Innerspark

We live in the best of times. Never before has humankind had so much power and potential at its collective disposal, giving us the possibility of creating peace and prosperity for all. We live in the worst of times. Never before has humankind had so much power and potential at its collective disposal, giving us the possibility of perpetuating violence and trauma of unparalleled magnitude. Our cosmology is the choice point for using this power and potential to benefit all or to wreak havoc. Cosmologies make meaning of human experience. A cosmology has embedded within it values that drive the choices we make. Religious traditions provide cosmological frameworks. Sciences and philosophies as well as ethnic life ways and nationalities can offer cosmologies. As the longstanding boundaries between people in our world erode and evaporate, the cosmologies which helped us to make sense of human experience have lost their utility. In fact, many of our cosmologies are now causing more harm than good: Christianity versus Islam, Israel versus Palestine, and numerous conflicts involving one ethnicity, religion, or sect against another.

Our old cosmologies are dragging us down into conflict instead of raising us up into our potential. Now is the time for a new way of viewing the world that transcends the insignificant ways we are different from one another and reminds us of our common heritage, no matter where the accident of our birth places us. This book is humbly offered as a start toward a new cosmology that simultaneously transcends all the conflicts over the ways we might be different and distills the essence of all our faith traditions. This book offers a path toward love, light and life: a path we can call Divine Warrior Training.

Divine

How does one label something that is no “thing” and is at the same time everything? Humans have struggled with this since humans could communicate, sometimes even going to war over the names used. Names in use today include:

God Source

Allah Force

Universe Yahweh

Creator Great Mother

Spirit Chi

Tao

For many of us, some of these names trigger emotional reactions, pleasant ones and unpleasant ones. Pleasant reactions can draw us out and up into a more expansive view of ourselves and the world around us. Unpleasant reactions can bottle us up into a limited and limiting view of ourselves and the world around us. Every name ever used falls hopelessly short of the reality of that which is unnamable. Whatever collection of writings you might regard as holy, the force described therein is infinitely bigger than the words used to describe or name it. Names are a way of providing boundaries around that which is named. How does one put boundaries on that which is, by definition, without boundaries?

There is no way out of this purely human conundrum, especially in a book that invites the reader into a more expansive view of that which is unnamable. To solve this conundrum, at least for purposes of this book, I will use a word for the unnamable that is recognized across most faith traditions and has not been appropriated or closely associated with any faith tradition to the exclusion of others: divine. Please know when I use the word divine, I am referring to everything you or I can imagine, multiplied exponentially to the highest power. All analogies fall short. A grain of sand on the beach imagining all the other grains of sand on that beach or on all beaches in the world is imagining something infinitely smaller than the divine.

Warrior

Warrior traditions are a consistent aspect of human history. Our current understanding of the term warrior is equated with going to battle against other humans, mostly men, to protect against perceived threats to our security, however that has been defined and manipulated. Warriors come from both genders. Current use of the term warrior equates a warrior with a soldier, but in the classical sense, their training and consciousness are very different. A soldier is trained to follow the command of her superior officer. A warrior is trained to follow the command of her superior values. A soldier is trained to battle other people who are identified as enemies. A warrior is trained to battle the enemy existing within him. A soldier is trained to believe that violence may be the best means to advance the cause. A warrior recognizes that violence is always the worst choice to advance the cause. In the end, we are all warriors in the battle for our souls. Many of us are losing the battle because we have lost sight of the only reason we are struggling in the first place: to manifest the divine in this material existence.

Training

Great accomplishments are not effortless. All of the greatest human accomplishments have taken extraordinary focus and extraordinary energy. Becoming good at anything takes practice and discipline. Becoming a divine warrior is no different – practice and discipline are required. Training does not require perfection or a complete understanding of the ultimate goal; training does require choosing a focus for your energy and then consistent investment of energy over time toward that focus. Consistency and discipline over time are rewarded with a life that becomes abundant and magical.

Where do you invest your energy? Is it focused or unfocused? For me, my focus and investment is toward manifesting the divine in this world. I know from experience that there are others in this world with a similar focus. This book is designed to give us some tools to focus our energy on manifesting the divine in this world. It is a book of Divine Warrior Training.

I look forward to meeting you on the path!