A thoroughly enjoyable book on many levels. Written in an erudite yet humorous tone born of education as well as experience, I found the venture into traditional martial arts, modernity, the nature of the warrior, and existential to be incisive, philosophical, creative, and humorous. It essentially is several books in one, including an extended essay on Bruce Lee and the principles of Jeet Kune Do that I think any mature martial artist will appreciate. As a lifelong martial artist, student of history, professor, teacher, etc., I found the book extremely rich and would recommend it highly.
I think that these passages (and I leave my notes here)sum it up well--for I believe in the warrior poet and the hippie samurai....
“Only a surfer of emotions can mend this fracture which tears apart the potential of individuals as well as the health of the planet. Somebody able to ride in balance between the waves of yin and yang. A poet warrior. A hippie samurai. The last image is not just a metaphor, but is the root of the kind of human being who could rewrite the rules of the game. Stereotypes blackmail us and try to convince us that we can only be one thing: either pragmatists or visionaries, either romantics or realists, either artists or athletes. If we buy into this idea and fall into the trap of clearly defined roles, we end up settling for a very low definition of what we can be. Specialists without global vision. Fractions of the happy divinities we forget to be.
On the contrary, the hippie samurai is the perfect Tao. It is a sweet samurai who smiles and dances softly under the moonlight. It is the reliable, organized hippie who arrives on time to any appointment and has the lucidity to manage an economic empire. The hippie samurai is what the yin and the yang talk about over dinner. It is the synthesis between sensitivity and efficiency. Am I kidding? Am I letting the lyricism of paradoxes lead me astray? Not at all. The hippie samurai is the union of two archetypes that shouldn’t sound new to martial artists. An artist and a warrior: a martial artist. A hippie who ignores the code of honor and the warrior power of a samurai is prisoner to his own limits, just as much as a samurai who doesn’t know how to relax, how to joke, how to play with children, or how to lose himself in laughter as he plays the banjo under the stars. One without the other is a caricature at best. In facing the complexity of the modern world, the stereotypes of the spaced-out, artistic hippie and of the belligerent samurai living only to fight anyone crossing his road would be at best anachronistic, and in the worst case, just pathetic. Throughout the world, the resurrection of the warrior spirit is badly needed, but the solution cannot come from blindly copying old models. Being warriors today is more difficult than ever because there is no ready-made formula that we can follow to stand up to the increasing complexity of our time.
What we need is a new alchemy. The warrior can only be born from a haphazard synthesis, from unlikely marriages such as the one between hippie and samurai. It is not a question of going to battle against The Enemy, a kind of ultimate villain who, in the style of James Bond movies, oppresses the whole world. If it were so, it would be easy, but reality is much more complicated. Shallowness and mediocrity kill more people than the most ruthless tyranny. Being warriors today is about fighting those forces trying to crush us as much as it is about having powerful visions. Creating new ways of life is the way to give battle.” (Bolelli 111-112) “On the Warrior’s Path: Philosophy, Fighting, and Martial Arts Mythology.”
“Restricting our horizons is encouraged in order to seek perfect efficiency in only one activity, avoid dispersing our energies, and dedicate ourselves to a well-defined career. This is how experts are born and life dies. These goals, in fact, are fitting for an assembly-line, not for human beings. Specialization is a spiritual disease--a contagious virus of the personality that is hard to escape from. It forces us to limit the range of our choices and vivisect our global vision to the point where even the most ecstatic experiences lose life and magic; it’s like killing a splendid animal only to place it in a museum.” (Bolelli “On the Warrior’s Path” 2).
“Physical education is the fundamental discipline of life, but it is actually despised, neglected, and taught intellectually, because the true intent of our schools is to inculcate the virtues of cunning and calculation which will make money….The establishment is a class of physical barbarians…they do not know how to transform money into physical enjoyment. The were never taught how to husband plants and animals for food, how to cook, how to make clothes and build houses, how to dance and breathe, how to do yoga for finding one’s true center, or how to make love.” Alan Watts quoted by Bolelli in “On the Warrior Path” 11-12
Bolelli has a chapter on “The Philosophy of Jeet Kune Do called “Epistemological Anarchism” I love that.
[Bruce] Lee would probably agree with the Tibetan meditation master Chogyam Trungpa when he said ‘The key to warriorship . . . is not being afraid of who you are.’ Being fearlessly willing to make mistakes in the process of making one’s own choices free from any dogma is the only path that Lee advocated. Much more than a methodological change, Lee’s challenge to martial arts styles should therefore be seen as a challenge to do what people are most scared of doing: refusing to submit to the power of any superior authority and taking full responsibility as the leader of their own lives.” (171)
“Only a surfer of emotions can mend this fracture which tears apart the potential of individuals as well as the health of the planet. Somebody able to ride in balance between the waves of yin and yang. A poet warrior. A hippie samurai. The last image is not just a metaphor, but is the root of the kind of human being who could rewrite the rules of the game. Stereotypes blackmail us and try to convince us that we can only be one thing: either pragmatists or visionaries, either romantics or realists, either artists or athletes. If we buy into this idea and fall into the trap of clearly defined roles, we end up settling for a very low definition of what we can be. Specialists without global vision. Fractions of the happy divinities we forget to be.
On the contrary, the hippie samurai is the perfect Tao. It is a sweet samurai who smiles and dances softly under the moonlight. It is the reliable, organized hippie who arrives on time to any appointment and has the lucidity to manage an economic empire. The hippie samurai is what the yin and the yang talk about over dinner. It is the synthesis between sensitivity and efficiency. Am I kidding? Am I letting the lyricism of paradoxes lead me astray? Not at all. The hippie samurai is the union of two archetypes that shouldn’t sound new to martial artists. An artist and a warrior: a martial artist. A hippie who ignores the code of honor and the warrior power of a samurai is prisoner to his own limits, just as much as a samurai who doesn’t know how to relax, how to joke, how to play with children, or how to lose himself in laughter as he plays the banjo under the stars. One without the other is a caricature at best. In facing the complexity of the modern world, the stereotypes of the spaced-out, artistic hippie and of the belligerent samurai living only to fight anyone crossing his road would be at best anachronistic, and in the worst case, just pathetic. Throughout the world, the resurrection of the warrior spirit is badly needed, but the solution cannot come from blindly copying old models. Being warriors today is more difficult than ever because there is no ready-made formula that we can follow to stand up to the increasing complexity of our time.
What we need is a new alchemy. The warrior can only be born from a haphazard synthesis, from unlikely marriages such as the one between hippie and samurai. It is not a question of going to battle against The Enemy, a kind of ultimate villain who, in the style of James Bond movies, oppresses the whole world. If it were so, it would be easy, but reality is much more complicated. Shallowness and mediocrity kill more people than the most ruthless tyranny. Being warriors today is about fighting those forces trying to crush us as much as it is about having powerful visions. Creating new ways of life is the way to give battle.” (Bolelli 111-112) “On the Warrior’s Path: Philosophy, Fighting, and Martial Arts Mythology.”
“Remembering his experience as a judoka, Mickey Hart likens the martial artist to a tiger: ‘Have you ever looked into a tiger’s eye? What immediately grips you is that the tiger is right there—all four hundred and fifty pounds focused with gleaming maximum attention on you. No distractions, no hesitations, just a calm powerful contemplation.’” (Bolelli 14)
“Those who have never approached their bodies as temples have no ideas of what they are missing. The frog at the bottom of the well only sees a fraction of light and believes it to be the whole sky. The same happens to those who have lost the address of their bodies. Life happens around them but they don’t realize it. They see and feel only the things that are noisy and excessive. Dull, catatonic perceptions. Maybe somebody put prozac in their vitamins when they were children. On the other hand, their minds are always hyperactive, too caught up in the unstoppable flow of thoughts to pay attention to the ecstasy dancing in front of their noses. Like somnambulists, they don’t even realize they are prisoners of their sleep. They don’t know what it means to live in a body that doesn’t just serve as a machine carrying the mind from one place to another. Even the ability to love and to feel loved is limited if the perceptions are dull. The martial arts are one of the methods that can teach the body to reawaken the sleepy senses. Those smart enough not to put them back to sleep at the end of the training see their everyday life fill up with magic.” (Bolelli 15)
“Some of the most mythical warriors populating the Olympus of martial arts have become famous not simply for their legendary feats as fighters, but also for the serenity of their spirits. The descriptions we have of them often coincide. Calm, relaxed, peaceful men with a genuine love for life. They walked along the Warrior’s path because it takes an indomitable spirit to be able to live beyond conflict, but once they have reached their goals, the fighter’s intensity was put to rest in order to make room for gentleness. As Nietzche put it, ‘I have become one who blesses and says Yes; and I fought long for that and was a fighter that I might one day get my hands free to bless.’
They keep the Warrior’s power handy in case of need, but they lack the rigidity of those who never remove their armor. Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, is perhaps a perfect example. As he himself declared, ‘The way of the warrior is the creation of harmony.’ With him feminine and masculine were united in a way that granted him unlimited access to happiness’ kingdom. The Princess had drawn a smile on the Warrior’s face. Throughout the centuries, many other martial artists, like Ueshiba, have been not just fighters, but also poets, healers, painters, artists: individuals full of joy and warmth, inspired by a deep sense of love for life. There is no contradiction between having a Warrior’s power and tender feelings. The heart of a Warrior is not made to be fenced with barbed wire. His heart is sweet. This is the main reason to become warriors in the first place: in order to be strong enough to turn our sensitivity into a source of joy rather than of suffering.” (Bolelli 56-57)
On the Warrior's Path, Second Edition: Philosophy, Fighting, and Martial Arts Mythology
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Last update: 02-24-2025
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Miroku NemethA great read exploring many aspects of the warrior's path.
Alain B. BurreseHighly recommended to those martial artists looking to take their training to a higher philosophical level
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