Warriors and Staying Present
I used to be befuddled about so-called Warrior Monks in China. It seemed confusing to me as these are very different archetypes. One obviously seems to be for peace and the other for war and conflict. However, I did an exercise with a woman one time at a workshop about conflict where we tried to hit each others tambourines. My first reaction was to stay present. I simply focused on being in the moment and I "won," meaning I hit her tambourine before she hit mine. The woman was astonished. She said she hadn't lost in years (maybe she was just saying that, who knows?).
Then it dawned on me. The best warriors and the best monks were probably the ones who were the most present. A fighter can't be in his imagination, daydreaming and, likewise, a monk must always, in turn, be present (that's the whole idea of meditation). So I suppose these two archetypes are compatible after all.