...The acceptance of suffering as a proof of courage was the
theme of primitive initiation rites in
the distant past, and all such rites were at the same time
ceremonies of death and resurrection.
Men have by now forgotten the profound hidden struggle
between consciousness and the body
that exists in courage, and physical courage in particular.
Consciousness is generally
considered to be passive, and the active body to constitute
the essence of all that is bold and
daring; yet in the drama of physical courage the roles are,
in fact, reversed. The flesh beats a
steady retreat into its function of self-defense, while it
is clearly consciousness that controls the
decision that sends the body soaring into self-abandonment.
It is the ultimate in clarity of
consciousness that constitutes one of the strongest
contributing factors in self-abandonment.
To embrace suffering is the constant role of physical
courage; and physical courage is, as it
were, the source of that taste for understanding and
appreciating death that, more than
anything else, is a prime condition for making true
awareness of death possible. However much
the closeted philosopher mulls over the idea of death, so
long as he remains divorced from the
physical courage that is a prerequisite for an awareness of
it, he will remain unable even to
begin to grasp it. I must make it clear that I am talking of
“physical” courage; the “conscience of
the intellectual” and “intellectual courage” are no concern
of mine here.