Though thousand times a thousand
in battle one may conquer,
yet should one conquer just oneself
one is the greatest conqueror.
Hello, Warriors, and welcome back to the Den. Today, I want to ask you to ask yourself a question: Who is my greatest enemy? It’s a question I started asking myself many years ago, around the time I first saw the quote from the Dhammapada. Though it took a while, it ultimately changed my world by changing my thinking process.
I usually keep this thought in the back of my mind, always there as a guide, but not so prevalent that I am always aware of it. That’s normal for how our brain processes work. Recently though, I’ve brought it to the forefront again due to recent changes in my circumstances.
In my last post, I mentioned that there had been several changes that occurred toward the end of the year, and into the new year. One of the changes that I didn’t mention is the situation that I am going to discuss today. I waited, because I wanted to write specifically about what happened, since it can happen to any of us, at any time. It likely already has, and may happen again if we don’t face our greatest enemy, ourselves.
For those who have been following me for awhile, you may remember when, almost three years ago, I got hired to work in a store where I had been wanting to work for a long time. When I interviewed, I was impressed by the manager, and once I started working, I became even more impressed. I held a great amount of respect for this man, and I wasn’t the only one. This man knew his customers well, and his employees better. He managed the store so well that that may have been one of the reasons the company chose to build another store in the area, and many of the employees were planning to follow him there. The man was also human, and had his faults. Some of them we even saw. But there were other flaws that were not so obvious, and the week between Christmas and New Years he was terminated.
It took about a week for the shock to wear off, and we are still processing and working through the changes that this has created. For me, after working through the initial shock, I started to step back and was able to see a bigger picture. During this process, I was able to remind myself that this person, as good of a manager as he was, he was still a person with his own demons. No one is perfect, and everyone has their internal demons. Everyone. I have mine, you have yours, and even the person who seems the most perfect has theirs. No exceptions. The only question that remains is this: Are you going to face your demons? After all, that is the greatest challenge, the greatest battle. And the path to being the greatest Warrior.
Blessed Be.
The Warriors Den 