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When I was a child, I possessed an idealistic belief in a safe and secure world. I thought people to be trustworthy and kind with a perfect, loving God taking care of all of life’s problems with our best interests at heart. I presumed human beings innocent until proven guilty in a fair and just society. I was confident that integrity and honesty would prevail; after all, the men wearing the white hats always won…right?
As I matured, however, my worldview became somewhat more realistic. I grew more aware of the imperfections of this world. What disturbed me most was the evidence of an increasing level of hostility in a more violent and callous society. We live in a culture of shameless opportunism, the kind of world where profit, convenience, and self-promotion are relentlessly pursued and glorified. The urge to succeed; to attain money, status and power, has numbed our minds and blunted our sensibilities. Friends and family find themselves pitted against colleagues and clients for bits of our precious schedule. Families are torn apart by cell phones, lap tops, conference calls, and business trips. Televisions become babysitters, gifts replace affection, success excuses shortcomings, while failure negates virtues. Such symptoms of social decay manifest themselves when the value of a human being is measured in terms of whether he is useful or detrimental to our own agenda. In taking this approach we have effectively dismantled the essential framework of cooperation and understanding that is mankind’s only hope for survival. Sadly, even the material prosperity that results from this approach has its roots in great human suffering, and in an indifference that is overwhelmingly apparent. This indifference and the problems that result from it would require an almost Herculean counter-effort on the part of those who seek to restore to humanity the dignity of its individuals and, through it, a semblance of meaning to the term ‘humane’. It is this need to attain and preserve such an existence that necessitates a new breed of man. This man would be of heroic stature, one who truly understands the value of balance, equanimity, austerity and devotion. This type of social reformer would be willing to charge fearlessly through the wilderness of human complacency and would have to be extraordinary in many ways to be up to the challenge of what amounts to a global revolution. In addition, our hero would need to demonstrate one particular form of heroism that is not only greatly neglected, it is most often not considered heroic at all, but rather is seen as something useless and contemptible…the social doctrine of heroic charity.
The consensus is that the things that apply in the workings of charity; such as self-sacrifice, loving the unlovable, aiding the needy, and fighting for those who cannot fend for themselves is unprofitable, self-defeating, and unappreciated. However, this is the view of a culture that is rapidly destroying itself and therefore a view that is well worth questioning.
The Taraman knight walks this path of heroic charity; which is best described as the active and unwavering mercy toward those who seek no harm, coupled with a relentless resistance to those whose hearts are filled with malice and who are quick to leap into mischief. His joy is found in doing the greatest good, while his peace he obtains by doing no harm.
Every generation of man has had its heroes. They have been hunters, orators, gladiators, soldiers, senators, and kings. They have inspired entire nations, even empires. Some have led us to glorious heights and others to abysmal ruin. They have inspired their followers to sublime levels of courage and achievement, or, in some cases, to the bitter depths of terror and cruelty. We will always have our heroes because hero worship, just as in religious worship, reveals a part of ourselves to ourselves that we can only discover by looking up.
Like navigators at sea we plot our course according to these 'stars' that represent the destination we seek. These stars rule over our destination by virtue of having arrived there before us, and having shined their light so brightly that it has illuminated the trail they blazed to get there.
This is the tale of my own personal star, the Taraman master. It is a star of exceeding luminosity, because it has captured and reflected the light of many stars. By way of some mysterious alchemy it has shone down for me a light so pure and profound that it has transformed the vision that I held for my life. It dazzled my mind in such a way that it refuses to be still until, like a mirror it reflects this light in such a way that many others might be illuminated by it as well. The Taraman master, as with many other hero types, is a compilation; not just of human qualities, but of cultures and of epochs. He is equally Taoist and Stoic, Asian and Greco-Roman, and, to a certain extent, he is American as he draws extensively from the New Thought movement that took America by storm at the turn of the twentieth century.
As you can see, this hero is comprised of many things, which begs the question, what is the Taraman master? What are his defining characteristics? Most importantly, if he is worthy of attainment, can he be attained? I find that the best way to describe a hero is not by listing his powers and his virtues, which are frequently too numerous to mention, but by observing his observances, his practices, if you will. If I were to describe a man as being kind hearted, gentle, and a very good listener, I would be describing any number of people in the world. However, if I went on to say that he prays the Rosary daily, performs the Eucharist three times a week, and hears confession every Saturday then it becomes clear that I am describing a Roman Catholic priest. In the same way, I could describe the Taraman master, as being a calm and tranquil person, not easily angered, who manages to take life in stride, and even empowers everyone around him by means of his virtue and equanimity. However, I might have just described a Taoist, a Stoic, a Zen master, or a Hopi shaman. Therefore, it is not his qualities that define the hero; but rather his principles and his practices.
What is it, then, that defines the Taraman master; that separates him from the Taoist sage, the Stoic philosopher, or the Hopi shaman. Is the Taraman master more ‘Tao’ than the Taoist is? Is he maybe more ‘stoic’ than the Stoic is? I would argue that he is neither and he is both. He is the Taoist seeing the Tao through the Stoic's eyes. He is the Stoic seeing stoicism through the Taoist's eyes. Having partaken of the fruit of both of these venerable traditions he has fused them together by a sort of internal alchemy into something that he sees to be greater than the sum of its parts; something that promises to shine brighter and to fulfill more than its ancestors had ever dared to hope. It is this internal alchemy that I will endeavor to present to you now.
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