Читать книгу The Power of the Warrior - Néstor Galarraga - Страница 12

The world changes and it is transformed constantly and permanently. It moves convulsively and we live surrounded by a growing sense of insecurity. It conquers all of us, as we witness, with consternation these changes and transformations. Institutions such as the family, partner relations, working systems and the set of rules by which past generations operated are now under crisis, and that alleged sense of safety disappears. It takes us back to another time. The feeling is that all social institutions with a sense of belonging have ultimately failed.

Moreover, people are sick of listening to the speeches of revolution from millionaires whose money came from politics; people do not believe in politicians and their power to do good anymore. They think they are not in politics following a call to serve others but to serve themselves. People do not believe that they have the ability to solve the problems presented by a collective coexistence, nor do they see that politics is being used as a tool to promote Common Good. They only seek to hold up to power and to corruption, indefinitely. Politically, in Argentina, everything is a joke; corruption and fraud are laughable. We are used to calling it creole´s cunning (viveza criolla), but the social situation in general is pathetic… Political power is used strategically as the art of defrauding. People do not trust police officers and, least of all, in justice. We live overwhelmed by a growing and alarming wave of violence and insecurity. People do not believe in religion either. There is a detachment to everything that is religious, and faith is something as changeable as reason or sleep. I am not talking about believing in God or inner searching; I am referring to everything that has to do with trusting in the Church, in the Faith that has been entrusted to a great number of pedophiles who are in charge of the institution; they do not represent the institution entirely, of course, but they are an important minority.

Unfortunately, no one believes in the power that is made with others; neither in a society that builds in an individualistic manner. Thus, the sense of community, of collectiveness, of social communion loses weight before the idea of saving oneself and at any price. And solidarity, sad and powerless, becomes simply a utopia.

We live in a society where friends, workmates, classmates, couples become competitors, like in sports. Particularly, couples come to agreements with each other to decide who is going to manage their money, and this will determine who in the couple is in control, in power. They assess, from the very beginning, the financial gain of staying together and the economic consequences of a future separation.

Unfortunately, nobody can escape. Change has affected not only individuals but also families, neighborhoods, cities, provinces and nations; it is a phenomenon that embraces the whole planet. How communications and information flow and influence people are topics so deep that we will never be able to assess their magnitude. The truth is that no inhabitant is on the sidelines when it comes to what happens in our planet. Nothing has been solved efficiently in our world in the last decades: not hunger, not diseases, not global poverty. I use this term because “global” is something used to refer to economy, communications, the industry, yet we forget that we also have global evils that afflict the world, like environmental issues, weapons of mass destruction, food shortage, the concentration of wealth and the subjugation by the leading countries to the rest by means of the financial markets. The world is going through a globalized moral crisis.

It is very difficult to keep a balance in a field where our parents moved with values completely different to the ones shared by our children. Our grandparents travelled using wagons or carts, and our children drive cars at 125 miles per hour. People who are today 50 to 60 years old are true survivors. Those who were not killed by the war, were taken by AIDS, drugs or simply the fact of envisioning a different world. Nonetheless, we are responsible for the current situation —our parents may be at fault even more—; particularly, we have done quite little socially and much to help ourselves. Our parents communicated through letters that could take months to arrive to the recipient. Only a few decades ago, travelling from one continent to the other could take months. But, today, we can travel throughout the world easily and a continental flight of the longest kind could take only a few hours. Moreover, we communicate instantly by using satellite systems that adjust to a countless variety of formats. People are buying tour packages to travel to space and companies offer six-month journeys for those who want to be the first tourists to arrive in Planet Mars; a one-way ticket trip, of course. Master Silo would say: “heroes of this age range fly to the stars and to regions that were once ignored; they fly outwards and unaware of the fact that they are being driven to an inner and luminous core”, that is, the more we move away, the more we seek to find ourselves. Two opposing purposes contained within one reality.

Furthermore, previous generations build up relationships with codes that could last a lifetime. Our modern generation does not have the ability to sustain a bond in time; not a family, not a couple, not even a friendship. It has lost this capacity that can only be incorporated by learning. I think that, before this individualism, people lived happier.

Life today demands, given its own dynamics, an enormous capacity to adapt to change; otherwise, we are left outside the system. This phenomenon includes the most diverse social sectors and it touches all areas —personal, couple, friends, partners, etcetera— and it causes vertigo, a feeling of loneliness, fear, insecurity, frustration, resentment, anguish, depression and desperation. If you were born within a family —considered to be the fundamental pillar of our society— and with a conservative mandate to follow (things are for life), it is impossible not to become frustrated if you have to break a relationship or change a partner, family, work, or replace friends. This constitutes a breach in the rules that were established.

In this context, full of contradictory paradoxes, humanity goes after the search of valid alternatives that will allow us to balance and solve existence some way. We are all looking for an exit, a way, a technique, a path, that will let us look a little further, to find a balance and, fundamentally, to live a little bit happier. One of the alternatives —a way in which children and adults expect to feel a little more grounded, secure and with tools to confront life— is to start practicing a martial art; even when they decide to go along without really knowing what they are actually looking for. Most people want to learn how to fight; others, to defend themselves, to feel stronger and more powerful, so as to inspire respect and, maybe, fear; many find the idea of becoming black belts very attractive and appealing; some decide to enter this world because they want everything fast, since they are in a hurry to show others something they believe has to do with inflicting power over others. But they all find something else: a personal practice leading towards the development of their own will power and a profound contact with themselves, and the development of an inner power. It is a practice oriented to learn how to exercise that power from an I can do it philosophy. A power that is not based in others but shared with others. Not to be displayed but to be appreciated, since those others —the trainer and the trainees— made it possible for that power to be within ourselves.

This practice is grounded in our inner self and not in things that are external or that give us power from the outside. It has nothing to do with power or prestige, as seen from the eyes of others, not at the beginning. It is a practice with many qualities: it is exciting; it takes us through the path of becoming men and women of knowledge; its entertaining because, as we start learning more, the awareness and space of all we do not know becomes bigger; it is caring because it builds a tribe, group, family, that holds, embraces and accompanies forever; it is charming because, as we train, without knowing it, we prepare for a change that is complete, permanent and irreversible.

Besides, it is an inspiring practice that teaches us to discover values, to embrace and share them, and to try with others to create a better world.