Chris Bourne, Contributing Writer
Waking Times

Learning through adversity

I’ve faced many challenging and difficult situations in my life. It seems prior to awakening, my life was nothing but struggle through adversity: continually confronting and overcoming challenges. Since awakening, many things have changed. I’ve learned the art of divinely surrendering to the flow. Of accepting life as it really is. Has this made life any easier? Not at all! I love the complexity, challenge and opportunities in life; the chance to learn and grow. Overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles is what stirs our blood. Whether man or woman, cultivating the warrior spirit can be of great service to us all…

The divine blend

Frequently there seems to be a view in spiritual circles that the path to Enlightenment is one of softness, gentleness and light; that unconditional love is only expressed through the softness of the divine feminine. This is an illusion! The soul has seven key characteristics, only one of which, is the surrenderedness of the divine feminine (see… Seven Rays of Divine Impulse).

The masculine warrior energy is the counterpart to the softness of the divine feminine and in truth, both sexes need it. It is just as vital for creativity and without it, we probably wouldn’t do anything effective at all. To be truly enlightened, is to be able to unleash, and allow to flow, all of the authentic characteristics of our soul, without limitation, control or hesitation.Of course the warrior has gained much negative connotation in life because of the distortions of it. Its energy has been used through the ages to gain power over people, to control and imprison them. This is a gross distortion of the energy, the purpose of which is to invigorate, uplift and liberate. It is to breakdown lower harmonies yes, but not to create some other limiting status quo. Rather it is to continually provide new possibilities for growth and advancement. This authentic yearning is in everyone of us, male and female alike, and to deny it is to deny who we are.

Invoking the spiritual warrior energy

If we truly want to be fulfilled in life, it is going to involve us learning to work with our warrior energy. For those who do not frequently feel the arising of this powerfully passionate and creative yearning, it might mean invoking the warrior energy by doing things that activate adrenaline. It could be taking part in sports like the martial arts for example. If you’re young and fit, it could be something like mountain climbing.

If we’re older and less agile, that needn’t stop us, a power walk in nature might be for you. Anything to get the lungs and heart pumping. Maybe watching emotive films would help – films like “Lord of the Rings” and “The Matrix” for example.

Once the energy is flowing, you’ll definitely feel it! It’s the kind of energy that wants you to jump and leap; to scream and shout.

When you feel it arising, the key is not to deny it, but to find a positive vehicle for its expression. Letting the energy come through, but in a harnessed way. We need to ‘open the internal pipe’ through which it is channeled by feeling it and working with it.

Denial is dangerous

You may feel the pipe too constricted within you and it may cause you initially to tighten as it flows. That’s when the warrior energy turns into frustration and anger. If this happens, keep working with it. Work with people who’ll let you be who you are without judgment. When it happens to the friends in my life, I get them to don boxing gloves and spar (either with me or a punch bag). It’s simply amazing how liberating and enlivening it can be!

The key is not to suppress the warrior energy or try to make it dissolve before you are ready; denial is dangerous because the energy simply goes inside leading to repression, deep seated frustration and stress. Keep finding the appropriate vehicle. We will each have a way appropriate for our lives and when we’ve discovered how to harness the energy, we become more at ease with it. We don’t tighten when it arises, we don’t get angry or frustrated and we certainly don’t use it to control or intimidate people. Arising anger is directed positively rather than at people.

In so doing, it becomes a powerfully creative force for good in our lives. It gives us the courage to surmount the seemingly insurmountable. In these often chaotic times of great change and challenge, it is the energy that can break down the limiting constrictions of the past and unleash positive force for growth. It is this energy that can open the breathing space for a higher harmony to emerge.

Tips on harnessing the spiritual warrior energy

Here are some tips gained from working with people on how to harness the spiritual warrior in you:

• Invoke it: if you have trouble raising the warrior in you and you feel any strongly creative and manifesting juices are lacking, then watch for the subtle rising of passion and bring attention to it. It could be something as simple as dancing in the rain or it could be getting up early and power walking to the sound of the dawn chorus. Or it could be dancing passionately to your favourite boogie box tunes. Whatever generates that feeling of empowered invigoration
• Unleash it: denial is not a river in Egypt! If we try the ‘spiritual identity’ approach and put on the ‘Buddha-like-behaviour’ if it’s not how we’re truly feeling, then we’ll build either deep seated frustration or bubbling anger. Better to find a way of letting it out, but without directing it at anyone – unless they’re a willing facilitator
• Contain it: if the energy is running strongly through your ‘veins’, then building and holding it, so as not to let dissipate too soon will be of benefit. The key is not to get lost in it. Not to let it control you. Feel it, but then contain it within your consciousness. It’s something that comes from experience.
• Channel it: once the warrior energy is there, the key is to watch for productive and constructive ways to channel it. If you’re holding it within you, those opportunities are bound to materialise as a product of your conciousness. It could be through physical exercise, but it could also be some for of challenging action that requires commitment and courage – confronting a friend, relative or acquaintance with naturally arising confrontational news for example. It could be through the creative arts or caringly passionate sexual intercourse.
• Master it: the warrior spirit is one that requires much attention and care in its mastery. It is influenced, suppressed or harnessed through many of our daily activities from the food we eat to the colour of the clothes we wear. Of course it’s gotten pretty bad ‘press’ through the course of history, but make no mistake, those that work to harness it in a productive way will find it works creatively for you through the daily events of your life.

For more info, refer to this popular Openhand article… Healing the Wounded Dragon

In the eyes of the Spiritual Warrior

You know when you’re looking into the eyes of a spiritual warrior. They’re eyes that have seen it all: the pleasure and the pain, the success and the heartache. They’ve been broken and bowed by it all, yet they didn’t stop, they didn’t give in.

When you look into the eyes of a spiritual warrior, you see eons of earth shattering experience, humbly expressed through an immovable sense of self belief and presence. It’s definitely not something that arises overnight or simply springs up without courageously clearing the path before it. It is one that arises from patience and persistence. Something, that at a soul level, we each carry in abundance.

This article originally appeared at Openhandweb.org, a project to elevate the consciousness of man and provide healing to those in need.

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