The way of the... (tell me what you think)

[dre_doggX]

The Way Of The Warrior
By Erle Montaigue
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A warrior is not just a person who has learned some moves, is able to kick at 90 miles per hour or who has won the world championships at kick-boxing. A warrior must earn his title. The martial artist is a person who knows things that go far deeper than just self defence, he is someone who walks into a room full of people and an immediate calm falls upon that room, he is a person who can touch a person's head, or arm, or hand and cause an inner stillness and peace to fall upon that person. You know a warrior not from the way he looks, his big biceps, or his rolled up sleeves revealing a row of tattoos, or his shaven head or the fact that he wears his full gi (karate uniform) to parties!

We know the warrior by his presence and the healing he automatically gives to everyone he meets. His energy, his 'Qi' is touching you, you don't feel anything physical, but rather the internal effect of this touching, and peace is with you.

The warrior looks upon the earth in a different way than those who are not warriors, everything, from the smallest insect to the largest mammal, and the most insignificant rock or tree is important and has life, the grass he walks upon, he thanks for softening the rough path he walks upon, the trees, he thanks for giving him shade and oxygen. Everything has importance because it was put there by mother earth for some reason.


Sure, he has to live in modern times, he must drive a motor car and go to the supermarket and mow his lawns, but always, he never loses sight of what he is, and more importantly, where he is. He knows that what he is, is not only what he has made himself to be, but also what is handed down to him and what is an accumulation right inside the very cells that he is made of, from his ancestors. Everything that they were, is now him, every bit of information that his fathers and mothers gathered is now inside of him, this is how we live on in our children, we literally, and I mean literally, pass on our knowledge, along with eons of knowledge accumulated since the beginning of time, to our children. Everything that we are at the conception of our children is passed on to them. We think that we have certain talents, but the warrior knows that all that he is, has come from the beginning of time, he knows that he is made up of the same stuff that a rock is made of, or a tree or a blade of grass, the difference is only physical. He knows that he owns nothing, and that all animals are free, his animals chose him to be with, he does not go to the pet shop to chose a new dog, he knows that the dog has chosen him to come to that pet shop to chose it.


The warrior communicates with the earth, he talks to the dogs, to the cats and owls, to the snakes, not so much verbally, but simply by being. This is the one thing that everything on earth has in common, being. He knows that there are forces at work on this earth, forces that he must learn to go with and to live with, otherwise he will surely perish. The energy within the warrior has the power to join with these forces, and then he has the power to change. But this comes not without payment, for he also knows that we cannot receive without first having paid for it. The whole of the universe is based upon this giving and taking, it is called yin & yang. For every up there must be a down, for every happiness, there must be a sadness, for every full tummy, there must be an empty one. The warrior knows that he must lose in order to gain, and so he sacrifices. He sacrifices his food, he sacrifices his sexual longings, his every day comforts, in order that he has the power to change and to help others to change. Not in going out specifically to help others, but to have the internal power always there to automatically help others to be peaceful, and in doing so, they too will be able to see where they are, and who they are. We are not only someone's son or daughter, we are the sons and daughters of an infinite amount of people, those who have passed on to us their cells inside of which is hidden the very substance of creation and everything that has happened. Not 'since time began', because there is no beginning or ending.

Being a martial artist is only one hundredth of what a warrior is, it is only a part of the whole, it is what gives us the confidence to become a healer, the internal energy to make changes.

A warrior knows that we do not have teachers, but guides, the people we meet who are able to give us something internal, that something extra to cause us to become our own greatest teachers. Just by simply being, a guide helps us to realize that it is we, ourselves who teach us, because the warrior also knows that locked away inside of everything, is that primordial cell that contains all information. He learns to read this information which comes in the form of 'flashes' at first, and this is too much for his feeble human brain to handle, he shuts off as soon as the flash arrives. But soon he learns to read these flashes, and they become longer in duration than just a moment. This is when the warrior knows that he is reading time.

He learns to communicate other than speaking, he knows that his physical needs are being looked after, and needs not worry about where the next mortgage payment will come from.


The warrior finds his place on the earth and stays there, where the power is. It is not a physical searching, but rather the warrior is 'taken' to where he must be, and there he stays, and the whole world will pass by, he needs not to travel, because the universe is there within him, and those who will in turn need to seek him out, will do so when their time is right, in just the same way that he did when he had to travel the world searching for his own guides. They then will learn to teach themselves from within, and also then go and find their own place, and he may never see them again, but this does not worry the warrior, he is in contact.


The warrior is not the master, he is not the sifu nor the sensei, these are just physical words that we put upon ourselves to make us seem important, or better than those who we guide. The warrior is a friend to his students, and so cannot be our master. He does not wish to gather students as they will search him out, and those who need to have a master or a sensei will not stay, they will keep searching until they realize that what they search is within them, and who they search, can only be their guide.


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[Mantis9]

Okay. I think its nice, but what are the rest of us going to do.

I mean no disrespect to Mr. Montaigue's views about a warrior's character and being, but I am no where close to something like that. Though I most likely don't share his religious or philosophical outlook, I do appreciate the fact that he wishes the warrior a hero, endowed with virtueous qualities and a selfless motivation to help others with them. However (perhaps this is in another chapter) I wonder if looking to be this person by whatever means someone may find is enough to be deemed a 'warrior' or if we're all shadows of the real deal.

Of course, this is all speculative. I don't consider myself a warrior.

[joedoe]

I think the term warrior means different things to different people. On the one hand there is the new-age image of a warrior being a noble, near-perfect being that is not only a great fighter but is also spiritually enlightened. On the other hand there is the simpler view that the warrior is simply a fighter.

My view is somewhere in the middle - an accomplished fighter with some moral fibre.

[diego]

I Always assumed a warrior is just that, like a nativeindian warrior is the defender of his ilk, and a barbarian is just a fighter.

joe how you be defining barbaric?.

[MaFuYee]

jeez! - how can you ppl read that drivel? i couldn't get past the first paragraph. - i tried, but my eyes kept rolling up into the back of my head. - probably some kind of subconsious defense mechanism, to protect me from reading too much b.s.

e.m. should lay off the weed/shrooms/lsd/pcp/crack/moldy bread/whatever he may be on.

gee... i wonder if e.m. considers himself to be a "warrior"? - hahaha - as if i didn't know the answer.

[gazza99]

MaFuYee: "jeez! - how can you ppl read that drivel?"

Probably becuase we have a mental and emotional maturity higher than that of your average 12 year old.

Gary

[Budokan]

Here's the best line from the whole article:

"His animals chose him to be with. He does not go to the pet shop to chose a new dog, he knows that the dog has chosen him to come to that pet shop to chose it. "

Haw! That's classic! And funnier'n h*ll!

I didn't choose my goldfish. They chose me. That's how you can tell I'm a warrior.

HAW!

[Merryprankster]

This "way of the warrior," crap has really gotten overblown.

There's no "way of the warrior."

There's "being a responsible human being who is accountable for his actions who happens to know how to fight." The idea that we "cultivate warrior spirit," through the practice of martial arts is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

The idea that "the warrior" is some special thing, enobled by "his calling," and given to understand things beyond the ken of most mortals is absurd.

Thanks, but no thanks. I'll just be a responsible human being who happens to be an MA enthusiast, rather than try to "cultivate warrior spirit."

But here's to the Samurai Jack and Kwai Chang (sp?) wannabees. You go with your bad self. I have some actual living to attend to--which is a hell of a lot more interesting and more challenging than walking about with my head in the clouds in the delusion that I'm living the path of the warrior.

[diego]

The idea that we "cultivate warrior spirit," through the practice of martial arts is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

i understand what you are mocking but this statement makes sence, its like at times of peace get ready for war, or however that saying goes!.

[Merryprankster]

No, I don't think they are similar at all.

In peace, prepare for war, simply means that you can't let your guard down to nothing--that is imprudent.

"Cultivating warrior spirit," has NOTHING to do with getting prepared to fight, and everything to do with needing to feel special as though through the practice of MA, you are a breed apart. In short, it's nonsense. Just be a good, responsible person--be an ADULT, and the rest takes care of itself.

[diego]

cultivate warrior spirit i think of it as, meditate on ghandis and ghengis kahns traits wich made them succsessful, people just put the cheesycolors relating to whatever religions related to legendary and historical heroes..it aint bull****, if you really think about it, pray to the christian saints and scientifically eventually that affirmation will make you more whole, whereas the pope would describe the holyspirit took you over, reality science speaking, you rearanged your brian so everythings alkaline to your joy right its like a thinking alchemical process, you manipulate so no negative acids can flow....people just put the pope in thier KF, so it sounds stupid its just tools of affirmation wich even anarchists do2.

im drunk slightly.gonna go watch shreek catch wreck, il be back

[Qi dup]

Originally posted by Budokan
Here's the best line from the whole article:

"His animals chose him to be with. He does not go to the pet shop to chose a new dog, he knows that the dog has chosen him to come to that pet shop to chose it. "

Haw! That's classic! And funnier'n h*ll!

I didn't choose my goldfish. They chose me. That's how you can tell I'm a warrior.

hahaha!!! I don't buy into the 'way of the warrior' stuff either. It just comes down to different people's definiton, that's all. Like trying to define the word 'cool.' Basically it's just something relativly cold. A 'warrior' is just that, someone who is at or has been to war. But to most people 'cool' is something they agree with, like, etc. The same goes with a warrior. To me a warrior is it's simplest definiton. But I still enjoy stories of these magic warriors who where able to go from town to town, setting things right, yada yada yada.

[Budokan]

Here's the bottom line:

If you go around thinking of yourself as a warrior, then you're not one.

[Gabriel]

Well...sounds like that dude would be pretty cool I guess..sort of like a deadly Dr. Doolitttle.

Now the Samurai Spirit is a different thing altogether

[diego]

2true but some thought has to be involved suicide bombers are they warriors or brainwashed psychos?.