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Huehuecoyotl
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The Invulnerability of the Warrior
#6850622 - 04/29/07 07:04 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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One of the over riding motivations that pushed me towards adopting a spiritual path was the idea that one could be made invulnerable to the attacks and manipulations of others. The portrait that Castaneda (in his many books) paints of the warrior is one of total flexibility, strength, and unbending will. Such an individual would exude invulnerability with every movement. I felt vulnerable and insecure in so many ways that this promise of invulnerability caught my attention.
After nearly ten years of thought, study, and practice it is only now occurring to me what this type of invulnerability truly is. Jiddu Krishnamurti...a great spiritual teacher once said: "What is defended is always attacked." I am now starting to understand the truth of this. When one puts up defenses it is out of fear. These self same defenses invite emotional and even physical attack from our fellow humans. It is the particular nature of the beast that we are. When one shares their true feelings and emotions, with the humans to whom those feelings are relevant, in the spirit of compassion and empathy then one exhibits fearlessness. Fear oriented behavior is based in violence, and when one displays violence that violence is returned. Anything accomplished with violence...in the end...is merely the product of violence, and it will ultimately result in more violence. Wasting ones personal power on useless violence is counterproductive to our success as human beings. It is a hard thing for me to do, but I am seeing more and more that I must not let fear guide me in the expression of my feelings and ideas. To be open and genuine releases any attachments that we have to our imaginary defenses and allows us to put aside our fear. This is the true seat of the warrior's power.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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Icelander
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6850632 - 04/29/07 07:07 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Damn:(
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6850640 - 04/29/07 07:09 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
The most accurate statement about what a nagual is, which he voiced the day I found him, was that a nagual is empty, and that that emptiness doesn't reflect the world, but reflects infinity.
Nothing could have been more true than this in reference to don Juan Matus. His emptiness reflected infinity. There was no boisterousness on his part, or assertions about the self. There was not a speck of a need to have either grievances or remorse. His was the emptiness of a 'warrior-traveler', seasoned to the point where he doesn't take anything for granted; a warrior traveler who doesn't underestimate or overestimate anything; a quiet, disciplined fighter whose elegance is so extreme that no one, no matter how hard they try to look, will ever find the seam where all that complexity has come together. --Carlos Castaneda
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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Icelander
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6850650 - 04/29/07 07:13 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Don Juan said that when on starts on the path of knowledge things are uncertain. "One looks for things that will never materialize. Nothing turns out to be as one hoped for or expected."
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Icelander]
#6850660 - 04/29/07 07:15 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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True. I thought it would make me tougher and stronger...it did, but in a way I never thought of as tough or strong.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
Edited by Huehuecoyotl (04/29/07 08:26 PM)
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Icelander
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6850667 - 04/29/07 07:18 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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It's really freaky.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Icelander]
#6850668 - 04/29/07 07:18 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Those 2 tabs of "e" hit me harder than I ever would have suspected. It has been a year and I just get higher.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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Icelander
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6850692 - 04/29/07 07:25 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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That IMO is the power of Love. Love for the self, which is the only way one may love life, this world and everything in it.
It's a path with heart.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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psyka
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6850927 - 04/29/07 08:35 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Also, what needs to be defended is often a weak spot. A warrior seeks for inner strength... to improve his weaknesses so they no longer need defense. Strength through open vulnerability.
Come and get me, I'm ready, you will be met with without resistance... with love and compassion
But, I ask you, why the need for the warrior simile? Mere decoration?
-------------------- As the life of a candle, my wick will burn out. But, the fire of my mind shall beam into infinite.
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: psyka]
#6850956 - 04/29/07 08:42 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
A warrior seeks for inner strength... to improve his weaknesses so they no longer need defense.
In my view it is more like the realizing that such weakness is imaginary. To improve it would imply that it is real.
Quote:
But, I ask you, why the need for the warrior simile? Mere decoration?
This is one reason...aesthetics and dramatic impact. Another reason is that one who lives their life with care and discipline in harmony with their world..as the result of an internal struggle...the battle with the self and all that entails...is truly a warrior for that struggle IS a war.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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psyka
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6850981 - 04/29/07 08:47 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Obesity is physical weakness which should be improved, no? Human beings are imperfect, and the powerful learn through experience which suggests improvement.
-------------------- As the life of a candle, my wick will burn out. But, the fire of my mind shall beam into infinite.
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Veritas
Registered: 04/15/05
Posts: 11,089
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6851086 - 04/29/07 09:13 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
A blessed and indestructible being has no trouble himself and brings no trouble upon any other being; so he is free from anger and partiality, for all such things imply weakness. ~Epicurus
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: psyka]
#6851130 - 04/29/07 09:24 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Since you use obesity for an example I will tell you that I have dealt with that problem myself. It is only a weakness as long as it is perceived as such. In reality it is no more than self image and habit...which are imaginary. Once one learns to transcend these ideas...for they are ideas alone...then the condition changes. The self both physical and mental is subject to will and intent. Your physical form is no more than your imagination...a dream. I just changed my dream. I was nearly 200 pounds overweight just over 18 months ago. Now, while I am still losing weight (with about 50 pound left to go)...I am in excellent physical condition. I can run 5 miles in less than 50 minutes and I maintain an active lifestyle where one previously did not exist. Once I got over the idea of weakness, I got over the limitation. My mistake in allowing this ever to have become a limitation was buying into the idea that I was "genetically predisposed", as I had been told by many medical professionals. Weaknesses are just agreements that you have made.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Veritas]
#6851133 - 04/29/07 09:24 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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psyka
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6851141 - 04/29/07 09:26 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Sounds like you're improving yourself
Obesity IS a weakness. Obese people in the woods are less likely to survive. Unless your philosophy only works when living standards are comfortable...then I understand completely
-------------------- As the life of a candle, my wick will burn out. But, the fire of my mind shall beam into infinite.
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Icelander
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: psyka]
#6851151 - 04/29/07 09:29 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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I agree. In the physically world it is a weakness. You can die from it.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: psyka]
#6851154 - 04/29/07 09:29 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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Physical limitations are only weakness if they are not allowed for. I don't feel that I have any self to improve. An obese person in a location without food is at an advantage. They could live for a much longer time than a skinny person. Once again...weakness does not exist.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Icelander]
#6851161 - 04/29/07 09:31 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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You consider adjusted handicapped people weak? Often your blessings can be a curse in another setting and the reverse. In any case this is moving completely away from the point I was making. However, I do seek to increase my energy potential by controlling my physical state.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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Icelander
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Huehuecoyotl]
#6851172 - 04/29/07 09:34 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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An obese person in a location without food is at an advantage.
Not if I'm around and hungry.
-------------------- "Don't believe everything you think". -Anom. " All that lives was born to die"-Anom. With much wisdom comes much sorrow, The more knowledge, the more grief. Ecclesiastes circa 350 BC
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Huehuecoyotl
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Re: The Invulnerability of the Warrior [Re: Icelander]
#6851178 - 04/29/07 09:36 PM (16 years, 10 months ago) |
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I'd crush your skinny ass and you'd be food then. Weight has advantages, and I am starting to explore the potential of organic foods.
-------------------- "A warrior is a hunter. He calculates everything. That's control. Once his calculations are over, he acts. He lets go. That's abandon. A warrior is not a leaf at the mercy of the wind. No one can push him; no one can make him do things against himself or against his better judgment. A warrior is tuned to survive, and he survives in the best of all possible fashions." ― Carlos Castaneda
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