“Started reading your blog, was hoping you could give a high-level summary of the warrior monk character type and how that translates into the modern American lifestyle. As the society, we live in today is so morally lost I’ve given up on caring or debating topics with others. Thanks in advance”
A reader posted this question on my Facebook Page a few weeks ago. And I already made an essay on this topic in the past but I feel like it definitely deserves a more in-depth explanation.
So how does one live the warrior-monk lifestyle in modern society?
Warriors must train their bodies and minds in order to function at peak levels in order to overcome weakness and eliminate their enemies.
Monks dedicate themselves to an extremely focused pursuit of enlightenment by engaging in a highly disciplined lifestyle. Day after day, they eliminate the nonessentials in life so that their focus is pure and constant on their mission: Enlightenment.
In today’s society, both of these noble ideals have been pushed to the wayside.
Instead of pushing forward towards a higher ideal, men have been conditioned to be effeminate, addicted to instant gratification, and comfort.
Men are encouraged to be liberal and accepting nice-guys who only get their masculine needs met by the occasional action-movie that their wife lets them watch.
We are encouraged to be like Kanye West, Macklemore, Beyonce, and other well-known pop-stars. Men are taught virtue and schooling by women teachers who emasculate them and dope them up for not being able to “sit still and behave.”
The result of this is a man who is unrooted and ungrounded…
A man who is completely disconnected from his heritage, ancestors, instinct, manhood, and purpose.
Men who would have been great warriors, scholars, philosophers, artists, kings, etc… are now wasting their lives away posting pictures of their latest meal on Instagram and spending 20-30 hours a week in front of their game-console immersing themselves in a faux digital world of pixelated friendships.
There is a small but ever-growing group of men who notice these trends and are striving to become something greater…
Something beyond.
This is where the warrior-monk lifestyle comes in.
The Monk
Simplify life & Minimalism
“The warrior travels light” – Navy Seal (Mark Divine)
Eliminate non-essentials: clutter, unworthy commitments, junk information, meaningless pursuits, and negative people.
Create a lifestyle of minimalism. Clutter must be avoided at all costs.
Throw away, sell or donate things that you do not use, haven’t used or rarely use. A lifestyle of minimalism is one of the practices that you must adopt in order to be free of distraction.
Some distractions are OK but must be kept within reason.
Not only will you feel freer but now your focus will be more ruthless. Your purpose will become more apparent. Removing clutter from your life is like cleaning a mirror. You will finally see yourself and thus your purpose.
Removing nonessentials isn’t purely limited to excess clutter in your home. Removing nonessentials means removing and letting go of other things as well.
Remove Junk Information from Your Life
Do you watch the news?
Do you surf the internet and read articles, posts and other forms of media that leave you feeling disempowered and depleted?
Are you endlessly filling your mind to the brim with conspiracy theories and other information that is making you feel hopeless about life?
Do you endlessly scroll through your news feed on social media as soon as you get bored?
This is what I call junk information. Eliminate it to the best of your ability or keep it highly disciplined.
Negative People
Use your gut to determine whether or not you should continue seeing certain people in your life.
People who don’t support your direction and dedication to growth should be screened and ultimately eliminated.
This doesn’t mean that you should only look for “yes-men” or people who agree with everything you do. It is healthy to be challenged at times.
The people you don’t want are the ones that are negative and do not have any passion in growth. People who are stagnating will ultimately bring you down. Sometimes it is in your best interest to help these people but often times they won’t change. Move on.
This journey can seem to be quite lonely but that’s how it always is at the top. Keep moving forward and eventually, you will build a tribe of like-minded men who understand you and have your back.
Unworthy Commitments
Do you constantly find yourself busy due to a commitment you made to a person or organization?
Do you find it hard to have any time for yourself because your attention is constantly scattered trying to fulfill the agendas others have set out for you?
Do you say “yes” to people quickly and then regret your decision when it comes down to it?
You need to be reasonably selfish and focus on your own pursuits.
By filling your own cup to the brim, you shall have a lot more value to offer in the long run anyway. Constantly having to worry about your responsibilities will eventually feel like a burden. Only take on responsibilities worth your time and effort. And don’t be quick to say “yes” to people.
The monk simplifies his life to the bare essentials while maintaining a ruthless focus on his purpose.
Ground Yourself in Nature and in Your Body
The monk is deeply connected to nature and to his intuition. The constant stream of chatter in your mind is often referred to as “monkey mind” in Buddhism.
Monkey-mind is a mental form of clutter.
“The internal dialogue is what grounds people in the daily world. The world is such and such or so and so, only because we talk to ourselves about its being such and such and so and so. The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after the warrior has learned to shut off his internal dialogue” ― Carlos Castaneda
Silencing the mind and becoming more meditative in your daily life will have a profound impact in your life. You will find yourself grounded in the present moment. You will sharpen your instincts and become more aware of your environment.
Being meditative is an essential masculine quality because being meditative will make you cool under pressure and less reactive.
You will others feeling safe and grounded in your presence.
Spend time in nature and do activities that bring about the silence of your mind (i.e meditation, breathing, etc).
You will experience an underlying feeling of flow and peacefulness that is really worth mentioning. It’s truly magical and a little bit hard to explain. Perhaps I will make an article detailing what I mean sometime in the future.
To do this, you need to learn how to breathe and not take your thoughts so seriously.
Combining the above practices with the study of the greatest masters on the planet and you shall be well on your way to living the great life.
The Warrior
“Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.” – Miyamoto Musashi
A warrior does what he can to turn his mind, body, and spirit into a force to be reckoned with.
A warrior strives to be lethal so that he can protect himself, his tribe, and his people.
Today most men are not warriors. They are more like gardeners.
My question to you is would you rather be a gardener in the middle of a war or a warrior in the middle of a garden?
Understanding this is important because it will fill you with a sense of power and security. You will feel good knowing that you can defend yourself and your loved ones.
Training to be a warrior will make you more grounded in reality. You will understand your body and nature. You will understand how to deal with other men in psychological and physical conflict which will give you an edge in understanding human nature.
This will make you feel more grounded in your masculinity and give you a sense of power and vitality.
Enemies Within
A warrior strives to be mentally, emotionally and spiritually sharp so that he may master himself by conquering the weakness and impulsiveness within.
First and foremost you must train physically.
You must train your body. Those who have a strong and able body are harder to kill.
There is also a plethora of other benefits that come from being strong.
At the end of the day, your body is your only true home so take care of it well and it will reward you with energy and vitality.
How do you train?
A warrior MUST train the following:
- Exercise
- Nutrition
- Hand-to-hand Combat
- Weapons
- Environmental Exposure
Exercise, Nutrition & Sleep
Workout and get big. In the jungle, only the strong survive.
Train often and train smart. You want to be able to boost your testosterone levels and make sure your body is functioning at peak efficiency.
A great workout manual I recommend is Victor Pride’s Body Of A Spartan. (This is an affiliate product so by purchasing this, I will receive a small commission at NO extra charge to you).
Eat clean 6 days a week and 7 if you are motivated. I personally do the primal 90/10 diet. Meaning I simply eat primal 90% of the time and other non-primal stuff (i.e pasta, legumes, bread) 10% of the time.
Also, make sure you are sleeping enough. You need to be disciplined and get 7-9 hours per day. No exceptions.
I usually go to sleep around 10 pm and wake up around 6 am. At around 8 pm, I stop using electronics and get my body and mind ready to go to sleep. I’ll read, do yoga and listen to podcasts. But I will rarely use screens.
The bulk of my electronics-use is done at the beginning of the day. There is no reason for it to continue past 8 pm. Remember unplug like the monk.
Hand-to-hand Combat and Weapons
When I say “warrior” I mean it. I can’t see a man calling himself a warrior if he is not able to neutralize threats coming his or his family’s way.
You must train some sort of martial art. You must do something to be able to ward off adversaries.
I personally train Boxing, BJJ, Kali (Filipino Knife Fighting) and shoot my Glock 17.
Environmental Exposure
Most people believe that there are only two pillars to health: nutrition and exercise.
That is wrong. The missing third pillar is environmental exposure.
You need to condition yourself to survive and be comfortable in all environments. Take cold showers and stop bundling up so much as soon as it’s a little chilly.
If you live in a snowy environment, go for shirtless hikes and roll yourself in the snow a few times a week.
As humans, we have outsourced so many of our innate abilities for survival by giving way to luxuries such as heated cars, homes, and high tech gear (i.e Northface jackets).
Our ancestors were way more masculine and vital partly due to the environmental conditioning that was part of their daily routine. Spartan warrior-scholars only wore one garment all year long because they believed it made them more fierce in battle.
For more information on this, I recommend checking out Wim Hof. He is also known as the “Ice Man”. He is truly a pioneer and is destroying everything we know about the human body and its limits.
He offers a training course on his website. It costs some money but it will work magic for your health.
The Five Mountains by Navy SEAL Mark Divine
Navy SEAL Mark Divine came out with a great outline that he calls “The 5 Mountains”
- Physical
- Mental
- Emotional
- Intuitive
- Kokoro (The combination of all of these into a high level of action)
This a great outline for embodying qualities of both the warrior and the monk.
By doing all of the practices mentioned above, you will be well on your way to training each and every aspect of these mountains.
In summary, to embody the warrior-monk lifestyle in today’s day and age:
Simplify your life to focus on your purpose and eliminate nonessentials. Become a passionate and life-long scholar of wisdom. And train your body to be lethal, strong and vital in the face of inner & outer enemies.
By constantly moving forward in this way and constantly challenging yourself and maintaining this type of focus, you will feel and encounter many of the ideals spoken about by great men throughout history.
Best,
Maximillian Giamarco
P.s. Would like to make progress on your journey to self-mastery? Check out the Spartan Ownership shop here for badass tools, gadgets, and training courses that will accelerate your growth. Also, if you would like more personalized help, book a coaching/strategy session with me here.
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