The Heroic Ideal & The Warrior Spirit

by Wayne Gatfield

The Theosophical Society in England
Insight magazine Winter 2007 vol. 48 # 4

It may seem that the idea of a Warrior is incompatible with the Spiritual life, but in fact the image of the Warrior is used widely in Theosophical literature.

Wayne Gatfield is President of Bolton Lodge of the Theosophical Society in England. He also edits the Journal of the NorthWest Federation of the English Section. He is a keen poet and has had many of his works published.

It may seem that the idea of a Warrior is incompatible with the Spiritual life, but in fact the image of the Warrior is used widely in Theosophical literature. The Voice of the Silence tells us:

"No Arhan, O Lanoo, becomes one in that birth when for the first the Soul begins to long for final liberation. Yet, O thou anxious one, no warrior volunteering fight in the fierce strife between the living and the dead, not one recruit can ever be refused the right to enter on the Path that leads toward the field of Battle."

Later on in the same work:

''The fearless warrior, his precious life-blood oozing from his wide and gaping wounds, will still attack the foe, drive him from out his stronghold, vanquish him, ere he himself expires. Act then, all ye who fail and suffer,    act like him; and from the stronghold of your Soul, chase all your foes away - ambition, anger, hatred, e'en to the shadow of desire - when even you have failed.

Remember, thou that fightest for man's liberation, each failure is success, and each sincere attempt wins its reward in time. The holy germs that sprout and grow unseen in the disciple's soul, their stalks wax strong at each new trial, they bend like reeds but never break, nor can they e'er be lost. But when the hour has struck they blossom forth ... "

And in the Light on the Path:

"1. Stand aside in the coming battle, and though thou fightest be not thou the warrior.
2. Look for the warrior and let him fight in thee.
3. Take his orders for battle and obey them.
4. Obey him not as though he were a general, but as though he were thyself, and his spoken words were the utterance of thy secret desires for he is thyself, yet infinitely wiser and stronger than thyself. Look for him, else in the fever and hurry of the fight thou mayest pass him; and he will not know thee unless thou knowest him. If thy cry reach his listening ear then will he fight in thee and fill the dull void within. And if this is so, then canst thou go through the fight cool and unwearied, standing aside and letting him battle for thee. Then it will be impossible for thee to strike one blow amiss. But if thou look not for him, if thou pass him by, then there is no safeguard for thee. Thy brain will reel, thy heart grow uncertain, and in the dust of the battle-field thy sight and senses will fail, and thou wilt not know thy friends from thy enemies.
He is thyself, yet thou art but finite and liable to error. He is eternal and is sure. He is eternal truth. When once he has entered thee and become thy warrior, he will never utterly desert thee, and at the day of the great peace he will become one with thee."

Students of the Bhagavad-Gita will also be aware of the fact that the whole of that text revolves around the duties of the Warrior. In the traditions of Asian cinema and so called 'Martial Arts' films the idea of the self sacrificing hero who dies for love or for a good cause is perpetuated, whereas in the West the heroic ideal has degenerated along with the moral goals of society and so has emerged the 'anti-hero', an individual almost as ruthless and immoral as his adversaries. The lines of demarcation, between 'good' and 'evil' have blurred creating a 'flabby' moral awareness and a tendency to mistake the shadow for the substance and to strike out against those things that may be of use to us in our quest. Again in the Voice of the Silence are these words:

"'Ere the gold flame can burn with steady light, the lamp must stand well guarded in a spot free from all wind.' Exposed to shifting breeze, the jet will flicker and the quivering flame cast shades deceptive, dark and ever­changing, on the Soul's white shrine.
And then, O thou pursuer of the truth, thy Mind-Soul will become as a mad elephant, that rages in the jungle. Mistaking forest trees for living foes, he perishes in his attempts to kill the ever-shifting shadows dancing on the wall of sunlit rocks."

So we have to have a clear picture of the symbology of the Warrior. In one sense it can be equated to the mind that battles its way through a multitude of trials and temptations to reach the goal, whatever that is conceived to be. The Knights of the Round Table in their quest for the Holy Grail can be said to be symbolic of this journey or Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece. These goals have a nebulous quality so that they do not suggest something totally solid and tangible. The Holy Grail only reveals itself to someone who is worthy and only the most worthy may actually touch it. In Pre-Christian times the Grail took the form of a Magic Cauldron, again invested with mystical qualities and not to be treated lightly by the uninitiated.

In another sense the Warrior is that Spiritual dimension to our Being that guides us through the dark forests of our desires, doubts and fears. The more we are touched by that Higher Self the stronger the Warrior grows and the more certain we are in the battles of life. The 'Weapons' we use are varied in the case of a physical warrior. We may have Love as our sword and shield as necessary or even Silence. Sometimes Silence is the greatest 'weapon' in our crusade. In the film Hero, starring Jet Li, at the very end, the King, fearing his imminent death, gazes at a huge scroll that contains one of the many Chinese characters for the word 'sword' and he gains an insight into the meaning.

He realises that at the lowest level the character shows that man and sword are interchangeable and even a blade of grass can be used as a weapon, at the second level the sword is not a physical thing but resides in the heart. At the high­est level of understanding the sword disappears altogether and the warrior embraces all around him, the desire to kill has gone altogether and only peace and silence remain. It is significant that the king should realise this at the very moment he believes he will meet his death, as it is often at times of great crisis that Spiritual insights are gained, when a certain state of mind is reached.

As long as we cling to life and are immersed in its illusions and follies we will not see beyond the veil, but will always be looking in a 'glass darkly' or a mirror covered in dust. In another film The Silent Flute the hero again battles through many trials and temptations to reach a temple and find a book that contains the mystery of life. When he finally finds the book and opens it, all that is within the cover is ... a mirror!

Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, says that when someone approaches you in anger you should greet them with a smile, for that is the highest form of martial art. He talks of the art of Peace and says that the Warrior must always try to avoid conflict and bring about harmony. Aikido is a very non-confrontational practice and Morihei says that the Way of the Warrior is based on humanity, love and sincerity and that the heart of martial valour is true bravery, wisdom, love and friendship and also that the true warrior is always armed with three things; the radiant sword of pacification, the mirror of bravery, wisdom, love and friendship; and the precious jewel of enlightenment. To get some idea of more spiritual aspects of the Warrrior read Morihei Ueshibas words particularly in the book The Art of Peace edited by John Stevens (Shamballa 2002).

The mystical Irish writer AE (George William Russell) in his essay on the Hero in Man writes that:

"Yet there is a spirit in us deeper than our intellectual being which I think of as the Hero in man, who feels the nobility of its place ... , and who would fain equal the greatness of perception with deeds equally as great."

Of course 'man' is used in its true sense as these words apply equally to women. A very interesting trend in modern cinema is that women are coming increasingly to the fore as heroes, whereas even twenty years ago the woman was generally just the 'love interest' in a film. In Asian cinema women are nowadays just as adept in the martial arts as men. This is because more emphasis is placed on the use of chi or prana (life energy), which does not need brute strength. In fact a great deal of poetic grace is added to scenes that at one time were merely violent and repellent. Watch films like Hero; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; House of the Flying Daggers to become aware of this trend.

So the preceding words in this article are all pointing to the fact that the True Hero is something spiritual within us, the part of us that feels its true place amidst the cacophony of the world. This is symbolised in the above mentioned films where we enter a world where movement is dance and conversation song. Not the stereotypical, sycophantic movements in a world of shadows that constitutes modern society.

H. P. Blavatsky says in her article Genius:

"Yet, to this day the Ancients are accused of blasphemy and fetishism for their 'hero worship.' But have the modern historians ever fathomed the cause of such 'worship'! We believe not. Otherwise they would be the first to become aware that that which was 'worshipped,' or rather that to which honours were rendered was neither the man of clay, nor the personality -- the Hero or Saint So-and-So."

So the real 'hero' is our Spiritual Self and all the tales we have of grand quests to find some holy object or to rescue the Princess from the Tower were originally allegories of the pilgrimage of the Soul to find its way out of the illusory world and into the pure light of Reality. The quest can be as exciting as all these wonderful tales throughout the world, if we can look upon life, even in its worst phases, as an adventure and know that light will follow darkness, just a surely as day follows night. The same universal law applies in both cases. So no matter how long we may wander in despair, in time it must pass and the sun will shine with increasing splendour as the clouds disperse.

In the Latvian epic Lacplesis (the Bear Slayer) after witnessing a hellish scene in a mansion, involving a woman (Spidalda) he had previously thought to be beautiful and good, Lacplesis slips out of the house. But an old witch sees him and tells Spidala to dispose of our hero. She pursues him on a river, where the Bear Slayer's log is sucked down into the whirlpool of Staburags - to what should be a certain death. But the gods spare him. The Bear Slayer wakes up unscathed in the crystal chambers of Staburadze, where he encounters the beautiful Laimdota, the daughter of the wise old chieftain, Burtnieks. It is love at first sight! So this again is very evocative of the actions of the Higher Self (the Silent Watcher) which protects those who 'befriend' it and allow its actions into their lives. The beautiful Laimdota may refer to the more feminine side of our nature that is tender and compassionate and awakens love in us. Up until then Lacplesis was very warrior orientated and it is only at this point that love stirs in his heart, adding another dimension to his being.

At the very end of the story Lacplesis and the Black Knight are engaged in a fight to the death on the edge of a cliff. The Black Knight is aware that the source of Lacplesis' strength is his large ears and he lops them off. In the ensuing fight both of the combatants fall from the cliff and into the Daugava river and are never seen again, expressing the 'eternal' battle between good and evil. The story has other interesting elements such as the concern of the Ancient Gods over the arrival of Christianity in Latvia, but that is another article!

It is a good exercise in meditation to do as the Light on the Path says and to step aside and let the Warrior fight for us, in other words keep the personality out of the equation and let the much wiser Higher Self sort out our journey for us. This means that what befalls is not always pleasant because we usually are guided by our personality which is always looking for what is most pleasant to it and not what is most useful - the two are not compatible at times. The Higher Self knows what is needed to bring out the qualities that will help our Spiritual Life to blossom. It is not Science that will save us, or Philosophy or Religion - it is just working along with the Spirit within that means anything in the end. And the more that we free ourselves from mind numbing concepts and dogmas the more alive our Souls will become and more expansive, until they are like the clear blue sky. For our 'Black Knight' is surely the belief that intellectual teachings can reveal to us anything Spiritual or are any more than signposts on the Path, necessary at some stages but ultimately useless. Did not Gautama Buddha himself say that we need a raft to cross a river, but if we hold on to the raft after crossing it becomes a burden? Intellectual teachings are the raft.

Some people have related the word Sattva to the Sanskrit word Satvan which implies a hero, therefore they translate Bodhisattva as a spiritual hero. A Bodhisattva is generally regarded as one who delays his or her entry into Nirvana to help struggling humanity. This is of course the highest ideal of the hero and is one of the chief qualities of the heroes of legend who very frequently lose their lives to help others, whether that other is an individual or a nation. It is said in the Voice of the Silence that one must give up one's life if one is to really live. That is give up the life of the personality to live fully in the Spirit. H. P. B. has said that self-sacrifice is even more important than equal love for all and cites the example of Father Damien who went to live amongst the lepers at Molokai and died of the disease as a result. He was a true Theosophist and is a perfect example of a true Hero who was guided by his Higher Self and 'Compassion Absolute.' We may not be able to do something quite as monumental as that, but at least on our journey we can slay a few dragons, rescue a few  'maidens' and add our little mite to the battle between 'good ' and 'evil' and perchance one day come to the realization that even 'good ' and 'evil' are just concepts and it is only when we achieve that awakening that we can begin to have see clearly and understand the meaning of life.

For a list of recordings of talks by Wayne Gatfield send a stamped addressed envelope to Tapes Department, 50 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8EA or telephone Paulina on 0207 563 9815.

The Theosophical Society in England 2008
reproduced from 'Insight' Winter 2007, The Journal of The Theosophical Society in England