Part 2 (1/2)

'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.