What does it mean to be a Spiritual Warrior?

This term has been used extensively in various spiritual circles and traditions since ages.
A spiritual warrior is the one who combats the most insidious enemy: Ignorance, also known as

“Avidya” in Sanskrit to reach greater levels of self-awareness.

The path of the spiritual warrior is not easy. It brings you face to face with your shadow side and forces you to go through extreme levels of cognitive dissonance by making you question your limiting belief systems and outdated conditioning.

But walking on this path brings enormous rewards:

1) High levels of self-awareness and freedom from fears, doubts, small-mindedness, and limited belief systems.
2) Becoming a beacon of light and helping in the global shift in consciousness.

“A Spiritual Warrior is a person who challenges the fear, lies, false beliefs, and judgments that create pain and suffering on this planet. This is a battle that takes place in the heart and mind of an individual. The quest of the Spiritual Warrior is the same as spiritual seekers around the world. They face this challenge with the clarity and awareness that this war is fought within and that truth and unconditional love are what the seeker finds.”- Hayden Crawford

So, what are the traits that make one a spiritual warrior?

1) A spiritual warrior seeks the truth

A spiritual warrior seeks truth at any cost because he knows that it is only through truth and knowledge that you can break the shackles of bondage and become free.

A Spiritual warrior will go as far as required to know the truth and learn what he does not know even if that truth comes with bouts of pain and suffering.

He knows that truth is essential for soul growth and evolution. It is only truth that can give insights into unsolved mysteries, remove darkness and ignorance and literally set us free.

2) A spiritual warrior is on a quest of self-discovery and awareness

A spiritual warrior is on a continuous quest of self-discovery to expand his awareness. He knows that awareness is the main tool that he has to fight against darkness and ignorance.
Awareness is the ability to look into the nature of things with absolute clarity without any bias of past conditionings or limited belief systems.

It entails an ability to look at your own mind and thought patterns which is known as Metacognition.
Self-awareness is the quality to know who you really are beneath the ego mask.

The ego can distort our self-image and sense of who we are to an extent that these false self-images and impressions can even lead to self-hatred and extremely low self-esteem.

A spiritual warrior may face acute cognitive dissonance in the process of self-discovery and self-awareness but he goes on questioning his own belief systems and thought processes and eliminates anything that does not resonate with unconditional love and forgiveness.

3) A spiritual warrior is passionate and persistent

Another key attribute of a spiritual warrior is relentlessness and persistence. Being relentless and persistent does not mean being brash or inflexible.
It means being determined to seek the truth and removing all false beliefs and ego traps that veil the truth.

A spiritual warrior has a never say die attitude. He welcomes all adversaries and challenging conditions and treats them as an opportunity to learn and grow.

He knows that the setbacks are actually soul lessons and embraces everything with an attitude of what is it trying to teach me instead of thinking why is it happening to me?

He has dedicated his entire life to learning, growing and evolving so that he is better equipped to serve humanity.

4) A spiritual warrior follows his intuitive heart

He knows how to distinguish between the voice of ego and intuition of the heart. A spiritual warrior follows his heart and gut instincts.

A spiritual warrior is sensitive to energy and can see through things. Even if a person comes dressed as a friend hiding bad intentions, the spiritual warrior’s intuition will alert them and it is mostly spot on. A spiritual warrior’s heart is true and therefore its messages are true as well.

5) A spiritual warrior does the shadow work

A spiritual warrior knows that he has to confront and integrate his shadow side to be able to love and accept himself unconditionally.

A spiritual warrior is not afraid to look at his shadow side right in the eye; he has the courage to question his own belief systems. He knows it is the only way to dissolve lies and false belief systems that cause suffering.

6) A spiritual warrior chooses love over everything else

A spiritual warrior knows that the core of everything is love, the core of our own being and core of everything else.

A spiritual warrior’s main mission is to remove the veils that cover and hide the unconditional love in our hearts, whether it is a veil of ignorance, veil of fear, veil of jealousy, anger, trauma or suffering.

A spiritual warrior has expanded consciousness and awareness and love that can embrace entire humanity.

It is due to this expanded consciousness, that a spiritual warrior becomes a light of unconditional love to heal and transform the world.

7) A spiritual warrior prioritizes holistic health and well being

Spiritual warrior is a beacon of light. He knows that he is working for a cause bigger than himself. His goal is to transform the world and he knows that in order to achieve this he needs to keep himself in the best shape physically, mentally and emotionally.

He treats himself with utmost love and respect and prioritizes his holistic health and well being over petty things that drain his energy.

8) A spiritual warrior works for a soulful mission

We all want happiness and peace but sometimes we go about trying to look for these things by amassing wealth and possessions.

A spiritual warrior knows that real and lasting peace and happiness can come only after one realizes one’s true nature and therefore he chooses a soulful mission which gives him an opportunity to serve and grow.

9) A spiritual warrior uses his energy well

A spiritual warrior knows very well that energy is a valuable and limited resource. Therefore he utilizes his energy wisely.

He chooses peace over mindless drama and negativity.

He refrains from getting into mindless fights over petty things and picks his battles wisely.

“The big difference between a warrior and a victim is that the victim represses and the warrior refrains.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

Source: themindsjournal.com