On Being a Warrior

Chogram Trung­pa Rinpoche

Any­one who is inter­est­ed in hear­ing the dhar­ma (teach­ings), any­one who is inter­est­ed in find­ing out about one­self, and any­one who is inter­est­ed in prac­tic­ing med­i­ta­tion is basi­cal­ly a warrior.

The approach of cow­ardice is look­ing for some tremen­dous exter­nal help, whether it comes from the sky or from the earth. You are afraid of actu­al­ly see­ing your­self; there­fore you use spir­i­tu­al­i­ty or reli­gion as a seem­ing way of see­ing your­self with­out look­ing direct­ly at your­self at all.

Basi­cal­ly, when peo­ple are embar­rassed about them­selves, there’s no fear­less­ness involved. There­fore, any­body who is inter­est­ing in look­ing at one­self, find­ing out about one­self, and prac­tic­ing on the spot could be regard­ed as a warrior.

A Warrior’s Philosophy

The start­ing point is acknowl­edg­ing that some kind of good­ness exists in us.

It is nec­es­sary to take that arro­gant atti­tude, pos­i­tive­ly speak­ing. There is some feel­ing of uplift­ed­ness. We are wor­thy peo­ple, and we have some­thing going for us.

We are not all that total­ly wretched. Of course, we do have the wretched aspect that we have to face and look at. That is absolute­ly nec­es­sary in order to real­ize the oth­er part. But they don’t actu­al­ly inter­act as counterparts.

It’s sim­ply that you go through your clouds, and then you see your sun. That is the basic approach, the basic idea we should take towards the wor­thi­ness of our existence.That, by the way, is the war­rior’s phi­los­o­phy of look­ing at ourselves.

Sources:
From a sem­i­nar on “War­rior­ship” by Bud­dhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa.

From Talk One of “War­rior­ship in the Three Yanas,” an unpub­lished sem­i­nar giv­en by Chogyam Trung­pa at the Rocky Moun­tain Dhar­ma Cen­ter, August 22, 1978.

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