On Mental Fortitude

  I have to admit that I don't quite get the soldier-like "man up" moftifs in Santideva's writing, and I don't think that I ever will quite understand it. He is explaining in Line's 17-20 of "The Perfection of Patience" that "Some, seeing their own blood, show extraordinary valor, while some faint even at the sight of others' blood" (Line 17). In Line 18, we read, "That comes from mental fortitude or from timidity. Therefore, one should become invincible to suffering, and surmount pain." (p.63) The part I do understand is that mental fortitude and timidity are really only states of mind, and they are the real forces that practitioners have to contend with when facing their challenges in life. Again, it goes back to the notion of where anger, fear, hatred, and other mental afflictions arise. It's certainly never in a specific object that endures. In a sense, I think Santideva is alluding to the fact that nothing can really prevent a person from being courageous in the sight of blood (or other things of that matter). Mental attitudes can always be aroused no matter what conditions happen to be present in the moment, since the conditions are themselves only temporary and not independent events.
    Santideva is also referring to the fact, on Line 17, that blood itself is never the 'cause' of fear. If it were the primary cause of fear, everyone would naturally (and perhaps mechanically) faint at the sight of blood. But as Santideva points out, fainting or not fainting depends on the mental attitudes of the person, not on a specific object such as blood. Santideva is pointing to the understanding that nothing is ever inevitable cause for a state of mind. One's state of mind is an evolving co-creation of many elements which are interrelated. In this regard, flexibility of mind can allow people to embrace qualities they thought they didn't have.
    An example that might prove somewhat more concrete is that of seeing a large shadow and being terrified, only to realize later that the shadow refers to a tiny mouse. You might say that 'seeing the shadow' makes me afraid, but that is only because I associate the shadow with a thought of what it might be, which is in turn associated with aversion. For instance, I might associate the shadow with something that is capable of jumping out at me or subduing me, which could be based on previous memories of an uncertain situation. Does the shadow 'cause' me to be afraid? No, not any more than the mouse causes me to be afraid. But because the shadow triggers a lot of memories or images which evoke fear, I think that the shadow is 'scary'. So in this regard, the shadow is thought to have properties which are really only based on the way I am seeing it, including the way consciousness links the image to another image or thought.
    Now, is it ever possible to 'will' myself to be courageous in the face of something feared? I think that the strength that Santideva is referring to might be more akin to clear awareness than to a deliberately willed resolve. When I am clearly aware of the conditioned nature of my feelings or attitudes toward things, I am less inclined to project those elements onto specific forms around me. That sometimes does give me a mental space to behold them in new or less polarized ways.

Santideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva (selected chapters only). Translated by V. Wallace and A. Wallace. Snow Lion, 1997.  .