Kent Guindon, October, 2009, vol. 1, no. 19

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The purpose of this article is as a follow up and an expansion of my answer to Jeremy during the interview for the upcoming coaches’ pages on the WBK website when he asked me “tell me about the way of the warrior”. As I was walking home that night subsequent to the interview I was pondering my answer and realized that it had been incomplete, and that a very important point which despite having been alluded to in my answer, had nevertheless been left out. This point ties WBK boxing training with the Way of the Warrior and this article will add that crucial point.

»see the interview video here.

First, under the heading “The Quest” is a brief description of how I was led to the way of the warrior followed by a definition of is meant by it. Under “The Human Condition” a description of some of the negative aspects of  the human condition as I came to see them as a result of my background, life experiences and personal observations is given as well as how the way of the warrior can be a vehicle to break free from the limits imposed by them. Finally, under “The WBK Warrior” an explanation is given as to how the WBK training system can be an excellent component of the way of the warrior. Following the Conclusion is a list of selected reference materials used in writing this article which can serve as suggested reading material for those who seek to further widen their knowledge of this subject matter.

THE QUEST

Back in November of 1994 I embarked on a quest to a find a martial fighting system in which to train regularly. The goal was to use the fruits of that type of training and transfer them to my everyday life in order to forge myself, (mind, body and spirit) into a different person. I sought to live a life of self discipline, self mastery, fearlessness, serenity, and calmness in the face of life’s challenges. Of course, one can achieve this end without engaging in a martial training system, but for me, I had ‘heard the call of the warrior’ so to speak and knew that it was the path for me. I was to learn at the beginning of that quest that my chosen path had a name, (two names in fact), and that it was known by those same two names since time immemorial in all cultures of the world: ‘the martial way’, or the ‘way of the warrior’.

Just what is the ‘way of the warrior’? What is meant by it? Simply put, it is a way of life and a way of thinking, a mindset that is characterised by the adherent’s wish to break free from the dark side of his nature and to longer be controlled by it. “The true victory is defeat of your base nature. The ultimate strategy is to win through virtue and perseverance…” said Chojun Miyagi the founder of Goju-ryu Karate. Thus the individual has awakened to the fact that all his life he has been a slave to his base nature. From the moment he decides to break free of it he is no longer a slave but a warrior having embraced the ultimate struggle that will forge him (or her) into a new human being: the struggle with himself. Outside of that, there is no enemy. From that moment on, his or her actions are no longer automatic and subconscious, but rather are based on true freedom, true choice, and awareness. At that point the individual begins to live by a code of behaviour that is of his or her own choosing: there are things he refuses to do because he knows that by indulging himself in them he risks returning to that state of slavery from which he came. Then there are things he chooses to do because he knows that the ultimate outcome will be good for him and for those around him. This is what has been called ‘the warrior’s code’.  

Robert L. Spencer, in his book The Craft of the Warrior enlightens us further when he states: “The application of the term ‘warrior’ comes from the type of discipline and focusing used by the ancient warriors to prepare for battle. To maximize the chances of surviving, the warrior led a disciplined life that gave self-mastery and a way of being in the world that was beyond what ordinary people could manage. It is this tradition of discipline, preparation, and self-mastery that forms the core of the modern warrior myth. The formula for success in battle has been adapted for success in life”. But why would an individual choose to live this way? What are the benefits to be gained?

THE HUMAN CONDITION

“There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death” says the Bible in the book of Proverbs 14:12. Now why is that? It is because for the most part, unless we make a real conscious effort otherwise, we can too easily be ruled by our appetites, impulses, as well as by, (for better or worse) our social conditioning. Then too often fulfilling those appetites and impulses or living according to our conditioning becomes our reason for living. At the root of it all is a spirit of fear: fear of not meeting those appetites, the fear of what others will think of us if we fail to live according to the social script that was handed to us. Eventually we begin to be controlled by this fear. When that happens, our actions are no longer based on free choice but rather on knee jerk automatic response.

This short sightedness makes us automatically avoid that which may seem difficult, painful, and uncomfortable, and makes us run towards that which is easy, pleasurable and comfortable in the short term with all too often terrible consequences for us in the long term. One simple example: our bodies are naturally lazy and wish only to indulge in that which is easy and pleasurable. If we have responded to that most of our lives we have conditioned ourselves to live this way. Often times we will have built relationships with like minded individuals as well. Then out of fear of what our peers will think of us, and out of fear anything physically demanding, instead of exercising, we do nothing, we sit around all day, we eat whatever tastes good regardless of its nutritional value, we indulge in whatever is easy, etc: all pleasurable things in the short term. But over time we find ourselves with serious health problems, and worse we find that this behaviour has become habitual and has become extremely difficult to stop. Eventually stop it we must if it gets to the point where our very lives are at stake.

This is just one small, simple example. There is much more that we do in all aspects of our lives that may cause perceived benefits in the short term, but in the long run cause us emotional, psychological problems, and problems in our relationships etc. An important principle of life is that whatever is good for you in the long run, whatever is beneficial, healthy, whatever is worth having, must be fought for. It will never come easily and can only be attained by patient perseverance and hard work. But once attained, there are additional fruits that come along with it: strength, fearlessness and a deep sense of calmness no matter what the circumstances, a sense of peace with one’s self. This is a fact, a reality.

There are no shortcuts. The reverse is also true: whatever is easily achieved, whatever is indulged in without temperance, whatever is worthless, will eventually destroy you. The fruit of that kind of life is progressive physical and spiritual degeneration, weakness, fear, anxiety and frustration.

Now at this point we need to clarify one thing: does this mean that enjoying pleasures that life has to offer is wrong? Is it equally wrong to meet our friends’ and families’ expectations of us? Is it wrong to allow our past experiences guide us in our present course of action? Is the warrior to live the life of an ascetic? By no means!!! In fact it’s quite the opposite: the warrior enjoys the pleasures of life more than anyone else, and enjoys a much more fulfilling relationship with himself and others than anyone else.

Why? Because the warrior is not controlled by them, and thus whatever he or she does or does not do, it is based on conscious deliberate choice. That is the crux of the whole matter: are we being controlled by our nature or not?  Our nature is our nature; we can either be in control of it, or it in control of us. Therein lays the difference between those who have embarked on the martial way, and those who have not.

All of this is happening on a subconscious level. We embark on a series of behaviour patterns that become habitual, and when something is habitual it drops from our conscious awareness and becomes subconscious. This is how habits are formed, and habits can be beneficial or detrimental. The trick is to stay aware of them so that one is able to change a habit if it has ceased to be beneficial. It’s when we become unaware of them, that we are no longer in control. Such an individual has in fact become a slave, because a slave is someone who is not in control of is own life. It is made worse by the fact that the individual is not aware of his condition. Until he comes to the realization of his true condition, he can never break free from it. The slave then, is the opposite of the warrior.

With this in mind let us continue now with Robert Spencer: “The warrior, in her approach to life, is not oriented toward conflict, but to struggle…Most of these struggles are internal[emphasis mine], struggles against self importance, against binding habits, against this state of sleep that most of us take for waking, and the battle ground is in our own psyche. The new warrior must be prepared for the struggles, and preparation must be as meticulous as if going to war. Survival is at stake continuously, if not in terms of vital signs, certainly in terms of quality of life.” Now we have the answers to our above questions. Why live the way of the warrior? To be rid of “binding habits”.

Not all habits, not the good ones, but the ones which are ‘binding’. What is the benefit to be gained? “Quality of life”! So how does training at WBK help one free one’s self from binding habits, and give one quality of life? Why is WBK so compatible with the martial way?

THE WBK WARRIOR

It all boils down to body, mind, and spirit (by ‘spirit’ here we mean such things as someone’s determination, ambition, emotional state, will etc). They are all interrelated and they influence each other. A strong spirit will create a strong mind, which can create a strong body. The opposite is also true: a weak spirit will produce a mind that is indecisive, unfocused, which in turn will often produce a weak and unhealthy body.  If what is going on in the mind and spirit can manifest itself in the body, is it possible that we can use the body to effect a transformation in our mind and spirit thereby creating the opposite of a vicious cycle? Can a person who was once unfocused, confused, fearful etc effect a change in his outlook by first transforming his body?

The answer is yes! I have seen it happen countless times: first in myself, then in others.

While admittedly there are many different methods by which one can transform his body, mind and spirit (playing a sport on a regular basis is a perfect way of doing that and thus can form an important component of the martial way), we have seen that the way of the warrior is in the struggle. The warrior has embraced the struggle against himself. Thus a training system that is martial in nature is often a chosen vehicle not only because it can also serve as a metaphor or a symbol for the real battle going on in the psyche but more importantly it creates a martial mindset. The WBK training system has a number of points that fit in very well with what is required in a training system that meshes with the way of the warrior:

1. It has at its base and core boxing training. While boxing is a sport, it is also a martial skill if not a martial art. Boxers world wide are known for being in excellent physical shape, and their entire training has but one purpose: getting ready for battle, nothing else. All of the skills in boxing stress efficiency: nothing is wasted, and no movements are without purpose. The martial way and its purpose are identical to this.

2. It makes use of an eight week training cycle that is specifically designed to push one beyond his limits, real or imagined. The warrior thrives going beyond his or her limits because that’s where he hunts for personal power, to paraphrase Robert Spencer.

3. It is a total body workout, by ‘total’ we don’t just means that it makes use of all the limbs (which it does) but it also involves, the muscular, skeletal, cardio-vascular, chakra  as well as the nervous systems (the latter being an extension of the brain which makes the training cerebral as well). This fulfills an important natural principle: the body, just like everything in nature was designed to function in unison and not as isolated parts.

4. This system, to quote Denis Piché Head Coach of the Ottawa GG football team, “messes with your head”. By that we mean that the routines are changed on a regular basis in order to get the WBK warrior out of his comfort zone. This point is extremely important to the martial way. Let Robert Spencer explain why: “When people without the warrior’s abilities, perspectives and experiences cross the threshold of the unknown their responses are confusion, fear, possibly panic, and usually retreat. The warrior welcomes the contact with the unknown as an opportunity for learning and increasing personal power. The average person seeks the comfort of what he or she already knows and abhors the confused feelings that come from entering the unknown realms. The warrior, on the other hand not only tolerates the unknown, but seeks it…the source of greater personal power being in the unknown, the warrior knows that he must cross the threshold. She cannot hunt more personal power in the known…In the unknown she must employ flexibility, a different set of skills.”

5. Finally, it has offered me and others the opportunity of coaching others. While not everyone who trains with WBK will be offered nor desire an opportunity to teach, it is important to me on two different levels. First, WBK takes a maximum of 12 students per class. Why is this so? Because any training system that is profound as WBK cannot be casually and carelessly taught. It must be taught with consideration, and attention. This cannot be done by one individual coaching 20 or 30 people. This parallels the ancient masters who preferred to teach small classes of dedicated students. Chris and Dana have found that one person can adequately coach 12 people in a quality fashion. Second, and this is the more important of the two, the path of the warrior requires that he or she imparts to others what has been imparted to him. After all, in seeking to overcome and break free from the path of slavery and fear, the warrior is seeking to break free from his own selfishness which really is the root of the problem. In The Spirit of Shaolin David Carradine states: “By reaching out to help the other student, one will find answers to one’s own weaknesses.” It follows then that acting as a guide to those who have chosen to walk along the same path as you for a while would be the natural consequence of this to this renunciation of selfishness. David Carradine also states: “The most profound and substantial of the Masters are that way because they teach, because what they care about is not their own glory but the enlightenment of their fellow man.”

As I once wrote to Chris Robinson, author of the article Eastern Philosophy Meets the Sweet Science, the trick is to get the body used to regular physical hardship. Not only does this produce physical health and wellness, it also produces spiritual attributes such as determination, fortitude, perseverance, patience, optimism, and confidence. Then over time calmness and serenity begins to show itself.

This last point is important because it means that the individual has shed the last vestiges of being controlled by fear and ‘binding habits’ and it is at that point that he or she can begin to truly live as a free human being. Gone is the knee jerk reaction of sacrificing long term gain for instant gratification. From that moment on, every course of action becomes strategic and based on awareness, and conscious choice.

However, there is always the danger of drifting back into old thought and behaviour patterns. That is why the key word is regular training. Indeed, this ability to forget lessons learned is the very reason why the way of the warrior is a ‘way’, a path along which one continually walks, and not just one short visit so to speak. All the points mentioned above describing WBK’s uniqueness explain why it is such a great vehicle for the martial way.

CONCLUSION

In summary, this is the very point that I was pondering that night as I was returning home from the interview which I found I had not explicitly explained: that the way of the warrior is a life style and a mindset that was used by ancient warriors to prepare for battle and that it has been transferred into the modern world as a way of leading a successful life. This successful life is one that is free from subconscious, automated actions and behaviour patterns often motivated by selfish concerns that seek to sacrifice long term quality of life over short term gain. It is a life style that emphasizes self-discipline precisely because it needs to be worked at every single minute of every single day.

We also saw that just as a person’s spirit can affect his mind and body, we can use the body to affect the mind, and spirit and that a regular martial training regimen provides the means to that end. We have outlined why WBK’s training regimen fulfills the requirements for the kind of training that will help the warrior on his or her path of awareness, self-mastery and self-discipline. In short, a WBK Warrior.

One last thing needs to be added in order to complete my explanation of the martial way. It is my deepest conviction that the martial way along with the transformation it leads to cannot be lived and attained without supernatural or divine help. Indeed, the way of the warrior is a spiritual path and as such precludes the existence of a spirit world as our ultimate destiny and thereby eschews a purely materialistic world view.

It is a fact that, in ancient times, no matter which culture the warrior was from he or she was a follower of one or more deities to whom they were devoted as part of their martial way. The only possible exception might be those who followed Zen Buddhism which religion officially recognizes no ultimate deity. Nonetheless, Zen Buddhism does posit the existence of a spiritual realm. Every individual is responsible for choosing his or her own deity, supernatural agency, or spiritual philosophy to which he or she will devote him or herself.

Personally, the supernatural agency I have chosen to be devoted to in this path is the God who reveals himself in the pages of the Holy Bible. The lives of two of the greatest warriors of the West can be read in its pages. One of them was King David of Israel. The other was Joshua from whose book I leave you with this quote: “…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…as for me and my house, we will serve God”. Joshua 24:15.

REFERENCE AND SUGGESTED MATERIAL FOR FURTHER READING
(In alphabetical order from author’s last name)

The Holy Bible
David Carradine, The Spirit of Shaolin, ( Tuttle, 1991)
F. J. Chu, The Martial Way and Its Virtues, (Boston, Massachusetts, YMAA Publication Centre, Inc. 2003)
Bruce Lee, Artist of Life, (Boston, Massachusetts, Tuttle Publishing, 1999)
Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior, (Novato California, New World Library, 1984)
Dan Millman, Body Mind Mastery, (Novato, California, New World Library, 1994)
Minamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings, translated by Thomas Cleary, (Boston, Massachusetts, Shambhala Classics, 1993)
Inazo Nitobe, Bushido: The Soul of Japan, (Tokyo, Japan Charles E. Tuttle, 1969)
P.D. Ouspensky, The Fourth Way, (New York, Vintage Books, 1971)
Robert L. Spencer, The Craft of the Warrior, (Berkeley Califronia, Frog Ltd. 1993)
John Stevens, Budo Secrets: The Teachings of the Martial Arts Masters, ( Boston & London, Shambhala, 2001)
Chogyam Trungpa, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, (Boton & London, Shambhala, 2003)