Courage is very important in the meditation practice. In what way is it important? If we don't have a sense of courage and we don't believe in ourselves enough, we won't be able to open to the difficulties that arise in the body and mind, because the mind and body are not always pleasurable. So having courage to open to Dukkha is helpful and in order to get courage we need to have a certain belief in our capacity to do it, so confidence-inspiring objects of meditation give us courage. The reflection on the Buddha helps us to get a great deal of courage, because we remember our human potential to overcome Dukkha. When we don't believe in ourselves and don't have enough courage, we pull back from the unfamiliar, the unknown and we won't want to go on. We pull back to what is comfortable, but oftentimes what is comfortable doesn't give us the capacity to expand our limits and grow. So courage is necessary in order to expand our capacities and grow. Believing in ourselves gives us the capacity. Confidence-inspiring objects, especially the Buddha helps us to remember we have that potential within ourselves, which gives us courage. Remembering times when we were able to open to the unknown in the past helps us to remember our capacities. So reflection on confidence=inspiring objects helps to bring more courage.