The Compassionate Warrior Spirit
On Earth Day, we stand for connection, healing and compassion
In this time of intensifying political chaos, many narratives are crafted to stir our deepest fears and wounds—trapping us in the old patterns of separation, domination, and conquest.
The culture of capitalism and extraction normalizes violence, conditioning us to respond to force with more force, to answer division with deeper division.
But on this Earth Day, I choose to stand for something else.
I stand for the Spirit of the Compassionate Warrior—a path rooted not in conquest, but in connection. Not in reactivity, but in presence, presence as old and enlivened as Earth herself.
Together with my colleague Daelinar, cofounder of the Dancing Tao Tai Chi School, we offer this Tai Chi sword performance as a living prayer—a celebration of the Compassionate Warrior spirit. This performance will be part of the multicultural Earth Day service at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship.
May it be a reminder that strength can be tender, and that true courage arises from compassion.
In the ancient traditions of the East, A warrior’s journey begins with a sword—but ends with a mirror.
At first, the warrior sees their enemy as someone outside of themselves.
They train to strike, to defend, to conquer—driven by fear, by pride, by the lust for victory.
But in time, the warrior matures.
Through struggle and solitude, they begin to understand:
The fiercest battles are not fought on battlefields, but within the heart.
A true warrior learns self-mastery.
They no longer react from impulse, nor fight to dominate.
They respond—with presence.
When they face an opponent, they do not see an enemy.
They see a reflection.
Beneath the clash of difference, they feel the stillness of common ground.
Beneath the armor of separation, they sense the thread of oneness that binds us all.
The sword becomes a symbol—not of violence, but of clarity.
A warrior still fights, but not for a display of power over, but power with.
Not a call to arms, but a call to heart.
A prayer,
not to win,
but to awaken.
Not to conquer the other
But to dissolve the illusion that we are separated.