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.
