The Way of the Warrior: Holding Space for The Fourfold Way

[Winston Kinch]

Hallo Harrison.
With regard to your post, mebbie so...  and on the other hand mebbie not.
For instance, it is not obvious to me that Arrien speaks about the Way of the Warrior in the same way you are doing here - at least not in the piece below (ref. my underlined italics).
As for the writer of Ecclesiastes, good on him/her; but as we all know one can find support for anything in the bible, including in the old testament some of the worst "terrorist" acts perpetrated on mankind (viz: the flood).  Perhaps the New Testament would be less supportive of "a time to kill".
And is the Gita about war in the sense you infer? Or about war as a metaphor for the interior journey?
I am beset, as I expect many of us are, by conflicting feelings about the calls to "rout them out" etc.  But I remain unconvinced that the Way of the Warrior is the way of War.
So let the "great conversation", as you say, continue.  I tell my truth and remain open to outcome.
     
(Transcript from talk by Angeles Arrien at "Dreaming the New Dream Conference", Sun Valley, Idaho 1988)

Showing Up --The Way of the Warrior
This is the capacity to Honor and Respect our Self in equal proportion to how we Honor and Respect other people, the way of Honoring our limits and boundaries and also Respecting other people's limits and boundaries is an unlimited resource within. Respect means the willingness to look back with care. 

The way of the Warrior Honors three Universal Powers: 

The Power of Presence--Charisma and magnetism.
The Power of Communication
The Willingness to take a stand --to stand up for oneself--to know what it is we can stand up for. 

We could say that Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King and Gandhi had all three powers. The actual archetype of the Warrior is to honor and respect--not to kill! If we develop our concepts of Honor and Respect, there would not be the warrior that needs to protect and defend -- with "peacekeeper" missiles.

 

You wrote in part..


....It is not, I think, that one way is right and all others wrong. From the deep wisdom of the First Nation People comes the Medicine Wheel, and as Angie Arrien reminds us (The Fourfold Way) the ways are four: The Way of the Warrior, The Way of the Visionary, The Way of the Healer, and The Way of the Teacher. All are necessary, none are sufficient, and the health of a people, the health of a person, is dependant upon the continuing (sometimes contentious) dialogue amongst the Ways. Should that dialogue cease, we will cease, but even in dialogue, there is a time for speaking and a time for listening. It may well be that this is the time in which The Warrior must speak, not to the suppression of all other voices, for their time will surely come as well. 

The writer of Ecclesiastes (Chapter 3) understood all this very well --

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens.
A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to puck up that which is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal: a time to break down, and a time to build up.
............................................
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace.

I tremble to know that it is the time of the Warrior, but if it is such a time, I prey that The Warrior speaks with strength. It is one of The Ways, and it may be the way of the moment. Those of you who have read The Bhagavad Gita will remember the core story of the great Warrior Arjuna's anguish as a he seeks to realize himself as he is -- a warrior, even though that necessitates killing members of his family.

If in fact it is time for the Way of the Warrior, so be it. To all those young men and women who will be set in harm's way, I pray that you follow your chosen path with pride and competence. And I pray that you may return. But live or die, please be fully what you are. Warriors. It seems that you are needed. 

I have fears for sure, but my greatest fear is NOT that it is the time of the Warrior. My greatest fear is that in the heat of the moment, our space becomes closed so that there is no room for the necessary, ongoing conversation between The Warrior, The Visionary, The Healer, and The Teacher. This closure of space begins the moment we conclude there is only one Way, and all others must be demonized. It is so easy for Warriors to condemn Healers as softheaded and gutless. And the Healers to scorn Warriors as being beyond the moral pall and pariahs in the land of the civilized. 

The great conversation must continue, and I believe we in this community have the special obligation to keep the Space open for that continuance. It won't be easy, for sure, and especially difficult will be our peculiar task of holding the space without blame or judgement -- letting go of any attachment to particular outcomes. We won't always succeed, but fortunately there are a lot of us, and when one space closes, another can be opened. Good Luck.

Harrison  
 

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