The Ninja Saint I once knew
On Saturday I went to the funeral of a acquaintance tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. It was…interesting, but I learned something.
Robert was a Ninja, as in the real deal. His obituary said this:
Robert Veal was a real-life ninja, a yondan, a fourth-degree black belt in the Japanese martial art of Bujinkan ninjutsu.
He was so accomplished that he had been teaching self-defense to airline flight crews since he was 17.
Mr. Veal, who had been home-schooled, was disciplined, focused and thrived on learning, his sister said. Just as he studied Bujinkan ninjutsu with a grand master in Japan, he traveled to Brazil to practice capoeria, the Brazilian martial art that is part dance and part game.
Being a Ninja meant that he was a warrior and held the values of a warrior, like the Bushido code or the code of Chivalry. Robert also loved Jesus and followed the Bible, making him a paradox; a warrior and a saint. As a warrior he was a defender of the weak, a force against those who prey on them, and as a saint he was a lover of the weak, often the first to offer assistance and service.
This has gotten me thinking, should all Christians be warriors? Shouldn’t we actively seek to defend the weak? Shouldn’t we seek out those with ill intent, expose them and engage them in battle? Shouldn’t we be trained and prepared to defend ourselves philosophically, theologically, methodologically, Biblically, and even perhaps physically (in certain contexts)?
Which also brings to mind another question: Why are Christians typically passive while the nature of God is to actively engage the enemy?
I’m still struggling through some of these thoughts, so please leave comments with your thoughts and maybe we can think through this one together. Any help here is appreciated.
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:01 pm
an interesting thought for sure. The God of the old testament definitely was a warrior and chose warriors to call at his service. I mean even in the new testament, James says that true and undefiled religion is looking after/caring for orphans and widows; the defenseless. Does that mean that, should the situation arise, that we should “go to war” for them. I believe so. Should we be out looking for a fight? I don’t think so. There was a great quote about this that I believe is on my facebook (which I can’t access at work) by Ravi. I’ll try to post it up later if I can find it.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” – Matthew 5:9. Peacemakers are not people who always come in and teach people how to sing kumbiya (sp). Sometimes it requires leveling a city or group of people. I think God did that a couple of times. If the USA doesn’t wake up soon we might be next.
August 27th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Robert was a student of mine in Capoeira Angola. I hope his family is well and even though I know they also share the emptiness I felt and still feel in my heart from when he passed. they had to endure a form of it even more profoundly than I. My thoughts and prayers go out to them as always.
A warriors ultimate goal is peace. Using force should only be done, when there is no other option. A warrior need not even use violence to achieve their ends. It is but one tool a warrior may wield but, it is a dangerous tool that is a double edged sword. Often the consequences for using violence starts a chain reaction of events that may not stop for centuries and sometimes even thousands of years. Even if people think that “peace” is brought about by these violent actions it is not so. True peace is rare because people still think violence can reproduce and make a peace. This is not so, violence never brings peace.
It can only make a false sense of peace. Still within the hearts of all those who saw their brothers, fathers, children, mothers, sisters and daughters brutalized will not be forgotten and will burn more violence into this world.
Again the great peaceful warrior Gandhi said it best.
“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”
“Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.”
All of the great masters of the world taught that, Only FORGIVENESS can bring peace. It takes the strongest feeling of love forgiveness and compassion to bring about peace. War will never succeed in bringing it about no matter how long it is waged. It will only bring about a temporary illusion of peace. The violence is merely internalized temporarily until it can explode once again just like a parasite that seems to disappear by entering a new host only to reproduce more parasites and to pop out again when they can no longer be contained.
Violence is not the objective of a warrior. In fact it is FAR better if a warrior can find another way to achieve their goals. The violence should be contained in the beauty of the art and only released in the time of desperation in defense of life and liberty and even then it should be done with remorse with the feeling of being a lousy warrior who couldn’t find a better way than to resort to this as a last resort.
Violence is the tool that cuts the thief but it does not spare the victim, the bystander nor the savior. It is cruel and cares not one iota of justice nor righteousness.
Robert was a shinning example of a true warrior. True because he was true to himself and he understood that violence is not the way. I never seen him in a state of violence. He maintained himself as an artist, a true warrior. He understood that the best way to bring change to this world that so desperately needs it, is to in the words of a great peaceful warrior named Gandhi, BE the change you wish to see in the world.
Robert not only understood this he exemplified it.
A warrior must take the battle inside of themselves and bring about positive change and discovery of the self through their art and only then can a warrior even begin to comprehend how to defend others and bring about true and lasting change for the better.
In the great words of Jesus,
“Peace be with you.”
Perna de Ferro
One can teach another to simply snap necks, break bones, slit throats and it does not make them a martial artist nor a warrior, it simply makes a murderer. Even the survivors and heroes of war do not come home unscathed. As I said violence ravages ALL involved and it’s evil is permanent.