The majority of Buddhist temples that I have visited thus far, I have always noticed a statue with a man build the way that most teenagers girls dream their ideal man would like like and an evil strong lined face that every child fear may appear from under their bed at night. I found this 'evil' looking man strange, yet interesting. And why do you alway find one on each side of the temple? Reading about the temples, I discovered that these evil, nasty looking well build 'men' are seen as the warriors. The warriors are there as protection. Each warrior is said to have a different 'super power'. The purpose of these warriors are to use these special powers to protect the Dharma and fight off evil spirits. Like so many things in Buddhism the warrior is a representation of something with so much more meaning. One may see an actual warrior statue at the temple, but each one of us have a warrior inside ourselves. And this warrior has nothing to do with any practice or religion.
I have heard the saying of: The war is lost once the first stone is thrown. The wars we go through might not be the second or third world war that is literal and physical, but we might have a war all on our own internally that nobody in the world may ever even know about. And I do believe that all of us have a little war that we are fighting inside on our own. Some of us may turn to ourself to solve this war. Some people may go to external measures and become physical and take it out on their spouse, or animals or children. Some will become introverted and exclude themselves from the world totally. Some, may be the 'best' actors and be the post pleasant people to be around, always laughing and joking around. Note that I am not saying with this that all bubbly people use that as a way to fight their war nor any of the others, this is merely used as an example.I have many wars that I fight myself. The way that I act on each of these wars are very different. I know that in some circumstances, I withdraw. In some, I get emotional and just cry and then in others, I start talking and cannot stop. And there is most probably many reasons that the professionals will motivate for each one of these.
I do however know this. I have my own little warriors inside me. Each with their own 'special powers'. I believe that the little warriors are there to help to enhance inner peace. The past year, like I have said in some of my previous posts, was one of the most difficult years for me. My little warriors had to fight of many 'evil' spirits off this year and I had to figure out ways of hiding these wars more often than not. One of these little demons I had to face today. I knew that today would not be a simple task staring me in the face. Often in life we don't really know the exact time and date that we will be forced to face these things in life, but I went to bed last night knowing I need to wake up today and face this. That in itself was not something easy to face.
Once again I confirmed that I do not like fighting. One of my little warriors did however managed to fight on my behalf and helped me to remain calm. I am not sure exactly which warrior managed to do the fighting and what 'super powers' that little one used. After I managed to collect my thoughts and get to the point were I could sit down and reflect on it, I started to cry. I turned my head right, then left and I noticed that an enormous weight got lifted from my shoulders.
I arrived home this evening and opened a bottle of sparkling wine. To hear the popping sound of the cork as I opened the bottle blew that last bit of dust off my shoulders. I felt free.
I cannot help wondering how many little warriors with 'super powers' we have filled up inside ourselves, and how do they know when to get to work. We are facing different wars every day and our warriors are there to protect us. And sometimes they help us to find that inner peace. We need to take the time out to celebrate the work that these little warriors are performing in our lives & acknowledge them. Give them the opportunity to fight for us as they actually have such an important role.
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