A father was worried about his son, who was sixteen years old but had no courage at all. So the father decided¹ to call on a Buddhist² monk³ to train his boy.

 

The Buddhist monk said to the boy's father, "You should leave your son alone here. I'll make him into a real man within three months. However, you can't come to see him during this period."

 

Three months later, the boy's father returned. The Buddhist monk arranged a boxing match between the boy and an experienced boxer⁴. Each time the fighter struck the boy, he fell down, but at once the boy stood up; and each time a punch knocked him down, the boy stood up again. Several times later, the Buddhist monk asked, "What do you think of your child?"

 

"What a shame!" the boy's father said. "I never thought he would be so easily knocked down. I needn't have him left here any longer."

 

"I'm sorry that that's all you see. Don't you see that each time he falls down, he stands up again instead of crying? That's the kind of courage you wanted him to have."

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