The Warrior Spirit

Healthy Anger And Your Health: Transforming The Warrior Spirit Into The Spiritual Warrior

by: William DeFoore

Each of us developed a warrior spirit soon after our birth. Your first anger development occurred after the first few months of your life, coming to a head around the age of two, which is how the idea of the “terrible two’s” developed.

THE BIRTH OF THE SWORD AND SHIELD

The warrior spirit in general develops because the child self within needs protection. The child and the warrior both represent examples of Jungian archetypes, which are well illuminated in the work of Carol S. Pearson’s Awakening the Heroes Within. The child is innocent, open and vulnerable; and needs the protective energy of the warrior for its safety in the world.

A useful way of understanding the development of your warrior spirit is by working with the imagery and energy of the sword and shield. The sword projects, penetrates, pierces and protects against anything that threatens or opposes you. The shield deflects, conceals, separates and distances you from the perceived threat or opposition. Both are natural and highly useful.

You can see that the sword and shield are metaphors for the defense mechanisms of anger and withdrawal. The metaphor and mythology of the warrior’s sword and shield will ground your understanding and take you further into the healthy power of these natural processes.

This world does not respond well to the warrior’s sword. The piercing, penetrating energy of your anger was most likely punished, overpowered or ignored, causing you to withhold your sword and put it somewhere that it could not be seen or heard. So you either became withdrawn and quiet never showing anger, or you became aggressive and outspoken for your own survival. Your sword is either hidden inside you, or it’s out for the world to see, hear and feel. No matter what, it didn’t go away completely.

ILLNESS, VIOLENCE AND THE WARRIOR GONE AWRY

· The sword in our bodies. The American Heart Association has sponsored research that indicates, “people who are highly anger-prone are nearly three times more likely to have heart attacks than those who aren’t.” Metaphorically, we might conclude that when your sword is out of control, it might just pierce your own heart. Other ways that the misguided sword can injure us are reflected in this quote from a health care professional with the Vanderbilt Health and Wellness program. “Anger impacts us physiologically, making itself known to us through muscle tension, headaches, rapid breathing, increased heart rate, stomach distress, elevated blood pressure and even flushing of the skin.”

· The shield in our bodies. The effects of shielding, or complex unconscious psychophysiological defense mechanisms are diffuse and multi-faceted. It is clear that chronic tension in large and small muscle groups throughout the body can lead to a variety of acute and long-term physical ailments. Gastro-intestinal disorders, upper respiratory illness, and cardio-vascular problems are all related to and effected by hypertension. We are looking at interactions between emotional and physical processes here, not implying specific cause and effect relationships.

When we look at the problems in the world, the warrior’s sword and shield are not hard to find.

Port-8 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

· The sword in the world. The piercing, penetrating energies of angry words, sarcastic cuts, racial slurs, bullets, missiles and bombs are all too prevalent in today’s world. With war, terrorism, hate crimes, workplace violence, school shootings, domestic disputes, rape and child abuse occurring on an ongoing basis in various locales across the planet, we don’t have to wonder about the seriousness of this problem.

· The shield in the world. Stoic faces, no eye contact, awkward silences, cold flat voices, uncaring responses and miles of distance between people inches from each other are but a few of the manifestations of the warrior’s shield in the world.

THE DESTRUCTIVE PROTECTOR

The warrior spirit who is disconnected from love and wisdom becomes the destructive protector.

All of the compulsive-addictive disorders can be seen as the destructive protector at work. These behavior patterns create a “high” or “rush” or reward that gives temporary relief (protection) from pain, and yet create far more pain than they ever relieve. In the effort to protect, they become destructive.

Other forms the destructive protector may take include:

· The inner critic. That voice in your head telling you what is wrong with you, reminding you of your limitations and flaws, is actually trying to protect you from harm.

· The inner tyrant. Also known as the taskmaster, this aspect of the destructive protector will never let up on you until all of the work is done. And all of the work is never done.

· The cynic. That voice in your head that tells you what is wrong with the world and everyone in it was originally developed in an effort to keep you safe. Yet if allowed to run its course and have its way, it will cause you to become isolated, withdrawn and non-functioning.

· The fear mind. This aspect of the destructive protector will convince you that it is just not safe out there. In a misguided effort to protect, the fear mind can create absolute paralysis.

· The angry victim. Constantly convincing you that your problems are those other people’s fault, the destructive protector in this form can actually lead you into abusive and violent behavior.

THE LOVING PROTECTOR

When your anger becomes healthy, your warrior spirit is intimately connected with the power of love. The protection of your precious inner child is therefore always a matter of love more than fear-based anger.

The development of your sense of faith and optimism are a natural and essential part of this process. A belief in positive outcomes and an overall attitude that “things are going to be okay” will bring stress relief and comfort to your inner child. In extensive research conducted over many years, Herbert Benson , M.D. found that individuals with a strong sense of faith and optimism recovered more quickly when they became ill, and were less likely to get sick in the first place.

THE SPIRITUAL WARRIOR

Way of the Peaceful Warrior (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So how does this look to the world outside us? As the loving protector develops within, the spiritual warrior begins to develop in our relationship with the outer world. To get a sense of what a spiritual warrior is, think of the people you admire the most. You can use historical figures, celebrities, fictional characters or someone from your own life experience. What do these people have in common, and what sets them apart from others? Here are some of the qualities that come to mind:

· They are comfortable with who they are and where they stand.

· They go their own way, led by an inner knowing of their purpose and mission.

· They enjoy life and all of its little daily pleasures.

· They are at home in nature.

· They are creative, in their own unique way.

· Children are naturally drawn to them.

· They laugh heartily, often.

· They have a vision of their own place in life.

· They manage their finances well and successfully.

· They are aware of the beauty in other human beings, and treat each one with respect.

· Their physical health is robust.

· They are aging beautifully and gracefully.

· They realize their own greatness and insignificance.

The spiritual warrior has the courage to be creative and to express abundant positive emotion. Set your vision of the spiritual warrior you choose to become. See yourself already there, as you go about your daily activities.

HEALTHY ANGER

Healthy anger fuels effective action. Healthy anger may not look, sound or feel like anger as we have come to know it. It is purely and simply the raw energy of emotion channeled into action to accomplish the desired outcome. It shows up as determination, enthusiasm, clarity, focus, energy, drive, consistency, fortitude, guts, courage, commitment, persistence, and resilience.

Healthy anger grabs the store clerk’s attention so that you get better service. All it takes is an enthusiastic, “Excuse me, could I get some help here?” with a smile, a clear voice tone and a lot of good energy. Healthy anger incorporates a tremendous set of skills.

Use your healthy anger to say “No!” to the messages you have received about aging. See yourself right now aging like you would like to. See yourself strong, fit, vibrant and well ten, twenty, thirty or more years into your future. Make up your mind you’re going to fulfill that vision. Write out a plan to make it happen. Use the healthy power of your anger to stick to your program and don’t let anything stand in your way.

You can live the life you have always dreamed of, and the pure, powerful energy of your healthy anger can help you get there.

Source

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Spiritual Warriors

A spiritual warrior is a person who bravely battles with the universal enemy, self-ignorance (avidya), the ultimate source of suffering according to dharmic philosophies.^[1] The term is applied in religious and metaphysical writing. There are self-described spiritual warriors.^[2] The spiritual warrior can be described as an archetype character on a journey for self discovery to benefit others.^[3] Different from other paths, which focus on individual salvation, the spiritual warrior’s only complete and right practice is that which compassionately helps other beings with wisdom. This is the Bodhisattva ideal (the “Buddha-in-waiting”), the spiritual warrior who resolves to attain buddhahood in order to liberate others.^[4]

Shakyamuni Buddha

The Agganna Sutta elaborates a history of the world in which the Buddha’s monks and nuns, and the warrior caste from which the Buddha came, are superior to brahmins who where known for class discrimination. The Buddha’s Shakyan clan context was for warrior-like assembly for brahmins-bashing at that time.

The Shakyans maybe considered a warrior-dominated republican federation, called the “sangha”, with an aristocratic democratic tradition comparable to the Greeks. The Buddha‘s father was the Speaker of their Congress. In the Buddha’s day, this government system was being culturally displaced by the brahminic caste and their religious ideology. Spreading imperial monarchies were destroying the Shakyans with their military power.

The Buddha pioneered the establishment of democratic procedures for the monastic sangha, such as regular meetings with secret ballots, subcommittees and minority group rights to schism. He attempted to preserve his Shakyan clan’s tradition, which was ideal for human liberation achievement. In the Agganna, the Buddha says that the monks and nuns have become “children of the Shakyans”, the Enlightened One’s sons and daughters, and children of the truth. The monastic Sangha was a spiritual warriors society, within a historic conflict of the brahmins struggle. They were heirs to the Buddha‘s warrior caste’s aristocratic virtues which are related democratic progress.^[5]

Trungpa’s way

Chogyam Trungpa teaches the way of the spiritual warrior.^[6] In 1976, Trungpa established the Shambhala Training program on spiritual warrior-ship grounded in sitting meditation practice. The Sacred Path of the Warrior is Trungpa‘s book which embodies the practice.^[7]

“Warrior-ship here does not refer to making war on others. Aggression is the source of our problems, not the solution. Here the word “warrior” is taken from the Tibetan “pawo,” which literally means, “one who is brave.” … “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.‎”

Chogyam Trungpa

The spiritual warrior archetype helps to constructively answer questions about aggression and competition with a healthy direction. Unlike the soldier character, the spiritual warrior is in touch with the joy, the sadness, the expansiveness in their heart; able to share and give it to others. The warrior knows about death and seizes the day. They have learned to let go with forgiveness and avoids chasing others in revenge. The warrior commits to growing the heart and soul in becoming a creative being. The warrior serves in love of strangers and gives generously while giving to themselves. The spiritual warrior seeks to change others with rational and compassionate decision-making in service of a higher goal.^[8]

Tibetan origins

Tibetan monastic rule derived from a feudal warrior clan society, which was transformed into a spiritual warrior society. While the rest of the world followed feudalistic warrior development during the medieval period throughout Europe and Asia, Tibet uniquely established Lamaism. This was centered around a Buddhist social revolution originating distinctly from India‘s Hinduism and finding root in Tibet. The Lama (teacher) is a living Buddha for Tibetans who provides a powerful bridge between real and imaginary conciseness worlds, where the self is methodically dissolved into the whole’s benefit by tantra practice.

Tibetans imported this order to help change their society to one based on education, social welfare, peaceful progress with a self renouncing monastic class of rulers. The monastic sanga (community) were supported and organized like a military; however, they were set on a self-discovery yogic mission for reconnaissance to perfect and develop methods in eliminating ego suffering.

Tibetan Buddhists advanced a form of non-hereditary succession of title and land based on reincarnation, which presented living proof that their methods succeeded by extraordinary means. It also ensured that young leaders were well trained in the monastic cannon and it avoided deadly heir feuds seen in the heritable practices within feudalism. While humanist knowledge significantly advanced within a sustainable and happy civilization, Tibetan monastics eschewed materialistic and economic progress for want of virtual visualizations. Monastic warriors were focused on accepting and perpetuating life in contrast to defending or attacking it.

In a highly celebrated and unique victory, Tibetan monastic warriors overcame the native Bon practices which then encompassed services for all of life’s needs (birth, marriage, healthcare, death and spirit exorcism) by incorporating them into their own practices. New Buddhist spiritual technology was integrated with the existing Bon methods, as contrasted with oppression methods seen in other warrior techniques. Transformation and re-purposing of military warrior symbolism and strategy into new codified tactics within Buddhist practice was a recurring metaphorical theme.

The society flourished to produce one of the best assemblies of peaceful enlightened self-knowledge known to human kind. When modern Chinese communist military economic industrial forces swept into dismantle and uproot it based on monarchic upheaval, this caused a spread of the seeds of this spiritual warrior way through out the rest of world, which are now taking root in new democratic forms. Displaced Tibetans remain loyal to their exiled leaders and lineage of teachers.^[9]

Jedi

The Dharma of Star Wars is a book by Matthew Bortolin. The book is a primer for basic Buddhist philosophy with an analysis of the fictional Jedi warriors in the Star Wars saga set within the context of their spiritual conflict with the dark side. The author also examines the Zen Buddhist concepts of as suffering, mindfulness and karma in the context of the film. For example, the author compares nirvana to “The Force” by clarifying that nirvana is “the very absence of ideas and conceptualization.” Jedi meditation examples are described as a parallel Buddhist discipline where Jedi knights “get in touch with reality as it truly is,” by observing their minds with calm compassion and wisdom for the present moment. Bortolin provides the reader with humorous pop culture analogues to timeless wisdom about a spiritual warrior’s monomythic journey.^[10]

Source

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What is a Warrior?

In Castaneda‘s books, the term warrior is used for a seeker of esoteric knowledge who works on himself in order to be free. The term sorcerer is sometimes used in a similar meaning but there the emphasis is not so much on freedom as on power over others. The warrior concept is at the core of Castaneda‘s books, most things are seen through their relation to the path of a warrior as explicated by Don Juan.

The warrior’s journey is above all a journey of self-perfection. The warrior works to acquire and manifest specific qualities and virtues. The warrior is not a fighting man in the ordinary sense. The warrior’s journey is not motivated by power, glory, serving God, country or tribe or any such thing. The journey is rather an end in itself, its own destination and reward. The journey may involve battles, internal as well as external, but the warrior chooses them in accordance with the journey’s principle. The warrior is not a mercenary who fights for opportunistic gain or as a way of life. The warrior is rather a representative and seeker of a higher world. The power obtained by the warrior changes him and uses him, but he also uses the power. The power is an impersonal force of a spiritual, supersensible nature, the warrior is in a sense its representative on Earth.

The virtues of the warrior are control, discipline, forebearance, timing and will. These relate to proper use of attention and energy. The discipline is not mechanically following any fixed routine, it is the presence of mind needed to face impossible odds, that which is out of the ordinary. Forebearance is the capacity to wait, not to be overrun by emotion or be worn out by stress or fatigue. Timing is the recognition of the opportunity, the ‘cubic centimeter of chance,’ as Castaneda puts it. Control is the capacity not to react mechanically, to observe the self under the most demanding circumstances, without fear or resentment and with presence of mind.

These virtues are forged and tested in the encounter with the ‘petty tyrant’. (See the article of this name for more.) Overcoming the petty tyrant is not the goal of warriorship but it is a step on the way, a test. The warrior does not fight to claim the petty tyrant’s position for himself but for self-perfection and freedom seen as abstract goals separate from any specific self-interest. If the warrior by defeating a petty tyrant may bring freedom to others, this is a windfall benefit, engaging every petty tyrant for the purpose of making a better world is not the warrior’s goal, the warrior has greater adversaries.

The ultimate adversary of the warrior is the ‘predator’ which gave man the ‘predator’s mind’. This adversary is both internal and external. The external projection of the predator is found in the petty tyrant in all its forms. Beyond this, we may see the hyperdimensional forces controlling the planet as the adversary to overcome. Castaneda‘s term for this ‘flyer’ or ‘predator.’ This corresponds to 4th density STS in QFS parlance.

There exist multiple internal adversaries which seek to hinder the journey’s progress at all stages and finally will bring the warrior’s life to an end. The first ones have to do with self-importance. Energy is wasted in being offended, in internal considering, as Gurdjieff would say. Together with this go complacency, cowardice, laziness, lack of self-control, miscellaneous pusillanimity and other common psychological traits. Only after having brought these under control can the apprentice be called a warrior.

But the path of the warrior is beset by other challenges before he can claim to have become a man of knowledge. The temptations of power over others and of seeing the supersensible worlds come next. One may become tyrannical, whimsical or lost in other worlds. Finally, old age will overcome the warrior. Death following a life well lived, dedicated to the path which is its own reward is the warrior’s ultimate accomplishment and final battle. In a sense, all the virtues thus far cultivated are brought to bear in the final contest, the crowning act of the warrior. In a sense this represents the understanding that only impeccability, the correct usage of energy counts. Again this represents the understanding that the warrior in the end may only use power over himself. This impeccability does not mean indifference to the world, it means finding one’s specific nature and qualities and manifesting these as well as possible. The warrior makes his life a gift to a principle of excellence, so to speak.

The warrior’s courage is not based on being mighty or powerful before the still more powerful infinite. The virtue is not conquer, it is to dare face that which is outside of normal parameters with humility and awe, yet maintaining oneself as a distinct being.

The warrior’s virtues have to do with becoming a streamlined, elegant vessel that can perceive and access the higher worlds. These worlds are filled with various entities, sometimes well disposed, but often inimical. Castaneda paints no cosmic struggle between good and evil. The warrior Is a traveler on a path and may do work that is of benefit to others or may fall and become a petty tyrant, having lost the spirit of adventure and having become obsessed by controlling the known instead of seeking the unknown.

The warrior is a seer, in Castaneda‘s world one who interacts with the supersensible worlds. These worlds are divided into the unknown, which may eventually become known, and the unknowable, which is by nature beyond human grasp and generally dangerous. Not all seers are warriors: Some may use the spiritual world for controlling others, some may have no goal or consistency and care nothing about any practical application. A seer must be a paragon of sobriety and self-control in order not to be swept away, must realize his place and confront the unknown with the correct attitude.

The warrior is essentially a loner, one who lives in the world but is not of the world. Becoming a warrior entails a certain distancing from the world, not in the sense of becoming a hermit or monk but in the sense of clearing one’s debts and attachments. As with Gurdjieff, the concept of ‘paying for one’s arising’ is important. Recapitulation of one’s history is intended to clear the body of past energy residues. Giving thanks and gifts where due is a form of purification and claiming one’s freedom from past obligation.

Castaneda places little emphasis on the notion of network, although there are schools and lineages in Don Juan‘s world. The bulk of the literary work relates to Castaneda personally with only few mentions of other students.

The relationship of the warrior to society or tribe is not much emphasized. The warrior may live an everyday life but does not play any specific social role. The contract between the shaman and the tribe or that of the feudal lord with the people is not significant in Castaneda‘s writings. If such has been customary before, its time is past. The warrior is a being of few fixed allegiances. There can be schools and fellow travelers, if also rivals. Still, warriorship is by and large a matter of individual journey.

The classical hero goes into the unknown to retrieve a treasure, to achieve a quest and return something to the ordinary world. The shamanic ascent is similar. Castaneda‘s warrior is more on a one way journey, Don Genaro forever on the way to Ixtlan. This is not to say that the warrior would not render a service to the world, but this service is not simple nor does it correspond to the world’s expectations or commands.

The term warrior is applied to a man. For women on a similar journey, the term is sorceress or witch. Castaneda writes little about women. They are either accessories to his love life which he paints in an intentionally farcical light or they are dangerous sorceresses intending him harm. Feminine versions of Castaneda‘s descriptions of his travels have since been published, see Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar and Carol Tiggs for example. Castaneda does not have any concept of the knight and lady or of courtly love or polar opposites, as developed by Mourravieff.

Sorting out the authenticity of the claims of Castaneda or Carol Tiggs to having been personally directed by Don Juan is problematical. From the QFS’s standpoint, Don Juan is probably a composite of different real characters. Just as with Gurdjieff‘s sources, Steiner’s mysterious teacher, the identity of Fulcanelli and other such questions, we note that it is best that the writings and teaching stand on their own merit. Literal biographical exactitude is not to be expected. The worth of the concepts and models is found in their application, not in their pedigree.

See Castaneda, Carlos, Petty Tyrant, Impeccability, Assemblage Point

Source

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