The material world that we are all so familiar seeing and touching is not all that comprises our reality.
We know this to be true if we just think of the inner world of our own minds; our thoughts, desires, imaginations, memories, and intentions. We can’t ‘see’ our own mind with our actual eyes or ‘touch’ our own thoughts with our actual fingers, yet we know our mind to be real. We know our thoughts convey substance. We know this because we possess another faculty; a feeling sense, an intuitive sense that acts similar to our fingers and eyes, a sense that enables us to touch or to see the invisible side of life. But this is a sense less-developed in the majority of society.
Other aspects of our immaterial reality can be found in the patterns and cycles of life that sometimes foil our attempts at happiness, health, or success, despite our best efforts to break their grip upon us
In the study of the martial arts, you will also hear masters speak of martial ‘spirit.’ They will describe a time when the martial spirit enters the practitioner.
This is a significant moment. In Yoga this would be considered the opening of the ‘third eye’, an eye that sees, feels, makes sense of the inner realms and their energy currents. To modernize this observation, we could say that the awakening to the existence and relevance of the spirit world opens up a pan-vision, a quantum reality, allowing one to see beyond the limited perspective of material nature, of simply moving ones limbs in a powerful coordinated fashion, into the mysterious world of vibrations, of frequencies, of energy and non-linear information sources. Initiation into the spirit world, into the spirit of one’s martial practice, opens up a whole new potential for action, a whole new way to think about power.
A spiritual guide will bring to the martial novice a map of this interior frontier and a way to negotiate it. Just as many students entrust their obvious martial growth into the hands of their sensei, that same student may entrust their spiritual growth into the hands of a guide familiar with reality’s inner terrain.
The role of the spiritual guide is manifold. He or she will help you to negotiate a previously unfamiliar, unknown landscape, offer clarity how spiritual energies entwine with and enhance material life, reveal hidden or unconscious patterns that hold you back from succeeding in your study, offer tools to uncover your authentic nature, reveal how your karma plays a role in your progress, direct you to the means of nourishing your soul, and teach you tap into an ever-flowing well of vitality.
In a world that is becoming over-solid, over-material, and over-emphasizing the superficial, a competent spiritual guide will help you to remain fluid, direct you away from the illusions and distractions of life toward true spiritual warriorhood where you will see the real and relevant conflicts you must confront. A spiritual guide will offer you understanding of, and the energy for, what you really want in this life and how to win those battles that stand in your way.