The strange tale needs some explanation, and I hardly know where to begin. As counselor and analyst, daily I face the challenge of working with individuals who bravely clarify what they are thinking, feeling, saying, and doing in order that their life may move forward in a more meaningful, peaceful, satisfying way. Their concerns may arise from internal disturbances that happened early in their life such as a betrayal, a loss of a friend or family member, an illness, or a catastrophe of a traumatic nature.
However, some conflicts arise from present-day conflicts. Marriages fail, conflicts arise in the workplace, accidents may change the course of a person's life, a friend or family member dies, an environmental disaster destroys one's world and security.
But my title springs out of a context that does not fall within the internal or external situations I described above. My title is the strange world we now live in.
This is the political maneuvering that threatens our way of forming a society that values democratic institutions that assure life, liberty, and justice for all. This way of life is threatened by two things. The first is our run-away development of planet earth that destroys habitats not only for humans but also for the animals, trees, plants, and wild things which make our world a bountiful,interesting, and challenging place that encourages the human spirit to explore and create.
As I have said elsewhere in a previous blog, we have come to worship at the feet of a strange god, Mammon, the deity of riches and power. Capitalism is an economic system controlled by individuals and businesses for the purpose of production and distribution of goods as well as services. And, while capitalism in itself does not distort peoples' minds with the greed to have more and more, none-the-less, capitalism serves as a portal through which selfishness, greed, power, and political chicanery can come to rule the life of an individual and society as a whole. Self-serving politicians who use the resources of our nation for the accumulation of wealth and power betray the principles of our democracy.
And that is where we have arrived. However, it does not represent the values we long have claimed, fought for, and died defending: courage, freedom, truth, beauty, and love. These five values have shown brightly in the lighthouse of our democracy as a signal to the world. Inscribed on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty are these words taken from a sonnet, "The New Colossas" by Emma Lazarus (November 2, 1883).
Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I left my lamp beside the golden door.
I sang those words as a member of my high school chorus, conducted by Mrs. Scarborough, never imagining that our country would betray words that have burned brightly in our heritage since November 2, 1883.
Today we sing a different tune. We sing a dissonant tune, a disturbing, cacophony of belligerent bullying violence. We witness the formation of a police state. We watch the militant forces patrol our streets, separating families, jailing individuals in newly-created prisons or cells in foreign countries, dividing parents and children, demanding exorbitant fees for entrance into our country that was once the welcoming home for those who fled persecution, poverty, and death in lands far away.
Such human cruelty is seen in the movie from which I borrowed the title to this writing. That movie is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the winner of several awards, directed by Ang Lee. The movie, set in China, introduced the audience to a fascinating world of martial arts, aesthetically captivating and physically challenging at the hands of Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi), and Master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat). In the story, a treasured, valuable sword, "Green Destiny," is stolen. More than a sword, the Green Destiny represents honor, beauty, love, freedom, purity of heart, courage, and power. In short, Green Destiny might be considered psychologically and spiritually as a symbol of the unity of personality.
As such, Green Destiny would be treasured and respected much like a nation's flag. As such, it must not be violated. However, in the movie, the sword is stolen, resulting in several scenes where martial artists battle for the purpose of retrieving Green Destiny and
restoring harmony to the lineage of people caught within the treachery of theft and the pursuit of power.
The "crouching tiger" and "hidden dragon" symbolism rises from the movie's theme of human potential that can be "hidden," over-looked, or ignored. An example of this is the role played by women who demonstrate great power and expertise in their martial arts skills. However, at the time of the movie's production, women seldom were expected to play such a prominent role and skill in battle. The power of women had been hidden or over-looked.
Even today, the question continues to be asked if Michelle Yeoh actually did her challenging physical martial arts scenes. She did. In the production of the movie, Yeoh became a warrior although her formal education was in ballet and dance. Incredibly, she developed her martial arts skills during production of the movie.
And the martial arts scenes are works of art in themselves. The elegance of the martial arts scenes, the moral clarity demonstrated, and the spiritual depth of the movie's story prompted me to think of the shambhala warrior. Joanna Macy wrote and lectured widely on the mythic tradition of the "Shambhala Warrior Prophecy." She credited her work to an ancient Tibetan Buddhist prophecy and developed her focus to deal with the current madness of our world today. As of this writing on August 6, 2025, 80 years after nuclear bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there are 9 nuclear-armed nations, and others want to join the club. The talk of nuclear war rises again. The shambhala warrior says there is another way.
Consider another source. That is, Shambhala: The Secret Path of the Warrior (Carolyn Rose Gimian, Ed.) This is the work of a significant warrior himself, Chogyam Trungpa. Trungpa focused on the natural goodness within each of us. Having escaped from Tibet, he came to the West and founded Naropa University in Colorado to further Shambhala training and remind us there is another way to express our warrior-self.
How might that be done, you may ask as well as why the title refers to the crouching "cat" rather than tiger. This is in honor of our cat, Sheba, a mighty warrior who "protected" our property like a tiger, played games with us like a hidden dragon, and reminds me always that in this troubled world there remains humor, skill, goodness, playfulness, love, and joy. She was the shambhala warrior like you, whether or not you know it.
However, some conflicts arise from present-day conflicts. Marriages fail, conflicts arise in the workplace, accidents may change the course of a person's life, a friend or family member dies, an environmental disaster destroys one's world and security.
But my title springs out of a context that does not fall within the internal or external situations I described above. My title is the strange world we now live in.
This is the political maneuvering that threatens our way of forming a society that values democratic institutions that assure life, liberty, and justice for all. This way of life is threatened by two things. The first is our run-away development of planet earth that destroys habitats not only for humans but also for the animals, trees, plants, and wild things which make our world a bountiful,interesting, and challenging place that encourages the human spirit to explore and create.
As I have said elsewhere in a previous blog, we have come to worship at the feet of a strange god, Mammon, the deity of riches and power. Capitalism is an economic system controlled by individuals and businesses for the purpose of production and distribution of goods as well as services. And, while capitalism in itself does not distort peoples' minds with the greed to have more and more, none-the-less, capitalism serves as a portal through which selfishness, greed, power, and political chicanery can come to rule the life of an individual and society as a whole. Self-serving politicians who use the resources of our nation for the accumulation of wealth and power betray the principles of our democracy.
And that is where we have arrived. However, it does not represent the values we long have claimed, fought for, and died defending: courage, freedom, truth, beauty, and love. These five values have shown brightly in the lighthouse of our democracy as a signal to the world. Inscribed on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty are these words taken from a sonnet, "The New Colossas" by Emma Lazarus (November 2, 1883).
Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I left my lamp beside the golden door.
I sang those words as a member of my high school chorus, conducted by Mrs. Scarborough, never imagining that our country would betray words that have burned brightly in our heritage since November 2, 1883.
Today we sing a different tune. We sing a dissonant tune, a disturbing, cacophony of belligerent bullying violence. We witness the formation of a police state. We watch the militant forces patrol our streets, separating families, jailing individuals in newly-created prisons or cells in foreign countries, dividing parents and children, demanding exorbitant fees for entrance into our country that was once the welcoming home for those who fled persecution, poverty, and death in lands far away.
Such human cruelty is seen in the movie from which I borrowed the title to this writing. That movie is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the winner of several awards, directed by Ang Lee. The movie, set in China, introduced the audience to a fascinating world of martial arts, aesthetically captivating and physically challenging at the hands of Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), Jen Yu (Zhang Ziyi), and Master Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-fat). In the story, a treasured, valuable sword, "Green Destiny," is stolen. More than a sword, the Green Destiny represents honor, beauty, love, freedom, purity of heart, courage, and power. In short, Green Destiny might be considered psychologically and spiritually as a symbol of the unity of personality.
As such, Green Destiny would be treasured and respected much like a nation's flag. As such, it must not be violated. However, in the movie, the sword is stolen, resulting in several scenes where martial artists battle for the purpose of retrieving Green Destiny and
restoring harmony to the lineage of people caught within the treachery of theft and the pursuit of power.
The "crouching tiger" and "hidden dragon" symbolism rises from the movie's theme of human potential that can be "hidden," over-looked, or ignored. An example of this is the role played by women who demonstrate great power and expertise in their martial arts skills. However, at the time of the movie's production, women seldom were expected to play such a prominent role and skill in battle. The power of women had been hidden or over-looked.
Even today, the question continues to be asked if Michelle Yeoh actually did her challenging physical martial arts scenes. She did. In the production of the movie, Yeoh became a warrior although her formal education was in ballet and dance. Incredibly, she developed her martial arts skills during production of the movie.
And the martial arts scenes are works of art in themselves. The elegance of the martial arts scenes, the moral clarity demonstrated, and the spiritual depth of the movie's story prompted me to think of the shambhala warrior. Joanna Macy wrote and lectured widely on the mythic tradition of the "Shambhala Warrior Prophecy." She credited her work to an ancient Tibetan Buddhist prophecy and developed her focus to deal with the current madness of our world today. As of this writing on August 6, 2025, 80 years after nuclear bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there are 9 nuclear-armed nations, and others want to join the club. The talk of nuclear war rises again. The shambhala warrior says there is another way.
Consider another source. That is, Shambhala: The Secret Path of the Warrior (Carolyn Rose Gimian, Ed.) This is the work of a significant warrior himself, Chogyam Trungpa. Trungpa focused on the natural goodness within each of us. Having escaped from Tibet, he came to the West and founded Naropa University in Colorado to further Shambhala training and remind us there is another way to express our warrior-self.
How might that be done, you may ask as well as why the title refers to the crouching "cat" rather than tiger. This is in honor of our cat, Sheba, a mighty warrior who "protected" our property like a tiger, played games with us like a hidden dragon, and reminds me always that in this troubled world there remains humor, skill, goodness, playfulness, love, and joy. She was the shambhala warrior like you, whether or not you know it.
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