Warriorship

You don’t have to carry a gun.

You could wear decent clothes,

wash your face, be simply splendid.

When my teacher, Trungpa, started to

teach in America, his students, myself,

were all dirty hippies…we thought it cool

to let it all hang out.

When he asked us to cut our hair, wear

nice clothes, suits and ties, some of the

students were outraged and left his sangha.

Others of us realized we felt better.

Decency, kindness, authenticity, awake,

were things we could actually learn.

Killing with kindness is a phrase in our

lexicon we have heard.

It simply means being a good example.

Our clothes were our armor against

losing our minds in carelessness.

Isn’t that why people dress up for Church?

The same logic applies.

Why wait until Sunday to put on a good

face for the world?

We could always be decent and available 

to others.

Shambhala, enlightened society, happens that way.

“Fake it until you make it.” has some bearing here.

You don’t know until you try.

Osmosis is one way we learn, absorbing information 

through constant exposure,

like boot camp for Marines,

like practice at the dojo.

One thing’s for sure, the mind needs to be trained.

If you don’t do it yourself, the world does it for you.

Discipline leads to freedom…a master who’s gone

beyond training is an example.

We can master our lives or get lost in confusion,

blown this way and that by whatever arises.

That is our choice, and it’s always been that way.

A word to the wise is sufficient.