The master and the butterfly

Warriors,

Once there was a master who's students were very feared for their strength and speed. They trained day and night to please the master who just sat through each practice with his eyes closed. The students wanted to be seen and known by their master more than anything.

They broke boards and shingles and river rocks...

They bent and snapped spears against their throats...

They caught arrows in flight blindfolded...

Their kicks were highest and fastest in all the land...

The students began to make a name for themselves patrolling the streets and rousing bandits from their work and carting them to jail...

They began to fight in the military and many of them came back from campaigns heroes...

Still, the master seemed to not notice them.

One day after a particularly harsh workout, the master sighed deeply and stood in front of his students.

"You have missed the point of martial arts."

The students were aghast and even deeply offended..."How can you say that master? We have brought glory to the name of your school with our skills and prowess in battle! Our names are feared thought the criminal world! We are the strongest and fastest martial artists in all the world? How could that be if we have missed the point?"

The master said this,

"The art of war is but a stepping stone to the art of peace. You are great warriors now...but what next? Can you use your body for something other than the good fight?"

His students said, "What else is there master?"

The master walked up to a brick wall and said, "On the other side of this wall hovers a butterfly pulling nectar from a flower. I can feel the beating of it's wings so gentle that to touch them would be to destroy them. I can feel it's thoughts so gentle that to interpret them would be to destroy their simpleness. My fist is harder than this wall, yet I can hold the delicate butterfly in my hand and my heart."

With that, the master punched though the brick wall with the speed of lightning. He removed his hand from the crumbling hole, held his fist out to his students and slowly opened it. A butterfly, unharmed, slowly opened and closed it's wings and then lightly flew away.

The students began the path of the gentle warrior.

You can fight the good fight and open your heart to each who would seek justify their own fear and anger.

Strength alone is not enough. Endurance is not enough. Skill is not enough.

Love is.

To your gentle battle ahead,
Aaron