Check out the Sage Warrior
Here’s an excerpt from her website:
How do we find the wisdom to envision a new world and the courage to fight for it?
How do we survive seemingly apocalyptic times?
In a world on fire, how do we embrace love and joy?We are not the first to ask these questions—in fact, seeking the answers forged one of the world’s great wisdom traditions. In a time riven by caste, conquest, and cruelty, Sikhs blazed the path of the sant sipahi, the sage warrior. The sage radiates love and Oneness; the warrior activates that ethical power to fight for humanity. These energies empowered the first Sikhs to survive near-annihilation in South Asia nearly half a millennium ago. The sage warrior is the essential archetype for our time of turmoil—one we can all embody to cultivate our souls and transform the world.
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Hello again. Today I want to share with you a book called Sage Warrior by Valarie Kaur. This came to me through my friend Peter, and it came through a friend of his who had shared a quote from the book, and he shared it with me. It actually just came out last September, and I was unaware of Valerie's work, but it is one of the most powerful, beautiful offerings of a book that I have come across in a really long time—and I read a lot of books like these.
So you should just check it out, obviously, and see it for yourself, but just briefly—and I hope I don't misrepresent anything here—but what I understand is that Valarie was raised in the Sikh tradition, and she has been an activist for a long time. And this book is really drawing on what she learned from the stories and the lineage of the Sikh tradition, which is, you know, very old, but was also persecuted, and seen as a danger to other religions and powerful groups for a lot of its lineage.
And so, it both has this deep, deep grounding in our oneness with all that is around us, and sort of the web of life, and, but also the need to fight, and not let your way of life be extinguished, essentially, and so that's the sage and the warrior, right?
So the sage is the piece around being compassionate, and kind, and remembering your connection to all beings, and a deep sense of appreciation for the body and pleasure and beauty. And much of the Sikh wisdom is handed down through poetry and song, and music is a big part of it, which is, I love all of that.
And then the warrior is the piece of, you know, having to, stand up and be strong, and she talks about this piece that I really appreciate that resonates with my work, too, of needing to have a sanctuary inside, right? Or a place inside you can go and be safe, no matter what, and that you can cultivate that over time. And that's something I've done myself for years, and my teachers taught me how to do, and I work with people to do, too.
I think one of the things is it seems so necessary for this moment, and that's what she talks about, too, of, how do we keep our hearts open, but also, really forcefully stand up for what we believe is right and not, you know, let things be taken away from us.
And also, you know, I just love it when you find someone else that has a framework that's totally different from yours, but that speaks to all the same things. And so there's really pieces of the work that I do and have done for a while that are woven throughout what she's talking about. I mentioned a few of them just now.
And then the other piece that I really appreciate about this book—well, there's two. One is that she's also really engaging with her own lineage and the storyline and updating it, and making it relevant for her life and that there's space for that. And so, the book actually retells all these stories of the Sikh gurus, with much more of an emphasis on the women in the stories and they are beautiful stories. And I really appreciate that, and there are other authors that have done that, and things like that in other traditions that I've really enjoyed.
And then the other thing that I love is that the book is also really experiential. So at the end of every chapter, she has meditations and practices you can do and there's a whole workbook that goes along with it where you can dive deeper.
But again, bringing this into the experiential and not just an intellectual understanding place. And so I do really recommend if you're gonna check out the book and you like audiobooks, I have it on audiobook and it's really lovely. It’s narrated by her and then you get to hear and really like experience the meditations and the practices that she does at the end of all the chapters. So, yeah, I hope that you will check it out somehow and that it'll bring something helpful to you. Take care.
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