Warrior of the spirit

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THE “WARRIOR OF THE SPIRIT” TRADITION
Eo OMWAKE

In the world since time immemorial, and in almost all cultures, there has been a strong tradition which has to do with being a ‘warrior of the spirit’. This tradition is especially rich in the East. To an extent in India, and certainly in China, Japan, and Korea, this idea is powerful.

In China, the prototype and inspiration for all Eastern cultures except India, the underlying premise of Kung Fu, which includes Tai Chi Chuan (Taijiquan), is very much about the “spiritual warrior” way of being in the world.

To be such a warrior of the spirit is to believe that one can actively approach and affect spiritual practice. Taoism and Buddhism have much of this approach toward life underlying and driving them. There are some meditation approaches which align around this method of self-cultivation and personal development.

The “warrior of the spirit” is different than the “warrior”. A warrior holds external enemies to be preeminent. The warrior of the spirit holds the interior enemies to be preeminent.

And while it may at first sound true that dealing with interior enemies is a luxury allowed only those who are safe from exterior enemies, this is not truly the case in reality. The truth is that people from the beginning of time have had to deal with interior enemies of the spirit.

Of course, when one is being physically attacked or when one is trying to scratch out a living or even survival in the most meager situations, spiritual aspirations may temporarily become secondary. But, in fact, times of absolute physical danger have been few and far between in history. Even in the midst of war, and perhaps especially then, enemies of the spirit create warriors of the spirit.

Warriors are to be highly respected; they are versed in physical confrontation and will defend and protect the weak, the innocent, the vulnerable, the freedom of the individual, and their society when necessary.

The warrior will act in spite of danger, fear, difficulty, pain, and personal cost. The world of physical confrontation is their domain; and, despite what some people think, the true warrior has principles and loves life. That is why the true warrior stands up when needed to protect life and positive principles of life and those persons who cannot protect themselves.

The true warrior is against evil and sadism. The true warrior opposes any negative people and forces of the world that seek to dominate, control, and bully. A warrior stands up against evil with physicality and the action of body and mind. The warriors of the world put their lives on the line.

And though it may be sad to say, the reality is, in fact, that the world is often in need of such courageous people. If the warriors did not act in times of threat, the world would be little more than a cruel and vicious place subject to the whim and egotism of the misguided and the insane.

The warrior’s quest is for the throat of the enemy, if it be absolutely necessary, and they are trained to carry through with their intent. Of course, a true warrior is guided by proper perspective and will always try to find the least violent and most peaceful solution to a troubled situation. Only the power hungry, the misguided, or the mad seek confrontation and war when there is no threat or physical action is unnecessary.

The warrior seeks to solve situations after the fact. They are there when all else fails. They are there when peacemakers cannot find the solution. The warrior of the spirit, on the other hand, seeks to solve the problems before they come to the point of physical confrontation, and even before that. The warrior of the spirit seeks to attack the very same terrible problems the warrior tries to solve.

The difference is that warriors of the spirit attack viciousness, egotism, aggression, and evil at its roots in the inner spiritual life. The warrior of the spirit recognizes that the attitudes that bring about external evil must begin in the inner world of people. The warrior of the spirit seeks to deal with such problems at their root instead of waiting until things reach the point where physical force is the only solution.

While the warrior seeks the throat of the enemy, the warrior of the spirit seeks the enlightenment and empowerment that prevents such concepts as “enemy” from being produced.

While it is true that it is quite another thing to stand eye to eye with an enemy in the empirical world of the physical when all talk is done, it is also true that it is quite another thing to actively engage the enemies of the positive spirit in the empirical world of everyday life.

While most people deal with the usual ups and downs of life in the normal way, the spiritual warrior tries to go further. Just as the warrior overcomes the fear of death, the warrior of the spirit must overcome the apathy, fear, dishonesty, insensitivity, and impatience that arise when one must deal with the evil forces brought to bear against a positive spirit.

Neither path is easy. Both require resolve and fortitude, even though each direction’s resolve and fortitude are, in kind, somewhat different. The warrior is a protector, a preserver, and a destroyer, not a conqueror. The warrior of the spirit is a protector, a preserver, and a destroyer of negativity, yet also seeks to be a “conqueror”, a conqueror of the spirit and a creator… a creator of higher planes of existence.

In both the domain of the warrior and in the domain of the warrior of the spirit, knowing what to do and being able to do are two different things. Both approaches must learn what must be done and both must learn to be able to do. Capability must be followed by ability.

The warrior finds out about being able in the heat of real battle. The warrior of the spirit finds out about being able from such things as trying to use compassion with someone who is nasty, from dealing with traffic when driving, from implementation of daily exercise or meditation, from letting go of possessiveness in relationships, from being able to handle negative habit patterns in one’s life, and from implementing one’s inner principles and beliefs in the real world.

Still, for the warrior of the spirit, the foundations of spiritual work almost always begin with some form of physical discipline. In the East, such training is very often martial art training. This is no accidental because all paths of true spiritual development, if they are to be successful, simply must include work with the body. This is so because the spirit, the mind, and the body are inseparable and interconnected, and if one is to really work on one, one must work on, or at least be engaged with, the others.

The body supports the mind, the mind and body support the spirit, and the spirit affects the mind and body. One cannot attain and sustain one aspect without the others. From the practical point of view, it is better to be healthy than unhealthy – after all, how much attention and energy can an unhealthy person give to spiritual work?

Certainly one can attain a certain depth of understanding in a purely cerebral way, yet one can only go so far with that way alone. Such an approach will always be tainted with the imbalance which comes from knowing a partial rather than whole vantage point.

If one is going to know the whole, one must know the corporal, the body, with its demons and wonders, as well as the cerebral with its demons and wonders. Intellectual life without physical life becomes ungrounded and unrealistic, just as the corporal without the intellectual becomes unrealistic and lacking depth. The corporal and physical is the empirical testing ground for the spirit. To be involved with both is to be involved with balance, and this is always more healthy.

Any real evolvement and development must, at some point, include the body, for the mind’s ability to think well, and encompass all of life, is best when the body is an important part of the process.

Problems of the emotions, intellect, and spirit manifest in the body. Knowing the body, as all substantial Tai Chi practitioners know, is one of the best ways to access the mind and the spirit. Discomfort and inappropriateness is recognized oftentimes in the body first, then, one makes the link to the mind and the attitude.

If one wishes inner surety and decisiveness, it is good to have some degree of awareness, sensitivity, and surety in the body. Creating change and advancement in the spirit almost always involves taking responsibility for or dealing with change in the manifest world.

The balance of intellect and action go together. When the famous philosopher Gurdjieff said that spiritual change is always preceded by some kind of shock, perhaps change in the corporal world is part of what he meant.

The great enlightened master Buddha spoke of how suffering and death – two of the most physical events we know – can make us more aware of the importance of life. Western philosophers place great attention on the importance and effect one’s cognizance of death has on the quality of awareness in life. The great Chinese sage Lao Tzu, one of the most important forerunners and precursors of Tai Chi, spoke often of practical matters in the real world. It is well established that knowing the physical is an important step on the way to spiritual development.

Being a warrior of the spirit, in the beginning and in the end, is best if one engages training and using the body. For some, this will be assertiveness training – for others it can be the pacification of aggression and deeper sensitizing. The path of the martial arts is perfect for a spirit warrior because it is involved with the body, the mind, and the sprit. One must condition and train the body, one must learn to sharpen and sensitize the mind, and one must strengthen and vitalize the spirit.

Martial art training does all of these things. It is one of the few disciplines that does. And though some Tai Chi practitioners are not attracted to the martial aspects of Tai Chi, they would really do well to reconsider, because it is probably exactly what they need. It is true that a proper warrior of the spirit is in favor of peace and abhors war at all times, yet, it is good to remember that a strong and vital spirit does not run away from anything, but intelligently engages all aspects of life with a full spirit. When one trains in the martial aspects of any form of Kung Fu, whether Tai Chi or otherwise, one is training the spirit as much as the body. The confidence and authority one gains from being more capable of defending oneself affects the spirit strongly. Knowing this particular territory is simply knowing another aspect of life. Leaving it untouched says little for a well-rounded spirit. What one learns concerning real and tangible energies through the actions of threat and defense is alone worth the time, let alone what the martial side teaches us as we face our inner self with its ego, its compassion, its fears, and its insecurities.

Dealing with the will in the implementing of discipline is an important part of martial training, just as dealing with reason, in so far as understanding what is appropriate for a particular situation is concerned. With the martial aspects, whatever one conceives in the mind must then be verified in the actions. By knowing the place of the intellect in dealing with an incoming punch or push, we learn more about the way intellect and practicality interact in life.

To be a Warrior of the Spirit is what the true and real Tai Chi mind seeks. It is a rich path. To follow such a path is to have, by definition, a mind of vitality, zest, and curiosity. Just because the term “warrior” is used doesn’t mean that such a person is contentious and loves war. Being a spiritual “warrior” is not about the destructive aggressiveness, territoriality, insecurity, and egotism which normally define a war-monger. Remember, there is a difference between warrior and a war-monger.

The warrior of the spirit is someone who actively endeavors to know life and its depths. They don’t just go through the motions once or twice a week. The warrior of the spirit aspires to dignity and nobility. Such a person seeks to have the courage and compassion, vitality and sensitivity, curiosity and patience to make war and violence obsolete. Such a mind resolves to know whatever is positive, healthy, and life enriching, and then tries to implement those things in life. The warrior of the spirit seeks to develop the self-esteem, vision, and constructiveness which allow awareness and success in whatever one does.

In order to know life directly, the spirit warrior cultivates certain qualities and values; self-confidence; perseverance; integrity; honesty; compassion; respect; appropriateness; and trust. When the attitude of the spirit warrior is carefully developed, it is one за the highest pinnacles of human spiritual endeavor. Being a warrior of the spirit involves self-cultivation. By this is meant a form of inner discipline and mind-body training, of course, but it also involves being kind and vulnerable, both to oneself and to others.

The warrior of the spirit is an inspiration to others and without trying leads the way through the shoals and rapids of the daily search for vigor, awareness, and growth. The spirit warrior recognizes that one’s first and deepest struggle is to find the mind of non-struggle – the mind which informs all other battles with inner calm. It recognizes that through non-struggle it is possible to wake up to the preciousness of life.

Being a warrior of the spirit is like the study of Push Hands. As in Push Hands, being a warrior of the spirit means developing the ability to look honestly at ourselves, to see any negativity and narrow-mindedness we might have, and let these things go. As in Tai Chi Push Hands interaction, being a warrior of the spirit means realizing one’s inner power, natural dignity, and wakefulness and using these things to affect the world in a positive, practical, and productive way.

As in doing the Tai Chi form, the spirit warrior’s attitude manifests in different qualities, all of which arise from a basic understanding of natural truth. The spirit warrior’s inner state of mind must, like learning in Tai Chi, not coming from an egotistical point of view, and so not puffed up and arrogant. Instead such a person is humble, kind, and self-contained in relating to the world and others. The warrior of the spirit may have doubts, but is not captured by them. The warrior of the spirit may have certain pettinesses, but strives to move beyond them. The warrior of the spirit may have certain limitations, but always seeks to move outside those limitations to a broader perspective and vision. Such a person is forthright and not afraid of making mistakes. Because the spirit warrior acts from honesty and integrity, if a mistake happens, it is just a mistake, not a denunciation of the person. Just as one seeks to learn from all losses in Push Hands, one seeks to learn from all “mistakes” of action as a warrior of the spirit.

The warriors of the spirit conduct themselves with softness, clarity, and intelligence to the best of his or her ability. Softness is the caring quality of the human heart which allows positive response. Because of softness the spirit warrior’s confidence and self-esteem are not hard or brittle, but have a gentle quality.

The warrior of the spirit knows the world through a sense of clarity – a clarity reinforced by objectivity and precision. This objectivity and precision comes from a balance of seeing closely and being slightly distant. From clarity comes a sense of ease which allows a warrior of the spirit to meet challenges with integrity. The spirit warrior’s ease and confidence allows intelligence to arise. Intelligence allows the spirit warrior to be responsive and germane on the world. Intelligence allows one to see, appreciate, and develop a deeper understanding of the world around us. It is from intelligence that we see the patterns of life unfold, and it is from the patterns that we come to know the inner principles of life.

When the warrior of the spirit uses softness, clarity, and intelligence, the seductive and distracting quality of one’s egotistical mind can be overcome. It is this overly egotistical mind which creates illusionistic problems such as greed, status, over-control, wealth, and power. The egotistical mind breeds impatience, insensitivity, dishonesty, and complacency. In order to transcend such negative and destructive states of mind, one must let go of egotistical forcefulness, egotistically grasping onto acculturation, and egotistic cleverness.

Forcefulness, the product of an ego that seeks power, causes one to lose touch with the path of patience and ease. It makes one think one is always right and therefore seeks to control and police the world. Such actions steal our softness and humanness.

Blindly following acculturation and the dogmas that come along with it robs us of the inner truth which is naturally available to us, if we just stop grasping and trying to hold things in place. All we really need to do is let things be, but the unhealthy ego promotes grasping through its search for certainty. This is healthy up to a point, of course, but too much is problematic. Inner truth is the only constancy and security. And it is accessible to anyone who can see beyond the boundaries of their own particular culture’s often limited ways of understanding to the more universal truths.

Cleverness, the ego’s search for power, steals our authenticity. It makes us have an adversarial relationship to the world and others. When we are coming from being clever, we are always trying to undo others; to move around avoids directness and honesty. Using cleverness is using a formula instead of realness. Such an approach seeks to be better than others, to come out on top using tricks, and misses the natural situation of sharing. When one can let go of cleverness, one small aspect of life as struggle is released. 

Just as the Tai Chi axiom of ‘raising the spirit’ seeks to promote vitality, the warrior of the spirit seeks to overcome all that stands in the way of a vital caring attitude. One who follows this path seeks to overcome habit and obsession, for these things take away our wakefulness and control, and drown us in a sea of lethargic dullness. The warrior of the spirit seeks to do away with discomfort and tension, for these things keep one from one’s true self. The warrior oа the spirit seeks to develop ever deeper interrelatedness of mind, body, and spirit, for their smooth and virile interaction signals health, capability, and aliveness. The warrior of the spirit seeks to be sincere, for sincerity is to live by one’s inner truths and do away with hypocrisy.

The warrior of the spirit is always seeking deeper and deeper appropriateness, for to have appropriateness means to know both the inner and the outer, and to let the two be in direct correspondence. The warrior of the spirit seeks patience, for patience allows things to take their natural course; it allows things to develop according to life’s inner principle without force, and this is always good. The warrior of the spirit seeks courage, for courage allows us to face our demons and the injustices of the world, and implement our responsibilities in life. The warrior of the spirit seeks open-mindedness, for open-mindedness keeps one from becoming self-absorbed and distant from the things and people around us. As with Tai Chi form practice and Push Hands, open-mindedness allows us to remain engaged with truth – and both inner and outer growth.

The spirit warrior, just like the Tai Chi practitioner, is always striving to improve. Such a person seeks to never be complacent, though this doesn’t mean that they are not appreciative of what they are and what gains they have made. The true warrior of the spirit recognizes their own capability, appreciates their own special abilities, and uses what they have as much as they can to foster positivity and productiveness in life. The warrior of the spirit, like the practitioner, or warrior, of Tai Chi, seeks to raise one’s personal – and the collective – spirit to the highest level possible.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that truth and naturalness are one’s true parents.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that vital wakefulness is one’s true home.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that yin and yang are the parameters of life and death.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that honesty is one’s inner guide and clarifier.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that intelligent understanding is one’s means to clarity.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that inner character is the only magic secret.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that perseverance is one’s chariot to the depths.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that appropriateness is one’s path to humanity.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that sensitivity is one’s road to balance.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that openness is one’s sustenance.

The Warrior of the Spirit knows that compassion is one’s best armor.