The Way of the Scholar Warrior: a Balance Between Dark and Light
by Brandon Dean
Tao
"The Taoists believe that it is humanity's refusal to regard itself as part of a greater order that causes ignorance, confusion and sorrow."
---Deng Ming-Dao, from Scholar Warrior
Tao is basically the idea that all life (and thus freedom) is based on the same principles of being, non-being, and evolution or change. Taoists believe there is a natural balance between all living things: tangible and intangible, physical and mental, competitive and passive...
The goal of the Scholar Warrior is to locate this balance and fight to keep it. To find the Tao... Discipline is key to finding your Tao, as it is individual in nature. Just like everything else in life you must discern everything from your own individual perspective. How one chooses to interpret their reality is their own business.
One might say for brevity's sake that Tao is the search for balance...
"There are two of you, don't you see? One that kills... and one that loves..."
--from Apocalypse Now Redux
the Scholar Warriors
The Scholar Warriors were formed in China about four hundred years ago, and were formed out of the three main schools of discipline:
Kung Fu, Qi Gong, and Tai Qi.
Kung Fu
Kung Fu was the culmination of the knowledge and discipline gained from thousands of years of idealistic royal knights and land owners, who gained their honor by defending the poor and defenseless. The Chinese have a much deeper history of chivalry than European countries. It was the most important faculty to being a Scholar Warrior. Society itself taught that one could not be successful in business without being an artist, philosopher, and athlete. And conversely, one could not be a true artist without having the physical skill to defend themselves. Kung Fu taught self-defense in the necessity of ridding China of the Manchurian royal family which had invaded and conquered China. The Chinese people never truly accepted the Manchurian Royalty, so they set up the Shaolin School as a monastery, because monasteries were the one place the Manchus would give sanctuary. It was a religious front, however, and the Shaolin monks spent decades honing their skills in secret to fight the Manchurian royalty. They developed skills others could only describe as super-human, and chief among these techniques was Kung Fu.
They considered the human body to be the epitome of a war machine. Of course big guns proved them wrong in the end...
Qi Gong
Qi Gong is a healing art which moves and channels energy (or "qi", pronounced "chee") through breathing techniques combined with fluid bodily movements. I practice it myself. I could actually show anyone who cares to learn facial exercises which will nullify any cold or virus I know of, if practiced with discipline. This is not new age medicine or philosophy. The Chinese have known about qi for thousands of years, and have been able to manipulate it through acupuncture, acupressure, Qi Gong, and other techniques for the same amount of time.
Tai Qi
Tai Qi is a mixture of the healing arts and the martial arts. Tai Qi encompasses both Qi Gong and Kung Fu. It is mostly a dance to gain energetic balance with the earth. Its primary function is not to defeat your enemy, but to make it impossible for your enemy to defeat you: the ultimate self-defense...
history of the Scholar Warriors
The Scholar Warriors of China were basically at first a response to the Manchurian invasion.of China in 1644. The Shaolin monastery collaborated with the Wudangshan, which was a group of monasteries on 72 different mountain peaks which defended and aided each other against the Manchurian Chinese government. They were constantly attacked by regular Chinese troops over the following centuries, and always the Scholar Warriors would be outnumbered, and almost always they would succeed despite overwhelming odds.
One Scholar Warrior would sometimes take 50-100 soldiers, AND WIN!
Finally, when the soldiers came with big guns bought from the British Crown, the monasteries were overrun, and most of the books they had were destroyed. But they had planned for this, because for hundreds of years, every time the Manchus invaded they destroyed knowledge in the form of books about the martial and healing arts whenever possible. But the monks kept their knowledge in memory, and would just re-write books as they were destroyed.
(side note: you have noticed the term "martial art" right? martial implies conflict, or fighting. So obviously the Scholar Warriors saw little difference between self-defense and art, or the ways you should go about performing either)
The Scholar Warrior went the way of the dodo when Japan invaded China in the 1930's, destroying most of the monks' tomes, and killing most of the monks. The rest was finished off by Mao Tse Tong in the "cultural revolution" of the 1960's, in which "Chairman Mao" purposely starved, tortured and executed 80 MILLION of his own people!
The ideas of the Scholar Warriors have survived however, and it would be wise for westerners to learn from their centuries of discipline.
the modern day Scholar Warrior
"Perhaps most sadly, we find ourselves inadequate when tragedy strikes us. An unexpected death in the family fills us with fear and uncertainty, and we are unable to explain the event to our children. Sudden illness finds us too weak to fend it off. Our relationships swamp our hearts with confusing emotions. And when we try to face questions about who we are, what we are doing here in the world, what we are doing about our future, and how we can face our own death, we panic."
--Deng Ming-Dao, from Scholar Warrior
The modern Scholar Warrior has allowed for the fact that the human body is not the highest possible faculty of war, and also for the fact that there is no possible way for the human mind to learn everything there is to know. But there is a balance in everything: you can call it karma, divine justice, or what goes around comes around. Whatever you call it, the fact remains: balance is there, and it's a life-long struggle to attain or retain it. The Scholar Warriors taught that you never can know about any one subject without the continuous influx of other subjects to counter-balance the knowledge. Famous Chinese warriors and martial artists were also great poets, calligraphers and land-owners, among myriad other skills.
The honing of skills of all kinds was their primary drive, and balance was the driving force behind this endless search.
And an endless search should not sound forlorn to you. it should fill you with wonder and expectation.
life's greatest irony
"the beginning was the end of everything now
the ape regards its tail (he's stuck on it)
repeats until he fails
half a goon and half a god"
---Devo, from the song "Gates of Steel"
The great irony of life in my opinion is that we are individuals at the same time as being part of every other thing in the universe. We have unique perspective, but we are also part of the same whole. The only way to find balance between these two seemingly contradictory thoughts is to find discipline, and to seek skill. We are half goons and half gods. We can be the ugliest creatures on the face of the earth (as evinced through war, rape, destruction, etc), and we can be the most beautiful creatures on earth (as evinced through music, writing, arts, and technologies).
No matter how crazy and meaningless our society becomes, there is a balance to be found. This balance of course is exactly what the new world order is attacking. Through creating conflict instead of abating conflict, you lose balance instead of gaining it.
Each duality which seems to exist infinitely is exploited by the new world order. Scholar Warriors seek the balance in these dualities instead of exploiting the differences.
If you seek to be honorable, and if you seek to always better yourself, you are already on the road to Tao.
If you always seek to learn new things, and to ACHIEVE new goals which do not seem attainable, yet you strive anyway, and if you fight for your rights, and if you defend the poor, you are already a Scholar Warrior.
Brandon Dean
"Balance is the perfect state of still water.
Let that be our model.
It remains quiet within and is not disturbed on the surface."
---Confucius
by Brandon Dean
Tao
"The Taoists believe that it is humanity's refusal to regard itself as part of a greater order that causes ignorance, confusion and sorrow."
---Deng Ming-Dao, from Scholar Warrior
Tao is basically the idea that all life (and thus freedom) is based on the same principles of being, non-being, and evolution or change. Taoists believe there is a natural balance between all living things: tangible and intangible, physical and mental, competitive and passive...
The goal of the Scholar Warrior is to locate this balance and fight to keep it. To find the Tao... Discipline is key to finding your Tao, as it is individual in nature. Just like everything else in life you must discern everything from your own individual perspective. How one chooses to interpret their reality is their own business.
One might say for brevity's sake that Tao is the search for balance...
"There are two of you, don't you see? One that kills... and one that loves..."
--from Apocalypse Now Redux
the Scholar Warriors
The Scholar Warriors were formed in China about four hundred years ago, and were formed out of the three main schools of discipline:
Kung Fu, Qi Gong, and Tai Qi.
Kung Fu
Kung Fu was the culmination of the knowledge and discipline gained from thousands of years of idealistic royal knights and land owners, who gained their honor by defending the poor and defenseless. The Chinese have a much deeper history of chivalry than European countries. It was the most important faculty to being a Scholar Warrior. Society itself taught that one could not be successful in business without being an artist, philosopher, and athlete. And conversely, one could not be a true artist without having the physical skill to defend themselves. Kung Fu taught self-defense in the necessity of ridding China of the Manchurian royal family which had invaded and conquered China. The Chinese people never truly accepted the Manchurian Royalty, so they set up the Shaolin School as a monastery, because monasteries were the one place the Manchus would give sanctuary. It was a religious front, however, and the Shaolin monks spent decades honing their skills in secret to fight the Manchurian royalty. They developed skills others could only describe as super-human, and chief among these techniques was Kung Fu.
They considered the human body to be the epitome of a war machine. Of course big guns proved them wrong in the end...
Qi Gong
Qi Gong is a healing art which moves and channels energy (or "qi", pronounced "chee") through breathing techniques combined with fluid bodily movements. I practice it myself. I could actually show anyone who cares to learn facial exercises which will nullify any cold or virus I know of, if practiced with discipline. This is not new age medicine or philosophy. The Chinese have known about qi for thousands of years, and have been able to manipulate it through acupuncture, acupressure, Qi Gong, and other techniques for the same amount of time.
Tai Qi
Tai Qi is a mixture of the healing arts and the martial arts. Tai Qi encompasses both Qi Gong and Kung Fu. It is mostly a dance to gain energetic balance with the earth. Its primary function is not to defeat your enemy, but to make it impossible for your enemy to defeat you: the ultimate self-defense...
history of the Scholar Warriors
The Scholar Warriors of China were basically at first a response to the Manchurian invasion.of China in 1644. The Shaolin monastery collaborated with the Wudangshan, which was a group of monasteries on 72 different mountain peaks which defended and aided each other against the Manchurian Chinese government. They were constantly attacked by regular Chinese troops over the following centuries, and always the Scholar Warriors would be outnumbered, and almost always they would succeed despite overwhelming odds.
One Scholar Warrior would sometimes take 50-100 soldiers, AND WIN!
Finally, when the soldiers came with big guns bought from the British Crown, the monasteries were overrun, and most of the books they had were destroyed. But they had planned for this, because for hundreds of years, every time the Manchus invaded they destroyed knowledge in the form of books about the martial and healing arts whenever possible. But the monks kept their knowledge in memory, and would just re-write books as they were destroyed.
(side note: you have noticed the term "martial art" right? martial implies conflict, or fighting. So obviously the Scholar Warriors saw little difference between self-defense and art, or the ways you should go about performing either)
The Scholar Warrior went the way of the dodo when Japan invaded China in the 1930's, destroying most of the monks' tomes, and killing most of the monks. The rest was finished off by Mao Tse Tong in the "cultural revolution" of the 1960's, in which "Chairman Mao" purposely starved, tortured and executed 80 MILLION of his own people!
The ideas of the Scholar Warriors have survived however, and it would be wise for westerners to learn from their centuries of discipline.
the modern day Scholar Warrior
"Perhaps most sadly, we find ourselves inadequate when tragedy strikes us. An unexpected death in the family fills us with fear and uncertainty, and we are unable to explain the event to our children. Sudden illness finds us too weak to fend it off. Our relationships swamp our hearts with confusing emotions. And when we try to face questions about who we are, what we are doing here in the world, what we are doing about our future, and how we can face our own death, we panic."
--Deng Ming-Dao, from Scholar Warrior
The modern Scholar Warrior has allowed for the fact that the human body is not the highest possible faculty of war, and also for the fact that there is no possible way for the human mind to learn everything there is to know. But there is a balance in everything: you can call it karma, divine justice, or what goes around comes around. Whatever you call it, the fact remains: balance is there, and it's a life-long struggle to attain or retain it. The Scholar Warriors taught that you never can know about any one subject without the continuous influx of other subjects to counter-balance the knowledge. Famous Chinese warriors and martial artists were also great poets, calligraphers and land-owners, among myriad other skills.
The honing of skills of all kinds was their primary drive, and balance was the driving force behind this endless search.
And an endless search should not sound forlorn to you. it should fill you with wonder and expectation.
life's greatest irony
"the beginning was the end of everything now
the ape regards its tail (he's stuck on it)
repeats until he fails
half a goon and half a god"
---Devo, from the song "Gates of Steel"
The great irony of life in my opinion is that we are individuals at the same time as being part of every other thing in the universe. We have unique perspective, but we are also part of the same whole. The only way to find balance between these two seemingly contradictory thoughts is to find discipline, and to seek skill. We are half goons and half gods. We can be the ugliest creatures on the face of the earth (as evinced through war, rape, destruction, etc), and we can be the most beautiful creatures on earth (as evinced through music, writing, arts, and technologies).
No matter how crazy and meaningless our society becomes, there is a balance to be found. This balance of course is exactly what the new world order is attacking. Through creating conflict instead of abating conflict, you lose balance instead of gaining it.
Each duality which seems to exist infinitely is exploited by the new world order. Scholar Warriors seek the balance in these dualities instead of exploiting the differences.
If you seek to be honorable, and if you seek to always better yourself, you are already on the road to Tao.
If you always seek to learn new things, and to ACHIEVE new goals which do not seem attainable, yet you strive anyway, and if you fight for your rights, and if you defend the poor, you are already a Scholar Warrior.
Brandon Dean
"Balance is the perfect state of still water.
Let that be our model.
It remains quiet within and is not disturbed on the surface."
---Confucius
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