The Sacred Path of the Warrior

~*~ Compassionate Content Warning: Sensitive Images ~*~

I came across this collection of images on social media and found them to be incredibly poignant and powerful...and devastating. I've seen these patterns everywhere, and growing up before the explosion of technology has left me in a place of observing the long-term damage our attachment and obsession to technology has caused. Please take these images in (scroll down) and consider if there are patterns in your life or the lives of your loved ones, that need to be liberated from our collective prison of competition and separation. It's time to turn back towards each other, reconnect and Unify. 

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After you look at these pics, keep reading for some heart-centered guidance from myself and the Shambala Tradition of the Sacred Path of the Warrior. 

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This is the reality for so many people but the truth is, we can turn this around. We can look to see each other, from the Heart. We must remember the Truth that we are all basic goodness. It can get covered in illusion and we can get hypnotized into forgetting it. Into thinking one is more good than another. But it is one of the simple truths of humanity. Basic goodness is in us all, it is what Life is and even when our perception of this slumbers, the goodness is alive in us. It is encouraging us to break free of any internal or externally inflicted bondage.
No one can possess basic goodness, no one has more or less of it. No-one can take away the nature of Life as basic goodness. Even if you experience trauma or moments when others try to convince you otherwise, you are still basic goodness. When you can recognize and feel this, you can surrender yourself to your own Heart in a profound way and be reborn into compassion and bravery.
This is the path of becoming a Warrior. It is not a path of fighting or violence. It is a path of seeing, knowing, and accepting the pain in the world and in the hearts of your fellow human beings. Seeing the suffering and sitting in the great heart of sadness with what feels, at times, like unbearable compassion, patience and giving, giving from your Heart that is overflowing with Love. Giving of your kindness, your care, your clear awareness, whatever the moment calls you for, in order to create harmony and freedom from illusion.

All the while renouncing that which prevents you from becoming more open to your own Heart, the Hearts of others and to our Unity and always shining your light. This tradition of Warriorship, stretches across time and cultures and is a part of the living legacy of humanity. Step into your courage and follow your Heart. The warriors within our Hearts can lead us out of this darkness, out of our collective cocoon, but the first move it's sparking that courage so we can step out of our own personal cocoons and comfort zones that we've created to protect our vulnerability.

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 Teachings of Chögyam Trungpa 

(this is a partial excerpt from CH 1 of "Shambhala The Sacred Path of the Warrior" published in 1978, as part of the Shambhala Dragon Editions. 

Chögyam Trungpa- meditation master, teacher, and artist- was the founder of the Naropa Institute and the author of several books on Buddhism and the path of meditation, including Cutting through Spiritual Materialism, The Myth of Freedom, and Meditation in Action)

"...The current state of world affairs is a source of concern to all of us: the threat of nuclear war, pandemics, widespread poverty and economic instability, social and political chaos, and psychological upheaval of many kinds. The world is in absolute turmoil. The Shambala teachings are founded on the premise that there is basic human wisdom that can help solve the world's problems. This wisdom does not belong to any one culture or religion, nor does it come only from the West or the East. Rather, it is a tradition of human warriorship that has existed in many cultures at many times throughout history.

Warriorship 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". Warriorship in this context is the tradition of human bravery. or the tradition of fearlessness...On our planet Earth there have been many fine examples of warriorship.

 The key to warriorship and the first principle of Shambala vision is not being afraid of who you are. Ultimately, that is the definition of bravery: not being afraid of yourself. Shambala vision teaches that, in the face of the world's great problem's, we can be heroic and kind at the same time. Shambala vision is the opposite of selfishness. When we are afraid of ourselves and afraid of the seeming threat the world presents, then we become extremely selfish. We want to build our own little nests, our own cocoons, so that we can live by ourselves in a secure way. 

But we can be much more brave than that. We must try to think beyond our homes, beyond the fire burning in the fireplace, beyond sending our children to school or getting to work in the morning. We must try to think how we can help this world. If we don't help, nobody will. It is our turn to help the world. At the same time, helping others does not mean abandoning our individual lives. You don't have to rush out to become the mayor of your city in order to help others, but you can begin with your relatives and friends and the people around you. In fact, you can start with yourself. 

The important point is to realize that you are never off duty. You can never just relax, because the whole world needs help.

While everyone has a responsibility to help the world, we can create additional chaos if we try to impose our ideas or our help upon others. Many people have theories about what the world needs. Some people think the world needs communism, some people think the world needs democracy. The Shambala teachings are not based on converting the world to another theory. The premise of Shambala vision is that, in order to establish an enlightened society for others, we need to discover what inherently we have to offer the world. So, to begin with,, we should make an effort to examine our own experience. in order to see what it contains that is of value in helping ourselves and others to uplift our existence.

If we are willing to take an unbiased look, we will find that, in spite of all our problems and confusion, all our emotional and psychological ups and downs, there is something basically good about our existence as human beings. Unless we can discover that ground of goodness in our own lives, we cannot hope to improve the lives of others. If we are simply miserable and wretched, how can we possibly imagine, let alone realize, an enlightened society?

Discovering real goodness comes from appreciating very simple experiences. We are not talking about how good it feels to make a million dollars or finally graduate from college or buy a new house, but we are speaking here of the basic goodness of being alive-- which does not depend on our accomplishments or fulfilling our desires. We experience glimpses of goodness all the time, but we often fail to acknowledge them. When we see a bright color, we are witnessing our own inherent goodness. When we hear a beautiful sound, we are hearing our own basic goodness. When we step out of the shower, we feel fresh and clean, and when we walk out of a stuffy room, we appreciate the sudden whiff of fresh air. These events may take a fraction of a second, but they are real experiences of goodness.  They happen to us all the time, but usually we ignore them as mundane or purely coincidental. According to the Shambala principles, however, it is worthwhile to recognize and take advantage of these moments, because they are revealing basic nonaggression and freshness in our lives-Basic Goodness.

Every human being has a basic nature of goodness, which is undiluted and unconfused. That goodness contains tremendous gentleness and appreciation. As human beings, we can make love. We can stroke someone with a gentle touch; we can kiss someone with gentle understanding. We can appreciate beauty. We can appreciate the best of this world. We can appreciate its vividness: the yellowness of yellow, the redness of red, the greenness of green, the purpleness of purple. Our experience is real. When yellow is yellow, can we say it is red, if we don't like the yellowness of it? That would be contradicting reality. When we have sunshine, can we reject it and say that the sunshine is terrible? Can we really say that? When we have brilliant sunshine or wonderful snowfall, we appreciate it. And when we appreciate reality, it can actually work on us. We may have to get up in the morning after only a few hour's sleep, but if we look out the window and see the sun is shining, it can cheer us up. We can actually cure ourselves of depression if we recognize that the world we have is good.

It is not just an arbitrary idea that the world is good, but it is good because we can experience its goodness. We can experience our world as healthy and straightforward, direct and real, because our basic nature is to go along with the goodness of situations. The human potential for intelligence and dignity is attuned to experiencing the brilliance of the bright blue sky, the freshness of green fields, and the beauty of the trees and mountains. We have an actual connection to reality that can wake us up and make us feel basically, fundamentally good. Shambala vision is tuning in to our ability to wake ourselves up and recognize that goodness can happen to us. In fact, it is happening already."

Check out this tune to inspire your own Warriorship

https://youtu.be/OE2rkyVwYNE