Eliminating Personal History

  

   The Life Warrior is one who strives to take control of their life, to live it with as much power as possible. This power is not wielded to control or abuse others, but rather to maximize one’s personal existence. It could result in accumulating great wealth, fame, and perhaps even leading a nation or an immense corporation. Or, it could instead be quietly tending to a small farm and raising healthy, happy children who grow up loving and respecting nature.  Regardless of the path taken, true personal power is impeccable and humble.

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Each of us has a personal history… it may be perceived as good or bad. Often, we indulge in the glory of the good and all too often use the bad as excuses for how and who we are. A Life Warrior does not indulge in personal history. In Castaneda’s writings, he is advised by his mentor, Don Juan, that a Warrior must eliminate personal history. At first, that sounds nearly impossible and, perhaps, a bit extreme. All of us have had what we consider victories and defeats; great accomplishments, ideal relationships, and on the flip side, broken marriages, terrible childhoods, rotten jobs, etc. The Warrior has no defeat or victory but learns from every experience and uses the knowledge to continue upon their chosen path to accumulate personal power. 

Eliminating personal history may not be easy if we remain in the environment in which that history was created. If one is married, raising a family, or has a career, moving and making a fresh start may not be an option.  In such a case, we must simply cease indulging in personal history and get on with life. Stop seeking attention for the great things one has accomplished and stop using the failures as excuses for one’s current situation. As one adopts the Life Warrior way, relatives and acquaintances will see one differently. It will take time, will be frustrating, and perhaps may never change everyone’s opinion and indulgence about our past…but that is their issue.  In Chinese classic text, Laozi says “...failure is an opportunity. If you blame someone else, there is no end to the blame”.  Stop blaming others and things that have occurred in your life. That is simply a useless act of indulgence and impedes one's ability to create personal power. Look at perceived failures simply as challenges.   

But what if we have the option of moving geographically and making a fresh start? It is not enough to simply change location, but more importantly, requires leaving behind all of the conditioning accumulated as a result of our history. Albert Einstein said, “We cannot fix the problem with the same thinking that created it.”Regardless of whether one relocates or remains in the same location, be forewarned that becoming a Life Warrior will result in facing new challenges designed and provided by the Universe to make us impeccable, to build our character. Eliminating personal history does not give one the luxury of shirking responsibilities resulting from our past actions. If you have bad credit, you have to rebuild it. Or, if you are seen by others as unreliable, you must take action to build their trust.

The Life Warrior must become impeccable, which means developing behavior in accordance with the highest standards. This will not be achieved by wishful thinking or by following someone else’s teachings. If we wish to become Life Warriors, then we must take on the challenges that will reshape us. Sometimes we will fail, and other times we will succeed, but in all instances, we must learn the necessary lessons. These challenges often come in the form of mirrors.   As an example, if one has relationship issues, they will almost invariably find themselves in a close personal or working relationship with a similar person.  Why? Because the issue is never with the other person; it is always in us. What we don’t like in others is a characteristic that resides in us even though we may be unaware of it. Thus, one’s relationships are often a mirror of our internal struggles. This is known as the first mirror of the Essenes, a mystic Jewish community, known for their astute teachings. There is a wise old adage, “If you want to change someone, first change yourself.” 

Eliminating personal history is only one step toward being a Life Warrior, but it is an important one. It must not be interpreted as eliminating responsibility for anything one has done. Instead, it requires that we simply cease indulging in the past.

Yours faithfully, 
Ron 

The Life Warrior

 

Each of us has been born into a life that is filled with challenges.  It therefore behooves one to take the warrior’s approach to life.  It has nothing to do with wielding a sword or gun, nor does it call for sacrificing oneself. Instead, it entails a fearless approach to developing the power to live life to the fullest. But what is the life warrior’s power? Is it money? Command of a nation or an army? I defer to three words from Sir Francis Bacon’s Meditationes Sacrae, “knowledge is power.” However, I would take it a step further in saying that knowledge properly applied, is power. Therefore, a life warrior is one who seeks power by attaining knowledge and applying it to everyday life.

   The life warrior concept is a path to knowledge and understanding ourselves as well as the world around us. It is the art of conquering the forces that impede our lives and bind us in fear.  The importance of knowledge as power can be found in various teachings such as Hwa Rang Do's, which was developed in ancient Korea It was initially a fighting system that stressed the use of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism philosophies equally as much as martial techniques.

There is much more to the world than we can perceive with an average state of mind. In his writings, Carlos Castaneda, anthropologist, and author, often refers to non-ordinary reality, a state of mind that allows one to see what his mentor, Don Juan, calls a mysterious world that is all around us, yet out of sight to those unable to see past the “ordinary”. The necessary state of mind can be created by silencing our mind through meditation. Few are able to “see” the true world for what it is because of the programming we receive beginning at birth. Our world becomes defined by this knowledge. This programming has evolved over millennia of human existence. To break free of it, we must discard the norms of society, the “ordinary”, and live the life of a warrior, a life that is humble and without anger.  It means abandoning the role of being a follower. One must choose their own path, one with heart. In order to break free, we must, as Castaneda writes, “… seek to act rather than talk.” This echoes the words of Epictetus: “Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it”

Becoming a life warrior requires one to step away from the many distractions that surround us.  We must learn to silence the internal dialog that takes place in our minds. Learn to question the non-stop information that streams into our consciousness from the internet TV and those who simply speak the loudest. It is the pursuit of the path of personal power to find the totality of oneself. In the words of Socrates, “To find yourself, think for yourself.”

Yours faithfully, 

Ron 

The True Self

     Ancient Vedic wisdom says that the one who sees with his own eyes is the True Self, the Seer, and the Knower. Hindu philosopher Patanjali (also called Gonardiya) suggests that "though pure, modifications are witnessed by Seer by the coloring of Intellect. The spectacle exists only to serve the purpose of the Atman..."

     True Self or Ātman (Sanskrit word for the impersonal consciousness within each individual), is "neither this nor that” ("Neti Neti"). It cannot be described in any other way. Everything that surrounds you and what you see or feel is you. Without understanding this, we see ourselves in a mirror and take our reflection to be the self. On the other hand, the non-dual True Self is NOT a “blank mind” or a state of no consciousness of the sensory world, which most of us like to think. It would shut out life if it were something as an exclusive state of mind. What has been called a mystical “enlightenment”, ”bliss” or “trance” in certain traditions, is a state of mindfulness, one in which we can perfectly take care of all our daily affairs. It is a state of mind in which we “humble ourselves while respecting others". It is also described as the "personality" (from Latin “persona”, a theatrical mask worn by performers) that takes the path towards "bodhi" (Sanskrit bodhati " watchful", buddhah "awakened", or Lithuanian budėti "to be awake") or one who is NOT wrapped or too much engaged in the life events. It is one, who has gone beyond the illusion of Nirvana (when the process is done, and one who ceases to be).

    So, when we truly know who we are, our research in spiritual teachings and religions becomes just a raft for crossing a stream. Once we step on the stones on the other side of the bank, we walk away from the raft, leaving it in the place where we landed. We don't take it with us on our journey. In other words, we become “not-knowing”, but constantly learning new things, being open and receptive, and "seeing" the world through our own eyes… 

   Yours sincerely,

   Irmina