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When I was a young boy I loved reading books, especially books about American Indians which were full of dramatic stories taking place in faraway lands. Not just that, they were also about the struggle between good and evil, and they portrayed the heroes and villains clearly. The villains were selfish, greedy, without any ethical principles, whereas the heroes were honest, courageous, willing to sacrifice themselves for others. The bad guys represented the worst of Western civilization taking over aggressively a new continent, whereas the good guys represented the ideal native American way of life which had a sense of freedom and closeness to nature. I was deeply touched by these stories and I took them seriously as role models for my own life. Probably the most influential one, appearing in a number of films, was Winnetou. I even wrote my first little book, with illustrations, on this same theme before I was 10 -- I guess that I aspired to being a writer.
Growing up in a communist school environment, but having anti-communist family background, I always felt "on the outside" and rather rebellious against the system. Even more profoundly, I could not really follow the goals and lifestyle of the society around me which seemed pointless. This became clearer to me later in my early teens, as my interest shifted to East Asian culture, which also had its warrior tradition and martial arts. But there was a different philosophy behind it, like Taoism and Zen Buddhism, which pointed towards harmony and non-violence as the ultimate aim. Then I discovered meditation which has a balancing effect on the mind and calms down any aggressive tendencies. As I explored Buddhism further, I read the original Pali Suttas and saw the importance of developing only wholesome (kusala) states of mind, abandoning the unwholesome (akusala) states.
Recently I came across the film which is based on one of my favourite childhood books: The Last of the Mohicans. It is a really well-made film with a moral content, gripping music and wonderful nature scenes from the mountains of North Carolina. Just watching it with full attention can get the adrenalin flowing through one's bloodstream quickly. It is a moving story about a war conflict and about the difficult decisions people have to make in such extreme situations, trapped between the interests of armies where individual lives don't matter, even willing to sacrifice their own life for others.
From the perspective of a Buddha, however, there is still a higher goal than that, because all these brave and noble acts are within the scope of Samsara and do not lead out of it. When we take a long-term perspective, how many times in the past have we fought for something or defended some cherished ideal? How many times have we lost our life, or taken someone else's life in a violent conflict? If we limit our perspective only to this one life, it may seem very important to fight for something outside, for a righteous cause. But if we consider it from the point of view of kamma, it is better to turn our attention inside and fight with the defilements (kilesa) instead.
The Buddha himself came from a warrior (khattiya) family and was trained in the martial arts. He knew that some of the mental qualities of a warrior -- like courage, energy, determination, endurance -- can also be useful in the inner struggle to overcome various obstacles. That is why he compared several times the practising monk to a warrior, and the fight with the armies of Mara is explained as overcoming various unwholesome qualities in one's own mind.
Winning gives birth to hostility.
Losing, one lies down in pain.
The calmed lie down with ease,
having set winning & losing aside.
A man may conquer a million men in battle,
but one who conquers himself
is, indeed, the greatest of conquerors.
โย สหัสสัง สหัสเสนะ
สังคาเม มานุเส ชิเน
เอกัญจะ เชยยมัตตานัง
สะ เว สังคามชุตตโม.
ถึงจะชนะคนได้นับล้านคนในสมรภูมิ
ก็ยังสู้ชนะตนเองเพียงคนเดียวไม่ได้
ผู้เอาชนะตนเองได้นั้น
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