How do people write blogs?
This discussion started days ago, at the very bottom of the page. So now it's completely ass-backwards, and getting more so every time I add something to it. Oh, well. Maybe that describes life's proper trajectory. Going forward can appear backward in the eyes of the world.
As I continue to re-read Karen Armstrong's book The Great Transformation, The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, when I get to the section on the Bhagavad-Gita, or Song of the Lord, I'm reminded that Krishna answered the question "How do we defend ourselves from predators without becoming predatory ourselves?" 2300 years ago, as he counseled Arjuna on the eve of a major battle between warring princes:
...How could a warrior do his sacred duty to society without incurring the bad effects of the violent karma that he was forced to commit?
...Krishna proposed that Arjuna practice an alternative kind of yoga: karma-yoga. He made a shocking suggestion: even a warrior who was fighting a deadly battle could achieve moksha (awakening to one's true self). To achieve this, he had to dissociate himself from the effect of his action--in this case the battle, and the death of his kinfolk. Like any yogin, the man of action (karma) must give up desire. He could not permit himself to lust after the fame, wealth, or power that would result from the military campaign. It was not the actions themselves that bound human beings to the endless round of rebirth, but attachment to the fruits of these deeds. The warrior must perform his duty without hope of personal gain, showing the same detachment as a yogin...
...he must take the "me" and "mine" out of his deeds, so that he acted quite impersonally... by practicing karma-yoga he would in fact be detached from the world, even while he was living and active in it...could learn to transcend selfishness in the ordinary duties of daily life...
...the whole material world was a battlefield in which mortal beings struggle for enlightenment with the weapons of detachment, humility, nonviolence, honesty, and self-restraint. (bold added)
--The Great Transformation, The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, pgs. 431-7
--Karen Armstrong
OK. Fight only when necessary, never for glory, and only for defense. Got it. Act like Yoda.
Which is so against human nature, with its psyche simply crammed full of archetypes like the ogre, the tyrant, the selfish stepmother, the cruel Baba Yaga. No wonder it takes some yoga, some sort of spiritual discipline, to access our saint or our wise ruler!
And not only do we have trouble changing masks -- we want to put that warrior mask on and leave it on, stomp around like Achilles, reap the spoils of victory, scare the shit out of lesser mortals -- half the time we don't know if what we're fighting for is worth having. I gave up 35 years of my life and all I got was a heap of possessions and a giant mortgage I'll never be able to pay off.
What if the warrior finds himself engaged in a battle he no longer believes in, or feels to be unjust?
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