Spiritual Warriors — Warrior Monks — Martial Arts & Spiritual Military Campaigns — Warriors of the Cloth
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Spiritual Warriors
Throughout the ages many faiths have spread around the world, sometimes rather organically, transmitted by thoughtful beings to other thoughtful beings, as a discussion or exploration of our being - as if like a creeper spreading benignly across the ground or up a tree; other times the spread is very violently done - choking and killing all in its path, with war, hate, subterfuge and strife as the force behind the faith and result for those who come in contact with its strangling - spreading vines. The strangling vine cannot tollerate even its host to live, whereas the benign vine even provides nutrients to its host and lives symbiotically increasing diversity and life.It seems as though - from an historical point of view at least - that the various violent methods used by various faiths are intimately linked to the faith itself, and its cultural, philosophical, moral, ethical underpinning are reflected in the doctrines and directives; and those who conquer in such a name are responding to those motivations. As a faith may conquer with all the zeal of righteousness and undoubtable resolve, of justification the faith itself becomes synonymous with the means it chooses to use for propagation. Many examples come easily to the mind: the Christian Conquistadors in South America or the inquistions (still running today), pagan Roman Punic Wars, Old Testament slaying of entire populations throughout middle east to appease Yahweh or the Islamic Moghuls of Asia. Sadly, the list is far too numerous to make here. The examples continue today with the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts where the U.S. neo-con right-wing government has austensibly tried to impose democracy on people who do not seem to want it. Ever so loosely it is entitled a "War on Terror", though looking at the casulty lists and who has the weapons and who is profitting that emphasis of "on" may fairly easily shift to "of." Even though that may only be a fraction of the reason (besides strategic, geo-political, economic and financial reasons), the name of God has been constantly invoked on all sides, and there seems to be very little that is "Godly" going on. A very famous example of that spirit is exemplified in the fabled story of the Holy Roman Emperor, Constantine, who had a significant "vision" to go into the next battle and conquer in the name of the cross (originally the characters chi-rho standing for chris-tos [looking like a little capital "P" sitting in the middle of a cross "X"] according to Eusebius, his biographer). In a manner, this was the new banner or standard under which his (Roman) forces fought for the first time. Due to the overwhelming victory he had in that pivitol battle, he subsequently adopted the faith of Christianity as the state religion and from that point they fought "in the name of Christ". Naturally, the message attributed to Jesus of peace, love and compassion seems to be in stark conflict to the use of his name in the many violent instances, but despite that it continues. In fact, in most wars or battles in the last 5,000 years they have been fought over different faiths. Who is right and who is wrong. Prior to 3,000 BCE it appears in the Vedic literature that wars were still happening, and over religious grounds, not about variety of faith however, but over the maintainence of the principles of religion. Wars appear to be a natural phenomenon in our world, there has barely been a time in history where there was no war. Certainly there has been no respite from war (somewhere on the planet) in any of our lifetimes. Always there is talk of the "big war"; either as one that's just happened (to learn and relect on) or about the one which is to come (which prepares one's faculties and readiness - even eagerness like a self-fullfilling prophesy). It is not surprising then that some faiths have developed their offensive military and religious ideas and practices simultaneously, like the Crusaders or Mujahadin though mostly fighting with passion and little skill. These religious groups and their history are not the focus of this site specifically; however, such dominating forces exemplify why the various martial arts have evolved over the years in all places of the world. Generally, skill based martial arts have evolved or developed as an unarmed way of defending oneself against an aggressor (armed or not) and often employed common or everyday items as the weapons themselves. In Japan, during feudal times many examples of such weapons exist, particularly originating from Okinawa (the southern most island) where peasants used their wheat thrashers as the original nunchukers, walking sticks as bo or jo (fighting staffs of different lengths). Mainly the various styles and forms of defence were unarmed because if one was seen walking around with a weapon then one would be perceived to be prepared to fight with those authorised to carry weapons, and naturally draw that conflict to oneself. Today this is also the case in most countries. So under a tyranical despot or regime, protest is not tolerated and dissent is squashed with immense and brutal force without any regard for right and wrong, yet within human society the individual is often better disposed to be sensitive to micro issues of right and wrong, feeling sharply the injustices imposed by villians of all sorts, whether official or random. Owing to our different individual natures, some people are more naturally inclined to protect the weak and to defend justice, acting from a conscience within despite the absence of protection or approval from the official powers (often in resistance to official abuse of power). These individuals occur almost as much through human history as those beings who are inclined to take advantage of the weak, still the spiritual warriors are prepared to stand up for what they believe. To challenge the dominating ideas and actions despite the risk of great personal cost. They posses great personal and even spiritual power. This is the essence and these are the people of Warrior Monks. Spiritual Warriors top
Spiritual Warriors — Warrior Monks — Martial Arts & Spiritual Military Campaigns — Warriors of the Cloth |
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