When most people speak against aggression, it is rarely with their own voice.
When most people speak about choosing peace instead, they do so as a puppet; their mouths being flapped open and shut by the hand of social conditioning, their words being spoken by the ventriloquism of socialization.
Peace is of course the right path – the higher path.
But there is a difference between those who choose it, because it is ACTUALLY a choice. And those who think they choose it, but actually aren’t making a choice because they are in fact without the OPTION of aggression...
Because they are incapable of it.
Because they haven’t practiced it.
Because they haven’t integrated it.
You can’t reject what you don’t have. And you can’t transcend what you’ve never had.
In order to reach the higher path, you have to climb. And that means passing through the lower path.
In this case, this means integrating one’s capacity for aggression.
Integrating their inner Beast, their Wild, their Warrior.
A friendly smile is more genuine when it reveals there are some actual teeth in there. Because it means they could have bitten instead but chose not to.
A hand-shake or pat on the shoulder is all the more meaningful when that hand has some claws attached to it and is strong enough to crush your own. Because it means they chose not to do that.
Beware the one who claims to have ascended to the higher path, when in fact, they’ve avoided the valleys of their lower nature their whole lives. They are actually the most dangerous because when they go ‘dark’, they attack from below and not face-to-face.
And know there is a difference between being dangerous and being a danger.
Art by Neil Krug
