Create Your Own Religion (40 page)

Daniele Bolelli (M.A.) is a writer, a college professor and a martial artist. He is the author of
On the Warrior's Path
, which has quickly become one of the modern cult books on the philosophy of martial arts, and of
50 Things You Are Not Supposed to Know: Religion
. He teaches at many top universities in Southern California and has competed professionally in Mixed Martial Arts. He is also the host of
The Drunken Taoist Podcast
. Visit him online at
www.danielebolelli.com
.

If you liked
Create Your Own Religion
, enjoy an excerpt from
50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know about Religion
, also by Daniele Bolelli (c) 2011. Go to the next page to begin reading the sample.

One of the key principles that good, old Buddha constantly emphasized was non-injury: making every effort to avoid causing pain to any sentient being—whether they be other humans, or animals, or anything in between.

During much of Japanese history, the samurai trained day in and day out to become more effective at slicing and dicing their opponents on the battlefield. The punch line in this is that most of them were devout Buddhists. Yeah, ... I know ... nothing screams Buddhist compassion like making a living by decapitating your enemies...

So, the obvious question is: why would warriors be attracted to a non-violent religion like Zen Buddhism in the first place?

The answer is simple. Well, kind of ... if the samurai could just conveniently overlook the pesky pacifist piece of Buddhist theology just mentioned, Zen could actually help them tremendously in battle! Still not clear how that works? No problem. Here we go: the odd path that turns this particular school of Buddhism into a weapon for professional killers goes something like this.

The most terrifying emotion that anyone about to go to war has to come to terms with is fear—the sheer terror that the prospect of death, dismemberment, and crippling injuries inevitably produces. Paralyzing fear under these circumstances is natural for anyone who doesn't have a death wish but, paradoxically, it makes the likelihood of getting killed much higher. It is difficult, in fact, to be effective on the battlefield when fear leaves you breathless, with your muscles frozen stiff, and hardly able to move. Entering a sword fight in this physiological state all but ensures that your head will be saying goodbye to the rest of your body rather quickly, since you will not be able to fight to the best of your abilities. The riddle of fear is that it attracts precisely what scares you most. As professional warriors, the samurai knew well how lethal fear could be. But this is where Zen could come to the rescue.

Zen training, after all, is all about quieting the mind, being in the moment with no thoughts of the past or the future, accepting things as they are, mastering one's emotions, and abandoning all attachments. And all these ingredients mixed together offer the perfect antidote to fear. Being able to remain emotionally unmoved when death comes knocking on your door is no easy feat, but can be just as essential for a warrior as mastery of fighting tactics and techniques. Once free from fear, a samurai could fight just as he had trained, without losing precious fractions of seconds due to the excess baggage of tense muscles and shallow breathing.

This is how one of the most peaceful religions in the world ended up being part of the arsenal of the Japanese warrior class. So, bring on a steady diet of Zen meditation! We've got enemies to kill.

02 THE FILTHY LITTLE ATHEIST ... FOUNDING FATHER

The story of his life is richer and weirder than any fiction. Among his close friends were visionary poets such as William Blake as well as political icons like Benjamin Franklin. Napoleon slept with his books by his pillow, and told him statues of gold should be erected to him in every city in the universe (but the admiration was not reciprocated). Thomas Edison believed him to