Walking the Way

"To be a warrior is not a simple matter of wishing to be one. It is rather an endless struggle that will go on to the very last moment of our lives." --Carlos Castaneda



The warrior has existed since the dawn of man in one form or another. Many books have been written about the path of the warrior, about the hundreds of different warrior cultures that have existed, but they only describe small pieces of the mosaic that is The Way of The Warrior. This is not to denounce or discredit any of the researchers or authors who have written these books, because they have illuminated pieces of a vast puzzle so that others may use them as guides. There may be no person who fully and completely understands all that being a warrior encompasses.


"The path of the Warrior is lifelong, and mastery is often simply staying on the path."
-- Richard Strozzi Heckler


I have walked this path for over a decade and have only glimpsed at its intricacies. When I first started to live the Way, I thought I knew what it meant, what it was to be a warrior. As I have gone further down the path, I look back and see how naive I was. This path is like walking up a mountain. At times, you see it rounding out ahead of you, appearing to be a summit, but once you reach that point, you see that there is still further to climb. The difference between the Warrior Path and an actual mountain is that there is no summit, no peak, no ultimate goal. The goal is walking the path.


Becoming a warrior is not a one time achievement, rather it is something that must be earned again and again. Everyday, you must reaffirm being a warrior, even if just to yourself. This is not something to be discouraged by, but a challenge to be met. I leave you with this excerpt from The Hagakure:

But there is one transcending level, and this is the most excellent of
all. This person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way and never thinks
of himself as having finished. He truly knows his own insufficiencies and never in his whole life
thinks that he has succeeded. He has no thoughts of pride but with self-abasement knows the Way
to the end. It is said that Master Yagyu once remarked, "I do not know the way to defeat others,
but the way to defeat myself.''

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than yesterday, more skillful than
today. This is never-ending.