The Warrior Creed
Robert L. Humphey
Wherever I go,
everyone is a little bit safer because I am there.
Wherever I am,
anyone in need has a friend.
Whenever I return home,
everyone is happy I am there.
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Training is Essential
Training is an essential part of being a warrior. You have to keep your skills sharp. As the old saying goes, even in the sheath, the knife still has to be sharp and be ready to be used when needed. It is very easy in today’s society it allow other things to interfere with your training. Everyone is too busy and stressed. This is another thing which sets the warrior apart from everyone else; he refuses to allow “things” to constantly stop him from training. He knows how important it is for him to keep his skills sharp. He knows that if he doesn’t, one day it may cost him dearly.
Remember, someone else out there is training on the days that you just don’t feel like training. The thugs are busily braining storming ways to rob you, or worse. Can you really afford to disregard your training or only train when you are in the mood to train? Always remember that no matter how far up the river you paddle, when you quit paddling, you will go back down the river, and you will go back much faster than than you moved forward. It is easy to take a day, a week, a month off from your training, and just relax and gradually float back down the river. Stay motivated and continue to move forward. Keep you knife sharp so it is ready to use when you need it.
Bohdi Sanders
The Wisdom Warrior
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The Dichotomy of the Warrior
The warrior is a special breed. Most people can’t really comprehend who or what he really is. To the average person, the warrior appears to be a contradiction. On one hand he prepares for the violent confrontation. He knows how to destroy the human body in a very efficient fashion. On the other hand, he loves peace and quiet. He is meditative and introverted, seeking to understand himself and the world which he lives in. This is the dichotomy of the warrior which many people have a problem understanding.
How could someone who prepares and trains to dismantle someone else’s body, be a benevolent, peace-loving human being? Most people just can’t understand this, but it is the way of the warrior. The warrior, although he knows how to fight and is good at fighting, doesn’t want to have to fight. He trains in order to be prepared in case the circumstance arises in which he has no other choice but to fight to protect himself, his family, or you. If he had a choice, he would choose to live in peace with his family for his entire life, but there are times in life when you don’t have a choice. It is for those times that he trains.
The warrior may be found in peaceful meditation just as he may be found in martial arts training. He enjoys a lifestyle of peace. Peace and war are just two sides of the same coin for the warrior. Together they make up the dichotomy of the lifestyle of the warrior. The warrior knows that in times of peace he should not forget war, and in times of war he should not forget peace.
In peace do not forget war. Japanese Proverb
Let him who desires peace prepare for war.
Vegetius
He has to balance the two in his life. Protesters frequently protest the warrior, calling him vile names in their quest for peace and love, not realizing that it is only the warrior that stands between them and their destruction. It is the warrior who protects them even as they attack his unassailable character.Just as the sheep do not like the sheepdog and fear what he could do to them with his violent skills, these “peace-loving people” do not like the warrior. The sheep do not realize that it is only the sheepdog who stands between them and the wolf, and without the sheepdog that they dislike so, the predators would have them for dinner. They are never really able to comprehend how lucky they are to have the sheepdog around.
You cannot talk to a frog in a well about the vast sea; he is limited to his area of space.
A summer insect has no knowledge of snow; it knows nothing beyond its own season.
Chiu Shu
The same goes for the people who are against the warrior. They do not understand the dichotomy of the warrior lifestyle…but the warrior does not change who he is because of what others are. He just continues the journey of the warrior; a journey of the art of peace and of the art of war.
Bohdi Sanders
The Wisdom Warrior
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The Warrior Walk
Being a warrior is a huge responsibility. Walking the path of the warrior is not something that you can decide to do for a couple of months then take a few days off and come back to it later. To be a true warrior, you have to commit to this lifestyle. The warrior is a warrior, period. He does not pretend to be a warrior, try to be a warrior, want to be a warrior; he is a warrior. Therefore, the warrior walk must be his everyday walk, there is no other way. There is no such thing as the “weekend warrior.” Either you are a warrior or you are not a warrior.
One must make the warrior walk his everyday walk.
Miyamoto Musashi
This does not mean that a warrior has to be in training every minute of every day. In today’s world this is an impossibility for most people. What this does mean is that every day the warrior is living up to the ideals that a warrior should live by, whether he is at work, on vacation, or just relaxing at home. The warrior makes these ideals a permanent part of his character, daily. He lives by his code of honor.
From Warrior Wisdom: Ageless Wisdom for the Modern Warrior
by Bohdi Sanders, PhD
The Wisdom Warrior
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Honor is Sacred
Honor was sacred to the Native American warrior, and honor is sacred to the “real” warrior today. The warrior takes his code of ethics and his character very seriously. If he owes someone a debt, he pays it. If he gives his word, he keeps it. When he sees someone in need of help, he helps. When he knows what is right to do, he acts. All of these things are part of his duty, and he takes his duty very seriously.
Honor is sacred.
Native American Maxim
The average person today looks out for his own interest. That is the major factor in the majority of his decisions. The warrior looks at what is right according to his code of ethics. That is the deciding factor for the warrior. The average person today may witness someone getting mugged on the street and decide not to get involved because it is too dangerous. The warrior, being in the same position, does not have the luxury of that decision. He is honor bound to help this victim if it is within his power.
Many times it is hard to live by this code of honor, but the serious warrior does it anyway because he knows it is his duty, as a warrior and as a man. His dedication to his code of honor is one of the main things that sets the character of the warrior apart from the average man. Honor is not something that you put on and take off as it is convenient for you. Honor is sacred.
From Warrior Wisdom: Ageless Wisdom for the Modern Warrior
by Bohdi Sanders, PhD
The Wisdom Warrior
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