You know, these days, when you use the word warrior in a sentence, especially to describe yourself or someone else, people tend to throw you a funny look as if to say, “What are you talking about warriors for? This is the twenty-first century; there are no warriors in the twenty-first century. I don’t see you or anyone else riding around a battle field on a horse wielding a large weapon about to chop some bloke’s head of. Warriors. Please, go entertain someone else with your macho-driven fantasies.”
I think people largely misinterpret what it really means to be a warrior. For some reason, in people’s minds, only historical figures like Gengis Khan are allowed to be called warriors. In order to be a warrior, the standard thinking goes, you have to have shed blood, preferably the blood of many on some horrendously brutal battlefield. You must be of impressive physical stature and your body must be crisscrossed with battle scars sustained from endless physical confrontations with other equally battle-scarred warriors.
To me that is a very simplistic, not to say ignorant, interpretation of what it means to be a warrior in modern times. It is possible to be a warrior without having shed a drop of anyone’s blood. Your acts can be equally brave and trail-blazing; your personality can be equally as hardy and tough without actually having to hurt another fellow human being. To say that you must shed the blood of others and bask in physical violence to be a warrior is to debase the very notion of the warrior concept itself.
Don’t confuse violent acts with bravery or confuse consistent fighting with warriorship. The two are not mutually exclusive. To devote your life to physical and mental confrontation with others, while certainly courageous in some cases (stupid in others), is only the choice of someone who enjoys violence for the sake of it, for the thrill of it. Liking violence, being good at dishing it out, does not by any means make you a warrior in itself. At worst this behaviour makes you a thug; at best it makes you a misguided soul.
Following a path of violence is ultimately fruitless. It only leads to hurt in the end. Being a true warrior should be about facing up to negativity in all its myriad forms and steadfastly refusing to be influenced by it. It should also be about bringing as much value into the world as possible, value that will have a positive impact on those who receive it and who’s lives will be changed for the better after receiving it.
It is really hard to see how violence of any kind can have a positive impact on anyone’s life. Even people like Geoff Thompson, who I interviewed recently and who actively sought out violence for many years in the belief that doing so made him a warrior, finally had to admit, after thousands of physical confrontations, that he was following the wrong path and that in fact being a warrior was more about avoiding violence and waging a different kind of war, a war on himself, a war he likes to call the “inner Jihad”, the act of fighting down your demons, facing your fears and creating something positive and genuinely valuable out of all that inner-turmoil.
Actually working to make yourself a better person can make you a warrior, for it is ultimately harder to fulfil your potential than it is to hit someone in the face. The only person you really hit at the end of the day is yourself. How does that make you a warrior?
Speaking of Geoff Thompson, he recently wrote a very good post on his blog lamenting the decline of the warrior in the world. Let me share with you this quote from that article which to my mind, succinctly sums up how a real warrior must act:
“Be a warrior. Do not let life kick sand in your face. Stand up to it. Stoics see adventure and growth in every life situation, even and especially the tough life situations. It is in adversity that warriors are made. Be a hardy grafter, an industrious inventor and a pioneer. Do not settle for second best or complain about the fact that you would do more ‘if things were not so difficult.’ Life is hard for everyone, no one can escape the human condition, but it does not have to be dull and mundane; it can be exciting-hard and colourful-hard. You just need to give yourself a change of perspective, stop seeing what you have not got, and start looking at what you have got.”
So being a warrior has nothing to do with inflicting violence. Thugs inflict violence. Soldiers inflict violence. That alone doesn’t make them warriors. Being a warrior means engaging with life, standing up to it, overcoming the difficulties, making the most of what you have been given and using it to spur yourself further on. Being a warrior is about challenging beliefs, especially limiting ones, and expanding the reach of your consciousness to enable you to see further into yourself and the universe around you.
Being a warrior is about nurturing life in yourself and others, not taking it away. It is a choice. As the quote at the top of this blog states, no one is born a warrior, just like no one is born an average man. We make ourselves into one or the other.
I’ve made my choice and I’m happy with it.
Have you?
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Further Resources
Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives
The Book of Five Rings (Bushido–The Way of the Warrior)
Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior
Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior: A Companion to the Book That Changes Lives (Millman, Dan)
