To seek out the disciplined and skilled ways of the hunter is the only true honour we may rightfully claim, and to seek the impeccability of the hunter's spirit is the only possible justification for our existence.

The truth which emerges here, is that to be a real man or woman of knowledge, warriors must have fought and defeated all four natural enemies - only then can they rightfully claim the title of 'Toltec'. In other words, the warrior can and does live his life like a Toltec, and even though he may speak of himself as being a Toltec, he is nonetheless never so vain as to forget that what he is really inferring is that he is heir to the Toltec tradition. The humility of the warrior is such that he does not try to claim the title of Toltec for himself until he knows within his heart of hearts that he has lived his entire life impeccably - only then is he willing to accept the highest honour of all. In this respect it should be realised that the accolade of 'Toltec' is not something which is, or can, be conferred; instead it is an inner knowing which is never worn as an epaulette or badge. All true Toltecs know, and for them it is enough that they alone should know, for herein lies their real honour.

To have the honour of the warrior requires a proper tonal.

In the previous chapter we saw that if Sean is going to handle his challenge impeccably it is necessary for him to devise some sort of a strategy based upon what he has learned so far. In order to understand how this is to be done, it is important to remember that Sean is striving to become a warrior and that all his challenges are therefore in the nature of opportunities to claim his power as a warrior. Nevertheless, to become a warrior requires a total transformation of the island of the tonal, and so it stands to reason that we can equally well say that every challenge in our lives is an opportunity to gradually transform the island of the tonal. In Volumes One and Two this was explained in terms of acquiring what is known as a proper tonal, an act which not only brings about the saving of personal power, but also the acquisition of self-respect and self-confidence, all of which add up to a very real knowledge of what it is to be a fully responsible human being whose honour is reflected in his or her every action; mental, emotional and physical. Consequently, whatever strategy Sean is going to adopt will be a reflection of his honour, or lack thereof, and will equally be a measure of his impeccability as demonstrated by his actions which, of course, will be determined by the present condition of his tonal.

From the above it is clear that a stalker's approach to formulating a strategy is vastly different to that of someone who is not a warrior. People, generally speaking, want to win all of their battles, all the time, and always want to be right. Yet, ironically enough, most men and women spend their lives trying to run away from the battles they should be fighting and, when forced to fight, end up fighting mostly the wrong battles, with the result that, even if they do win their battles, they have in effect achieved very little, if anything at all. From a stalker's perspective such behaviour is sheer idiocy, for not only is it an utter waste of time and personal power, but it is also hardly honourable.

The question of honour is a vital consideration in the life of the warrior, for without a very real sense of honour there can be no self-respect, no self-confidence, and most certainly no belief in self. Without these characteristics it is impossible to think and to act in terms of warriorship. Therefore, if we intend becoming warriors, then every challenge in our lives should be seen as an opportunity either to enhance, or to uphold our honour. Yet very few people ever act in an honourable manner, for the simple reason that very few people really know what the true meaning of the word entails. Most people assume that honour implies upholding their social image, or upholding their sense of pride but, sadly, this has nothing to do with honour. Our social image is but the product of the common dream, whereas pride is usually based upon the sense of superiority, and to defend these two illusions is to uphold social conditioning, and not honour.

The honour of the warrior lies in the fact that his every thought, feeling and action is impeccable, as is his skill in handling his emotions. But remember that to be impeccable means that you act to the very best of your ability upon whatever knowledge is available to you in the moment. In other words, to be impeccable means that you take full responsibility for yourself, for your life, and for your knowledge, for it is that responsibility, or lack of it, that influences all our actions; mental, emotional and physical. Here it is important to bear in mind that the word 'responsibility' means the ability to respond, that is, the ability to respond, not only to all of life, but also to yourself, your own life, and your own knowledge. In this respect, people are generally so busy trying to uphold their social image and their social conditioning, that they very rarely have the time or the energy to respond to themselves. Consequently, most people lead lives which are completely unimpeccable, in that they are for ever upholding someone else's ideas or, more accurately, someone else's prejudices, rather than acting upon their own knowledge.

The example of Sean demonstrates this point beautifully, for had Sean not been on the Warrior's Path he would have adopted one of three options. Either he would have become a beggar and accepted his brother's unfair proposal; or he would have taken the coward's way out by running away without putting up a fight; or he would have done the big macho thing by strutting and crowing around town like an over-confident cockerel who is going to use the law to put Willis in his place. But where is the honour in any of these options? What would Sean have accomplished by adopting any one of them? The only thing Sean would have accomplished in the case of the first two options is loss of self-respect, and in the case of the third option, provided he won the court case, he would only have succeeded in proving to himself that he was right and his brother was wrong, something which only reinforces the idiotic belief that in order to be someone and something you must prove yourself right and others wrong!

Sean's strategy must instead be so designed as to enhance his sense of honour and aid him in transforming his island of the tonal. Sean already knows that the transformation which is currently required concerns his self-image and his belief in his own worth. In fact, having given due consideration to all his other shortcomings, it is clear to Sean that his low self-image and his consequent lack of belief in himself, is central to all of his shortcomings and, therefore, if he can change his self-image it will be so much easier to change everything else on the island of the tonal. This is true of everyone for, generally speaking, it is always people's low self-image which is the cause of most of their shortcomings, and which also always gets in the way of everything they do. However, the reason why the majority of people today suffer from a low self-image is because they have no real sense of what it is to be honourable. The honour of the warrior is summed up in a nutshell in the following aphorism: A warrior is an honourable being in that his humility does not allow for any action which does not uphold the interrelationship of life.

The implications of this aphorism are extremely far-reaching, but by far the most important implication that concerns us here is that to have the honour of a warrior demands not only a recognition of the interrelationship of all life, but also a conscious upholding of this law. In other words, the true warrior cannot just pay lip service to the interrelationship of life, but must live it in every possible sense of the word. What this means is that the warrior acknowledges the fact that if he uplifts himself, then through the interaction of life he also uplifts all those around him.

From the above it is apparent that any strategy devised by a warrior must of necessity be of such a nature as to benefit, not only him or herself, but also the rest of life, of which he or she is but a unit. Therefore, the true warrior can never react out of anger, or retaliate reflexively as a result of having been slighted or offended in some way. Nor can the warrior react out of a sense of revenge, or spite. All such reactions will only 'benefit' the person's sense of self-importance, and will certainly not do anyone any good at all. Because of the interrelationship of life, whatever course of action the warrior is going to adopt must benefit all concerned, including him or herself. This also means that the warrior cannot afford to play the role of martyr or victim, for such a role will most certainly not benefit the warrior, and if it does not benefit the warrior, then it also cannot benefit those around him or her. Such is the Law of Light and Reflection, summed up in the concept Toltecs refer to as mirrors of the soul.

From all of the above it should now be clear that by having no one to blame, and by being thrown back upon himself time and time again, the warrior has no option but to adopt a humble approach to life. By working with the mirror concept day in and day out, every apprentice, through the experiences in his or her life, sooner or later has to acknowledge the fact that he or she is indeed no better and no worse than anyone or anything else. In the final analysis we are all equal to each other and to every other life-form upon this planet. The only real differences between one being and another are the great many different ways in which we tend to materialise our challenges in life.

Although there are lots of people in this world who deem themselves to be better than others, the warrior is a being who has learned through working with mirrors that he is no angel and, in having learned to accept himself for who and what he honestly is, has no fear of owning all and everything which is on his island of the tonal. By having got to know every aspect of his being, from the very worst through to the very best, the warrior is incapable of judging another person, or being, for that matter, and here lies his greatest honour. Not being ashamed of the fact that he is no better than a petty criminal, and not bashful about the fact that he also has within him the qualities of the saint, the warrior is capable of facing all of life squarely, standing tall and with head held high. This the warrior can do, not because of arrogance, not because of self-importance, not because of false pride, but because he has acquired that utter humility which comes from the sure knowledge, firstly, that no one is better or worse than himself; and secondly, that he is an honourable being in that he is honest enough to own every aspect of his island of the tonal and courageous enough to fight for impeccability.

Honesty and courage are the two qualities that mark the honour of the true warrior, for in the final analysis honesty and courage are but the two sides of the one coin we term honour. It takes courage to be honest with yourself, and without honesty there can be no real courage, only a false bravado to cover the deep fear that someone is going to find out something about you that you would prefer others, including yourself, not to know. But where is the honour in living a life that is based upon lies, pretences, and the cowardice born of fear? How can we ever hope to claim our power as warriors if we have no honesty and no courage? To have power we must have knowledge, but since knowledge can only be acquired through life's experiences, how are we to do this if we refuse to acknowledge who and what we really are? Yet, realise that to acknowledge the worst in ourselves, and not to hate ourselves for that, and to acknowledge the very best in us, and to believe that we are worthy of such fine qualities, requires unequivocal honesty and unwavering courage.

The only way in which to acquire honesty is to accept the fact that the world around us is our mirror, and the only way in which to acquire courage, is to hold onto the knowledge that if you do not like the reflections you see, then you do have the power and the ability to change those reflections by changing yourself. Therefore, although a warrior is incapable of judging another being, he nevertheless also knows that he does not have to condone behaviour which is dishonourable. By not accepting such behaviour in himself, the warrior is not under any obligation to accept it from others. Consequently, it is never the person concerned whom the warrior judges, but it is that person's behaviour which the warrior looks at with discrimination. Is this behaviour an act which leads to freedom, or to slavery? Is this behaviour an act which uplifts, or breaks down? In short, is such behaviour honourable, or dishonourable? However, even in this respect the warrior is never so arrogant as to blame another person for their behaviour, for in acknowledging his responsibility in having called forth this mirror the warrior addresses that particular behaviour within himself, or alternatively, the challenge which that person's behaviour brings him. In other words, is this behaviour reflecting aspects within the warrior that uphold his honour?

In having to devise a strategy for handling this battle with his brother, Sean has to take into account the second aspect of the stalker's rule, namely, by striving for simplicity, a warrior discards all unnecessary acts. From what we have learned concerning mirrors, this aspect of the stalker's rule should now not be so difficult to grasp. Simply by bringing everything back to himself and his own progress upon the Path of Knowledge, the warrior eliminates a vast amount of actions, emotions, feelings and thoughts that can only arise and have any meaning within the context of self-importance and self-centredness. This is not something that needs any further explanation because even just a little thought upon the concept of mirrors will be enough to speak volumes. The vast majority of people's actions, their emotional state, their endless circling thoughts and higgledy-piggledy mess of feelings, all stem from their self-centred approach to life and the victim mentality. Therefore, from the warrior's point of view, every battle is as simple as fighting for his honour as a warrior. Not at all concerned with trying to perpetuate his social conditioning through not wanting to own his shortcomings, or by trying to defend his behaviour in attempting to justify actions he himself does not approve of, the warrior has very little to consider other than how best to uplift himself into becoming an even more honourable being.

This then brings us to the nagal's Courier, a man whose predilection is most aptly for jewel 20, namely, honour, for realise that at the end of the day it is honour that is to be found at the core of any warrior's heart. Yet, as we have discussed many times before, the warrior's sense of honour is very different to that of the average man or woman. True honour is the product of the relationship between humility and understanding (2) and absolute freedom (0). Although we have already dealt with both of these two jewels, namely, 2 and 0, it will benefit the reader greatly if we expand a bit more here on the deeper implications of that mysterious jewel which has no number, for although we assign the number zero to this jewel, the implications are that it is nothing, that is, No - Thing.

From the above it is immediately clear that to try to do justice to jewel 0 in this book is well-nigh impossible, for if the truth be told, many volumes can be devoted to just this one jewel alone, and still the reader will more than likely feel none the wiser, for how does one explain that which by its very nature is no-thing? Therefore let it suffice for our present purposes merely to say that jewel 0, because it is no-thing, is the origin of all the jewels, as well as permeating them all. Like its progenitor, the spirit of man, the nagal, jewel 0 is the void containing every-thing, for as paradoxical as it may sound, the void is the ultimate in awareness, for within that void the nature, the meaning, and the purpose of all, stands revealed in the eternal now. From within the void, that is, from within that aspect of awareness to which no number is assigned, there are no questions, for there is no-thing to under-stand. Likewise, from within the void, there is no freedom, for there is no-thing from which to be free, and hence is it referred to as absolute freedom. Yet care should be taken not to take these statements at face value, for no-thing does not imply emptiness. The fact that the void is no-thing simply implies that it is not that which we can verbalise, for in essence it is the ineffable, the Unspeakable.

From what we have learned here, it should be clear that true honour is the product of the relationship between humility and understanding (2) and the void (0). The implications here are so vast that verbalisation is exceedingly difficult, but it will help to think of it in terms of what were probably the most profound words ever spoken by the philosopher Socrates when he said, "I am the wisest man in the whole world, for I alone know that I know nothing".

In this truly brilliant statement, Socrates tried his level best to verbalise the true nature of honour, and to the Toltec warrior who is thoroughly versed in the properties of words, those few words do indeed speak volumes. However, it takes a fair amount of explaining in order to qualify the nuances of these words and, in this respect, I personally have always been enormously envious of Socrates, for although those who are fully trained in the properties of words can verbalise anything that needs to be verbalised, the problem is that apprentices never come to the Warrior's Path already literate. However, to judge from the teachings of Socrates, his students were all fully literate when they came to him!

Nevertheless, realise that the overall import of this statement by Socrates is very much a statement of humility, in that Socrates understood enough about life to know that, relative to the greater life of which we are units, none of us knows much at all. It is only the ignorant fool living in the tiny cocoon of his view of the world who tends to think that his rational mind can provide the answers to everything. Therefore when Socrates said that he knows that he knows nothing, he was in fact stepping back to lower his head in utter humility, for he was fully willing to admit that even all of his wisdom as a philosopher was as nothing in comparison to all that he still did not know. To have such understanding that it automatically brings about humility, in itself already indicates the truly wise man.

Furthermore, in making reference to himself as "I alone", Socrates was referring to I, the all-one, meaning the totality of the self, and in saying that "I alone know", he was actually saying "I, the all-one know". It stands to reason that the only real knowledge there can be, is knowledge of the self, that is, knowledge of the totality of the self - the all-one - and when that knowledge is fully conscious, one can indeed say "I, the all-one know", or alternatively, "I know the all-one (which is me)". However, Socrates is not merely indicating that he knows the totality of the self, for he goes on to say "I alone know that", meaning "I, the all-one know that". What is that? Socrates himself answers this by saying "nothing", meaning no-thing, that aspect of awareness termed the void. However, he stresses the fact that this knowledge of the void is conscious, for he prefaces the answer with "I know (nothing)". In other words, what in effect Socrates is saying here, is "I know myself as the all-one who knows that termed no-thing, but I am fully conscious of what I know".

With such a knowledge, and with the humility that comes with the full understanding of what it is he does know, Socrates has every right to proclaim himself a wise man. Furthermore, since he places his wisdom firmly in perspective by saying "the whole world", meaning that he grasps full well that there is only one life, and therefore also only one totality of the self, he is indeed the wisest man, for only the wisest of the wise have the honour necessary not to try claiming knowledge for the personal self. Therefore in this one brilliant statement, Socrates not only describes the relationship between individual identity, the totality of the self and the void, but he also very neatly defines the true meaning of honour within the context of the interrelationship of the one life. This is about the best I can do to impart at least some feeling for what is implied by honour. If I were to describe it in a nutshell, I would say that true honour is that humility which overcomes a warrior in the moment when he or she comes to understand the deeper implications of what it is to be absolutely free. To know oneself to be one with all selves, good, bad and indifferent, is to understand the meaning of what it is to be humbled, and to stand free from the need to judge, and to stand free from being judged, is true freedom. In that absolute freedom there is no-thing other than an utter sense of beingness, and, in the final analysis, what else can honour be but beingness?

Attendant to the two Northerly ladies is their Courier; a man whom one would not expect to find in the company of these two ladies, for his predilection is for jewel 21, namely, peace. And yet, once again this is a fine example of why it is so important not to take words at their face value. True peace is in reality honour (20) plus pure fluidity (1), and from what we have noted in connection with the Northerly Dreamer, it is clear to see that this man too has a natural love for danger.

To reconcile honour and pure fluidity, that is, a fluidity which has not yet been tried and tested within life upon the physical plane, is likewise to negotiate a very fine line indeed, and yet it is easy to see how every success in such a dangerous operation cannot fail to bring peace to the individual concerned. There is nothing more satisfying than to know that although you could have ended up in total disgrace, success has brought even more honour, or at least, for the moment. Next time, who knows? It could be quite different, but for now there is only the sweetness of that peace which comes from knowing that one has survived a dangerous job well done.