martial arts is not for “fighting” alone — it is a preparatory method for the spiritual path (or should be). Even if one doesn’t have a spiritual interest, having a good martial arts practice can make them well balanced human beings. I like a Canadian martial arts instructor - Adam Chan. He recently was interviewed by an YouTuber who has a very popular martial arts channel, where they regularly watch and analyze in a MMA vs TMA type rhetoric. Adam told them in the interview that he considers Kungfu like a tree. It has everything you need but you need to make it functional depending on the situation. He’s not strictly an internal martial arts guy, but we can see internal principles in his training.

When a skill (such as this) is developed, imho, the key determinant is how well it is practiced in a step-wise manner. We don't have to learn everything in one day. But over time, the individual components become easy. it is more a factor of easy or difficult, rather than simple or complex. Is a difficult task necessarily complex? Threading a needle can be difficult, but is it complex? This is very important -- touch hands with as many people as possible, with as much variation in their levels/skill/etc. But unfortunately, most don't have access to a wide variety of partners with whom this can be trained. In my own case, I have 3-4 regular partners and we (used to, pre-covid) work out together. It is always interesting to see the difference in results from person to person. A shorter person will do things in a different way than someone who's taller than you. All the factors matter -- big/small, tall/short, strong/weak, etc. But before we can work with different people, skills need regular and systematic drilling. I've noticed the ones hardest to "bounce" are the ones who have an advanced internal skill (ting and song). Untrained people are usually like big sacks of potato -- very easy to affect, but restraint is required because we'll end up hurting them if we don't. That helps us to develop other skills more -- how to ting more, how ting can give rise to tong. Personally, for me, the martial side lost it's charm a long time ago. But IT IS a lot of fun to explore these things.