The Manual Of The Warrior Of Light Part 2

'Acc.u.mulating love brings luck, acc.u.mulating hatred brings calamity. Anyone who fails to recognise problems leaves the door open for tragedies to rush in.'

'The battle is not the same as the quarrel.'

The warrior of light meditates.

He sits in a quiet place in his tent and surrenders himself to the divine light. When he does this, he tries not to think about anything; he shuts himself off from the search for pleasure, from challenges and revelations, and allows his gifts and powers to reveal themselves.

Even if he does not recognise them then, these gifts and powers are taking care of his life and will influence his day-to-day existence.

While he meditates, the warrior is not himself, but a spark from the Soul of the World. These are the moments that give him an understanding of his responsibilities and of how he should behave accordingly.

A warrior of light knows that in the silence of his heart he will hear an order that will guide him.

'When I draw my bow,' says Herrigel to his Zen master, 'there comes a point

when I feel as if I will get breathless if I do not let fly at once.'

'If you continue to try and provoke the moment when you must release the arrow, you will never learn the art of the archer,' says his master. 'Sometimes, it is the archer's own over-active desire that ruins the accuracy of the shot.'

A warrior of light sometimes thinks: 'If I do not do something, it will not be done.'

It is not quite like that: he must act, but he must allow room for the Universe to act too.

When a warrior is the victim of some injustice, he usually tries to be alone, in

order not to show his pain to others.

This is both good and bad.

It is one thing to allow one's heart to heal its wounds slowly, but it is quite another to sit all day in deep contemplation for fear of seeming weak.

Inside each of us there lives an angel and a devil, and their voices are very alike. Confronted by a problem, the devil encourages that solitary conversation, trying to show us how vulnerable we are. The angel makes us reflect upon our att.i.tudes and occasionally needs someone else's mouth to reveal itself.

A warrior balances solitude and dependence.

A warrior of light needs love.

Love and affection are as much a part of his nature as eating and drinking and a taste for the Good Fight. When the warrior watches a sunset and feels no joy, then something is wrong.

At this point, he stops fighting and goes in search of company, so that they can watch the setting sun together.

If he has difficulty in finding company, he asks himself: 'Was I too afraid to approach someone? Did I receive affection and not even notice?'

A warrior of light makes use of solitude, but is not used by it.

The warrior of light knows that it is impossible to live in a state of complete relaxation.

He has learned from the archer that, in order to shoot his arrow any distance, he must hold the bow taut. He has learned from the stars that only an inner explosion allows them to s.h.i.+ne. The warrior notices that when a horse is about to jump over a fence, it tenses all its muscles.

But he never confuses tension with anxiety.

The warrior of light always manages to balance Rigour and Mercy.

To attain his dream, he needs a strong will and an enormous capacity for acceptance; although he may have an objective, the path that leads to that objective is not always as he imagined it would be.

That is why the warrior uses a mixture of discipline and compa.s.sion. G.o.d never abandons His children, but His purposes are unfathomable, and He builds the road with our own steps.

The warrior uses that combination of discipline and acceptance to fuel his enthusiasm. Routine was never at the head of any important new movement.

The warrior of light sometimes behaves like water, flowing around the

obstacles he encounters.

Occasionally, resisting might mean being destroyed, and so he adapts to the circ.u.mstances. He accepts without complaint that the stones along the path hinder his way across the mountains.

Therein lies the strength of water: it cannot be shattered by a hammer or wounded by a knife. The strongest sword in the world cannot scar its surface.

The waters of a river adapt themselves to whatever route proves possible, but never forgets its one objective: the sea. So fragile at its source, it gradually gathers the strength of the other rivers it encounters.

And, after a certain point, its power is absolute.

For the warrior of light, there are no abstractions.

Everything is concrete and everything is meaningful. He does not sit comfortably in his tent, observing what is going on in the world; he accepts each challenge as an opportunity to transform himself.

Some of his companions spend their lives moaning about their lack of choice or pa.s.sing comment on the decisions made by other people. The warrior, however, transforms his thinking into action.

Sometimes he chooses the wrong goal and pays the price for his mistake without complaint. At others, he swerves from the path and wastes a great deal of time only to end up back where he started.

But the warrior never allows himself to be discouraged.

The warrior of light has the qualities of a rock.

When he is on flat terrain, everything around him is in harmony and he remains stable. People can build their houses upon him, and the storm will not destroy them.

When, however, he is placed on a slope, and the things around him show neither balance nor respect, then he reveals his strength; he rolls towards the enemy that is threatening his peace. At such moments, the warrior is a devastating force, and no one can stop him.

A warrior of light thinks about both war and peace and knows how to act in accordance with the circ.u.mstances.

A warrior of light who trusts too much in his intelligence will end up

underestimating the power of his opponent.

It is important not to forget that sometimes strength is more effective than strategy.

A bullfight lasts fifteen minutes; the bull quickly learns that it is being tricked, and its next step is to charge the bullfighter. When that happens, no amount of brilliance, argument, intelligence or charm can avert tragedy.

That is why the warrior never underestimates brute force. When it proves too violent, he withdraws from the battlefield until his enemy has exhausted himself.

The warrior of light knows when an enemy is stronger than he is.

If he decides to confront him, he will be destroyed instantly. If he responds to his provocations, he will fall into a trap. So he uses diplomacy to resolve the difficult situation in which he finds himself. When the enemy behaves like a baby, he does the same. When he challenges him to a fight, he pretends not to understand.

His friends say: 'He's a coward.'

But the warrior pays no attention; he knows that all the rage and courage of a little bird are as nothing to a cat.

In such situations, the warrior remains patient; the enemy will soon go off in search of others to provoke.

A warrior of light is never indifferent to injustice.

He knows that all is one and that each individual action affects everyone on the planet. That is why, when confronted by the suffering of others, he uses his sword to restore order.

But even though he fights against oppression, at no point does he attempt to judge the oppressor. Each person will answer for his actions before G.o.d and so, once the warrior has completed his task, he makes no further comment.

A warrior of light is in the world in order to help his fellow man and not in order to condemn his neighbour.

A warrior of light is never cowardly.

Flight might be an excellent form of defence, but it cannot be used when one is very afraid. When in doubt, the warrior prefers to face defeat and then lick his wounds, because he knows that if he flees he is giving to the aggressor greater power than he deserves.

In difficult and painful times, the warrior faces overwhelming odds with heroism, resignation and courage.

A warrior of light is never in a hurry.

Time works in his favour; he learns to master his impatience and avoids acting without thinking.

By walking slowly, he becomes aware of the firmness of his step. He knows that he is taking part in a decisive moment in the history of humanity and that he needs to change himself before he can transform the world. That is why he remembers the words of Lanza del Vasto: 'A revolution takes time to settle in.'

A warrior never picks the fruit while it is still green.

A warrior of light needs both patience and speed.

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are: acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions.

The caliph Moauiyat asked Omr Ben Al-Aas the secret of his great political skills: 'I never get involved in something without having first worked out my retreat; then again, I have never gone into a situation and immediately wanted to run straight out again,' came the answer.

A warrior of light often loses heart.

He believes that nothing can stir in him the emotion he so desired. He is forced to spend many evenings and nights feeling that he is one of the vanquished, and nothing seems able to restore his enthusiasm.

His friends say: 'Perhaps his fight is over.'

The warrior feels pain and confusion when he hears such remarks because he knows that he has not yet reached the place he wanted to reach. But he is stubborn and refuses to relinquish his aims.

Then, when he least expects it, a new door opens.

A warrior of light always keeps his heart free of any feelings of hatred.

When he goes into battle, he remembers what Christ said: 'Love your enemies.' And he obeys.

But he knows that the act of forgiveness does not mean that he must accept everything; a warrior cannot bow his head, for if he did he would lose sight of the horizon of his dreams.

He accepts that his opponents are there to test his valour, his persistence, his ability to make decisions. They force him to fight for his dreams.

It is the experience of battle that strengthens the warrior of light.

The warrior remembers the past.

He knows about man's Spiritual Quest, he knows that this Quest has been responsible for some of history's finest pages.

But also some of history's worst chapters: ma.s.sacres, sacrifices, obscurantism. It was used for personal ends and has seen its ideas used to defend the most terrible of intentions.

The warrior has heard people ask: 'How am I to know that the path I am on is the right path?' And he has seen many people abandon their quest because they could not answer that question.

The warrior has no doubts; he follows one infallible saying: 'By their fruits ye shall know them,' said Jesus. That is the rule he follows, and he never goes wrong.

The warrior of light knows the importance of intuition.

In the midst of battle, he does not have time to think about the enemy's blows, and so he uses his instinct and obeys his angel.

In times of peace, he deciphers the signs that G.o.d sends him.

People say: 'He's mad.'

Or: 'He lives in a fantasy world.'

Or even: 'How can he possibly believe in such illogical things?'

But the warrior knows that intuition is G.o.d's alphabet and he continues listening to the wind and talking to the stars.

The warrior of light sits around a fire with his companions.

They talk about his conquests, and any strangers who join the group are made welcome because everyone is proud of his life and of his Good Fight. The warrior speaks enthusiastically about the path, he tells how he resisted a particular challenge or speaks of the solution he found to one especially difficult situation. When he tells stories, he invests his words with pa.s.sion and romance.