My dear Young Raki,

You are "searching for truth." You are privileged, "alive in sunny Southern California." You say that you are "trying" ... "to find the depths of our human experience, one day at a time."

You'd be forgiven for your question, and the foul language of it, seen the life circumstances where it comes from.

Here is what is courage:

Courage is not standing guard over your own "truth" - this means, not bloating in the bubble of belief that you alone, in your own little echo chamber, have "understood" something, while others who turn out to have understood that same thing differently, must by definition be "fools."

Courage is where you have the power to open you heart and listen to those "fools" and discern the value of their extravagance.

Courage is being questioning, doubting, being inquisitive, daring to unveil another shade and another light and another perspective.

Courage is connecting the dots, and acknowledging that one can only be a participant observer, in full interconnectedness, and a practitioner of samvṛtisatya (provisional truth), in anticipation of the paramārthasatya (profound truth) that comes when one has found the balance and wisdom that comes after a lifetime of diligent research.

Courage, perhaps, in your case, is when you read a piece of reasoning that is very much unlike the reasoning you have been doubtless over so far in your young life - that in such a moment, you open your mind for a new perspective, that might shed light on another piece of truth out there, and you choose to honor the writer who has had the audacity to burst your own bubble.

Courage, perhaps, for you, in the future, is to postpone your opinion, withhold your judgment, and let life, in all its fulness, embrace your young soul.

Jite raho!

With kindness,

FL