Pat over at Mokuren Dojo has started a discussion on "What is a warrior"? You can follow the thread on the Convocation of Combat Arts Forum here.
I have been reading "365 Tao, Daily Meditations" by Deng Ming-Dao. There is a short reading for every day of the year, and this is the one I read this morning:
Victory-
Can you be both martial and spiritual?
Can you overcome your ultimate opponent?
To be martial requires dicipline, courage and perseverance. It has nothing to do with killing. People fail to look beyond this one narrow aspect of being a warrior and so overlook all the other excellent qualities that can be gained from training. A warrior is not a cruel murderer. A warrior is a protector of ideals, principle, and honor. A warrior is noble and heroic.
A warrior will have many opponents in a lifetime, but the ultimate opponent is the warrior's own self. Within a fighters personality are a wide array of demons to be conquered: fear, laziness, ignorance, selfishness, egotism and so many more. To talk of overpowering other people is inconsequential. to actually overcome one's own defects is the true nature of victory. That is why so many religions depict warriors in their iconography. These images are not symbols for dominating others. Rather they are symbols for the ferocity and determination that we need to overcome the demons within ourselves.
If you have any additional thoughts, check in at the link to the forum above-
1 comment:
Sorry to be redundant, but it's well known that the word "jihad" means a holy war against the self. Those other guys who fill the headlines, thinking it means "sucker punch" should go back to Sunday School.
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