Do you know who is the most courageous person who lived on this earth? He was our Great Teacher Supreme Buddha. Today we are going to learn a jathaka story about courage.
There was a group of traders who went for trading. They had to cross the red hot desert. As the sun was very bright, it was very hard to cross the desert in the daytime. Therefore, the group leader decided to cross the desert in the nighttime. A couple of days later, they came to the edge of the desert. At that time, the group leader ate well and started to sleep. While he was sleeping, others couldn’t find the correct pathway. Instead, they were going in a circle. They threw all the water to lose the weight of the cart. Later, they all realised that they were lost in the middle of the desert. As it was very sunny, they felt very thirsty. But they didn’t have enough water. They started to blame the leader, some started to cry and others started to regret the whole incident. But the group leader is a very wise man. He thought if I started to lose my courage now, my leadership has no meaning. While he was thinking, he saw a clump of grasses and he realised without any water no plant can survive in this red hot desert. Therefore, he instructed others to dig beneath the grass. They were digging and digging and at the end, they found a huge stone. At that point, all others gave up apart from the leader. The leader was not ready to give up. This courageous leader gave the hammer to one person and said, my dear friend, do not let these animals die. Be courageous and break this stone. Then this man gathered all his strength and broke the stone and all had plenty of water to drink. Therefore, my dear dhamma friends, do not give up easily. Have a strong determination to practice courage.
