Warrior Traditions

by Dr. Kevin L. Keough

The Cambridge Dictionary defines a warrior: " a soldier, usually one who has both skill and experience at fighting, especially in the past; a Samurai warrior". For purposes of clarity and understanding this term in this context, a few additional ideas are introduced: a warrior is not a brute simply trained in the art and techniques of killing-this notion represents the precise opposite of a true warrior; kill; a true warrior enters lifelong rigorous training to cultivate the personal qualities and skills necessary to live as a warrior, or more specifically a 'soul warrior'; a warrior is someone trained to serve and protect the vulnerable and innocent from predators; a warrior is someone who uses skillful means to resolve conflict without causing injury if possible; many police officers and members of the military enter this tradition-military training for officers in the military include courses in the nature and history of warrior traditions. However, a warrior-for our purposes-can come from any background.

What is a warrior culture or tradition?

There have been special warrior cultures in countless societies across the globe, through every era in history. There are several well-known warrior traditions: the Ancient Greeks-Achilles and Hercules, the Vikings, the Romans, the Celts, Knights and Chivalry-Knights of the Roundtable, African Tribesmen, Native American Warriors, Chinese Warrior Monks, Japanese Samurai, and 20th Century warriors. Most people have a passing familiarity with 'King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable' and the 'Shaolin monks'%u2026enough to recognize such warriors are admirable, courageous people necessary for the preservation of a community or civilization.

What does the 'way of the warrior' mean?

Each warrior tradition is supported by a coherent philosophy, code of conduct, method of training, and a unique approach to living. The way of the warrior has come to be known as 'a path with a heart'. Warriors tend to remain mindful of death. Continual awareness of one's mortality keeps a person focused on the sacred things in life. Life remains a mystery. As a man embarks on the warrior's path he becomes aware, in a gradual way that ordinary life has been left behind together. A warrior recognizes the existence of a universal natural law that operates on human beings. The existence of the natural way is never questioned because its effects are everywhere to be seen.

What is a 'soul warrior'?

There isn't a dictionary definition of this term, to the best of my knowledge. The Cambridge Dictionary defines soul: " the spiritual part of a person that some believe exists after death; a part of a person which is not physical and experiences deep feelings and emotions". For our purposes, the definition of a "Soul warrior": a specific type of warrior who devotes his or her life to the service and protection of the soul.

Why do we need soul warriors ?

Human beings can be intimidated, threatened, assaulted, oppressed, etc. in many ways. A soul warrior is someone committed to the service and protection of human beings-particularly their health and spiritual lives. The term psyche comes from the Greek word for soul. So, strictly speaking 'psychology is a study of the soul' more than the study of the 'mind' or 'human behavior'.

The entire issue of minds and souls as separate from the brain is very controversial. Most mainstream scientists believe that human consciousness is a brain process-nothing more, nothing less. However, Nobel Prize winning neuroscientists and many highly reputable scientists believe it is intellectually indefensible to advance this theory as a 'fact'. Some psychologists think that the mind is an emergent process of the brain, that developed during the evolutionary process. Some scientists think the mind is connected to the brain but separate from it somehow.

A group of philosophers and psychologists called phenomenologists (Phenomenology is an ancient tradition that concerns itself with the examination and understanding of human experience) believe that human beings are best understood to be souls temporarily attached to bodies. Most people who will entertain the notion of soul, assume people are bodies with immortal souls. Phenomenologists suggest that we are 'ensouled'---that our bodies exist inside of a soul. To the chagrin of scientists who have succumbed to 'scientism', this ancient notion can't be scientifically disproved. However, people who subscribe to this view can come under vicious attack from mainstream scientists who view talk of souls to be nothing but superstitious nonsense.

In fact, the notion of a human soul was written out of mainstream scientific theory a long time ago. According to these scientists---who can offer nothing of value to a discussion of love, hate, joy, misery, wonder, mystery%u2026.the world as experienced by ordinary human beings-we don't exist. There isn't a spiritual dimension to human existence, no souls, no purpose, no meaning%u2026%u2026%u2026.no need to even bother with the experience of human beings. We and the world we live in, this lived world, this experienced world, the experience of ourselves and other people is irrelevant.

Now, such a view of the world-if believed-has real consequences for how we feel about life, ourselves, other people, and the world. Some people recognize it as a prescription for despair, and call it nihilism. Many scientists find nothing troubling or confusing or inconsistent about this state of affairs. Many people can be intimidated by 'intellectual bullies' into not trusting-abandoning their experience of the world. They don't feel equipped to engage in intellectual sparring with the 'experts'. Given such a situation, there would be need for a certain type of person who could assert plausible alternative hypotheses or tentative conclusions about such matters. . We simply can't have intellectual bullies-usually arrogant and as rigid as the fundamentalist Christians they love to hate-running around issuing 'truths' about human beings that predispose them to despair and ill health. Soul warriors are quite adept at debate and showing the Achilles heel of scientism.

Soul warriors receive rigorous training in all matters that can affect the health of souls. Soul warriors often come from healing professions. Like their counterparts in the Native American tradition-shamans or medicine men-soul warriors tend to be part warrior, part wise person, part healer. It is not uncommon for a soul warrior to be a psychologist or psychiatrist, who studies the martial arts, especially the 'internal' martial arts'. The way of the warrior is a path with heart.

Warriors tend to pass through periods of struggle and challenge in their younger years. Let go of a macho association to this concept. Warriors are like priests of different sorts. They seem to report feeling a bit set apart from most people, that their paths diverge from the tribe yet enjoy sitting around a fire with a group of ordinary people.

Why does 'warrior psychology' sound so strange?

Well, it shouldn't sound strange given the critical role that warriors have played in history. Warriors appear in every culture in history. The idea sounds strange because we tend to be unfamiliar with the concept and/or associate it with wild-eyed men with an unhealthy passion for killing. It is a truism that schools simply don't teach us the most important ideas and lessons in life-this is just another example. Civilizations tend to breed mediocrity. Those in positions of political and military power have always felt threatened by warriors and warrior traditions.

How do 'soul warriors' and 'warrior psychology' have anything of practical use to me?

The martial arts of everyday life. Human beings face trials and tribulations every day. Life isn't easy. A sober and careful examination of interpersonal relationships, how we treat each other, reveals that lies, deception, betrayal, hurtful words, attempts to control, intimidate, threaten, stealing are common. We are socialized to abide by a social contract.

Human relationships are either blest by the presence of love or haunted by it's absence. At the highest levels, the martial arts have always focused on intrapersonal self-defense (achieving stillness; protecting ourselves from negative thoughts, feelings and actions that cause harm) and the cultivation of harmony in interpersonal relationships. There are many people in our lives who would attempt to intimidate, control, and use words and actions to harm us. Sometimes, it is those closest to us who intentionally or unknowingly do things that could cause harm. Life is sometimes called a brutal and dangerous jungle. It is critical we learn skillful, effective, non-violent ways to protect ourselves from the rough and tumble world and people in it.

The martial arts of everyday life represent the application of the outward physical skills, techniques, strategies of the martial arts to the interpersonal world-social relationships- and the intrapersonal world-our relationship with ourselves. Truthfully, the martial arts at the highest levels view the mastery of physical forms, katas, techniques, ideas, and so on as a 'metaphor' or a convenient way of coming to a mastery of the martial arts of everyday life. One of my mentors, the Scottish psychiatrist-R.D. Laing-developed an approach to psychotherapy based on the 'three M's': Music, Meditation, and the Martial Arts of Everyday Life. He died before he was able to publish some of his later ideas. Laing, represents a modern day 'soul warrior'.

His primary contribution to psychiatry was to present an unimpeachable argument for the inclusion of the soul in modern psychological theories. The inclusion of such a theory has serious implications for the application of such theories in psychotherapy or how we relate to each other in daily life. One of his last books called "The Voice of Experience" (experience being equivalent to the soul) presents his case. Laing refused to allow intellectual bullies to intimidate people to such a degree that they felt obligated to abandon or trust their experience of the world. He offered a plausible alternative that continues to resonate with and sustain many people.

"Music, Meditation, and the Martial Arts of Everyday Life" is one of the most direct ways to develop the ideas we've reviewed. This model will be developed and presented to facilitate a discussion of 'soul warriors', warrior psychology', 'the way of the warrior', and related themes. That's all for the moment.

Marc was a perfect person to lead off this series. I found him to be a well-informed, articulate, guide to the ins and outs, ups and downs, landmines, goldmines, politics, pressure to conform to politically correct ideas designed to mislead many in efforts to protect egos.

Marc emphasized the importance of martial training that values adaptation and evolution of fighting systems to meet the demands of reality and the characteristics of those who train so they can effectively tell predators their licenses to prey on the innocent have been revoked by warriors prepared to risk their lives in fulfilling their vow to protect the innocent no matter the odds.

He discussed the apparently controversial fact that a person who has invested in sports oriented martial arts without exposure to genuine martial situations might well be humbled by young guys trained to fight as a matter of survival, with little or no formal martial arts training out in a city jungle.

Marc shed light on the historic tension between martial art traditionalists-esp those engaged in sports oriented training with no exposure to martial situations and police officers who risk their lives to protect people who view them as 'less than', as expendable, berated by the 'elite liberal anti law enforcement establishment' who exercise their 'right' to engage in "Monday morning Quarterbacking' of the actions of police officers confronted with impossible situations. Marc noted that the information and skills necessary for Er physicians and police officers to provide perform their respective jobs in professional, competent, creative, and highly skilled ways have far more in common than not. Yet, we devalue and express contempt for police officers.

Marc led a fascinating exploration of the meaning of the term-'warrior', warrior traditions, various ways people learn self defense strategies and tactics. We talked for a good while, time seemed to fly, and apparently this interview has received an astonishing amount of attention.

Not surprisingly, three or four representatives from Japanese and Filipino traditions have also received an unusual amount of attention. These guests, who either had law enforcement and/or military experience presented their systems and traditions in a way that seemed not to contradict any of the major themes outlined by MacYoung.

It was a real blast to talk with Marc. The only problem I have with Marc is that his forefathers are of the Scots-irish tradition--like James Webb. Only an Irishman with roots in County Kerry could find fault with the Scots-Irish. I happen to be a 'touched' Kerryman, just grumpy because the damn Scots-irish require us to maintain martial awareness. Actually, Kerrymen quite like the Scots-Irish, admire and respect their skill and courage. There are no problems unless the Scots-irish suggest they have something on the Kerrymen; then trouble may begin but it is the kind of ferocious fighting that draw these two groups together as brothers in the beauty of a good ling nasty battle.

Many thanks to Marc MacYoung.

Martial Arts Background- Part one

I have been getting lots of questions from people wanting to know about my martial arts background. Initially, I was puzzled because I had convinced myself I had already covered this territory. So, I'll give some information about life events that fueled my interest, I divide my martial arts experience into two general categories: formal martial arts training in the conventional sense and a series of 'martial life experiences.

Why do I give all this background in response to simple questions about my martial arts training ? Well, I believe these experiences are an integral part of my training. It has seemed that my motivation for or experience in training has differed sharply from most of my peers. People can train for 25years in a system and never have to deal with a martial situation. Martial situations are pretty much a routine part of my day to day life. Telling bad guys 'no' has been too much a part of my life. These experiences have transformed me in many ways. Words can't explain how or how much. I have given such detail because it's a part of who I am. Also, it's been a way for me to step back and look at my life and my trainng from a different perspective.

I don't consider myself to be a tough guy. I don't go looking for trouble. My biggest fear is finding myself in a situation where I'd have to kill someone. I don't provide this background information to make myself out to be some kind of Clint Eastwood. I'm not proud of any of what follows. It just is what it is. I have not exaggerated. I have omitted many of the more dramatic encounters I've experienced because I don't feel like writing about them.

I think I am trying to 'kill two birds with one stone' by giving such detail. I need to write an informal 'About me"; this will cover some of that. For people who just want to know the bottom line re number of years and systems trained in formal martial arts training, skip to the bottom. However, I'd ask you to ask yourself why formal training in a setting that presents no real martial situations seems to be the most important information to you.

Martial arts blood and life experiences that contribute to formal arts training

I'm the oldest of 6 kids from an Irish-Catholic family. We trace our roots to Ireland and County Kerry in particular. So, I am a Kerryman at heart and proud of it. Within Ireland, Kerrymen are considered to be second class citizens at best, lunatics and menaces more or less. It's important to me that people know the Irish immigrants met serious discrimination and harsh treatment when they reached America.

The Irish, mostly Catholics, were considered the lowest life form possible---lower than blacks, latinos, lower than many animals. The second generation immigrants issued a challenge to the prevailing power group in NYC they called the "Know-nothings". The 'know nothings' were largely composed of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants; they defeated the first wave of Irish immigrants who challenged their authority in a bloody battle in Hell's Kitchen. Well, things were different in the second battle. Irish men, women, and children crushed the 'Know nothings'.

The victory was so decisive it allowed the Irish to issue to would be immigrants around the world, a declaration of sorts. More or less, the Irish message was something like this: 'let the word go forth from this time and place that people from any ethnic group are now welcome in America-we have defeated those who would have it otherwise".

For the record, this curious anti-Irish attitude isn't ancient history. To this day, continental Europeans call the Irish 'the niggers of Europe." I encountered evidence of this when I traveled through Europe with a backpack in 1982. Irish history was passed on to me through the oral tradition but most effectively through non verbal communication. It runs through my veins. There is a reason we are called 'the Fighting Irish'. My roots go a long way to answer how I got involved in the martial arts.

I'm a 4th generation native Delawarean. "What good can come from Delaware"; most people don't even know Delaware is a state. Place is important to me. My roots are blue collar though my father was successful in breaking into the white collar community; this was exceedingly important to him for many reasons. My father was not a fighter in the traditional sense. However, I don't know of any human being who could out-work him. Naturally, I was taught to defend and protect my brother and sisters-which included paying visits after the fact to guys who had disrespected my sisters. Similarly, I was taught to protect and defend the underdog, anyone being picked on, vulnerable and innocent people---always and everywhere. This training runs so deep, it's instinctive or reflexive.

I was pretty fortunate growing up in that I wasn't targeted much for teasing or bullying. The first truly humiliating experience I had re fighting came in the spring of 7th grade at recess in the school parking lot. Without warning, I found myself getting hammered by Stevie Hannig, 8th grader,-the baddest ass in our school (no doubt in retaliation for some beating he got the year before by some 8th graders for messing with us when we were in 6th grade). As was custom, every kid in the schoolyard formed a large circle around us chanting "Fight, Fight, Fight..". I remember seeing eyes of genuine concern because of Stevie Hanning's reputation. In hindsight, I realize I could have held my own if not beaten the kid if not for element of surprise and fear related to his reputation. I don't think I threw a punch. I don't think I blocked a punch. I just stood there and took them. It went on for an eternity. The humiliation was beyond words. I promised myself that this would never happen again.

At the time, this meant I was to get stronger than anyone around by lifting weights. For 6 years, 3-4 times a week-without fail---I stuck with a weight lifting program. I wasn't into body building. I simply went for strength. It started to 'show' and I got nicknamed 'Pipes'. Truthfully, there were only two guys on the football team who could bench press more than me ( I weighed 168 and benched 320 free weight; that is pretty unusual for those of you who don't know about such things). One guy was doing steroids and was strong as an ox to start. The other guy had 100 pounds on me and went on to play college football.

My appearance settled virtually every conflict before it became physical. This was nice because I attended the all-male Catholic high school hated by all the public schools, kind of like Notre Dame is hated by most college football teams. I held my ground in the one in school fight I got into----with Keith Walton---our star defensive lineman with the reputation as the scariest dude in my grade. He made it clear his life goal was to become a mercenary and he looked the part.

Formal Martial Arts Training

I've only logged about a dozen years off formal training in three different schools. The first was a year spent in a Chinese system that emphasized the 5 elements. It was fascinating stuff and gave me a good foundation.

I attended many seminars, watched videos, trained on my own, found guys to spar a bit until I gotback into formal training. The majority of the second round of training was in a system called "Flowing Hands" by my Sifu-Eo Omwake. There was a major emphasis on history, philosophy, etiquette, self-cultivation, qigong, in addition to 'training'. This emphasis has had a profound effect on me and resulted in a deep and abiding respect for my Sifu. He trained under some of the most respected Chinese masters along with Ed Parker and the Kenpo crowd. Eo is a well-known artist in addition to martial arts instructor.

He teaches Yang style Tai Chi, many forms of qiqong, an extraordinary mix of animal forms (he seemed drawn to Praying mantis, Tiger, and Crane). So we learned animal forms, striking forms, kicking forms, martial qiqong forms, self-defense techniques, etc.

We went over the fundamentals, and then went over the fundamentals, and then moved outside to review the fundamentals. A tenth of an inch 'off' in placement of one's foot would call for an hour of fundamentals to get in right. We could spend an entire class working on the horse stance or throwing a simple punch.

Eo made it very clear he wasn't training people to win form competitions. When he sensed people when doing embroidery kicks and flowery punches, he would remind us, this was not a game. We were being trained to kill and we needed to wrap our heads around that. This is something he repeated on a regular basis. There was a seriousness and intensity to the way he trained us that drove this point home.

He was demanding. And he made us very aware of the differences between the kind of training his masters went through and he went through as compared to the watered down expectations of modern training. As he moved around, I felt like there was a tiger moving around. He picked up some of the stern attitude and demeanor of the old Chinese masters. He could be grumpy as hell. He stuck to the 'three times rule'. He'd correct you and demonstrate the proper way of doing something three times. If you didn't get it, he was not going to waste his time on you. When you picked it up elsewhere, he'd send some nonverbal recognition. He gave all beginners equal time. However, he focused his attention on students who seemed serious about learning.

We were required to not simply recite central concepts and principles but demonstrate clear evidence we 'got' 'gravitational marriage' 'torque' 'economy of movement', martial awareness, etc in our movements. Etiquette was as important as any martial movement. When the bathroom needed cleaning, I cleaned it. When we bowed, we really bowed and felt it.

Our entire wushu system was infused with Tai Chi energy%u2026%u2026it was an internal system. He disabused people of the notion Tai Chi was some pacifist system. Playing push hands with him usually resulted in bruises. He was one of the most gentle guys I've ever met not on the floor.

We did a fair amount of'jing' sparring where we would operate 25 % speed and gradually increase it to a point. He was big into control. If someone didn't control a backfist, they were off the floor.

Eo invited many top teachers to come for weekend seminars. These were great learning experiences.

During this time period my buddy was pretty advanced in wing chun. We learned a lot from jing sparring.

I spent about a decade with Eo, interrupted by a few hiatus periods. I believe my training with him saved my life in many ways. We learned how to apply the martial arts of everyday life and how what the warriors path was about. He harnessed the raw martial energy I was absorbing from the street and taught me the fine points.

Most of my informal training to the present is focused on things learned from him.

I spent some time learning abit of Tae Kwon Do. Very interesting and useful.

I am fortunate to come across lots of people to exchange information, practice self-defense techniques, and slow speed sparring. I spend lots of time imagining likely scenarios I will encounter and see how best to respond.

I am preparing to get back into formal training after a 4 year break. I am gravitating toward jiu jitsu and some escrima.

The more I learn, the more I realize I am just a beginner and always will be. I'm not interested in belts or sashes or glitz or glamour. I tend to hold my cards close to the vest. I find it useful to play 'country dumb.'

I believe there is as much to be gained by spending time doing nei gong as there is doing forms, sparring, and the rest. Some people will spend a few years just learning to 'stand'. They swear by the importance of this practice. I sense they are on to something.

I work on humility, patience, and perseverance every day. I am playing around with strategy and tactics continually. I do my best to live the 'martial arts of everyday life'.

Bottom line: I am nobody special very content to be a beginner, feeling very fortunate to have had the training I've had so far.

So, that's my answer to questions about my training for now anyway.

I hope everybody finds something in the quips, thoughts, quotes, wisdom....below to strike a chord or a stick up side the head....whatever you need. Kevin

WARRIORSHIP

"Wherever I go,
Everyone is a little bit safer,
Because I am there."
- from "The Warrior Creed" by Robert L. Humphrey

"New-Age America produces books and workshops on the 'New Warrior,' a man or woman who lives impeccably - austere, protecting the weak, willing, perhaps, to stand his or her ground and fight, but more important, calm and graceful - the warrior as metaphor. We imagine the warrior in bed, in the boardroom, in marriage, the warrior on the golf-course. But these writers seem to forget that the warrior's values, as admirable as they may be, are won at terrible cost. The warrior as metaphor often offends me, because the battlefield stinks of blood and shit, and sings of screams and flies. Certainly the values that writers such as Dan Millman extol are admirable, but I would hesitate to call anyone a warrior unless we are not talking about a fellow ubermenschen, but instead a deeply flawed and guilty human being, who strives at the risk of the loss of comfort, of home, of even his or her own soul to protect what must be protected, to maintain a moral sense in a place where no morality can conceivably exist."
- Ellis Amdur, from Dueling with O-sensei (p. 121)

"Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. . . . He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world."
- Raymond Chandler, from The Second Chandler Omnibus (pp. 14-15)

"Warriorship is a profession of courage, a calling to valor - not just on the battlefield, but in all of life's conflicts."
- Forrest E. Morgan

"The warrior preserves and protects but does not conquer, dominate, or subjugate. Only the enemy will have to fear a warrior's skills."
- Richard Heckler

"The warrior's role in society is to protect life and social order by placing himself between that which would endanger both."
- Greg Walker

"If there is any hope for the future, it surely must rest upon the ability to stare unflinchingly into the heart of darkness."
- unknown

"To practice Zen or the Martial Arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve - as if you might die in the next instant."
- Taisen Deshimaru

"A complete warrior is one who can act appropriately. Such an individual can kill if that is necessary to preserve other's lives, or he can die for others. But such an individual also possesses the power to find a way through conflicts to a non-combative resolution. This power can create a real peace between people. Such a person's presence, rather than intimidating, calms and gives strength to others."
- Ellis Amdur, from Old School (p. 37)

"A warrior's strategy is designed to bring his commitment into action, develop his being, and enhance his knowledge. Living strategically requires the warrior to eliminate impulsive, whimsical actions and cease being a slave to his likes and dislikes. Actions and decisions are to be based on the warrior's strategy and have a well-considered quality to them, even when undertaken with lightning speed. To abandon one's strategy is to abandon the path itself."
- Robert L. Spencer, from The Craft of the Warrior (p. 33)

"The quest of a true martial artist, in any culture or society, is to preserve life - not destroy it."
- Dan Inosanto, from The Filipino Martial Arts (p. 170)

"Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole body and soul can be a true master. For this reason, mastery demands all of a person."
- unknown

"Warriors use their intent and will to shape their lives. All of their actions are conscious, intentional, and complete."
- Kerr Cuhulain

"They don't join cliques - more times than not, they stand alone - but they recognize and gravitate towards one another. Only warriors understand other warriors."
- Forrest E. Morgan

"A kung fu man lives without being dependant on the opinions of others, and a master, unlike the beginner, holds himself in reserve. He is quiet and unassuming, with no desire to show off."
- Bruce Lee

"It has always been my ideal in war to eliminate all feelings of hatred and to treat my enemy as an enemy only in battle and to honour him as a man according to his courage."
- Ernst Junger

"Beholding them with pity there came an old soldier who asked me if there was any means of curing them. I told him no. At once he approached them and cut their throats gently and, seeing this great cruelty, I shouted at him that he was a villain. He answered me that he prayed to God that should he be in such a state he might find someone who would do the same for him, to the end that he might not languish miserably."
- Ambroise Pare', speaking of three badly-burnt soldiers, 1536

". . . he was placed in charge of a unit which had suffered extremely heavy casualties, during which time he felt compelled to shoot an American pilot who had been disemboweled in a crash. This act was necessary according to the code of the warrior (an honorable fighting man puts his comrades out of their misery) but resulted in his rejection by a primarily enlisted brotherhood who held a more 'civilian' concept of the warrior ethos."
- Joanna Bourke, from An Intimate History of Killing (p. 38)

"People who really study the arts of war are almost without exception nonviolent individuals. The achievement of real skill requires considerable discipline and self control, two traits which eradicate violent behavior."
- Richard Ryan, from Master of the Blade (p. 21)

"Every man is responsible for defending every woman and every child. When the male no longer takes this role, when he no longer has the courage or feels the moral responsibility, then that society will no longer be a society where honor and virtue are esteemed. Laws and government cannot replace this personal caring and commitment. In the absence of the Warrior protector, the only way that a government can protect a society is to remove the freedom of the people. And the sons and daughters of lions become sheep."
- James Williams

"Do every act of your life as if it were your last."
- Marcus Aurelis

"In ourselves our safety must be sought,
By our own right hand it must be wrought."
- William Wordsworth

"It is better to deserve honours and not have them, than to have them and not to deserve them."
- Mark Twain

"The strength of our beliefs and our loyalty to each other has transformed our ideals into the strongest of brotherhoods. We exist, we are the warrior in you, and our message is dangerous to the existing order."
- excerpted from the introduction of Hell's Angels Forever

"I tell you this. As war becomes dishonored and its nobility called into question those honorable men who recognize the sanctity of blood will become excluded from the dance, which is the warrior's right, and thereby will the dance become a false dance and the dancers false dancers."
- Cormac McCarthy, from Blood Meridian (p. 331)

"Warriorship . . . does not refer to making war on others. Aggression is the source of our problems, not the solution. . . . Warriorship . . . is the tradition of human bravery, or the tradition of fearlessness."
- Chogyam Trungpa

"Assurance, superior judgement, the ability to impose discipline, the capacity to inspire fear: these are the qualities of an authority."
- Richard Sennett, from Authority (pp. 17-18)

"The gentleman desires to be halting in speech but quick in action."
- Confucius

"The frightening nature of knowledge leaves one no alternative but to become a warrior."
- "don Juan," from Casteneda's A Separate Reality (p. 150)

". . .the development of a warrior rests upon stopping the internal dialogue. Unnecessary talking is related to other unnecessary physical movements and bodily tensions, twitches, fidgeting, finger drumming, foot tapping, grimacing, and so on, which serve to drain the daily ration of energy. . ."
- Kathleen Riordan Speeth, from The Gurdjieff Work (p. 44)

"He who has great power should use it lightly."
- Seneca

"Adventure is just a romantic name for trouble. It sounds swell when you write about it, but it's hell when you meet it face-to-face in a dark and lonely place."
- Louis L'Amour

"If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don't embrace trouble; that's as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you'll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Nothing to laugh at in the ugliness of crime, the grimness of poverty, the tragedy of death; not a smile's worth of fun in the weeping wives and the sad and sometimes savage face of humanity? No, it isn't funny; and that is why laughter has to break through, probably more than in other jobs."
- Keith Simpson, from Forty Years of Murder (p. 10)

"The true spirit of the warrior is found in the desire to defend the weaker against the aggression of the stronger. In this way an essential balance is kept in the world. The warrior trains so that he will be prepared and will thus not fail in his role."
- Peyton Quinn, from A Bouncer's Guide to Barroom Brawling (p. 147)

"Evil has no physical reality, but it is still a force. . . . We cannot destroy it, but we can learn to keep ourselves safe from it."
- Anderson Reed, from Shouting at the Wolf (pp. 56-57)

"The warrior is not the master, he is not the sifu nor the sensei. These are just physical words that we put upon ourselves to make us seem important or better than those whom we guide. The warrior is a friend to his students, and so cannot be their master. He does not wish to gather students, as they will search him out. And those who need to have a master or a sensei will not stay; they will keep searching until they realize that what they seek is within them, and who they seek can only be their guide."
- Erle Montaigue

"With the conviction came a store of assurance. He felt a quiet manhood, non-assertive but of sturdy and strong blood. He knew that he would no more quail before his guides wherever they should point. He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man."
- Stephen Crane, from The Red Badge of Courage (p. 156)

"Act the way you'd like to be, and soon you'll be the way you act."
- Kerr Cuhulain, from Full Contact Magick (p. 107)

"Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
- Aristotle

"The White Knight uses his sword in innocence, unaware of the harm he causes. The Red Knight lifts his sword in outraged self-righteousness, uncaring about the damage he leaves in the trail behind him. The Black Knight wields his sword reluctantly and only when he has reached the sober realization that it is necessary."
- Robert Moore & Douglas Gillette, from The Warrior Within (p. 165)

"When all peaceful means to resolve a crucial problem fail, it is justifiable to wield the sword."
- Guru Gobind Singh

"At a glance, every individual's own measure of dignity is manifested just as it is. There is dignity in personal appearance. There is dignity in a calm aspect. There is dignity in a paucity of words. There is dignity in flawlessness of manners. There is dignity in solemn behavior. And there is dignity in deep insight and a clear perspective. These are all reflected on the surface. But in the end, their foundation is simplicity of thought and tautness of spirit."
- from Hagakure, by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (Wilson translation)

"They all had dignity, a certain serenity and pride that was theirs completely. . . . They knew where they had been and what they had seen and done, and were content. Something was theirs, something within themselves that neither time passing nor man nor hard times could take from them."
- Louis L'Amour, from Education of a Wandering Man (p. 38)

"If there is one thing that always sticks in my mind about how Delta Force goes about a mission, it is the utterly businesslike attitude of the men. There is none of that Hollywood crap. No posturing, no sloganeering, no high fives, no posing, no bluster, and no bombast. Just a quiet determination to get on with the job."
- Eric L. Haney, from Inside Delta Force (p. 191)

"In a critical situation, where even the slightest hesitation may prove fatal, the warrior counts on his readiness to improvise, survive, and win. The warrior shapes his own destiny. He defines the limits of his own possibilities. He creates his own luck."
- from The Warrior's Edge, by Col. John B. Alexander, Major Richard Groller, and Janet Morris (p. 106)

"It's not our weaknesses that frighten us. It's our strengths."
- Nelson Mandela

HONOR

"Only honor separates the warriors from the thugs."
- Forrest E. Morgan

"You must work out your own honor system for yourself. For the warrior it becomes a code, a way of life, unbending and unaltered, often without ant verbal guidelines. When all of your possessions are far from you, you will still have your honor, your core. A handshake or simply saying, 'I will do this,' is your bond, more concrete than any signature on paper should be. Your actions demonstrate your code. To abuse your knowledge, betray a comrade, lie, things such as that, you will have broken your pact with yourself and have lost your honor. If you act in accordance with your beliefs as well as you can, you will retain your honor always."
- Lenox Cramer, from War with Empty Hands

"Once examined, fights for "honor" almost always turn out to be fights to save face . . . Face refers to one's reputation . . . it is, in essence, prestige . . . Face can be taken from you, so it's something you can fight to keep. On the other hand, honor depends solely on your commitment to meet your just obligations. Since only you can do that, no-one can take honor from you . . . You can have all the face in the world and still lose your honor. Conversely, you can remain honorable no matter what the world thinks of you. Forced to choose between these two conditions, the superior warrior will pick the latter."
- Forrest E. Morgan, from Living the Martial Way (pp. 151-152)

"Do right, fear no man."
- unknown

"Most of all, warriors are honorable because to be otherwise is cowardly!"
- Forrest E. Morgan

"Honour is manly decency. The shame of being found wanting in it means everything to us. Is this, then, the indefinable, the sacred thing?"
- Alfred de Vigny

"Warriors are dangerous people. Therefore, they have a solemn obligation to restrain themselves from tyrannizing and assaulting weaker members of society."
- Forrest E. Morgan

"If you don't want somebody to know something, just don't speak to them about it. Never lie."
- Sylvester L. Liddy

"Men whose acts are at variance with their words command no respect, and what they say has but little weight."
- Samuel Smiles

"The Samurai were an aristocracy of warriors, mighty touchy about their honor, with a fanatical reverence for exactitude in the spoken word - that is the tradition, anyway. They had one answer to questions - yes or no. A Samurai was supposed to tell the truth, and be quick to lay his two-handed sword across anybody who said he didn't."
- Ralph Townsend

"All you got in life is your honor, man, your own self-image, your own self-respect. If you lose that, or if you give it away or if you sell it, then you ain't got it no more."
- Lemmy Kilmister

"One's dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away until it is surrendered."
The Persecuted Warrior Class

"They're jealous. They feel bad because they haven't got the huevos to live free. They wish they could. That makes them fearful of people who do. The fear manifests itself in a dislike of themselves for their weakness, and that self-doubt then becomes dislike of those who have the strength to do what they can't. So, in order to maintain their whimpering dignity, they 'show us' by passing laws that enable their guardians to harass us."
- Bob Bitchin (publisher, Biker Lifestyle, Oct. '86)

ILLUMINATION:
"Liberate yourself from concepts and see the truth with your own eyes. It exists HERE and NOW; it requires only one thing to see it: openness, freedom - the freedom to be open and not tethered by any ideas, concepts, etc., until we are blue in the face; all this will not be of the slightest avail - it is only when we stop thinking and let go that we can start seeing, discovering. When our mind is tranquil, there will be an occasional pause to its feverish activities, there will be a let-go, and it is only then in the interval between two thoughts that a flash of UNDERSTANDING - understanding, which is not thought - can take place."
- Bruce Lee, from Striking Thoughts (p. 43)

STATE OF GRACE:
"The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms - this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the rank of devoutly religious men."
- Albert Einstein

THE "WARRIOR" CONTRASTED AGAINST THE "FALSE WARRIOR"
"Simply put, warriors choose to walk a separate path, different from others. They take the risk of standing alone and speaking up when others are silent. A vital component of ethical behavior is feeling obligated to do what is right. To feel obligated, one must not only care but be willing to pay the hard price that comes in wrestling with one's own conscience. Warriors are self-actuated. They project consequences into the future and think, plan, and live long range. Warriors take personal control over their lives rather than be passive spectators and the victims of events occurring around them. . . .

Although true warriors are difficult to find, many people want to become warriors and begin walking the path, but they allow their energy to be taken from tem and their light to dim. You can see it in their eyes. They want the rewards, but they are no longer willing to pay the price to fill the lamp with the kind of oil that keeps it from growing dim. They have lowered their self-esteem and feel a constant need to prove themselves to others."
- Larry F. Jetmore, from The Path of the Warrior (p. 65)

THE WARRIOR PATH
Follow this path if you are to be a warrior and share your light with others. But tread carefully! We become what we pretend to be!. . .
It's not easy to become a warrior. It's even more difficult to remain a warrior after becoming one. Many answer the call of the drums, but few are able to sustain the strength of character necessary to march to them. There are many labyrinths, traps, and dragons along the path to the way.

Courage and inner fortitude are required to overcome the difficult and sometimes painful obstacles along the path a warrior must travel. Abuse of power and self-diminishing behavior are traps that snare and draw a would-be warrior off the path. We are often seduced by illusions of power bestowed upon us by the titles, promotions, or credentials we receive. These outward symbols quickly lose their luster unless placed on a foundation of self-worth. Because we often close our hearts to the people in our lives, many would-be warriors suffer the penalty of loneliness while surrounded by heaps of gold. Temptation and suffering for the sake of others are tests each person on the path to becoming a warrior must face. The voice and comfort of the herd is loud and strong. Although a warrior is sometimes joined by others, the walk is often the high and lonely path of the nomad. True warriors do not cower at the opinions of others, but feel themselves accountable to a higher tribunal than man.

All who walk the path have the freedom to choose where their steps will take them. There are many different paths but only one 'way.' Warriors accept total responsibility for their thoughts, behaviors, deeds, and actions. This is known as decision making."
- Larry F. Jetmore, from The Path of the Warrior (pp. 103, 106-107)

COP OR CREEP?
"The law enforcement officer, mindful of his responsibility to the whole community, shall deal with individuals of the community in a manner calculated to instill respect for its laws and its police service. The law enforcement officer shall conduct his official life in a manner such as will inspire confidence and trust. Thus, he will be neither overbearing nor subservient, as the individual citizen has neither an obligation to stand in awe of him nor a right to command him. The officer will give service where he can and require compliance with the law. He will do neither from personal preference or prejudice but only as a duly appointed officer of the law discharging his sworn obligation."
- Article VII of the "Canons of Police Ethics" adopted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 1957

THE LAW OF SYNCHRONICITY
"Two or more events happening at 'the same time' are likely to have more associations in common than the merely temporal; very few events (if any) ever happen in 'isolation' from other events; 'there is no such thing as a mere coincidence.' In point of fact, if you ever manage to pin a professional debunker against a wall (be careful, they get nasty when cornered), you will find that the word 'coincidence' is a scientific term of exorcism, which is used to banish away unwanted demons of implied causality. Naturally, the word 'synchronicity' is from Carl Jung's research, even though the concept shows up all over the globe."
- Isaac Bonewits, from Real Magic (p. 208

SOCIAL REALITY:
"Some students of contemporary social life maintain that we have entered a new epoch of human history. Current modes of transportation and electronic means of communication have profoundly altered social life. We may now watch television programs on Kenya in the morning, telephone someone in Japan that afternoon, send a computer message to someone in Israel later, and fly to the Bahamas for a weekend that evening. Such travel and communication expands and multiplies networks of social interaction and relationships. It exposes us to numerous and often clashing versions of reality. Moreover, the diverse array of goods and services sold in the marketplace enable us to create collages of such diverse realities. We may dress like a New England woodsman, courtesy of L.L. Bean, in our Chicago apartment with Southwestern decor, while listening to rap music and feasting on Thai food. We see a kaleidoscope of realities on television, on city streets, and during our travels. Under these conditions, it is difficult to believe that any human reality is inevitable. Even supposedly authoritative experts are suspect. They often disagree and quickly change their minds. Nothing seems certain. This is what many students of social life call the postmodern condition. Some welcome it while others condemn it, but they all agree that human social life and experience is profoundly changing right before our eyes. They also agree that students of social life who ignore those changes will be left behind."
- Spencer Cahill, from Inside Social Life, 3rd edition (p. 289)

DISPOSABLE HEROES
"If the truth be known, the Army went out of its way to find guys like me - ass-kicking 'Nam vets who ran the woods and lived on the edge - and systematically weeded them out of the service.
Why?

Because we were misfits.

We didn't fit the mold. We just didn't fit in. We were renegades used to operating independently, with few people pulling our strings. We disregarded the established rules and created our own. I take that back - there were no rules for us . . . But that attitude surely was out of place in a peacetime environment, and the thought of keeping guys around who were distainful of authority and might not toe the line was a little too much for the Army to deal with. So the hard-core guys were sent packing. Fortunately for me I had the medal, which gave me too much visibility to be fucked with completely, so I was spared the axe, though not the hassles.

A noncombat lifestyle was everything I'd feared. It was very boring. It was unbelievably slow-paced. And worst of all, my free-wheeling, do-as-I-damn-well-please lifestyle had come to an end . . .
I felt like I'd been put on a leash. The Army had taken a high-performance engine and drastically untuned it. Not only had my activities been severely curtailed, but the special status that I Once enjoyed quickly evaporated. I was no longer that unique individual who did the dangerous job most others were reluctant to do. Since cunning, sharpshooting, and bravery were no longer required in my new environment, I had nothing to set me apart from the crowd. I quickly found that the Medal of Honor was more a novelty than anything else to most noncombat soldiers, and really had no place in a peacetime Army. My extensive combat skills and ass-kicking abilities were no longer needed, appreciated, or even wanted."
- Franklin D. Miller, from Reflections of a Warrior (pp. 198-199)

DON'T BE A DUMBASS
"Never leave a potentially deadly weapon where unauthorized hands may find it. Never insert your finger into the trigger guard until the actual use of a weapon seems imminent; a fall, or the muscle-tightening reaction to a sudden noise, can result in an accidental discharge . . . Never touch a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, or display one at an occasion when liquor is flowing. Never allow yourself to become embroiled in a squabble while you are carrying a gun, be it caused by an insult to your wife, an argument in traffic, or any similar situation. Never let it be known to anyone outside your immediate household . . . that you carry a gun. Never make remarks to the effect that you will "kill any sonofabitch who breaks into my house/hooks my kid on drugs/tries to steal from my store," etc. If such a killing situation ever occurs, testimony in court will show that you seemed pre-occupied with the idea of killing real or imaginary criminals, especially if you've made such remarks frequently. If circumstances were such that your reactions could be considered to have been too hasty, such testimony would imply that you were excessively pre-disposed toward using your gun."
- Massad Ayoob, from In The Gravest Extreme (p. 121)

BULLET WOUNDS: TV VERSUS REALITY
"In TV and motion pictures, the bullet is often portrayed as a very discreet piece of metal. When it strikes a bad gut, it produces a round, red polka dot approximately the diameter of a pencil. There is usually very little blood and never an exit wound. Good guys are regularly shot in the arm, shoulder or leg and are up and around in no time . . . Bullets aren't sharp. They don't drill neat holes in flesh. Bullets rip and tear. When they hit bone, lead slugs don't produce neat fractures. Bones are burst and splintered. No longer able to support body weight, the jagged end of a bone is sometimes jabbed up and out through the skin as gravity pulls the flesh down. Flattened into an irregular shape by the impact, but unspent, the bullet tumbles off and away through the body, often bursting out with a fist-sized ball of meat at an odd angle and a remarkable distance from where it entered . . . If the heart does not stop right away, that organ can pump most of the blood the body contains through the wound and out onto the ground in a matter of minutes."
- Mark Baker, from Cops (pp. 168-169)

GETTING SHOT SUCKS
"A high powered bullet through the complex of shoulder bones and muscles will leave the arm crippled for life. The same with a leg. The possibility of death from hemorrhage or shock is present with any bullet wound. A bullet in the side or abdomen can fatally damage liver, kidneys, and other organs. People don't always recover completely from serious gunshot wounds, even if they do survive initially. Damage can be lingering - "he was never any good after he was shot" is a common description - and the results of the wound can radically shorten the natural life span."
- Massad Ayoob, from In the Gravest Extreme (p. 24)

IF I WERE TO SHOOT YOU IN THE BELLY
"If I were to shoot you in the belly with a small caliber handgun, what do you think would happen? Do you think you would drop to the floor in a clean white shirt and expire quietly after saying a few final words? Do you think you would take the shot bravely, wrestle the gun away, apprehend me for the authorities, and see your photo on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper, smiling in your hospital bed as you receive a medal from the mayor? No, such things occur only in the fantasy world of television, but a great many people, inundated by repeated exposure to such lies, tend to believe that violence is drama.
Let me tell you the ugly truth. If I were to shoot you in the belly, first, you would shit your pants. You would fall to the ground, doubled up in agonizing pain. You would bleed great quantities of smelly dark brown blood. As your stomach fills with blood, you would vomit copious amounts. As your lifeblood drains away, soaking into the carpeting, your core body temperature would plummet, causing you to shiver uncontrollably. Unless the abdominal aorta is punctured, there may be hours of suffering before you die.

If you are rescued by paramedics, stabilized for transport, and immediately brought into the operating room, you will not be patched up and quickly released. First, your intestines will be placed in a pile alongside you where they can be examined while the abdominal cavity is thoroughly rinsed in hopes of averting peritonitis. If you were shot with a high velocity hollowpoint, shot repeatedly, or are just unlucky enough to have multiple ruptures of the gastrointestinal tract, the surgeons won't even bother trying to patch you up. Your entrails will go in the hospital dumpster, and you will shit in a colostomy bag for the rest of your weak, sickly, frightened, lonely, and pain-ridden existence.

Violence is not a game, nor is it a cartoon. Violence is sickeningly real, it hurts, it ruins lives, and it has lasting medical, psychological, legal, and social repercussions. Violence is not something to be toyed with, it is something to be avoided through whatever means necessary. Violence is not fun."
- anonymous (RWT)

OF EYEBALLS AND JELL-O
"It's quite unlikely that your finger will actually penetrate the eyeball. If it does, it only gets wet. It's no slimier than gelatin.
There will be large amounts of blood, and the criminal whose eyes you gouge will scream like a banshee. The pain and shock are enough that many people will actually pass out when their eyeballs are ruptured. It's tough to live with afterward, but when you realize that it's your life and your eyeballs on the line, if you don't do it first, you can do it if you know beforehand that you're capable.
I have put my thumbs into eyes, and I know what it feels like for my thumb or my index finger to pierce the tough sclera (outer eye membrane) and gouge through the aqueous tissue beneath. It's no ickier than grabbing a handful of Jell-O out of the refrigerator or pulling the gizzard out of your family's Thanksgiving turkey."
- Massad Ayoob, from The Truth About Self-Protection (p. 243)

SPADES AND MEN
"The infantry spade does not have a folding handle, and this is a very important feature. It has to be a single monolithic object. All three of its edges are as sharp as a knife. It is painted with a green matt paint so as not to reflect the strong sunlight. It is practically impossible to describe in words how they use their spades . . . In the hands of a spetsnaz soldier the spade is a terrible noiseless weapon . . . The first thing he has to teach himself is precision: to split little slivers of wood with the edge of his spade or to cut off the neck of a bottle so that the bottle remains whole. He has to learn to love his spade and have faith in its accuracy. To do that he places his hand on the stump of a tree with his fingers spread out and takes a big swing at the stump with his right hand using the edge of the spade. Once he has learned to use the spade well and truly as an axe he is taught more complicated things . . . A soldier armed with nothing but the spade is shut in a room without windows along with a mad dog, which makes for an interesting contest. Finally a soldier is taught to throw the spade as accurately as he would use a battle-axe . . . If it lands in a tree it is not so easy to pull out again . . . (The enemy) will rarely see the blade coming, before it lands in the back of his neck or between his shoulder blades, smashing the bones . . . (They) work with spades more surely and more accurately than they do with spoons at a table."
- Viktor Suvorov, from Spetsnaz

GROWLING
"Why not growl? The wolf is in all of us. The hunter. The warrior. Growl like the wolf. The sound is not a shallow scraping in the throat. Take a breath and force the sound from deep down into the chest. Can you feel it reverberate in the lower lobes of your lungs? Can you hear the growl, the universal growl? The growl of alpha wolves standing face to face in the moonlight. It is the growl of ancient man confronting the enemy. It is the growl of a million ancestors who abide in our genes. It is a growl out of the pit of your being, a growl from under the heart itself. The sound is a powerful sound.

Can you feel the power? The stomach tightens when the sound is made. The stomach tightens in preparation for battle. The stomach, the diaphragm, force the sound upward and out. How does the power feel?"
- Gerry Spence, from How to Argue and Win Every Time (pp. 163-164)

MEDITATION ON THE CORPSE
"The Buddhist Sutra of Mindfulness speaks about the meditation on the corpse: meditate on the decomposition of the body, how the body bloats and turns violet, how it is eaten by worms until only bits of blood and flesh still cling to the bones, meditate up to the point where only white bones remain, which in turn are slowly worn away and turn into dust. Meditate like that, knowing that your own body will undergo the same process. Meditate on the corpse until you are calm and at peace, until your mind and heart are light and tranquil and a smile appears on your face. Thus, by overcoming revulsion and fear, life will be seen as infinitely precious, every second of it worth living."
- Thich Nhat Hanh

YOUR COMPUTER IS ALIVE!
"It was as if from the year 1947 to 1980 a fundamental paradigm shift in the ability to process information took place. Computers themselves almost became something like a silicon-based life-form, inspiring the carbon-based life-forms on planet Earth to develop them, grow them, and even help them reproduce. With computer-directed process-control programs now in place in virtually all major industries, software that writes software, neural-network-based expert systems that learn from their own experience in the real world, and current experiments under way to grow almost microscopically thin silicon-based chips in the weightless environment of earth orbit may be the forerunner of a time when automated orbital factories routinely grow and harvest new silicon material for microprocessors more sophisticated than we can even imagine at the present. Were all this to be true . . . would not the natural development stream, starting from the invention of the transistor, have carried us to the point where we achieve a symbiotic relationship with the silicon material that carries our data and enables us to become more creative and successful?"
- Phillip Corso

JUST PISS IN THE CUP . . .
"Throughout history, Americans have held the legal tradition that one could not give up one's Constitutional rights - and if someone was stripped of these protections, then he or she was being victimized. By 1989, if you sign up for an extracurricular activity in school or apply for a minimum wage job, you could be asked to forego your right to privacy, protection from self-incrimination, Constitutional requirements of reasonable grounds for search and seizure, presumed innocence until found guilty by your peers, and that most fundamental right of all: personal responsibility for one's own life and consciousness. By 1995, the supreme court upheld that these intrusions into your privacy were constitutional! . . . Submission to the humiliation of having your most private body parts and functions observed by a hired voyeur is now the test of eligibility for private employment, or to contract for a living wage."
- Jack Herer, from The Emperor Wears No Clothes (pp. 71, 87)

TRIAL BY JURY
"'Jury nullification of the law' is a traditional right dating back to the Magna Carta and was intended by America's founding fathers as the final test a law must pass before it gains the authority to punish violators. John Adams, our nation's second president, in 1771 said of the jury, 'it is not only his right, but his duty . . . to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgement, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court' . . . Due to special interest pressure, juries have been misinformed of their right to judge law as well as fact for almost 100 years. Jurors now swear in their oaths to judge only the facts of the case according to the law as dictated to them by the judge. The majority of judges will not allow attorneys to tell jurors of their power to say "no" to unjust laws. In most cases juries are no longer allowed to hear the defendant's motives. Fully informed juries are essential for justice, rebuilding respect for the law, protection of individual rights and control of the government by people."
- The Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA)

POLICE STATE
"In our own time, police randomly search groups of (usually minority) adolescents, engage in mass sweeps of inner-city blocks, blockade neighborhoods, create databases of gang members and associates, and target gang leaders for arrest and incarceration. So far, these tactics have not proven particularly effective in controlling gangs. Instead, they increase alienation among adolescents, violate civil rights, and, if anything, tend to promote identification with gangs and assist their internal cohesion. Moreover, they belie the promise of more sensitive 'community policing' and, because of their lack of discrimination between gang members and non-gang members, they further the feeling of inner city residents that they are under siege with as much to fear from the police as from gang members."
- Eric C. Schneider, from Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings (p. 260)

"BLAZE OF GLORY"
"If a criminal is convinced he is cornered, he might choose to go down in what he would perceive to be a blaze of glory rather than face the ignominy of surrendering and being imprisoned, perhaps for life. Seeing no way to escape, this individual might assert himself in the final moments by trying to take someone down with him. An alternative is to kill himself. Either way, true to form, he strives one last time to remain in control of whatever happens to him. He will end his own life rather than allow someone else to do it."
- Stanton E. Samenow, from Straight Talk about Criminals (p. 83)

WETWORK
"What I need you two fellas to do is take those cleaning products and clean the inside of the car. And I'm talking fast, fast, fast. You need to go in the back seat, scoop up all those little pieces of brain and skull. Get it out of there. Wipe down the upholstery - now, when it comes to upholstery, it don't need to be spic and span, you don't need to eat off it. Give it a good once over. What you need to take care of are the really messy parts. The pools of blood that have collected, you gotta soak that shit up. But the windows are a different story. Them you really clean. Get the Windex, do a good job . . . I need blankets, I need comforters, I need quilts, I need bedspreads. The thicker the better, the darker the better. No whites, can't use 'em.. We need to camouflage the interior of the car. We're gonna line the front seat and the back seat and the floorboards with quilts and blankets. If a cop stops us and starts stickin' his big snout in the car, the subterfuge won't last. But at a glance, the car will appear to be normal."
- "Winston Wolf," from Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino

"THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED"
"There are a whole lot of delusional clowns who seem to think that staging a protest, participating in a march, or passing around a petition will actually make a difference . . . such activities seldom show any positive results (and only to a very limited degree when they do). True, everyone with open eyes can easily see that things are horribly wrong, but boldly standing up and announcing such to the largely apathetic masses generally only succeeds in directing a lot of unwelcome scrutiny at oneself, whilst the issue remains ignored.

Reading Socialist and Communist propaganda can have a strong influence on earnest individuals who've recently been made aware of the deplorable state of affairs - these writings place the blame for all of the world's ills solely upon the greed of the 'Capitalist oppressors,' and offer 'solutions' which may seem reasonable in theory, yet consistently fail miserably in practice. More adventurous types may even delve into the murky fantasy world of 'Conspiracy Theorism' literature, which places the blame for all of society's ills upon an elite sinister cabal composed of: Freemasons, Zionists, Satanists, extraterrestrials, or even 'Reptilian shapeshifters' (dependant upon which work of fiction you've happened upon) - these fables make entertaining reading, but are often seized upon by unstable minds desperate for the 'Truth.'

What is truly scary is the fact that certain groups of demented individuals have actually banded together in disorganized armed clans, 'training' for the day when everyone will suddenly 'rise up' to make war against the 'enemy from within.' - these folks are totally fucking nuts. Believe you me, people - there is no fucking way that anyone - not even a heavily armed guerilla army with over a million hardcore soldiers - would ever have a chance of overthrowing the government of a contemporary superpower. Their resources (manpower, weaponry, intelligence, propaganda, logistics, and the willingness to engage in total war) are far too vast, and their power structures are firmly entrenched. 'They' can take whatever steps are necessary (tanks, helicopter gunships, ultrasonics, laser blinders, nerve gas, bioweapons, tac-nukes, etc.) to quell a domestic disturbance during a state of emergency (and will be free to either deny, or fail to disclose, the methodology used), and no mere "light infantry" could hope to withstand such an onslaught. The only circumstances by which such a mass uprising could have any small chance of success would be immediately following the apocalyptic devastation of a possible Third World War."
- anonymous (RWT)

MI VIDA LOCA
"Pride, that's what most of us die for. Respect and pride . . . We ain't taught to sit there and say, 'Okay, let's take a deep breath and count to ten.' It doesn't work for us like that. If you get into an argument with somebody, you better be ready to die . . . that's what gets 90 percent of these people killed. It's your pride and your love. Your love for what you represent . . . Pride is what draws people to the gang. Because there is nothing like being around people who have something to be proud of. Pretty soon, you want to be proud of something too. And you look around at your life and realize that you have nothing that can match what they have. So you pay the price, you get jumped in (intitiated into the gang), and maybe you get into a situation where you have to spray gunfire at someone's house one night - or drive the car for the gunman . . . Representing is a practice that is public in nature. It shows your homeboys and your enemies who you are and what you stand for. Representing can take many forms: warfare, tattooing, graffiti, clothing - even when homeboys hang out on a certain corner they represent their neighborhood."
- anonymous, from Wallbangin' (pp. 116-117)

ELITISM
"Like in American society is not fair. This sort of elitist behavior may have its beginnings in adolescence, but it is definitely existent in all of American society. It is self-perpetuating, the elitist class in the social stratification is learned and internalized to the point at which there will always be a dominant social elite, and that class will always take measures to ensure a constant and consistent membership. It may not be as apparent as it is in adolescents, but it still exists. The older children and adults are better social actors, and they are able to euphemize their elitist activities, and disguise them as normal social interaction. The problem that helps this behavior to continue is the duality of me, and you. It is instilled in us by society. We internalize it and make it a subconscious habituation, it is me and us, and what we want, against you and what you might do to prevent that which we want. This is the basis of all conflict, and try as progressive thinkers may, we cannot seem to alleviate this pattern of dualism."
- Donna Eder

OVERPOPULATION:
"One of the greatest sources of violence on the planet is unwanted, uncared for, unloved children. Such children as they grow older are not only typically angry and prone to violence, but are potential time-bombs that can capriciously explode and destroy whatever is around them. A world is being created that is full of people without hope, often driven by hatred and envy, who do not care about their own lives, let alone yours. How can such people really care if life on this planet continues or not? The worldwide increase in population coupled with an increasing discrepancy between haves and have-nots creates more and more people without hope. When a large segment of the population lives without hope, it is dangerous for everyone."
- Joel Kramer & Diana Alstad, from The Guru Papers (p. 373)

MY RIFLE:
"This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My rifle, without me, is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy, who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I will . . . My rifle and myself know that what counts in war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. We will hit . . . My rifle is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories, its sights, and its barrel. I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage. I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will . . . Before God I swear this creed. My rifle and myself are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy, but Peace!"
- The Creed of the United States Marines

"WHAT'S THAT YOU'VE GOT IN YER HAND?"
"You might think that some of the signs, like being set up or stalked by an attacker, might be obvious; however, depending upon the skill and cunning of your attacker, they can be surprisingly subtle. It would be impossible to describe all the indicators here, but one of the key things to look for is the positioning of people around you. Be wary of people trying to flank you, move behind you, place you between them, or cut off your avenues of escape. Look for people whose hands are cupped or unnaturally stiff, like something is held in them, or concealed from view behind the back or in a pocket. Most importantly, don't let anyone get too close to you, where they might be able to move on you before you can react. If someone starts to move close, try to position your back against a wall and put something between you and him as an obstacle to an advance. At the very least, tell him to back off so you can have enough distance between you to react if he makes a move. If he doesn't listen and keeps coming, draw your blade and prepare for all hell to break loose.
- Michael D. Janich, from Knife Fighting: A Practical Course (pp. 98-99)

RIGIDITY:
"We can pass more laws, write more detailed rule books, establish more customs, paint more 'No U-Turn' signs, and so on, to cut down the variability in human behavior that can create problems. 'Well-behaved,' 'predictable,' 'rigid,' 'mechanical' people make the system run more smoothly: choose your favorite adjective. At its extreme, nothing is required of people other than following the rules. And, as the old joke says, "Everything that is not required is forbidden!" The rules are external environmental rules (like 'No U-Turn' signs) or internalized psychological rules ('Decent people never even think of doing X'). For best results, both kinds of rules need to be backed up by rewards for following them, as well as by the strength of mindless habit. . .

If we want a smoother, more efficient, less dangerous world, then, one direction we can take is to make people more like machines, machines with lots of mechanical intelligence. You can also spend great effort and use lots of resources in designing the world so that it is mechanically impossible to violate the rules. Many parking lots now have concrete dividers or green belts that prevent you from driving diagonally across them when they are empty. The other direction is to increase genuine intelligence, including the discovery and cultivation of the uniquely human aspects of intelligence that are not mechanical.
The unfortunate truth about people is how machinelike we can become. . . Right and wrong ways are set up and rules to implement them are established. Goodness then becomes a matter of following the rules.

The problem with trying to create a rule to cover everything is that reality frequently gets more complex than the rules can handle, or changes faster than the rules change. Yet many people keep mechanically following the rules, feeling virtuous about it but actually destroying themselves and others."
- Charles T. Tart, from Waking Up (pp. 29-30)

"THE SECRET ARTS:"
"There are two major reasons for genuine growth practices to be secret. First, a given practice may be capable of producing such powerful effects that if you are not prepared for them, they could harm you or others. They are dangerous in the hands of the unprepared . . . The second reason why some of these practices have sometimes been secret has to do with your readiness to respond, the "shock value" they might have in requiring a radical reorientation. . . Secrecy is a useful way of handling these problems. If most techniques were secret, you wouldn't have the blunting effect of knowledge of so many you never really tried, or the attitude caused by the residues of many failure experiences from half-heartedly trying some. The presentation of a new growth technique would command far more of your attention than it does now. If, in addition, you had to prove yourself worthy of having a technique revealed to you, not to mention the 'glamour' of being sworn to secrecy, even more attention would be given to the technique. It would have more surprise value, be more of an attention-getting shock. The result is that you would give a great deal of energy and attention to practicing the technique, and it would have a much greater chance of affecting you. For most growth practices, the old rule holds: it works if you work.

The last two decades have been a time of drastic change, though. Many of the 'secret' techniques of spiritual paths are now available in paperback at your corner bookstore. We must deal with the dulling that comes from knowing so many techniques and the probability that it makes it harder to respond appropriately to new techniques. This is advantageous in some ways: secrecy appealed to parts of our minds that were more interested in power and glamour than in growth, for example, so there is now less feeding that part of us."
- Charles T. Tart, from Waking Up (pp. 177-179)

OVERCOMING FEAR:
"Overcoming fear does not mean eliminating fear. Courage is not the absence of fright, but the ability to act in spite of it. Reports of people having performed amazing acts of heroism reveal that they commonly felt fear - even terror. But they performed in spite of their fear. Being afraid in a dangerous situation is a normal reaction, it is not cowardice. Refusing to fight is not cowardice either.
There are only three choices open to you when faced with the threat of attack on the street:
You can run away (situation permitting);
You can fight;
You can submit to a beating.
If you feel, as I do, that it is less dignified to get into a fight than to take off, you can run away from a fight without loss of self-esteem, especially if you know that you can win. If you are cornered and cannot run away, the decision to fight or to submit to a beating can have completely different meanings for different people. Although I respect as valid and brave the non-violent attitude of those who feel it is more dignified to submit to a beating than to fight, it is not a choice I would make, and it is not very likely a choice you would make or you would not be reading these pages. Therefore, if cornered, your choice is between fighting to defend yourself and keep your self-respect or failing to fight and losing your self-respect.

You must prepare yourself mentally as well as physically to fight to defend yourself correctly if danger threatens. Correct behavior is no secret. There are easily recognizable traits of confident behavior, as easily recognizable as traits of demoralized behavior. You can imitate confident behavior. If you imitate it regularly, others will respond to your way of behaving and not to your inner doubts about yourself. The very act of behaving in a confident manner will eventually increase your self-respect and give you the courage to continue to behave in ways which inspire confidence. It is a self-nourishing cycle.

Here are a few specific manners of confident behavior you can imitate: Keep your head and body erect when you speak to anyone. Avoid lowering your eyes or looking at the ground - an abject, self-despising mannerism. If you do not have the confidence to look a person in the eye, look at his ear. To look at an ear you must keep your head up and this gives the impression that you are looking into the face. Even when you are considerably shorter than the person you are talking to, keep yourself drawn up to your full height. Do not diminish yourself; show yourself at your best.

At all times, and especially in a trouble situation, keep your voice firm and speak clearly. Many of my students have avoided a fight simply by having said to a bully, 'Leave me alone. I don't want to fight, but if you insist on fighting, you will get hurt.' Pleading for mercy with a streetfighter is a waste of time. Cowering only convinces him that you are an easy mark and increases his sadistic pleasure. If you cannot speak quietly and firmly say nothing at all. Keep quiet when you have nothing to say. Foolish chatter is not a sign of confidence. It is a sign of fear."
- Bruce Tegner, from Instant Self-Defense (p.7)

BLIND FAITH:
"Do not put faith in traditions, even though they have been accepted for long generations and in many countries. Do not believe a thing on the authority of one or another of the Sages of old, nor on the ground that a statement is found in the books. Never believe anything because probability is in its favor. Do not believe in that which you yourselves have imagined, thinking that a God has inspired it. Believe nothing merely on the authority of your teachers or of the priests. After examination, believe that which you have tested for yourselves and found reasonable, which is in conformity with your well-being and that of others."
- The Buddha

INDENTURED SERVITUDE:
"Enlisting in the armed forces is definitely not for everyone. Enlistees literally sign away all their civil rights, and enter into a contemporary form of indentured servitude. If you have a problem with your boss, you will not have the option of quitting, or even speaking your mind freely - insubordination can be punished by: loss of rank (and reduction in pay), confinement to quarters, being forced to perform unpleasant (and often unsafe) tasks, or - in extremis - incarceration in a Federal penitentiary. Combine compulsory obedience to orders with an abundance of petty regulations enforced by inept (and often seemingly irrational) drones, and you are looking at an authoritarian culture only a few small steps removed from a prison society."
- anonymous (RWT)

CONTEMPORARY SERFDOM:
"When we speak of disciplinary government, we are not referring simply to the juridical and political forms that organize it. We are referring primarily to the fact that in a disciplinary society, the entire society, with all its productive and reproductive articulations, is subsumed under the command of capital and the state, and that the society tends, gradually but with unstoppable continuity, to be ruled solely by criteria of capitalist production. A disciplinary society is thus a factory-society. Disciplinarity is at once a form of production and a form of government such that disciplinary production and disciplinary society tend to coincide completely . . . It is precisely when the disciplinary regime is pushed to its highest level and most complete application that it is revealed as the extreme limit of a social arrangement, a society in the process of being overcome."
- Hardt & Negri, from Empire (p. 243)

F.T.W :
"Even though, at one time or another, many folks considered me to be an "outlaw," I've always respected and obeyed approximately 85% of all the laws. However, (as most people would agree) 10% of the laws we're subject to on a daily basis have been rather poorly thought out, and seem to be enforced only selectively. The primary motivation of these (often paternally or religiously based) statutes seems to be simply to demean and oppress the general populace through regimentation and fines. The other 5% I couldn't abide by are so Draconian as to be counter-productive due to the fact that their inherent stupidity, unfairness, and bias instils such resentment and antipathy in the masses. Since I strongly disagree with these laws, and since I seem to have no representation in the legislative process, I feel (as do many others) that these wrongful laws should not apply to me. The fact that so many of them (including 'victimless crimes' and other seemingly minor offenses) carry such heavy penalties is tantamount to an act of violent aggression against the underclasses by the power-elites."
- anonymous (RWT)

"MIND WAR":
"MindWar must be strategic in emphasis, with tactical applications playing a reinforcing, supplementary role. In its strategic context, MindWar must reach out to friends, enemies, and neutrals alike across the globe - neither through the primitive "battlefield" leaflets and loudspeakers of PSYOP nor through the weak, imprecise, and narrow effort of psychotronics - but through the media possessed by the United States which have the capabilities to reach virtually all people on the face of the Earth. These media are, of course, the electronic media - television and radio. State of the art developments in satellite communication, video recording techniques, and laser and optical transmission of broadcasts make possible a penetration of the minds of the world such as would have been inconceivable just a few years ago . . . it can transform the world for us if we have but the courage and the integrity to guide civilization with it.

MindWar must target all participants if it is to be effective. It must not only weaken the enemy; it must strengthen the United States. It strengthens the United States by denying enemy propaganda access to our people, and by explaining and emphasizing to our people the rationale for our national interest in a specific war . . . Unlike PSYOP, MindWar has nothing to do with deception or even with "selected"- and therefore misleading - truth. Rather it states a whole truth that, if it does not now exist, will be forced into existence by the will of the United States . . . the MindWar operative must know he speaks the truth, and he must be personally committed to it. What he says is only a part of MindWar; the rest - and the test of its effectiveness - lies in the conviction he projects to his audience, in the rapport he establishes with it. . .

There are some purely natural conditions under which minds may become more or less receptive to ideas, and MindWar should take full advantage of such phenomena as atmospheric electromagnetic activity, air ionization, and extremely low frequency waves . . . (Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) waves: ELF waves (up to 100 Hz) are naturally occurring, but they can also be produced artificially (such as for the Navy's Project Sanguine for submarine communication). ELF-waves are not normally noticed by the unaided senses, yet their resonant effect upon the human body has been connected to both physiological disorders and emotional distortion. Infrasound vibration (up to 20 Hz) can subliminally influence brain activity to align itself to delta, theta, alpha, or beta wave patterns, inclining an audience toward everything from alertness to passivity. Infrasound could be used tactically, as ELF-waves endure for great distances, and it could be used in conjunction with media broadcasts as well.)"
- excerpted from: From PSYOP to MindWar: The Psychology of Victory, a declassified military document by Colonel Paul E. Vallely and Major Michael A. Aquino

"ARE YOU PARANOID???":
"Intellectual respectability required mental health, and it was becoming evident to me by then that "mental health" consisted of trusting everyone about everything as much as possible - and, for good measure, poking fun at anyone who didn't. Especially to be trusted were the mass media, whose owners and personnel were not to be regarded as minions of the Establishment because, as they themselves used to attest with confidence, there was no Establishment in the United States of America. Only foreigners and paranoids believed (otherwise)."
- Kerry Thornley

"YER DIFFER'NT FROM US . . . LET'S GIT 'IM!":
"It is precisely here . . . that the culture of the individual has been reduced to the most rigid and absurd regimentation. It is precisely here, of all civilized countries, that eccentricity in demeanor and opinion has come to bear the heaviest penalties. The whole drift of our law is toward the absolute prohibition of all ideas that diverge in the slightest from the accepted platitudes, and behind that drift of law there is a far more potent force of growing custom, and under that custom there is a national philosophy which erects conformity into the noblest of virtues and the free functioning of personality into a capital crime against society."
- H. L. Mencken (1919)

Subtitled, The Challenging Life Games, this is Mister de Ropp's autobiography. I disagree with Mister de Ropp on several important points (particularly his dismissal of the concept of loyalty as "mere sentimentalism"), and only found this book mildly interesting; however, there is no doubt that he has seen, experienced, and learned a great deal more than the average human. Furthermore, he's had opportunity to meet with many of the legendary (and semi-legendary) philosophers of his day (among them: Ouspensky, Gurdjieff, Aldous Huxley, Charles Lindbergh, Timothy Leary, and Carlos Castaneda) and provides us with a rare glimpse of these deeply flawed geniuses. Anyone who is seriously considering looking for a "guru" to provide him with the answers to life's questions can potentially gain a great deal by reading this book. Furthermore, his analysis of the hidden causes of WWII will be valuable to historians.

There were a few quotes that I regarded as particularly noteworthy, and they have been transcribed below:

"It is our privilege as human beings to live either as Warriors or slaves. A Warrior is the master of his fate. No matter what fate throws at him, fame or infamy, health or sickness, poverty or riches, he uses the situation for his own inner development. He takes his motto from Nietzsche: That which does not destroy me strengthens me.

The slave, on the other hand, is completely at the mercy of external events. If fortune smiles upon him, he struts and boasts and attributes her favors to his own power and wisdom - which, as often as not, had nothing to do with it. If fortune frowns, he whines and weeps and grovels, putting the blame for his sufferings on everything and everybody except himself." (p. 2)

"I stood there and gasped. The sheer size of the place created in my soul a feeling of awe, as if I had found myself standing in the midst of a great cathedral. A monument to Mammon? Yes. But what a monument! What courage, what power, what know-how had been needed to raise those enormous slabs of steel and concrete. And yet it was soulless, a gigantic termitary, where thousands of telephones and typewriters chattered and rattled in a frenzy of activity to accomplish - what? I did not know. An uneasy thought crossed my mind. Was this enormous, beautiful, awe-inspiring, soulless structure a symbol of America?" (p. 167, speaking of Rockefeller Center more than half a century ago)

"More than any other man I have met, he lived by self-imposed rules and pursued intentional aims. In the fullest sense of the word he was inner-directed and lived strategically, knowing what he was doing and why he was doing it. He cared nothing for the artificial laws that confine weaker people to narrow patterns of behavior. He made his own laws and played the game by his own rules. Because these laws and rules were very different from those that ordinarily govern human behavior he seemed like an enigma to some and like a madman to others." (p. 204, speaking of Gurdjieff)

"A fool could follow that way simply to show off, to shock the "squares," to attract attention, to stir up trouble. A fool would confront, out of sheer bravado, challenges with which he was unable to cope. A Warrior, living strategically, would avoid if possible embarking on a battle he could not win. The difference between a Warrior and a fool was simply this: a Warrior knew his limitations, a fool did not." (p. 283, speaking of Leary)

"Despite such amiable slogans as "Make love not war," the whole hippie movement was heavily loaded with hostility. It was Freaksville versus Squaresville, the counter-culture versus the establishment." (p. 287)

"The huge populations of the industrial countries were living in a fool's paradise, refusing to face facts though the facts were obvious to anyone. A crash was inevitable. We were running out of everything: fossil fuels, metals, forests, arable land. . . Our huge extravagant American agriculture was nothing but a factory for turning oill into food. Stop the oil and you stop the tractors. Stop the tractors and you stop the food production. Stop the food production and people starve. They will not starve quietly. The chaos could be as bad as that created by the Mongol invasions. We were facing a period of destruction and grave danger. It made sense to prepare." (p. 323)

"Castaneda's basic teachings concerning the Warrior's way could be summarized as follows:
A Warrior accepts everything as a challenge. He cannot indulge in self-pity, curse his fate, his god, his mate, his boss, his luck. He accepts responsibility for everything. If he puts the blame for his predicament on others, he is not a Warrior.
A Warrior lives strategically. He knows which life game he is playing and why he plays it. His battles are for power and for knowledge. His enemies are weakness and ignorance. He struggles to live by his own self-made rules and to avoid being pushed about by outside forces.
A Warrior uses death as his advisor. He is aware of the fact that his time is limited, so he cannot afford to waste time on useless fantasies or meaningless activities.

OPEN YOUR EYES!
"You must choose:
Do you wish to see (perceive) nothing, or do you want to see things as they really are?
It is not hard to see things as they really are, it is simply a matter of tearing down walls, ridding oneself of defenses and presumption, rendering oneself vulnerable, an idiot, a fool.
But it is not easy to see things as they really are, because it is painful, it is real, it requires response, it's an incredible commitment.
To go nine-tenths of the way is to suffer at every moment utter madness.
To go all the way is to become sane.
Most people prefer blindness.
But most people are a dying race."
- Paul Williams

THE MAN IN THE ARENA
"It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spens himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with these cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
- Theodore Roosevelt

THE WARRIOR PATH
"Our culture must not omit the arming of the man. Let him hear in season that he is born into the state of war, and that the commonwealth and his own well-being require that he should not go dancing in the weeds of peace, but warned, self-collected and neither defying nor dreading the thunder, let him take both reputation and life in his hand, and with perfect urbanity dare the gibbet and the mob by the absolute truth of his speech and the rectitude of his behavior."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

THE MASSES ARE LIKE MACHINES
"What do you expect? People are machines. Machines have to be blind and unconscious; they cannot be otherwise, and all their actions have to correspond to their nature. Everything happens. No-one does anything. 'Progress' and 'civilization', in the real meaning of these words, can appear only as a result of conscious efforts. They cannot appear as a result of unconscious mechanical actions. And what conscious effort can there be in machines? And if one machine is unconscious, and so are a thousand machines, or a hundred thousand, or a million. And the unconscious activity of a million machines must necessarily result in destruction and extermination. It is precisely in unconscious involuntary manifestations that all evil lies. You do not yet understand and cannot imagine all the results of this evil. But the time will come when you will understand."
- G. I. Gurdjieff

THE MASSES ARE LIKE INSECTS
"Cities are like hives in which humans scuttle frantically about like insects. Nearly identical housing projects, condominiums, and high-rises form the shell of the hives, with congested streets and tracks being like the chemical trails. The metaphorical 'insects' of the hive, unlike true insects, lack a hive mind; in fact, they seem to lack any willingness to co-operate or help one another in the absence of threats or rewards. The drones and workers dredge through tedious and demeaning jobs, usually spending their non-working time entranced in front of their televisions, partaking of mind-numbing intoxicants, sleeping fitfully and dreamlessly, or mindlessly reproducing to ensure the cycle of despair continues. The pathetic denizens of the hive cannot leave, as they have become too dependant upon it; bound to their jobs by invisible chains and unable to conceive of a world without the conveniences of mass-transit and free delivery."
- anonymous (RWT)

THE COMPUTER IS WATCHING YOU
"When technology reaches a certain level, people begin to feel like criminals. Someone is after you, the computers maybe, the machine-police. You can't escape investigation. The facts about you and your whole existence have been collected or are being collected. Banks, insurance companies, credit organizations, tax examiners, passport offices, reporting services, police agencies, intelligence gatherers. Devices make us pliant. If they issue a print-out saying we're guilty, then we're guilty. But it goes even deeper, doesn't it? It's the presence alone, the very fact, the superabundance of technology, that makes us feel we're committing crimes. Just the fact that these things exist at this widespread level. The processing machines, the scanners, the sorters. That's enough to make us feel like criminals. What enormous weight. What complex programs. And there's no-one to explain it to us."
- unknown

SOCIETY DOESN'T TOLERATE DISRUPTION
"Let us pretend that you are an ape, and that you have been born into an unusually large group of, say, a hundred or more of your kind . . . this is your society. In most societies, everyone has their place; if you do not know your place, you will soon be put where society feels you belong - usually near the bottom. In this society, there is one maximum leader, the 'Alpha'; and several of his assistants, the 'Betas'; and everyone else is subservient to the leaders and one another based on a sort of 'pecking order.' It is a society of bullies. Whomever is strongest and most feared rules, and whomever is not quite as strong is permitted to harass and attack those weaker than himself. Whatever apes are too passive, weak, or ill to defend themselves will be at the bottom of the pecking order.

Now let us pretend that your ape, for whatever reason, is at the lower end of the pecking order. However, not only is he resentful of his mistreatment by others, but he is significantly more intelligent than most of them. Using his intelligence, he crafts a sort of long dagger from a discarded broken animal bone. Now when the dominant greyback Alpha no longer receives homage in the form of submissive and fearful gesticulation (averting the eyes, exposing the buttocks for mounting, ect.), he flies into a murderous rage and lunges, only to have the needle point of the sharp bone tool plunged through his eye and into his brain. As the Alpha drops dead, is your ape the new king? No. Even if he is able to fend off, or even kill, the attacking Betas with his magic sword, he will not sway the masses.

Why? Because he was once like them and still is, in many ways. He is not inclined to rule as a tyrant, and if he sets down his weapon his strength will be gone. Aren't the apes happy with their newfound freedom? On the contrary, they will be fearful and confused, and as soon as your ape falls asleep, as he eventually must, they will take up the weapon and kill him with it. Then, the strongest and most aggressive survivor will take over as king, and society will return to normal. In most societies, there is no place for one such as your ape. If he cannot be rendered powerless in some way, he must be exiled, imprisoned, or killed. He will never be accepted or assimilated unless be changes into that which he despises. Society does not tolerate disruption."
- anonymous (RWT)

A Warrior has unbending intent. His trained will is his only weapon against the random and chaotic forces that distract, weaken, and can finally destroy him. (However) one wonders why Castaneda has this queer need to obscure and twist out of shape the concepts he describes, cheapening and vulgarizing the Warrior's Way, turning his characters into clowns and the Way itself into a circus." (pp. 360 - 362)

PUBLIC SERVANTS: DANGEROUS DOUBLE STANDARD

It seems time to initiate public discourse about curious and disturbing manifestations of social dis-ease increasingly experienced by Americans. There is a diminished display of civility and declining experience of community throughout America. The recent political campaigns made painfully clear the intensity of social discord and divisions within our nation. This insidious phenomenon robs us of a sense of solidarity-essential to the health and well-being of each citizen and every organization. Crime, one symptom of lost social temperance, seems to be increasing in frequency, severity, randomness, senselessness, magnitude, and sheer horror. We try with limited success to avoid a sense of helplessness and gnawing awareness that we could be directly affected by terrifying event. The manner in which police officers are viewed and treated offers considerable insight into a way to begin to restore lost social temperance.

DEPRESSION

Public health officials have identified a startling increase in the incidence of anxiety and depression in children, adolescents and adults. Terror alerts, news of possible acts of terror, and steady diet of almost exclusively bad news increases our national hypervigilance. Security experts and law enforcement authorities warn we are about to experience a surge in violent crime including domestic and international terrorism. The unthinkable has already occurred, yet authoritative sources warn the traumas that have rocked our nation are small waves when compared to the 'spectacular' tsunami's that will challenge our resolve in the months and years to come.

These unsettling facts are complicated and exacerbated by a related symptom of our national dis-ease: the manner in which we treat public servants called upon to serve and protect our loved ones children domestic predators international terrorists. Historically, our country has demonstrated a lack of uniformity in the way we treat public servants sworn to protect us from predators. Law enforcement personnel are accorded far less support and respect than those who serve in various military branches. Americans simply don't to demonstrate the same kind or level of support for police officers on patrol within our borders as compared to those public servants on patrol outside our borders.

PATRIOTISM

We are rightly exhorted to show tremendous heartfelt respect for military servicemen and women. During times of war, we have learned the value of rallying behind members of the military independent of our views about military objectives and actions. We receive somber reports about casualties, citizens write letters and send care packages to unknown soldiers, and show support in innumerable ways for those serving in the military. Americans simply won't dare risk advertising arrogance by questioning the lawful actions of rank and file military personnel. Americans demonstrate evidence of painful lessons learned from the Vietnam era.

ARROGANT PUBLIC SCRUTINY

Yet we fail to recognize any national disgrace in the way we treat police officers who patrol our communities each day. We conduct necessary activities to 'police the police' with a frightening lack of prudence and common sense. Law enforcement authorities and patrol officers are subject to unbridled and arrogant public scrutiny. "Monday morning criticism" of police activities is considered a constitutional right without commensurate social responsibility to demonstrate consistent and strong 'Sunday afternoon support'. Americans seem to consider this strangely routine ritualistic dissection of police activity to be a new sport or national pastime.. The manner in which we daily betray police officers is as disgraceful as our collective betrayal of the public servants who served in Vietnam, but perhaps even more foolish and myopic. It is as if we are witnessing the social equivalent of an auto-immune disease. We are turning against and weakening the very institutions and individuals we depend upon for national security and protection in our communities.

The level of this social auto-immune dis-ease appears to be increasing at the same rate as the threats to our safety and security. Just as we require a healthy immune system to fight off everything from the common cold to cancer, so too we must have strong and healthy law enforcement agencies and police officers. The worst types of stress, causing the greatest problems for the immune system include uncertainty, unpredictability, inability to influence a desired outcome, frequent exposure to individuals in distress, suffering caused by human beings and adrenaline bursts. These stressors are written into the job requirements and part of the daily duties of a police officer. Social support, typically identified as a major way to neutralize the negative effects of stress, is too often replaced by public hostility and criticism beamed into every living room in the country.

Rather than rally to support police officers when we most need them, we hurl criticism and batter them with insults. Such behavior weakens an aspect of our social immune system we depend on for survival.

WEED OUT CORRUPTION

Unarguably, It is critical to weed out all forms of corruption, discrimination, wrongdoing, and abuse of power within each law enforcement unit. Power does have a tendency to corrupt, and police officers have power. If a police officer commits a crime, he should get what is coming to him. If a police officer uses excessive force, has a demonstrable pattern of discrimination toward a particular racial or ethnic group, drives under the influence of alcohol, is abusive to a spouse or a child, he should face the same penalties as any other member of our society. No one can argue we need to address such issues in a more aggressive and effective manner. No one is above the law. It is essential that there is a system of checks and balances in place, a mechanism that allows for early identification of bad police officers. Every profession has bad apples, and law enforcement is no different.

However, we must ensure that our efforts to weed out the bad cops are balanced by a similar level of readiness and zeal to support the vast majority of good officers, and redress forms of discrimination against these public servants. Our national security requires Americans to initiate a public campaign to cultivate respect for domestic public servants commensurate with the nature and type of support shown to members of our military.

We can no longer afford to deny the existence or the ramifications of this dangerous double standard. We must ensure that domestic public servants along with our military personnel experience full public support and access to all necessary training and equipment to perform their duties in a competent and safe manner. We simply can't crucify a police officer whose actions might be explained by chronic sleep deprivation, inadequate weaponless self defense training, ailing emergency communications systems, or the innumerable problems facing police officers. Our national integrity and safety within our communities requires us to demonstrate civility, courtesy, and ordinary human kindness to this group of public servants.

Law enforcement personnel and emergency room doctors and nurses have many things in common. Whether we realize it or not, good police work requires a level of skill and knowledge equivalent to emergency room personnel, just different types of skills, information, and technology. These are extraordinarily stressful occupations that exact a serious toll on the lives of such individuals and their families. Both lines of work require tremendous skill, courage, discipline, that guide them in making split second life and death decisions. These individuals are too often treated with disrespect and abuse as they intervene in situations they did not create but must manage. We want our ER physicians and nurses to be properly trained, with access to every resource they need so they can care for our loved ones.

Public servants engaged in law enforcement have not been recognized and supported in any way commensurate to the nature and degree they deserve. There are many factors that contribute to the generally poor manner in which our country treats members of the law enforcement community. People are unaware of the rigors of police work, know little of the way in which it cuts years off one's life, places marriages in jeopardy and influences the way in which one perceives the world.

THE BADGE

Senator Joseph Biden has repeatedly said law enforcement is the highest form of public service ( along with motherhood, in my view). The badge worn by police officers is referred to as 'the heavy badge'. Perhaps it is best left unsaid, but the thin bit of steel that keeps the badge in place also pierces the heart of the human being who wears it. Some things cannot be forgotten, some experiences grab hold of a man and won't let go. It is impossible to forget the looks in the eyes of police officers who recognize their lives are considered expendable.

HUMILITY and SOLIDARITY

Anything is acceptable in the absence of human solidarity. Americans have yet to demonstrate the same type of respect and support for police officers that we show members of our military. Until we do, these public servants are simply dispensable cogs in a wheel that can be replaced. Americans have a responsibility to begin to 'walk a mile' with police officers on patrol. Perhaps, anyone who believes they have a right to pass judgment on a police officer should earn that right. Public authorities, elected officials, community leaders, reporters, columnists, and ordinary citizens could cultivate humility and initiate the process of establishing Solidarity with police officers by participation in ridealongs spending time with police families, formal programs to develop a deeper appreciation for these public servants. Anyone with even a hint of awareness of the realities faced by these police officers would not rush to judge an accused officer.

Realistically, it may be difficult to get citizens into patrol cars. Several years ago, a Delaware Voice column urged local authorities to participate in police ridealongs as a way to expedite the process of fixing an ailing emergency communication system that created aptly named 'dead zones' making it impossible for police officers to police officers to call for back up. While the newspapers never truly communicated the severity of the problem during this period, the eyes of every police officer communicated a few chilling realities-they learned their lives were expendable, their work thankless, and inexplicably no lives were lost.

Anything is possible in the absence of Solidarity. Somehow we know we have betrayed our police officers as we betrayed veterans of the Vietnam era. Self-interest alone should summon our collective will to demonstrate public support for these public servants sworn to serve and protect us during the most dangerous time in our nation's history. There is every reason for Delaware to be the first state to launch a campaign to restore social temperance, civility, and create a genuine sense of Solidairity with our police officers. Our nation is divided. demonstrating our support for police officers.

Let the word go forth: A sense of Solidarity within a family, a state, a country makes anything possible. delay any longer to equip these public servants with our support an we do so at our peril and advertise our profound ignorance.

In my opinion, a clear and resolute demonstration of public support for police officers is just what the doctor ordered to enhance our public health.

LIGHT USED TO EASE SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION AND OTHER ILLS

By Gary SoulsmanStaff Reporter 05/17/2003

This article appears with permission from the Wilmington News Journal, asubsidiary of Gannett News Corporation.

Wilmington psychologist Kevin Keough has glimpsed the future and says it will be filled with mood-elevating light. In recent years, modern medicine has used indoor light mimicking the sun to combat the winter blues. Now, says Keough, there is a growing body of research that shows daily doses of bright light are useful to all sorts of Americans year-round."Someone once asked if I 'really believed in this stuff,' which is like asking a physician if they really believe in antibiotics," he says.

The studies have so impressed Keough that he is suggesting light therapy for people struggling with many issues, including depression, insomnia and the tendency in kids to delay bedtime. He is also suggesting light therapy for shift workers to help them reset their sleep cycle and adjust to the changes in work patterns that occur every few weeks."Light has an important future in medicine," says Keough, who believes light therapy is an underutilized health intervention.

Using light to regulate energy and activity levels is an idea winning wider acceptance as researchers explore the theory that light triggers the release and suppression of important body chemicals. Mental health professionals are especially enthused about the ability of light to help with depression. That's because light therapy is easy to administer and tends to have fewer side effects than some antidepressants."We find light therapy is often useful with depression," says Dr. Carol Tavani, a Wilmington neuropsychiatrist. "We use it with people on anti-depressants. But we all have patients who are sensitive to medication or they want to try something else first. We have patients who show improvements on light therapy alone.

"Experts say light therapy is usually effective in the first week, if treatments are going to work. By comparison, antidepressants can take several weeks to be effective.

Treatment at Home is Easy

Light therapy is taken at home or in the workplace with daily doses of light far brighter than what's found in the average living room or office. Often people sit next to a high-intensity tabletop light for 30 minutes to an hour, though everyone is different and people are advised by doctors to use lights with care because an overdose is unsettling. New light boxes are usually rated at 10,000 lux - about the brightness of morning sun - and are relatively inexpensive. One of the leading manufacturers,Apollo Light in Orem, Utah, sells the lights for $149 to $500.

Dr. Rob Abel, a Wilmington ophthalmologist, says the light from light boxes is safe, scattering on the retina without being so powerful as to cause maculardegeneration. Harmful rays are blocked, which means people should not tan from exposure. Tavani says she has observed limited side effects, though studies show that light can bring on feelings of mania in some patients with bipolar disorder so such people need to exercise caution. Others say if they sit too close to a light or sit there too long they feel jittery, nauseous or may get a headache. Usually side effects can be controlled by lessening the amount of light you take, says Tavani. Psychologist Frederick Kozma, who works with Tavani at Christiana Psychiatric Services, not only suggests light therapy for depressed clients - he gives himself a dose of light each morning at breakfast."I've found it energizes me for the day," says Kozma.

SAD Launched Studies

In 1984 light therapy began to receive attention for its effectiveness in treating the winter blues or seasonal affective disorder (SAD) thanks to the research of Dr. Norman E. Rosenthal, then at the National Institute of Mental Health. Since then, light therapy has become an accepted treatment for SAD. Light therapy is also being tried on everything from premenstrual depression to dementia and chronic fatigue syndrome. For example: In 2001, the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reported that 22 patients, who had symptoms of SAD and bulimia, were treated with light therapy. At the conclusion of the four-week trial, 10 patients said the SAD had lifted. Patients in the study also reported a 46 percent decrease in episodes of bingeing.

Last year, 16 pregnant women struggling with depression were given light treatments at Yale University. They experienced a 59 percent improvement in their symptoms during a five-week trial. As the American Journal of Psychiatry reported, light therapy could have a role with pregnant women in that doctors have been reluctant to give them antidepressants "because little is known about how the drugs may affect the developing fetus."

Pat Patnaude, who lives near Newark, says she initially purchased a full-spectrum light to help her 11-year-old daughter Kelsey. Keough suggested light therapy for Kelsey, who has attention-deficit disorder and can feel anxious at times. Kelsey has used the light at breakfast and when doing homework after school. Her mom says homework that once took an hour now takes 40 minutes. It is neater and more accurately completed. Patnaude adds that her older daughter, Melanie, is finding that light therapy helps her focus on homework, too.

The 41-year-old Patnaude says light therapy has worked for her as well. A 20-to 30-minute dose of bright light in the morning has eased her insomnia. In her cubicle at work, she has used a second light for an hour each day to elevate her mood. She says the light has allowed her to reduce her dosage of theantidepressant Wellbutrin. "What I also find amusing is that my 'Apollo' light is often missing from my desk in the morning, being used by co-workers who arrive earlier than I do," she says. Her co-workers now refer to the appliance as "the happy light."

Illuminating Science

There have been 20 studies showing that light has a positive effect on a significant number of people with year-round depression, says Dr. Daniel F.Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. But neither antidepressants nor light therapy works with everyone, which is why he suggests using them in tandem. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 10 percent of the population or 18 million people deal with depression in any given year."Think about the dark dungeons of despair, the heart of darkness, the gloominess of a funereal mood," writes Kripke. "This language tells us what people have always known. Sadness rules where it is dark."Think about a person who has seen the light. Think about brilliance. Think how we describe the scintillating joy of love by singing, 'You are my sunshine.' We know that light makes us happier."

In recent decades, Kripke says, science has been trying to understand how it is that light is a neurobiological agent with strong effects on the body. One theory is that light enters the eye and travels along a nerve to the hypothalamus, which is involved in the regulation of the body through the secretion of hormones. In response to bright light, the suprachiasmatic nuclei or body clock resets itself and sends a signal to the pineal gland which produces serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that has the effect of elevating the mood of many people.Often, people use light therapy in the morning. In response the body clock is thought to suppress the production of melatonin until much later in the day when the hormone helps bring on sleep.

Because of these effects, Keough says police on night shift can take a 30-minute dose of bright light at 3 a.m. to help them stay awake. And children can use bright light in the morning to help them feel energized for school, then be ready for sleep at a normal evening hour. "Full-spectrum lighting is an integral part of addressing a significant number of sleep problems," writes Keough.

Indoor Life Creates Need

Kripke has theorized that modern Americans need doses of bright indoor light because we're spending less time outdoors than in earlier decades. On a typical day, he says, people go from their homes to their cars and into work. Then at the end of the day we reverse the pattern. He says television, computers and video games also conspire to keep us indoors. "The result is we spend more and more time in front of the tubes and less and less time in daylight," he says.In several cities, Kripke has studied how much sunlight people receive. He's found the average person is outdoors for less than one hour a day. In his study, he asked people to wear tiny light meters.

He found that even in San Diego, known for its pleasant climate, the average person receives an average of 350 lux each day. That's a fraction of what he estimates that people may need to function optimally. He says people could give themselves a mood lift by spending at least an hour outdoors in strong sunlight. But for many Americans this is not practical because of work and family commitments. That's why he expects more people to turn to bright indoor lights as a way of regulating moods and rhythms."I think the human body was designed to be outdoors in daylight as most animals are," says Kripke. "The body doesn't do well if it doesn't get some bright light. That's true for the birds and bees, the flowers and trees. Why not us?"

Longwalker Speaks
---------------
The rattle is a voice given to us by Mother Earth
She can't talk to us like we talk in a voice
So we have to create a voice for Her
That the people will hear.

So who did we go to?
We didn't have the knowledge
As humans
Because we're limited as to our abilities
In the spiritual world

But because Mother Earth deals with life and death
Every second that the clock goes around
That she's so familiar
That we take the elements
How do we get them?
We have to go to the thing live

So we go to an ant hill
And there's a ceremony and there's song
There's prayers that go with it
And we ask the ants for help

And in asking them for this help
They bring us stones
From where ever they collect them
We don't ask them where
It's enough that they bring them to us

We collect these stones
And we put them in these rattles
And, uh, fifty-two of them
Each one is a voice from the past

And the people say
"Man, they laugh at that"
And I say
"Laugh if you want, but, listen...
While you're making fun, open one ear
To reality.
Let the other one be happy, and destructive"

So, the stones that the ants bring
When we lay our people to rest in the natural way
Not in a coffin, but in a natural way
The little creapers and crawlers come
And they distribute our body
Evenly, back into Mother Earth

We become one with Her
We become productive
See.. uh.. we're using
We never leave
We go back to the earth
And "dust to dust" they say
In due time
We're blown into the atmosphere
We come down in rain and snow
And this rain and snow is absorbed
By all creation again

It goes into the water
We're drinking it agian
We're eating it again
We become productive

So how can Man not save our own brothers
With creation?
We are just one massive cell
With so much energy and beauty
That the short time on the physical form
It's such a sin, a waste to tie it up in all the destruction

This is the voice that is going into each little stone
We put in that rattle
All this power, knowledge, energy
Then.....

Watch a video of Longwalker Speaks May 12 1996

A mother sent me a copy of a letter she wrote to her son a while back. She expressed her concerns that the way she and her husband had raised their son had left him vulnerable to certain types of predators, with a specific concern about his relationships with women.

It's rare to come across mother to son letters of this sort. It's uncommon for me to come across a 'message' from one human being to another that is so real. It feels like something has grabbed me by the throat to get my attention and keep me reading. I've become a bit jaded over the years particularly by attempts by media sources and ordinary people to manipulate my emotions.

I wonder what it was like for the son to read this letter. I believe my mother did an extraordinarily solid job of preparing me to deal with the trials and battering I've encountered in life. My father's life was derailed by alcoholism and bipolar illness as he succeeded in building a very big company. His job was to make money to provide. I think he sacrificed his life to ensure he would succeed. I am grateful for two encounters with my father that let me know he was more tuned in to me and my siblings than people thought. We were a pretty Irish-American family. No hugs or 'I love you's'. Families are different.

Anyway, this letter is worth reading. I am very curious to learn more about the family lives of warriors---not as a psychologist---just as a human being. I hope people will be willing to write or talk a bit about their experiences. I know of nothing written about the family experiences. I have never seen anything written about the Achilles heel of warriors. The Warrior Traditions audio interviewseries started with Marc MacYoung hinting at the value of exploring this stuff a bit. I know I am relieved to know there are men out there like the ones I've been fortunate to interview and have scheduled for interviews.

Men in our culture seem to be lost. A recent Time magazine article about men and fatherhood opens with this question: "Does fatherhood make men less masculine"? I believe the men I've been talking to could provide some direction to men who need to finish the Time article to answer such a bizarre question.

Somehow, this letter has left me with lots of questions and evidence of the sacred.

Son, when you were born and the doctor yelled out, "It's a boy", your father and I were filled with joy and awe. We had prayed and hoped for a son. I knew that having a son would heal your father in ways that nothing else would. I knew little about boys but longed in my heart for a son to complete our family. And through having a son, I hoped to better understand the mysteries of men. From the day you were born- you have been our joy.

You have surpassed our wildest dreams and hopes for you. We could not love you more, or be more proud of you. Everyday of your life you have brought us deep joy, love and pride. You are our bridge to the future, our legacy, and our hope.

A Good Man

If we could have summed up our longing when we looked at you in your first minutes of life- it would be to raise a "good man." You are a good man. This is the highest compliment I can give.

I fear in our culture the understanding of what a good man is has been lost- or worse considered irrelevant or unimportant. When I was a child everyone knew what it meant. A good man is honorable. His word is his bond. Other men respect him. He stays the course. He is protective of the weak, elderly, and vulnerable. He takes care of his family- in every sense. He does not seek a fight- but is willing to fight if necessary. Children and women who have a good man for a father, grandfather, brother or husband are blessed. Without him- the center does not hold. At a man's funeral the highest eulogy one can give is, "He was a good man." It is the greatest legacy you can leave.

A Warrior's Vulnerability

There is a saying that one's strength is also one's greatest weakness. Another way of putting it is that everyone has his Achille's heel. Anyone who lives by a code of honor is vulnerable in some ways. By definition, a code of honor excludes certain behaviors. Predators and users who have no bounds on their behavior, and who lack morals, will, if given the chance, victimize people who do.

Your father has trained you and taught you about this much more then I can. I would like to share with you what I believe you should know about women and how to select a life partner. I understand that you are a grown man and will make your own decisions. I offer you what I have learned in the spirit of love and respect. Take what you can use and leave the rest.

I offer you my advice and "wisdom" from the belief that the most meaningful, productive, and rewarding life is achieved through having a happy marriage and family. I believe if a marriage is full of conflict, and unhappiness, and your home and family are not a sanctuary and safe, loving environment for your children to grow up in- no outside accomplishment can make up for this loss. So everything I share with you is toward helping you achieve this goal.

Recognize the Achilles' heel or blind spots of being a good man and learn how to spot predators and users before you let one into your life, heart, or bed.

Men tend to see women as angels or whores. They either idealize or underestimate women. Both are huge mistakes. Women are just as complicated as men, and can be equally cruel and devious. If you buy into the usual male arrogance that because you are stronger and tougher a woman cannot harm you, or even destroy you- you are setting yourself up for a world of hurt. As a good man you are particularly vulnerable because there are limits on your behavior. You do not lie, you have a giving and open heart, and you would never abuse a woman in any way. You are protective and you are willing to endure hardship for the ones you love. Some women will mistake kindness for weakness. To them, your warrior code is a green light to abuse you.

Recognize that if you let a woman into your heart, she has incredible power to hurt you. At the least, she can turn an open heart into a closed one. You will leave the relationship more jaded and cynical then when you entered. The baggage will carry over into subsequent relationships. Often the next woman ends up paying for another's sins-, which decreases your chances for a happy and healthy marriage. Guard you heart- be careful whom you give it to.

Becoming A Father

You will be amazed at your capacity to love when you lay eyes on your first child. It is truly the closest we come to rebirth in this life. You will feel in an instant a love that you have never experienced or thought possible. You would gladly give up your life for this innocent being. Having a child has been described as "walking around with your heart outside of your body." This is truth.

Realize that the greatest influence on your child's life will be his or her mother. This is unavoidable. Realize that you cannot control anyone else's behavior. You cannot turn a woman into a loving mother if she is not. If you select unwisely, your children will pay, and you will spend your life trying to protect your children from the influence of their mother and make up for what she lacks. Who you select to be the mother of your children is the most important decision you will make in your life.

She has the power to determine whether the child is even born. She has the power to choose whether to marry you, raise the child alone, or give him or her up for adoption. She determines how she raises your child, how the children view you, and the atmosphere in your home. If there is a divorce you are at a disadvantage in our legal system. You will be assumed to be the "bad guy." In family life women hold the power. This is the reality you need to face.

My hope for you is that you make a wise choice the first time and can achieve the ultimate goal of a happy marriage and family life.

Tips on Selecting A Life Partner and Women To Avoid

My goal in offering these tips is to help you avoid heartache and mistakes. If you are clear on what to avoid, what to look for becomes more in focus.

1. If a woman is not accepted and respected by other women- it is a huge red flag. Each sex has an unwritten code of behavior. Just like men, women ostracize other women when this code is violated. Just like you would not trust or become friends with another man that most of your peers regarded as a "dick" or scumbag, do not leave yourself vulnerable to a woman that is shunned by other women. Realize that as a man you have blind spots about the opposite sex. Women can spot trouble signs in other women that a man will not discover until he has been put through the grinder.

2. Look at how she treats waiters, service people, and others that she is not obliged to show respect or courtesy to. That is how she will be treating you in six months when the "new" wears off.

3.Listen to how she talks about old boyfriends. If she is always the "victim" in her stories, describes men as users, tyrants, pigs, etc. or takes no responsibility for her role in the relationships, she will either make you pay for the sins of another, or will be describing you in the same terms when your fling ends.

4.Observe carefully the type of relationship she has with her father, and brothers. Look at how her mother treats her father- or how her mother describes him if they are no longer together. Watch how the mother relates to her son. This is the template a woman will bring to your relationship- unless she has tried hard to become conscious and change any destructive or hurtful patterns she has grown up with.

5.Understand that many women use sex as a bargaining tool. There is a big difference between "sexy" and "sensual." It is a cliché, but it is true that some women who come across as aggressively sexual or "hot" in reality hate sex and have a very low opinion of men. They see sexuality as a tool to get what they want. Often times the woman who appears much more reserved or even shy, is in reality very sensual. Her sexuality is private and exclusive. She is very selective about who she shares with. She values herself. She will value you. Learn to tell the difference.

6.Avoid at all cost "fire starters." Some women make themselves feel more powerful by manipulating men to be aggressive toward other men, creating drama, making him fight for her, etc. If a woman is constantly trying to make you jealous, creating situations where you have to "defend her", fight other men, or constantly challenges your manhood- run don't walk away from her. Let her be someone else's nightmare.

7. As a good man, you respect women, and would never be abusive to a woman either emotionally or physically. If she does not show you the same respect, if she feels it is okay to scream, insult, hit, shove, slap, and physically assault you for any reason- dump her. We have not raised you to be anyone's emotional or physical punching bag.

8. Avoid women who perceive you as a project to be completed. Be wary if she "loves" you but wants to change how you think, dress, your hobbies, etc. Aspiring you to be your best and achieve your goals is one thing. Seeing you as a remodeling project that she is in charge of is another.

9.Be aware of women who constantly need to be "rescued" or "birds with broken wings." You are by nature protective, loving and generous. Don't get trapped by a woman who is in constant crisis and is looking for a rescuer. She will drain you dry. Many women who present themselves as extremely vulnerable and weak are in reality incredibly tough and very skilled at getting what they want. The problem is they get it through other people.

10. If you constantly feel guilty, inadequate, or diminished in your relationship with a woman and when you examine your heart and behavior can state that you are living your code- realize you are being manipulated. Get out.

Signs of A Good Woman

Just like there is a "good man" there is a good woman. This is what you deserve. This is what makes it possible to go the distance. Life is a dance. Relationships between men and women are a dance. To make it work you both have to be doing the same dance, and it has to be one you both want to do. Get that right- and the rest is details.

1. She values herself. People cannot give what they do not have. She has her own code of honor. She knows who she is. She has standards. She is not looking for a man to complete her, control her, or rescue her. She is looking for a man who is worthy of her. She will settle for nothing less. She is happy by herself. A man she chooses enriches her. He is a choice- not an addiction or a vain attempt to fill an empty hole.

2. She moves slowly. She has a clear idea of what she wants, needs and deserves. You have to measure up. She reveals herself slowly as she learns to trust you. She guards her heart. She knows a lot more then what she shows. She decides. You can never demand or take what she does not want to give.

3. She recognizes a good man and values him. She is not subservient to you and has no desire to control you. She is gentle and fierce at the same time. She offers loyalty, love, tenderness, and a soft place to fall. You are safe with her.

4. She is your friend. Your wife and mother of your children should be your best friend. Don't settle for less.

5. You can laugh together. She gets your humor, and shares it. Her humor is not cruel and she never uses it to tear you down. Humor will get you through some of your toughest times. If you can laugh with her and be playful in bed- you are truly blest.

6. She puts you first in her life. She understands that the marriage and relationship with her husband comes before the kids or anything else.

7. She guards your relationship. Men rightly see themselves as the protectors- and she will expect this of you. Women protect in their own ways-, which are just as important. She will defend your relationship as sacred. She will not gossip about you with her friends, share intimate details of your life with others, or allow anyone to disrespect you.

8. She will teach your children to love and respect you. Realize that the mother has tremendous power to determine whether the husband/father is valued within the family- or left out in the cold.

9. She will understand the pressure you feel to succeed in your job, provide for your family, and the toll this take on you. While recognizing and meeting her own needs, she will also understand and support you.

10. How do you know you have succeeded? When you pull into your driveway at night- you will be happy to be home. You will not be tense worrying what kind of drama, tension, and hostility you will have to encounter. Home is a sanctuary. You are loved and safe there. You are respected. Your wife and children are happy to see you. You are all happiest when everyone is together. Your wife tells your son that she hopes he turns out like his dad and her daughter that she hopes she marries someone like her father.

This is what I want for you. This is what you deserve.

When you find her- cherish her.

Live the dance.

Love mom

Dr. Kevin L. Keough, clinical psychologist and host of Warrior Traditions interviews Mr. Marc "Animal" MacYoung.

Topic: Martial arts, self defense and the way of the warrior

Listen or download the free audio interview
Length-1 hour, 59 minutes, 44 seconds

Marc MacYoung has been called a Renaissance man in the study and management of violence. He has more then 35 years of training in 8 different martial arts systems including wing chun and Tai Chi. Perhaps, more importantly he has 47 years of experience in training in city jungles. Mr. MacYoung is the author of 15 books and 7 DVD's covering a broad range of topics in self-defense. He provides training to military personnel, police officers, bodyguards, and the general public. His website, No Nonsense Self Defense is the largest and most visited web site on self-defense in the world.

Dr. Kevin L. Keough, clinical psychologist and host of Warrior Traditions interviews Kyoshi Gary Moro

Topic: Classical Japanese Martial Arts

Listen to or download the free audio interview
Length-1 hour, 59 minutes, 44 seconds

Gary Moro started his martial arts training with Hiroshi Yachigusa in 1975. His studies began with the art of Aikijutsu, based on the system developed by Yachigusa Sensei's family which had been influenced by Jukishin-Ryu, Shinkage-Ryu and various other Japanese sword and spear arts.

In traditional Japanese Ryu there are no belts to represent promotions, and Hiroshi Yachigusa did not believe in awarding certificates to denote achievement. Though not his custom, in 1989 he granted Gary Moro to the rank of Kyoshi (instructor).

During his martial arts career, Kyoshi Moro has also studied various other martial arts, including Karate, Judo, Kenpo, Arnis, and two forms of Kung Fu. Though he has over 30 years of training in the martial arts, he still considers himself a student of them. Always interested in learning new information, Gary Moro continues to attend numerous martial arts seminars each year, exposing himself to different arts, philosophies, and martial technique.

Some of the instructors he has trained with formally are: Neil Laughin (Judo), Joseph Wong (Long Fist Kung Fu), Michael Daivs (Serrada Eskrima), Ralph Castro (Kenpo), Joseph Halbuna (Kajukenbo), Kenneth Leung (Kung Fu) Tobias Johnston (Karate/Kobudo), Joseph McCullan (Western Boxing) and Kyong Lee (Kuk Soo Won.) Visit his website and blog.

Dr. Kevin L. Keough, clinical psychologist and host of Warrior Traditons interviews Grandmaster Rene Latosa.

Topic:Escrima and Filipino Martial Arts

Listen to or download the free audio interview
Length-1 hour, 15 minutes, 21 seconds

Grandmaster Rene Latosa has been actively teaching  the Philipino martial arts since 1968. He was strongly influenced by his instructors at the Stockton Escrima Academy in California, including Grandmaster Angel Cabales, Max Sarmiento, Dentoy Revilar and Master Leo Giron, as well as the teachings of his own father. Latosa has received full instructorship certification in the Serrada system and Cadena de Mano. He is the only person ever to be certified in Cadena de Mano by Max Sarmiento.

Rene Latosa has been teaching martial arts for over 30 years. He has schools worldwide and teaches seminars all through the U.S. He is the first person to introduce the Filipino martial arts to Europe.

He has taught martial arts to special police tactical units on the East Coast, West Coast, special combat units within the Air Force, the California Highway Patrol, U.S. Probation Department, sheriff departments, various security firms/bodyguards and various police and special police units in Europe. He has designed several self-defense courses for women and children.

He has several series of videos out on the market, published several books on the subject, and has been the main theme for several major martial arts magazines as well as television stories both in the U.S. and in foreign countries. He acts as aconsultant to several kick-boxing and martial arts schools in Northern California.

Latosa Escrima Concepts is a very dynamic and logical system. Latosa Escrima/Concepts is the study and development of the best concepts and strategies of many systems. It is the idea of understanding what you do, how you do it and why it is done. The system is an education in body control, awareness and weapon efficiency. Visit Grandmaster Rene Latosa's website.   Purchase his DVDs from his website.

Dr. Kevin L. Keough, clinical psychologist and host of Warrior Traditons interviews Grandmaster Rene Latosa.

Topic:Escrima and Filipino Martial Arts

Listen to or download the free audio interview
Length-1 hour, 37 minutes, 32 seconds

Grandmaster Rene Latosa has been actively teaching  the Philipino martial arts since 1968. He was strongly influenced by his instructors at the Stockton Escrima Academy in California, including Grandmaster Angel Cabales, Max Sarmiento, Dentoy Revilar and Master Leo Giron, as well as the teachings of his own father. Latosa has received full instructorship certification in the Serrada system and Cadena de Mano. He is the only person ever to be certified in Cadena de Mano by Max Sarmiento.

Rene Latosa has been teaching martial arts for over 30 years. He has schools worldwide and teaches seminars all through the U.S. He is the first person to introduce the Filipino martial arts to Europe.

He has taught martial arts to special police tactical units on the East Coast, West Coast, special combat units within the Air Force, the California Highway Patrol, U.S. Probation Department, sheriff departments, various security firms/bodyguards and various police and special police units in Europe. He has designed several self-defense courses for women and children.

He has several series of videos out on the market, published several books on the subject, and has been the main theme for several major martial arts magazines as well as television stories both in the U.S. and in foreign countries. He acts as aconsultant to several kick-boxing and martial arts schools in Northern California.

Latosa Escrima Concepts is a very dynamic and logical system. Latosa Escrima/Concepts is the study and development of the best concepts and strategies of many systems. It is the idea of understanding what you do, how you do it and why it is done. The system is an education in body control, awareness and weapon efficiency. Visit Grandmaster Rene Latosa's website.   Purchase his DVDs from his website.

Dr. Kevin L. Keough, clinical psychologist and host of Warrior Traditons interviews Punong Guro Mike Schwarz.

Topic: Serrada Escrima, martial arts and self defense.

Listen to or download the free audio interview.

Length-1 hour, 40 minutes, 31 seconds

In 1979 Mike Schwarz began instructing Tae Kwon Do/Hapkido(Moo Du Kwon) under Master Change Hee Jhoon.  It was thru his TKD/Hapkido training that he was able to develop unmatched body conditioning/hardening skills.  While in the military he continued training with Moo Du Kwon and obtained his 2nd and eventually 3rd Degree Black Belts.

His initial introduction to the FMA came in 1985. Upon his return from the military in 1991 he continued to study in Serra Escrima. Under Punong Guro Churk Caddell III, he achieved Pansiang Guro status. His empty hand, blade and stick/cane abilities increased under his instruction.

Most recently he obtained the status of Master Instructor level & 2nd degree Master Instructor level in the Davis/Cabales System of Escrima. Additionally, he has been asked to represent Martial Arts International & WSEF (World Serrada Escrima Federation) throughout the midwest and east coast.  He represents the ICSDA as a Combat Martial Arts instructor. Recently he was honored by becoming a member of the WMAU Board of Directors and nominated to President of the WCAU (World Combat Arts Union.)  Visit his website.

Dr. Kevin L. Keough, clinical psychologist and host of Warrior Traditons interviews Punong Guro Mike Schwarz.

Topic: Serrada Escrima, martial arts and self defense.

Listen to or download the free audio interview.

Length-1 hour, 25 minutes, 24 seconds

In 1979 Mike Schwarz began instructing Tae Kwon Do/Hapkido(Moo Du Kwon) under Master Change Hee Jhoon.  It was thru his TKD/Hapkido training that he was able to develop unmatched body conditioning/hardening skills.  While in the military he continued training with Moo Du Kwon and obtained his 2nd and eventually 3rd Degree Black Belts.

His initial introduction to the FMA came in 1985. Upon his return from the military in 1991 he continued to study in Serra Escrima. Under Punong Guro Churk Caddell III, he achieved Pansiang Guro status. His empty hand, blade and stick/cane abilities increased under his instruction.

Most recently he obtained the status of Master Instructor level & 2nd degree Master Instructor level in the Davis/Cabales System of Escrima. Additionally, he has been asked to represent Martial Arts International & WSEF (World Serrada Escrima Federation) throughout the midwest and east coast.  He represents the ICSDA as a Combat Martial Arts instructor. Recently he was honored by becoming a member of the WMAU Board of Directors and nominated to President of the WCAU (World Combat Arts Union.)  Visit his website.

Dr. Kevin L. Keough, clinical psychologist and host of Warrior Traditions and North Star Guardians, interviews Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming

Topic: Preserving The Chinese Martial And Healing Arts

Listen to or download the free audio interview

Length-1 hour, 36 minutes, 44 seconds

Dr. Yang Jwing- Ming was born in Taiwan in 1946. He has studied Wu Su since the age of fifteen under different instructors, most notably Cheng Gin-Gsao, White Crane, Pai Huo Kao (Tao Tai Chi Chuan, Yang's division) and Li Mao-Ching (Long Fist). His academic career is well rounded as well, as he received a M.S. degree in Physics from the National Taiwan University in 1971 and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 1978.

He started working for Texas Instruments in Houston in 1980, founded the Yang's Martial Art Academy in Boston in 1982, then left TI in 1984 to devote all his time to the YMAA, which has since expanded into the Yang's Oriental Arts Association, Inc. He has published a large amount of material, most of which under Unique Publications and his own YMAA Publication Center.

Read an article about Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming and the YMAA Retreat Center by Jennifer Sexton,  published Sept 07, Inside Kung Fu magazine

Watch the YMAA Netcast.

Donate to the nonprofit YMAA Retreat Center.

Dr. Kevin L. Keough, clinical psychologist and host of Warrior Traditions and North Star Guardians, interviews Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming

Topic: Preserving The Chinese Martial And Healing Arts

Listen to or download the free audio interview

Length-1 hour, 3 minutes, 2 seconds

Dr. Yang Jwing- Ming was born in Taiwan in 1946. He has studied Wu Su since the age of fifteen under different instructors, most notably Cheng Gin-Gsao, White Crane, Pai Huo Kao (Tao Tai Chi Chuan, Yang's division) and Li Mao-Ching (Long Fist). His academic career is well rounded as well, as he received a M.S. degree in Physics from the National Taiwan University in 1971 and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 1978.

He started working for Texas Instruments in Houston in 1980, founded the Yang's Martial Art Academy in Boston in 1982, then left TI in 1984 to devote all his time to the YMAA, which has since expanded into the Yang's Oriental Arts Association, Inc. He has published a large amount of material, most of which under Unique Publications and his own YMAA Publication Center.

Read an article about Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming and the YMAA Retreat Center by Jennifer Sexton,  published Sept 07, Inside Kung Fu magazine

Watch the YMAA Netcast.

Donate to the nonprofit YMAA Retreat Center.

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of Warrior Traditions and North Star Guardians, interviews Maestro Edgardo Pérez

Topic: Guazabara Fighting Arts & Hapkido/Warrior System

Listen to or download the free audio interview.

Length-1 hour, 8 minutes, 18 seconds

Guazabara's Chief Instructor, Edgardo Perez, has more than 28 years of training in Hapkido in both the United States and South Korea, a Full Instructor in Filipino Largo Mano Eskrima as well as being the founder and Chief Instructor of The Defense Training Institute The World Guazábara Federation. Master Perez began his Hapkido training in 1979 under the Fowler Brothers in Aurora, Illinois. Perez then took his training to South Korea where he trained under Grandmaster Yu Chong Su (Chong Su Kwan Hapkido) who in turn was trained by Grandmaster Choi Yong Sool (Founder of Hapkido).

Perez is a law enforcement veteran of more then twenty years who has also been teaching Police Defensive Tactics to local, state and military personal during that time. He is a member of Illinois Tactical Officers Association and charter member of The International Law Enforcement Educators Trainers Association (ILEETA). He has conducted numerous seminars in the United States and Puerto Rico.  As a veteran with tactical and combat training, and as a police sergeant who has quelled many dangerous situations. Maestro Pérez has reintroduced to the modern era  a realistic weapons system that can adapt to any hostile circumstances.

Honoring his Taino Warrior bloodline, Maestro Perez, who's family is from the mountains of Camuy & Lares, P.R., is also a  Nitaino-Chief of the Bramaya Tribe, Tequina (teacher) of Taino Tribal Warrior Ways and the Illinois Representative of /www.uctp.org/">The United Confederation of Taino People.

The reintroduction of this martial art from Boriken and the Caribbean islands to modern society is not only a tribute to the indigenous people of Boriken (Puerto Rico) but of tribal people everywhere. In the ancient Taino language, Guazabara can be interpreted several ways; but it ultimately means war, fighter, protector, hunter or warrior. The Way of Guazabara has always been and remains a method of self-preservation. Visit Maestro Perez's website.

May our ancestors find us worthy. Maestro Perez.

Dr. Kevin Keough, host of Warrior Traditions and North Star Guardians, interviews Maestro Edgardo Pérez

Topic: Guazabara Fighting Arts & Hapkido/Warrior System

Listen to or download the free audio interview.

Length-1 hour, 20 minutes, 15 seconds

Guazabara's Chief Instructor, Edgardo Perez, has more than 28 years of training in Hapkido in both the United States and South Korea, a Full Instructor in Filipino Largo Mano Eskrima as well as being the founder and Chief Instructor of The Defense Training Institute The World Guazábara Federation. Master Perez began his Hapkido training in 1979 under the Fowler Brothers in Aurora, Illinois. Perez then took his training to South Korea where he trained under Grandmaster Yu Chong Su (Chong Su Kwan Hapkido) who in turn was trained by Grandmaster Choi Yong Sool (Founder of Hapkido).

Perez is a law enforcement veteran of more then twenty years who has also been teaching Police Defensive Tactics to local, state and military personal during that time. He is a member of Illinois Tactical Officers Association and charter member of The International Law Enforcement Educators Trainers Association (ILEETA). He has conducted numerous seminars in the United States and Puerto Rico.  As a veteran with tactical and combat training, and as a police sergeant who has quelled many dangerous situations. Maestro Pérez has reintroduced to the modern era  a realistic weapons system that can adapt to any hostile circumstances.

Honoring his Taino Warrior bloodline, Maestro Perez, who's family is from the mountains of Camuy & Lares, P.R., is also a  Nitaino-Chief of the Bramaya Tribe, Tequina (teacher) of Taino Tribal Warrior Ways and the Illinois Representative of /www.uctp.org/">The United Confederation of Taino People.

The reintroduction of this martial art from Boriken and the Caribbean islands to modern society is not only a tribute to the indigenous people of Boriken (Puerto Rico) but of tribal people everywhere. In the ancient Taino language, Guazabara can be interpreted several ways; but it ultimately means war, fighter, protector, hunter or warrior. The Way of Guazabara has always been and remains a method of self-preservation. Visit Maestro Perez's website.

May our ancestors find us worthy. Maestro Perez.