Courage is necessary for real spiritual development. People who easily give in to their fears will find themselves unable to continue for long on the path to enlightenment. There are two main reasons for this:

1. Much about real spiritual development and enlightenment can be frightening to learn. It is as if someone was offering to give you plans for building atomic bombs at home from materials you could find in your own house. You would be afraid that if you had such knowledge, you might, in a fit of anger, use it for evil. That is why spiritual teachers always teach these truths at a pace that the student can handle. People have gone insane from gaining this knowledge without proper instruction and preparation.

2. The forces of darkness do not want you, or anyone, to develop their spiritual facilities to any significant degree. For that reason, they will do what they can to stop you. That usually means using your fears to get you to stop. If you fear poverty, they will make you think that being spiritual will cause you to loose your job. If you fear death, they will make you thing that continued spiritual growth will cause your premature death (just the opposite is true). If you fear snakes, imaginary snakes will appear to you while you are engaging in spiritual growth techniques. They will use your own fears to discourage you as much as possible.

So if you are a person of limited courage, you must do what you can to overcome that problem or your spiritual development will be delayed of halted. You must get rid of irrational fears by doing what you can to rid yourself of them. See a therapist if you have to. Attend a Psych-k weekend seminar or similar program (I attended one years ago and found it very effective in getting rid of my fear of heights). Force yourself to do things that are frightening. Talk to yourself about your fears and why they are irrational. Engage in activities that will help develop courage like walking on hot coals (under professional direction, not on your own), or white water rafting. And most important of all, remember that the Beings of Light are there to help us develop out spiritual side and protect us from those things that will try to stop it.