Warrior Philosophy in Game of Thrones (8 page)

At first glance this could look like a paranoid statement about not allowing yourself to be seen as cowardly.  I read it differently, and I think the second sentence is the key:

“Even in trifling matters the depths of one's heart can be seen.”

In our smallest acts, our deepest beliefs and values  will still be visible.  In order to really live consciously, with awareness, and with real self-knowledge we must be dedicated to the task and willing to keep challenging ourselves.  It is easy to get a bit more aware, to notice a pattern of behaviour and think “Now I've got it!  I won't do that again...” But in my experience it is rarely that simple.  I feel like every time I catch myself in a pattern I'm not happy with, the pattern gets smaller.  The good news is that as it is smaller then it is less damaging when I next slip up.  The bad news is that, as it is smaller, it takes even more attention to spot the pattern before I have slipped and done something I am not happy about.  It is said that learning Tai Chi is first done in Feet, then Inches, then Half-Inches, then Quarters, and so on.  I think the journey to self-knowledge is the same.  If you stick with it,  then you can refine the quality of your presence a lot but things also get more complex, and require even more attention to detail as you go.  Once you begin down this path I'm not sure there is an end point, I can't promise you you'll ever be in a position to say “OK, I'm done now, I can relax.”  As Dan Millman's classic character 'Socrates' says of the path of self-knowledge:

“Better never begin, but once begun, better finish.”
[xxv]

The moment that brings all this to mind for me in Game of Thrones is when Lady Catelyn has realised that her Son Bran's fall from the tower was no accident, after a man is sent to murder him in his bed.  She gathers her son Robb, Theon Greyjoy, the master at arms Ser Rodrick, and Maester Luwin in the Godswood to share her suspicions and fears.  She says that she believes the Lannisters are involved and Robb says:

“They come into our home, and try to murder my brother!  If it's war they want...”

Theon cuts in with:

“If it comes to that you know I'll stand behind you.”

And Maester Luwin rebukes them:

“What?  Is there going to be a battle in the Godswood?! Huh?  Too easily words of war become acts of war.  We don't know the truth yet.”
[xxvi]

This scene wonderfully contrasts the impetuous, and often blind actions of youth with the measured wisdom of Maester Luwin.  Unlike some of the Maesters we meet Luwin seems to be a very practical man as well as an educated one, and a thoughtful one.  In this scene for me he shows his real value as an advisor in taking a strong stance and challenging people's assumptions.  The other characters are ready to jump on any piece of information, any excuse to surge into action and it is Maester Luwin who takes the more measured response.  His words echo the previous quote from the Hagakure, particularly the phrase:

“Too easily words of war become acts of war”

As I was describing earlier with the example of the shop and the gunshot which becomes a firework display, our beliefs and values act as filters on our perceptions and all too often we see what we want to see.  In this phrase, Maester Luwin voices the danger of such filters.  From jumping to conclusions, we can jump to actions and they may be actions we regret.  Just because they are right that the Lannisters are involved, doesn't mean they have the whole picture as we find out later when Lady Catelyn accuses and arrests Tyrion Lannister who, while he may be many things, is quite probably innocent in the matter of Bran's injury and attempted murder.  Just as I was describing with what is said in the Hagakure, Maester Luwin recognises that even in our smallest acts, even in the words we use, our subconscious habits of thought and deed can be seen.  While Robb acquits himself well in many ways on the battlefield when the time comes, there is no doubting that at this moment in the story he is a young man who has grown up fighting, dreams of glory, and explodes at any perceived insult or threat to the honour of his house.  He is no politician and is not thinking clearly.  He is to a great degree blinded by his anger – and understandably so.  We all have moments where our upset or outrage blocks our capacity for clear and reasoned thinking.  When we perceive a threat, it can trigger a response which is often referred to as “Fight or Flight.”  This is an instinctual response which is biologically hard-wired and is very useful if you are faced with combating wild-animals (as we were regularly in ancient pre-history when our brains were evolving).  There are a bunch of physiological responses which are triggered in the body when we go into “Fight or Flight” whereby 'non-essential systems' are closed down and other systems ramped up.  However, the assessment  of what is 'non-essential' is based on the kind of threats we faced a very long time ago – such as fighting and escaping lions!  The digestive system and immune systems are suppressed, blood thickens, hormones are released – many amazing and quite dramatic changes in the body's functioning.  If you want to understand more about all these responses I will be looking at that in detail in my forthcoming book on 'Somatic Presence', but what is key here is that one such change is that chemicals are released in the brain which inhibit access to higher brain functioning (the Human fore-brain which is the seat of reasoned thinking).  When people get upset, angry, or stressed and say “I just wasn't thinking clearly...” that is literally, physiologically true.  Robb Stark has perceived a threat to his brothers life and to his family dignity.  That is all very real for him so in this moment he is blinded not only by his beliefs and pre-conceptions about the Lannisters, but by his emotions (his anger), and even by his physiology (perceived threat triggers “Fight of Flight”).  He is really not seeing things very clearly!  In this he is very fortunate to have Maester Luwin at his side to rein him in.  Perhaps things would have gone very differently in the story if Lady Catelyn had, had Maester Luwin with her when she met and arrested Tyrion Lannister in the tavern on the road from King's Landing.  Maybe Ned would have had time and opportunity to finish his investigations and to have brought evidence before King Robert.  Even with more years and perhaps more wisdom than her son, Lady Catelyn is blinded by her anger, fear, assumptions and possibly even some of the culturally normal beliefs about the character of people who are disfigured which seem to be commonplace in Westeros.

It is my experience that with greater self-knowledge, we can learn to notice when we have been triggered into “Fight or Flight”, or when we are being run by our emotions, or when one of our unconscious beliefs or assumptions is driving our behaviour.  My suggestion is that when we cultivate sufficient self-knowledge we can have an 'inner Maester Luwin', perhaps like an angel on our shoulders, who can help us notice when we have been hooked into one of our habitual patterns of thought or behaviour.  When we are aware enough to notice these hooks, we have a chance to reclaim our free will from our unconscious urges and act in accordance with our deepest sense of truth and justice, rather than from knee-jerk reactions and primal instincts.  In this way we can become warriors who are not only courageous and fierce, but dignified and compassionate as well.

Courage

Chapter 4 – True Courage

“The key to warriorship... is not being afraid of who you are.  Ultimately, that is the definition of bravery: not being afraid of yourself.” - Chogyam Trungpa

You may recognise this quote from the last chapter, and as I said there, by this definition, I would say that Samwell Tarly is very brave.  He knows himself and he is not afraid of himself.  Sam may seem a strange figure to use as a positive example in a book on the warrior's path, and doubly so in a chapter on courage: he is a self-confessed coward after-all!  However, I think he demonstrates a much more subtle kind of courage which begins with his willingness to know himself and not be afraid of his own nature, but goes further than that in the way he is willing to own and face his own nature publicly.  He is not afraid of others seeing his fearfulness and he has an almost child-like innocence which seems to be indestructible even in the face of his father's scorn, abuse and rejection, and similar treatment from so many of the others that he meets.  As I see it, Sam doesn't fear his own nature and that is rare, and though he may frequently be afraid of how the world around him might harm or challenge him, as another great man once said:

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.”  - Ambrose Redmoon

As a side note, there is a great moment when some of the more obviously warrior like characters acknowledge that courage does not entail the absence of fear.  Robb Stark has just given the command to call the banners so he can ride to war and he's sat with Theon Greyjoy.  Theon has a rare moment of wisdom:

Theon:

“Are you afraid?”

Robb holds up his hand and it's shaking

Robb:

“I must be.”

Theon:

“Good”

Robb:

“Why is that good?”

Theon:

“It means you're not stupid.”
[xxvii]

To return to Sam as an example, while there are many times that he struggles to face his fear and make the choice that something else is more important (as in the Redmoon quote), there are also many times where he faces his fear and does stand for what he believes in.  Even just in joining the Night's Watch, in turning up in the practice ground each day, in keeping trying to make friends with people.  He keeps offering his friendship to Jon and the others vulnerably and with an open-heart.  Whether that is wise or not is another conversation, but in my judgement, it does show a particular kind of courage.  To quote the writer Erica Jong:

"Many people today believe that cynicism requires courage. Actually, cynicism is the height of cowardice. It is innocence and open-heartedness that requires the true courage - however often we are hurt as a result of it."
[xxviii]

I see Sam's persistent innocence as the kind of courage Erica Jong is talking about here.  In an environment like the Night's Watch and with the personal history Sam has had with his father, I think his preservation of an open-heart is doubly courageous.  I also think it is the source of a more obvious kind of courage such as that which Ambrose Redmoon refers to: making something more important than fear.  Sam places friendship, his care for others, and his sense of doing what's right before his fear for himself on a number of occasions.  One such occasion is when Jon hears of his father's execution as a traitor and leaves the Wall in the middle of the night to go and join his half-brother Robb in waging war and avenging their father.  Sam leaving could cost him his life too – this is no small action – but Sam leaves anyway to go after Jon to remind him of his oath and bring him back to the Night's Watch.  Sam risks his life for the life of a friend.  That is not the action of a coward.  Sam is a deeply fearful person and he is no-one's idea of a fighter, but perhaps he had just not found anything in his life before this point which was important enough to him for him to face his fear and act anyway.  It's a wonderful moment in the story, and there is a sadness for me as I wonder what Sam's life could have been like if he had, had a father who was willing to accept him as he is – a scholar - rather than trying to force him to be a fighter.  I wonder how Sam's father, Lord Tarly's fear played a part in the way he treated Sam.  What was Lord Tarly so afraid of that he could not make his love for his son more important than it?  What was he afraid of in Sam (or in himself to go back to Trungpa's perspective) that he felt the need to beat it out of  Sam and eventually send him to the end of the known world?  Of the two of them, who is the real coward?  I have no definite answers, but I think they are interesting and important questions especially for those of us who are parents.  Can you be courageous enough to love your child no matter what?

Part of what I am addressing in Sam's example is that there are different kinds of courage, and that whether an act is courageous depends on the person taking it.  It requires little courage for Jon Snow to turn up in the practice yard and fight with training weapons, whereas for Sam, even getting out of bed at the Wall probably takes a feat of courage.  To quote Mary Anne Radmacher:

“Courage doesn't always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow.”

Benjen Stark has a moment with Tyrion Lannister when he speaks to this very point.  Tyrion, in a moment which is common for him in terms of acerbic wit, but less common in terms of lack of insight, is needling Benjen Stark about being fearful of what lies beyond the Wall and saying it's only a handful wildlings.  Benjen says:

“...it's not the wildlings giving me sleepless nights.  You've never been north of the Wall, so don't tell me what's out there.”
[xxix]