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SHADOWS OF WOLF FIRE
him heart. On this journey, learning has become more important than the materialisation of his wishes, and although the warrior still dreams, all of his dreaming is now dedicated to gaining knowledge of self and to living the life of the fluid warrior. It has finally dawned on the warrior that every aspect of his journey upon life is not something to be desired or despised, but is merely the means by which to learn and to unfold his fate. For in this respect the fate that is common to us all, is to be born, to journey through life for a relatively short space of time, and then to die. Every warrior comes to the point of grasping with every fibre of his being that if he is to die tomorrow, or next week, or next year, then it makes sense that he enjoys every moment of every step he takes towards that moment of death. The warrior cannot avoid his death, any more than he can avoid his fate, but the way in which he will die is determined by the way in which he travels towards his death, and the way in which his fate unfolds is determined by his approach towards life. Does he have that heartfelt willingness that makes him embrace all of life; the good and the bad, openly and freely? Or does he hold onto the belief that he can have life on his terms? Does he have the humility that allows him to pour his heart, his joy and, in short, his everything, into every moment of every step? Or does he have that arrogance that causes him to indulge in sulking like a petulant child? All of this depends upon the warrior. He can choose to seek out the purpose of his life, or he can choose to try to thwart that purpose in his pursuit of his own perception. Likewise can he choose to put meaning into the purpose of his life, or he can choose to feel forced and hard-done-by. He can choose to bring about true change by undergoing a total transformation and thereby gain his freedom, or he can choose to change only his outer behaviour and remain stuck forever in his view of the world. TO BE TOUCHED BY DEATH IS TO ENTER INTO THE MOOD OF THE WARRIOR.
RULE OF THE FOUR: The Second Insight
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Once the apprentice has entered into the mood of the warrior, he has, technically speaking, entered what Toltecs refer to as the realm of the heart, and he is well on his way to solving the riddle of the heart. But to enter the realm of the heart is not at all easy to accomplish, so let us look at this strategy as closely as we can for the moment, since it is the ultimate not-doing that every apprentice must accomplish if he or she is to succeed upon the Warrior's Path. The reason why entering the realm of the heart is such a very difficult strategy to master lies once again in fear. To grasp this fully, realise that although, deep down inside, we all long to love and to be loved, we have again and again throughout our lives come up against challenges which seem to indicate that we are unlovable, and therefore undeserving either to give or to receive love. As a result, we escape into the mind in an attempt to rationalise, not only our own behaviour, but also the behaviour of others towards us. In time such escapisms become the foundation upon which all of our perception is based and so, without even realising it, we get caught up in constantly defining and redefining our perception to make it ever more selective and therefore to fit our view of the world. The fact is that none of us want to be hurt, none of us want to experience the pain of feeling rejected, or not worthy, or not wanted, and so we choose to see only what we wish to see, and we hear only what we want to hear. In time this habit becomes so ingrained that we begin to believe our selective perception to be true. Furthermore, because everyone else around us is doing the same thing, we all support each other in this folly, and this is how we all participate in the constructs, as well as the maintenance, of that folly we term social conditioning.