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 of 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 minds 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 dialogue that takes place in our minds. Learn to question the non-stop information that streams into our minds 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