Ask Reacher Anything

I don't have a question, just wanted to say that I love the reason behind your name! The idea of the potential in all of us is what keeps me going.

Thank you for the kind words, guys.

Please keep the questions coming!

Tacos or Chinese food ?

We haven't bumped into each other much...if at all...but your presence has always somewhat intrigued me...

Perhaps cause I just can't tell...active duty Army? Veteran? Guard? Grunt of some sort I'd imagine...

Plus I think you are in the next state over, geographically...or something to that effect...

At any rate...I have enjoyed your offerings in this thread and others, where you equate the warrior aspects of your Ikigai, as part of what put you on the Jedi path...

Thus, I am curious as to how you have incorporated the Jedi side of you into your profession...versus the professional side of you into your understanding of the Jedi...Do you find one to influence the other, or feel you are allowing them to exist more symbiotically in the same space?

Do others you work with know/share in any of your Jedi-ness...? What do they think...?

***

On a separate question...the Ikigai is something I have become individually aware of more recently without knowing what it was that I was struggling to define. So thanks for that illustration!

As a former Marine myself...albeit not in the hookin' & jabbin' sense...I've struggled to find that perfect balance myself, but am set on a path now where in the next 6 months or so I should be finding the middle of that diagram again.

HOWEVER...as you also point out...it is likely to put me back into one of those gone, gone, gone, home, gone, gone, gone, home, gone...cycles...

When I was active duty, being gone from my "family" for the bulk of my 5 year enlistment wasn't that big of a deal. I was young and had essentially zero emotional attachments to make me "miss home." Going into a similar work/gone relationship now is likely to be more challenging since I am married and have a child...

I would be lying to myself if I said that the hesitation about being gone that much wasn't making me wonder whether finding that perfect niche of an Ikigai is worth the time I would be missing in other places...but the Jedi concepts of attachment or lack there of seem to speak to this as an "ok" thing to do...yet I'm unsure whether I would be detaching from the husband/father part of myself, or if I may need to detach from finding that Ikigai more...

If the train doesn't care whether you are on it or not...How do you balance the two?

Amyntas wrote: Tacos or Chinese food ?

I don't make the choice lightly, but I will have to go with Chinese. When I want Mexican, I REALLY want it, but I think Chinese has a bit more staying power over time. I also think Chinese has quite a bit of versatility to it depending on what style you like.

SamThift wrote: We haven't bumped into each other much...if at all...but your presence has always somewhat intrigued me...

Perhaps cause I just can't tell...active duty Army? Veteran? Guard? Grunt of some sort I'd imagine...

I am an active duty Special Forces Soldier - a Green Beret.

SamThift wrote: Thus, I am curious as to how you have incorporated the Jedi side of you into your profession...versus the professional side of you into your understanding of the Jedi...Do you find one to influence the other, or feel you are allowing them to exist more symbiotically in the same space?

Do others you work with know/share in any of your Jedi-ness...? What do they think...?

I wrote this a ways back...I thought it might be useful regarding your question.

“Free The Oppressed.”

I remember the feeling fundamental surprise when I read the translation of the Army Special Forces motto. Fundamental surprise as described by Zvi Lanir is “a surprising event which reveals a personal, group or national mindset as irrelevant and misleading in interpreting the occurrence.” In this case, the ‘occurrence’ went far beyond my reading of three latin words – De Oppresso Liber, but more so the fundamental way in which I viewed my life’s call to serve. That day was the beginning of a gravitational shift in my personal universe, and its power was unsettling. The further I dug into the program, the more I felt inexorably pulled in its direction. I discovered foundational terms like ‘Warrior-Diplomat’, read about a lineage encompassing support to the French Resistance, and saw Green Berets on horseback riding side by side with indigenous peoples. Moreover, I noted that its first emblem was the legendary Trojan Horse – a symbol of craft and cunning over brute force. I felt drawn to an organization calling for freedom from oppression, modeling its mentality on Odysseus. Most organizations, particularly in the military, elect a fundamentally self-centric motto. Some form or fashion of ‘we’re awesome’. The psychology of Special Forces was very different. It was inherently about enabling someone else, and that was appealing to me. If ever a Green Beret in an ambiguous situation wondered what he needed to be doing, all he had to do was look to the motto. This mentality promoted a culture patterned toward service to ideals. An understanding that success means shaping an environment such that conflict need not occur in the first place.

Over the next few years I pursued this avenue, testing through its selection and completing its qualification course. The process was incredibly humbling, and when I emerged I felt that I had been granted a license to continue a life of learning through the experience of new challenges. I felt blessed to work alongside like-minded individuals whose talent and commitment challenged my own each day.

I have worked in this capacity for some time now, and feel I have truly found my ‘ikigai’, or profound reason for being expressed in what I do. When I look back upon my life, I clearly see patterns of thought and belief throughout my days that led me to this point and inform how I do my work. The teachings of the Jedi are woven throughout my career, and will continue to be so throughout my life. One of the most satisfying things about my work is that it eschews a traditional understanding of how a military works. Often, we are placed in environs so far flung from any command that we are the sole representation in-country. Our commanders don’t give us orders so much as trust our judgment and wait to be informed of what we are doing. I am trusted to move into an ambiguous and dangerous environment, understand the problem therein, and solve it with the myriad of tools at my disposal. Sometimes this involves violence, but many situations resolve at a negotiating table. Yes, I work for the government, and I see myself as a steward of the ideals its people espouse. With that, I feel in my heart I am tethered not to limitations of this plane, but to infinity. I am continually inspired by this quote from Winston Churchill in the same spirit:

“The destiny of mankind is not decided by material computation. When great causes are on the move in the world, stirring all men’s souls, drawing them from their firesides, casting aside comfort, wealth and the pursuit of happiness in response to impulses at once awe-striking and irresistible, we learn that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time, and beyond space and time, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

This is the reason that I, and many like me, leave my family behind and become an agent of something much greater than I am. Why I am willing to risk not only my life, but my children’s father, my wife’s husband, and my parents’ son. Whatever else the Jedi may believe in, this is truly the most foundational: That we are not the center of the cosmos, but the ineffable and intangible Force. It is this understanding that I bring to my profession, and how I maintain that I am an instrument of peace. I do not believe recusing myself of a warrior’s path would further the cause of peace. Perhaps someone more ignorant, more callous, and more likely to fail in the pursuit of peace might take my place if I take my path elsewhere. Perhaps they will be ignorant of the things we believe as Jedi, and will dispense their duties with a far more self-centric ideal before them. I know that I fail in this endeavor daily, but my hope is that I will remain tethered to that infinite. Continually moving forward and looking up from the dust and mud toward something I will never see or fully realize until my eyes close for the last time. The most I hope for is to see beauty in the struggle. A life of peace through the turmoil and brawl.

I think I may have taken too many idealism vitamins that morning...but the sentiment stands.

On your last question - no. Religious labels really aren't much of a topic of conversation.

SamThift wrote: If the train doesn't care whether you are on it or not...How do you balance the two?

I can only speak from my own experience on this, but if your family knows in their hearts that they are the most important thing in your life...they're willing to go through a bit more hardship with you. How that belief translates to them is something you'll need to figure. That kind of thing takes conscious effort and investment. You'll also need to be okay with risking a professional move for them - they'll know when you make significant life choices in their favor, and they know when you don't.

My family sacrifices an awful lot for me - I do what I can to show them I don't take it for granted, and return that to them when I can.

That said, I mess things up plenty

Thanks for your question, Sam. It's good to see another addition to the military family of Jedi here.

Hi Reacher, thank you for this topic.

Could you give an overview of what it means, in your understanding, to be a warrior?

What suggestions or advise would you have for those of us "everyday people" who aspire to the warrior ideal, but arent military or law enforcement ect?

Thank you.

More "idealism vitamins": as a newcomer, when I read your last post, I was filled with a profound sense of I have come to the right place. These are my people.

And now a question: Where do you most want to travel, but have never been?

OB1Shinobi wrote: Hi Reacher, thank you for this topic.

Could you give an overview of what it means, in your understanding, to be a warrior?

What suggestions or advise would you have for those of us "everyday people" who aspire to the warrior ideal, but arent military or law enforcement ect?

Thank you.

In simplest terms, a warrior is one who engages in war.

What is war, though?

That is a question many have attempted to answer, describe, and frame. Much of how the west understands war is due to the efforts of Carl von Clausewitz . He wrote the seminal tome On War, and his ideas still live in the traditions of most warring organizations today. He writes,

War is nothing but a duel on an extensive scale. If we would conceive as a unit the countless number of duels which make up a war, we shall do so best by supposing to ourselves two wrestlers. Each strives by physical force to compel the other to submit to his will: his first object is to throw his adversary, and thus to render him incapable of further resistance.

War is a very human phenomenon, and requires a uniquely human dialogue. You cannot make war upon an activity...like Terrorism, as some would have you believe. You cannot make war upon a thing, like drugs, either. These conceptions miss the heart of the matter.

Keep this in mind as you read this quote by Carlos Castaneda:

The average man is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to infinity.

I look to the sentiment of this quote often - but how can anyone achieve this?

By engaging in the dialogue of war with oneself.

To hold the self to a standard higher than any external actor.

Though this prospect sounds very contentious, it really is a peaceful path.

To understand how, let us depart the West and enter the East for a moment.

The classical Eastern view of warfare differs significantly from the West - To them, war was the process of attuning reality to achieve greater harmony. Harmony is always the goal, even when warring parties' dispositions differ as to what that means.

Seen from an eastern perspective of war...

The Warrior seeks greater harmony within by attuning the reality of the self.

I think that really gets to the heart of it, for me. I don't really see 'warrior' as an occupation or a profession. Even calling it a 'state of being' fails to capture its essence. A dear friend who is a Japanese Defense Force soldier and I were standing around a fire late one night this weekend and were doing some third-drink philosophizing. One of the things he said to me really stuck out. He said,

If I am alone on this earth. No family, no friends, no nation...I am nothing. I am void.

I read some things and wrote a bit about this idea in the Dialectic on the nature of reality, and I was happy to learn that I was not too far off in my studies.

In his conception, each of us is the sum of the kaleidoscope of relationships we have with the reality around us. I think that is a great way to look at the nature of warriorship: Less about 'being' and more about 'relating.' Less a state and more an outlook - a way of connecting to the world that challenges the self.

So...not having proofread this yet, I am going to go ahead and click submit. I felt like I rambled a bit, but this was a bit of stream-of-consciousness overview on a topic very important to me.

I hope it addressed both of your questions. If not, please let me know and I will try to be more concise on a complex topic.

Great question! Thank you!

Astera wrote: More "idealism vitamins": as a newcomer, when I read your last post, I was filled with a profound sense of I have come to the right place. These are my people.

And now a question: Where do you most want to travel, but have never been?

Thanks, Astera. Whatever tempests kick up now and again around here, most of us are here because there are like-minded people trying to figure things out and grow. I am glad things feel right for you. When one focuses on the goodness of the small around here, there really is so, so much of it

I have never been to Tibet or Nepal. I've climbed mountains in many places, but never in that part of the world. Standing on the roof of the world, moving among temples and peaks...yes, please.

Thank you for the question!