Spartan Heart
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

SpartansTwo days before Hurricane Wilma struck the Yucatán Peninsula; I remember walking and then sitting on the beach at La Posada Del Capitan Lafitte, one of my most favorite retreats in Mexico. It lies about an hour south of Cancun. It was early morning on the day that we were going to be leaving and flying back to the States.

As I sat on the beach meditating, I could sense and slightly see blackness etched against the horizon. It was centered directly over Cozumel Island. In addition to this darkness, there was a threatening feeling in the air—one of chaotic power and destruction. The sea was acting differently—a difference not readily apparent, but one that was still there. All of my senses were on overload. I could feel and was attuned to a coming tempest and the changes that it would surely bring to this part of Mexico.

Less than two days later the hurricane came ashore just south of Capitan Lafitte’s near Playa de Carmen. Hurricane Wilma ended up being the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. It devastated parts of the Yucatán Peninsula, exceeding the 21 storms of the 1933 season.

I have the same feelings now that I had then; and these feelings are about another forthcoming ‘storm.’ I believe that this storm will intensify over the next four years possibly reaching a crescendo during the years 2012 – 2015. This storm will make Wilma seem like a brief squall.

I do not believe in gloom and doom. This coming storm is a necessity. It is multi-faceted and includes the Constitutional erosion of our liberties, global-warming issues, water and food shortages, depression and war and earth changes. Anyone of these is enough to challenge our sense of self and security, much less our loved ones. But all together…!

I do not subscribe to fear. I teach love, which is the opposite of fear. Survival is fear-based but many times, a reality. To balance the reality of survival, we need renewal, which is hope and love. Survival without renewal is fear-based and hopelessness, but combined with renewal it is the stuff that legends are made of and the tales that are told for centuries to come. It is the stuff of heroes.

My second book was specifically sub-titled ‘Survival and Renewal at the end of an Age 2006 – 2012.’ Renewal is the key to power and happiness and will be essential over the next sixteen years. Survival is one thing; it is our core instincts. On the other hand, renewal is of a higher and elevated level of being—it is of the heart. You may survive but do you renew?

Out of despair and a seemingly hopeless condition, where is our heart? What type of heart can keep us going and provide us with hope and renewal? I believe in a Spartan Heart, a heart that can give us the courage, the power, the perseverance and commitment to continue on and to renew. Of all the legendary heroes of the past, we recognize the Spartans as elite warrior heroes that reached the ultimate of heart/mind training.

The self-sacrifice of the Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae is often used as a symbol of courage against overwhelming odds. What we must never lose sight of is the fact that above everything else Thermopylae was about the love of freedom! And love of freedom comes far above mere survival because it gives survival a meaning.

Leonidas, his Lacedemonian (Spartan) Knights and the other Greek warriors demonstrated to all at Thermopylae that the freedom of a society, whose majority is usually silent, unaware or complacently seduced by the ‘status quo’ of a state, is saved almost always by the courage of a few who dare to fight against an overwhelming enemy, against something that seems unavoidable, against all odds, against what is predicted, against what seems advisable and wise for most people.

The Spartan heart is not about being bare-chested with muscles bulging, red cloak flapping in the breeze and arrogance on the brow. It is about an inner strength, an ability to talk truth and a strong mind. It is a willingness to acknowledge fear but not letting the fear control the body, mind and spirit. It is about loyalty, honor and the greater good.

A Spartan Heart will help you survive and renew over the next sixteen years. Do you accept the quest for a Spartan Heart?

Ὦ ξεῖν’, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.

"Go, stranger, and tell the Lacedaemonians
That we lie here in obedience to our laws"