Using the Master's Tools or My Thoughts of the Term "Spiritul Warrior"
The term "spiritual warrior" makes me think of Audre Lorde's speech in the New York University Institute for the Humanities conference in 1984, in which she coined the often-quoted phrase: "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house".
I write this as an Israeli who lived in varying degrees of war all my life. As an ex-soldier, who ( Read more... )
I write this as an Israeli who lived in varying degrees of war all my life. As an ex-soldier, who ( Read more... )
If you look at samurai culture closely, it rarely lives up to its idealization. Samurais were high-ranking warriors. In other words, a type of commanders. They didn't have to obey the orders because they were the ones who made up the orders and expected others (poor peasants, usually) to obey them. In other cases, they actually did act as soldiers, and fought wars in the name of someone else. In the late 16th centurty samurais mostly shifted from competent warriors in the field to war administrators, no different than army officials today. If you read stories about the battles in which samurais participated you'd find death, injury, torture, suicide, terrorizing the peasant population, and sometimes even massacres.
Bushido only turned into an "ethical warrior code" of samurais in the 18th century, in a time when the samurai no longer existed, really. But even if I do look into that code, I find discipline, obdience, death, ritual suicide, admiration for weapons and blind loyalty to a leader. If I remember correctly, historians also generally agree that samurais rarely lived according to Bushido in reality.
Warrior isn't the same as solider, true. Also, not all soliders are warriors (I wasn't one, I was part of a supporting staff that helped in the training of warriors). But all warriors are engaged in some sort of war, be they soliders, terrorists, guerrilla fighters, pirates, gangsters or samurais. And war isn't good. Never. This much I know.
I don't know warriors, past or present, who have the privilege "if", past or present. Sure, you can always walk away if the current isn't running correctly and if you don't believe in your commander/master's purpose anymore. But there's always punishment for disobedience. Today such warrior would go to jail. In the past, he'd probably get a sword in his heart or bullet to his head.
I don't know any culture in which a warrior can just walk away without violent repercussions to himself.
It may surprise you, but the Israeli Defense Force also has an ethical code. It's a beautiful declaration written by one of the most prominent philosophers and ethicists in the country, Prof. Assa Kasher. If you ask me, it's even more inspiring than Bushido as a way of life for a warrior. The difference between that and reality? Well, let's just say there is one.
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To get all Buddhist on you for a moment, Right Action arises from alignment with principle. It's different than following orders. (And I'm willing to stipulate you know more about the history of Bushido than I do.) As I understand it, if you're in alignment with principle then each is acting according to their role towards the same (Right Action) end -- replay arrow analogy.
> I don't know any culture in which a warrior can just walk away without violent repercussions to himself.
Agreed. Willingness to accept consequences in the name of principle is part of the ... I run out of words there and start talking with my hands in the air, so let's just say 'deal one makes'. If it matters enough that you have to leave, then you accept the consequences of that choice. No doubt about it. And if those consequences are a bullet to the back, then that's the choice you make. No whining.
Isaac did a song that sounds like a dirge but has lyrics directly on point to this discussion:
http://www.neopagan.net/IB_Songs_OtherSerious.html#OurFather
I'm ~always~ glad to hear your perspective on these things. There's an awful lot we don't know from far away, and I'm very-very glad to hear you thimk and write things about your life in Israel. ::grin:: Oh, and on a totally different note -- thanks for the recipe for your mother's lentil soup!! Yummy ... :D
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