Understanding the Concept of Jihad

The concept of Jihad, encompassing inner and external holy wars, is a universal theme relevant to human history and personal growth.

### Waging the Inner and Outer Jihad for Personal Growth and Heroic Action
* 💥 "Jihad" refers to the Muslim term for **holy war**, akin to the Christian notion of a **crusade**, with waging Jihad being a **central theme of the Quran**.
* 🛡 The Islamic tradition divides Jihad into two parts: the **greater Jihad**, an inner holy war against one's lower nature, weaknesses, and vices, and the **Lesser Jihad**, an external holy war generally fought against non-believers and infidels.
* 📜 The concept of Jihad is more **universal than commonly believed**, with the speaker sharing his personal journey of waging the **greater Jihad**, culminating in his book "**The Psychology of Slaying Dragons**."
* 🌍 Messianic figures leading holy wars of liberation are prevalent across various cultures and religions, with humanity seemingly **primally encoded to believe in an impending holy war**.
* 🗡 ️ Modern society's tendency to affirm weaknesses and victimhood rather than inspire strength is a significant challenge, with the speaker advocating for adopting a **warrior mindset** to overcome personal weaknesses and combat evil.
* 🐉 The speaker's book "The Psychology of Slaying Dragons" emphasizes the importance of **cultivating the hero within** to navigate life's challenges, change, and growth.
* 🌟 Building a relationship with the **transcendent principle within**, often symbolized by the **Messianic archetype**, allows for **growth, self-overcoming, and heroic action**.
* ♂ Only through acting in service to the transcendent and embodying **heroic courage** can individuals win their personal holy wars and achieve their **highest flourishing**.

Jihad is a Muslim term that means holy war, and this is very similar to the Christian notion of crusade. Waging this Jihad is a central theme of the Quran. The Islamic tradition breaks down this holy war into two parts: the greater Jihad and the Lesser Jihad, and this understanding is going to be very relevant to our study of Dune Messianic figures and how you and I can relate to these ideas to win our strongest lives. Welcome back to Wisdom Warriors, let's dive in. The greater Jihad is the inner holy war waged against your lower nature, weaknesses, and vices. The Lesser Jihad is the external holy war generally waged against non-believers and infidels, and this is fought with the pen and then the sword. I'm not a Muslim, but I am a student of religion, philosophy, and history, and I think this concept of jihad is more Universal than most are aware of. I know for me it speaks to me on a primal level, as it does most men across the Earth for almost a decade of

my life. I waged the greater Jihad without even realizing what I was doing, and it all culminated in my book The Psychology of Slaying Dragons. And also, I relate to the Lesser Jihad as not necessarily converting and killing infidels, which I am certainly one, but more so about fighting corruption and evil in the world, the same way I fight it in myself. Hence, this YouTube channel could be seen as my effort with the pen to wage the Lesser holy war. If I've offended any Muslims in the room, please let me know in the comments. Dune, what a movie, huh? I'm sure many of you know Frank Herbert, the author of Dune, was largely inspired by the Islamic Traditions. Hence the plot crescendo at this holy war where the Messiah leads the people of Arrakis in this war for Liberation against the great houses. This is a powerful story that seems to me built into the framework of humanity. The image of a messiah leading his people in a holy war of Liberation is perhaps the most

psychologically provocative symbol in all the world of myth lead them to [Music] Paradise. 4 billion plus Muslims, Jews, Christians, and even Hindus and Buddhists are praying for the messiah's return every day. It seems to me that all of humanity has been convinced the world would end in a holy war since the dawning of Time. How strange is that the concept of the holy war and the messiah's return is primally encoded into most cultures. The nordics believed in Ragnarok, the final war of the Gods and Men that would soon come. The Christians believe in the second coming of Christ and the purging of the Earth. Hindus believe their Messiah, or in their language, the Avatar Kei, will return at the end of our Dark Age on a horse with the Flaming sword to purge all evil and Corruption. The Muslims believe that their Mii will return at the end of the Dark Age and similarly cleanse the Earth. Three things strike me about this Universal myth. One, we are in the Dark.

Age, and we are nearing the end. I encourage you to read the Holy Science by Shri Yukteswar to get a sense for the Hindu idea of yugas and how we are nearing the end of the Kuga. Although most Hindus misunderstand the timelines, Yukteswar seems to hit it on the head. Point number two, the last time Messianic figures walked the Earth was around 2, to 2500 years ago, which corresponds perfectly to the Turning of the age and the procession of the Equinox. Buddha, Jesus, Lau, Pythagoras, Plato, Muhammad, all of them lived within a few hundred years of each other. How astounding is that? And according to the Jewish tradition and many other esoteric traditions, messiahs, Messianic figures come in cycles every 2100 years following the procession of the Equinox to revive a cultural icon or a cultural religion. Point three here is that this Universal myth of the Messiah is both exoteric and esoteric, meaning that it might happen in the

outer world, but it definitely happens on the inner world of man. I Define the Messiah as a spiritual force that is waiting to animate you. The Savior, the Messiah, is rarely depicted as this soft being. No, he descends into your body with a flaming sword and leads your own holy war for Liberation and salvation. This is how you become your greatest version. This is how you reach the promised land. You see, you must. You must become a disciple of something. In fact, the root of discipline is disciple, and I am a disciple of the Messiah. Yes, Christians and Muslims are going to go crazy in the comments, but know this: I have great respect for your religion, and all I'm doing here is unveiling the esoteric or inner teaching as it has occurred to me. So much of modern spirituality is based on the premise of softness, of tolerance, of equality, and for instance, values such as kindness have overtaken old values such as honor. We have a morality that looks good on the surface but breaks down under pressure, just like

most people you see something like kindness or equality the highest virtues of Western culture these things tolerate evil they can tolerate personal weakness they tolerate corruption whereas something like honor cannot this inversion of value that n talks about so heavily and we have covered on this channel is the result of the postmodern era the anything goes age and much of the old virtues have been tossed out the window although this is freeing in some regards it has led to the confusion and the decadence that so many of us suffer from today you see you can't fight evil if you don't recognize it if you don't call it by its name as Marcus aelia said the first rule is to look things in the face and know them for what they are things like resistance fear weakness selfishness rule most people because they don't recognize them as the enemy many of these people go to their therapists searching for change where they end up talking about their childhood trauma and their demons and the things that happened to them in

their life. And don't get me wrong, that's super important work, but often they failed to talk about the need to man up and go to the gym every day and eat a consistent healthy diet so that you start feeling better. They'll talk about the fears and the weaknesses and the pains, and the therapist is taught to affirm all those things instead of inspiring someone to overcome those things, to overcome fear with faith and courage. I know this inside of myself. I've swirled in a lot of addictions, pains, traumas before, and the healing of those things didn't happen by dwelling in them. It happened through moving forward. The problem with our culture is that we are always catering to the weakness in people. We are affirming them as a victim instead of inspiring strength. In essence, we enable their destruction. And this is modern-day therapists are concerned with helping you love yourself, but you will never hear one talk about how to conquer yourself. This is the ancient form of therapy, and it's called the Jihad Thou.

shalt not tolerate evil. All right, that was a little bit strong, I know, but it's nonetheless true. There are some caveats here. I understand that everyone walks a different and unique path, and I'm probably more warlike in nature than most. I do not believe in going to battle with yourself all the time, or being harsh with yourself, or anyone else for that matter. I believe in leading yourself like a strong and loving father would lead, and that looks like courage, compassion, sincerity, with a glimmer of danger in your eyes. The name of the game is baby steps and cultivating that leadership figure within, so that as the months and years go by, you create this stronger sense of cohesion and principle within the self. At the end of the day, my friends, it's about becoming a better Warrior. Everyone's going to try to sell you a simpler, more comfortable, or easy path, but there is only one into your highest flourishing, and that's becoming a warrior for the ideal you serve. As we all know, life can hit hard, and I think

our culture ill equips us to face it especially after the death of the masculine heroic myth. This is why I wrote the book The Psychology of Slaying Dragons, and I want to read you an excerpt from the intro that I think encapsulates a few of the ideas we're talking about here. The energy of courage and self-conquest is unique to the warrior hero and is an absolute requirement for living the good life. The good life is earned through the transformative cycle of letting go and overcoming. As life passes, many of us remain stuck in old familiar ways – ways of thinking, reacting, coping, and living – that no longer serve. We want to break through into a better life, but great obstacles block the way. So many of us are struggling to change, heal, grow, and thrive without consistent heroism. We're screwed. The hero within is the only one who can surrender fully in change and loss, overcome fear, and seize the fire from heaven to move us forward toward our dreams. So let's talk about waging that

inner Jihad. One thing I've learned about this path is that most days, especially at the beginning, you're going to lose, and that's okay. For instance, after I saw Dune 2 for the first time, I felt really fed up with myself and this inspiration to win the holy war. So, I got home, and one of the first things I did was I deleted Instagram and Facebook off my phone. I was so done wasting my attention when I knew I could be so much more. Lo and behold, the next day I found myself scrolling through YouTube shorts, and then I went through a multiple month-long process of disciplining my social media consumption. And that problem will reoccur one day, I'm sure it will. On a good day, I'll probably train and work out at 75% of my capacity. Maybe I'll really excel in work, but then I'll fail in the evening times and overeat, or you know, scroll on Instagram. And there's always this ups and downs, and we need to learn how to be gentle with ourselves.

inside of being gentle, the most important thing is to build the relationship to the transcendental principle within. You see, there is an essential self inside of you that is superior to this modern world. It is superior to all your plights and worries, and even the worst of circumstances. It's why stoic philosophers like Epictetus the slave could have the sense of inner freedom amongst the worst conditions. And this place of transcendence is where all growth, self-overcoming, and heroic action stems from. The Messianic archetype is, in fact, an avatar of the Transcendent. In the ancient world, most people turned to God or faith in problematic times. Problem is, in the modern world, a lot of people don't follow religion anymore, and if they do, they usually externalize their God outside of themselves instead of connecting to the Transcendent principle within and centering their being on it. Here's a quote from the Bhagavad Gita of Krishna instructing Arjuna, and I think this really embodies that transcendental.

principle in action. Therefore, Arjuna, surrendering all your Works onto me with mind intent on me and without desire for gain and free from egoism and lethargy, fight, spoke Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna is synonymous in my mind with that lofty and Transcendent principle within, and all he wants is for you to break free of your ego and live from a superior place. And to the best of your abilities, let the Transcendent act through your body. So next time you're struggling or having a hard time or uncertain which direction to go, try connecting to the Transcendent. I know it's had amazing results for me, and over time, as you build the relationship to the Transcendent, to the superior self within, your actions and deeds will naturally become more pure and powerful. You'll care less for worries and the fleeting circumstances of life, and you'll be able to more easily let go of your ego. And that's the thing, is our ego, the mold we have created for it, is always blocking the

way so it's time we start crafting our ego into a perfect vehicle for our soul. Now, most people in the West right now, we subscribe to this existential philosophy, meaning that we don't believe that we have this essential fabric to our being, that the whole world is Pure Freedom and chaos, and nothing really matters, so you get to create your own meaning. I don't buy into that. In my eyes, the central goal of man is to will forth his very essence, to embody wholly, freely, and completely who he is. And doing this presents a troubling but worthy path. Hey, real quick here, I just want to let you know that we're starting a men's group and men's Academy for a lot of the concepts we talk about here. I'm looking for founding members. If that interests you, there's a link in the description below. Okay, on to heroic action. I smoked cigarettes for almost 8 years straight, every single day, and especially at night. And one day I was at my friend's house and I took a puff of tobacco, and I was like, I don't want this.

I don't need this anymore, but I felt chained to that reality. I felt chained to that substance, so I got a little bit angry, a little frustrated with myself, and I gave myself a challenge. And I was like, tomorrow will be the first day in eight years that I don't smoke one cigarette, not even a puff. After that, I can return to this habit all I want, but I need to prove to myself one day. And I did that day, and then I did another day, and then I did a whole week, and then I just stopped smoking completely. And that's the thing, is one moment of heroic courage, one moment of transcendental manifestation changes your life. And this is why we need to bring back respect for the battles of life and reev heroism to the position it belongs. Only through acting in service to the Transcendent can we win our Holy Wars. Hey, thanks for watching Wisdom Warriors. I'm Christian. If you're interested in the men's group, there's a link below for that. If not, I'd recommend watching this video.

next on N. I think it pairs really well with these Concepts. Don't forget to live dangerously today, and may the Transcendent be with you.

Winning the Holy War - Dune's messianic philosophy

Wisdom Warriors

The Concept of Jihad and the Universal Myth of Holy War

Jihad is a central theme in the Quran, consisting of the greater Jihad, which is an inner struggle, and the Lesser Jihad, which is an external battle against non-believers.

The concept of holy war and the return of a messiah is a universally encoded myth found in various cultures, including Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists.

This idea of a final, apocalyptic war is a common belief across different societies and religions, reflecting a primal aspect of human culture.

The Hindu Idea of Yugas and the Universal Myth of the Messiah

Shri Yukteswar's "The Holy Science" discusses the Hindu idea of yugas and the belief that we are nearing the end of the Kuga.

Many significant Messianic figures, including Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, are believed to have appeared within a few hundred years of each other, corresponding to the turning of the age and the procession of the Equinox.

The universal myth of the Messiah is seen as both an outer and inner force, with the belief that it can spiritually animate individuals.

The modern spirituality is discussed in contrast to old values, highlighting the inversion of values in the postmodern era and its impact on society's confusion and decadence.

Embracing the Warrior Mentality for Personal Growth

Therapists focus on affirming weaknesses rather than inspiring strength, which can enable destruction rather than promote growth.

The modern approach to therapy lacks emphasis on self-conquest and overcoming obstacles, which is essential for living a good life.

The author advocates for embracing a warrior mentality as the key to facing life's challenges, surrendering to change, overcoming fear, and pursuing one's dreams.

The Journey of Self-Improvement through Inner Jihad

Struggling with self-discipline, the individual realizes the need to cultivate a connection to the transcendental principle within themselves.

This inner journey involves ups and downs, requiring gentleness and self-compassion along the way.

In a modern world moving away from traditional religious practices, the focus is on internalizing the divine and centering one's being on the transcendent principle for growth and self-overcoming.

Embracing the Transcendent Principle for Heroic Action

Lord Krishna encourages Arjuna to surrender his works and act without desire for gain, aiming to break free from egoism.

Connecting to the Transcendent is believed to purify actions and deeds, allowing for a release of the ego.

Embracing the essential fabric of one's being is seen as the central goal, in contrast to the existential philosophy of Pure Freedom.

Overcoming Addiction and Embracing Heroism

A personal challenge to quit smoking led to a life-changing transformation.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of respecting life's battles and embracing heroism.

The message encourages acting in service to the Transcendent for personal victory.