There's a bit of the Beast in all of us

In each of us there is a Beast lying just below the surface of our consciousness that rarely emerges in civilized society but who is well-known to those who have directly participated in extreme violence. Before the Industrial Revolution ripped us apart from our psyche he had a face and a name and we all routinely interacted with him. The Aztecs called him Mixcoatl, to the Greeks he was Ares, and the Norsemen hailed him as Odin. Warriors heading off to battle would pray to the god to summon his power and, ultimately, channel that psychic energy in order to maximize their abilities in combat. In some “primitive” societies this even included ritual dances where masks of certain gods and spirits were donned to summon the Beast from his usual slumber and harness his power.

We can no more ignore his presence in our modern psyche than we can ignore our own selves. Unfortunately, as a result of the increased mechanization of our global society and its indentured servitude to Rationalism, we have forgotten about the Beast and told ourselves that he has gone away, along with the superstition that we discarded in the Enlightenment. But we are fools if we believe that.

He is here. He always has been. And he always will be. The question is: What do we do with him?

Colonel Kurtz, in his conversation's with Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now says to him, “Horror has a face … and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies.”

Kurtz recognized that the mechanical manner in which we go about fighting wars today fails to tap the power of the Beast and, as a consequence, condemns us to failure because unlike us, the enemies we engage have submitted to its will and harnessed its power. And as long as our society collectively refuses to recognize the existence of the Beast then we are doomed to a never-ending series of defeats at the hands of those who have not overlooked what truly determines victory or defeat: fighting spirit.

Captain Jack Ilfrey, formerly with the 20th Fighter Group, 8 USAAF, had this to say about it:

"Every mind has its share of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When you are in combat the Beast comes out. It's kill or be killed. But when removed from this pressure, the minds heals its innermost scars by helping, by giving, until, once again, you are a human being."

Bruce Lee became an international superstar because of his incredible martial arts ability but the secret to his prowess was not just in the fact that he could throw a faster punch or a harder kick. Bruce Lee had perfected the use of what he called “emotional content” which allowed his Unconscious, then, to fully utilize the techniques that his body had learned through deliberate, conscious training. For a better understanding of what he meant watch this.

The danger lies, however, in being consumed by the Beast and becoming a slave to its will. Yoda warns Luke Skywalker of this exact danger when he says to him, "Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side of the Force are they. Easily they flow, quick to join you in a fight. If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will, as it did Obi-Wan's apprentice." Obi-Wan's apprentice is, of course, Darth Vader, the embodiment of the Dark Side and an example of its tremendous power. This is the danger that all warriors face and what our society has entirely failed to address. What more can be expected, though, when we do not even acknowledge it's existence?

And therein lies the purpose of martial arts: to create a forum in which one can interact with an opponent and, in the process of that interaction, come to understand one's own self. Lee himself said, "To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person." The work of self-mastery can then begin as one creates a relationship with the Beast and then comes face-to-face with the demons of fear, pride, self-doubt, and anger. Over time the warrior learns to banish those demons and tame the Beast in the same manner that Paul Atreides in Dune must ride a sandworm and harness a power that otherwise he would always have to hide from. Instead, once he's ridden the sandworm he has the ability to summon it at will and use its incredible power. Yoda imparts the same advice to young Skywalker when he says to him, "Control. You must learn control." Ultimately, once the Beast has been tamed he is then one step closer to the highest ideal for warrior: the complete, whole psyche.