Blood & Ink: Monday

Chogyam Trungpa’s got the best definition of a warrior…

In revisiting ‘Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior’, Trungpa starts the book by outlining what warriorship means in the Tibetan prophecy and lineage.

Translating from Tibetan, warrior means ‘one who is brave’.

Warriorship is the ‘tradition of human bravery’ or, better put, the ‘tradition of fearlessness’. 

This is the Warrior spirit I am after.

While the battlefield is a most ready and obvious arena where fearlessness and bravery are needed, this definition is expansive, allowing all individuals to be Warriors.

• It takes bravery to be honest with yourself.
• It takes bravery to initiate difficult conversations.
• It takes bravery to stand up against injustice.
• It takes bravery to keep your heart open.
• It takes bravery to pursue your dreams.
• It takes bravery to move through dark nights of the soul.

Warriorship is the tradition of human bravery.

Any individual, any culture, without this foundation of bravery at its core, is doomed. An inevitable victim to the slow arc of entropy. 

What areas of your life need your bravery right now? Where is courage being called for?

Call upon your spirit brothers and sisters. The world is with you.

Go forward,
Eric Brown.