Blood & Ink: The Mind-Body Reality

“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.”

— Thucydides

Did you know Plato’s real name wasn’t even Plato?

Plato means “broad-shouldered” in Greek.

He was an Olympic Wrestler. There are legends that he used to settle arguments just by flexing at people. 😂

In a real way, his physicality was his strongest argument. I’ll do another piece on this—bringing back the ad hominem—sometime soon.

Now this quote is a quintessential example of the Warrior ethos. Illustrating the mythology permeating ancient Greek culture.

But let’s make it personal:

“The individual that separates his study from his training—his mind from his body, his theory from his practice—lacks courage in his arguments and skill in his actions.”

There is a marked difference in the quality, conviction, and force behind someone's words when they have the physical strength and skills to back up what they say.

If you know—consciously or unconsciously—that you don’t want to offend someone because if they get pissed off they could beat the sh*t out of you, it’s unimaginable the level of self-filtering that happens.

The gap between what you think and say grows vast. Even what you allow yourself to think becomes limited over time.

It takes courage, discipline, strength, and character to develop a strong body. You can’t get there by accident. Those characteristics feed into the quality and strength of your thoughts and speech.

The quintessential distinction between a Warrior and a Soldier is a total commitment to a transcendent ideal.

A soldier takes orders and puts his martial skills towards them. A Warrior decides what is worthy of his martial skill, and then acts in service of this. This requires purity of heart, strength of mind, and quality of thought.

There’s a very simple, and very real connection between the two of these, one I have neglected for far too long in my life: if you’re so smart, why aren’t you strong?

There is no distinction between mind and body.

The form of your body is a living representation of the form of your mind. Weak body, weak mind. Inflexible body, inflexible mind. Sick body, sick mind.

Don’t neglect this.

Cultivate your greatness. I love you,
EB.